In Another’s Place   

If you knew that only a few would care that you came, would you still come? If you knew that those you loved would laugh in your face, would you still care? If you knew that the tongues you made would mock you, the mouths you made would spit at you, the hands you made would crucify you, would you still make them? Christ did.  Max Lucado

Several years ago I was reading a devotional by Rick Warren, the author of “A Purpose Driven Life”.  In the devotional he talked about a form of studying God’s Word that I found interesting.  He talked about the Picture It Method of Bible meditation.  What he meant is that you take stories from the Bible and put yourself in the biblical character’s place. 

When I started thinking about meditating on a story from the Bible I chose the story of Jesus and Peter.  Remember how Jesus knew his life here on earth was coming to an end and he also knew what kind of end it would be.  He was going to die on a cross.  Peter talked about how much he loved Jesus and how he would do anything for Him and never betray Him.  But that is exactly what Peter did and Jesus knew ahead of time that it would happen because He told Peter exactly that.   

Can you imagine putting yourself in Peter’s shoes?  You are going through life thinking that you would never betray a friend and you promise you will never betray them and then when push comes to shove you do the very thing you said you would never do.

Then imagine putting yourself in Jesus’ shoes.  You are at the lowest point in your human life and all you want is for someone to stand by you on the road to your death.  Can you imagine how Jesus must have felt when Peter denied knowing Him not just once, but three times?  The hurt Jesus felt must have been tremendous.  Here is the kicker.  Jesus loved Peter anyway.  He didn’t stop loving him because Peter betrayed Him. 

That is the kind of love we are to have for each other and the sad part is we often fail just like Peter did.  The good news is we are redeemed through the very betrayal that occurred so many years ago.  The very reason Jesus was betrayed is the hope we have for redemption through his suffering. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, when I place myself in another’s shoes, it helps me to see things from their perspective, not just my own.  Help me to look at others the way Jesus did.  Help me to love others in a realistic way without expectations of what I should get in return. 

Scripture:   Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’  But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.”  Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.”  Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And so said all the disciples. Matthew 26:31-35

 

A Baby Panda   

“An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

I was watching TV several days ago and there was a story about the newest baby panda to be born at a zoo in the United States. It was the first day for the panda to be seen by the world.  He and his mother had come out of their den to see a totally different world.  He was basically a big ball of black and white fur.  In one segment of the video they showed him sitting by his mother and then he lost his balance as babies often do and he proceeded to roll off the rock ledge to the bottom.  It looked like he instinctively did the tuck and roll thing because once he hit the bottom he sat up and looked around.  His mother was sitting at the top enjoying a bamboo shoot and ignoring the tumble her baby took. 

Watching nature is one of my favorite past times because it always amazes me how God created the creatures around us.  This reminded me of the sermon at our church on Sunday.  Our pastor was talking about the two sides of love.  There is tender love and there is tough love.  I think the mother panda was doing a little tough love as she let the baby roll down the hill and ignored him.  She didn’t run down the hill to see if he was injured, or pick him up and try to console him.   

We are called as Christians to practice both tough love and tender love.  There are circumstances in life where we are to practice one or the other.  The problem with this is that how we handle either one of these can either break or build up another human being.  I have a tendency to lean more on the side of tender love.  That is not always a good thing because certain times call for tough love and that doesn’t always come naturally to me. 

The thing that our pastor said that struck me was that tough love means that when we see another Christian taking a wrong path, our love for that person should be such that we confront them with love and how we handle and give tough love can make or break that person.

Tough love is not about breaking the person down.  It is about loving the person enough to approach them with kindness and love to talk about the tough things. It is also about determining what our motive is, the importance of the issue and then praying about it.  We have to evaluate all of these things to determine if tough love is necessary.

I admit I am not good at expressing tough love. The majority of the time I avoid it because I don’t want to hurt another person’s feelings.  The reality is that I am called by God to give tough love when necessary.  I am going to work on this as it is a weakness of mine.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am not good at expressing tough love.  Please teach me how to give tough love the way You want it to be expressed.  Help me to work on this weakness.  I want to show others that I love them and that they are important to me but most important, they are important to You.  The way I handle tough love can make or break a person. 

Scripture:  And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Ephesians 4:11-16

When Trials Come   

Sometimes God calms the storm, at other times, He calms the sailor, and sometimes He makes us swim. ~Anonymous

Have you ever gotten angry at God over a trial you are suffering?  This is where I have a misconception of who God really is. 

When we face suffering and trials many times we blame God.  We do that because in our hearts we know that God can do anything, even save us from suffering but there are times when he makes us swim on our own.   I often forget who God really is and what He can do because I am so focused on getting out of the suffering and trials. 

