Texas seasons can be brutal for plants and trees. This January an ice storm left mounds of rock solid ice in our yard. Several of the plants in our landscaping were completely buried in ice. Not snow.
Ice.
We expected they would not survive.
The ice very slowly melted and many of the bushes were buried for a week. The plants looked barren as they gradually reappeared. Day after day it seemed likely replacements would be coming.
Then one glorious day tiny buds began to appear on the branches. Green buds sprouted in defiance of winters brutal assault. I stopped and meditated on the miracle of life emerging out of barrenness.
I thought of the words of philosopher Bernard Williams. “The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”
I love that.
Is there anything more hopeful than watching the beauty of budding leaves and blooming flowers turning the melancholy of winter into a wondrous palette of colors? Every spring is a reminder that God will bring beauty from darkness and life from death.
The world can seem to be in a state of perpetual winter. But for followers of Jesus we see signs of life even in the darkness. Like that bit of green emerging from a lifeless branch we have a hope this spring.
The resurrection.
Jesus has conquered death.
Martin Luther poetically wrote this. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
Followers of Jesus have a hope that our lives are eternal and valuable in Him. We have a hope that death is not final.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.(1 Corinthians 15:54-58, NLT)
Nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless. Nothing! And even as we face the reality of a dangerous world we know we have the twin promise of victory over sin and death through Jesus. So as spring continues I choose to marvel at the renewing of life and the hope that holds for all of us. Paul wrote about this miracle.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
We have become new creations now and forever in Jesus. Doesn’t that hope feel especially good this spring? On many days we may feel the struggle but Jesus guaranteed one day we will bloom for eternity. Guaranteed!
This past week I taught a lesson at my church on the minor prophet Habakkuk. He lived in Judah just before the Babylonian destruction of that country around 605 B.C. The role of Habakkuk as a prophet was completely unique because it appears he did not speak to the people. Instead he spoke directly to God with some honest and uncomfortable questions. Two-thirds of the book outlines that back and forth dialogue. Habakkuk has been described by some as the “man who scolded God”. Not sure I would want that to be my ministry distinctive but his interaction is transparent and instructive for believers today.
The book of Habakkuk has been very helpful to me in processing how to deal with the evil that is happening in our world. Habakkuk saw violence and injustice happening all around him and He was asking God why He was allowing this to happen. God didn’t shoot him down for asking those questions. God didn’t respond in anger. He didn’t tell Habakkuk to be quiet. He didn’t discipline his prophet for his amazingly direct questioning.
God answered him with a simple response.
He had a plan.
Habakkuk’s first interaction with God was titled Habakkuk’s complaint. His questions were courageous and unsettling for me to read.
How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. 3 Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.(Habakkuk 1:2-4)
We often question what God is doing. Why does He seem to ignore the evil in the world? Yet God’s interaction with Habakkuk demonstrated that He is always present. God is Sovereign. He knows what the future holds. I have witnessed how the Holy Spirit can use challenging events of life in positive ways. God allows us to go through storms to make us stronger. Hard times cause us to wake up to our spiritual need and turn to Him. We don’t know why things happen. The one thing we do know throughout these challenging seasons is that He loves us. Jesus died and paid for our sins on the Cross. Why would the Father allow such a sacrifice and then simply turn away? I believe that God has a plan that gives us hope in Him. A lack of trust and patience can lead to anxiety instead of peace.
The answer that Habakkuk received was not what he had hoped to hear. Yes, God was judging the leaders of Judah for their sin and corruption. But He was allowing the evil Babylonians to invade, conquer, and punish His unfaithful followers. God sometimes uses ungodly people for godly purposes. Habakkuk absorbed God’s response and offered a second complaint but with more acknowledgement of who He believed his God to be.
2 O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal— surely you do not plan to wipe us out? O Lord, our Rock, you have sent these Babylonians to correct us, to punish us for our many sins. 13 But you are pure and cannot stand the sight of evil. Will you wink at their treachery? (Habakkuk 1:12-13)
At the end of his second round of questioning Habakkuk had an interesting response.
