Do You Want to Run Away?

 Over the last year as life has sometimes seemed crazy in light of Covid and the political climate in America, my wife, Traci, and I have often talked about just wanting to get away from it all. We want to buy some isolated tract of land in the mountain west, build our tiny home, and get away from all of the problems of the current world. 

While this solution seems like it might work for us personally, when we examine what God really wants us to do with our lives, we discover that one of the enduring truths about life is that we are not supposed to live just for ourselves. In this series of articles, I have examined some truths that endure even when things get tough. The truth of God’s sovereignty and goodness. The truth of our sinful nature and need for a savior. The truth that Jesus loves us in and through all circumstances. In this article, I want to focus on the truth that God created us to love Him and to love others, and that particularly when life is hard we are called to show His love to the world.

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus responded that we are supposed to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and second to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). So if we are going to follow in Jesus’s footsteps, we are going to need to learn to love God and love others in all situations. In fact, one of the ways that Jesus’s type of love is different than our modern transactional view of love is that He loved people even when they did not love Him (Romans 5:8).

True godly love is the type that is revealed in the worst of times. Can you love by serving your family after a hard day of work when your body is sore and your mind is tired? Can you care about a person even when they treat you unjustly and say mean things about you that are not true? Can you show love when you are sick? Can you show love when you are grieving and someone says something inconsiderate? 

All of these times are when we want to run away and have some “me time.” Our world tells us that we deserve a break, and that we should ask the question “who cares about me?” The truth is that in this world, perhaps we will not find justice, love, rest, and care from others. Jesus, the best man to ever live, was abandoned by His friend and tortured and killed by His enemies, but He still loved them and died to make His enemies into His friends.

In these bad times we can only find the strength to sacrificially love others by experiencing His supernatural love for us. When we fill up on His love, we then become the instruments of His love. When we see someone in distress, we will sacrifice our time to stop and comfort them. We will sacrifice our money to help those in need, even when we know that their own behavior led to some of their problems. We will choose to listen and respond gently when someone brings a criticism that we think is unfair. We will fight to restore relationships that are broken by sin, even if it means we have to admit and ask forgiveness for our own sins.

When we build our lives on the solid foundation of a loving relationship with our Lord and Savior, we do not have to run away from the brokenness in the world. Instead, we are called to enter into the brokenness and show others the love that Jesus has for them, so that more people will desire to build their lives on a relationship with Him. The truth is that people need the Lord and we have the exciting job to run into the crisis where people are desperate for help and show them that Jesus is their ultimate hope. If we really know and understand these enduring truths about God, our world, and ourselves then our lives will continue to change to become more like Jesus, and others will see and feel His love coming through us.

The truth is . . . Jesus loves you.

I have a question for you, does your phone love you? Do the little words and pictures on the screen provide you with a sense of belonging? Do you find significance and purpose for your life on Instagram and Facebook? Are your Instagram followers going to be there when your life does not look like it has been put through a photo filter?

In this series of articles, I have wanted to remind us of some eternal truths in the middle of our uncertain and chaotic world. The first article reminded us about God’s good nature and sovereignty, while the second article reminded us that because of the fallen nature of man we cannot look to earthly solutions for lasting peace and joy. In this article, I want to remind you that Jesus loves you, so that when our Facebook and Instagram lives fall apart, we will know where we can turn.

Perhaps you are at the point where you feel worthless. You recognize that through your failures, sin, and lack of effort you have not lived up to your potential in the eyes of the world or God. Your life does not match the image that other people put out there, or perhaps you feel worthless because you know all to well that you are a sinner. Well, I have some great news for you!! Jesus came to save people just like you. He talks specifically to you saying, “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10), and "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). When Jesus tells us that God loves the world (John 3:16), He is not talking about people who have it all together, but rather to His enemies (Romans 5:7-10).