I forget that God is the Creator of all things and that he knows exactly what I am thinking at all times.  So I put on a brave face just as we often do with people here on earth.  The irony is people are not God.  They can’t read our minds and know that we are angry or suffering.  So we place the same human attributes on an omnipotent God.  I often don’t realize that is what I am doing.  In my doubt my mind tells me that no one can save me from my suffering.  Then I become angry with God but I don’t express that anger to Him.  I forget that He already knows I am angry with Him.  He doesn’t need me to tell Him that, but He does want a closer relationship with me and that only comes with confiding to Him my sorrow and pain. 

There are numerous examples in the Bible of humans becoming angry at God and questioning why He allows them to suffer.  We see this happen with Job where he laments the day he was born and painfully asks God why He is allowing his suffering.  Paul complained to God about an unnamed trial.  He pleaded with God to remove it but God refused.  Then there is Jesus who suffered and knew that the suffering wouldn’t end until his death on the cross.  He turned to God in the Garden of Gethsemane and asked God to take this cup of suffering from him.  (Mark 14:36) Then while hanging on the cross he cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”  (Matthew 27:46)

If we become angry at God and never address it with Him through prayer we will remain angry at Him.  This is not the relationship He wants with us.          

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, when suffering and pain are in my life I often try to put on a brave face and offer up token prayers that really don’t help my relationship with You.  Help me to remember that You know everything I am feeling and thinking.  It is not necessary for me to tell You about my pain, but it strengthens my relationship with you when I pour it all out at Your feet.  You may not remove my suffering but you are always there for me to cling to in the midst of my sorrow. 

Scripture:  My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:2-5

Do Not Be Anxious   

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. ~Corrie Ten Boom, Clippings from My Notebook

I have a tendency to become anxious about things and often the very things I become anxious about never happen.  I wonder how much time I have wasted in my lifetime worrying about things that didn’t matter or never happened. 

If I decide to hold fast to Christ when anxiety overtakes me in effect I replay Christ’s victory on the cross and therefore I defeat the evil forces of Satan.  Peter said it best this way, “Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.  Instead, be very glad—because these trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory when it is displayed to all the world.”  (1 Peter 4:12-13).

Of course this is easier said than done.  It is easy to say, give it over to the Lord but then we have all these worldly influences that allow anxiety to creep back in.  It would be great if we had a Satan filter.  Kind of like a coffee filter that you wear on our head that keeps the Satan stuff from getting in and then you replace the filter every day with a new one. 

The thing is we have an excellent filter available to us at any time.  God is our filter.  He is the one who can filter out the worldly garbage that can come in the form of the things people say and do to us.  The difficult part is determining what is good and what is bad and sometimes what we think is bad, (as in trials), really are for our benefit.  God sometimes intends for us to benefit from the difficult things in life.  But He tells us not to be anxious.  He tells us in “everything”, not just the big things but the minor things as well, through supplication and thanksgiving, give your requests to Him.  It doesn’t say he will take away all the bad things it says “peace” will guard our hearts and minds through Jesus.  This means God will be with us through it.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I often become anxious over things that never happen.  That is when Satan wins.  Help me to rely on You alone for my comfort and peace.  I also praise you for the trials in my life because I am a better person for having survived the trials of life.  Please give me Your peace.

Scripture:  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.  Philippians 4:6-9

Swamp People

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings

I admit I don't really like so called “Reality TV”.  Over the New Year's holiday I watched Swamp People.  I grew up in Louisiana so I grew up sort of understanding what this lifestyle is about.  We didn't grow up like what is depicted in this show but I sometimes like to see some of the things from back home. 

There is a certain primitive beauty to the swamps of Louisiana.  God created this wilderness that is mostly underwater.  If you have ever driven across the Atchafalaya Basin you know what I mean.  There is a 18 mile bridge that crosses this body of water that is full of snakes, alligators and all other types of wildlife that most of us never want to see or live with.  Some of Louisiana's people can be described as clanish and many times they don’t associate with outsiders.  I think the reason for this is most outsiders don't understand the unique language or culture of the state.  There is no school that teaches you how to speak Cajun.  I call it shorthand French. 

The thing that struck me when I was watching the show was that the people work hard to provide for their families and they help each other when another is in need. They live very simple lives and they don't necessarily have a lot of worldly possessions but I often think they are better off because of their lack of possessions.  They don't worry about the kind of car they drive because most of them don't own one.  They don't wear the latest fashions because they don't care how they look.  They simply live simple. 

This made me think of Jesus and the story of the rich man who stored up his wealth but when Jesus told him to give his worldly possessions away and follow Him he refused and walked away.  He couldn't give away everything he had pursued his whole life and follow Jesus because he couldn't see the benefit of giving it all up to follow Jesus.

