Inspiration and Hope -

Don’t worry about it

What great advice! Only if we would always follow it … right?

Worry, however, is sadly an inevitability of life. We worry about our relationships, health, job security and employment, finances, and even appearances. For instance, you lose your job. You as a result worry about finding another job. You worry whether or not you will be able to make ends meet and pay your mortgage and taxes. Or, lets say, you run into some health issues and your doctor recommends certain tests to rule out cancer; you worry if your test results will come back positive.

And so, where there is uncertainty, the natural human response is to think negative. Some of us even play over and over again worst-case-scenarios in our heads like watching a bad movie over and over again.

Yet I am reminded that God can do anything. I am reminded over and over again that God has in the past always supplied my needs when I am faithful to Him. So why do we still worry? It is the human side of us. Trust is not a natural response. We need to exert our will to trust God in all circumstances. Instead of being distracted from God, we need to exert ourselves and equip ourselves everyday with God’s Word to combat our human nature to want control. We need to wholly trust in Him. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34).

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on Matthew 6:34 says “The conclusion of the whole matter is, that it is the will and command of the Lord Jesus, that by daily prayers we may get strength to bear us up under our daily troubles, and to arm us against the temptations that attend them, and then let none of these things move us.”

Does God marvel at you?

For I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea and its waves roar (the Lord of hosts is His name).” – Isaiah 51:15 NAS. This is the God Almighty, all powerful, the great “I Am”.

Life is like the sea and the waves – sometimes calm and sometimes turbulent, but always changing, changing things that once were discarded and worthless into things of refined beauty.

I used to love walking on the beach in Bay Head, New Jersey in the early morning when the sun was just coming up in the east. Listening to the waves roll in and looking for sea glass was a pastime of mine since I was a little boy. Even when I go to the ocean now in my later years, this is one of my favorite things to do. I would fill my pockets with different colored sea glass that had been furbished by the sea –frosted blues, aquamarines, pinks, reds, browns, whites, and greens. Oh, what joy that was! And then I would spread out the sea glass on a table when I got home and would sort them by color and fill a jar with them to marvel at.

Sea glass comes from broken shards of bottles and jars that were discarded. Broken, the sea then tumbles and polishes them and removes the rough and jagged edges until each piece is smooth. So, broken and fragile, we too like sea glass are refined, “though not as silver, we are tested in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). For my own sake, for my own sake, saith the Lord.

Jagged edges soften and get rounder, a protective coating envelops that which was once discarded and worthless – transformed by time, washed ashore, a thing of beauty now.

Does God marvel at you? Are you recognized by the deeds of your flesh, as pieces of jagged glass, or are you evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in you to crucify your flesh and refine you? Are you the evidence of God’s waves, that of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Are you in your inner spirit, swashed about by God’s waves, a thing of unfading beauty now, that of a gentle spirit which is of great worth in God’s sight?

Be Watchful for “God Incidences”

“Some people mistakenly refer to inexplicable, uncanny, timely, and/or especially appropriate happenings as coincidences. But Christians need to recognize them as God incidences”, says Christianity Today.[1]

It was not a particularly warm evening in May that my wife Bev called me to tell me that a guest at her Bed and Breakfast inn just let an air conditioner fall out of the 3^rd floor “Mansard Room” window (see arrow in picture). The Mansard Room, aptly named because of the mansard roof over it, is a roof that has four sloping sides, each of which becomes steeper halfway down.

Was it incredulous of me to think that anyone would open a window with a window air conditioner in it?

As she shared this account of the incident over the phone with me that night, I reacted loudly. “Are you kidding me?” I cried. Was this some kind of joke, but I knew it wasn’t because I could tell from the concern in her voice that she was telling me the truth. And so the account is as follows.

She said that she heard a loud crash. Thinking it was just another automobile accident outside, she rushed outside with her hand readied on her phone to call 911. It was not uncommon for accidents to occur at the corner of the inn’s busy intersection. However, when she came running out of the house, she was confronted with something completely different. There were parts scattered all over the lawn.

It was 8:30 at night. A young 30-year old European guest came running from the inn, visibly terrified, mortified and upset, apologetic and offering to pay for damages, but my wife would hear nothing of it. She would decline the offer for remuneration, and rather than saying to the inn guest “whatever possessed you to open a window with an air conditioner in it?” she consoled her instead. The guest explained that she was just trying to get some fresh air into the room. Now mind you, there are two windows in the room, one with an air conditioner in it, and the other without. Instead of opening the window without, the guest opened the window with the air conditioner in it.

As I read from Sarah Young’s devotional “Jesus Calling” the next morning (May 29th), God impressed upon me the “God Significance” of this event. Sarah Young wrote – “I am with you, watching over you constantly. I am Emmanuel (God with you).” Sarah Young continues writing in the first-person (I, Me, My) from God’s point of view — “Accept every event as My hand-tailored provision for your needs …. find Me in every situation”.

