Handle life properly

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in. (C. S. Lewis)

We all have those moments when we are thinking about what WE want. We get lonely and desire the closeness of another. We feel anger over things that bug us and want revenge. We have messed things up so badly and see no way out, but desire it so greatly. We find ourselves in the pit and want a ladder to climb our way out. We look all around for any other answer, but we know the one and only answer to each of these issues is Christ Jesus. We seek answers, but we don't go to the one who knows the answer ever before we pose the question.

I love to do God’s will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God’s willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free. (Romans 7:22-25)

We know that reality of the 'war' within - the one that pits self against Jesus. 'Self' demands its own way - Christ is right there asking for us to just look to him for his way. We don't realize that we are slaves to our 'self' nature - the thing that poses demands and demands over and over again. Our mind can be the greatest place of our struggle - thinking one thing but knowing another. Yup, we KNOW the right thing to do, but we struggle with doing it because our minds want something else entirely. All because WE think it will be better.

Looking to Christ when we are struggling with this walk with him may not be the easiest thing for us to do, but the more we look to him, the less our 'self' will demand its own way. We all have questions about how to live this Christian life, so ask them. There is no room for doubts within us, but they exist - be bold to share them with Christ. There is no room for unforgiveness within us, but it exists - only Christ can help us let go of that hurt and pain that leads to that desire to hold onto the bitterness. God doesn't want us to be unthinking - he wants us to bring our thoughts to him so he can rightly order them.

Doubts handled properly can become a stronger faith. Refusal to hold onto what only becomes a cancerous growth within us actually helps us to become more loving. We don't get to these points in life without Christ. WE want to be free, but WE don't move from the place where we are bound. It is only as WE get up, turn around, look squarely into the Word of God, listen to the voice of Christ, and take step after step that we can be free. We doubt we will ever be free but let me assure you of this - without taking the first step forward, we will always be bound. Just sayin!

But why? How come? When will it be?

 Someone once said they didn't know all the answers, but they enjoyed taking on the questions. I am kind of like that individual. I like the questions - they challenge my mind. I like to see what will come out of pondering an idea - if it will 'fly' or fail doesn't really matter - I just like exploring the idea until I can see it fully. It doesn't escape my attention that each child comes into this world with a 'blank slate' of a mind and before long that mind is exploring all matters of immediate interest. You remember those days if you are a parent - those endless minutes of question after question that seemed so unnecessary - but oh how necessary they were to that little one! As a parent, we might have been a little frustrated by the endless questions, interrupting our 'workflow' and challenging us with slightly odd things like why goats poop nuggets and horses poop 'clods'. Yup, those questions may not make a whole lot of sense, but it was their little minds beginning to understand not all things are the same - understanding what made things different was part of their mind's development. God isn't put off by our questions - even when they don't make a whole lot of sense. Even when they seem frivolous to us or others, God considers them extremely important to answer because he knows it is forming our understanding of him, how he moves, what he considers important, and how much he loves us.

Now when the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame connected to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; there was not anything too difficult for the king which he could not answer. When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom and the house he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their clothing and his cupbearers and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, it took her breath away. (I Kings 10:1-5)

 Some of our questions are really aimed at questioning what God is doing, or how he is going to do it. We want to know so we won't be all the surprised by the next thing that is about to come along in our life that will challenge us or get us inspired. These are necessarily 'bad' questions, but if the attitude is one of needing to control the outcome ourselves, then they are certainly not the right questions to be asking. God is always going to ask us to let him take control - there is no doubt about that one. We might just need to understand how God will move next because we are so intent on not missing even one moment with him, but to be truthful we are probably a little desirous to be 'one step ahead' of God's next move! The questions we ask actually reveal a great deal about our heart attitude at the moment. When we ask God 'why did YOU let that happen to me', we are likely asking because we 'blame' God for something that happened. We don't like the outcome and we immediately move into the 'blame' mode. God isn't put off by our 'blame game', though. In fact, he counters our question with a question or two of his own. Questions aimed at revealing our heart - our intent, our action, and our reaction. 

