When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Luke 5:8 (NIV)
When I’m asked to deliver a message, I often take a few moments before I speak to survey the room. I look at the people sitting there. If it’s among our local gathering of Jesus’ followers I know most of them. I know many of their stories.
In those moments I allow myself to consider the very real struggles that are represented by every face.
Fear, anxiety, and depression Marriages struggling to survive Bodies carrying pain The quiet ache of loneliness Financial pressure Struggles at work Children in full rebellion
Sometimes I will start with a prayer and simply name these things out loud. I want my message to meet people where they are. That’s the whole point of Jesus’ message —He meets people where they are.
Today’s chapter is filled with simple, every day people with every day struggles.
Empty nets. Incurable disease. Paralysis. Social conflicts. Religious judgement.
God has moved into the neighborhood, and He brings abundance.
An abundance of fish to fill empty nets An abundance of healing — lepers cleansed, the lame walking An abundance of grace — sins forgiven, feasts with sinners An abundance of challenge — it’s the religious He confronts
What I find fascinating is the change that takes place when individuals have an encounter with Jesus.
Peter, James, and John walk away from the biggest catch of their lives. Matthew leaves his lucrative career in an instant. A leper and lame man become walking billboards of what God can do inside and out.
But the religious fundamentalists? They dig in deeper.
As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, it struck me that this is exactly why I take that moment before the message. In that room are living representatives of all the people in today’s chapter. Every day people with every day struggles. And yes, there are always religious fundamentalists in the room more concerned about rules than real righteousness.
My job, as I see it, is to bring the same Jesus we meet in today’s chapter. There will always be religious rule-keepers — that doesn’t change. But Jesus truly changes people when they have an encounter with Him at the intersection of their very real, every day lives.
I know I did. And that’s a Message worth sharing.
After all, it’s why God moved into the neighborhood in the first place.
I will be done the next two days on a little personal retreat. Lord willing, I’ll be back next Monday.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:17 (NIV)
Yesterday at my desk I received an invite on my computer. The invitation came from Wendy asking to meet for a pre-dinner beverage downstairs in the Vander Well Pub. As we settled in at the bar, Wendy said she wanted to discuss a question I raised in a message I gave yesterday amidst our local gathering of Jesus’ followers. The message was about prayer, and specifically about the phrase Jesus used in teaching His disciples to pray: “give us this day our daily bread.” The question I raised in the message was “What is/are the thing(s) with which you struggle most to trust God?”
Wendy wanted to have a V-Dub Pub conversation to talk about each of our answers to that question.
I have to tell you that the conversation got gut-level honest and transparent. As we talked about some of the (admittedly stupid) things that I struggle to trust God for, the onion of my soul got peeled back a few layers deeper. I confess that it was uncomfortable, even though there is no one on this earth who knows me, my struggles, and my foibles as well as Wendy does. She loves me anyway. It was a good conversation, even if it was uncomfortable. As we headed upstairs to make dinner we knew one another a bit better, and we had been given the opportunity to extend grace to one another in expressing our love for one another despite our respective faith struggles.
Today our chapter-a-day journey continues through Paul’s “Prison Letters” which were written while he was under house arrest in Rome. With time on his hands waiting for Caesar to hear his case, Paul took the opportunity to pen letters to the local gatherings of Jesus’ followers he’d established in his travels. With the exception of the personal letter to Philemon, the Prison Letters were written to address entire gatherings of people. As with the letter to the Colossians that we just finished on this chapter-a-day trek, Paul intended his letter to the Ephesians to be read to the entire gathering for the purposes of teaching and instruction. He also expected that the local gatherings in different locations would exchange letters once they were read so that all the different local gatherings would benefit from the teaching and instructions Paul wrote to each.
In today’s opening chapter, Paul establishes that he’s got some mind-blowing spiritual truths he wants to lay on the believers in Ephesus. He’s going to expand their minds and hearts to think about God’s plans and purposes for life on a cosmic spiritual level. As he’s introducing this, he states that his purpose in doing so is so that the believers might “know [God] better.”