View from the Mansard Room looking out the window at the garden below

The significance of where Bev was and what she was doing at the time of the incident is relevant to finding God in this situation. Different from almost every other night, Bev was ironing and doing laundry, perhaps rushing to get a room ready for a late check-in. Normally, however, she would have gone out to water the garden around this time. It was dark by then, so she also would not have seen anything falling towards her. The garden area where Bev would have stood was also in the direct path of the falling air conditioner. The air conditioner came crashing to the ground with the sound of a car crash, sending shrapnel everywhere. If it were not for God’s protection, she would most likely have been struck by the falling air conditioner. Fortunately, none of the guests were entering or exiting the inn at that time either.

Remains of the Mansard Room air conditioner

I have to believe that God sometimes uses God incidences like this as a tool for fulfilling His plans, to shake us up a bit and make us more mindful of Him, and also as a reminder that He is our protector, and that He is watching over us constantly.

“Whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty,can say to him, “You are my defender and protector. You are my God; in you I trust.”[2]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Christianity Today, “Be on the Lookout for GodIncidences”, April 10, 2012

[2] Psalm 91:1-2, Good News Translation

In Search of the Meaning of Life

How can we find fulfillment and satisfaction in life? How can we achieve something of lasting significance? Philosophers have debated the meaning of life for years, but for many their search for meaning has been elusive.

Have you ever asked yourself what the purpose for being here on this earth is? Alexis Zorbas, the character of Kazantzakis’ novel “Zorba the Greek”, agonized its meaning.

Alexis Zorba: Why do the young die? Why does anybody die?

Basil: I don’t know.

Alexis Zorba: What’s the use of all your damn books if they can’t answer that?

Basil: They tell me about the agony of men who can’t answer questions like yours.

Alexis Zorba: I spit on this agony!

“It is the great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from an answer as ever.”[1] Even King Solomon, portrayed in the Bible as great in wisdom and the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes exclaims “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?”[2] It is an age old question. King Solomon had wealth beyond measure, had hundreds of women (700 wives and 300 concubines to be precise), denied himself nothing his eyes desired, refused his heart no pleasure, took delight in all his work, yet when he surveyed all that his hands had done and what he had toiled to achieve, still he said “Everything is meaningless”. His search for meaning was akin to chasing after the wind.

Many of us try to find meaning by pursuing success, wealth, good relationships, and entertainment, and perhaps for a short time some do find satisfaction, but life is destined to remain unsatisfying and meaningless apart from having a relationship with God.

And if life is meaningless, is not then death meaningless also?

For many, life is tragic, boring or futile. “It is sad to think that the purpose of life is just to stay alive, that we are in truth nothing but poor bees, destined to accomplish our task and then die.”[3] Charles M. Schulz, cartoonist best known for his comic strip Peanuts said “I don’t know the meaning of life. I don’t know why we are here. I think life is full of anxieties and fears and tears. It has a lot of grief in it, and it can be very grim. And I do not want to be the one who tries to tell somebody else what life is all about. To me it’s a complete mystery.”[4]

Even computers have been employed to search for “The Answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything”.
“ReaLLLLLLy?”
In the farcical book by Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, the answer to the age old question is derived by a powerful supercomputer named Deep Thought. For almost 7.5 million years the computer crunched data using highly sophisticated logic and computational algorithms.
Then, one day, Voila!
“The envelope please” (pause).
“The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe and Everything is…42!”

If you understood the answer, then I am amazed.
“42 is all the numbers added up on two dice. So the meaning of life, the universe, and everything else is: The Fall of the Dice.” – Anonymous
I can’t believe that nobody picked up on that!

What then is the true meaning of life? Is it possible that our destiny, our purpose in life, is merely left to chance?

Max Lucado, Christian author with over 80 million copies of his books in print, answers — “Philosophers can debate the meaning of life, but you need a Lord who can declare the meaning of life.”[5]

The disenchanted, “done it all” tone of the Book of Ecclesiastes is concluded by King Solomon in the last chapter of the book. King Solomon looks back on his folly with regret, concluding that it is better to “Fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person.”[6] All things would be meaningless, except they led to this conclusion. Nothing is by coincidence, everything is purposed by God. Bring all your thoughts into submission to God by the renewing of your mind. “Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants-what is good, pleasing, and perfect”[7]. And we know that if we have been called according to His purpose, all things work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28). Our purpose in life, therefore, as God originally intended it to be is to glorify Him, love Him, and serve Him. Only by restoring that relationship can purpose in life be rediscovered. Proverbs 8:35 says “Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD”.[8]

OTHER REFERENCES

God has given us His Word and His Spirit to guide, sustain and empower us. “The Bible is what we need, and it is sufficient for our needs. How necessary it is for us to know what the Bible says!”[9] — in order to find meaning to our life.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” ― Micah 6:8

“God is the inevitability of humanity’s search for true meaning”.[10]

100 Bible verses about Purpose in Life – http://www.openbible.info/topics/purpose_in_life

FOOTNOTES

[1] Arthur Conan Doyle The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

[2] Book of Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 (NIV)

