Forgiveness #1

Forgiveness is, according to Jesus, not an option. It is not to be done because it’s a nice thing to do, pretending to be nice, denying the truth of your hurt. It’s not making things right with someone else. That’s reconciliation, and requires not only your forgiveness but also the other’s confession and repentance, a miracle of its own.
Forgiveness is a gift, but you must want it. That is, first must come the conscious decision to forgive, a matter of your will, which has nothing to do with whether your feelings of hurt are totally justified., and has everything to do with your desire for freedom. It is not a moral strategy which you can force yourself to do—not a matter of your self-control. After the decision to forgive, LISTEN to the other, be patient, and PRAY for him. This clears space in your heart for the Lord to work his healing grace in you. The alternative, retaining anger, is like taking poison and expecting the other to die. Forgiveness lifts a huge psychic burden off your shoulders, and so a consummately selfish act. The result is a freedom acquired in no other way. It also opens the way for love to rule in your heart, a feeling like no other!

A Syndrome

There’s a syndrome which we’ve all observed, and which some of us have contracted and, I hope, from which we’re recovering. I’ve never heard it named, which is strange because it’s clearly pervasive. The symptoms consist of repeated promises of varying degrees of sincerity—some abject, some flippant, all intended to convince—to cease some behavior which produces undesirable consequences. Over and over a husband, for instance, will swear off some behavior [be it alcohol abuse, gambling, overeating, womanizing, overspending, deriding his wife in public, foul language, sloppy habits, and on and on], presumably intending to abide by his word. Each time he is profoundly apologetic. Whether or not he really believes he wants to, can, or will change his behavior is critical. Perhaps he thinks he is sincere, but subconsciously doesn’t want to change. Perhaps he has no intention of changing, but wants to convince others that he will.
The occurrence of this syndrome seems to have nothing to do with intelligence or socio-economic status. I’m intimately familiar with it, and have watched it wreak havoc in many relationships, including my own. It is wicked in its consequences, and almost always requires some sort of intervention, human and/or divine, to effect a change in attitude— a far greater miracle, in my opinion, than physical healing. Such internal conversions are marks of humility, needed for both spiritual and emotional growth [which are the only true evidence of life]. Key to the process is willingness, and a belief that "God can do this if He is sought."

Healing #1

MK 6: 1-6
Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house." And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Then he went about among the villages teaching.
The problem with believing that God can’t or won’t heal a particular person is that this very belief establishes an environment of "preëmptive totalizing discouragement" which blocks the channel of God’s healing power. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy which is found in other arenas of our lives also. Physicians have long recognized that patients with a positive mental attitude heal faster—and the converse is just as true. Good mental health professionals of all ilks use that to advantage. It’s more than seeing the glass half-empty; it’s a matter of learning to trust that God really does have our best interests in mind and will guide us into better things in life than we could possibly conjure up ourselves with our magnificent brains. Even if he only brings us closer to him through our prayers, more attuned to and accepting of his will, He really does come through! And the most remarkable things occasionally result from prayers for healing—things that can in no way be attributed to coïncidence. I know—I’ve seen them in others and in myself. God really does come through!!

Word of the Lord!

"The Word of the Lord."

What exactly do we mean by that, as we announce it or hear it at least a couple of times each week? I see the range of responses of each of us as lying on a spectrum. On one end, God dictated his holy thoughts, word for word, to a series of scribes [Moses, Ezekiel, John, whomever] in the scribe’s native language, and understood to mean exactly what it says in modern English, even though these words have been translated over the millennia through several languages. On the other, we recognize that He inspired these folks to write their holy thoughts, colored by the context of their cultures and experiences. On this end it’s almost as though the writer would say to himself, "What would God say about this if He were to say something about this?" Maybe not quite that irreverent, but close!
A few things are clear from critical study of the library we know as "The Bible." Firstly, the various books were written at vastly different times in history by many different men. Second, they are poetry, prophecy, history, personal letters—whatever genre seemed appropriate to the scribe; at no time did any of them understand that their words would be assembled into a single volume by church leaders. And lastly, the precise meaning of the words which the writer intended to convey can be in serious contention as more old texts are unearthed and more research and scholarship are applied to them.
"The Word of the Lord." Indeed!

Cross Roads

Many years ago there was a popular evening radio program which began with the sound of a steam engine roaring along the tracks, followed by a description of the scenery flashing by. You’d hear the train diving into a long tunnel—and then the announcer intoned “Grand Central Station, crossroads of a million private lives.”

I spend an hour twice weekly at our local gym on a treadmill and other exercise machines. I use a lot of that time to pray—for all of my family and Betsy’s, by name, visualizing them and asking God to supply their needs. ThenI look around. On any given day there there are dozens of others working the equipment—old, young, handicapped,jocks, male, female, garrulous, stoic, rich, poor, svelte, obese—a real crosssection of our local gentry. The other day I had a flash of insight: there was very little recognition or sharing among our fellow participants. Physical presences intersected, but each was mentally and spiritually isolated, busy doing his/her thing. I began to ponder: which ones were joy-filled? frustrated? or grief-stricken? pain-wracked? worn-out, peaceful? Which ones were friends of Jesus, which were atheists? What secrets were hidden in that mass of humanity? We were at a crosswords of a hundred private lives! And which ones, including me, had the faintest inkling of how much Jesus loves them?

God's Grace

Each new experience of God’s grace seems to add to my gratitude to him for my life and the wonders I continue to experience all around me. Betsy and I are spending the summer in our cabin on Walker Mountain in the Smokies of Western North Carolina. Driving up on the one-lane road requires fording a stream which has a bumpy bottom and is about a half a foot high in dry weather, six inches higher when the rains pour. The water bubbles down the mountain from high up among trees and, when it crosses the road, it wets our feet or our tires—does its work, let’s us know it’s there. Then it rushes over rocks on its way down the mountain to disappear among even more trees.

Isn’t that the way God’s grace comes to us? It flows into our lives, active, purposeful. It gets our attention by making sure we feel it, does its work, then bubbles on in a never-ending stream. It can always be counted upon; it’s always there. When the weather gets rough, there’s more of it to carry us through. And even if we choose to ignore it, we can’t get where we’re going without coming in contact with it. God seems to take every opportunity to remind me of his grace; I only have to stay aware!