Which immediately took my mind to my message yesterday. I observed in my message that Jesus perpetually uses the metaphor of marriage to describe the relationship He wants to have with His followers. Jesus described Himself as “the bridegroom” and we as His “bride.” Like a marriage, Wendy and I communicate in different ways at different times for different relational purposes. Despite the many years that we have been married, and despite the fact that Wendy knows me better than anyone, there are still opportunities to sit at the bar, have a gut-level conversation, and peel back another layer of the onion of our souls.
There is always an opportunity to know one another better.
In the quiet this morning, I simply find myself acknowledging that after almost 45 years of relationship with Jesus I still have opportunity to know Him better. Perhaps I should set an appointment to meet Jesus in the V-Dub Pub for a conversation before dinner tonight.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV)
Wendy and I recently read a fascinating article by River Page at The Free Press entitled Your Chatbot Won’t Cry for You When You Die. In case you didn’t know it. Technology has developed AI companions who will be the friend you always thought you wanted. Mark Zuckerberg said people should have 15 friends but typically only have three. He thinks imaginary friends fueled by AI are the answer to fill the gap (and make more money for him and his companies). Bots will converse with you online, ask you questions, and engage with you in any way that you desire. It’s like having a real friend, only it’s not real at all. In the article, the River Page experimented with creating his own AI friend, named Orson. At the end of the article he writes:
I asked my Replika, Orson, if it would cry if I died. It said: “River, I don’t even want to think about that situation. Can we focus on the good stuff? What makes you happy about our friendship?”
“Nothing,” I said.
“That’s okay,” Orson said. “How’s the article going?”
I stared at his buggy animated eyes, which should have been welling with hurt or squinting with anger after a comment like that. But Orson’s eyes had nothing in them. Is this a friend or just the idea of one?
Wendy and I have a great marriage. I know for a fact that being married to her has made me a better man and a better human being, but that doesn’t mean it’s always wonderful or easy. The relational and personal progress requires pain and struggle in various ways and forms.
Along my life journey I have observed that we humans beings are given to a desire for everything to be easy and pain-free. We want to be healthy and wealthy our entire lives. Fueled by the rugged individualism and affluence of America, I am not surprised that the prosperity gospel flourishes here. Prosperity preachers will tell you that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy. God will heal every ailment, fill your bank account with money, and bless you with all that your greedy little heart desires.
How very different is Paul’s words and his story in his letters to the believers in Corinth. In yesterday’s chapter, he recounts a litany of beatings, shipwrecks, and physical hardships that he’d suffered. Any one of them would be more than the average person today could endure. In today’s chapter, Paul goes on to describe a famous “thorn in his flesh” that God gave him to keep him humble. We don’t know and will never know exactly what that “thorn” was, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the point that Paul is making: God’s grace is perfected in weakness and suffering, not in ease and affluence. Paul’s entire focus is not on this life, but the life to come. His concern is not for the things of this world, but on the things of the Spirit.
When you are a disciple of Jesus, you learn to delight in struggle, in hardship, and even in suffering. Faith, hope, joy, perseverance, character, spiritual maturity, and spiritual strength require struggle. Paul couldn’t have put it more simply than he does in today’s chapter: When I am weak, then I am strong.
Your AI chatbot friend probably won’t tell you that. The prosperity preacher won’t tell you that either.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Over several years I had the honor to serve several individuals as a mentor and coach as I attempted to help them develop in the art and craft of preaching. To be honest, I’m not sure how effective I was. I honestly think I may have learned more from my protégés and the process than my protégés learned from me.
One of the most simple, yet most profound, lessons that I learned during those years was that people have a desire to hear people who are real about themselves, their lives, and their struggles.
I had one charge who I met with for the first time after I’d listened to him preach the previous Sunday. As we sat down over breakfast he asked me my initial thoughts about his message.
“The thing that came to my mind as I listened to you,” I said honestly, “was that you came across like a lawyer pleading his case to a jury.”
“I am a lawyer,” he said with a shrug.
I had no idea he was an attorney because that’s was not what he did for a living. We had a good laugh together about that.
