And Yet...

How do you handle difficulties in your life?

Pretend they aren't there?  Paint a smile on your face and continue about your business as if it weren't really happening, wearing a mask to hide the pain from all the people around you who expect you to be and do and say all the right things, all the things they are not and all the things that they hope they can be?

Or maybe you're a controller?  Our pastor was saying this evening that one of the things we all try to do when trials present themselves is control the situation.  We try to fix it.  Are you a fixer?  Do you work and work and work and work in the hopes that maybe, one day, some time you might be able to fix it enough so that it won't hurt anymore?  Maybe one day it might actually go away and not be a problem for you?  In your own strength?  In your own way?

Anybody out there a wallower?  You face the problems of this world and you don't see any need to fix them or control them.  Why even bother trying to pretend they aren't there?  You're a realist!  You know pretending won't make them go away and trying to fix them won't take care of it either!  And so you sit.  You sulk.  You wallow in the misery of your problems and prey on other people to have pity on you, to sit down with you and hear you talk about all of your issues.  You slosh around in the sludge and grime of your tribulations and try to bring as many people down into the depths with you as you can.  Why be sad all alone?  I can bring all my friends too!

I was reading in the Psalms last week and came across a verse I recognized, but from a different portion of the Bible - the New Testament to be exact,

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?  Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest."  Psalm 22:1-2

Those are David's words.  He's going through a trial, apparently so difficult that he finds himself feeling as though God had abandoned him.  It's so difficult, and his words so fitting, that Jesus quotes this same Psalm in Matthew as He is hanging from the cross.  Is it wrong to feel that way?  No, I don't think so.  I think it's a natural part of life to have ups and downs.  There are times when we feel we're on top of the world and everything is going great.  There are times when we feel we're in the lowest of valleys and everything is going wrong.  David is expressing emotions here that we all have felt or will feel at some point in our lives.  Here's the difference - David's response is so radically different from what we feel naturally inclined to do.  Check out the following four words:

"Yet you are holy..."  Psalm 22:3a

We flawed, sinful people all go running to our solutions that we hope will make us feel better (I to my fixing), and David responds to a trial (one that makes him feel forsaken entirely) by praising God for His holiness.  On top of that, I feel like David is revealing a deeper understanding that He has of our God and Father.  David understands that trials are temporary - they don't last forever!  He understands that trials are for our benefit - they grow us and stretch us to be in more intimate relationships with the Lord.  More importantly, however, David understands the ultimate purpose of any trials that we may go through - God's glorification.

David's trial is so intense he feels forsaken - yet God is holy.
Jesus is going to the cross and feels the same way David did - yet God is holy.
You're stressed at work, you feel unaccomplished, you feel like a failure - yet God is holy.
Life has you down, situations are escalating, you're depressed about all of it - yet God is holy.
Your future is uncertain and you don't know the next step to take, you're scared - yet God is holy.


Are you noticing a pattern here?  It doesn't matter what life throws at you.  It doesn't matter if you have the best job in the world and you're on top of the highest mountain or if every situation seems to mount against you and you've sunk down into the lowest valley you could ever imagine.

God is holy.  He loves you.  He has your best interest at heart.  He is taking care of you and watching over you and lifting you up and carrying you when you can't walk anymore.  He is saying to you,

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Take joy in that truth.  Find peace in the lightness of His burden.  Experience true rest.

Footsteps

There's this new thing that Isabella has been doing lately.  She really likes to grab our various pairs of shoes and put them on her feet.  Clunking around in shoes far too large for her is a funny thing to behold indeed!  I watch her try to take normal steps and not even be able to lift her feet from the floor.  Then, she changes approaches.  Instead of her usual big steps, she attempts to shuffle along just a few inches forward at a time.  The result is trip-step-shuffle combination that is silly and wonderful all at the same time.

A couple of days ago, however, she was beginning to do this same thing again - the putting on of a pair of my shoes - and something hit me.  Do you ever have things do that to you?  You're watching a completely normal thing, but some deeper meaning suddenly breaks through, capturing your attention and throwing your whole mind in the direction of that idea?  It happens to me pretty frequently, and this day was no exception.

How fitting is it that the child we are trying to raise in a Christ-filled home and Christ-like manner, the child who is figuratively going to follow in our footsteps, is literally wearing our shoes around the house?  It was almost overwhelming the way it became so apparent to me and the persistance with which it stuck to my heart.  I've been thinking about it ever since and the application that it should have on our lives, on my life.  This realization, this epiphany of sorts, started me thinking about my own legacy and what kind of life that I lead.  What footsteps am I taking?  What impressions am I leaving in which our daughter will follow?

Here's the thing - regardless of how I live my life, Isabella will emulate it.  Regardless of how much I sacrifice my minuscule self for my magnificent Christ or how much of my selfless Jesus I sacrifice for my selfish wants and desires, Isabella is going to see that example and shape herself into a pretty accurate reflection of the example she's seen, without even realizing it.  It's being modeled every day in our home, in our car, in our conversations, in our relationships, everywhere.  How could she not?

I suppose the question is, what am I going to do about it?  Ever since I began thinking in this direction, it's made me scared of what I say and afraid to do anything wrong.  Now, God doesn't call us to live in fear.  He doesn't want us living afraid to do or say anything because we might mess up.  He already knows we're sinful.  He already knows we're messed up.  I'm going to say and do things that I'll wish I could take back, things that I can't ever take back and things that I can't ever erase from Isabella's memory.  But this I do know - "...for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose."