Maybe though Jesus’ love is hard to experience right now just because this year has been hard. Perhaps you are simply depressed because you do not have hope that the pandemic will ever end or that we can really have peace in our world. Maybe you are sick or in grief because you have lost someone. How does Jesus’ love help in the middle of trouble that you did not cause and that you cannot fix? How can sickness, death, and war even be reconciled with the love of Jesus? Well, the Bible tells us that Jesus’ goal for us is not primarily to make us healthy, wealthy, and safe in this life, but rather to transform us into the type of people who can handle adversity by learning to truth Him in all circumstances. In fact, James 1:2-4 and Romans 5:3-5 make it clear that He brings trouble specifically to help us form character. Like a bodybuilder using heavy weights to build muscle, God uses trials to help us build better character. He says, that all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), so we can see trouble as an opportunity to trust Jesus more. 

Jesus’ love is so solid that we can have hope that no matter what happens in this world, we can find real love and purpose. As the apostle Paul says at the end of Ephesian 3, nothing can separate us from the love of God. He knows you without the screen, without the filters, without the makeup, and without hitting the like button. He loves you right where you are. Will you come to Him just as you are and let Him love you in the good and bad? Will you let His love be the grounding of your life? Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells me so!!

The Truth about God

Has this last year been been harder than other years for you? Has it seemed like things have been constantly changing? In this series of articles, I want to go remind you of some unchanging truths that you can build your life upon no matter what. In this article I will focus first on some of the aspects of God's nature. 

First, God does not change. Neither His character and nor His plans change, and therefore we can trust Him to stay the same and that His promises are true and that His prophecies will come true.

Hebrews 13:8 says,

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever, and 

Psalm 102:25-27 says,

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

When all the world around us seems uncertain and all of our plans for the future are in jeopardy, we can know where to run and where to stand firm. But it would do us no good to run to God unless we knew that He was also good. 

Fortunately, we can know that God is good by examining His world and His Works.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:3

Good and upright is the Lord. Psalm 25:8

This last week I saw a number of people posting pictures of the beauty of the world, as frost had fallen on all the trees in our area. We had an incredible winter wonderland around us, and it caused me to break into song praising the creator. 

Whenever we examine the beauty of creation whether out in nature or in the faces of the people all around us, we should along with its creator declare, "It is good," and then remember that the creation is a reflection of its creator.

But where we see the ultimate goodness and love of God is at the cross. God came into a broken world to redeem a people die Himself. God's goodness is ultimately experienced in the redemption. When you experienced it yourself, you can't help but praise Him for his goodness and thank him for the good things that he has giving you.

Third, God is sovereign, so submit to Him.

Colossians 1:16–17

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The Truth about Ourselves and the World

Everyday, the Auschwitz Museum posts pictures on social media of people who were killed at the Nazi death camp. I look at the pictures of men, women, and children, and imagine what their lives were like before they were so cruelly killed. I have also been reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book, The Gulag Archipelago, which details the horrors of the Soviet system of repression that killed millions and lasted for decades. While reading about the atrocities of the past is not pleasant, it is important for us to remember man's inhumanity to man. But we do not just have to read history books to detail this, rather all we need to do is turn on the news or go on social media to see modern examples of evil. In fact, all we really have to do is interact with people in everyday life, and we will experience evil in our world and in ourselves. 

Last week, I wrote about God's unchanging good and sovereign nature which helps us have a firm place to stand in our uncertain world. This week I want us to examine the truths about why our world is so broken. To do this we need to go to Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve disobeyed God's command, and as a consequence their relationship with Him was broken and the whole world was affected. The Apostle Paul declares in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," which tells us that the problems in the world are not just with those people over there (the democrats, the republicans, the boomers, the millennials, the foreigners, the racists, etc.), but with all people everywhere including ourselves. It's really easy to see the problems in the people or groups that we hate, but it's much harder to recognize that we are in the same category and liable to the same sins. But we tend to minimize sin in our own lives, and give ourselves and our group more credit for being able to fix the world. If we just gave power to the right president, the right party, the right scientists, the right judges, (you know people who think like me), then the whole world would be fixed.

