HOW DO WE COPE IN THIS CRAZY TIME? #235

Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…The anticipated week has finally arrived when I have selected to have hip replacement surgery.  For more than two years I have agnonized with the pain and agrivation that accompanies this condition, but the hesitation has always been the lengthly recovery time. In my mind, I always had too much going on with concerts, travel, events, new clients, etc. to be laid-up. But as I was told by my friend Jerry, the doctor who will be doing the surgery (and a former french horn player in the Washington University Wind Ensemble): “when the pain gets bad enough and you can’t stand it any longer, you’ll be ready to make whatever changes you need to make to get the relief you want.” He was absolutely right!  And as soon as I recouperate from this, my knees will be next… thanks to twenty-five years of racquetball. But my goal now is to get my worn-out parts replaced here, so that when we get to Florida in 2020, I can qualify for the pickleball team. (Please feel free to lift me up in prayer this Thursday morning, 2/22/18 at 7:00 am)

I have written numerous times about this crazy country in which we are now living. Is this still America? I ask that because never in my lifetime have I seen such division, such anger, such hatred, frustration, despair, vitriol, and hopelessness as I see all around me today.  And the more I look for an answer,  the more I believe it is the direct result of a concerted effort to expung God and His teaching from our midst.  Therefore, what we are witnessing now is the moral and spiritual bankrupcy that inevitably follows.  In the words of Jonathan Cahn, author of The Harbinger, “As God was expunged from American life, idols came in to fill the void; idols of sensuality, idols of greed, of money, of success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession. The sacred increasingly disappeared, and the profane took its place.  America is a country that was founded on prayer. Therefore, the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God. A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.”

But I think that as Christ-followers we have an important role to play at this time.  If we claim the title, Christ-follower or Christian, we are called to rise above the circumstances around us and to be a true representative of what our title designates.  Colossians 3:17 sums this up beautifully: “And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father.”  And Jesus himself drove this point home when he told his Disciples, “Love one another, just as I have loved you.  Your love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

I know that in reading this, it sounds rather pollyannaish. I mean with all the frayed nerve endings many of us are experencing, sometimes we’re just looking for an opportunity to unload our own “righteous indignation” on someone in a big way.  After all, they deserve it!  But that’s not what we are called to do.  The Shepherd of our flock set the bar VERY high when he told us to “love our neighbor as our self” (Matthew 19:19), and “to make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you.  Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” (Colossians 3: 13)

Let us not forget, God has never been shy about setting standards that are beyond our capabilities.  He demonstrated that on Mt. Sinai when he revealed the Ten Commandments; Jesus did the same thing in his famous “Sermon on the Mount”; and Apostle Paul did the same thing when he defined Agape Love in 1Corinthians 13:4-7. “Why”, you might ask, “would God do that?”  Well, the answer is simple… to bring us face to face with our own insufficiency.  He wants us to turn to him in our time of need.  The sooner we learn that truth, the easier it is to get on with the process of becoming more Christ-like. And make no mistake, it is a process, and it does require our participation!

The Bible is resplendent with examples of forgiveness, mercy and grace.  Just for clarity sake, let me define “mercy”: not giving someone what they deserve (Jesus and the thief on the cross); now I’ll define “grace”: giving someone something they don’t deserve (God giving us the Gift of Grace while we were still sinners). Sometimes we are totally perplexed by these happenings and we spend way too much time trying to fit them into “our” paradigm of thinking.  God knew that we would sometimes struggle with the “why” of his decision making, and for that reason he spoke through the Prophet Isaiah and said, “My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.  As high as the heavens are above the earth, as far as the east is from the west, my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 8)  And again in Psalm 46:10, He said: “Just be still and know that I am God.” I believe He is telling us not to sit around trying to figure him out, because we will never be able to do it with our limited finite thinking.

While many others are turning to social media to spew forth their venom, we, as Christ-followers, are called to a different standard. Words can be incendiary.  James talks about this in Chapter 3:6,8: “The tongue is a fire…it can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself…it is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison.”  Proverbs 17:28 speaks to the same issue: “Even fools are thought to be wise when they…keep their mouths shut!” I don’t think anyone can dispute the damage the ugly rhetoric has caused, so perhaps our most meaningful message right now is to say nothing.

So the question becomes…how do we do that?  No doubt we have to decide on our course of action before we are in the midst of a confrontation.  But as Christ-followers, we have been given an incredible gift as part of our salvation plan that allows rise to our calling.  God knows we are only dust, and he also knows that when it comes to depending on our own effort, we have a track record of yielding to temptation.  (Remember, He gave us from Creation until 2018 years ago to deal with Mankind’s nemesis: SIN!)  Romans 5:6 is the definitive report on how we fared: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners!”  And what was just the right time?  When we were utterly helpless!  Yikes!  That’s quite an indictment.

Therefore, God did for us what we proved without a doubt we were incapable of doing for ourselves. He gave us his Gift of Grace to eradicate the sin-issue so that we might partake of eternal life with Him, Jesus and all Christ-followers in Paradise.  Yea!  That solidified our eternal destiny. But what about those of us who will still live another thirty, forty, or even fifty years in this fallen world?

God’s perfect salvation plan also provided for this situation.  To enable us to live successfully in this dark world, he provided the indwelling Holy Spirit to empower us to become the person he created us to be and to bring honor and glory to him through our choices.  That’s why Ephesians 2:10 refers to us as God’s masterpiece “because he has created us anew in Christ so that we can NOW do the good things planned for us long ago.”

That’s why we can be called to love those who seem (to us) to be unlovable; or called to forgive those who seem (to us) to be unforgiveable.  NO…we can’t do it ourselves.  But we can ask the Holy Spirit to empower us with His wisdom, insight, or eyes to see this person the way God sees them.  When we do this, we’re admitting our dependence on Him, and we’re getting out of his way so that His will may be accomplished through us.

That’s how we let Jesus’ light shine brightly in this dark world, and that’s how we become His Kingdom’s ambassadors during these crazy times.  We get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit work through us.  The more we do this, the more Christ-like we become, and the more we fulfill the Scripture found in James 4:10: “When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor.”

Feel free to respond to this post, and please “like” and share it with other social media friends.

May God Bless Ya…

Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)

 

 

Comments

  1. Dan, I will be praying for you tomorrow morning as you have surgery.. I had a hip replaced in 2013 and the other in 2016
    The recovery was relatively easy. I was driving in 6 weeks. I had both knees done at the same time in 1999. Had surgery on Dec. 3rd and was in church for Christmas Eve Services. I used my walker but I made it. Remember…your walker (and later your cane) is your friend. Do not be too proud to use them. Also be careful taking pain meds following surgery. Even following the directions, I was very close to becoming addicted. You will do fine. You will be prayed for.

    • Thank you for your reply, Susan. Believe me, I will be the best patient ever. I want this whole episode behind me, so I’ll be willing to do whatever they tell me. I’m looking forward to the new lease on life. Both kness at once is an incredible inspiration. I am definitely going to look into that next…actually as soon as I can have it done after this bout. Thanks again. God bless Ya….

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