Will God Provide? (January 25, 2004)
I just heard Pastor David Jeremiah on WMBI talk about how God provided for his wife and him when he was in seminary. They were so poor that they lived off 21-cent macaroni and cheese dinners, but whenever they needed money for food or bills there was always just enough. The point he was making was that if you trust God, he will provide.
I am one of those for whom God has provided again and again, and I praise him for it. More than once in the course of schooling or ministry or transition we have been close to the brink - unable to go one more month before we couldn't pay the rent or mortgage - but God always provided what we needed, sometimes with exquisitely dramatic timing. Glory to God!
But does God always provide like that?
I have struggled with this question for years. Recently I saw a news special that focused on a poor man dying of AIDS in an Asian country. He got AIDS from an infected needle used to draw the blood that he gave in order to get money for his family. They wept as they gathered around his deathbed. His wife also had AIDS now, and would probably soon follow him. She anguished over what would happen to their children.
I don't know if that man was a Christian, but if anyone said “He can't be, because such misfortunes never happen to people who trust God,” I would have to say, "You are mistaken." Hebrews 11 records the stories of great saints who suffered and didn't get provided for and then just died. Though I have always trusted God and have never used drugs nor been sexually immoral, there is nothing in my theology that says I could not, like that Asian peasant, get AIDS through no fault of my
own and then give it to my wife and then leave my children orphaned.
I find in myself then an attitude opposite to that of some Nazarenes in Jesus' day. They complained that the residents of Capernaum got miracles while they got none (Luke 4:23). But it is like I am in Capernaum, wondering why I have been provided for so lavishly while others have had to sell their blood for food and die as a result. I ask "Why?" - but from the standpoint of one who is privileged and
blessed rather than abused and destitute.
Here is what I conclude as I mull these thoughts. First, we must never be jealous or angry when others get provided for and we don't. We should be happy for them, and rejoice with those who rejoice. Second, we must never be selfish with the blessings we have received when others have been denied them. To whom much is given much is required. Third, we must never assume that our goodness inspired God's provision (callously dismissing unlucky sufferers as "getting what they deserved.") Fourth, we must praise and thank God when he gives us good things, and continue to trust and worship him when he does not. And fifth, we must remember at all times that this life is not all there is. Eternity awaits where wrongs shall be made right. In the meantime, imbalances both outrageously generous and outrageously cruel remain a
feature of our world, where they provide constant tests which we must pass by submitting our wills, expressing our gratitude, and maintaining our faith.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
Sunday, January 18, 2004
Bad Habits Turn Into The Real You (January 18, 2004)
A couple friends of mine have developed bad habits lately. I said to one of them, "You're going to have to decide what kind of person you are going to be." Habits slide from being a thing about us to being what we are. Repeating a bad habit turns you into one kind of person; rejecting it will make you another.
People are notoriously slow to recognize what they have become. A single act turns into a practice which turns into a characteristic long before the person looks in a mirror and says, "I am a drunk," or, "I am a pervert," or, "I am a liar."
For some, the self-deception seems permanent. They maintain, "I may have done a bad thing, but I'm not a bad person." Take for example Elecia Battle of Cleveland, who recently tried to steal 162 million dollars. Earlier this month she claimed that lottery winner Rebecca Jemison had stolen the winning ticket from her. She filed a lawsuit to block Jemison from picking up her winnings. But when Battle’s story was revealed as a lie she said, "I'm not a bad person. I'm really not." Not a bad person? She had just attempted one of the biggest thefts in the history of the United States! And it was not an isolated incident - she already had a criminal record stemming from credit card fraud and assaulting a clerk. What does it take for her, or for people like her, to do an honest self-assessment and conclude, "Good heavens but I'm a wretch. God be merciful to me, a sinner."
Beware in yourself the slide from doing one bad thing to regularly doing bad things to becoming a bad person. It happens quicker than you think. You may be in stage 3 when you think you're only in stage 1. That moral choice you make today crystalizes into a firm decision about the kind of person you are going to be.
