Secure in the Tempest

Last week a friend e-mailed me a picture of waves crashing against a lighthouse.  Standing at the door was a lone person, protected from the immense crashing waves by the solid, immoveable structure of the lighthouse.  It reminded me of how alone we can feel when struggling with some huge event or illness in life, with work which seems to engulf us, a situation which seems hopeless or when we are overwhelmed by a deluge of things spinning around us.

Do you ever feel like that?  Do you ever feel that you can hardly hang on, that you have been totally engulfed by the things happening around you?  Do you ever feel like the person in the picture of the lighthouse?  As I looked at that picture I once again realized how incredible it is to have Jesus in my life, my Saviour and protector, my constant stalwart companion.  When I am overwhelmed by the stress and troubles of life He is always with me, always has His arms wrapped around me, is my shelter in the storm and He is my strength.  Life can be tough, life can throw some horrible trials at us, but in the arms of Jesus there is security.

Like the person at the door of the lighthouse, I know I am always safe.  My Saviour is holding me and nothing can sweep me away as long as I cling to Him.  Praise God, Jesus is my salvation and my refuge.

A Sunny, Warm Winter

On the west coast of Canada we are having a sunny, warm winter.  Our fellow citizens on the east coast are having one of the snowiest, coldest winters in decades.  Who are the fortunate ones?  It all depends on your perspective.

I would love a cold, wet winter here on the west coast.  I'm a skier and all this sun and balmy temperatures are depressing.  The middle of February and ski areas are closing all around us.  One nearby mountain never even opened this year because of a lack of snow.  Manning Resort where we ski has a third of it's runs open.  I want cold and lots of precipitation!  Most of my friends don't.  Most of my friends love this sunny, warm weather.  It's the year with no winter.  What could be better in Canada. 

Have you ever thought about God's dilemma.  One person wants rain, one wants snow, another wants sunny skies.  One wants housing prices to collapse so they can buy an inexpensive home, another want prices to rise so they can make money on the sale of a home.   A retailer wants our dollar to be strong so imported goods are inexpensive to sell, a manufacturer wants the dollar to be weak so he can export more easily to other countries.  How does God sort through all of it?  I don't know, but I am glad He does. We are told to pray about everything and the Bible says in 1 John chapter 5, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him."  When I walk closely with the Lord I will pray according to His will and  will see answered prayer.

Who cares about the weather!  I'll let God figure it out.  I'll concentrate on asking Him to guide me so closely that I know what He wants and can pray for what I know is His desire.

What is Christmas?

What is Christmas?  Santa Claus.  Elves and presents.  Frosty the Snowman.  Good will to others.  We get caught up in so much activity at Christmas, we are asked to believe in so many things.  I went to four Christmas parties last week!  What is important this Christmas?

Christmas, truly, is about Jesus and His birth.  He came to allow each of us to be forgiven for our disobedience to God and thus truly know God.  In the Gospel of John chapter 11 Jesus said to a friend named Martha, after the death of her brother whom Jesus was about to raise back to life (although Martha didn’t know it),

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  

What do I believe?  Christmas is incredibly special to me because I believe that God sent His only Son Jesus who would die as a sacrifice for our sins, our disobedience of God.  He died for my disobedience of God.  All I had to do was trust Jesus for forgiveness of my sins and I now have eternal life with the God the Father.  I did wrong.  I still do.  I deserve to be punished, to die for my disobedience of God, yet God gave His Son Jesus to die in my place.  How can I even understand God’s mercy?  It leaves me in absolute awe of God’s love for me, for all people everywhere who will trust Him with their lives and eternal destiny. 

Yes, Christmas is a time for families to be together, for friends to meet and celebrate together, but I am going to remember what we are really celebrating this Christmas.  I am celebrating Jesus.

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys

The other day I received a cute graphic with the words, Not my circus, not my monkeys.  The script beside the graphic said to not let yourself be pulled into other people’s dramas.  Do I do that?  Do I butt into people’s problems when I shouldn’t?

I began thinking about it.  As a Christian I do want to help people, but I realize that sometimes, maybe most of the time, my helping isn’t really helping.  Much of the time it is best to let people sort out their own problems and learn the important life lessons they need to learn.  Often we get so involved in fixing other people’s problems that they don’t really learn any lessons from what they are going through.  There is something about struggling with things yourself, being driven to Jesus in prayer, that brings not only resolution to problems but a new maturity we didn’t have before.  Yes, there are times when help is really needed, and we need to come alongside a friend and support them, but that probably isn’t nearly as often as we think.  A term I have come to use in the past is “benign neglect.”  Let the person struggle and solve their problem if possible.  They will come out far ahead if they do it themselves.

Over the past decade I have increasingly practised benign neglect, “Not my monkeys, not my circus.”  For the most part, hanging back, praying for someone, asking Jesus to teach them the lessons they need to learn, has worked.  When someone is in a truly difficult time then I am there for them, I’ll do anything I can for a friend, but a lot of the time I let them struggle a bit and learn  the life lessons they really need to learn.