The disciples responded to Jesus’ instructions on temptation and forgiveness by crying out “Increase our faith!”¹  and a little later, Jesus healed the ten lepers and told them, “your faith has made you well!”²  So, my question is this: Did the lepers have more faith than the disciples? 🤔 Perhaps. Because after the leper incident, Jesus told the disciples “a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart”³—which you can read about on the August 10^th blog!)

     Jesus questioned his disciples’ faith on several occasions. One time, the disciples were on a boat and a great storm arose and they woke Jesus up out of a peaceful nap and cried, “‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing. And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’”⁴

     And remember when Jesus beckoned Peter to walk on the water?—which he did! But then he saw those big waves and began to sink. Jesus grabbed his hand and asked, “O, you of little faith, why did you doubt?”⁵ Another time, the disciples could not heal a man’s son and the father complained to Jesus. Jesus slowly shook his head and rolled his eyes 🙄 (at least I think he did) and said, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you?”⁶

     One more story. One day Jesus yelled at a fruitless fig tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”⁷  A few days later, the disciples saw the same tree and Peter said, “‘Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered!’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God.’”⁸  and told them that “whoever does not have doubt in his heart”⁹  could cause a mountain to be thrown into the sea! 😲

     And this is where I must pause 🤨 . . . and say what’s on my heart 🧐 . . . which is . . . really? I mean, really? I seriously doubt I could ever have that kind of faith! Which, ironically, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. 🤪 So, what am I doing wrong? How do I get to the point where I do “not have doubt in [my] heart”⁹? Which, by the way, is the point today. And my pondering about it all makes me conclude that our hearts need guarding. And wouldn’t you know it? God has given us this protection! So, here it is: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”¹⁰  It makes sense, doesn’t it? That peace would stave off doubt. This peace is a result of prayer, by the way, which also staves off anxiety, doubt’s cousin.

     But there’s more to obtaining “the peace of God” than praying. 🙄 (I knew it.) In order to not be anxious and not have doubt—direct orders from Jesus—we must practice being at peace. Paul says we must meditate on things that are true and honorable and just and pure and lovely and commendable and excellent and praiseworthy, AND we must “practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.”¹¹ And practice is a discipline. Practice is something we do despite how we feel, or what we think, or what the circumstances are. But please don’t believe that practice makes perfect. 😠 No! No! No! 😫 Practice makes permanent! If we practice it wrong, it will not be perfect—it will be permanently wrong!  Instead, we must not practice until we get it right, but we must practice until we cannot get it wrong! Then, and only then, have we mastered whatever it is we were working on!

     Sorry. 😕 I obviously have strong feelings about practicing things. After all, I am a musician and a writer and a former athlete and know a thing or two about practice! Let me just conclude by saying that to “practice these things” is an absolute prerequisite to receiving “the peace of God.” And now we see that “the peace of God” carries with it the all-important task of guarding our hearts and minds from becoming doubtful and anxious.

     Paul’s practice list is quite lengthy and challenging. It might be best to take one idea at a time. For example, spend one day concentrating on being “true,” which includes being steadfast, loyal, honest, just, truthful, legitimate, rightful, accurate, and fitting. 😯 Okay, maybe spend a week practicing this one. 😬 The result of practicing being “true” will be to receive “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding!”¹⁰  Then, of course, we would look to the next thing Paul tells us to practice: being honorable. And then after that: being just. And then the next thing and then the next . . .  😟 As you can see, it’s a process! The end goal is for that same “peace of God” to protect our hearts from becoming doubtful and anxious. Which it does!

     Ultimately, when we “Let the peace of Christ rule in [our] hearts,”¹² we will “not have doubt in [our] hearts”⁹  and our faith will be unwavering. And there’s no telling what we can accomplish when that happens! I’m hoping that one day Christ will look on me and say, “Your faith has made you well!”²

     Just like he did with the lepers! 🙂

¹Luke 17:5      ²Luke 17:19      ³Luke 18:1      ⁴Matthew 8:26      ⁵Matthew 14:31     ⁶Matthew 17:17     ⁷Mark 11:14     ⁸Mark 11:21-22      ⁹Mark 11:23     ¹⁰Philippians 4:7     ¹¹Philippians 4:9      ¹²Colossians 3:15