A really good example of this in the past year has been how we have dealt with Covid, and who we blame for it. Over the last few months, the virus continues to break out no matter the policies which we have tried to implement in accordance with this expert or that expert opinion. It's hard to give total credit, and therefore hard to give total blame to any particular expert or system because it seems like so many places in the world with different policies and different ways of dealing with the pandemic have all had to face outbreaks. If it was not so tragic, it would be funny how many times someone has declared that they have figured it out only to be proven wrong a month or two later. Yet we all are still seeking the correct expert and the right science to try to save ourselves. 

I'm not saying that there aren't better and worse ways to handle issues in the world, but rather that we often make the assumption that some person if they did the right thing could simply fix the problems. This is a denial of the effects of the sin, namely that the world is broken in such a way that we cannot totally fix it. No matter who we put in charge, they will still be a sinner and they will still be limited in their abilities. The more they try to fix the problems on their own, the more clear it will be that they are not all-powerful, they are not inherently good, and that they do not hold the future in their hands. In other words they are not God, and so are not worthy of our complete trust and allegiance.

The biggest and scariest unfixable problem is that we are all going to die, and no human no matter how smart or powerful can fix that. Right in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were told that the consequence of disobeying God was that they would surely die. So much of our modern life is set up to prolong life and ignore the possibility of death. Unfortunately, even with all of our intelligence, technology, and science, we haven't come up with a way to avoid death. Things like covid, cancer, and old age remind us of the limits of our control.

On a personal level, this was made clear to me in 2012 when my son Micah, who was only 11 years old, passed away. He had an autoimmune disease that affected his kidneys and also developed another disease that affected his blood vessels. Even though we were doctoring at Mayo Clinic with some of the best healthcare in the world, we could not save his life. 

We need someone bigger and better than ourselves to save us from our sin and it's consequence -- death. The truth is that there is only one who has lived a perfect life, died to pay the penalty of our sin, and rose again to show us that His sacrifice was acceptable to God and that death was defeated. We need to acknowledge the truth that we are broken, that our brokenness breaks the world, and that therefore we need a savior. Jesus is the only one that can save us and redeem the whole world (see Act 4:12 and John 14:6).

As you look around at the hurting in the world and perhaps the hurting in your own soul, remember to seek your help and salvation in the only one who has beaten both sin and death. 

Thankful for Covid?

As I have been contemplating Thanksgiving this year, it is easy for me to get caught up in thinking about all the bad things rather than remembering the good things. But as I thought about it, I remembered the concept of "the ugly beautiful" that I read about in Ann Voskamp's Book, One Thousand Gifts. When she was a young child, Ann's family experienced the loss of her three year old sister in a tragic accident, and that event profound affected her family and her growing up years. In the book she writes about being thankful, and she reflected on this horrific event and the negative impacts it had on her family. She came to the conclusion that God can use even the ugly things of life and make them into something beautiful.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, the Apostle Paul reminds us to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus," and in Romans 8:28, he says "that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." This all things includes that hardest things of life. It does not mean the things themselves are good, but rather that God uses even the bad things for good. Therefore, I want to learn to thank God for the ugly beautiful things. In this year, that means I am have been considering why I can thank God for Covid. What good things has God done because of Covid. 

Refocus on what's important

First, God has used Covid to help me focus on what is really important. A disease that can kill reminds me that life here on earth is not eternal, and not our ultimate purpose. We were made to live for something, no, someone more important. Philippians 1:21 is my life verse and it says, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," but I do not live that verse out. Frequently, I live for myself and my own limited pleasures. I forget my Savior and that I have turned my life over to Him to be transformed. When I have to consider my own mortality, I have to reconsider what my purpose. I remember that my life is an eternal, that needs to be lived for and with Christ moment by moment. 

One of the most poignant moments for me about the need to focus on eternal things came this last week when a friend of ours lost her husband, who we also knew, to Covid. This friend walked with us through the hardest moment of loss in our lives, and now is having to walk through a time of deep grief herself. She is declaring her faith and trust in Jesus, and proclaiming her husband's faith as well. In the middle of loss, she has a sure hope that that God is with her, and she will see hee husband again because he knew Jesus too.

