My Octogenarian Hero (August 3, 2003)
Some time ago I paid a hospital visit to one of my heroes, 86-year-old Vivian Cabatari. Vivian's arms were all black and blue from the hypodermic needles that a nurse had plunged into her in vain attempts to find veins. But Vivian wasn't complaining. In fact, she told me that she felt sorry for the nurse, and after two failed attempts to draw blood Vivian said, "Third time's a charm! Try again." The nurse offered to get somebody else to do it, but Vivian said no. She told me she wanted to encourage the young woman, and "not have it go on her record that she couldn't manage a needle."
When I hear something like that I know that I am in the presence of greatness. If I ever get old, I want to be like Vivian Cabatari. I want to have grace to pity well-meaning interns 60 years my junior who can't find my veins, and utter not a word of complaint lest it make them feel bad. I want to work hard to suppress a cough at night (as Vivian did) lest it disturb the patient in the bed next to me. Long after I can no longer preach from Philippians 2:4 (“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others"), I hope to God I can live it like Vivian.
And I hope I'll be able to laugh at myself the way she does. Vivian gleefully told me how she tried to get down three pills that a nurse gave her even though she had some chewing gum in her mouth. She tucked the chewing gum behind a molar and managed to swallow two pills, but the third got lodged in the gum and dissolved into it. That pill made the gum "bitter as gall," she said, “But I chewed and chewed on it in order to get the full benefit.”
It so happens that chewing medicinal gum is a good metaphor for Vivian’s life. She has suffered some truly awful things through her eight and a half decades. But somehow she emerged from her trials not as a bitter old hag but as a winsome saint who inspires those around her to be better people. She has trusted God and calmly chewed the gall of life's heartaches in order to get full benefit from them. Praise God Almighty for delightful souls who do that as well as Vivian Cabatari.
Sunday, August 3, 2003
Monday, July 28, 2003
The Directory Is A Prayer Guide (July 28, 2003)
Let me encourage you to use your church directory as a prayer guide. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started in praying for people about whose specific needs you may know little:
For children and young people: That they would honor and obey their parents. That they would learn to love and fear the Lord. That they would not succumb to bad influences from peers.
For husbands and fathers: That they would love their wives as Christ loved the church. That they would set good examples for their wives and children as the spiritual heads of their households. That they would remain faithful.
For the divorced and separated: That God would grant them strength and wisdom in managing a divided family, reconciliation where possible, comfort where needed, discernment in how best to proceed with their lives.
For singles: That their time and energy will be used for well for God's glory. That, if they want to marry, that God would provide them with good and godly spouses.
For wives and mothers: That they would honor their husbands and be a delight to them. That they would set good examples for their children and raise them with the right mixture of love and discipline.
For all: That they would not be led into temptation but be delivered from evil. That their lives would be a source of joy and blessing for those with whom they live and work. That they would remain faithful to the Lord. That their daily needs would be provided, and that they would give thanks to God always.
Let me encourage you to use your church directory as a prayer guide. Here are a few suggestions to help you get started in praying for people about whose specific needs you may know little:
For children and young people: That they would honor and obey their parents. That they would learn to love and fear the Lord. That they would not succumb to bad influences from peers.
For husbands and fathers: That they would love their wives as Christ loved the church. That they would set good examples for their wives and children as the spiritual heads of their households. That they would remain faithful.
For the divorced and separated: That God would grant them strength and wisdom in managing a divided family, reconciliation where possible, comfort where needed, discernment in how best to proceed with their lives.
For singles: That their time and energy will be used for well for God's glory. That, if they want to marry, that God would provide them with good and godly spouses.
For wives and mothers: That they would honor their husbands and be a delight to them. That they would set good examples for their children and raise them with the right mixture of love and discipline.
For all: That they would not be led into temptation but be delivered from evil. That their lives would be a source of joy and blessing for those with whom they live and work. That they would remain faithful to the Lord. That their daily needs would be provided, and that they would give thanks to God always.
Sunday, July 6, 2003
Spiritual Blind Spots (July 6, 2003)
Some time ago I noticed that my car's rearview mirror creates a blind spot. Though the mirror helps me see out the back, it completely blocks out a car-sized space about 20 yards ahead and a little to the right. I've learned to be careful about making left turns from side streets, because a car could suddenly "materialize" from behind that blind spot and smash into me.