2 I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. (Habakkuk 2:1)
Habakkuk realized he needed to focus on God and patiently wait for His response. We often question God but patiently waiting for His timing and response is hard. How often do we willingly accept the answers we receive? Our way is often not the best way and our short term desires can lead to a bad outcome.
This is the verse in God’s response that was a game-changer for Habakkuk and still is for us today. You can make a solid argument that Habakkuk 2:4 changed the world!
“Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.
This thought is quoted in Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, and Romans 1:17,
Martin Luther was struggling with his faith a mere 510 years ago. He was overwhelmed by the weight of his sin. He spent years trying to find out what he needed to do for God to grant him righteousness. In 1515 Martin Luther read Romans 1:17. A phrase in the verse struck his heart in a way he had never experienced before.
“For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Romans 1:17)
This was the moment of awakening for Luther. He wrote this.
“Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which God Himself is righteous, but a righteousness that God gives freely by His grace to people who don’t have righteousness of their own.” Luther now understood that righteousness didn’t come from what he could do. It came as a undeserved gift of love and grace.
Martin Luther said, “When I discovered that, I was born again of the Holy Ghost. And the doors of paradise swung open, and I walked through.”
The impact of this prophet is profound. He believed that God had a plan. He believed that God was his hope. And this praise in Chapter 3 shows that no matter what circumstances he would face his hope, joy, and strength was in the God of his salvation.
17 Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.
Here are a few takeaways from this amazing book.
It is okay to ask questions of God. He knows your heart.
God’s ways are not our ways. Trust in His ways.
The world may feel chaotic and frightening but remember that God is sovereign and in control.
My job is not understanding how God’s plan will work. My job is to trust Him.
Our hope and peace are not tied to our circumstances. Those come from God.
God’s timing is perfect. Be patient.
This quote from Henri Nouwen beautifully sums up the need to live out of faith no matter our circumstances.
“Our life is full of brokenness – broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful except by returning again and again to God’s faithful presence in our lives.”
(To celebrate the 10 Anniversary of Stay:Lessons My Dogs Taught Me about Life, Loss, and Grace I am posting a chapter outlining the best lesson learned from Hannah today and Maggie tomorrow. Forgive me for a longer read but I hope it resonates with you. Hannah goes first.)
Today I was thinking about Hannah’s cancer diagnosis and wondering how long our journey would last. As she often does, Hannah sensed my sadness, came over, and put her head in my lap.
I remembered as she nuzzled me that she had taught me a very valuable lesson years ago before her own trial had come along. One reason Hannah is such a special friend is that she entered our lives during a difficult season when her human mom —my wife, Joni—was diagnosed with breast cancer. Hannah provided a comforting presence during a scary time. I found an anonymous quote that sums up one big reason why: “One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you’re feeling blue is that she doesn’t try to find out why.”
Hannah knew how to deal with people going through an emotionally and physically draining valley. Her solution was simple but powerful.
Be present.
It was just the unsolicited encouragement that Joni and I so needed at the time. When this cancer journey began, we learned a lot of hard lessons. One of the hardest to swallow was people’s reactions, how those close to us dealt with tragedy and illness. We had expectations of who would be there for us during the storm, but those expectations were rarely correct. Some people that we were sure would be steadfast became invisible. Others that we would have wagered the mortgage on to be constant encouragers became awkward and distant. When your expectations are met with barely any response from friends and family, it can devastate your spirit and lead to despair.
Although reasons were never given, I could guess why people struggled with our situation, based on the unique baggage they brought to their own story. Perhaps cancer made them fear their own mortality. Some acted as if cancer is contagious. Perhaps they worried they might say the wrong thing. Others might have felt pressure to make sense of a senseless situation or the need to figure out the spiritual reason for the trial, and when they had no answer to give us, they retreated. I understand all that now, but at the time it hurt.