TRUE STORY

Sad Stories

I taught English for 25 years, and I loved teaching the tragedies of Shakespeare and the great novels of Charles Dickens and the Bronte sisters. I loved teaching the short stories by Melville, Tolstoy, Poe, Hemingway, James Joyce, Kate Chopin, Raymond Carver, Shirley Jackson, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, and  . . . 😬 okay, I’ll stop. These writers are some of the greatest of all time, and students knew that if they were in my classes, they would be exposed to some serious works! I loved it! They, on the other hand, mostly complained about it. 🙄 Reading is boring. It’s too long. It’s too hard! Why do we have to read this? So, in order to please my students, I told them they didn’t have to read, that I would change my curriculum to something that interested them, and I was so thankful that they helped me realize I was asking too much from them. NOT!!! 😏 (I was just checking to see if you were really reading this. 😉)

Yeah, they complained about reading the great classics. But the most common complaint in all those years was that the stories were depressing! None of them had happy endings. And they were right about that one. They were all sad stories! And what was my response to their question of why they all ended in heartache? Simple. Sadness is an emotion everyone relates to. Suffering is universal. It’s what binds humanity together. It’s the one thing we all have in common.

We all suffer. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines suffering as “the state or experience of one that suffers,” to which I say, Duh! 🙄 The second definition simply defines it as “pain,” which still leaves me totally unsatisfied. I like Elisabeth Elliot’s definition better: “Suffering is having what you don’t want or wanting what you don’t have.”* Now that’s a great definition!

So here is a sad story for you, a brief summary, and certainly not the details, of my most recent suffering. Due to a car wreck, for six months and seventeen days (at this writing) I have been unable to take one step without pain, even with the help of a cane and heavy medication. This disabling state that I find myself in leaves me absolutely exhausted most days. It has affected my energy, my attitude, my weight, my work, my social engagements, my daily chores, and my vacation plans. My surgeons tell me they think—feel pretty sure—they can fix my knee on their first effort!  But they also have Plan B ready!  And Plan C is in the hopper (but will be used as a very last resort).  So.  I have been hobbling in agony and awaiting my surgery date (which is next week) and can only look forward to the painful ordeal of recovery after which I am reasonably—but not totally—hopeful the pain will eventually cease. It wears me out just to write it down!

But in the meantime, I have learned a little bit about suffering. Ironically (this will become ironical as you continue to read), I hesitate to write even briefly about my sad story because I know some of you have experienced (and are still experiencing) much greater suffering than I. And I know many of you have an incredibly sad story describing your own journey of pain, but since I happen to be the one writing, I’d like to share just one thing about suffering that I think is extremely important. So here it is: Do not compare your sad story of suffering with others.                 

That’s it.

Why is that lesson the one that I believe to be so important? Because comparing your sad story of suffering will either cause you to minimize, disregard, and even dismiss your pain as not as significant as your fellow sufferer’s pain or it will cause your fellow sufferer to minimize, disregard, and dismiss his pain as not as significant as yours. When the truth is, although there certainly are degrees of suffering and pain, suffering is still suffering and pain is always painful. Comparing suffering leads many people to offer these “encouraging” words: It could be worse!  But really—how is this helpful? It causes the one suffering to feel bad about mentioning their very real pain. Of course, it could be worse! And the one suffering is usually thinking Yeah, and it could be a lot better, too! Sharing our sad stories too often leads to comparing our sad stories. However, it is important to share sad stories! Suffering needs to be shared because it is heavy. And we who suffer also need to share the suffering load of others. It’s one of the main purposes of our afflictions—that we might “be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”¹  We, who have suffered, are called to comfort others. The act of it helps us to begin to see the reason for our own suffering.

That being said, we should be very careful with whom we share the details of our sad stories because once the sharing starts, comparing is almost inevitable. There is always someone who has suffered more than you have. And after hearing someone else’s horrible story of pain and suffering, you might feel ashamed that you even brought up your story because it pales in comparison. You might conclude that you just need to get over your pain and suffering and stop whining about it! And that is mostly an incorrect conclusion about our suffering. And, by the way, I have learned that most people love to compare their sad story with yours, even if you don’t ask them to! They honestly believe that you need to hear their story and will lure you into a competitive conversation! You think you’ve suffered? Let me tell you my story! Or My sister’s husband’s uncle suffered exactly the same thing as you did and he didn’t have any problems recovering!  And that’s why sharing sad stories is so tricky.

