April 3, 2018

Love With Action

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – John 15:12-13

It was enough to send normally rational people into a tizzy. They were ready to come to blows over their “rights”. How dare someone, anyone, but especially teens, question them!

Yet, how bold and courageous were those young people to stand up and voice their concerns and opinions. They defied the establishment. They demanded accountability and change.

It all started with a school shooting. It wasn’t the first time. But nothing had been done by the adults who should have rushed to make changes long before now. They were too busy pointing fingers while kids were dying just for being at school.

Instead of reducing the violence, it seemed to be escalating. Were school shootings becoming normal? That’s just unacceptable. Something has to be done.

So these teens, these survivors, marched in order to be heard. They descended on Washington and demanded answers and change. They were within their rights to do so. This is a democracy. Everyone heard them. And for that they were attacked and condemned.

I believe strongly in the Second Amendment. I own guns and I know how to use them. That would probably shock a few people. I am not a hunter. I use those guns to kill snakes and varmints on the farm. And I use those guns for protection. I have been trained by law enforcement officers. I hope I never have to shoot another human being but, if I must, I will.

I don’t want to take away guns from law abiding citizens. But we’ve got a problem. Agencies aren’t communicating and reporting issues in a way that alerts authorities when someone who is unstable or has a history of violence is purchasing a gun. We have serious issues with mental health. The time to act is before something happens but our system doesn’t allow for that. We’ve got to change it.

And regular folks don’t need AK-15s or other combat guns. We don’t need them for defending ourselves, for hunting, even for collecting. Those in the military who use those types of weapons train and train and train. They aren’t meant for amateurs. They aren’t intended for people who have no business using  them.

I don’t know how to stop school shootings. I wish I did. I do believe it’s going to take everyone talking – not pointing fingers and passing blame – to make a difference. I admire those kids for stepping up and doing what we adults should have done after the first shooting – demand change.

It would have been easier for them to soldier on, getting through the days until graduation. They could have filled their time with normal teen activities and tried to forget the horror they’d witnessed. They chose to step up and step forward, enduring criticism that was at times unfair and unkind. They chose to make sure that no other school would ever have to endure that kind of terror and that kind of heartbreak.

They loved with action those who no longer have a voice.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Today We Remember

 

"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." -- John 15:13

Eleven years doesn’t seem like a lot when you’ve reached a certain age but it is a gulf that separates children into different generations. He was my cousin and yet he is but a fleeting memory.

His laughter still brings a smile to my face. His eyes twinkled and his was always up to something, whether it was jumping off the pier at Lake Fox or doing what teenagers do.

He grew up. He got married. And then he went away to war and never came home. We are all the lesser for his loss.

Those who served with him say he died saving someone else. His parents were proud. His father, dead these past few years, never missed a Memorial Day event. He made sure he was there every time they read his son’s name.

His mother never lost that haunted look that became a part of who she was. Even before Alzheimer’s claimed her memories, she seemed lost. Her eyes would glance up at the wall covered in medals and certificates and photos. Unlike her husband, who somehow found the strength to go on, her life seemed to stop. There was before and then there was everything else. Death was almost a relief for her shattered heart.

They had a daughter. And grandchildren. And they were never enough to erase the pain of a son who gave his life in a war that divided this country. He died in Vietnam at the age of 22. He’d barely begun to live before his body arrived home in a flag-draped casket.

We rarely think of the cost of war unless it impacts us directly. We prefer to keep it at a distance, supporting from afar because we can’t grasp the pain it can cause. Is it any wonder so many soldiers question their faith and, if they’re fortunate, draw closer to God as they dodge bullets and bombs?

What else is there? Who else is there? In a war zone, there is no such thing as safe. Every moment is a risk. God is our strength, our rock, our peace, to those who serve and to those left behind.

My cousin never came home in the way we had hoped. Instead, he went to the Home we all long. There is comfort in that. On days like today, we remember those who died and we give thanks that they lived.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Don’t Be A Pew Sitter

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” -- John 15:4-5

Are you a pew sitter? Do you show up on Sundays and call yourself done when it comes to Jesus? Do you have faith but don’t feel a need to do anything beyond putting a tax deductible check in the offering plate and maybe occasionally helping out with the children’s programs your offspring are involved in?

