Tag Archives: Love

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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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Loving Well

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“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.”  I Peter 1:22

We have two daughters and two grandsons.  I paced a good bit at each of their births and was rewarded by having a newborn placed into my arms.  At that moment, there was nothing but love, joy and thankfulness.  It was easy…all reward and very little, if any, sacrifice.  After all, they didn’t complain, didn’t exert their will, and didn’t ask for much except to be clean and fed.  However, as they grew older, that love would require a fair amount of patience and sacrifice.  It is in the choosing to have sacrificial love, that relationships and bonds are formed.  As Christians, we are called to love well.   Not just within our families, but both in and out of the church body.  Further the call to love is not just when it is convenient.  We’re called to love during our trials as well as our times of ease.  We’re called to love not only the lovable, but the difficult, including our enemies.  Let me be clear, I struggle with this as much as anyone and, as with many of these posts, I’m writing to myself and using this as an opportunity to start refining my own behavior.  However, the fact that loving well may be difficult or inconvenient is not justification to ignore or take likely this direction.  When we’re tempted to take love for granted, put little effort into it because it seems too demanding or we just refuse to love someone that we find despicable, we would do well to consider the following. 

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The Comfort of God’s Love

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“For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness.  For He does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men.  Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?  Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?”  Lamentations 3:32-33, 37-39

As I lay on the doctor’s exam table over 25 years ago, I was hard pressed to reconcile what I had been taught about the love of God with the extreme pain that I was experiencing with no definitive cause.  The physical pain was intense, but the spiritual pain greatly exceeded it.

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Adoring Our Lord

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“My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul.  Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn!  I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to You among the nations.  For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Your glory above all the earth.”  Psalm 108:1-5

In the United States, we have officially entered the “Christmas Season”.  My wife prefers a clear delineation between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  From her perspective, one doesn’t play Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving.  As I come from a different perspective, I’ve been known to bend and break that rule much to her consternation.  I have no problem playing “Christmas music” occasionally throughout the year.

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Teaching Our Children

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Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.  Proverbs 22:6

I realize that many who are facing the challenges of chronic illness may not have children or have children that are grown, but that fact does not diminish our impact on the children around us…even the grown ones.  Training the generations to come, is not limited to parents only.  Many people without children of their own have nieces and nephews, are teachers or have friends with children.  My point is, whether or not we have children of our own, we have an impact on those coming up behind us.

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Friends and Family

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“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.   Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”  Ephesians 4:31-32

Relationships can be difficult; add stress and they become more challenging.  Sadly, it’s easy to forget that our illness has an impact on others.  While we may be the only party experiencing the actual symptoms, we are most likely not the only ones hurting.   For purposes of this discussion, let’s consider three distinct groups:  those of us who are truly alone, our friends and our family.

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