Therefore, even though I may choose to withhold the details of my sad story with most people because I really do not want to compare my pain with theirs, what do you do with those who feel compelled to tell you all about their suffering? (And here is the backdoor lesson for our lesson.)  You need to listen to those sad stories with both ears and all your attention. You need to sympathize with those sufferers with all your soul. You need to love those well-meaning story tellers with all your heart. And if their suffering is currently ongoing, you need to listen for clues as to how you could alleviate their suffering. Never underestimate the power of a simple note or word of encouragement! Their suffering is real. Their story is important. They are probably . . . probably telling their sad story because they think it will make you feel better somehow. And if they ask you about the details of your sad story—which they might get around to—my advice is to share very little. Because most people just can’t help comparing their suffering with yours. And you never want them to question the gravity of their own suffering. It is so true: minor surgery is surgery on someone else!

That being said, it is important for you to share the details of your suffering with one other person—maybe two—for one reason: We all need to be comforted by others. No one is exempt from this—not even you! Or me! But choose the person with whom you share the details of your suffering very carefully. It needs to be someone who will not minimize nor amplify your sad story. It needs to be someone who loves you genuinely and will walk beside you no matter how long your suffering takes. And that second part is probably the most important one because most people will grow weary with your suffering if you do not recover quickly!

So, if you are looking for one thing to share with those who share their suffering with you, share this: As believers we are to eventually learn to “rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”²  So . . . suffering leads to hope! 😀 That’s great news! But, of course, this does not occur without learning the hard and long and painful lessons of endurance and character first.

If you happen to choose me as one of those rare people with whom you entrust the details of your sad story of suffering, I would be honored. Tell me all about it. Together we can help each other with that endurance and character stuff we will have to go through before we see the hope of it all.

In the meantime, if you need ideas for some good reading, let me know! 😉

¹2 Corinthians 1:4     ²Romans 5:3-4   *“The Terrible Truth.” Suffering Is Never for Nothing, by Elisabeth Elliot and Joni Eareckson Tada, B & H Publishing Group, 2019, p. 9.

“And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”¹ The parable is simple. A widow had an enemy and went to court to get justice. The judge probably considered her case insignificant, not worth his precious time, and ignored her requests. But she kept coming to court. Day after day. Until finally he said, “because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.”² And that’s the end of the story! 🤨

Hmm. 🤔 So . . . are we supposed to bother those in authority (including God) until we get what we want? Is that the lesson? Not exactly. If that’s all we get out of it, we will all just become annoying self-absorbed demanding people. The first lesson is that the widow’s request was not a selfish one; she was asking for justice, that the “right” would prevail. It was a godly request. The second lesson is that she kept going back to the judge, knowing he was the only one able to right the wrong that was done to her. In summation, the widow was relentless in her righteous petition; she was not going to quit. And the judge saw that and finally rewarded her.

After telling the story to his disciples, Jesus explained that, contrary to the judge “who neither feared God nor respected man,”³ our God cares about us and hears those “who cry to him day and night.”⁴  And so, the lesson for us is that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” We are to be persistent in our prayers.  Or as Paul puts it: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.”⁵  But these are rare traits—hope, patience, and faithfulness, which are the attributes of persistence. Our western culture loves quick fixes, waits for virtually nothing, gives no thought to quitting, and mocks patience as a complete waste of time. We are mostly a hopeless, impatient, and faithless people. Oh, we may start out strong but it is not long before doubt sneaks in and we “lose heart” and quit. 🙁 Quit what? Just about everything! We quit believing in justice, quit believing in God, and quit believing we can make a difference. We just give up. Jesus saw that tendency in his disciples because after telling the story, he looks at them and asks, “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”⁶

Wow. 😕 That’s a sad question to ask his followers! But it’s a legitimate one because earlier when Jesus was talking about temptation and forgiveness “the apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”⁷ And we might think that Jesus would respond with something like Of course, fellows! Voilꞻ! And abracadabra!  😀 You now have faith! But he doesn’t. You see, that’s something Jesus cannot do for us—give us faith. That’s something we must bring to God. So, for all of you who hear yourselves crying out with the apostles, “Increase our faith!” note that Jesus was not happy about that statement. 😲 Not at all.

Instead, Jesus rebuked his followers for that confession. He said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.’”⁸  What I hear Jesus saying is this: Increase your faith? What faith? Your faith is smaller than the tiniest seed in the world. You don’t have any faith at all that I can see!

