Forgiveness..does it have to be so hard to do?

I received an e-mail yesterday morning from a friend..it was a nice reminder about forgiveness with a story as follows: One friend hurt the feelings of another and the person whose feelings were hurt wrote about it in the sand..a few days later, the same friend who had been hurtful did something extremely kind for that same person..this time, the person carved what had been done on a rock. When asked , "Why?" He replied, when someone does you an unkindness, write it in sand so that the winds of the day will quickly erase it ..when someone does something wonderful for you, carve it in rock so that you'll always be able to see that forever.

I thought about that for quite some time. How often do we react very differently when our feelings have been wounded..either by a careless remark, or perhaps an intentional one? Our first action, it seems, is to immediately seek to share what happened with everyone in earshot.."Do you know what he/she SAID to me today?" then it feels kind of righteous to us to hear the replies of, "Oh that was simply AWFUL." "How can you bear it?" By the time we are through telling and re-telling what happened and receiving condolences from our friends over the injury done to us we are secure in our belief that we were ill-used.

What might happen if instead, we chose to immediately forgive that person who has harmed our ego? WOW..What if we prayed for them? What if we mentally wrote that incident down in sand and then sat back and watched as the winds of that day erased the recorded event into nothingless? Imagine the abundant Grace which would be given to us ..much more sustaining than any commiseration from a friend. Imagine the peace in our souls..imagine the witness for Christ..what a difference would be made in all of our lives. With practice, I'll bet that forgiveness would become much easier for us..just a thought.

"Lurking" Through Life

I cannot imagine by now anyone not being familiar with the term, "lurking" . Years ago before the advent of its use on the internet, to say that someone was "lurking" meant that they were probably hiding in the shrubbery and up to no good. I wonder if I were to ask a group of modern fourth graders what was meant by the sentence;" The man was lurking in the bushes." if they'd immediately picture a guy with a laptop checking out a forum without posting?

The thought came to me last night that often, people spend their Christian lives "lurking". They're comfortable watching other people actively walking the walk and talking the talk yet not doing either of those things themselves. Who will get up and get dressed and go out and visit the sick? Who will make it a point to stop in and see people who are in prisons? Who will take the clothes out of their own closet and give them to the poor? Who will volunteer at the local food bank or soup kitchen? Who will take the excess from their garden and give it away to those without food? Who will donate time, money or services directly to their local homeless shelter? Who will help a homeless person find a job or teach them a skill, or give them a place to live?
To think that by dropping a few coins into a basket on Sunday makes us all active participants in a Christian life is an interesting thought indeed. "Here is my money, now someone else does all of those things." Jesus didn't tell us to pay someone to do those things FOR us. Quite the contrary. Jesus was clear on the matter. He said that if we refuse do such things, He will not know us.
Matthew 25:31-44

Many of us are guilty of spending our Christian lives "lurking". We get fired up in fits and starts, following through on being an active follower of Christ, but only when it suits us to do so. Rather than wait for an opportunity to come our way to spur us to stop lurking and "do" , we need to look for opportunities as if they were the most precious things on earth..because striving to serve Christ IS the most precious thing on earth.

The Ultimate Celebration

Ed Bradley died recently. My goodness how I enjoyed watching 60 Minutes listening to him cover a story..any story. The man was extremely talented. In reviewing his life, the show quoted Mr. Bradley as saying that when he died he wanted a "celebration"; a New Orleans' style funeral complete with dancing and strutting jazz musicians. When I heard that I began to wonder why we Christians wear somber black, bow our heads, speak to one another in murmurs and act as if death were the worst thing which could ever happen to us. The more I thought about it, the less it makes any sense at all to me.

Stop any Christian on the street and ask him what is his ultimate goal and he will answer "To be with Jesus Christ in heaven for all eternity." Ask the same Christian what he wants more than anything for the people in his family..same answer..and his neighbors? Same answer. And ALL mankind? Same answer. OK, so when someone close to us dies, why don't we "celebrate"? Why don't we put on our BEST and brightest clothes, invite everyone to the party and have three or four days of "feasting and celebration" going on that one of our beloved family members has gone to BE WITH THE LORD..???
Seriously.

And yet we don't do that. By our outward behavior, we act as if dying was life's greatest tragedy. We put on virtual sack cloth and ashes, mourn and cry and beat our breasts and ask God "WHY?" Whatever do we mean, "WHY?" Shouldn't we be shouting, "AMEN?"
We have the promises of Jesus Christ of eternal life with Him..is that something to mourn?

I think Ed Bradley had it right. Bring on the celebration, the music, the feasting and especially the "Amens." I'm imagining little children asking their parents, "Why is everyone smiling and singing?" and their parents replying, "It's a very wonderful day child, Grammy's with Jesus and we're celebrating because we're so happy for her."

