God really let me down this time

I think it's hilarious when people who have just won some sort of award take the time to thank God for helping them win.  Check that thought a bit...when they thank God for their life, family, or whatever I really do think it's great.  But seriously? Thanking God for a personal award?  Lots of us have joked about it, but how awesome would it be if the coach of whoever loses in the NCAA championship gets up and says "I really think God let us down this time."  Everybody would go off!  We would attack a person who said that God caused them to lose while celebrating the person who thanks God for helping them win.  Does this make even a bit of sense?


I think this is really tied to our perception of what and who God is.  Ultimately, most of us want a magic genie...someone who can give us what we want without asking too much from us.  And there's this lie that tells us God exists to make us happy.  We've pulled Jeremiah 29:11 out of context (look it up!) and assumed that God wants nothing more than to help every one of us feel 'prosperous'.  Does it really surprise us that people have trouble believing in this idea of God when considering the state of the world around us?


I think Joseph (from Genesis, not Mary's husband) understood the reality of our standing with God more than we do.  His life pretty much sucked for a long time.  He was abused and sold by his brothers.  He was a slave in Egypt that had to deal with sexual harassment from his boss’ wife.  He spent years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  But instead of whining about how God had betrayed him, he says this to his brothers in Genesis 45:8 – “It was not you who sent me here, but God.”  He recognized that sometimes God’s plan for this world may be accomplished at the expense of our comfort or even our life. 


I do realize that I come back to this concept repeatedly...think it's because I have to keep relearning the same lesson myself.  


For thoughts on a proper response to suffering...check out Finding God's Fingerprints (you should be able to click on that, or it's listed over on the right side of this window).
 

!!!

How often do we really think about punctuation in our daily life?  For me...not so often.  But for those of us that enjoy reading and writing, a simple punctuation mark can create the context of a paragraph or line of thought.  What if we applied that idea to the things we do, say, and think today?  Or at least tomorrow...it's pretty late right now...


So this morning I was reading in Genesis about the life of Jacob and a couple exclamation points jumped out at me.  First, Jacob has this dream about the ladder reaching up to heaven, and it says in Genesis 28:12 that “the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!”  I love this because that exclamation point made me stop and re-read what I had skimmed over because I’m already familiar with the story.  Really...this story is a bit nuts when you think about it even thought it’s just a dream.  The whole idea that the angels would actually need a ladder (or stairs, or whatever) to go up and down to heaven is hilarious.  But this dream was one of the pivotal moments in the development of the people of Israel (and civilization as we know it)...and it deserves an exclamation point!


The other one that caught my eye was when Jacob woke up the morning after his first wedding (Genesis 29:25).  “Behold, It was Leah!”  Totally makes me laugh every time I read it.  I picture his father-in-law sitting outside the tent on the wedding night thinking "Just maybe this’ll work!"  I get that it was dark and Jacob may have been smashed or whatever after the feast, but seriously?  He slept with the wrong woman and didn’t know it?  He had to be totally pissed and embarrassed and you would think Rachel would be just a bit annoyed.  I love the Bible…it’s completely open about the scandals that most of us would try to hide or judge (whole other topic!).


So what's my point in all this?  It's just that it's CRAZY how we can bypass some of the most amazing things in life because we think we already know the ending...because we think there won't be an exclamation point to catch our attention.  When I go through life with this mindset, I tend to settle into a routine that is punctuated by nothing outside of the random hardships that I try so hard to avoid.  When I settle for endless commas and periods, I choose a life empty of exclamation.  We need to stop just existing and start creating experiences worth remembering!






Random side note...click HERE if you're at all into rap/r&b.  Not normally my musical style, but this song is playing right now on relevant.fm and it's got me at least paying attention...

Hate My Family?

I don’t hate my family.  


But Jesus clearly stated in Luke 14:26 that “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  So why would Jesus, who we understand as being a God of love, tell us to hate anyone, much less our family?  I had this discussion with a great friend several years ago, and we ultimately came to the conclusion (like most western Christians) that it’s a statement of priority…God needs to be our first priority, but we must also care about our family.  And that makes some sense in the context.  But then verse 28 says we should make sure we “count the cost” of being a Christian.  And in verse 33, he delivers another one from the top rope –  “Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”  I think this verse is a clearer explanation of the point Jesus was making.  While I love Sara, Kate, Justin, and everybody else in that picture with everything in me, they do not belong to me…they are not mine, but God’s.  I have to recognize that it is God’s plan for my family that is important, not my own…and I have to give them over to him completely with faith that his purposes are better than mine.  


Several people over the years have told me that they believe our first duty as spouses and parents is to serve our family.  There are some verses in the Bible that support this thought.  But Jesus also said that he came with a sword to divide families.  


So how do we choose to respond when God is calling us to one thing but family ‘responsibilities’ are pulling us in a different direction?  I know what I do most of the time, but I also know that sometimes we may have to annoy, anger, or even hurt the ones we love in order to serve the ONE we love.  And that was hard to write.  

Jogging in Bastogne

So today I had the chance to go for a jog in Bastogne, Belgium. For those who don't know, a lot of what happened in the HBO series 'Band of Brothers' was based on what happened here during the Battle of the Bulge. Tomorrow, we're going to do a tour of the battle sites all over this place. Yes...this is your tax dollars at work...get over it!

Seriously though, it's crazy to think how many people lost their lives here. Some estimates put the American losses at around 19,000 killed...in one month. Today, it just wouldn't happen. Right now, we've lost less than 1,500 troops in Afghanistan, and there are people that think we should've pulled out a long time ago because our lives aren't worth what we're doing there.

So here's my question...who determines the value of a life? Why were we so willing to sacrifice 19,000 in January 1945, but not today? Is a life worth less now...or have we elevated the importance of the individual too much?

I've said it before...I don't have answers to most of my questions. But personally, I'd love to believe that there's something worth more than my life.