What Can I Do?

 Over the years, I’ve taken notice of the fact that as far as the national and international stages are concerned, I’m pretty much a non-entity.  For example, I can’t affect the outcome of the Israel-Hamas war.  I can’t change the outcome of the New Hampshire primary.  Whether or not people are found guilty or not guilty of crimes having to do with the 2020 election is nothing I can affect.  I have no control over earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.  I can’t stop rampant inflation, corruption, and spreading poverty in developing and third-world nations.  My feeble attempts to slow climate change are like spitting in the wind.

The twenty-four hour news cycle does its best to keep me riled up and hunkered down behind my ideological wall.  I am supposed to be angry at certain people and groups; upset with how things are turning out in government, and worried sick about inflation and corruption.  The stress and strain of it all isn’t good for my health, my well-being, or my relationships.

So, does that mean that I just chuck it all and go live under a bridge somewhere?  As a follower of Jesus Christ, what do I expect of myself?  What does God expect of me?  How can I help bring redemption and God’s peace to the world?  What do I do?

First, pray.  Prayer takes me out to places and events that otherwise I would have no contact with in any meaningful way.  I can pray for peace.  I can pray for wise leadership.  I can pray for the solving of seemingly intractable problems and issues.  I can pray for the raising up of people who CAN affect these issues.  I can even pray that I will be brought to an understanding of what to pray for.  I can reach out to Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Hamas, New Hampshire, Washington D.C., and other places that I otherwise have no avenue to, through prayer, petitioning for peace, relief, and justice.

Second, quoting my friend Jennifer White, I may not be able to do everything, but I can do something.  Politically, I can talk with my city council representative.  I can communicate with my state representatives.  I can participate in both local and national elections as an informed…not an ideological…voter.  I can join with others on a local level to effect change that will bring about justice, mercy, and peace.  I can contribute my time, energy, and resources as I can and am able.  Above all, I can be understanding regarding the opinions of others and also understand that my world view is just that…my point of view…and is not the once-for-all solution to all of life’s problems.

I can also do other things that at first glance seem to be nothing of substance.  I can open a door for someone, pick up some trash and litter, be pleasant with the clerk at the hardware store, be understanding when the teller at the bank seems to be having a bad day.  I can tip the wait person more than a minimal amount.  I can drive defensively and humanely, and not like a screaming banshee.  I can give deference to someone; affirm someone’s humanity; say, “I’m sorry,” and hug my grand kids.

I can donate food, clothing, time, energy, and cash to those places and causes who will make use of it to help redeem their and my corner of the world.  The place to begin with that is, in my view, the local church in its outreach to the poor, the addicted, the sick, and the troubled.  Beyond the church, there are countless non-profits and orgs who do wonderful things in so many ways.  Choose one or two and become part of their community in some way.

I can also do my best to develop and foster good relationships with my spouse, my family, my friends and those who I encounter in my daily life.  Even in this broken world, kindness and civility go a long way toward good relationships.  I can think of others before I think of myself.  The list goes on.  I can defer to others when possible.  Let my speech be gracious.  Treat others like I would want to be treated.  And love my neighbor.  Grow close to God.  Allow Him to guide my steps.

As you can readily see, the things that I CAN do are really a tall order.  I won’t be able to do all of these all the time, nor will I do them perfectly.  There will be times when I break down the façade of grace and kindness, and, for example, drive Kellogg like a wild banshee.  There will be times when I am not pleasant with the store clerk.  There will be times when I’d rather banish my grand kids from my presence instead of hugging them.  And there will be times when I don’t treat others at all like I’d like to be treated.  I won’t carry though with my prayers and petitions.  I’ll become agitated with the latest scandal that comes out of Washington.  And I’ll watch far too much news coverage…much more than I need or want.

However, like good wine, as I age, I also grow.  Grow in grace.  Grow in knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Grow in becoming more like him.  I become more aware of my influence on others in life as well as my limitations, both physical and mental.  I can’t do everything…I never could…but I always could, and can continue to do something.

 

Blessings.

Christmas 2023

 “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…”  That’s the opening line from a song by the same name, written in 1963 for Andy Williams.  The song mainly speaks of family activities over the holidays, such as hosting parties, visits from friends, spending time with loved ones, sledding, roasting marshmallows, and so on.  For many of us who are in the older generations, the song brings back memories of the holidays long ago celebrated.  For many of the younger, I have to wonder if the song is some kind of ancient history…the time before cell phones and the Internet.  “Quaint” is the word that pops into my head now as I think about that possibility.

In many respects we older folks can be rather quaint to the younger generations…”charmingly odd in an old-fashioned way,” as the dictionary defines the word.  I often wonder what images and thoughts come to the minds of my grand children when they think of me.  Do they think of me as “quaint”?  Or do other thoughts and visions come to mind?