The pastor under whom I served my internship warned me about moral "blind spots" - vices people have but never see, vices that afflict people who are otherwise good, vices that wreak havoc like multi-car pileups. For example:
Carl is a faithful husband and provider, a disciplined man and highly regarded Sunday School teacher. But he lies constantly. The man has no integrity.
Ed, on the other hand, is a man of resolute integrity. His business associates and fellow church board members know he would never shade the truth. But he is addicted to pornography.
Robert, however, is both honest and sexually pure. But he smokes pot and has even gotten others to join him in abusing the drug.
Fred is not addicted to anything, nor is his integrity in dispute. He is a hard-working and faithful servant of the church. But he is racist - so much so that he stares down church visitors of other ethnicities in an effort to make them go away.
Finally there is Mark. Mark is free from all the vices that plague Carl, Ed, Robert and Fred. But he is the worst of the lot! Though able-bodied, he is so lazy he refuses to work to support his family. The Bible says of him, "He has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Timothy 5:8)
The sad truth is that we are a fallen people plagued with vices. We can see other people's sins well enough, and we are pretty good at condemning the sins that don’t tempt us. We even know the boost to self esteem we get when we hear of a Christian doing something bad, because we know that we ourselves would never think of doing anything so awful. And we're right, we probably wouldn’t - as long as we are only considering those sins over which we have control. Little do we know that lurking behind the mirror in which we see another's sin is a two-ton hurtling vehicle of vice that threatens to flatten us like a pancake.
Our moral blind spots are (by definition) hard to see, but a humble man can begin to make them visible by daring to think that he might just be a terrible sinner after all. If you want to be holy in all areas of your life, let me recommend a couple things. First, listen to rebuke. The criticisms you receive may be utterly unjust, but do not dismiss them out of hand. Secondly, ask God to reveal to you your secret sins. Pray as David did in Psalm 19:12, "Who can discern his errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults."
Make an effort to look up, down and around your moral blind spots. You probably have some. The good news is that God is merciful, and he is eager to expose and cleanse your hidden sins.
Some time ago I noticed that my car's rearview mirror creates a blind spot. Though the mirror helps me see out the back, it completely blocks out a car-sized space about 20 yards ahead and a little to the right. I've learned to be careful about making left turns from side streets, because a car could suddenly "materialize" from behind that blind spot and smash into me.
The pastor under whom I served my internship warned me about moral "blind spots" - vices people have but never see, vices that afflict people who are otherwise good, vices that wreak havoc like multi-car pileups. For example:
Carl is a faithful husband and provider, a disciplined man and highly regarded Sunday School teacher. But he lies constantly. The man has no integrity.
Ed, on the other hand, is a man of resolute integrity. His business associates and fellow church board members know he would never shade the truth. But he is addicted to pornography.
Robert, however, is both honest and sexually pure. But he smokes pot and has even gotten others to join him in abusing the drug.
Fred is not addicted to anything, nor is his integrity in dispute. He is a hard-working and faithful servant of the church. But he is racist - so much so that he stares down church visitors of other ethnicities in an effort to make them go away.
Finally there is Mark. Mark is free from all the vices that plague Carl, Ed, Robert and Fred. But he is the worst of the lot! Though able-bodied, he is so lazy he refuses to work to support his family. The Bible says of him, "He has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." (1 Timothy 5:8)
The sad truth is that we are a fallen people plagued with vices. We can see other people's sins well enough, and we are pretty good at condemning the sins that don’t tempt us. We even know the boost to self esteem we get when we hear of a Christian doing something bad, because we know that we ourselves would never think of doing anything so awful. And we're right, we probably wouldn’t - as long as we are only considering those sins over which we have control. Little do we know that lurking behind the mirror in which we see another's sin is a two-ton hurtling vehicle of vice that threatens to flatten us like a pancake.
Our moral blind spots are (by definition) hard to see, but a humble man can begin to make them visible by daring to think that he might just be a terrible sinner after all. If you want to be holy in all areas of your life, let me recommend a couple things. First, listen to rebuke. The criticisms you receive may be utterly unjust, but do not dismiss them out of hand. Secondly, ask God to reveal to you your secret sins. Pray as David did in Psalm 19:12, "Who can discern his errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults."
Make an effort to look up, down and around your moral blind spots. You probably have some. The good news is that God is merciful, and he is eager to expose and cleanse your hidden sins.