I think many folks surmise that faith is something God gives certain people. Not so. Faith comes from inside us. If our faith is weak, it is our fault. Faith in God only grows when we have reason to doubt him—but don’t! Times of doubt are our opportunities to trust. It’s a choice we make—to trust God. Those who have strong faith are simply people who are assured and have convictions of things not seen—which by the way is the very definition of faith. (Read Hebrews 11:1) If we want our faith to increase, we need to be persistent during times when God seems to be silent or absent. Persistence is, at its core, hopeful.

Which brings us back to our parable. The widow was a powerless woman whose only hope for justice lay in the hands of a mighty judge. Persistence was all she had. Perhaps we are not persistent because we are not quite as desperate as this poor widow. It is easier, after all, to just give up. And go on with our disappointing lives. Or maybe place our hope in something else—which, by the way, is an absolute guarantee of being disappointed. We settle. And never hope for justice and quit believing that God even cares about our insignificant troubles. We don’t believe God will or even can help us. We just give up believing. We lose heart. But “he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”¹ 

In other words, “Be joyful in hope, be patient in affliction, and be faithful in prayer.”⁵ How’s that going for you? Got faith?

¹Luke 18:1     ²Luke 18:5     ³Luke 18:2     ⁴Luke 18:7      ⁵Romans 12:12      ⁶Luke 18:8     ⁷Luke 17:5     ⁸Luke 17:6

Let’s face it. Today’s headlines are yesterday’s headlines. And chances are they will be tomorrow’s headlines, too. As Solomon states, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”¹ 😒 Solomon’s world view is quite depressing. He exclaims, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”²  Other translations render it: “Everything is pointless.” and “Nothing matters!” and “Everything is futile!” and “Life is useless.” and “Everything is meaningless!” And after reading the newspaper headlines day after day, year after year, we realize how prophetic this preacher was!

It would be quite easy for us to say the same things about the state of our world today, don’t you think? How do we not become overwrought, obsessed and consumed with the “meaninglessness” of it all? How do we have hope in a hopeless world?

There is only one way that I know of, and that is “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”³  God’s love for us exceeds our greatest understanding and actually “surpasses knowledge,” but if we seek to understand his love, we will “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”⁴  And as we are being “filled to the measure,” our lives are no longer empty and pointless but begin to take on meaning.🙂

The prophet Jeremiah figured that out, too. As he despaired over the destruction of Jerusalem and the hopelessness of his situation, he wrote this encouraging thought. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.”⁵  What is “this” that he remembered? What is the reason for his hope? “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed.”⁶  “The Lord’s great love” has the power to save us from being consumed by all the vanity in life. How does this happen? Every day God has compassion on us. “For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”⁷ Or to put it another way “His mercies have no limit!”

God’s mercy—his grace and kindness, his understanding and tenderness, his forgiveness and love—is available to us every day. God’s mercy is never ending. How do we get this mercy? It’s pretty simple. We ask for it! 🙂 Once there was a blind man who discovered Jesus was passing by him and realizing that this was his opportunity to be healed, “he cried out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”⁸ And so he did! God’s mercies are there for the taking. His mercies keep us hopeful because we know God sees our suffering and hears our cries. And so we who believe live with hope in a hopeless world. 😀

However, it is not easy to sustain this hope. It is a battle. 😕 That’s why God offers his mercies “every morning.” The only way to not be “consumed” by the world’s hopelessness is to stop hoping in the world!🙃  Because Solomon is right, you know! Everything is meaningless! And that realization will consume us unless and until . . . until “the Lord’s great love” enters our hearts and “we are not consumed.” We can receive his new mercies every day. And “because of the Lord’s great love” we can confidently live life the way it was meant to be lived—even in this hopeless world! 😊

“The Lord’s great love” transforms us and gives meaning to a meaningless world. And while Solomon cries out “vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” we counter with No! 🤨 In Christ, nothing is in vain. “Our preaching is not in vain.”⁹  “Your faith is not in vain.”⁹  “Your labor is not in vain.”¹⁰ But most of all “His grace toward me was not in vain.”¹¹ The world cries out that everything is pointless, futile, meaningless, and useless. We who know “the Lord’s great love” understand that nothing is for nothing!