 There are times we will ask questions of God because we are kind of doing what the Queen of Sheba was doing with Solomon - testing him with 'hard questions'. In turn, he tests us and that can make us quite uncomfortable. As a little one, learning quicker and easier than any other time in my life, my questions were met with answers most of the time. There were times when the questions just didn't get answered though - in fact, I was 'questioned' to see why I thought a certain thing was the way it was, or why a certain thing happened when there was a precipitating factor. Why was I questioned when I asked the questions? Parents and teachers were helping me to learn - to reason things through, explore a little deeper, put two-and-two together. These were things I could 'reason through' because I had all the 'elements' of the answer - I just needed to put it all together in my own mind. Some of what God does with us when he 'turns the questions' around to us is just that - he is helping us put all the pieces together because we already know the answer - we just haven't allowed it to be fully formed in our minds yet.

 The next time we go to questioning God and he returns a question with a question maybe we need to keep that in mind - he is helping us to learn. He isn't dodging or avoiding the question - he is helping us to take what we already know and put it all together. In essence, he is bringing 'light' into our hearts and minds so we begin to see all the pieces that fit together and then he helps us to put it all together. We have that 'aha' moment - the evidence of knowledge being turned from mere knowledge into fuller understanding. So, learn on my friends!

Q & A

42 It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. 43 Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. 44 They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 

(I Corinthians 15:42-44 NLT)

Do you ever hold back asking a question because you fear someone may ask you why you ask such "dumb" questions? When I conduct team meetings in which we have to look at the design of our work, or perhaps even redesign something that no longer produces the results we need to see, I ask the team members to not be afraid to ask questions. These questions are often those that will clarify an objective, get at the root of a system issue we must address before we can move on, or even just set into motion conversation that leads to new ideas. Truly - there are no "dumb" questions - just those that are "un-asked" because someone fears being judged for asking them!

There are lots of questions we can have regarding our spiritual walk with Jesus. We might wonder how many times we can be forgiven for exactly the same thing. Let me assure you - there is not end to his forgiveness and no two "sins" are exactly alike. Even though you think it is the same "sin", it is slightly different each time and his forgiveness is sufficient to wash us clean as many times as it takes for us to reach the point of forsaking that sin all together. We might wonder what happens to us after we die - where the soul "lives" after our death. It is a reasonable question. It suggests more than curiosity. No question is ever trivial in the eyes of God - especially when the "missing answer" is niggling at the heart of one of his children!

Let me assure you of this - I don't have all the answers and I ask as many questions as the next person. I struggle with understanding stuff that is kind of hard for my limited mind to grasp - not because I am dumb or it is hard for me to learn - but because it is stuff I cannot fully understand until I stand face-to-face with Jesus! The same is true for each of us - some things are just not going to be as clear as we'd like them to be. In those situations, we are called upon to ask our questions - then to trust God for the "fullness" of those answers coming in just the right timing within our lives. Trust is at the core of so much where it comes to our living for Jesus. We trust in his finished work on the cross. We trust in his blood to be sufficient to cover over each and every one of our sins. We trust him for everything - from "soup to nuts" as the saying goes.

I don't understand all the ins and outs of our broken bodies being buried in all their weakness, but being raised in newfound strength. I don't have to understand how it "works" to trust that it does, though. I can believe it will occur because I trust in Jesus. I can count on what seems impossible because God is the God of "all things possible". I know I have aches and pains right now, but trust there will be no room for those in my "heavenly body". It doesn't have to be all worked out in our minds in order for us to place our trust in God's power and goodness. I trust that gravity exists simply because I am not floating off into the outer limits of space never to be seen again! I don't have to understand "how" it exists, or even "why" it exerts the force it does - I just count on it being there and doing what it does!

In much the same way, we count on God being there and doing what he does - regardless of the questions we have or the things we don't give voice to that we simply are struggling to understand. It isn't wrong to ask the questions - it may require trust in the answer we receive though! Just sayin!