I know that at least the older grands realize that I have some age on me.  They are more helpful when it comes to carrying something, lifting something, or doing some other kind of manual labor.  The younger grands enjoy the “meeting and greeting” part of our coming together…giving hugs and seeming to genuinely be happy to have me present.  It’s as if they somehow know that it won’t always be this way…that they will grow up and I will get older and one day not even be here.  These “meeting and greeting” times seem to be times of “Enjoy it now while we can,” things.  Which, by the way, I do.

This week, as we go full tilt into the Christmas holiday on Monday, the next days are filled, at least for our family, with the kinds of things talked about in the Andy Williams song.  We won’t get much sledding done…it looks like the weather won’t be cooperative…but there will be all kinds of meetings, greetings, get-togethers, and times with family and friends.  We will enjoy it all, and be happy we can rest and recover for a day or two following it all.

I don’t know what your holiday weekend will be like.  I don’t know if you have family or not.  I don’t know if you want to see your family or not.  I don’t know if you celebrate the holiday or just prefer to let it pass unnoticed.  Everyone does it differently, and that’s OK.  I do hope, however, that you celebrate relationships…relationships with others, whether family, friends, or neighbors.  We are not islands.  We don’t live…we only exist…if we don’t have good relationship with others.

Those of you who know me also know that I’m not much of a poet, nor am I into poetry.  I was “forced” to memorize poems in junior high school such as Flanders Fields and The Village Blacksmith.  It was not one of my better memories of junior high.  However, I came across a poem in a Google search on relationships written by John O’Neill.  O’Neill, in a poem written a few years back, has this to say about relationships and growing older.  This isn’t the complete poem.  I’ve taken excerpts from it instead.

 

Where is my village now when I need it more than ever?  The generation that raised me are all gone:  Grandparents, parents, the last of my twenty-six aunts and uncles.  I’m not ready to be an elder of the remaining tribe.  What wisdom can I claim as my own?  What insights and advice dare come from my lips?  There are no easy solutions to our difficulties.  Some basic measures must suffice

As a beginning: Hug those you love And touch them with words as well.  Accept and respect the people you know.  Love and respect at least one person not of your tribe.  Be gentle and kind of heart in all of your actions.  Keep in mind always that we are not islands; but all life is part of one creation.  Life’s burdens were meant to be shared.

 

He’s right, you know.  Life’s burdens are indeed meant to be shared.  And it’s in relationship that we share one-another’s burdens.  As the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Galatian Christians, “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.”  A few short sentences later, Paul says, “The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

We can’t share burdens…we can’t love our neighbor…if we disregard relationships and don’t actively foster and promote them.  This holiday season, put away the discord, the divisiveness, the selfishness, and the put-downs.  Instead, work on relationships in a positive way.  Kind words, genuine care and compassion, serving rather than being served, promoting relationship…may your holidays be filled with peace and joy.

 

Blessings.

God's Goodness Prevails...Always

 I don’t know about you, but there are times when I just have a difficult time believing.  No, I’m not talking about belief in Santa Claus.  I’m talking about believing in a loving and merciful God who desires the best for me and is constantly working in a thousand ways on my behalf.  Oh, I know it intellectually.  It’s just that it becomes difficult to keep that belief in my innermost being that many would call my heart.

Just like you, there are times in my life when things just don’t go well for me.  It’s in those times that I tend to get in a kind of downward funk and begin to question everything…even those things that I have known and believed for decades…especially the things of God.  Where is this God who loves me and wants the best for me?  Has He completely abandoned me in my time of trial and need?  Does He care?  Is He even there?

I sometimes even fall into times like David of the Old Testament when things weren’t going well for him, either.  He wrote poetry to express his feelings.  Some of that poetry has been preserved for us in the Psalms in the Bible.  Here are a couple of examples of David crying out for relief, wondering where God is in all of his affliction.

 

Why, Lord, do you stand far off?  Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?  I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me?  Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"  My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"  Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?”

 

If you’ve ever felt this way, you certainly are not alone.  These times have been part of the lives of humans for thousands of years.  We find ourselves questioning long-held beliefs about life, living, God, relationships, and even beliefs about ourselves and our own lives.

One of my dear friends, Trinna, penned these words some years ago following her decision to come clean, get into recovery, and begin a new life.  She had grown up in a godly household, but took some wrong turns in life.  In a vacant house on North Broadway in Wichita some years ago, she woke up one day and decided she had had enough of the kind of life she had been living.  She got herself into recovery, came clean and got the help she needed.  She now has her family back, is married to the man she loves, and is a shining example of what God can do in the lives of those who call on Him.

