Defeating Loneliness

Imagine living your entire life in isolation because of a disease.  Or imagine having a family, a spouse, or children that you are suddenly torn from because you would spread the disease to them if they even touched you.  Lepers in Jesus day lived that way.  They weren’t allowed to live in the city, but had to live outside the city walls.  When people came near them they had to shout “unclean! unclean!”,  just to keep people from coming near.  Their flesh would just rot away for the rest of their life. Homesick.  In pain. Rejected. Outcast. Hopeless.  And although leprosy was horrible and painful, and there was no cure, there was a deeper pain lying beneath their deteriorating skin. These people were utterly alone…until they met Jesus.   

Matthew 8:2-3 : “Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached him and knelt before him. “Lord,” the man said, “if you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” And instantly the leprosy disappeared.

Scared, afraid, hopeless, but this desperate man asked Jesus for help. And what does Jesus do first? He reaches out and touches him.  And Jesus clearly didn’t have to. There were plenty of times when Jesus would simply speak and a person was healed.  But when Jesus healed this Leper, he intentionally reached out and touched him first, then he said “be healed!” Do you realize how powerful that is?  How many years had this man gone without a simple pat on the shoulder, or a hug from a friend, or a kiss from his wife, or his children riding on his back. How he must have yearned for community and friendship.  And here, the Creator of the Universe reaches out and touches him.  Jesus knew that this man had a disease that was much harsher than leprosy.  This man was plagued with loneliness. 

We don’t see very many people suffering from leprosy here in America, although there certainly are many in other places of the world.  But we have something here that is just as potent.  I recently read a story about a young student visiting Mother Teresa in Calcutta.  She was there ministering to and caring for people with leprosy.  The student told Mother Teresa that he had decided to go back to the United States and learn how to care for these people, and then return to Calcutta to care for the sick.  Mother Teresa surprised the young student by saying, “Why do you want to do that?" She continued, "There is a poverty in your country that is just as severe as our poorest of the poor."  The student was shocked at this, as he had seen such severe poverty in Calcutta that would make even the poorest in the United States look wealthy.  Mother Teresa went on to say, “In the West there is a loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways, it is worse than our poor in Calcutta."

So many people in our culture struggle with loneliness. Maybe you do.  Do you know that Jesus sees this?  If you struggle with loneliness, you know how awful it can feel.  To have no one, ironically in a place where there are so many people, so many things to do.  But when you don’t have friendship or human interaction your spirit is suffering from something more crippling than leprosy is to the body. Inside, you’re just rotting away. But there is hope for you. Just as the man with leprosy received healing from Jesus, you can too. Jesus loves you.  He doesn’t want you to suffer with loneliness. He created you for friendship and community.  Be like the leper today and ask Jesus to help you.  Just as he said to the suffering man 2,000 years ago, “I am willing”, He says it to you now.  His desire for you is to bring you out of that disease.  Psalm 68:6 says, “God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.”  If you are imprisoned by loneliness, ask God to set you free.  Ask Him to place you in a family, a church family, a group of friends.  And if you aren’t suffering from loneliness, look around you and reach out to those that are.  Your friendship to them could mean more than anything.  We can stop this epidemic from spreading if we are willing, as Jesus was, to reach out.   

Jesus at Cana

Feasts were a big deal in Jesus’ day. Wedding feasts in particular. The celebration would last for a whole week. Everyone looked forward to this kind of event because it meant good food, good wine, and good times with friends. I think it is so beautiful that at one of these feasts Jesus performed his very first miracle.

Here’s how it all played out. Jesus mother had been invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus had just gathered around him the friends that we would call the 12 disciples, and they too were invited to the celebration. Perhaps Jesus saw this event as a time to strengthen the bond with his new friends. Whether because of His wisdom, or His kind eyes, or some other incredible reason, they were drawn to Him. This time, however, they would just hang out. Sure, that sounds slightly less reverent than one might to like to hear Jesus described. Many probably like to picture Him with a solemn look or a kind smile as he taught his disciples. And there were surely times that he was that way. But can you imagine that Jesus, here at this wedding, laughed with his friends. He enjoyed their company and they enjoyed his. He probably told some good jokes too. For Jesus, it was a special time. He knew that he would have about three years with these men. His first miracle would begin an all too short ministry. But here, at this feast, he was just with them. The King was dining, and dancing, and celebrating with his people.