A couple friends of mine have developed bad habits lately. I said to one of them, "You're going to have to decide what kind of person you are going to be." Habits slide from being a thing about us to being what we are. Repeating a bad habit turns you into one kind of person; rejecting it will make you another.
People are notoriously slow to recognize what they have become. A single act turns into a practice which turns into a characteristic long before the person looks in a mirror and says, "I am a drunk," or, "I am a pervert," or, "I am a liar."
For some, the self-deception seems permanent. They maintain, "I may have done a bad thing, but I'm not a bad person." Take for example Elecia Battle of Cleveland, who recently tried to steal 162 million dollars. Earlier this month she claimed that lottery winner Rebecca Jemison had stolen the winning ticket from her. She filed a lawsuit to block Jemison from picking up her winnings. But when Battle’s story was revealed as a lie she said, "I'm not a bad person. I'm really not." Not a bad person? She had just attempted one of the biggest thefts in the history of the United States! And it was not an isolated incident - she already had a criminal record stemming from credit card fraud and assaulting a clerk. What does it take for her, or for people like her, to do an honest self-assessment and conclude, "Good heavens but I'm a wretch. God be merciful to me, a sinner."
Beware in yourself the slide from doing one bad thing to regularly doing bad things to becoming a bad person. It happens quicker than you think. You may be in stage 3 when you think you're only in stage 1. That moral choice you make today crystalizes into a firm decision about the kind of person you are going to be.
Sunday, January 11, 2004
You Can’t Do It Alone (January 11, 2004)
The bright side of spraining his ankle in gym class was that my 13-year-old son got to skip the motivational, New Age multi-media presentation that his school inflicts on the students once a year.
Peter told me that last year's theme was The Power of One, and it focused on the difference one person can make. It's true, one individual can make a difference. I think of the father of a friend of mine, Ralph Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt was a godly and humble man who served on the board of his church. One time a proposal was made at a board meeting that struck Mr. Schmidt as unethical. The board members were polled as to how they felt about the measure, and each gave his assent until the last person, Mr. Schmidt, was questioned. He said simply, "I personally cannot lend my support to this matter." The issue went back around the table, and with Mr. Schmidt offering no further input, all the members backed down and found their own reasons for rejecting the proposal.
The proposal was wrong, and one man's very quiet dissent made that plain.
One person can make a difference, but no one person can do it alone. My son found it ironic that The Power Of One presentation at his school used Frodo Baggins (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) as a symbol of one person's ability to effect change and accomplish good. "It was a Fellowship of the Ring!" Peter noted. Exactly. It took nine diverse individuals working together to break the power of that Satanic little piece of metal. One individual could not have done it. As far as that goes, Frodo himself failed at the crucial moment to bear his individual part of the corporate burden. Maybe the presentation at my son’s school should have been called, The Power of Many.
A Reader's Digest anecdote tells of a young man (I'll call him Bill) who interviewed for a job that required good decision-making and heavy lifting. Bill and several other applicants were given a strength test: try to move a heavy safe across the floor. After a few applicants tried to budge the safe - grunting and straining but making little progress - it was Bill's turn. He didn't even try. He just said, "Are you kidding? I can't move that safe by myself." He got the job.
Sure, one person can make a difference. But that one person usually needs a lot of help. Don't be afraid to ask for it.
The bright side of spraining his ankle in gym class was that my 13-year-old son got to skip the motivational, New Age multi-media presentation that his school inflicts on the students once a year.
Peter told me that last year's theme was The Power of One, and it focused on the difference one person can make. It's true, one individual can make a difference. I think of the father of a friend of mine, Ralph Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt was a godly and humble man who served on the board of his church. One time a proposal was made at a board meeting that struck Mr. Schmidt as unethical. The board members were polled as to how they felt about the measure, and each gave his assent until the last person, Mr. Schmidt, was questioned. He said simply, "I personally cannot lend my support to this matter." The issue went back around the table, and with Mr. Schmidt offering no further input, all the members backed down and found their own reasons for rejecting the proposal.