Joseph looked at his brothers who had thrown him into a pit to die, which resulted in his living years of his life as a slave and a prisoner, and said to them, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”¹² That’s what God can do—turn bad things into good. Only “the Lord’s great love” can keep us from becoming consumed by hopelessness and instead have hope in this hopeless world. 🙂

¹Ecclesiastes 1:9    ²Ecclesiastes 1:2     ³Ephesians 3:18-19    ⁴Ephesians 3:19    ⁵Lamentations 3:21     ⁶Lamentations 3:22     ⁷Lamentations 3:22-23     ⁸Luke 18:38      ⁹1 Corinthians 15:14     ¹⁰1 Corinthians 15:58     ¹¹1 Corinthians 15:10   ¹²Genesis 50:20

We read in Proverbs, “A hope deferred (unrelenting disappointment) makes the heart sick.”¹ Langston Hughes, the great African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote about it. He asks the question, “What happens to a dream deferred?” And concludes, “Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode?”*  I concur. Disappointment is a heavy weight and sometimes absolutely devastating. 😢

     Jesus knew disappointment. Once as he was enjoying an intimate dinner with his closest friends, he casually announced, “One of you will betray me.”² 😦 This unexpected statement, of course, made everyone “sorrowful.” And as they were digesting (forgive the pun! 😬) that information and wondering who would do such an unthinkable act, Jesus added, “You will all fall away.”³  At that, Peter jumped up and “said emphatically, ‘If I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And they all said the same.”⁴  But a few hours later when Jesus was arrested, “they all left him and fled.”⁵  

     So, to conclude: life disappoints us; friends disappoint us; we disappoint others; and we even disappoint ourselves! 😞

     How disappointing!  

     So much of life is about expectations, and one way not to be disappointed is to have no—or very low—expectations! If we do not expect much from people or life itself, we are not disappointed at all when they fail to deliver because we expected as much. And it might come as a surprise to you to discover that this philosophy is quite biblical! Isaiah writes, “Don’t put your trust in mere humans. They are as frail as breath. What good are they?”⁶ 😯 And we cannot forget what John writes about Jesus: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”⁷  

     Hmm. 🤔 This is a bit disconcerting. So, what are we to do? Live this life without expecting any good thing from people? Surely not! The problem is that we have things upside down (as usual)! We expect way too much from people and expect very little from God!  We blindly expect other people to be perfect. We arrogantly believe that we are nobler than all others. And we foolishly place our hope in those flawed ideas. We have (to borrow a title from the greatest author of all times, Charles Dickens) great expectations in people!

     But it feels right to have great expectations, doesn’t it? To maintain a positive outlook, to desire noble things from honorable people? Didn’t Paul implore us: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”⁸  Yes, he did! And, yes, we absolutely need to “think about these things” and “practice these things.”⁹  And encourage others to do the same! 🙂

     However, it is quite naïve of us to not expect that often, things fall apart in this fallen world. People will let us down; therefore, it is quite ludicrous to blame people for being human! So, when we are disappointed by the disappointments of life, we should remember this: “In God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”¹⁰

     When life disappoints, we need to readjust our expectations. We should expect less from humans (including ourselves) and expect more from God. Humans are sometimes faithful; God is always faithful.

     When life disappoints, and we find ourselves shaken by it, it is because we have placed our hope on others rather than on the rock. “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.”¹¹

    I am thankful that “a hope deferred” is not the end of our story. A “hope deferred” is merely hope delayed, not eliminated.  The second part of that verse reads, “but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”¹  For our hope is not in this fallen world at all, frankly. Instead, our hope is in Christ, who lives in us! Our hope is in “the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”¹²  And “we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope does not disappoint.”¹³

     And there is no disappointment in that! 🙂

¹Proverbs 13:12    ²Mark 14:18    ³Mark 14:27    ⁴Mark 14:31    ⁵Mark 14:50    ⁶Isaiah 2:22 NLT    ⁷John 2:23-25  ⁸Philippians 4:8    ⁹Philippians 4:9    ¹⁰Psalm 56:11    ¹¹Psalm 62:5-6    ¹²Colossians 1:27   ¹³Romans 5:2-5    *Hughes, Langston. “Harlem by Langston Hughes.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem. Accessed 2 July 2023.

Jesus tells us to “Have faith in God.”¹  And we do! But then . . . 😟 sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we doubt. We doubt that God will remember all his promises regarding us. Doubt will slip into our minds and settle in our hearts and cause the very ground beneath us to shift. Doubt is Satan’s greatest weapon. It infiltrates our faith. What do we do when we begin to doubt? Fight back! But not before we are ready for battle. Paul tells us to “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.”² Our faith is a shield that can prevent us from being shaken. Without it, we will be hit with “flaming darts,” which are not only painful but debilitating and cause us to doubt.  

