Inspiration and Hope -

Always look on the bright side of life … A Eulogy

Pictured from right to left, Cathy Barlow Garrison,
Nancy Shearer, Jenny Cline, and Bill Hutzel (center)

In memory of Cathy Barlow Garrison who passed away Wednesday, November 23, 2016.

Cathy seemed to always celebrate life, and so it was fitting that the ceremony in honor of her was called a celebration. But I was sad to see Cathy go, even though she had gone to a better place, a perfect place where there is no pain or suffering, disability or sickness anymore. It is difficult for me, however, to comprehend such a place as this because I am still of this world and because I cannot see God fully yet. It is a place described in the Book of Revelation as picturesque and glorious. It is grander than anything I had ever envisioned it to be like, that of angels sitting on white clouds, angels playing harps, skateboarding down streets of gold, and other depictions from movies I had seen.

Here in this place, I envision Cathy playing in some glorious flute choir. She no longer has to practice ten thousand hours, as I do, in order to perfect her instrument. In fact, any instrument that Cathy picks up now she plays masterfully. Matthew 5:48 says “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

The church was standing room only. Tears were flowing everywhere. But at the end of the ceremony, Cathy would remind us, even in death, to look on the bright side of life. As we said our goodbyes to Cathy in our hearts and minds, the ceremony ended with a recording being played from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”.

“Go on,” said the priest. “Sing it. Sing it, everybody!”

Cathy would have wanted us to sing it and rejoice with her. “Always look on the bright side of life, de dum, de dum, de dum de dum … always look on the bright side of life”.

But I could not sing it; I could not whistle it. My lips were quivering. I was just trying to hold it together.

It was Cathy’s request to have the song played as her exit song. She always had a marvelous and zany sense of humor.

Oh, and one last thing. Even when she knew she didn’t have much longer to live, Cathy would look death in the eyes and still have a sense of humor. For instance, when there was some kind of Facebook malfunction that randomly changed people’s Facebook profiles to “memorialized” accounts with legacy settings a couple of weeks before she passed, Cathy posted a humorous comment about double-checking her Facebook page to make sure she wasn’t dead yet. You gotta laugh.

Cathy’s email handle was “cheerfulflutist”. She would inspire all of us who knew her to be cheerful. So no matter what is happening in your life, look on the bright side of life; and if you cannot see the bright side, then “try polishing it” I imagine Cathy would say.

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The Impoverished Ministry of Jesus

It is in the night time when I am sleeping that I am especially vulnerable to allowing negative thoughts to infiltrate my mind, telling me “it’s not alright”. Perhaps it was a life-changing event or events of the day that caused concern. “You are not going to be able to afford this or that, or you will not be able to pay your mortgage or taxes, or you will not be able to find a job, the stock market is going to crash and you are going to lose everything”. I think many of us succumb to our worst fears in the night. And during the day, some of those anxieties and distress play themselves out. As an example, just the other day, with investors reacting to the uncertainty of an unprecedented U.S. election, stock prices took a steep nosedive, although by the end of the day the market had mostly recovered those losses.

A few weeks ago, I awoke early to Dr. Charles Stanley speaking on the radio. His message resonated with me. “God, where are you? I can’t handle it anymore. God, I really need you to speak to me”. For a while, Dr. Charles Stanley even stopped preaching. He had recently had a bad turn of events, life-changing events that brought him to the lowest of lows. Maybe you also are worn, weary, frightened, anxious, uncertain, wondering if you will ever get back.

My well is deep. Where will my help come from? Who will satisfy the thirst of my soul? Who will intercede for me and pull me from the depths of my troubles?

That same morning, I also opened to a devotional by Oswald Chambers based on John 4:11. I will share it with you below. It also coincidentally coincided with the same chapter in the Book of John that I was studying that week for my Monday night Bible study. Chambers looks at this verse from a different perspective than how I understood it, and it is insightful.

