Today you will be told to face the facts. Usually, that means bad news. You don’t have the money. The doctor’s report looks grim. Time is running out on your biological clock. Facing the facts is hard.
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But think about it: facing the facts isn’t our problem. It’s that we fail to face all of the facts.
God has facts to factor into our thinking as well.
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When something or someone hurts your feelings, where do you run? The book of Psalms repeatedly asks God where He is in the midst of our pain. After all, we’d really love it if God would stop the hurting since He can.
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Amazingly however, the book of Job never answers the questions: “Where is God in my pain?” nor “Why does God allow such struggle in our lives?” Even Job himself received no answers to these questions—only elsewhere in the Bible do we discover their solutions.
When we’re struggling or suffering, finding out “why” is never enough.
There’s another question we need to ask.
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Have you ever missed seeing something only to discover it lay in front of you the whole time? Misplaced car keys are one thing. But ignoring help from God is something else.
(Photo: The hills of Gilead. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Few things seem more tragic than for someone to suffer when the remedy stood near all along. Why suffer when the remedy lies just over the river?
The Prophet Jeremiah asked similar rhetorical questions in his day:
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored? —Jeremiah 8:22
The words “balm in Gilead” give us more than the makings of a great spiritual song. They offer a principle we can apply today.
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Let me guess. You sit in the same spot in church each week. You drive the same route to work. You eat the same things for breakfast. And you pray the same way at meals. Right? Me too.
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As creatures of habit, we like the efficiency and security of rituals. But when our routine gets changed by someone or something, we get miffed. Here’s why:
God, however, has a different view. We have a fear of change, but He has a strange commitment to it.
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Leadership in any form is a place of honor because of one reason only. You won’t see that reason in the world’s system where leadership often stands upside down. A small town in Galilee reminds us how to keep it upright.
(Photo: Chorazin’s ruins hide at center left. Courtesy of Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
From a distance, Chorazin seems like it’s hiding. I don’t blame it for trying. After all, it remains one of the three cities in Galilee that Jesus rebuked for failing to respond to His message. The basalt ruins of Chorazin appear little more than a pile of rocks among so many thousands of others. Clumps of grass and volcanic rock offer a variegated green and gray to the hillside above the Sea of Galilee.
Unless you look carefully, you may not even see the city.
But Jesus saw it. So should we.
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Who is the person you struggle to love? Let me ask it another way. How do we show love when we don’t feel like it? We reach out with the goal of love without expecting any love in return. That’s hard.
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Some years ago I found myself at odds with another person after a conversation went south. This individual spoke severely to our daughter, and I confronted this person with the truth—but in anger, and I failed to speak truth in love.
Later, I tried to get together with this person and talk it through. I knew I needed to ask for forgiveness for how I had spoken. But others asked me to leave it alone for the time being. Although I tried to comply at first, I felt miserable keeping quiet.
I came to realize I needed to ask forgiveness, no matter what.
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Do you like snakes? Me, not so much. Whether it’s a “good snake” or a bad snake, I tend to err on the side of caution (especially with ladies in the house). After all, even the Garden of Eden had snakes.
(Photo: Euphrates River. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)
Have you thought about Eve, standing there in paradise, conversing with a forked-tongued reptile with no eyelids? Ew!
But it’s essential we remember even Eden had snakes. Why should we think of that? Because many of us live our lives on a quest for the the Garden of Eden.
Eden had snakes. Here’s what to look for instead.
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It’s hard to look past Monday to eternity. But Monday will be better if you do. The road of our lives leads to death. Yes, but it never ends there. Our soul bounces and it never slows down.
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Heaven will have the bright streets of gold and the pearly gates and the awesome beauty of an unspoiled place. But these things are only the stage upon which the joy of eternity occurs.
Perhaps you have discovered, as I have, that heaven seems far more real the more people we know who have gone there ahead of us. Our loved ones who have died are like the leaves inside branches waiting for the spring.
Life is still there, hiding behind death, until something cues it to resurrect.
You will be part of that.
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