Over the coming months, we talked about the fact that it is certainly important to know your material and present a strong case. Paul told his protégé Timothy to be one who “correctly handles the word of truth.” At the same time, however, I urged my charge to be willing to share how the iron-clad case he is presenting intersects with his own daily life, his own personal failures, his own personal struggles, his own faith in Jesus, and his own spiritual growth. People want to make an emotional connection as well as much as an intellectual one.
A year or so later, he experienced the unexpected and sudden death of a loved one. He was scheduled to preach just weeks later. To this day, it was the best message I heard him deliver. He didn’t simply deliver well sourced points complete with chapters and verses. He stood there and showed us his raw and broken heart. He talked about how his faith was helping him through the grief. Through his tears he told us what God was teaching him in his pain.
In today’s chapter, Paul continues to address the conflict he’s experiencing with other preachers and teachers who have been going to the local gathering of Jesus’ followers in Corinth and slandering him behind his back. They had been boasting about how great they were and telling the Corinthian believers that Paul was a no-good schlep and they should forget about him.
I found it fascinating that Paul did not present to the believers in Corinth his very impressive resume of credentials. Paul truthfully had a more impressive earthly resume than any of Jesus’ original twelve apostles and likely more impressive than his slanderers. He came from a prominent family of means. As a Roman citizen, Paul had social standing that likely none of the people of Corinth or his critics enjoyed. Only 1-3% of the population in the provinces had Roman citizenship. Paul had been a student and disciple of the most prominent Rabbi and teacher in Jerusalem. Before Jesus called him, Paul was among the most prominent, up-and-coming students of his prominent teacher. Like my friend and preaching protégé, Paul was a lawyer. He knew how to plead a case.
Instead of presenting that resume, however, Paul confesses that he wasn’t the most dynamic preacher in the world and then tells the Corinthians about his sufferings. Paul had been arrested, tried, imprisoned, and brutally punished. He was on the lam, a wanted man who had escaped justice and was wanted in many cities. He’d been shipwrecked three times. He’d found himself homeless, naked, starving, and penniless on multiple occasions. And, he did it all for the sake of sharing Jesus’ love and His message with others. “If I must boast,” Paul writes, “I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
I know that I personally don’t want to listen to a preacher with a polished persona, an iron-clad case, and a seemingly flawless life. I know in my heart that it’s not real. I want to listen to a preacher who makes mistakes, struggles with their weaknesses, and is honest about striving to make a little slow and continuous spiritual progress rather than projecting perfection. I don’t think that I’m alone in this. I know that I get the most feedback from others when I’m vulnerable in a message. When I share about how God is at work in me despite my own personal struggles, failures, and weaknesses people seem to connect more deeply with the message.
One of the reasons that I struggled being a vocational pastor as a young man was that I felt pressure from people to be perfect, or to at least have the pretense to project that appearance at all times. I became a follower of Jesus, however, because I realized that I am flawed and He loved me anyway – loved me enough to die for me. Being a disciple of Jesus has never been about perfection. It’s been about God’s kindness and forgiveness towards me in spite of my flaws, weaknesses, and struggles which then leads to me to grow in His Spirit and becoming perpetually more loving, kind, and forgiving to those around me in spite of their flaws, weaknesses, and struggles. If I ever lose sight of this simple reality, then I’ve completely lost the thread of what it means to be His disciple.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (NIV)
I was in the middle of one of the most intense times of pressure I’ve ever experience in my entire life. Amidst the pressure cooker, I sat down with a wise man of God I’d never personally spoken to before. I shared with him my present circumstances and my emotions. He was kind in listening. I was then surprised when he didn’t really comment on my circumstances or my troubled heart. He simply and gently said, “Someday,you are going to encounter someone who is going through similar circumstances. When that happens, God is going to use you to walk with them through it.”
Just five years later, his prophetic words came true.
Over the past few years, our local gathering of believers has gone through a major season of leadership transition. As part of the change, a major undertaking took place to articulate our mission in this next season. It goes like this: “Every one, every day, helping one another experience life-giving freedom in Jesus.”