Receiving the Holy Spirit is just the beginning of our faith journey. Many Christians think it’s the end. They lean on its promise of eternal life without ever growing in faith, without ever showing the world that something significant happened in their hearts.

Most folks who know me have heard me say again and again that it’s important to read the Bible for yourself. The Holy Spirit will reveal things that you’d never learn otherwise. If it’s hard to understand, keep at it. Or get yourself a version you can better understand. But don’t give up. Don’t stop. Do a little each day and let yourself be fed some of that Living Water.

Learn to talk to God. About what, you might ask. About everything and anything. Don’t just run to God with a list of wants and call yourself done. Don’t only cry out to Him when you’re desperate. Share the details of your life with your Holy Father. Tell Him how much you’re enjoying the beautiful day He created. Tell God how much fun you had playing touch football with the neighborhood kids. Tell Him you’re worried about a sick child or that you want to know Him better. Just talk to God. He craves a relationship with you.

Also, make time to be alone with God. We think we can carry on as usual and, really, we can’t. How can you have a conversation with God and really hear what He’s saying when the television is blaring in the background? You can’t. You want God to hear you. So make an effort to hear God.

Be open to where God might be leading you. Sometimes we act like turtles. We’re all bold on the outside until God calls us to do something we’re not quite sure we can do. Then instead of relying on Him and trusting that He’ll teach us all we need to know, we pull our heads -- and faith -- back and refuse to do it. We miss so many blessings when we don’t step out in faith.

We also miss blessings when we refuse to serve others. We make plenty of excuses but, really, we’re the ones who suffer when we refuse to make time to help others. Take a few minutes and call someone who is lonely. Drive an elderly person to a doctor’s appointment. Offer to baby sit for a couple of hours for an overwhelmed young mother. Invite that just divorced neighbor over for a family meal or to a church gathering.

Our faith shouldn’t remain stagnate. It should grow and produce sweet fruit that lets others see and taste the Holy Spirit within us. Don’t limit what God can do through you by refusing to get off the pew.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Hurting People Need To See Jesus

“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” -- John 15:12

Have you ever stopped to consider what’s going on in the life of the person on the pew behind you at church? Or standing in line behind you at the bank? Or pushing the shopping cart down the aisle at the grocery store?

Oh, I’m not talking about the exterior stuff. Everyone can see that. I’m asking about the issues that lie within them.

I know. You can’t know those things in complete strangers. And, sometimes, we don’t know those things about people we think we know. Because there are some things you just don’t share.

For a time there was an ad on the radio that talked about the hungry person living next door. I always thought it really touched on something we’d prefer not to think about -- there are people in need all around us. We just don’t see them.

We don’t see the man who just learned his wife is having an affair. We don’t recognize the couple coping with bankruptcy. We don’t hear the anguish of the mother whose child is using drugs. We don’t feel the fear of the man awaiting the results of a medical test.

So what can we do for all those unseen, unspoken, hurts that surround us? We can offer a kind word, a smile, a helping hand. It’s amazing how much having someone actually be nice to you can impact your day.

I recently came across a quote accredited to Philo of Alexandria. “Be kind, for everyone you meet in fighting a great battle.” It came from the book The Jesus Life by Stephen W. Smith. I love it because it’s just so very true.

Think about your own life. Maybe you’re one of those people who share everything. Most likely the deeper the hurt, the fear, the embarrassment, the less likely you are to tell others. Sometimes it’s like we’re the walking wounded.

Now look around at those same people we looked at before. Don’t see them as strangers. Don’t overlook their humanness. Consider that they have challenges and hurts and sorrows. Remember that they have feelings just as you do.

Don’t respond to irritation or anger. Greet people with courtesy and kindness. The other day a young woman really had an attitude at a fast food restaurant. She was loudly complaining and threatening to report the workers because they wouldn’t serve her breakfast during the lunch shift. I merely shook my head, looked the server in the eye and said thank you for my cup of coffee. She smiled gratefully. A small kindness in the midst of a storm.

We’re all just people. We feel and we hurt and try to pretend everything is wonderful when it isn’t. So love the people around you. Speak kind words. Hold a door open. Be generous with praise. Show people what Jesus looks like in this world.

