Perspectives....

Perspective... I think it's something we often live our lives without.  Yes, there are moments of clarity when we step back and look at this big, beautiful world in which we live, at the possessions that we surround ourselves with... and realize how blessed we are... but oftentimes I think our field of vision is much narrower than that.  We run through our days like a blinkered racehorse, able only to see what is right ahead of us, not realizing how short the race is in the great scheme of all that will be.

In this race of life... we get caught up in all the things we think we need.  We need more money, we need a better car, we need new shoes, to see the latest movie, to get the newest cell phone or laptop or tablet, to get the trendiest clothes, to have a nicer kitchen, a nicer bedroom, a bigger house, a cup of ice cream!  Maybe we don't process those as all the same level of importance at a conscious level, but how many times have you wanted one of the things on this list and felt upset, even "cheated," if you didn't get them?  I know I have.

Yet, as you read this, there are children starving to death in countries all over the world who would gladly eat the leftovers in your trashcan.  There are people fleeing and dying under the rule of despotic rulers as their homes and livelihoods are burned to the ground.  There are women being brutalized who would give anything for one day where they could be certain no one would hurt them.  There are men desperately trying to find any sort of work because they have a family depending on them to survive.  What those men wouldn't give to have a minimum wage job at any fast food chain in the United States.

I am not writing this to make you ashamed of the blessings God has given you.  They are gifts from our Heavenly Father, and we should never feel ashamed of honest gain.  But I ask, first of myself but also of you... that we keep these things in perspective.  In Matthew 4, Jesus tells the "Parable of the Sower" about a man sowing seeds for harvest.  The seeds are the faith of people, and the soil is the type of environment in which the faith lives or dies.  In verses 18&19, "Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."  

When we focus completely on the things that we desire of this life, we forget that we are living with an eternal perspective, that God has "set eternity in the hearts of men" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  Satan tries to take the things of this life and blind us with them, waving them before our eyes so we can see nothing else, and before long, we are dancing to his tune. 

So as you go through life, I encourage you to remember that God has set eternity in your heart, and though the things of this life may seem so crucial and so necessary and so absolutely important...yet Psalm 39:5b(NIV) says, "Each man’s life is but a breath."  Rather than be distracted by these things, which though painful last less than a breath, remember this from 2 Corinthians 4:14-18(NIV):

"We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Dying to succeed....

When I was in high school - no... let's be honest - WHENEVER I was in school, I was one of those students.  You can pinpoint them a mile away: the walking-as-fast-as-I-can-without-running footsteps from class to class, the high-pitched anxiety voice at finals week, the dark circles under the eyes from studying into the night and getting up early, the has-no-social-life-because-over-committed schedule, and the over-analytical critique of every bit of homework or test returned with anything below an "A" written at the top.  That was me.  I remember lying in bed at night, unable to sleep because of my anxiety over a project that was coming due or an upcoming concert or sporting event that I wasn't convinced was perfected yet.  High school was even worse, as I climbed the "ladder of success" in the academic, music, and athletic worlds into which I immersed myself.  Looking back, I am admittedly proud of my accomplishments... but there's also a sense that I lost focus of those things that really matter, sometimes.

Now, what can I mean by that, you might wonder.  From the list above, it sounds like I was prioritizing all the right things.  It wasn't like I was spending time getting high or drunk or skipping classes to slum around town with friends.  But I've become more and more convinced that you can be doing "all the right things" and still be "missing the mark" of what really matters.  School, whether it was sports, music or academics, consumed my life back then.  I lost sleep over those things.  Those things were the focus of my life.  Yet, if we read Matthew 6:21&24(NIV):

 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also... No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

What does this passage have to do with school is probably your next question.  The word "money" in this passage is actually a Greek word that more directly translates "treasure."  The concept, then, is that you cannot serve both God and that which you treasure most highly.  When I was in high school and even college, as I said, my life REVOLVED around school and the success I felt I needed in order to move forward and be successful in life.  I was devoted to it.  I gave most of my time to it, my focus to it... even my health at times.  I was convinced that my future depended on my performance in school.  Do you see where I'm going?  I was trusting in academic/musical/athletic success to secure for myself a good future.  I should have been trusting God with that future, the God who died and lives for me, the God who created all things and is responsible for the continuation of all life in this universe, the God who has worked throughout history and every day in order to ensure that I will live eternally with Him. But I was trusting in myself, my success, and my hard work to take care of my future.  Within my own heart, I had dethroned the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (1 Timothy 6:15) and seated myself as Lord.

Now, I am not saying academic, musical, or athletic success are in-and-of-themselves bad things.  I'm not saying you shouldn't seek to do well in those God-pleasing pursuits you have committed to.  I am saying that we so easily put our trust in those things, in our ability to be successful in them because we so often buy into the expectations of this world that say we must be successful in these things to have a good life.  Remember that it is in God that we "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28a) and it is Christ that "was given authority, glory and sovereign power"(Daniel 7:14a) over all times and peoples.  Rather than fretting over the things of this world, simply do what you are able, and remember this passage, which has been central in my faith walk since I was young:

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?   Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

-Matthew 6:25-34(NIV)

Psalm 13...