That’s what Hannah sensed. Her intuitive evaluation of my emotions was uncanny. Hannah would come to me and nudge me as if to say, “I’m here.” As she shifted her big brown eyes toward mine, her gaze communicated, “I don’t know how to help, but I wish I could.”
There was incredible comfort in her presence.
She was right. That was all I needed—presence. When Joni was sick with cancer, all we needed from friends and fellow followers of Jesus was caring presence.
The theology of why bad things happen could wait. The go-to verse that “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28, kjv) could be explored when time gave perspective. You don’t need to explain or spiritualize trials. You need to be present and willing to walk with your friend or loved one in grace and love. Simple, yet incredibly powerful.
Remember me mentioning Job and his suffering in the introduction? At first, Job’s friends were fantastic empathizers. When they simply sat with Job and grieved with him, I am sure he took comfort in these men who cared enough to be present. But then they decided to speak their piece. They resorted to the familiar default mode of needing to “figure out” what Job did to trigger his suffering. They tried to explain what they could not understand.
God was faithful to provide caring people to walk with Joni and me. We thanked Him for those He prompted to love us, instead of wondering why others were not there. That was a spiritual turning point for us.
During Joni’s cancer, Hannah obviously had no idea why we were sad. She had no more understanding of Joni’s disease than she would later have of her own prognosis. But she could sense our sorrow and she was present in the moment.
Joni’s breast cancer treatment included surgery and a year of chemotherapy followed by weeks of radiation. We joked about our weekly dates at the “Slow-Drip Spa” but there was not much humor to be found in the aftermath of those sessions. Joni fought nausea and her plummeting white blood cell counts were dangerously low, compromising her recovery. One day after we returned home from Joni’s chemotherapy session, she went straight to the bedroom, exhausted, to try to sleep off the nausea. I sat on the couch in our living room staring at nothing as I tried to process all that Joni was going through.
Hannah sensed my sadness but wasn’t sure what to do. She walked by, looked at me, picked up a tennis ball, and brought it to me. I could see a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. I imagined a thought bubble appearing over her head with the message, “Would this help make you less sad?”
I tossed the ball to her but she did not play with the normal zeal that she had during our games of catch.
This day Hannah caught the ball, calmly brought it back, and gently dropped it in my lap. It was as if she was doing this for me and not her. She was giving me a few moments of respite from my fears. I don’t recall another time that she played in that way.
A recent study done by Goldsmiths College in London suggests that dogs may respond more to our emotions than any other species, including our own. According to the study conducted by Dr. Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer, dogs will even approach strangers to comfort them, regardless of expectation of reward or care. That certainly makes them different from many humans.
The researchers did the following experiment.
Eighteen pet dogs, spanning a range of ages and breeds, were exposed to four separate 20-second experimental conditions in which either the dog’s owner or an unfamiliar person pretended to cry, hummed in an odd manner, or carried out a casual conversation. The dogs demonstrated behaviours consistent with an expression of empathic concern. Significantly more dogs looked at, approached and touched the humans as they were crying as opposed to humming, and no dogs responded during talking.
Humming was included because it is an unusual sound that might arouse the curiosity of the dogs. But interestingly enough, the dogs consistently reacted to the person who was crying instead of the ones humming or talking, regardless of whether the person crying was a dog’s owner or a complete stranger.
Jennifer Mayer summed up the surprising result which was amazing to me.
“If the dogs’ approaches during the crying condition were motivated by self-oriented comfort-seeking, they would be more likely to approach their usual source of comfort, their owner, rather than the stranger. No such preference was found. The dogs approached whoever was crying regardless of their identity. Thus they were responding to the person’s emotion, not their own needs, which is suggestive of empathic-like comfort-offering behavior.”
The researchers suggested that centuries of breeding had created this type of response in our canine companions. Perhaps. But I align more with Martin Luther’s thoughts on this issue: “The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common. Our Lord God has made his greatest gifts the commonest.”
I think God has given us a model of walking, breathing grace in these amazing creatures.