Friday, March 9, 2012

We Want. We Want. We want.

My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. -- Psalm 22:2

We pray and pray and pray. And the only answer we hear is silence. It hurts. Has God abandoned us? Has He stopped caring? Do we not matter to Him?

It’s hard not to be afraid. Gas prices keep going up. The economy, while better, is still scary. Earlier this week a local company announced plans to close. Hundreds will lose their jobs. That sort of thing reverberates through the communities around it. Add a few health issues, work stresses and other issues and that peace God promises seems elusive at best.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. -- John 15:7

Okay, God, I want … (fill in the blank here). Isn’t that what prayer has become for us? Oh, we thank Him for His blessings but we also are filled with requests. We have a list and we treat God as though it is His job to fulfill our desires. We forget that our lives are not about us. We forget that He is the Almighty God and it is all about Him.

Does He want good things for us? Absolutely. But we stop before reading the next verse, which says that Jesus’ disciples produce much fruit that will bring great glory to God. Perhaps what we should ask for are things that bring God glory -- and that’s what He will do for us.

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” -- Luke 22:42

Sometimes God says no. It’s that simple and that complicated. It’s not about you. Remember that. Because it is about you too. If God would not spare His own Son a horrible death in order to save you and me, why do we expect Him to spare us the pains of this life?

But we do. We want an easy ride. It isn’t realistic. Life isn’t easy and to live without trials and pain just isn’t going to happen. God promises to carry us through the tough times. He doesn’t promise to keep them from happening.

God hears our prayers. He loves us unconditionally. He is with us always. Those are promises to hold on to, no matter how He answers

Monday, February 13, 2012

God Expects Fruit From His People

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other. -- John 15:16-17

What does fruit look like? Obviously, I’m not talking about apples and oranges here. I’m not even talking about the fruit of the Spirit, as wonderful as that is. The fruit I’m referring to is what you produce to signify that you are grafted into God’s family through the blood of Jesus Christ.

While good deeds -- or fruit -- don’t save us, they come from our faith. Just as we would expect an apple tree to produce apples and a fig tree to produce figs, God expects His children to produce fruit that can be called good deeds.

So many of us wait for the “grand gesture” or the “big moment.” We tell ourselves we’ll give a million dollars to feed the hungry -- when we win the lottery. Or we’ll volunteer with the youth -- when we have the time. Or we’ll visit the elderly -- when we retire. Most of us always intend to do good at some later date -- a date that rarely ever materializes.

What about today? Maybe you don’t have a million dollars lying around, but could you buy someone a tank of gas? Could you collect food for the local food bank? Could you offer a kind word to someone having a bad day?

A local radio station encourages people to do what the station terms the “drive-thru difference.” It encourages people to print a note off the station’s website and keep it in their vehicle. Then, when they’re going through the drive-thru, they’re to pay for the person behind them and leave the note for the cashier to give to that person explaining why.

It’s like paying it forward. You do something good for someone. It touches them and motivates them to do something good for someone else. And on and on it goes. We are sometimes a hard and calloused people. When a stranger does something nice, just because they can, it makes people feel blessed and cared for.

Kindness. Compassion. Sensitivity to the people around us. God doesn’t expect us to do more than we are able. But He does expect us to do what we can, where we can.

So be kind to someone who is having a bad day. Recognize someone other people tend to ignore. If God places someone in your path, reach out and touch them with your heart. There are so many hurting people in this world, so many who feel alone and forgotten. How will they ever know how much God loves them if we don’t reach out and

Sunday, December 4, 2011

No Greater Love

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” -- John 10:14

How do you define love? Many people think of love as a feeling, like a husband for a wife or a parent for a child. Others see love in action. It is defined by how we treat one another. The dictionary even offers one explanation for love as God’s benevolence toward mankind.

Yes, God has shown us grace and charity. Our Creator gave us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that those who believed could be reconciled to Him. That is love. That Jesus would die for my sins and yours.

But before all that love came to earth in the form of a tiny baby. His first cries echoed in the night. Mary no doubt held him close as Joseph and the animals in the stable looked on. God would have been watching too, loving His Son even as He understood the path that lay ahead.