The Wisdom of Oswald Chambers

“The well is deep” — and even a great deal deeper than the Samaritan woman knew! (John 4:11). Think of the depths of human nature and human life; think of the depth of the “wells” in you. Have you been limiting, or impoverishing, the ministry of Jesus to the point that He is unable to work in your life? Suppose that you have a deep “well” of hurt and trouble inside your heart, and Jesus comes and says to you, “Let not your heart be troubled…” (John 14:1). Would your response be to shrug your shoulders and say, “But, Lord, the well is too deep, and even You can’t draw up quietness and comfort out of it.” Actually, that is correct. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature— He brings them down from above. We limit the Holy One of Israel by remembering only what we have allowed Him to do for us in the past, and also by saying, “Of course, I cannot expect God to do this particular thing.” The thing that approaches the very limits of His power is the very thing we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe He will do. We impoverish and weaken His ministry in us the moment we forget He is almighty. The impoverishment is in us, not in Him. We will come to Jesus for Him to be our comforter or our sympathizer, but we refrain from approaching Him as our Almighty God.

The reason some of us are such poor examples of Christianity is that we have failed to recognize that Christ is almighty. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but there is no abandonment or surrender to Jesus Christ. When we get into difficult circumstances, we impoverish His ministry by saying, “Of course, He can’t do anything about this.” We struggle to reach the bottom of our own well, trying to get water for ourselves. Beware of sitting back, and saying, “It can’t be done.” You will know it can be done if you will look to Jesus. The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him.[1]

ARE YOU LOOKING TO GOD?

“Troubles almost always make us look to God, but His blessings tend to divert our attention elsewhere.

Our difficulties, our trials, and our worries about tomorrow all vanish when we look to God.

Wake yourself up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. No matter how many things seem to be pressing in on you, be determined to push them aside and look to Him.”[2]

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FOOTNOTES
[1] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest”, February 27^th[2] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest”, February 22^nd

Don’t pick the fruit, it’s still green

Habbakuk 2_3

Have you prayed and prayed for something, yet there was no manifestation? How often did you not wait for the fruit to ripen, often insisting on picking it while it was still green? Of course, you have. The demand for instant results has permeated our society.

As an example, you have a meltdown while waiting on the phone listening to an automated message. In your frustration, you scream at your phone and proceed to hit the “0” button repeatedly until a live person answers. In 2003, the Journal of the American Medical Association linked impatience to increased risk of hypertension among adults.

Or perhaps you have grown impatient while waiting in lines. Recently, while I was standing in a long checkout line at the grocery store, the checkout process seemed to take too long, so I switched to another line. Ironically, I picked the wrong line. The person who took my place in the line that I had just left, checked out before me.

Surely, these are harmless examples, but what if you hastened the end-result, and adversely changed the intended outcome? One such example in the Bible was of Abraham and Sarah; they did not wait for God to give them the son that He had promised (Genesis 16:1-2).

“God moves in His timing, not yours. He is never late, but He is usually not early either. He is often the God of the midnight hour. He sometimes waits until the last second before He gives you what you need. Before He intervenes on your behalf, He has to be sure you are not going to take matters into your own hands and do something out of His perfect timing. You must learn to trust God’s timing. But first, your self-will and your spirit of independence must be broken so that God is free to work His will in your life and circumstances. If you are waiting for something, set aside your own timetable tonight. Trust God and believe that while you are waiting for your breakthrough, He is doing a good work in you for His purpose.“[1]

Charles Henry Parkhurst enumerates below the many benefits of waiting patiently.
“Patience eliminates worry. The Lord said He would come, and His promise is equal to his presence.
Patience eliminates weeping. Why feel sad and discouraged? He knows your needs better than you do, and His purpose in waiting is to receive more glory through it.
Patience eliminates self-works. “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent” (John 6:29) and once you believe, you may know all is well.
Patience eliminates want. Perhaps your desire to get what you want is stronger than your desire for the will of God to be fulfilled.
Patience eliminates weakness. Instead of thinking of waiting being wasted time, realize that God is preparing His resources and strengthening you.
Patience eliminates wobbling. “He touched me and raised me to my feet” (Daniel 8:18). God’s foundations are steady, and when we have His patience within, we are steady while we wait. Patience yields worship. Sometimes the best part of waiting is ‘experiencing great endurance and patience…JOYFULLY.’ (Colossians 1:11).

In Jeremiah 29:11-14 it says that God knows the plans he has for you, plans for well-being and not calamity, plans to give you a future filled with hope. And when you call upon Him, it says that he will listen to you. And if you seek Him with all of your heart, it says that you will find him.

Wait patiently, therefore, for it surely will take place. Wait patiently for God’s promises because he will not disappoint those who seek him with all their heart. “It won’t be a lie. If it’s delayed, wait for it. It will certainly happen. It won’t be late.” (Habakkuk 2:3, GOD’S WORD Translation).