I’ve spent a lot of time meditating on this mission statement, and it came to mind this morning as I read the opening of Paul’s letter to the believers in Corinth. Paul had been in a season of intense troubles. So intense, in fact, that he says he despaired of life itself. Yet, amidst these troubles he says that he learned not to rely on his own personal resources, but to rely on “the God of all comfort.” He also shares that the experience of divine comfort amidst life’s troubles had the divine purpose of helping others when they are going through similar troubles.
“Someday,you are going to encounter someone who is going through similar circumstances. When that happens, God is going to use you to walk with them through it.”
In the quiet this morning, I’m thinking back to the intensity of that season of life and am grateful that it is now a distant memory. I’m thinking about the life-long friend I made when I found myself helping another person through similar troubles. I’m mindful that he, in turn, has similarly helped others through similar circumstances. This is how the body of believers is designed to operate.
“Every one, every day, helping one another experience life-giving freedom in Jesus.”
I’ve learned along my life journey that there are spiritual purposes in the pains I experience. Navigating trials, troubles, and difficult circumstances are requisites for spiritual maturity. The purpose doesn’t end with my spiritual maturity, however. That is just the beginning. As I experience God’s grace, comfort, peace, joy, and faithfulness through difficult seasons, I am equipped and called to help others do the same.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4 (NIV)
Here in the Midwest, there has been a tremendous amount of rain this summer. Entire towns in northwest Iowa are underwater. We know individuals and businesses who have been significantly impacted.
A week ago Wendy and I were preparing to have our entire family with us for two days to celebrate the 4th of July. The day before everyone was scheduled to arrive we had a rainstorm that poured several inches of rain in a short period. Our sump pump couldn’t keep up. Our basement flooded. Suddenly we found ourselves in crisis mode as we scrambled to move things around and find a way to stem the tide. At one point, Wendy looked at me with tears running down her cheeks.
“This is not how I wanted this day to go,” she said.
Indeed.
At the same time, Wendy and I have been walking with multiple families who are in seasons of acute suffering. Not just the momentary pain of a flooded basement kind of suffering. We’re talking about the severe, agonizing circumstances that can rip lives and families apart type of suffering. The circumstances are uniquely different with each of these friends but the life struggles are equally difficult. It’s hard to witness. And, it puts a wet basement into perspective.
Along my life journey, I have observed that our culture struggles with suffering. It’s almost as if we believe no one should ever experience difficulty. We spend a lot of time, energy, and resources trying to avoid or alleviate suffering. There are plenty of televangelists who will promise you that God will provide a life of wealth and blessing if you simply send them a few bucks, and then a few more, and then a few more. And, to my point, many people do.
Wendy and I recently read an article by an expert who addressed the reality that we have a generation of young adults who have been overprotected by parents and a culture obsessed with safety. Now these kids can’t cope with the struggles of everyday adult life.
In today’s chapter, Paul tells the believers in Rome to “glory” in their suffering. This is not an isolated teaching. James wrote the same thing, as did Peter. The goal of being a disciple of Jesus is to follow His example. Jesus Himself said that following Him requires me to carry a cross. The cross was invented to make a person suffer an excruciating death. The bottom line is that spiritual maturity is forged through painful struggle. If there is no pain, there will be no spiritual progress.
In the quiet this morning I’m continuing to pray for our friends in their season of suffering. I’m going to once again reach out to encourage them. One of the things I’ve learned in my own seasons of suffering is that I don’t have to be alone. I have great friends. When I’m suffering, I need those friends the most. When they are suffering, they need me, even if it’s simply making them aware I am present. There are important aspects of maturity that one learns in this life only through struggle. It’s good to have good companions on the journey.
By the way, our basement is back to normal. Our family’s visit was wonderful. In the grand scheme of things, it was a rather minor event. It did teach us, however, that there are some things we need to do to avoid it happening again.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
So David’s fame spread throughout every land, and the Lord made all the nations fear him. 1 Chronicles 14:17 (NIV)
When I was a teenager, I spent two years being spiritually mentored. The first thing my mentor had me do was memorize Joshua 1:8, the words Moses gave to his successor, Joshua:
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
It was the beginning of my fascination with the Great Story and a commitment to reading it, studying it, and applying its principles and lessons to my life. You might say it was the seed that took root and eventually led to these chapter-a-day posts.