Scared to Death

That's an interesting phrase.."Scared to death." I've been rolling it over in my mind for a few weeks after discovering that I'll be having major surgery soon. There I was kind of rolling along, feeling rather secure in my faith; confident to the Nth degree that nothing, NOTHING could shake MY trust in the Lord. "Moi?" No way. Pride is quite an insideous thing. In those "bad old days", Pride washed over me in waves and I struggled with it on a daily basis asking the Lord to help me. And help me He did..all along the way over the past years I've been so blessed to have that sense of the Holy Spirit telling me, "No..be careful here..re-examine this..think this over.."
It didn't occur to me that although the giant waves of Pride were gone, the deep waters were lingering just outside my door. All that I had to do was to take a few steps away from the Lord to find myself once again up to my neck and drowning.

It wasn't the thought of major surgery that did it. There is a person in my life who has harmed me and has said on several occassions that he would do so again, actually taking my life. The instant that I heard that I'd be having the type of surgery which would keep me essentially "bedbound" for several weeks my mind turned directly away from the Lord, non-stop, and headed right for that deep water; "Scared to Death."
EVERYTHING became "I" . How was "I" going to handle this? How could "I" put things in place to be more secure? What could "I" do to ensure my own safety?

Just as fast as a startled bird takes flight, my soul went into virtual panic mode. I forgot all about God in an instant. "God who?"

"Our God Is An Awesome God." Have you ever heard that song? Every word of it is truth. God saw fit to put people in front of me immediately to say, "STOP!" "Look at what you're doing. " "Don't go THERE, go to God. Fear never comes from the Lord." I have a very dear friend who listened to my babblings of fear and turned me around, telling me in no uncertain terms where I was and why. She was right.
I re-examined my thoughts. I prayed. I asked other friends to pray for me.

Walking the Christian walk is not easy. It IS easy to fall right back into old patterns of thought/behaviors; incredibly easy. All it takes is for a person to turn their back on the Lord, to not put HIM first in everything. I was stunned at how fast that happened. It was no problem at all for me to immediately go right back to relying upon myself as if "I" ran my life instead of giving my life completely to God. Do you give your life to the Lord, only to snatch it back when tempted to do so?
What does that say about putting your trust in the Lord? "Ok God. I trust in YOU, but just not THIS time, maybe later." "I'll put my trust in myself in this case, and get back to You Lord after I've straightened out this situation to my own satisfaction."
The wolf had come into the pasture and rather than stay right by the side of the Shepherd, I'd run wildly away from Him, screaming "what will I DO?"

"Scared to Death." What "Death" ought to be feared? The death of the body or the death of the soul? Jesus had something to say about that very thing:

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul in hell."
Matthew 10:28

Yes, too often I have to learn the hard way. Being "Scared to Death" is in actuality choosing to being in a state of spiritual death; something much more frightening to contemplate than merely "dying." Am I in control of my life? Sure. I have free will. I can choose to do, or not to do anything that I wish. God is not a puppet master pulling my strings. It is my CHOICE to give up that free will to the Lord, and to "do" with my life as HE sees fit. That means quite literally to turn my face to the Lord 24/7 and to seek Him in everything. This slide backwards has taught me how incredibly easy it is to turn aside from the Lord, especially when one has become convinced "that will never happen." I've often wondered how Peter could deny Christ three times. Now I am more humble and say to myself, "Only three?" How I wish that I could say the same.

January 3, 2007

Sin Is Always Attractive

I was having a conversation with a very good friend of mine this afternoon, and the subject of sin came up. The more I thought about it, the more I remembered what it was like to be without Jesus in my life, how in those days sin was incredibly fun. Now don't get me wrong, this was no trip down memory lane, longing for those "good old days"..I was as lost as anybody else who hasn't come to the Lord. I hadn't a single clue how lost I was though..life was, well, "life" and sure there were things that I considered beyond the pale..I had a conscience after all..yet what I also had was the ability to reason my way around that conscience when I found something that I wanted to DO which clashed with that voice inside. You see, it was MY voice, made up by ME, so I could change it anytime that I saw fit! Cool. I could rationalize anything, do virtually anything, and still come out on top.

Sin was always wrapped up in a nice package with a giant red bow. It even came with a set of instructions; "Here this is, just for you. All you have to do is to tell yourself how GOOD this will feel, how much FUN this will be, and Oh, just take a few minutes to justify your actions to yourself, then go right ahead and enjoy this..it's ALL good."

If sin were not attractive, and "packaged" as fun, who'd do it? If we all could actually SEE the consequences of sin, we'd never sin at all..it would be too horrid to bear. Temptation is pretty..alluring...deceptively wonderful.

Jesus promised, "Ask, and it shall be given to you." Well, I asked, and He gave me Himself and the gift of Salvation.WOW! Sin, really BIG sin is still presented with my name firmly attached to it, big red bow and all. The difference is that it happens rarely now and when I see that opportunity sitting there, the very first thing which enters my mind is not "what's in it for me?" but "How will THIS affect my life in Jesus Christ?" If I go two steps in that direction, will that take me two steps away from Christ? Because if so, this gal isn't interested. I spent too many years as a lost sheep to be lured away from the Shepherd just because something "looks good."
Tempted? Sometimes..even a sheep will look at the next pasture over at that greener grass. But unless I can feel HIS presence leading me, I'm content to stay where I am.

Beware of losing sight of Jesus among the world's allure. Sin is always presented as something attractive and wonderful. Let us all be like sheep in the pasture who rely only upon the Shepherd for everything that we need.