The empathetic instinct to pain that my friend Hannah possesses can be a template for how I can be present with God. There are times when my baggage or fear cause me to be awkward and distant from God. I am not sure what to say or even if God wants to deal with my weak faith again. I am tempted to talk bravely as if nothing is wrong. But my heart is crying out in pain. God comforts me in the brave talking, but He rushes toward the crying of my soul. I think that is what the apostle Paul is describing in Romans, assuring us that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf when we are too anguished to even find words:
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. (Romans 8:26-27)
The Holy Spirit senses our heart and literally interprets our anguish to the Father. God desires that we simply be present with Him. We don’t need to pray eloquent psalms of petition. We simply put our head in the lap of Abba Father and say, “I’m here.” And isn’t it interesting that it is in this very intimate context of submission and tender dependence on the Holy Spirit that the oft-quoted phrase about how “all things work together for good” occurs?
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:26-28)
We isolate the verse about “everything working for good” from its context and throw it out as “comfort” for those who are suffering. Paul says that God is with us in our suffering, not just for one specific event, but for all of the trials we will face in our lives. All of them will be ultimately redeemed for those who love God.
The purpose of our trials is not necessarily to have things work out neatly, according to our desires. Romans 8:29 says, “God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son.” God chose believers to become like His Son. All of these trials together will cause us to become more like Jesus. That may or may not mean a particular event will work out well. How often have we wounded a hurting soul with our shallow spiritualizing when he or she just needed a friend?
Learning to be present for a friend or a loved one is a precious skill. Henri Nouwen captures this heart of friendship well.
“When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares.”
It starts with being present, a lesson well taught by my friend Hannah. She gave me a clear example of being present when your friend is hurting. Just be present. Not all-knowing. Not awkwardly fumbling for words. Simply present.
Tonight I got into bed late, and Hannah got up with some difficulty from her comfy bed and walked to my side. Maybe she needed my presence. Maybe she sensed my need for a therapeutic ear scratch. I suspect the truth is that both of us had needs that were met by that simple action of presence and affection. That is how it works when we drop our fears and selfishness to make ourselves lovingly present in a loved one’s pain. It is therapeutic for everyone involved.
During Joni’s difficult cancer trial we learned that the peace that surpasses all understanding is real. We lived it and we got through a very trying year by leaning on each other, great doctors, good friends, God’s grace, and lots of Hannah nuzzles.
Texas seasons can be brutal for plants and trees. Last summer the heat and lack of rain impacted a new tree Joni and I had planted that spring. A deep winter freeze added to the struggle. As spring began we were not sure if our tree had survived.
Day after day the limbs were barren. Then one glorious day tiny buds began to appear on the branches. These green buds sprouted in defiance of summer and winters brutal assault. I stopped and meditated on the miracle of life emerging out of barrenness.
I thought of the words of philosopher Bernard Williams. “The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”
I love that.
Is there anything more hopeful than watching the beauty of budding leaves and blooming flowers turning the melancholy of winter into a wondrous palette of invigorating colors? Every spring is a reminder that God will bring beauty from darkness and life from death.
The world can seem to be in a state of perpetual winter. But for followers of Jesus we see signs of life even in the darkness. Like that bit of green emerging from a lifeless branch we have a hope this spring.
The resurrection. Jesus has conquered death.
Martin Luther poetically wrote this. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
Followers of Jesus have a hope that our lives are eternal and valuable in Him. We have a hope that death is not final.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.(1 Corinthians 15:54-58, NLT)
Nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless. Nothing! And even as we face the reality of a dangerous world we know we have the twin promise of victory over sin and death through Jesus. So as spring continues I choose to marvel at the renewing of life and the hope that holds for all of us. Paul wrote about this miracle.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
We have become new creations now and forever in Jesus. Doesn’t that hope feel especially good this spring? On many days we may feel the struggle but Jesus guarantees one day we will bloom for eternity.