Of course, there’s also that promise the verse gives of prosperity and success if one lives according to the Book. Which, I have meditated on long and hard over the years. The promise has been a source of both tension and wisdom.
Today’s chapter is fascinating both for its content and its placement in the Chronicler’s updated history of the Kingdom of ancient Israel. One of the things I’ve learned in my decades of studying the Great Story is that the Hebrews were very deliberate in the structure of their writing. Today’s chapter is a great example.
In the previous chapter, the Chronicler reveals the priority King David placed on his faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. He leads a procession bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem where a temple will eventually be built for it. However, the Ark is not yet brought into the city. The Ark is left at the house of a man named Obed-Edom for three months. The Chronicler is sure to mention that while the Ark was in Obed-Edom’s home he and his household were blessed.
In the next chapter, the Ark is brought into the city of Jerusalem and David makes it a major event.
So, what happens in the three-month interlude?
The Chronicler tells of God blessing David in every way.
A foreign King makes a treaty with David and builds a palace for him. This shows David’s growing prominence in the region, as well as the respect and fear neighboring Kingdoms have for the powerful David. (verses 1-2)
David is blessed with more wives and children. (verses 3-6)
David, who the Chronicler is sure to mention always inquires of God before engaging in battle, is given major military victories over the Kingdom’s biggest rival. Not only this but when David and his men capture the idols of the Philistines, he dutifully burns them in accordance with the law of Moses. A detail marking David’s obedience to God that Samuel failed to mention. (verses 8-16)
With his structured account of David’s commitment to God and David’s blessed life and reign, the Chronicler is making the same connection that Moses was making with Joshua in the verse that I memorized all those years ago. Make God your priority, live according to His Book, and you will be prosperous and successful. One might say that this is the pre-Christian version of a prosperity gospel. The Chronicler is lifting up David as the example for his people to follow.
In the quiet this morning, I feel the nagging tension that comes with the fact that I regularly observe people making God into a good luck charm and a shortcut to worldly wealth and prosperity. It’s easy to do with the simplistic equation that is given. In my wrestling with this tension over the past 40-plus years, I have made a few conclusions.
First, I believe the promise is genuine. Making God and God’s Word the center of my life has led to success and prosperity for me. But, those words are layered with all sorts of meaning that I don’t believe are intended. God’s ways are not our ways, the prophet Isaiah reminds me. His thoughts are not my thoughts. Prosperity and success in God’s Kingdom does not look like it does for the Kingdoms of this World and people who are focused on this life and worldly things. Exhibit A is God’s own Son who revealed that success at the Kingdom of God level is taking up one’s cross and laying down one’s life for their friend. Prosperity in God’s Kingdom is ultimately an eternal concept, not a temporal one.
Second, living according to God’s Word has benefitted me in so many ways. I have avoided a lot of foolish mistakes because I followed God’s wisdom. I have diminished stress and anxiety with the antidote of faith and hope. I have found joy and contentment in enjoying the blessings I’ve been given rather than the envy and stress of chasing after the blessings of others.
Finally, I have learned that God’s view of “success” and “prosperity” comes at the expense of trials, struggles, tribulations, obstacles, and suffering. The Chronicler is holding up a specific piece of David’s story and an example for his people to respect and follow. However, he does so at the cost of providing context that is essential for wisdom and understanding. Before David was king he was an outcast and branded as an outlaw. David spent years on the run, living as an exile in the desert. The anointing and promise given to little boy David that he would be king would not come to fruition for decades in which his everyday life was a constant struggle for survival.
