The only resistance to Satan and the doubts and questions he dogs us with is to flee – flee to Jesus; flee to that place where we find protection and help; flee to the crucified. Flee to Christ for His purging, protection, and empowering.
With these thoughts I knew I needed a vacation. I booked a plane ticket for a short get-away trip to Hawaii, where I envisioned sitting on a beach, watching waves and sunsets, and visiting with good friends I knew were at the University of the Nations (YWAM).
The day of my trip, I prayed the words of Charles Ringma: “Lord, I come to You acknowledging my weakness and vulnerability. I pray not only for your protection, but more particularly for your strengthening and transformation. Amen.”
Running deep in my thoughts was the theme: Learning to live well.
It had been a week of too many losses (my cousin at age 57 from brain cancer; an acquaintance in his 70s, and a favorite 95-year-old man at our church from a stroke). I remembered the Scripture, “Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!”(Psalm 90:12); and earlier in the same Psalm we’re reminded: “We live for 70 years or so (with luck we might make it to 80), and what do we have to show for it?”
On my way to the airport, I’d stopped by the doctor’s office for results of recent xrays – only to learn that I needed to make some tough decisions that could have long-reaching effects on my quality of life. And this too was feeding my thoughts.
“Lord, how long do we have? How do you want us to spend our remaining days for your Kingdom glory? What’s important to you – the one who has numbered all of our days?”
Arriving in Hawaii and settling into my hotel room, I again asked God for a specific word before going to speak to a group of authors seeking marketing tips for their new books. Although I sometimes wonder in my heart, my head knowledge tells me that God is simply waiting for us to ask – and He will meet us at our point of need. But this time, the directness of His answer in my devotional book blew me away:
“I come, I come. You need Me. Live much out here. My sunshine, My glorious air, My presence, My teaching. Would they not make holiday anywhere for you. Sunshine helps to make glad the heart of man. It is the laughter of Nature. Live much outside. My medicines are sun and air, trust and faith. Trust is the spirit sun, your being enwrapped by the Divine Spirit. Mind, soul, and body need helping. Welcome my treatment for you. Draw near to me. Nature is often My nurse of tired souls and weary bodies. Let her have her way with you.” (A. J. Russell in God Calling, August 17)
It is in these times when we know we have heard from God that we can say with David the Psalmist: “He has never let you down, never looked the other way when you were being kicked around. He has never wandered off to do his own thing; he has been right there, listening” (Psalm 22:24 The Message).
Showing posts with label grief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grief. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Why? Why? Why?
“Life is hard and full of deep valleys that we walk, run, or even limp through to the best of our ability. Sometimes we simply don’t know why we’re there. Sometimes we don’t know why stinky things happen. Sometimes we don’t know why God doesn’t show up, why our prayers don’t get answered, or why he doesn’t fix our problem.
“Sometimes a surrender is necessary for us to continue in faith … By admitting that we don’t understand everything and by simply trusting God that somehow in some way, and at some time, everything that has happened or is happening in our lives is going to come together for a good purpose.” (A.J. Gregory in Silent Savior, Revell, 2009)
The Message says it well, “We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28).
This kind of faith is just plain hard to maintain when our life, the evening news, the events swirling around us keep calling out “WHY?” And those of us who by calling or choice are writers, reporter-types, seem to be born with a higher than natural dose of “need to know.”
Haven’t we all wanted to ask: “Where is God at a time like this?”
We asked it after 9/11; we ask it today as we sit glued to the news of the tens of thousands of people lost in the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan; we’ve asked it this last year as too many friends and loved ones were taken from us too soon; and I ask it tonight after learning the brilliant young Assembly of God pastor and Bible teacher died of the horrible ALS disease.
Frederick Buechner wrote vividly expressing our doubts: “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”
“No matter where we are in our individual journeys of faith, the Voice in our soul continues to call us to move out, to go deeper, to explore further, to widen our horizons — to move, ultimately, into a more intimate relationship with God.” (Penelope Stokes in Faith: The Substance of Things Unseen, Tyndale, 1995).
And so it is during this season of Lent 2011, I have chosen to create times of solitude and study “faith” – as much to articulate it for myself as to try and help anyone else understand it. For who can improve on Hebrews 11:1: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” (The Message).
Eugene Peterson reminds us: “Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.”
“Sometimes a surrender is necessary for us to continue in faith … By admitting that we don’t understand everything and by simply trusting God that somehow in some way, and at some time, everything that has happened or is happening in our lives is going to come together for a good purpose.” (A.J. Gregory in Silent Savior, Revell, 2009)
The Message says it well, “We can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28).
This kind of faith is just plain hard to maintain when our life, the evening news, the events swirling around us keep calling out “WHY?” And those of us who by calling or choice are writers, reporter-types, seem to be born with a higher than natural dose of “need to know.”
Haven’t we all wanted to ask: “Where is God at a time like this?”
We asked it after 9/11; we ask it today as we sit glued to the news of the tens of thousands of people lost in the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan; we’ve asked it this last year as too many friends and loved ones were taken from us too soon; and I ask it tonight after learning the brilliant young Assembly of God pastor and Bible teacher died of the horrible ALS disease.