Sunday, June 29, 2003
You Will Always Be Tempted (June 29, 2003)
A recent headline in the Chicago Tribune (June 18) read: "Baptists: Christ can make gays straight". I doubted that Baptists would express so crudely the idea that people can be delivered from homosexual sin, and indeed as I read the article the closest actual quote read, "Homosexuals can find freedom from this sinful, destructive lifestyle." That is not the same as "Christ can make gays straight", but apparently in the mind of a Tribune editor it amounted to the same thing.
It doesn't.
If "being made straight" for a homosexual means having a change in his orientation such that it becomes impossible for him to be sexually attracted to members of his own sex, then I would say that while Christ may accomplish that change for anyone, there is no guarantee that he will (and many homosexuals will testify that he hasn't) - despite conversion and prayer and tears and attempts at self-discipline.
Regrettably though, many seem to assume that if a person is permanently "inclined", "oriented" (I would say "tempted") to behave in a certain way, then that natural inclination justifies the behavior. If God wired an individual with a "gay gene", then how can it be wrong to act in accordance with it?
What this kind of thinking fails to understand is that all of us are prone to sin - not by choice, but by our fallen nature. You could say our bad genetic code inclines us to sin. Of course, our sinful orientations differ from one another. One man is predisposed to violence, another to arson, another to kleptomania, another to sloth, another to molesting children. It may well be that all these orientations are genetic and permanent, manifesting themselves when the individual is in pre-school and maintaining their gravitational pull when he is very old. But that does not mean it is o.k. to act on them.
I believe that Christians are rarely delivered completely from their chief temptations - but they can be delivered from the persistent habit of succumbing to them. The behavior is what matters. For this reason I like to say, "It is o.k. to be an alcoholic - as long as you don't drink. It is o.k. to be a kleptomaniac - as long as you don't steal. It is o.k. to be an arsonist - as long as you don’t set fires. And it is o.k. to be a homosexual - as long as you refrain from homosexual acts and from indulging in lusts that are forbidden to heterosexuals as well."
If we teach people that when they come to Christ they won't be tempted anymore, we do them a terrible disservice by creating false expectations. And if we believe that lie ourselves, we pave the way for our own spiritual failure. It is better to tell converts, "Expect to be tempted as you always were, but you cannot use that temptation as an excuse for sin. None of us can."
A recent headline in the Chicago Tribune (June 18) read: "Baptists: Christ can make gays straight". I doubted that Baptists would express so crudely the idea that people can be delivered from homosexual sin, and indeed as I read the article the closest actual quote read, "Homosexuals can find freedom from this sinful, destructive lifestyle." That is not the same as "Christ can make gays straight", but apparently in the mind of a Tribune editor it amounted to the same thing.
It doesn't.
If "being made straight" for a homosexual means having a change in his orientation such that it becomes impossible for him to be sexually attracted to members of his own sex, then I would say that while Christ may accomplish that change for anyone, there is no guarantee that he will (and many homosexuals will testify that he hasn't) - despite conversion and prayer and tears and attempts at self-discipline.
Regrettably though, many seem to assume that if a person is permanently "inclined", "oriented" (I would say "tempted") to behave in a certain way, then that natural inclination justifies the behavior. If God wired an individual with a "gay gene", then how can it be wrong to act in accordance with it?
What this kind of thinking fails to understand is that all of us are prone to sin - not by choice, but by our fallen nature. You could say our bad genetic code inclines us to sin. Of course, our sinful orientations differ from one another. One man is predisposed to violence, another to arson, another to kleptomania, another to sloth, another to molesting children. It may well be that all these orientations are genetic and permanent, manifesting themselves when the individual is in pre-school and maintaining their gravitational pull when he is very old. But that does not mean it is o.k. to act on them.
I believe that Christians are rarely delivered completely from their chief temptations - but they can be delivered from the persistent habit of succumbing to them. The behavior is what matters. For this reason I like to say, "It is o.k. to be an alcoholic - as long as you don't drink. It is o.k. to be a kleptomaniac - as long as you don't steal. It is o.k. to be an arsonist - as long as you don’t set fires. And it is o.k. to be a homosexual - as long as you refrain from homosexual acts and from indulging in lusts that are forbidden to heterosexuals as well."
If we teach people that when they come to Christ they won't be tempted anymore, we do them a terrible disservice by creating false expectations. And if we believe that lie ourselves, we pave the way for our own spiritual failure. It is better to tell converts, "Expect to be tempted as you always were, but you cannot use that temptation as an excuse for sin. None of us can."