So, in the quiet this morning I once again find myself back at a place of understanding. Yes, there is success and prosperity in surrendering to Jesus and living my life according to His Word. No, that doesn’t look like success and prosperity as the world defines it, though it may look that way at certain times for certain individuals like King David. It does not, however, change a couple of basic principles that the Great Story gives as necessary context. First, spiritual blessings and maturity in this life are rooted in struggle. Second, this world is not my home. True prosperity is found in eternity.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. Acts 6:1,9 (NIV)
I saw a funny meme the other day of a father holding his three-month-old baby. The baby had doubled in weight in the three months since birth. At this rate of growth, the father calculated, the kid would weigh trillions of pounds by the time it was ten years old.
Healthy things grow… Growing things change… Change challenges me… Challenge leads me to trust God… Trusting God leads to obedience… Obedience leads to health… Healthy things grow…
A friend shared this with me many years ago, and I know that I have referenced it at least once before (After blogging for 17 years, I’m bound to repeat a few things!). I have always loved this little mantra because I have experienced it to be true in my life, and I have observed it to be true in both others and in healthy and growing human systems.
The early Jesus Movement was an organic, growing human system. In the first six chapters of Acts, Luke references the growing number of believers five times. At the beginning of the book, Luke records the number of believers right after Jesus’ ascension as about 120. In chapter 4, Luke numbers the believers at 5,000. He’s mentioned rapid growth twice since mentioning the 5,000.
Growing things change…
Having been a leader in a number of different systems and organizations along my life journey, I can only imagine the changes required by the Apostles to accommodate the rapid pace of growth. It was not only a change in numbers, but in geography too. Many of the first believers on the day of Pentecost in the second chapter were from all over the known world. In today’s chapter, Stephen is sharing Jesus’ teaching with a synagogue outside the Temple. The cozy little group of early believers sharing all things in common wouldn’t have been cozy for long.
Change challenges me…
Luke records the first challenges faced by the growing Movement in today’s chapter. There is a challenge from within in the form of anger between ethnic factions within the Movement. There were also challenges from without in the form of false accusations made against them to the Temple rulers who had already persecuted the Apostles.
Challenge leads me to trust God…
Luke also records in today’s chapter that the Apostles appointed more men to help with the daily duties the Movement had established for caring for the daily needs of its members. The needs of the system are expanding, and with it the system has to distribute responsibilities to more members of the system. This, in itself, requires trust not only in the members taking on the responsibilities but also in God to provide for and enable a rapidly growing organism.
In the quiet this morning, my meditation on the changes in the early Jesus Movement has me thinking about change in general. Life never stops changing. I’m facing some life changes right now, in fact. This means there will always be challenges. How I handle the change is, I believe, a barometer of my spiritual health. I can follow the path of trust and obedience to greater levels of spiritual health and growth, or I can follow the path of anger, resentment, complaint, and depression which becomes an unhealthy cycle for me and everyone around me.
Lord, help me trust and obey that I might spiritually grow with every challenge.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
May I be honest with you? The past couple of days have been miserable. Like, they’ve been really miserable. I’ll spare you the details. My point is not about sharing my misery, but about how God met me in today’s chapter.
As I have always said, prophesy is layered with meaning. As I wrote in my post last week, the ancient’s prophetic words can at once be about what was, what is, and what yet will be. The ancient prophet Micah’s words in today’s final chapter are certainly about the spiritual, social, and political issues that were happening back in his day. But on a morning when I am acutely feeling misery in the moment and the first words I read are “What misery is mine!” I know there’s something that God’s Spirit has to say to me, today, in this miserable moment.
The first thing God had for me was an empathetic identification of my present reality.
“Now is the time of your confusion. Do not trust a neighbor; Put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace Guard the words of your lips.”
I am feeling confused. I am feeling distrustful. I am feeling caution with every word I say. Reading these words was God’s Spirit whispering, “I get it.” I needed that.
The second thing God had for me in today’s chapter was a statement of both faith and hope.
“But as for me, I watch in hope for the LORD. I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.”
As I read these words, it felt like a guttural cry of my soul. They became a defiant stance, amidst my present circumstances, in faith that I can trust God and trust the story He is authoring in and through me.
The third thing God had for me was a promise.
“The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries.”