So “in all circumstances”² we are to hold out our shield of faith. However, not all shields are the same. Wait! 😦 What? You see, if our faith is weak, so is our shield, and a weak shield is only good for a short while. During our battles, we will discover how strong or how weak our faith is. If we find out our faith is weak, we often quit because the battle is too long and hard. And we say, I just don’t have enough faith. 😟 And we justify our doubts. We convince ourselves that we should quit. That we have already lost. We believe that God is not fighting for us, that he has left us. And there is nothing to believe in anymore. And we don’t just lose the battle, we lose our faith. It is gone. Doubt has won. 🙁

But what we fail to realize is that the battle is the place where faith becomes strong. In fact, it is the only place where faith grows. So, when someone says to me (as a friend did recently) You just have more faith than I do, my reaction is—Poppycock!! (Excuse my strong language! 🙄) It’s not a matter of having more faith; it’s a matter of staying in the battle! Not quitting. The battle is our testing ground. It is where the weak become strong. Where the fearful become fearless. Where the hopeless find faith. You know, faith: “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”³

If we lose faith, then all we are left with is doubt. You know, doubt: the assurance of things feared, the conviction of things seen. It’s the opposite of faith. Without faith, we believe that what we fear can happen—will happen, and what we see—is all there is to see. To live in doubt is to trust only in our past disappointments and to doubt that anything will ever change. It is to live in despair.  

How do we not give in to despair? Simple. Have faith! 😏 It’s not a matter of having more faith. It’s a clear-cut choice. Either God can be trusted or he can’t. Either I have faith or I don’t. Is there really an in-between stage? 🤔

One day Jesus was approached by an anxious man who doubted if Jesus could help him. Jesus boldly told him, “All things are possible for one who believes.”⁴ And the man cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!”⁵ To which I say, Poppycock!! 🤨 You either believe, or you don’t! Here’s what happens to those who ask God for help but have doubts that God will really help. “For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”⁶

There is no use praying unless we believe God can be trusted with our prayers. There is no use praying unless we have faith. But you know what? I am beginning to believe that everyone has faith. The thing is though—some people have faith in their doubts. 😯 I prefer to have faith in God. 😉

¹Mark 11:22    ²Ephesians 6:16    ³Hebrews 11:1       ⁴Mark 9:23     ⁵Mark 9:24    ⁶James 1:6-7

Scripture tells us that whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise—to “think about these things.”¹ Paul mentions it again in Colossians. “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”² The KJV translates: “Set your affection on things above.”

So . . . you probably shouldn’t read the newspaper today! 😉 Or watch the news! Or go to work! Or leave your home! It sounds a bit impossible, doesn’t it? To not think about things that are false, dishonorable, unjust, impure, pathetic, reprehensible, lousy, or worthy of criticism? But those are our instructions!

So . . . are we supposed to be ignorant and naïve about the bad things that happen in our world? Should we all just hide? Become monks? Live in denial? Or move to a deserted island or deep in the mountains? (That sounds kinda’ nice! 😏) No! 😠 And absolutely not! How do we then, remain in the world and yet not be affected by all the negativity? Simple. We are to “guard [our] hearts and minds”³ from it. We are to stay informed but not “set [our] affection” on it. Instead, we are to be peaceful—not anxious—about all the negativity.

How do we do that? Pray! About everything! What we need, what we want, what we hate, what we love, what we fear, what we wish for—everything. But that’s not all. After we pray about these things, we need to quit praying about them. Wait! 😯 What? Yeah, that’s right. Leave those things in God’s capable hands and move on! To the next thing to pray about.

You see, I think that too often our prayers are nothing more than desperate, anxiety-ridden pleas that we pray over and over because we believe we should “pray without ceasing.”⁴ And we should—pray all the time! But hear this! We are also instructed to “not be anxious about anything.”⁵ So, if we are still anxious and fearful and frustrated after praying, then how are we any different from those who do not pray? 🤔

Prayer should result in peace, right? But if all we are doing is bringing our requests to God and not leaving them with him or trusting that he will answer them in his perfect time—with our best interest in mind, mind you!—then our praying sometimes only induces anxiety as we become fixated on praying! And instead of becoming peaceful, we become more anxious and frustrated and angry because we have prayed and God has not answered . . . or so we think.  And at that point, it is hard to distinguish the pray-ers from the non-pray-ers!