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Food Is Good (June 15, 2003)
I've thought about food a lot lately. Last week I watched The Pianist, which has heart-wrenching scenes of starving Jews in World War II trying to get food. A man licks soup off the street. A family divides a caramel cube six ways. The fugitive pianist finds treasure in a bombed-out house - an unopened can of pickled cucumbers. Later his face registers ecstasy as he dips his finger in some fruit jam and savors the sweetest taste he has had in years.
I have never been hungry except by choice. I have never been empty, but more than once I have been too full - like at the Chinese wedding feast I went to on Saturday. Oh my goodness. When I came home I regaled my family with a course-by-course description of the single greatest meal I have ever eaten. (I thought we were done at the shark's fin soup, and was stunned to learn that we were only a third of the way through the courses!) It was a genuine sensual delight for a food-lover like me.
Listen! Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. Cultivate an appreciation for your bounty. Here in America in the 21st century we live at the pinnacle of world food luxury. I don't feel guilty about that, but for heaven's sake I believe we should be content and thankful. At the wedding feast I had a conversation with a woman who lamented her daughter's snobbish dismissal of any restaurant food that was not super-expensive. I sympathized with the mother. I remember what a major treat it was when I was a kid and we got to go to McDonald's. Mmmm, Big Mac. Glory.
The Bible says, "Having food and clothing, let us be content" (1 Timothy 6:8). The kind of food St. Paul was talking about in that passage was just bread, a simple starch that would keep a person from starving. Having so much more food than that (and as for clothes, our closets are stuffed!) I think we ought to be super-content. Thank God for food. Don't complain, and don't let your kids complain. Rent The Pianist, and let the horrors you see there rebuke any ingratitude for the delights of food you daily enjoy.
I've thought about food a lot lately. Last week I watched The Pianist, which has heart-wrenching scenes of starving Jews in World War II trying to get food. A man licks soup off the street. A family divides a caramel cube six ways. The fugitive pianist finds treasure in a bombed-out house - an unopened can of pickled cucumbers. Later his face registers ecstasy as he dips his finger in some fruit jam and savors the sweetest taste he has had in years.
I have never been hungry except by choice. I have never been empty, but more than once I have been too full - like at the Chinese wedding feast I went to on Saturday. Oh my goodness. When I came home I regaled my family with a course-by-course description of the single greatest meal I have ever eaten. (I thought we were done at the shark's fin soup, and was stunned to learn that we were only a third of the way through the courses!) It was a genuine sensual delight for a food-lover like me.
Listen! Give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. Cultivate an appreciation for your bounty. Here in America in the 21st century we live at the pinnacle of world food luxury. I don't feel guilty about that, but for heaven's sake I believe we should be content and thankful. At the wedding feast I had a conversation with a woman who lamented her daughter's snobbish dismissal of any restaurant food that was not super-expensive. I sympathized with the mother. I remember what a major treat it was when I was a kid and we got to go to McDonald's. Mmmm, Big Mac. Glory.
The Bible says, "Having food and clothing, let us be content" (1 Timothy 6:8). The kind of food St. Paul was talking about in that passage was just bread, a simple starch that would keep a person from starving. Having so much more food than that (and as for clothes, our closets are stuffed!) I think we ought to be super-content. Thank God for food. Don't complain, and don't let your kids complain. Rent The Pianist, and let the horrors you see there rebuke any ingratitude for the delights of food you daily enjoy.
Sunday, June 8, 2003
Good Behavior Punished, Bad Behavior Rewarded (June 8, 2003)
The following stories are true. The story of “Suzanne” is told in Greg Boyd’s book God of the Possible. “Michelle” is someone I know.
Suzanne grew up in a Christian home and served the Lord faithfully. She hoped to be a missionary and to marry a man committed to the same work. She prayed daily for whoever her future husband might be.
She went to a Christian college and met a young man who shared her burden for mission service. For three years they prayed together and went to church together. When he proposed marriage she prayed about it. They both prayed and fasted, and consulted their parents, pastor and friends. Everyone confirmed they were well-matched. They married and went to missionary school.
At the school Suzanne's husband had an affair. He "repented", she forgave him, and he went back to the affair. Over the next few years he lost his Christian convictions and his desire to serve God. He became hostile, argumentative and physically abusive. He broke her cheekbone. Then he filed for divorce and moved in with his lover, leaving Suzanne alone and pregnant.