As Jesus sat enjoying the feast, his mother, Mary, approached and informed him that the wine supply had run out. This was a big deal. In a culture that saw hospitality as an important duty, it was an embarrassment for the host to run out of wine. Jesus’ mother may have been helping the hostess prepare and serve the banquet or perhaps just overheard the bad news, either way she no doubt was very concerned for the reputation of the wedding hosts. So when she approached Jesus and asked him to intervene, he said, “’Woman, why do you involve me?...My hour has not yet come.” I do not see Jesus as solemnly, even poetically, asking his mother why she would bother him with a problem like that. Nor do I see him as being stern with her. I think Jesus looked at His mother, while in the middle of a laugh, and said these words in a kind, joyful manner. Did you ever have a moment when you were playing a game with friends or brothers and your mom comes in and tells you that you need to load the dishwasher? I remember times like this. Sometimes we’d be jokingly say, “Isn’t that your job mom?” and she’d laugh at our witty response but we knew she still meant business. So we’d say, “I’ll do it in just a minute. 5 more minutes?” and she would say, “No, now”. I see this sort of interaction with Jesus and his mom. Jesus was almost saying, “C’mon mom, 5 more minutes?” She probably smiled back and gave a look that mother’s often give their children, one that’s masqueraded as stern, with raised eyebrows that mean business but a half-smile that shows understanding and says, no, now. She doesn’t give Jesus much of an option, does she? She just tells the servants to do whatever He tells them to, and Jesus obeys. Jesus loved his mother dearly.

This story is so beautiful because we see Jesus as wanting, if just for a moment, to feel the friendship and fellowship of the people He created, without thinking about the price He would have to pay. “Please Just 5 more minutes just being with my people before they know how serious things are going to get?” Perhaps He wanted to savor the moment, and His mother’s words brought him back to the reality of His path. The moment He did the miraculous, the moment people knew who He was, the closer He came to the cross. Jesus knew what He would have to do, and it was time. So Jesus turned the water to wine. He “revealed His glory (John 2:11).” And we aren’t talking a couple of bottles of wine as a gift for the bride and groom. The amount of water that Jesus turned into wine would be the equivalent of 908 BOTTLES of wine. And it was the best wine, because host of the banquet was surprised that the groom had saved the best wine for last. In this Jesus revealed His deity, and His friends stood in awe. He did the impossible before their eyes, and scripture says that they put their faith in Him. Now, there was no turning back. The journey toward Calvary had begun.

I don’t think the story ended there though. As Jesus watched the people enjoy the wine he had miraculously made for them, I wonder if He longed for the day when He would rejoice with them again in the Kingdom of God. There nothing would run out. There they would all be free. At that point, as He watched the people He would die to save, perhaps Jesus’ fear of the cross changed to courage. He knew that this path would eventually lead Him right back to this very celebration. A path that began with a feast.

No place I’d rather be.

Most of my friends have just fallen in love with this very simple, very powerful song by United Pursuit Band called “Set a Fire.”  The first lyrics go like this: “There’s no place I would rather be. No place I’d rather be. No place I’d rather be, than here in Your love, here in Your love.” 

 I think sometimes when I say “no place I’d rather be than here in Your love” what I mean by “here” is in this place, with these people.  Which, sure, that’s true.  But I think there is so much more to it than that.

Do you realize that God’s love is so real and so powerful and so present that it is more like a place than a feeling?  Jesus said, “remain in my love”.  What does that mean?  It means that being in His love is like being in a place.  That place is not confined to a certain room or to a certain group of people. It is a place that you never ever have to leave.  To be in His love is to be in His presence. 

There is no place I would rather be than in the love of Jesus.  Where else could I go? This place carries me from day to day, from burden to freedom, from life to death and then to life again.  I want more of that love. I want it to be so very real that I feel it deep in my soul and in my bones.

The next lyrics are, “Set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain, that I can’t control. I want more of You God.”  I want that. I want this love to be so real that it’s a fire in me that I cannot keep contained or bottled up.  I want more of it too.  I want to be in His love more, and more, each day. That’s the place where I become me and everyone I love becomes more themselves.  I can love them more easily there.  I can be free to live there.  Free of fear. Free from accusations.  Really, the reason I love this song so much and the reason I can sing the same lyrics over and over is because this is what I need, and what I desire.  Why? Because it’s in His love that I find everything I need.  No place I’d rather be. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A8almp_nCU

Life's Not Fair, But It Should Be

When the topic of disciplining children comes up, you no doubt will hear several people agree with this statement: “The world isn’t fair. We have to prepare our children for that reality.” 

Well, that is true. The world isn’t fair. It’s filled with injustice, disease, and oppression.  So what’s wrong with teaching our children this?