The proposal was wrong, and one man's very quiet dissent made that plain.
One person can make a difference, but no one person can do it alone. My son found it ironic that The Power Of One presentation at his school used Frodo Baggins (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) as a symbol of one person's ability to effect change and accomplish good. "It was a Fellowship of the Ring!" Peter noted. Exactly. It took nine diverse individuals working together to break the power of that Satanic little piece of metal. One individual could not have done it. As far as that goes, Frodo himself failed at the crucial moment to bear his individual part of the corporate burden. Maybe the presentation at my son’s school should have been called, The Power of Many.
A Reader's Digest anecdote tells of a young man (I'll call him Bill) who interviewed for a job that required good decision-making and heavy lifting. Bill and several other applicants were given a strength test: try to move a heavy safe across the floor. After a few applicants tried to budge the safe - grunting and straining but making little progress - it was Bill's turn. He didn't even try. He just said, "Are you kidding? I can't move that safe by myself." He got the job.
Sure, one person can make a difference. But that one person usually needs a lot of help. Don't be afraid to ask for it.
Sunday, January 4, 2004
Deliberate Cheerfulness (January 4, 2004)
"Every morning, Pastor, she was singing, singing," Joe said to me in his thick Romanian accent. Joe was grieving his wife Kathryn, who passed away shortly before what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. I had only known Kathryn in the last couple years of her life, when she was blind, crippled and home-bound except for visits to the hospital for dialysis treatment. Despite her afflictions, she always flashed a bright smile whenever I visited. Her steady cheerfulness was a delight to everyone.
It is pleasant to live with a cheerful person, and a burden to live with a grouch. Don't be a grouch. My father, whenever he came home from work, always walked in from the car whistling some light tune. I guess I took his cheerfulness for granted, and probably didn't realize that for many kids, "Dad's home!" was a signal to run and hide rather than run to the door and greet him. The other day a friend of mine told me that he always hated it when his dad came home, because he would just walk in the door and start finding things to be angry about. What a blight that father left on his son's childhood memories!
A Bible verse I heard often growing up was Proverbs 17:22: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Medical research confirms (so I am told) that laughing and singing is good for your health. But it is also good for other people's health too - especially for those who live with you. Your refusal to combat sullenness may "dry the bones" of the very family members you profess to love. So, if you love them, sing like Kathryn Domitro in the morning and whistle like Lowell Lundquist in the evening. Do it even if you don't feel like it. Every good man acts more pleasantly than he feels.
"Every morning, Pastor, she was singing, singing," Joe said to me in his thick Romanian accent. Joe was grieving his wife Kathryn, who passed away shortly before what would have been their 50th wedding anniversary. I had only known Kathryn in the last couple years of her life, when she was blind, crippled and home-bound except for visits to the hospital for dialysis treatment. Despite her afflictions, she always flashed a bright smile whenever I visited. Her steady cheerfulness was a delight to everyone.
It is pleasant to live with a cheerful person, and a burden to live with a grouch. Don't be a grouch. My father, whenever he came home from work, always walked in from the car whistling some light tune. I guess I took his cheerfulness for granted, and probably didn't realize that for many kids, "Dad's home!" was a signal to run and hide rather than run to the door and greet him. The other day a friend of mine told me that he always hated it when his dad came home, because he would just walk in the door and start finding things to be angry about. What a blight that father left on his son's childhood memories!
A Bible verse I heard often growing up was Proverbs 17:22: "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones." Medical research confirms (so I am told) that laughing and singing is good for your health. But it is also good for other people's health too - especially for those who live with you. Your refusal to combat sullenness may "dry the bones" of the very family members you profess to love. So, if you love them, sing like Kathryn Domitro in the morning and whistle like Lowell Lundquist in the evening. Do it even if you don't feel like it. Every good man acts more pleasantly than he feels.
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