Meanwhile, Michelle was also growing up in a Christian home, but becoming a missionary or finding a godly husband was the furthest thing from her mind. She rejected her parents' values, lied to them, did drugs, got pregnant as a teenager and quickly married the child's father. She never prayed or fasted about marrying a godly man at the center of God's will.
But today her husband is a Christian, a good man, a faithful provider and excellent father.
What should we learn from stories like these?
I know a couple things we shouldn't learn. We should not conclude that God was blindsided by the behavior of Suzanne's husband. Greg Boyd, the pastor who counseled Suzanne, explained to her that since God does not know the future, he was just as surprised by her husband's behavior as she was. (Poor Suzanne - an abuser for a husband and a heretic for a pastor!) No, God knows everything. He knew the heart of Suzanne's husband as surely as he knew the heart of Judas. Remember that Jesus hand-picked his 12 disciples, knowing beforehand that one of them was a devil (John 6:70).
Nor should we conclude that prayer is worthless. True, Suzanne did not get what she prayed for, while Michelle got a worthy man she never prayed for. But we're still commanded to pray. Obedience, regardless of result, is never worthless.
What we should conclude is, as the Bible has already told us, sometimes "Righteous men get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men get what the righteous deserve." (Ecclesiastes 8:14). This happens so often that it amazes me that some people are still surprised by it. Deal with it, Christian. We should have stopped being shocked and puzzled long ago that Suzannes and Michelles often get husbands that the other deserved.
I try to be disciplined in my preaching and counseling never to guarantee, predict, or promise earthly consequences for any behavior - good or bad. Our world is one where the only perfect Man was tortured to death, while a vain, promiscuous, God-defying creep like Bertrand Russell lived comfortably till the age of 99. Just how long will it take us to learn that there is a frequent disconnect between our behavior and result it “ought“ to have?
Here is the conclusion of the matter. Obey God because it is right to obey God. Obey without regard for the consequences. The consequences of your actions may be good or bad, pleasant or miserable, but you must never let them dictate the morality of your actions. Your moral guide is the Word of God. Do as it says and God will be pleased. In heaven you will find out just how pleased. In the meantime, do not succumb to bitterness when you do well and are mistreated (Jesus was mistreated!) - or complacency when you sin and it turns out great anyway. The pleasing results that sometimes follow sin are, at best, gracious extensions of God’s favor that give you time to repent. At worst, they are devil’s traps that lull you into thinking your sin didn’t matter.
The following stories are true. The story of “Suzanne” is told in Greg Boyd’s book God of the Possible. “Michelle” is someone I know.
Suzanne grew up in a Christian home and served the Lord faithfully. She hoped to be a missionary and to marry a man committed to the same work. She prayed daily for whoever her future husband might be.
She went to a Christian college and met a young man who shared her burden for mission service. For three years they prayed together and went to church together. When he proposed marriage she prayed about it. They both prayed and fasted, and consulted their parents, pastor and friends. Everyone confirmed they were well-matched. They married and went to missionary school.
At the school Suzanne's husband had an affair. He "repented", she forgave him, and he went back to the affair. Over the next few years he lost his Christian convictions and his desire to serve God. He became hostile, argumentative and physically abusive. He broke her cheekbone. Then he filed for divorce and moved in with his lover, leaving Suzanne alone and pregnant.
Meanwhile, Michelle was also growing up in a Christian home, but becoming a missionary or finding a godly husband was the furthest thing from her mind. She rejected her parents' values, lied to them, did drugs, got pregnant as a teenager and quickly married the child's father. She never prayed or fasted about marrying a godly man at the center of God's will.
But today her husband is a Christian, a good man, a faithful provider and excellent father.
What should we learn from stories like these?
I know a couple things we shouldn't learn. We should not conclude that God was blindsided by the behavior of Suzanne's husband. Greg Boyd, the pastor who counseled Suzanne, explained to her that since God does not know the future, he was just as surprised by her husband's behavior as she was. (Poor Suzanne - an abuser for a husband and a heretic for a pastor!) No, God knows everything. He knew the heart of Suzanne's husband as surely as he knew the heart of Judas. Remember that Jesus hand-picked his 12 disciples, knowing beforehand that one of them was a devil (John 6:70).
Nor should we conclude that prayer is worthless. True, Suzanne did not get what she prayed for, while Michelle got a worthy man she never prayed for. But we're still commanded to pray. Obedience, regardless of result, is never worthless.