The problem is that we are teaching one half of the lesson and not the second.  True, our world is not fair, and they must be prepared for that reality.  However, we must not forget that even though our world isn’t right, it should be.  It should be. It was created to be. Children are dying of disease and starvation in Africa.  Well, that’s just life kids. No! No, not at all!  That isn’t just life. It doesn’t have to be. By teaching our kids only the first half of the lesson, we give them an excuse to let things remain the way they are.  But if we encourage them to see this fallen world as just that, fallen, messed up, and damaged, then we not only prepare them for that reality but we also prepare them to do something about it.  We hand them the keys to a car that doesn’t run correctly and we say if you want this vehicle to run right you have to fix it.  Sure, it will get you from A to B if you leave it as it is.  But you’ll spend a lot of time on the side of the road.   

Our world was meant to be wonderful, peaceful, and free. Our world isn’t right because of sin.  But Jesus died to free our world from sin.  And Jesus gave us the command to tell the whole world about that Good News.  He said that if we love Him, we will obey Him (John 14:15).  He commanded us to love one another.  We can do our part to bring this world to a place of peace as much as possible until God finally finishes the restoration and creation joins us in the freedom of His Kingdom.

So, instead of saying, “welp, that’s just life. You’ll just have to deal with it,” our children will say, “something isn’t right here, and I need to do whatever I can to make it right.” 

We can’t teach our kids to be satisfied with “the way things are” because they shouldn’t be this way.  The lesson must be that life is this way, but we can do our part to change that every single day.  Make sure you always share both halves of the lesson and your kids will grow to be people who love God, fight for justice, end oppression, and wait patiently for God to restore all things, as He promised.    

Accomplished.

God gets things done.  When He makes a plan or sets a goal, He sees His part through, always. Isaiah 14:24: “The LORD Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen."  He never gives up or gives in.  I wish I was more like Him.

I want to accomplish something.  I want to set a goal and see it through.  Why can’t I?  I plan to do something, and I start out well, but then suddenly I give up.  I don’t try long enough.  Why? Its not that I don’t want to.  I want to more than anything. So why am I always stopped short? 

Part of it is that the enemy doesn’t want me to achieve my goals.  Accomplishment is a Godly thing.  Seeing things through is what God does.  So if I am trying to accomplish something that would please God, Satan’s going to try to stop me.  He’ll play on all of my insecurities and use people to bring me down, without them even realizing the crushing pain they’ve inflicted on my heart. But the bad part is, I give up. I believe that the words used against me are true. Satan attacks, and  I let him.  Why?

I’ve decided that I’ve come to a place where I have to take this whole “strength in You” thing seriously.  I need Him to help me achieve my goals. If I set a goal and say, “I’m going to do it”, then I need to ask Jesus to do what He does when He sets a goal: achieve it.   I can’t do it on my own. Isaiah 26:12 confirms this: “LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”  It is God that helps us accomplish what we set out to do. 

So I’m going to try as hard as possible, and ask God to help me when I’m weak.  Like really ask Him.  When I feel weak, God, help me see this through.  I need You to push me.  I need You to pick me up and encourage me. 

Above all, I’ve got to trust that He’ll do this.  I have to believe that if God said He wants me to be free from my sins, from my insecurities, that He’ll see it through.  Mary believed it.  She believed that if God said she was going to impossibly conceive, that it would happen. She obeyed. She did her part.  I’ve got to do the same. Luke 1:45 “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” I just pray that soon I can look at something in my life and say, “I did it, because of Jesus Christ.”

First Love Awakening

Revelation 2: 4-5

 ^“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.  Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

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You have forsaken me,

Fallen from the heights.

Return to me,

Remember me,

First love awakening.

Again someday you’ll sing

The songs you wrote

Just for me, so long ago,

when your heart was after me.

You stopped short of the chorus,

But I never stopped the harmony.

I’ll keep singing as you sleep,

As I wait for you to wake.

Remember me.

Do you hear the melody?

I’m singing it for you

When First love awakens

You’ll sing it too.

Encourage Me

Psalm 10:17:

“ You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;  you encourage them, and you listen to their cry”

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Encourage me

Comfort me with You, only You.

Because I feel like no one sees me.

But you always do.

Jesus, You are enough.

Sift my soul

Let the pain fall through

All I need is You.

Let your words remain

No others entertained

All I need is You.

Encourage me

Cause You know me, only You

No one heals my heart like you do

They can’t see my despair

But you’re always there

Jesus, You are enough.