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FOOTNOTE

[1] http://www.centralbaptistsaltpoint.org/2013/06/todays-scripture.html

Due to a lack of patience, tomorrow is cancelled

When has your tomorrow become today because you just couldn’t wait? Stress can do that to you. Stress makes you believe that everything has to happen right now.

As an example, there is nothing wrong with companies selling more and faster, but often mistakes are made when they do not weigh the risks of a faster turnaround against releasing a product on schedule. I recall a time when my company couldn’t wait for tomorrow and nearly cost our customer hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost sales due to a reckless and hasty decision. It was as the cliché goes – “egg on your face”.

I was the Quality Assurance Manager of that small software company. I was always thorough in testing a product for release, but sometimes there was the pressure to make a product release sooner than the planned release date. Best case scenario was that we would just have to work longer hours and weekends to get the job done, but it would be at least tested. The worst case scenario case was that we would release a product that was not thoroughly tested, and that could bring the customer’s systems to a crashing halt, as in the following case.

Worst case scenario – I received an urgent call from our customer when I came into work one morning. Unbeknownst to me, a software enhancement request had been fast-tracked “out the door” for a minor bug fix, sooner than the next planned release date. I was not kept in the loop, and as it was prematurely released without my knowledge of or testing of it, I was in a quandary as to why their computer systems were down.

Stress levels, as you can imagine, were very high, so I logged on remotely to the customer’s database to diagnose the reason for the system crash. My mind was whirling. Was it my fault that their systems were down? It had also crossed my mind that it may not have been my fault, which perhaps the customer had not provided me with a complete set of test data for running successful tests in-house. In either case, we would have to work overtime until the problem was fixed.

After testing remotely, I could not reproduce the reported problem. “What release are you running?” I asked. They replied, “product release 51”. “No, that cannot be correct. Please check again”. The customer checked again, and repeated, “Release 51”. Again I thought, that could not be correct. “Your last product release was 50”.

Because of the dire emergency of their systems being down, I now had to escalate the problem and involve our Vice President. Seemingly embarrassed, he said, “Oh, I released the product to them last night. I didn’t think that a simple bug fix would be a problem. ”

Fortunately, we were able to back out the bad release and restore the last good release so that the customer’s system was back up and running.

Whatever the negatives of not having a new product release over having an emergency release, a risk assessment should have been made to decide if the risk of releasing it sooner outweighed the risk of having it later.

“What good has impatience ever brought? It has only served as the mother of mistakes and the father of irritation.” ― Steve Maraboli

Similarly, when we are tossed and perplexed with doubts about what God is doing in our lives, we must watch against the temptation to be impatient. When we have poured out our requests to God over and over, stop to listen to his word and spirit about what he should say to us, for much trouble in life is because we don’t wait upon God to answer our hurry up prayers. In turn, we fail to receive God’s blessing because we are not moving forward with Him.

Don’t try to control destiny by making tomorrow happen today. “If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.” (Habakkuk 2:3, NLT).

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Only in the darkness can you see the stars

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars”. – Martin Luther King Jr.

From experience, I know that we all experience struggles and challenges in life, and at times we may feel like giving up, that all hope is lost. Yet, all we have to do is look up and see the stars through the darkness.

“Jesus Christ is the light that keeps shining in the darkness. True light and life comes only through faith in Him. Expect to receive from God more than you ask or imagine as the Holy Spirit gives you understanding and brings light into your life.”[1]

Lord, the Light of Your Love is shining,
In the midst of the darkness shining,
Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us,
Set us free by the truth You now bring us,
Shine on me. Shine on me.

Shine, Jesus shine,
Fill this land with the Father’s glory.
Blaze, Spirit blaze,
Set our hearts on fire.
Flow, river flow,
Flood the nations with grace and mercy.
Send forth Your word,
Lord and let there be light.

Lord I come to Your awesome presence,
From the shadows into Your radiance.
By the blood I may enter Your brightness,
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness.
Shine on me. Shine on me.

As we gaze on Your kindly brightness.
So our faces display Your likeness.
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirrored here may our lives tell Your story.
Shine on me. Shine on me.

– Song lyrics “Shine Jesus Shine”, Cliff Richard

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FOOTNOTE

[1] BSF Lesson 1 Notes on Book of John