So. As believers, our response must be different. So, how do we get rid of anxiety while living in an anxious world? Simple. “Guard your hearts and minds”³ from it. Am I repeating myself? 🤨 Here’s how it works. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”¹ We are to focus on these things. Dwell on, meditate on, and cherish the thought of these things. Fill our minds on these things. So that we may be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”⁶ 

And when we are “filled to the measure” with God, there will be no room for anxious thoughts! Because we will be busy being thankful! And spreading truth and honor and lovely things to the world because Paul encourages us to “practice these things.”⁷  And you know what happens when we “practice these things”? “The God of peace will be with you.”⁷

And the peace of God? Well, that’s hard to explain or understand. And with good reason—it “surpasses all understanding.”³  You see, we mistakenly believe we will not and even should not ever be at peace in this world, or be at peace as long as this “thing” in our life still exist, or be at peace in this world until God gives us what we are demanding—um, I mean requesting from him. 😬 But we really can be at peace in this anxious world . . . if we practice being true and honorable and excellent and . . . do I really need to list these things again? 🙄

The question comes down to this: What things are you thinking about?

¹Philippians 4:8    ²Colossians 3:2    ³Philippians 4:7    ⁴1 Thessalonians 5:17    ⁵Philippians 4:6    ⁶Ephesians 3:19    ⁷Philippians 4:9

Now and then most of us wonder (usually with frustration and anger) about why things are the way they are. But here’s what scripture says: “For we know in part.”¹  In other words, we don’t know everything. And we won’t know everything until “then.” When is “then”? When we will see Christ “face to face.”²  So until “then,” what do we do? Well, we should stop acting like children! 😫 You know, those kids who incessantly whine and want to know Why? and Why not?

     Why else would Paul mention children in the middle of this chapter? He writes, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”³  We adults know that children don’t know everything, but they don’t know that! They think they do! And that’s why they complain when things don’t go their way. They think they know everything! We adults, however, should know that we don’t know everything—and be okay with that. And not whine and complain like children but instead, give “up childish ways.”

     That’s the challenge—to stop asking Why? and just trust that God knows what he is doing. 🙄

     But let’s get back to this “now and then” idea. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.”²  What we know now is described as an image that is dim. Other translations use words like “darkly,” and “obscurely,” and “indistinctly,” and even “blurred.” At any rate, it is clear that we do not see clearly. 😎 We look in a mirror and think that is what people see, but it isn’t!  We cannot see what others see because the mirror image is not a true one. The truth of the image is actually the reverse of what we see, but it is all we can see! Of course, you can get a better mirror! It’s called the True Mirror. Seriously. It is constructed so that you actually see yourself as others see you! For a mere £295, you can purchase it! But I wonder . . . would I be disappointed with seeing how others see me? Probably. 😒

     That’s why we should just rely on how God sees us. Which is this: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are.”⁴  We are God’s children. He sees us as family. He loves us more than anything! 😀

     And it is best that we trust that God sees everything clearly because our perception of things cannot be trusted. We really don’t know much at all. So, what do we know? We know that “then I shall know fully . . .”²   That one day—not now but then—I will understand. That’s hopeful. But keep reading . . . “even as I have been fully known.”²   God (who knows everything) knows us better than we know ourselves! He knows us “fully”! He sees us as we really are now. And amazingly still loves us! And love? Well, that’s the greatest thing of all! 😁 Better than faith and better than hope.

     You see, we don’t have to see everything or understand everything or know everything. God knows what we need. And that’s all we need to know.  😉

¹1 Corinthians 13:9    ²1 Corinthians 13:12    ³1 Corinthians 13:11    ⁴1 John 3:1

We are forever in a hurry and want everyone else (especially God) to understand the urgency of our requests! But you know what? It is quite rare that God tells us to hurry up! Even regarding repentance, he says, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”¹  Even then, there is a calm and reflective response, not a rushed and imperious one. We are reminded to “Be still, and know that I am God.”² We are to remember that “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”³ We are commanded to “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord”⁴  And fewer words could be more powerful and soothing to us, for waiting on God is surely our hardest and greatest lesson.