To focus on what is important we often need to stop, and Covid certainly stopped a large part of the world. God built a hard stop into his system for the Jewish people called the Sabbath, and He did it because He knew they needed it. During this stop, many families have gotten to (had to?) spend more time together. For our family at least, it provided more moments around the table and more time to remember how important these people are us. 

In other cases, it has meant long separations from family and friends that we care deeply about, and our heart aches as we long to see and hug them again. One friend of mine declared that even though she is an introvert she did not realize how much she still needed people! When things are easy we can take them for granted, and when we take people for granted, we fail to love them like we should. My hope is that we do not just go back to the way things were when we were too busy or too distracted to pay attentions to the friends and family that should really matter to us.

If we are going to be able to learn from this time, we also need to focus on and repent from the the things we were not doing right. God tells us regularly in His word that hard times are times to examine ourselves and rlturn from our sin. If we are not focused on eternal things and we have not been loving our family and friends the way, it means we been focused on the wrong things. God is using Covid as a way to stop us and have us reconsider what is really important, so that real change can happen in our lives.

So I thank God for Covid because He is using it to help me and others to focus on what is really important.

Character

In this process He is using hardships like Covid to develop our character, so that we can become the people He created us to be. In many gyms and weightrooms hangs the sign, "No Pain, No Gain." God built the world in such a way that hardship and pressure are the forces that can break or strengthen objects and people. Here are some ways that God can is using the pain of Covid to form our character.

* Perseverance - How many times in the year have you thought or said, "Is it over yet?" I have many, many times felt a weariness with having to get up the next day to face so much uncertainty. To have to go through the motions of life not knowing if this or that event is even going to be held or whether or not I will get to see this or that person. For some of you it has meant dealing with long-term Covid symptoms. Will today be the day I can go without a blinding headache; I can get out of bed and move around; that my fevor breaks; that I can breath properly again? How do we do life in such conditions? God has given us the opportunity to perservere in and through these challenges. Although none of us has done it perfectly, many are learning that even when life is uncertain they can still get up tomorrow, serve others, do their jobs, and run the race of life even with a stitch in their side (I used to be a cross country runner!)

* Hope - The end result of a learning to perservere with God's help is a life of hope. Right now we see many people despairing, lonely, depressed, and even suicidal. If our lives are not focused on and then refocused over and over on Christ, then in the middle of crisis we will discover those other things will let us down. Money, success, sports, health, and even family and friends will let us down. Only through Christ can we find meaning for our lives and He then puts the other good things in our lives in proper perspective too. So when everything else goes away, we still have Jesus, and He is more than enough.

If you are finding yourself in despair and depression right now, I would encourage you to look to Jesus. If you have never really known Him, spend time getting to know Him now. He is worth it. Get off the internet and news, and read the Bible. Try the Gospels to learn about Him. Read 1 Peter to learn about hope. Read Philippians to learn about joy. He does not promise a change of circumstances in this life, and in fact He promises His followers extra hardship, but He does promise to be with us and to bring us to glory. Covid has reminded me over and over about my need to refocus on these truths and find my hope and joy in Jesus.

* Love - In many places and times in our world, love is simply a transaction between people to get what they want. As long as you are giving me what I need, I will give you what you need. But real love, God's love, is not like that, and He wants us to learn how to love unconditionally like He did and does. Covid and 2020 in general has provided many opportunities to love others even when we do not feel like it. How many times have you had serious disagreements over the proper way to try to combat Covid, or who to vote for, or how to handle race relations? As you gather or don't gather today, are there people close to you with whom you are not happy because of their choices and ideas? Well, guess what? That is a perfect opportunity to learn how to love people better! Yippee, we "get" to love our enemies (and family), because that is exactly what God has done for us. I know it has been an especially challenging season for people in any kind of leadership position, and so often we can get mad at their decisions but how often to we pray for them and thank them for taking on the hard jobs. Our church and our leadership team has had some intense moments this last year, but I love those people more now because we have had honest discussion while still showing love to each other. Take this opportunity to express your love, especially those who are hard for you to love. Thank God for giving us a chance in 2020 to learn to love in the middle of the ugly beautiful.