What we should conclude is, as the Bible has already told us, sometimes "Righteous men get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men get what the righteous deserve." (Ecclesiastes 8:14). This happens so often that it amazes me that some people are still surprised by it. Deal with it, Christian. We should have stopped being shocked and puzzled long ago that Suzannes and Michelles often get husbands that the other deserved.
I try to be disciplined in my preaching and counseling never to guarantee, predict, or promise earthly consequences for any behavior - good or bad. Our world is one where the only perfect Man was tortured to death, while a vain, promiscuous, God-defying creep like Bertrand Russell lived comfortably till the age of 99. Just how long will it take us to learn that there is a frequent disconnect between our behavior and result it “ought“ to have?
Here is the conclusion of the matter. Obey God because it is right to obey God. Obey without regard for the consequences. The consequences of your actions may be good or bad, pleasant or miserable, but you must never let them dictate the morality of your actions. Your moral guide is the Word of God. Do as it says and God will be pleased. In heaven you will find out just how pleased. In the meantime, do not succumb to bitterness when you do well and are mistreated (Jesus was mistreated!) - or complacency when you sin and it turns out great anyway. The pleasing results that sometimes follow sin are, at best, gracious extensions of God’s favor that give you time to repent. At worst, they are devil’s traps that lull you into thinking your sin didn’t matter.
Sunday, June 1, 2003
Christian Mourning (June 1, 2003)
Just an hour or so after completing the essay above about the joy of long summer days, I received news of a tragic accident involving relatives of some friends of mine. A father, mother and 12-year-old son were killed in a single-car accident in Missouri. The other son of the family, 14, survived with minor injuries. He will live with relatives. The extended family spent Memorial Day preparing for a three-casket funeral.
What sorrow, what sorrow. The words I had written about casual delights seem like such an irreverence when at that very moment dear friends were wallowing in grief.
But then again - the people of this extended family are Christians who testify to God's grace even in the midst of tragedy. The tears are abundant, but so is the assurance that their loved ones are with Christ. Several people at the wake commented that now they have been reunited with Kathryn, the grandmother (and great woman of God) whose funeral I did a couple of years ago. Kathryn was one of the saintliest people I have ever met. Blind, on kidney dialysis and wheelchair-bound, she would shine the sunniest smile whenever I visited her to serve Communion. She would pray for me and my family in her native Rumanian. She always asked about other people's needs. Her husband of 50 years, Joe, bragged to me about his wife, how she sang even when washing the dishes.
Now she sings in glory with her son and daughter-in-law and grandson.
The Bible says there is a time for everything - a time to laugh and a time to mourn. Last Monday suddenly became a day to mourn, but thank God it was Christian mourning. We who trust in Christ know that our sorrows will some day give way to joy, and so we do not "grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4:13). With a future secure in Christ, we can regard the delights of this world not as things greedily to be grasped - fearful lest death snatch them away forever - but rather we can savor them gently, receive them more easily, knowing that they are foretastes of heaven's greater joys.
Just an hour or so after completing the essay above about the joy of long summer days, I received news of a tragic accident involving relatives of some friends of mine. A father, mother and 12-year-old son were killed in a single-car accident in Missouri. The other son of the family, 14, survived with minor injuries. He will live with relatives. The extended family spent Memorial Day preparing for a three-casket funeral.
What sorrow, what sorrow. The words I had written about casual delights seem like such an irreverence when at that very moment dear friends were wallowing in grief.
But then again - the people of this extended family are Christians who testify to God's grace even in the midst of tragedy. The tears are abundant, but so is the assurance that their loved ones are with Christ. Several people at the wake commented that now they have been reunited with Kathryn, the grandmother (and great woman of God) whose funeral I did a couple of years ago. Kathryn was one of the saintliest people I have ever met. Blind, on kidney dialysis and wheelchair-bound, she would shine the sunniest smile whenever I visited her to serve Communion. She would pray for me and my family in her native Rumanian. She always asked about other people's needs. Her husband of 50 years, Joe, bragged to me about his wife, how she sang even when washing the dishes.
Now she sings in glory with her son and daughter-in-law and grandson.
The Bible says there is a time for everything - a time to laugh and a time to mourn. Last Monday suddenly became a day to mourn, but thank God it was Christian mourning. We who trust in Christ know that our sorrows will some day give way to joy, and so we do not "grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4:13). With a future secure in Christ, we can regard the delights of this world not as things greedily to be grasped - fearful lest death snatch them away forever - but rather we can savor them gently, receive them more easily, knowing that they are foretastes of heaven's greater joys.
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