Frederick Buechner wrote vividly expressing our doubts: “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”
“No matter where we are in our individual journeys of faith, the Voice in our soul continues to call us to move out, to go deeper, to explore further, to widen our horizons — to move, ultimately, into a more intimate relationship with God.” (Penelope Stokes in Faith: The Substance of Things Unseen, Tyndale, 1995).
And so it is during this season of Lent 2011, I have chosen to create times of solitude and study “faith” – as much to articulate it for myself as to try and help anyone else understand it. For who can improve on Hebrews 11:1: “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” (The Message).
Eugene Peterson reminds us: “Our main and central task is to live in responsive obedience to God’s action revealed in Jesus. Our part in the action is the act of faith.”
Monday, February 21, 2011
Don't Look Back
DON’T LOOK BACK
By all means, Jesus cautions us: Don’t look back. It will only make the journey harder.
If we are going to follow him, our lives are going to keep moving and things and people keep changing around on us. Why?
Why must we keep saying good-bye to people we love?
Why must we keep growing and changing and maturing?
Why do we have to keep losing things along the way—our health, our families, and our dreams?
One of the greatest temptations to look back comes from all the hurt we have left behind, hurt that still screams for our attention. Maybe it is hurt we caused; perhaps it is hurt someone else caused. Or it may be a hurt caused simply by the volatility of life.
No one ever continues to learn without recalling the past to some extent. Jesus is not taking the past away from us—but he is making it painfully clear that LIFE always takes us down the road. We must keep moving in order to get there, and allow him to hold the past for us in his loving hands.
There is a reason why we bury our dead. It is, after all, a way of placing them into the arms of God so he can carry them and we can move on. It can be hard to leave behind the life we have enjoyed and to keep moving—unless we really can see Jesus along the way.
The New Jerusalem comes at the end of the story. So, for now, we will always be clearer about what Jesus is asking us to give up than about where he is taking us. Along the way to Jerusalem, Jesus may take us places where we would rather not go. He may bring gifts into our lives we would rather not have.
Each year of our lives, he will invite us to drop some of the things we are carrying, because these things are becoming too heavy. They weigh us down, and we’re holding them too tightly. Jesus does all of this simply to get us into the new holy Jerusalem, where our salvation becomes clear and perfect.
This is why we put our hands to the plow and do the work we’ve been given to do today. It’s all a way of seeing Jesus. And we’ve got to keep our eyes on him, or we’ll never make it to the Holy City.
Christians equipped for right living are prepared for losses, crosses, changes, and conflicts. They bow low, walk tall, and fight hard all the time. No matter how dark the days we face, we must make it our continual practice to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over our world.
Let’s tell Him regularly how grateful we are that He has the final word.
“Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil” (Proverbs 4:25-27 NLT).
(Some of these thoughts are adapted from M. Craig Barnes in Sacred Thirst: Meeting God in the Desert of Our Longings)
By all means, Jesus cautions us: Don’t look back. It will only make the journey harder.
If we are going to follow him, our lives are going to keep moving and things and people keep changing around on us. Why?
Why must we keep saying good-bye to people we love?
Why must we keep growing and changing and maturing?
Why do we have to keep losing things along the way—our health, our families, and our dreams?
One of the greatest temptations to look back comes from all the hurt we have left behind, hurt that still screams for our attention. Maybe it is hurt we caused; perhaps it is hurt someone else caused. Or it may be a hurt caused simply by the volatility of life.
No one ever continues to learn without recalling the past to some extent. Jesus is not taking the past away from us—but he is making it painfully clear that LIFE always takes us down the road. We must keep moving in order to get there, and allow him to hold the past for us in his loving hands.
There is a reason why we bury our dead. It is, after all, a way of placing them into the arms of God so he can carry them and we can move on. It can be hard to leave behind the life we have enjoyed and to keep moving—unless we really can see Jesus along the way.
The New Jerusalem comes at the end of the story. So, for now, we will always be clearer about what Jesus is asking us to give up than about where he is taking us. Along the way to Jerusalem, Jesus may take us places where we would rather not go. He may bring gifts into our lives we would rather not have.
Each year of our lives, he will invite us to drop some of the things we are carrying, because these things are becoming too heavy. They weigh us down, and we’re holding them too tightly. Jesus does all of this simply to get us into the new holy Jerusalem, where our salvation becomes clear and perfect.
This is why we put our hands to the plow and do the work we’ve been given to do today. It’s all a way of seeing Jesus. And we’ve got to keep our eyes on him, or we’ll never make it to the Holy City.
Christians equipped for right living are prepared for losses, crosses, changes, and conflicts. They bow low, walk tall, and fight hard all the time. No matter how dark the days we face, we must make it our continual practice to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over our world.
Let’s tell Him regularly how grateful we are that He has the final word.
“Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil” (Proverbs 4:25-27 NLT).
(Some of these thoughts are adapted from M. Craig Barnes in Sacred Thirst: Meeting God in the Desert of Our Longings)
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