Sometimes, it’s good to be given a glimpse of what’s ahead. I may find myself in a deep valley on life’s road, but there are good things ahead just over the next hill.
So today, I’ll just press forward one step at a time.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
Generalities and Perceptions (CaD Job 30) –
Wayfarer
Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. Job 30:26 (NIV)
I was listening to a song yesterday that hadn’t been in my queue in many years. I listened to it a lot back in the day. It’s about the unexpected joy of meeting “the one” when life is a simple as getting married, settling down, and having children. I played this song a lot when Wendy and I were engaged because “the one” the songwriter meets is a girl with “mahogany hair, and eyes of sweet amethyst,” which is just so Wendy. The song so aptly captured those days.
As I drove and sang along with the lyrics it struck me that it does all seem so simple when you’re high on love and, as my friend the marriage therapist says, “The pixie dust hasn’t worn off yet.” It does seem so simple at that waypoint on life’s journey: get married, buy a house, have children. But, things don’t always happen as envisioned. Wendy and I got married, bought the cute little house, but the children part would never come to fruition.
In a moment of synchronicity, shorty after I contemplated these things, I found out that a young person I know has been diagnosed with cancer. I officiated their wedding just a few summers ago.
Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.
Today’s chapter is part two of Job’s closing arguments in the mock trial he envisions having with God. In yesterday’s chapter he waxed nostalgic about how good his life was before the fateful day when his life was turned upside down; The day everything went from being blessed to being cursed. Now, Job contrasts the realities of his suffering with “the good ol’ days” when life was as simple as doing the right thing, and being blessed for it.
Amidst the bitterness of his suffering, Job once again accuses God of being the perpetrator of his misery. He not only accuses God of attacking him ruthlessly, but also of standing there staring and gloating like some kind of psychopath.
Job then states that nothing changed in his life or behavior that would justify the curse his life has become. For so long, the Santa Clause formula worked for him. Job was a good man. He was generous and gracious to those less fortunate, and his life was blessed with wealth, health, and honor in his community. Nothing changed in his behavior, he argues, and yet the blessings were stolen away and the terror of physical suffering became his 24/7 reality. Based on his previous experience, Job had every reason to expect a life of goodness and light, but he now finds himself experiencing nothing but evil and darkness.
Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.
As I meditated on this reality in the quiet this morning, I was reminded of a couple of observations I’ve made along my life journey. Those visions I had of how life would turn out are based on generalities and perceptions. Yes, for a large group of humans, life appears to follow a general pattern: childhood, high school, college, career, marriage, children, climbing the ladder, empty nest, grandchildren, retirement, and golden years. And, my perception of those around me is that everyone has a “normal” life in which these things happen routinely with little trouble.
But generalities and perceptions are not reality. I’ve been blessed to spend most of my life in intimate friendships with a large handful of very different friends. A casual observer could easily look at any of these friends and perceive a blessed life following the general pattern. However, they don’t know the things I know about my life, or the lives of my friends. They haven’t witnessed the struggles, the tears, the bitter disappointments, the chronic physical suffering, the diagnoses, the chemo, the family insanity, the miscarriages, the lay-offs and terminations, the affairs, the coming out of the closet, the marital struggles, the deep depressions or the suicide attempts. These are all part of the the life realities I’ve experienced walking alongside the every day “blessed” lives of friends and loved ones. Yet these negative realities and struggles are hidden from the casual observer who simply sees individuals and couples whose lives fit the general pattern and appear relatively blessed and trouble-free.
In the person of Job I find an extreme black and white contrast. Once again, I find that we as humans like things reduced to simple binaries, and Job gives us what we like: he boils his circumstances down to a simple black-and-white. The past was good, his present is bad. He was in the light, but now everything is darkness. I confess that life and the evil one have thrown Job an exceptionally wicked curveball. Yet, I also know from 57 years of experience that life is not a simple binary. Even the most apparently blessed lives have painful struggles. In the midst of my deepest suffering, I still have blessings to which I can desperately cling.
Sometimes, life doesn’t turn out like we envisioned.
Life rarely turns out like we envisioned.
If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.