[3] Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

[4] Charles M. Schulz, Charles M. Schulz: Conversations

[5] Max Lucado in Traveling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear

[6] Book of Ecclesiastes, 12:13 (NAS)

[7] Book of Romans, 12:2, (GOD’S WORD Translation)

[8] Proverbs 8:35, (GOD’S WORD Translation)

[9] BSF International, The Life of Moses

[10] Jared Brock, A Year of Living Prayerfully: How a Curious Traveler Met the Pope, Walked on Coals, Danced with Rabbis, and Revived His Prayer Life

Camp Happyland

During college, I had been appointed a music therapist internship at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington DC, a government run psychiatric hospital for treating the mentally deficient, the mentally disturbed, the deaf and blind, and those addicted to drugs and alcohol. During my stay, the hospital moved the patien CampHappyland_Logo ts to a vacation camp in Prince William Forest, called “Camp Happyland”. No joke. Camp Happyland was run by the Salvation Army.

It was there that I befriended someone on staff who attended a small spirit filled church in Fairmont, Maryland. His name was Chuck. He asked me if I would like to attend one evening. I agreed to go.

“Lean On Me” by Bill Withers was the number one song on the pop charts. Not necessarily written as a religious song, it went on to become a popular Christian song depicting a God on whom we can lean and who would be our friend to help us carry on. Only God knew that I would need to lean on Him this particular evening.

At first, I felt uncomfortable attending the church service being it was so different from what I was accustomed to. I must have also stuck out like a sore thumb, as I envisioned myself a splotch of white paint on a canvas of black and brown, for I was the only white person in attendance. People were dancing in the aisles, speaking in a foreign tongue, and literally rolling on the floor (hence the name holy roller). I remember most clearly that someone was rolling from side to side on the floor while being purged of something hideous. Two women in long white dress, with hands raised, stood over him and were praising God. Foam appeared from the person’s mouth and washed over his body like I’d seen when the tide washes over a beach. See Mark 9:20.

My friend Stan, who also accompanied me that evening, didn’t last 5-minutes. We both most probably scanned the walls of the church looking to see if anyone had handled snakes, afraid to find a list of the unfortunate deceased. Fortunately, we wouldn’t find any. Phew! But that didn’t stop Stan from looking for a way out. There was only one exit at the rear of the church, some infinite number of rows back it seemed. He took the keys to my car and made a beeline for the exit. He would remain outside until the service concluded.

The next week that I attended, “Lean on Me” was the number 2 song on the pop charts. I began to relax in God’s presence. No longer did I feel so uncomfortable. Perhaps the lyrics to “Lean on Me” echoed in my head – “when you’re not strong, I’ll help you carry on”. Pastor Williams — wearing dark sunglasses and singing his message to a jazz organist — stopped smack in the middle of his message and pointed his finger at me and Patty, my guest that evening. In his deep voice he said “You are going to have a good sleep tonight; one of the best”.

I had no idea what he meant, and neither did Patty. He then spoke Isaiah 56:7 at us – “These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer”. He then went on with his message, preaching and prophesying; not missing another beat.

After the service we drove for over an hour back to our camp in Virginia. With the two windows rolled all the way down in my 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, the wind tousled our hair and drummed our ears, nonetheless a relief from the oppressive heat of the night.

It was not until we arrived back at Camp Happyland that the realization of what the pastor had prophesied became evidence of the power from above. Every night was hot and humid with no air conditioning. On this particular day, the heat index reached 103.4.

I walked Patty back to her cabin and was just about ready to say “Good night”. When she opened the door to her cabin, she found a fan blowing. “Where did that come from?” she exclaimed. The cool breeze from the fan moved her curtains, and as she lay down, she would have the best sleep.

The next morning I learned that the fan was missing from the dining hall. No one seemed to know how it got to Patty’s room. Word spread, and there was soon an inquisition. I would be their number one suspect in the “Case of the Missing Dining Hall Fan”, despite knowing nothing about it. The fan was promptly returned to the dining hall where it belonged.

At the time, I didn’t know anything about God winks or Godincidences or God touches. We never did find out how the missing dining hall fan ended up in Patty’s room. To this day it is one of life’s “Unsolved Mysteries”.

Isaiah 56:7 was God’s way of affirming His holy presence to us. “Lean on Me”, God seemed to be saying, and “Be joyful, for you are in My house of prayer”. “For My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples”, for all races and colors, and that included Patty and me, the only two white people in the congregation.

For many of us, God’s small miracles are a revelation that He exists, and that He cares for us. But it is also evidence of His power and His majesty. For Patty, who out of curiosity and with skepticism attended the service, it was evidence that God did exist. Every so often you too may be reminded with a God wink, a God touch, a Godincidence.

The definition of Godincidence according to the Urban Dictionary is defined as “the obvious presence of God, in what classically has been termed coincidence, in which there is no plausible explanation.”