God's grace and mercy

One of the reasons that prompted me to write this is that I have often focused on the wrong things this year and not been thankful. I listen to the news and talk almost constantly about the bad stuff that has happened or that might happen. Instead, I want to learn to see the good that God is doing, and also remember to thank Him for the good we regularly have. Things often are not as bad as they could be, but I forget to thank Him for His daily grace and mercy.

For instance, even Covid is not as bad as we originally thought. In March, I was thinking that the fatality rate was going to be much higher than it proved to be. I expected that several people in our church could pass away and many people in our local communities. I am not denying that Covid is serious (remember I just had a friend pass away this week), but should we not thank God for His mercy in not allowing a much worse tragedy? Have our prayers for mercy for many of our sick friends not been answered with a yes? I praise God for allowing many of my friends to recover from Covid. I thank Him for many others who have not gotten sick or who have had mild cases. I praise God that although He allows diseases, He also made us with immune systems that fight diseases. I thank God for modern homes and good food so that many of us already live longer and healthier than most people throughtout history. I thank God for wisdom from doctors and researchers who have developed many treatments that did not exist even 100 years ago. We are blessed in many ways and God can and is using Covid to remind us of those daily blessings.

Conclusion

Being thankful in the midst of and even for the hardest things in life gives us a new perpective. They remind us of God's sovereignty and His goodness. Therefore, instead of a life filled with fear and uncertainty worrying about new hardships, we can live with hope, joy, and love. Going forward, I pray for myself and you, that because of the hardship faced we will be more prepared for the next challenges and for eternity with our Lord and Savior.

Why do we have so much fear?

In an age when so many people (especially young people) live in fear of climate disaster, and all the news we get is negative about the future, I think it's important to have some realism about what's actually happening. We need a better historical perspective. Here Bjorn Lomborg shows us the life is actually safer from natural disasters that it used to be. The physical parts of life used to be much harder and much more dangerous for most people. We especially in the west live in much safer times, but we probably live in more fear than people in the past did.

As I heard one Pastor put it recently, we have an idol of safety. We want to feel safe in all circumstances, and we magnify every danger if it makes us feel unsafe, even if we are actually physically much safer than we used to be. I'm convinced it's a control issue. We want the illusion of having control of all the parts of our lives, but we can't, because we aren't God.

But there are several problems with focusing on eliminating danger and staying safe as an ultimate goal. One is that we live in fear instead of a life of faith and trusting God with our future. Second because we don't want to fail and we don't take the risks necessary to accomplish bigger things. This is not just in physical areas, but also relational and emotional risks.

This is why identity in Christ is so important. If you know that you are loved by your creator and that your eternity is secure, then you can live without fear.

Fear can motivate people to action, but it's a horrible way to live. If instead you can live in the safety a God's love, then you can still respond to challenges and not be crippled by your fear of what might happen.

Humble yourselves before the Lord.

Daily thoughts from my Scripture reading.

Jam 4:6 — 10

But He gives greater grace. Therefore He says:

God resists the proud,

but gives grace to the humble.,

Therefore, submit to God. But resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, double-minded people! Be miserable and mourn and weep. Your laughter must change to mourning and your joy to sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

This is so counter cultural. The world tells you that you need to build yourself up, and that if you listen to your heart whatever you want to do is fine. God says that we cannot build ourselves up and that we need to recognize our sin and humble ourselves before Him. Then our Identity can be remade by Him! Lord, I humble myself before you. You are the only one who is great, and I am nothing with you. Thank you for loving me and lifting me up, not for my own glory, but for yours! Please transform me so that my life reflects you more and more.