Love isn’t always easy. We want it to be. We don’t want to work at love. We don’t want to love our enemies or the people who mistreat us. We want to love those who also love us. We want to do good, loving things for those who do good, loving things for us.

How grateful I am that God doesn’t view love that way. He didn’t wait for me to realize how great a sinner I am and how much I need Him before loving me. God loved me from the first and waited patiently for me to realize how much I love Him. He never gave up on me. He’ll never give up on you. That’s love of the deepest kind.

Sometimes as I read the Bible I am amazed that God would still love any of us. We have all done such horrible things. We have betrayed God and His goodness. We have wronged Him again and again. We have turned away. We have filled our lives with sin.

Yet His goodness never fails. His love remains steady and true. In our darkest nights, God reaches out to hold our hand. His love surrounds us all our days.

What is love?

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” -- John 15:13

May we always remember that one night long ago when a baby was born to show the world how much God truly loves us all.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

God Marks You As His

“You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.” -- John 15:16

Have you ever felt God calling you to do something? You could feel the Holy Spirit telling you to do it just as though someone was standing right there and talking to you. It might have been something you didn’t want to do. It might have been something that just seemed so outrageous that you almost couldn’t believe it. Except you heard it.

Two or three years ago I heard God telling me to become a vision partner for my local contemporary Christian radio station. I shrugged it off. I was going through a really bad time financially and it just seemed ridiculous. The economy was awful and I could only see things getting worse.

Six months later they were having another fundraiser and I heard that voice again. I tried to ignore it but that voice just kept getting louder and louder. I argued with God. How could I afford another monthly payment when I could barely meet the commitments I already had?

God doesn’t give up. You know that right? I argued. He persisted. I finally threw up my hands, put down my paintbrush and made the call. I committed money I didn’t have because God told me to. And I told Him that I was holding Him responsible for making sure I had the money each month. I think I heard Him laugh.

I’ve never missed a payment. In fact, that year was one of the best year’s I’ve had financially since I started this hodgepodge work situation I’m in right now. He’s responsible for that too but that’s another story entirely. I did what God told me to. I took a step out in faith. And God did what He said He would do. He provided what I needed every single month.

We like to think our lives are all about choices. And maybe they are. But when God puts His hand on you, when He calls you to do something, He doesn’t back down just because you don’t see His vision. When we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we are adopted into the family of God. We are marked as His child. He never gives up on us, something I’ve been so thankful for more times than I care to admit.

God chose me to be His child. Jesus died for me. I owe Him more than I could ever repay. So when God taps me on the shoulder and tells me to do something, I need to do it. So do you. We might not see it but God has a plan. He knows what He’s doing. And God will never, ever call us to do something without giving us the means to do it. A lesson I learned -- again -- not too long ago.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Step Out In Faith

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

-- John 15: 5

What is your plan for serving Christ? Do you have some grand idea of what you'll do when you have more time, more money, more energy? Are you filled with good intentions but somehow life always seems to get in the way of what you meant to do?

We seem to think that somehow our lives must be grand as we stand before the cross. We can't just give a little money, because that's not enough. We can't just volunteer a few hours because that couldn't possibly make a dent in all the work that needs to be done. We can't offer our limited skills because they are, after all, just basic labor. We're full of excuses and all out of reasons.

We get so caught up in that song that goes "'Me, Me, Me," that we can't hear God's voice calling our name. We forget that He never asks us to do anything alone. He is always there providing a way. All we have to do is step up and do exactly what the Holy Spirit is nudging us to do.

Oswald Chambers said, "Dreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him." I just heard a large chorus telling me that's not it at all. Think again. If we really trusted Him, we wouldn't hesitate to do whatever He called us to do. We would step out in faith, remembering that God can do anything. He can add pennies together to create a financial avalanche. He can pull together people with no skills and create a church. He can feed thousands with two fish and a few loaves of bread. Never underestimate the power of our God.

God planted us right where we are, not to stand here waiting for the right day, the right time, the right moment. He planted us here to grow, to use what He has given us to help others and glorify Him. He has given us whatever skills we need. He has provided us with however much money is required. He has given us all we need to accomplish what He has called us to do.

Don't get caught up in the cycle of excuses. Step out in faith. You'll be amazed at what can happen with God's power leading the way.