We often live the very same way every day.  We pursue worldly things because we think things will bring us happiness and they don't.  The very things we chase after often bring heartache and sorrow because they don't fill the emptiness that dwells in our heart. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to live a simple life yet worldly things are all around.  It is so easy to get caught up in the need for things and it often becomes a competition to see who can own or have the most in this life.  I would rather store up treasure in heaven.  Help me to see what is really important in this life. 

Scripture:   Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?”  So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.  But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”  He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.  What do I still lack?”  Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  Matthew 19:16-22

Manipulation

“The chief means of resisting manipulation is humility – knowing who we really are and facing it. You can only serve by love. You can only love by choice. True love cannot be the result of decree, force or manipulation. Jesus always kept his strength to make loving choices. He calls us to make loving choices necessary to be the servant of all." "Humility permits me to own my feelings – and to admit them. Now I'm free to say, ‘I'm angry’. I'm free to admit what I am reacting to. I am free to ask if anger is what the person wanted to produce in me, and to ask for help in changing if my reaction is inappropriate.”
―Gayle D. Erwin

Have you ever been manipulated?  I have a tendency to get angry when I think someone is manipulating me.  The problem with this is that I shouldn't get angry about it.  If I handle it properly it is beneficial to me and to the manipulator. 

The reason I bring this up is that I had this issue come up this week.  I work with someone who takes the bus to work every day and doesn't own a car.  When I first started my new job this lady would stop by and talk to me.  At the time I thought she was just being nice. 

Anyway, this lady started asking me to help her not long after I started work.  She needed to go to her doctor’s office to pick up medication or she needed to pick up a prescription.  She would always preface it with “I don't do this all the time” but in reality she does ask for these types of favors all the time and I found out I am not the only one she asks.   

So I started seeing a pattern.  When it snowed she asked me if I could stop by and pick her up on my way into the office.  Since I had already started seeing a pattern here, I told her no. 

I decided to take the day off before New Year's day but since I didn't have any vacation left it would be necessary for me to make up my time.  I would have to work an extra 5 hours in 3 days to make up the time for being off. 

This individual came to me on the Wednesday after New Year’s Day and asked if I could take her to a doctor's appointment and then pick her up after her appointment.  I told her no and explained that I was trying to make up time for being off on Monday.  She played the sympathy card and told me that she wasn't feeling well and needed to get to the doctor.  I admit it.  I caved.  So I told her I would take her and pick her up.  Then I started resenting her for asking.  It was my fault I caved but I resented her for asking and pushing.  Part of the reason I resented her was because she didn't seem to listen to why I couldn't help her.   

I was struggling with the fact that I think God calls us to help others in their time of need so I was asking myself why I felt resentful of her. 

Before I could confront her and before taking her to her doctor appointment, she stops me in the hall and asks if I can take her by Kroger to get her prescription filled.  I told her again that I couldn't do that because I was trying to make up time for work. 

The moral of this story is that I took her to her appointment as I had promised but I did confront her and told her I could no longer do this for her.  What did I learn from this?  If I resent doing something for someone then that action has lost its value in God’s eyes because I am not doing it with the proper love. 
  
One of the best stories in the Bible about manipulation and its consequences was the story of David and Uriah.  David manipulated Uriah to cover up his own sin with Bathsheba.   

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to help others but I don’t want to be used or manipulated.  I am also a “People Pleaser” so this is a weakness of mine.  Please help me to discern when someone has a true need that I can meet from those who just want to use me for their own ends. 

Scripture:   In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.  And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.”  So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men.  Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.  2 Samuel 11:14-17

I Am Second

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

I like the concept of “I am Second.”  You see the billboards and the t-shirts with these words and I am sure there are many who see these words and look at them with ridicule. 

I personally think this concept should be taken one step further.  I think my t-shirt should read “I am Last.”  I think this portrays what Jesus was all about.  During His short time here on earth he put himself last.  He loved those who were the least, lost and unloved.  He chose to spend His time with tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers and anyone who was unloved by society. 

In doing this Jesus was teaching us how to be humble.  It's hard to be proud or arrogant when you are hanging out with those in society who are shunned and ignored.  Jesus understood why He was here and His purpose was not to show others how much money he had or how many things he owned.  His purpose was to save the lost and each one of us is exactly that, “lost”.  Until he came to earth and died on a cross we were lost.  We would have remained lost if he hadn't decided that he would put Himself last for us. 

So, I think I will work on being last.  If I do this I will put God first and everyone else second.  Putting myself last just may be the best place to be.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I want to have a humble heart.  When I start thinking that I am better than others or when I begin to think that the things of this life on earth are important, I ask that you use whatever it takes to get my attention.  I love You Father for loving me enough to care what happens to me in this life.  I praise You for your many blessings.

Scripture:  Good and upright is the Lord; Therefore He teaches sinners in the way. The humble He guides in justice, And the humble He teaches His way.  All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.  Psalm 25:8-10

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad.  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. Psalm 34:1-3