Nevertheless, her recovery didn’t come without pain or doubt.  She penned these words in addressing how she felt during some of those darker days.  I quote her here:

 

I would be lying if I didn’t say there were days I had a hard time believing.  There were days I cried that turned into weeks of grieving.  Many mornings waking up “knowing” of his mercy being new but in my heart misplacing this truth with my painful feelings.  But I can honestly say I never lost hope in God's will.  I didn’t know when.  I didn’t know how but I had tasted and seen that he was good before a single material blessing so I had hope on the darkest days.  I also always remembered a quote by John Piper that I had heard when I first got saved.  “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.”

So even through the push and pull of anger and thankfulness, grief and joy...no sight and seeing...patience and anxiety, prayers and distance...spirit and flesh...being tossed by the wind to remembering to whom I belong...His goodness prevails.  Always.  There is no power in the universe that can stop God from fulfilling his totally good plans for you.

 

She’s right, you know.  It doesn’t take material blessings for you to know that God is good.  And you really don’t have the foggiest clue of all of the things God is doing in your life that are molding you into someone who is looking more and more like Jesus.

We have such a limited understanding of the greatness of God…of the work of God in our lives.  We only dimly recall the past, and the future is unknown to us.  But God, who knows it all, always works for our good…always loves us…always is merciful…always is good.

 

Trinna, I hear you.  Even in the dark times of life, God’s goodness prevails.  Always.

 

Blessings,

Pain---Part of Life

Good morning.  I usually peruse my Facebook page each morning to catch up on posts from my friends.  Sometimes I just scroll a lot, but sometimes I stop and read what someone posts.  A couple of mornings ago I was scrolling, but stopped at a post by one of my friends (I’ll call her Amanda) who has experienced a lot of painful medical issues in her relatively young life…issues that for most of us would sorely tempt us to just check out from life and living.  Amanda posted a quote from a mental health outlet about living with chronic pain.  The last sentence of the quote was, “A chronic pain patient can function with a pain level that would incapacitate any other person.”

One of Amanda’s Facebook friends posted a reply to her post.  In that reply, she told a short story of her own regarding pain, then said, “Pain just becomes a part of life.”

I had to stop my scrolling for a time and just reflect on both Amanda’s post and the reply of her friend.  On the one hand, I wanted to totally agree with them.  I think Amanda is a stronger, tougher woman than pretty much anyone else I know.  Dealing with pain has been her lot in life for decades.  And her friend is spot-on regarding living with pain.  On the other hand, I wanted to say, “No, it shouldn’t be this way.”  People shouldn’t have to live with chronic pain that would incapacitate most others.  We have doctors.  We have research facilities.  We have medicines.  It shouldn’t have to be this way.  Yet, it often is.

Everyone has experienced pain of some sort in their lives.  Whether physical, emotional, mental, or a combination of those, we all are susceptible to pain.  It’s just part of who we are and how we are made.  Some pain is chronic…that is, it is pain that is long-lasting.  It defies attempts to relieve it.  It just stays with us over the long haul.

Why it is that we humans have to deal with pain and suffering is a question that over the ages has never been adequately answered.  Especially for those of us who believe in a loving God who cares for His creation, we, like Job of the Old Testament, long for answers to the problem of pain and suffering.  Those answers never seem to come, however, and we are left with the question marks that never get erased.

“Pain just becomes part of life.”  That may be the best answer we will receive in this life.  It certainly is true, and it also is universal.  We don’t often know why we as humans have to deal with the things that cause us pain, whether physical, mental, or emotional.  We just know it’s part of life and living, and how we choose to deal with it reflects who we are.

The apostle to the Gentile people in the New Testament, Paul, tells of a “thorn in the flesh” that he had, and wanted God to remove it for him.  I don’t know if it was a literal thorn…it probably was not.  It probably was some other ailment that bothered him in a chronic way.  Yet God did not remove it from him, telling Paul instead that, “My grace is sufficient for you.  My power is made perfect in weakness.”

Whatever that means, and whatever that means for we who battle pain every day, we know that “Pain just becomes part of life,” and we are not at all alone in our dealing with it.

I don’t know whether you battle chronic and constant pain or not.  Many of us do, and don’t let on to anyone else that we are in that battle.  Yet this is just one more reason for us to be kind to others…to be understanding and helpful.  Being kind and understanding seem to be little things and sometimes not of great importance.  But we often don’t know what the person we are dealing with is going through at the moment.  We don’t, and can’t understand their pain.  But we can be compassionate and kind.  “Be kind one to another; tenderhearted, forgiving one-another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”  Make this your go-to from today forward.  Blessings.