HOW DO YOU COPE WHEN YOU THINK YOU CAN’T?

Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…I don’t think there is any doubt that all of us breathed a sigh of relief when the most contentious election in modern-day history was finally over.  Some of us are happy with the results; some of us are shocked and dismayed with the results.  But I think what has been a surprise to almost all of us is how the energized emotions of anger, frustration and downright hatred have manifested themselves in the weeks after the election.  Unfortunately I don’t look for a quick end to this emotional rampage, because for months, volatile, ugly, and hateful rhetoric numbed in some cases, and turbocharged in other cases, our sensibilities.

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 to read this sounds rather Pollyannaish. I mean with all the frayed nerve endings, many of us are 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.

These verses should be a bastion of hope.  “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” (Psalm 118:1): “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering (patient), and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands…” (Exodus 34:6,7): “The Lord longs to be gracious to you; and therefore He will rise up to show you compassion.” (Isaiah 30:18): “Who is God like You, who pardons sin…You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.” (Micah 7:18): “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin.” (Ephesians 2:4): and “Let us approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

These verses tell us about God, who he is and how much he loves us.  And because we are in Christ, we are called to become more Christ-like, therefore exuding the same character.  “Imitate God in everything you do, because you are His dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ…” (Ephesians 5:1)

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 of our own volition we have a track record of yielding to temptation.  (Remember, He gave us from Creation until 2016 years ago to deal with mankind’s dilemma with SIN, and 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 once and for all 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?

Well, 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 asked 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 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.”

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May God Bless Ya…

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