Psalm 13 begins with the verse "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?"  Not an auspicious beginning, and if you think about it, kind of an arrogant one.  You have David, the man whose very position is his because of the direct intervention of God, questioning God directly.  You have a mere man, who is born and dies within the window of one-hundred years, questioning the God who spoke the entire universe into existence and still holds it together today (Genesis 1-2; Acts 17:28).  I don't know how your superpowers are doing, but I can't even speak my 4-month old kitten into not attacking my shoelaces in the morning.  As the Word says in Ecclesiastes 3:11(NIV) "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."  Mankind cannot fathom all that God has done; yet he seems constantly confident in challenging the all-powerful creator of the universe.  Pick most any significant figure in the Bible, and you're bound to find it somewhere:

1. Adam and Eve - ate the apple in Genesis 3
2. Abram and Sarai (Abraham and Sarah) - they both laughed when God, the creator of everything, said they would have a son together in Genesis 17&18.
3. Jacob - the man God renames Israel and is the one whose sons are the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel physically wrestles against God in Genesis 32.
4. Moses - whines about not being able to speak well when God Himself tells him to go into Egypt and free the Israelites in Exodus 4&5.

The list goes on.  The point I'm trying to make here is that David is not alone in questioning God.  Despite all we know about Him and how He has revealed Himself to us throughout history... we still can't seem to resist questioning His goodness and motives through our words and actions.  I definitely do this on a regular basis.  I seem to constantly fret about how to make ends meet with regard to money.  I used to always worry about my career choices and whether I was making the "right" decisions regarding the career choices I made.  I constantly fear failing at what I'm doing and wonder why God lets things happen the way they do.  I am not unique in this.  No one is.  After all, the figures I named above are among the most well-known in the Old Testament, and they are all on record, in the oldest known written text, for having complained about God, to God, Himself!

Psalm 13 ends with verse 6 "I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me."  Dealt bountifully?!?  David spends most of the psalm complaining about how God was taking so long to deal with the evil men that were defeating him, questioning God's timing and seeming to try and hurry God along.  I don't know about you, but when I do everything I can for someone, giving them my best and being constantly concerned with their needs, and they still complain... it doesn't really motivate me to stick my neck out for them yet again!  Yet God was bountiful in giving good things to David.

And really... He's the same with us.  We have done just as much whining and complaining as David does throughout the Psalms.  We have done things we shouldn't have, said things we shouldn't have, thought things we shouldn't have... and desired things we'd be ashamed for anyone else to know about. Yet God, knowing every detail of how history would play out "sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10).  

To conclude... God does not deal with us as we deserve.  Because of Christ, we are able to stand in the presence of God, through prayer, and tell Him what's on our mind.  We are able to bring our fears and worries and stressors and failures to Him... and He does not see them as the irritants we see them.  He desires to hear from us, so as in the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:17(ESV) "Pray without ceasing."

Job 10-13...

The verse that stuck out to me in today's study is one that has always jumped out at me when reading this portion of Job.  Job has just received a lot of advice from his friends, who came to see him after all the horrible things that had happened to him.  Their advice essentially said that he had somehow brought this judgement on himself, and he needed to repent of whatever wrongdoing he was in so that God would once again bring him into His good favor.  This reflected a common viewpoint of the time that earthly blessings were a sign of God's good favor for a righteous person, so therefore you must have sinned somehow to deserve bad things that had happened to you.  (This view was prevalent in Jewish culture, as well, and is why the disciples asked Jesus "who sinned" about a man who was blind from birth in John 9.  To this, Jesus responded in John 9:3(ESV) "Neither this man nor his parents sinned...but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.")

But to get back to Job, he rebuked his friends for their statements, going on to say in Job 13:15(ESV), "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him."  This response to his friends, as well as the rebuke of his wife to "curse God and die" in Job 2, absolutely floors me.  Imagine yourself in Job's position.  Imagine yourself one of the most renowned people in all the world.  You have more money than you know what to do with; you have the million dollar house with tons of property in the nicest place you could imagine to live; you have every kind of car you've ever wanted; you're married with children who are nearly as successful as you and are very close to one another; you have tons of friends who care deeply for you.  Then, in one day, you lose all of it.  Your children all die at once in a tragic accident, your cars are all stolen or destroyed, your spouse tells you you might as well die, your friends tell you that you are cursed by God for doing something awful when you know you've done nothing wrong.  Then, you become chronically ill.  

But to all this, do you blame God?  Do you lose faith?  Not if you're Job.  Job contends God could go even a step further and kill him, but he would still "hope in Him."  Wow.  I don't know about you, but I have gotten angry at God for not being able to find my car keys when I'm late for work or when petty things don't go my way.  Reading the story of Job really puts things into perspective for me.  Let me type it again:

"Though He slay me, I will hope in Him."

But how do we maintain this faithfulness in a broken world, where it seems like every day the world conspires to destroy our faith?  I remind myself of the promise of God in 1 Corinthians 10:12b(ESV) "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."

No temptation, even the temptation to blame God and lose faith, is uncommon.  What is more, as I look at this verse, what stands out is this: 

1. God always limits what bad things can be done to you.
2. God provides the means for you to endure evil.

You do not face the darkness in this world alone, but He that created all the universe goes before you into the darkness to show the way, walks beside as you face it, and follows behind you to bring you through it.  No matter what you face... remember that.  The voices of doubt may say that God has abandoned you, that you are alone... but those voices are lying.  You are never alone.