Category Archives: Perspective

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The Need for Vindication

Moving From Despair to Praise

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“Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case against an ungodly nation; O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man!  For You are the God of my strength; why have You rejected me?  Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”  Psalm 43:1-2

Have you ever felt that you were personally attacked and needed an advocate?  I can think of several times in my life that I have felt very alone in the world and had no defense against the assaults hurled in my direction.  Further, the current social climate of our nation makes it difficult to hold to Christian values and basic biblical principles.   To say that I feel a bit oppressed by this is an understatement.  Then there is my illness.  While I accept it as part of God’s plan for me, it can be tiring and leave me feeling alone and assaulted unnecessarily.  Whether from friends or medical personnel, it is difficult to abide those who doubt the realities of living with a rare disease…especially and invisible one.  Finally, there are times when I feel that I am my worst enemy and that I need an advocate to protect me from myself.

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 “He who lays up treasures on earth spends his life backing away from his treasures. To him, death is loss. He who lays up treasures in heaven looks forward to eternity; he’s moving daily toward his treasures. To him, death is gain.”

Randy Alcorn
http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/inspiring-quotes/30-inspiring-christian-quotes.html
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Just…

The Proper Estimation of Man and God

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“Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Hebrews 4:16

Just.  It’s a very small but significant word.   On the one hand it can be used to defend actions as reasonable, proper, righteous, deserved and lawful.  On the other, it can be used to express a lack of certainty, low expectation, or a lesser degree than desired.  As Christians we often use “just” inappropriately in our discussions with others and in our prayers.  The problem is that we often use the stronger version of the word in relationship to ourselves and the weaker version in reference to God.  When we do this, we think of ourselves “more highly than we ought to think” and underestimate God.

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Image Control

Becoming Transparent

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“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35

I grew up in a household that was greatly concerned about what people thought.  I don’t know whether it was driven by my parents’ upbringing, the culture of the era, the fact that my father was a minister or some combination of these factors.  In any event, I was keenly aware of three things at an early age:  as a pastor’s family, we were being watched, scrutinized and held to a different standard; people will quickly judge others without necessarily having all of the facts; and information is power.  As a result, I quickly learned how to be open and welcoming without providing any information about myself that was not “a matter of public record”.  In short, I quickly learned how to manage how I was perceived.  Whether or not we are willing to admit it, we all do a fair amount of image control to be accepted by others.  And there’s the problem: the fear of not being accepted or understood because of some real or perceived flaw in our body, personality, or soul.  Other concerns arise due to our history or circumstances.

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Green With Envy

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“But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”  James 3:14-16

For the first few years of our marriage, my wife and I lived on Lookout Mountain.  I loved the view that the mountain provided and the drive off of it was always beautiful.  When storms rolled in, they might be above you, below you or surrounding you.  The occasional snow storm added winter beauty, but ice storms made the mountain sparkle.  My absolute favorite was the fog.  I have never figured out the attraction, but I always loved it when the fog rolled in.  Since we “lived in the clouds” it was rather frequent.  However, one of the down sides of living there was the way it hampered contentment. 

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The Father’s Love

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When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; what is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him?  Psalm 8:3-4

Chronic illness can be lonely.  When severe enough, it often leads to isolation either because we are not able to get out or because we just don’t feel up to the task mentally.   However, isolation is not limited to illness.  Personal tragedy, loss or grief can also lead to isolation whether it is circumstantial or self-imposed.  When we do not sustain a close relationship with God to guard our souls and do not maintain connections with godly people who challenge us and draw us out of our isolation, it’s easy to let feelings of insecurity and doubt take center stage in our thoughts and erode our faith in God and man.  It causes our world to darken and makes our future seem bleak.  We often feel small, insignificant and of little value…we may even feel abandoned.  In those moments, we need to consider the answer to the question posed in Psalm 8:3-4.

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Point of View

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“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.  For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,  while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”   2 Corinthians 4:16-18

In 1996 I was evaluated for a pain management clinic.  At the end of our meeting, the doctor stated that he thought that I was depressed.  As my wife and I left his office, I looked at Marie and said something like “Do you think?”  I had been struggling with severe pain for five years and seizures for two with no clear cause or treatment plan for either; eating was a struggle causing me to be significantly underweight; and a few months before, my mother had died.  It was a bit much to handle all at once and I was more than a little depressed.  A few years later as God began to educate me with respect to reconciling my illness to His promised love for me, I had a major hurdle.  I had recently read that a woman with symptoms similar to mine had live to be 89 years old.  I was only 39; the thought of living like this for another 50 years was overwhelming to say the least.  I felt like I was being tortured.  But when I yielded to God and began to open my heart to accept His plan for me, the weight of it all began to lighten.

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