However. 🤨 Sometimes we should consider this: God waits on us, too! Hear this: “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you.”⁵  🤔 Hmm. It sounds like he is withholding grace! What is he waiting on? Does he not love us? Why does he not act swiftly? Well . . . lots of reasons. But first, let’s get one thing straight: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.”⁶  And another thing: Nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”⁷  God never withholds his love from us. Never. He has always loved us, loves us now, and will love us forever. But he does withhold grace and mercy sometimes! 😧 What? How could this be? “His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning,”⁸ right? Yes, they are available to us. Every day.

But never forget that “the Lord is a God of justice.”⁵ And so sometimes he waits . . . . . . for us to repent. And sometimes we are “unwilling”¹ to repent! When are we “unwilling”? Every time we do not follow in his ways. “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine.”⁹

You see, our plans are not his plans. Quite the opposite, actually. God says, “You turn things upside down!”10 And frankly, we do. But still . . . are our plans so bad, really? 🤨 I mean, I am an intelligent human. Am I not capable of getting things right? Well . . . probably not. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.”11  And so God waits for us to acknowledge that his idea is best and that his plan is best: “Let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him.”12

Sometimes God is waiting on us. And we thought we were waiting on him! 😕 We thought God was being slow to act. And all the time it was us! What shall we do? It is painfully clear: “He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.”13  

He waits for us.

¹Isaiah 30:15     ²Psalm 46:10    ³Lamentations 3:24-26      ⁴Psalm 27:14     ⁵Isaiah 30:18    ⁶Lamentations 3:22   ⁷Romans 8:39    ⁸Lamentations 3:22-23    ⁹Isaiah 30:1   ¹⁰Isaiah 29:16     ¹¹Isaiah 55:8    ¹²Isaiah 55:7    ¹³Isaiah 30:19

Before Moses and Joshua hiked up Mt. Sinai to receive God’s commandments, Moses said to the Israelites, “Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them.”¹  And so the Israelites waited😕 . . . and waited 🤔. . . and waited. 😠 Until they could wait no more. Moses was taking too long.  After 40 days, they concluded that Moses was never coming back and told Aaron, “We do not know what has become of him.”²  They were lost without Moses.  

At that point, Aaron was supposed to tell them to be patient. That Moses would be back soon. That Yahweh had not abandoned them. That, in fact, the Lord had “heard their cry” long ago and had chosen Moses to “deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”³ Aaron was supposed to tell the Israelites that everything was okay. The plan was still the plan!—that they need not worry.

But he didn’t. He panicked. Why? Perhaps because he, too, did not know why Moses was taking so long. Aaron, like the Israelites, had grown tired of waiting. And when they complained to Aaron “We do not know what has become of him,” what they were really saying is We do not know what has become of God! In other words, Where is God? 😦

Which often is our question, isn’t it? When things do not happen quickly enough. It is our worst attribute—waiting. According to Dr. Seuss, waiting is “a most useless place.”*  But that is only true if the one we are waiting for does not love us. And so, we must confess that when we are impatient with God, what we are really saying is God must not care for us! Which is soooo not true! God loves us!

The fact is—waiting is our great opportunity for growing our faith. It is actually the only time our faith will grow. We love God because of what he has done for us. We thank God for giving us things and we thank him when things go according to our plans. But we cannot really say we have faith in God (not that he exists, but that he loves us with unfailing love) until we are forced to wait on him to act—in other words, to truly trust him. 🤔 That is when we discover what faith really is: “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen!”⁴  Faith is trusting God when he seems absent.

So what we do with our waiting time is crucial. What did the Israelites do? They probably were fine without Moses for a few days, but after a couple of weeks, some began to grumble, and around week three, others started fretting, and at week four, many doubted Moses was returning, and when week five came, most had given up on waiting. It was not a sudden change of heart. It was a drifting. And on day 41, they decided God did not care for them anymore, that waiting was “a most useless place,” a waste of their time. And they asked Aaron to choose another god for them. And he did! 😧

It’s a really sad story. What they should have done as they waited was to celebrate what God had already done for them—things like parting the Red Sea and providing bread from heaven and water from the rock and defeating the Amalekites—little things like that! Plus, they had made a promise to God: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”⁵ But instead of trusting God to do what he said he would do (never leave them), they drifted away. Oh, and by the way. Guess what day Moses descended from the mountain? Day 41. 🙄

So . . . how’s your waiting time going? 😬

¹Exodus 24:14   ²Exodus 32:1    ³Exodus 3:7-8   ⁴Hebrews 11:1   ⁵Exodus 19:8   *Seuss, Dr. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Random House, 1990.