The greater your knowledge of the goodness and grace of God on your life, the more likely you are to praise Him in the storm.
Category Archives: Grace
Controlling the Uncontrollable
Strength in Weakness
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“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
My wife and I went to a dinner theater last week with my aunt, uncle and a few of their friends. Shortly before the intermission, one of the ladies in our group collapsed into the lap of the woman sitting next to her. Admittedly, given her symptoms, most of us thought that she was dying. Thankfully, by the time the ambulance arrived, she had recovered enough to walk to the gurney. After spending the night in the hospital, she was released with a heart monitor. Aside from the obvious concerns for those involved, it raised a deeply rooted fear of my own. As much as I accept God’s will in my life, the thought of a public medical emergency still haunts me…and I’ve had a few. For many of us, it raises concerns about embarrassment, image, and acceptance. Ultimately, we cannot control the events of our lives, but we can control our response to them with a bit of truth.
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All our difficulties are only platforms for the manifestations of His grace, power and love.
We can be certain that God will give us the strength and resources we need to live through any situation in life that he ordains. The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.
Problematic Assumptions
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“But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they began saying to one another, ‘Undoubtedly this man is a murderer, and though he has been saved from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.’ However he shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no harm. But they were expecting that he was about to swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had waited a long time and had seen nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god.” Acts 28:3-6
My wife and I were recently on vacation and decided to stop for dessert after while walking back to our hotel from a craft fair. The dinner rush had passed, but there were still a few stragglers entering the restaurant for a meal. After being seated, we waited an unusually long time without being acknowledged by a server…long enough that the couple in the next booth who had been seated after us had already received their drinks. Slightly irritated at the lack of service, I suggested that if we weren’t acknowledged in the next five minutes, we should just go back to the hotel. Our waitress finally showed up just before we were ready to leave and seemed less than enthusiastic about serving us. However, she apologized and explained that a tourist had come out of the ladies’ room and hit our server’s nose with her elbow causing intense pain. What we had assumed to be poor service was in actuality something entirely different. Having heard the explanation, our demeanor quickly changed from frustration to concern. That’s the problem with assumptions, just because we have a little information, doesn’t mean that we know the truth of the matter.
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Idioms
Is that really what you wanted to say?
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Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29
Idioms, colloquialisms, and slang are common in our speech and rather confusing for those trying to learn a language. I am guilty of using all three. Having lived in or traveled frequently to different parts of the country, it is possible for me to mix phrases from various regions in the same sentence…adding to the confusion. This became quite evident when I worked with a young woman from South America. She had just immigrated to the United States and while her command of English was good, she had not yet had much exposure to the variety of idioms, colloquialisms, etc. When combined with accents and cultural differences, conversations between us were sometimes laborious. I would later learn that for the first two years, she thought I was being critical when I was trying to reassure her because of the different views our respective cultures had on the use of a certain phrase. Fortunately, she was living with an older couple who regularly reminded her that in the U.S., the phrase was a form of encouragement. I still felt awful about the miscommunication and certainly would have chosen different words had I known of the stress it was causing her. Therein lies one of the issues with speech: miscommunication. As ambassadors for Christ we’re called to guard our speech and “unwholesome words” can take a variety of forms. There are many idioms used regularly in our culture.
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Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.
Lord of Our Dance
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
My wife and I like to dance. Considering all of the choices, the waltz is our preferred dance. I’m not talking about the basic box step, but rather moving down the line of dance with whisks, weaves, turns, etc. When a couple is dancing, the male leads. It is his responsibility to employ good technique to move the couple around the dance floor and to lead his partner in the various moves. It is up to the woman to follow. Well done, it is very beautiful and graceful. Poorly executed, it looks clumsy and can be somewhat dangerous. When I contemplate my relationship with God, I often compare it to the waltz.
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“God, like a father, doesn’t just give advice. He gives himself. He becomes the husband to the grieving widow (Isaiah 54:5). He becomes the comforter to the barren woman (Isaiah 54:1). He becomes the father of the orphaned (Psalm 10:14). He becomes the bridegroom to the single person (Isaiah 62:5). He is the healer to the sick (Exodus 15:26). He is the wonderful counselor to the confused and depressed (Isaiah 9:6). This is what you do when someone you love is in anguish; you respond to the plea of their heart by giving them your heart. If”
Dying With Dignity
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For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Romans 8:5-9
When I was in college, I took a chapel class that discussed controversial social issues. Two of those were suicide and euthanasia. Since my time in college and in the context of chronic illness, both of these choices have been gaining acceptance in our culture. The basic premise in their justification is that the person dying is ending their life with greater dignity and grace. To be sure, the aging process and health concerns such as dementia, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, strokes, cancer, etc. often bring on many indignities before finally ending life. However, to take matters into our own hands rather than relying on God’s timing is willful and contrary to God’s precepts. Rather than providing dignified death, it is either giving up or a defiant act in that it denies God’s goodness, wisdom, love and purposes. A death that is truly dignified is much more graceful and determined than suicide or euthanasia.
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