Suppose....

"Suppose" can be used as the setting up of an argument, or a belief or theory, as though you were prepared to defend it to the hilt.  Have you ever had one of those moments in time where you want to disprove someone and set up the arguments for your position with the statement, "Suppose that..."?  I think we all have at one time or another, because it is human nature to present what we believe or have perceived to see if it is really trustworthy.  In doing this, we present our side of the argument, then we await the rebuttal.  For example, we start our study of the earth with the statement, "Suppose that the earth is round, how do we keep from falling off as it rotates?"  The statement set forth is the perceived or believed fact, followed by the supposition or question.  We already are holding the truth to be true that the earth is round - now we just want to understand why we don't go flying off into space when it rotates on its axis!  Oftentimes, we find ourselves setting up various beliefs or perceptions in our conversations with God and find ourselves stuck with only half of the truth - the part we put out there as "believed fact" - then we have a whole bunch of questions or misconceptions we pose immediately after those "believed facts" because we want God to either dispel our "myths" or settle the truths we "think we believe" as fact.

Suppose I wanted to hide from you and said, “Surely the darkness will hide me. The day will change to night and cover me.” Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same. You formed the way I think and feel. You put me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way. I know how amazing that was! (Psalm 139:11-14 ERV)

Here is where we find David this morning - setting up what he knows to be fact and then setting the remaining "beliefs" or "ideas" out there on the table so God can either cement them as truth to be held onto or myths he must let go of. He begins with the statement, "Suppose I wanted to hide from you..."  Now, you might think this is a fact, since I said you could begin an argument with a set of facts and follow with the questions.  In this case, he begins with the questions and ends with the facts!  In so doing, he is actually talking to himself and reminding himself of what he already knows and believes - thereby settling his questions quickly.  The question of whether he can hide from God is set forth.  I think we may have all "tried" this at one time or another, but we probably have been less than successful, as David is soon to point out.  It is impossible to hide anything from him, so I think it is laughable that we would even want to try!

Many times we try to hide what we are a little uncomfortable with, or feeling some shame over.  It is not uncommon for us to do this, because we rarely want to put our failures "on display" in life.  I recently had a friend ask me why my marriage ended.  It is not one of those things I want out there on display in my life, so unless someone asks me directly, I don't usually speak about it. Why?  It causes me a little discomfort and I find myself reliving past hurts I may have wanted to really put behind me.  It isn't that I am hiding anything in this case, but I don't put these past hurts on display because they are now totally under the blood of Jesus - they are fading scars no longer to be remembered. I kind of liken them to the scar I can barely see from when I had surgery as an infant.  There is a tell-tale sign I went through something, but it no longer is a remembered thing!

There are things we attempt to hide which are not "healed" or even "healing" things, though.  This is where I feel David is connecting with us this morning - we cannot put into the darkness anything which God has not dealt with fully yet. It is impossible for us to hide these things from his probing finger, or discovering eye.  No darkness exists with him, so he is not going to allow us to attempt to squirrel away our hurts.  Herein is love in action - not letting us "fester" on our past hurts and failures.  It may seem like the "discovery" of our past hurts and failures is a little "probing" and kind of uncomfortable, but trust me on this - any "infected" part of our lives is worse when left to "fester" in the dark!  God knows this clearly because he put all our parts, including our emotions, into place in our lives - he created us.  The idea of thinking he wouldn't understand, or that he just couldn't make anything good out of the mess we have created somehow just flies in the face of the truth of his grace and love "out-doing" anything we have done ourselves.

Most of our past hurts and failures are linked very closely to the way we think and feel.  Understanding God is the one who "put together" the very actions of thinking and the plethora of emotions we experience is liberating, because we come to recognize none of these thoughts or emotions are "foreign" to God. They are all understood by him and he knows perfectly well how they interact with each other - one feeding off the other.  Truth is, we can trust him with the stuff we want to squirrel away into the dark places in our lives - because he is already intimately familiar with them - even the bad parts we don't want to admit to or remember!  Just sayin!