An annual highlight of my sports directing career was visiting Spring Training for Texas Ranger telecasts. I started in Port Charlotte, Florida and then shifted to Surprise, Arizona. I loved the relaxed atmosphere and the opportunity to watch players at all levels work on their skills.
I was blessed to cover the careers of some amazing players and one of those was Michael Young. In 2005 he won the American League Batting Title with a .331 average while collecting a league best 221 hits.
What stunned me in the spring of 2006 was watching Michael Young during batting drills. The AL batting champ was hitting off of a batting tee! I remember coaching young kids who balked at hitting off a tee because they felt too “grown up” to revert to T-Ball. I wish I could have shown them how an All-Star batting champ never felt too advanced to focus on fundamental skills.
That lesson of a star athlete focusing on the most basic fundamentals daily led to application of a familiar Scripture passage. When I first came to faith, I was so excited to learn the basic skills of faith. How do I study the Bible? How do I pray? How do I grow in my faith? But something seemed to happen as I accumulated some seasons under my belt.
I no longer prioritized the fundamentals. I started looking for the latest trend in faith. Which trendy Christian leader should I emulate next? I too often defined myself by movements, instead of by Jesus, the Cross, and His finished work. For me, Spring Training was another reminder that I desperately need the indispensable basics of faith.
Fundamentals are best taught by those who have the gift of teaching and complete knowledge of the skills required. You hope you can find an expert to teach you. That is exactly why the disciples came to Jesus and asked for His help on how to pray. They had watched Him pray. They knew how important prayer was to Jesus. Now they asked Him to teach them. Here is Luke’s “pray-by-pray” of that moment.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
He said to them, “When you pray, say:
‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” (Luke 11:1-4, NIV)
Over much of my ADD-challenged Christian journey, I would skip straight to the “give us our daily bread and forgive us our sins” parts of that prayer. I managed to miss the most important foundational aspect of this insightful prayer. The first fundamental is contained in the opening word.
Father.
I get to relate to God as my Father! That privilege comes only from my relationship with Jesus. Noted preacher Haddon Robinson stated that in the entire Old Testament, God is called Father only seven times, and it is always in respect to the nation of Israel. There is never a recorded instance where any individual dared to address the Sovereign God as Father.
Now Jesus comes on the scene, and Robinson writes about the amazing contrast:
“Yet in the New Testament, at least 275 times, that is how we are instructed to speak to God. Because of Jesus’s death and resurrection, when we come to the sovereign majesty of the universe the word that should fall readily from our lips is Father.”
That is a game changer! I can come to the God of the universe, who knows my sin, my weakness, and my failure, and call Him Father! Are you kidding me?
I also tended to zoom by the next essential teaching.
Hallowed be your name.
Prayer starts not with a shopping list of what I want God to do, but instead with worship and recognition of who God is. We are coached by Jesus to remember how great God is and to recognize that His ways are not our ways. We are taught to remember that His holiness is perfect, and His grace is our hope. Hallowed be Your name.
When I learn those fundamentals, the rest of my prayer time falls into place. He is my Father who loves me and wants the best for me. He hears me, and He responds. If the answer is no, that is an answer. That may mean my request will be answered later. It may be answered differently. It may not be answered at all. But through all of those responses, I trust that He is holy, powerful, and present.
Here are two more fundamentals to “tee” up your time in prayer.
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (Philippians 4:6)
I have come a long way in my growth as a follower of Jesus. I have a long way to go but I have grasped one important truth. I need to remember the fundamentals of my faith on a daily basis. I can’t think of a better prayer coach than Jesus. But I need to review His instruction on a regular basis.
Martin Luther said that we need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves every day because we forget the gospel every day. That is so true especially in this disoriented culture we live in. Focus on the fundamentals. On God the Father. On who God is. On the finished work of Jesus. I can tell you that your spiritual strikeouts will be reduced.
I originally discovered the book from an interview in Christianity Today. Philip Yancey has written over a dozen best selling books and one of those is What’s So Amazing about Grace?I found the first question of the interview fascinating.
Why did you choose to revisit the subject of grace?