No matter how well I live or how badly I mess up, God will work things for good.  More importantly, God will glorify Himself.  That is His priority above anything else, anyway, so why can't He use my mistakes to teach a lesson or my own life lessons to give encouragement?  He can.  He will.  It's how He works - through His people.

"I may live and I may die, either way You're glorified.  Bless the day I give my life away."

-- Christy Nockels -- 

Prayer

I wonder sometimes if people on the outside think we're crazy.  By 'we' I mean Christians and by 'people on the outside' I mean anyone else.

I mean, from their perspective we all talk to someone nobody can see and eat the flesh and drink the blood of some guy who used to be alive but came out of the grave to walk the earth again.  Sounds like some psycho cannibalistic zombie movie to me...

The amazing, incredible, awesomely-good thing about Christianity is this - IT'S NOT CRAZY AT ALL!  I won't go into every single detail of why Christianity is not a religion full of crazy people, mainly because I would never do it enough justice and would probably hurt the cause for Christ more than I would help it (If you want a good book on the subject, go check out The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel.  He's a converted atheist and he's amazing!).  However, there is one aspect of Christianity that I get the chance to think a little deeper on every so often.  It's a part of my faith that I can never get enough of, don't do nearly as frequently as I should/would like, and yet love almost as much as the fact that I am freed from the burden of sin forever.  It's prayer.

No, we as Christians don't talk to ourselves or some unseen nobody.  We talk to Someone who is much greater than that, and He talks back to us through His inspired Word.  We talk to the God of the universe, the Maker of all things that are seen and unseen, the Alpha and Omega, the One Way, Truth and Life against which everything in life is weighed and measured.

Even better than that - who'd've thunk there could be anything better?! - He listens to us!  He takes the time to hear every prayer that we offer up to Him.  The Bible describes our prayers as 'sweet incense' to the Father.  They are precious to Him just as we are precious to Him.  It pleases God for us to pray to Him and it pleases Him to listen to us.

Here's the part I can never get over.  Even though the Bible says that God answers prayers, people still complain that 'He didn't answer my prayer' or 'My mom still died of cancer even though I prayed for her healing.'  Even though the Bible says that God is just and kind, loving and merciful, full of grace, the great healer, people still complain that God never did anything for them.  Long story short, the fact that you're still alive and breathing is more than He ever had to do for you, and He didn't even have to do that!  The point I'm so laboriously coming to is this - prayer is a great communication tool but it's an even greater learning tool.  I've seen God teach me so much through the discipline of prayer.  I've heard so many stories of what God taught other people through the act of praying.  Consider these questions and their answers:

What is the ultimate purpose of God?  To glorify Himself.

What is the ultimate purpose of man?  To glorify God.

See a cure for cancer anywhere in there?  Do you see God giving you a million dollars anywhere in there?  Do you see promises of anything related to you in there at all?  NO!  And why not?  Because as amazing as it is that God blesses us and offers us grace that we don't deserve, His goal is still to bring glory to His own Name.  So, prayer works the same way.  Prayer is useful for a lot of things, but ultimately it's to bring God all the glory that He is due.

The closer we grow to God, the more He will strip away our desires and replace them with His own.  The closer we grow to God, the more He will tear away our wants and needs and replace them with His wants and needs.  God is slowly teaching me that as self-seeking and sinful as I can be, He wants to be glorified that much more.  And so God continues to teach.

He is showing me that maybe my prayer shouldn't be that cancer be healed but that someone's soul would be healed instead.

He is showing me that maybe my prayer shouldn't be that I have the winning argument, but that I would learn patience when talking to people who believe differently than I do.

He is showing me that maybe my prayer shouldn't be for someone else to come apologize to me, but that I should go and initiate the apology.

Instead of looking at prayer as a 'gift list' today, try looking at it as a classroom. What is God teaching you through prayer?

Stories

A friend of mine teaches sixth grade math, I think in the Delta.  He posted this story on Twitter yesterday.  I changed the names for the sake of privacy.


"My conversation with the student I sent to alternative school that I ran into at Walmart:
Billy:  Hey, Mr. Smith!
Mr. Smith:  Hello there, Billy.
Billy:  You know I'm in alternative school?
Mr. Smith:  Yes, I'm aware...how is it?
Billy:  It's fun!  You can buy Mountain Dew.
Mr. Smith:  Yes, that is fun.  How's your math going?
Billy:  94
Mr. Smith:  That's great, Billy.  What are you studying now?
Billy:  I'm suspended right now.
Mr. Smith:  Why is that?
Billy:  I drew a star.
Mr. Smith:  Seems like there is more to that story...
Billy:  with a knife...on Johnny.
Mr. Smith:  There it is...Well, good talk.  I'm leaving now."


I'm still deciding whether that makes me want to laugh or cry, although I'll probably end up doing both by the end of the day.  Either way, it's a call to pray for the state of the world we live in, for the souls of all the lost people who have never accepted Christ or haven't even heard the Gospel in the first place.


Especially in this Easter season, when we remember that Jesus went to the cross for our sins and celebrate that He rose again on the third day, what are we doing to share the great love of Christ that we have so undeservingly received?  When's the last time any of us shared our story of how Christ changed our lives, how He pulled us out of the darkness and into the light, how He made us new creations in Him?


Sure, this story was meant to be funny - if you only knew the guy it happened to!  But what if we used it as a catalyst for change?  What if we use it as inspiration to go out and do something to influence the world for Christ?  What if we further the Kingdom of God because of it?


Love the people you meet today.  Tell them your story of life change.  People may not necessarily ask you for more information, they may not want to hear you, and you may never even see them again, but you'll have planted a seed.  You will have begun what Jesus commanded us to do before He left this earth,  "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..."