I know why the interviewer made the inquiry. You want “new” material from an author. Why plow the same ground? But I think that question is a mirror to one of the big problems in the Christian community. We never get past our daily need to revisit grace and the Good News of the Gospel. Martin Luther said that “you should preach the Gospel to yourself daily.” Why? Because you and I forget the depth and the power of grace everyday.
Yancey’s response was thought provoking.
“Sociologist and researcher Amy Sherman has said that Christians tend to have three models for interacting with society: fortification, accommodation, and domination. To put that in layman’s terms: We hunker down amongst ourselves, water down our witness, or beat down our opponents. For many reasons, those aren’t New Testament models.
So what should we be? We need to create pioneer settlements that show the world a different, grace-based way of living.”
Christianity Today
That is brilliant both in diagnosis and prescriptive cure. Can you imaging the power of truly grace-based living in this wounded and desperately thirsty culture?
His next observation parallels the message that I have awkwardly been trying to communicate in my decades of writing.
“We hear nowadays about Christian groups losing university recognition or public prayers and Christmas displays being banned. We feel on the defensive and that we’re the outliers. But much of Christian history has been lived this way, like it was during the Roman Empire, when a small number of Christians modeled another way to live. In a culture like ours, we need to demonstrate first how faith in Christ makes a difference in how we live.”
Simply put, when we encounter people resistant to our message we must show them grace and the source of that grace, Jesus. I wrote about how this ragamuffin band of Jesus followers went from cultural curiosity to world changing movement in my book When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. One key component was selfless service.
“Remember that the early Christians lived in a pagan culture that featured infanticide and gladiator combat. The early church’s revolutionary view of the value of life was sacrificially demonstrated during the two great plagues that devastated the Empire in the second and third centuries. While pagans avoided any contact with the sick and even cast them into the streets while still alive, Christians nursed and cared for the sick even though it cost some their lives. The selfless service of the early church won many converts to the fold.”
When Bad Christians Happen to Good People
Against all odds and with no cultural advantage the early followers of Christ made a difference. We are not yet in such a dark place but I think it is fair to say the odds are against the church. We have lost most, if not all, of the cultural advantage. Maybe that is where we need to be if the body of Christ is going to bring light into the darkness of this world. Apart from God’s intervention it looks hopeless. But if we review the redemptive love of God throughout history we see that when you have to completely depend on God you are actually in a pretty good place. The words of David resonate today.
But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? (Psalm 56.3-4, NLT)
The culture is full of confusion, hopelessness, and hatred. There is a better way to live.
Yesterday was the first day of spring and the weather in North Texas was beautiful. We did not have a brutal winter but we did have a deep freeze and ice storm that took it’s toll on our plants.
As I walked Miss Maggie in the late afternoon I stopped to look at one of our trees. There were tiny buds beginning to appear on the branches. These green buds sprouted in defiance of winters brutal assault. I stopped and meditated on the miracle of life emerging out of barrenness. I thought of the words of philosopher Bernard Williams. “The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”
I love that.
Is there anything more hopeful than watching the beauty of budding leaves and blooming flowers turning the melancholy of a bleak winter into a wondrous palette of invigorating colors? Every spring is a reminder that God will bring beauty from darkness and life from death.
The world can seem to be in a state of perpetual winter. But for followers of Jesus we can see signs of life even in the darkness. Like that bit of green emerging from a lifeless branch we have a hope this spring.
Jesus has conquered death.
Martin Luther poetically wrote this. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
Followers of Jesus have a hope that our lives are eternal and valuable in Him. We have a hope that death is not final.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (1 Corinthians 15:54-58, NLT)
Nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless. Nothing! And even as we face the reality of a dangerous world we know we have the twin promise of victory over sin and death through Jesus. So as spring begins I choose to marvel at the renewing of life and the hope that holds for all of us. Paul wrote about this miracle.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV)
We have become new creations now and forever in Jesus. Doesn’t that hope feel especially good this spring?
