Finish The Race!

I am not a race car fan but I could not resist this one!

Last Sunday the Indy 500 was run. It was the 100th anniversary of this great race. JR Hildebrand was on his way to victory. All he had to do was to make one last turn and he was the winner. He didn't make it. Some say he missed it by about a foot. But that miscalculation sent his car into the wall where he crashed. He lost control of his car and found himself skidding over the finish line 2.1 seconds behind Dan Wheldon. What seemed to be an apparent win slipped from his hands in a matter of seconds.

A good start is not enough.

Many folks began to walk with Jesus. But then they began to leave. His teachings were too hard. Jesus expected too much. At one point in his ministry, Jesus turned to his twelve disciples and asked them, "Are you going to leave as well?"

Think about the false starts in our lives.

We begin a diet and exercise program. Some even make it past the first month. Only a few succeed and continue the program. Or how many folks start to attend college. Then they quit. Some have mastered the art of starting jobs only to keep them for only a short while.

Then there are some who have victory in their hands only to see it slip aways. Jean Van de Velde had one hole left to play in the 1989 British Open. He lost the tournament on the last hole. Lindsey Jacobellis while hot dogging wiped out to lose the gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics. They both failed to finish.

The faith has the same demands. Jesus used the example of building a house when talking to his disciples. "Who does not count the cost before beginning to build...." To be faithful disciples, we are to finish the race that is put before us.

At the end of my life, I hope that I have used up all the talents and energy God has given to me. I hope that I have nothing left in reserve. I want to finish the race God has put in front of me with nothing held back.

Then and only then, God will meet me and say, "Well done thy good and faithful servant....."

Let Go of Bitterness

She called and said it was a spiritual issue.

Over twenty years had passed and yet she was still drinking from the river of bitterness and agony. It is amazing how long one will keep hurting one's self. The mind has the ability to freeze a frame of life for as long as you wish. It is like hitting your finger with a hammer over and over again while wondering who is doing this to you.

Over twenty years ago, a pastor had done something that she thought was wrong. She felt misunderstood. She felt as though she had not been heard. The roller coaster of her memory was on track again. She had to find the pastor and tell him. Maybe that would stop the roller coaster.

It didn't.

The pastor listened to her for a long time. The pastor apologized for what he felt he could apologize. The pastor wished her well. She left the conversation with little or no resolve.

The spiritual problem of having to be right.

Someone has to be wrong and someone has to be right. The only way to resolution is for the wronged to be righted. The issue of reconciliation is far from this. Reconciliation in the faith is not about finding all of those who have been wrong in your life and correcting them--bring them to justice. Reconciliation in the faith is letting go of that within you. If any finding is to be done, it is to find those whom you have wronged and ask for forgiveness.

The river of bitterness flows from within. We like to think it is an outside river flowing in our lives but it is not. It begins in us and has the ability to end within us through the power of God.

Two monks who had taken vows to abstain from any contact with the outer world were on a journey. While on the journey, they passed a river where a woman was drowning. The older monk leaped into the river. He grabbed the woman and brought her to shore. There he gave first aid to her bring her back to life. Then seeing that she was well, continued the journey.

The younger monk was astonished. For miles and miles, he could only picture the elder monk violating his sacred vow. Finally he asked the monk, "What on earth were you thinking? How could you?"

The elder monk looked at him and said, "Why are you holding on to such thoughts? I left the woman alive at the side of the river. My focus now is only on what God would have me do in the road directly in front of me."

The Christian faith has the ability to create a new mind in you--the mind of Christ. Our old human minds have little or no time mechanism. The old mind will convince you that you are right and people are still out to harm you. The mind of Christ tells you differently. You are a new creation. The old has passed. The new is ever before you.

If you have been drinking from the river of pain and bitterness, Jesus has new water to offer to you. Drinking from this water will quench your thirst. You can let go of that which is behind you. Forgive others. Forgive yourself. Live the life ahead of you to the fullest!

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

One of the songs that plays in my head sometimes is the old song, Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone. It is one of those bluesy songs that talks about the absence of a loved one.

Absence--it seems as though God is absent sometimes. Or maybe another way of looking at it is when you call God, you are put on hold. Isn't that irritating? The other day I called someone and before I could say anything, I was put on hold. I think they ought to let all the people put on hold talk to each other while holding. Many problems could probably be solved that way. And why do they call it hold? Are you supposed to grasp something while holding on?

Some say absence makes the heart grow fonder. Whoever thought of that must have had a loved one that was better at a distance than close. Distance is not seen as a desirable quality for those who want intimacy. Imagine telling your spouse that you love them so much you are driving five hundred miles away from them.

All of this is to say that nice cute sayings sometimes leave us with emptiness. Sadly people will tell their friends and neighbors when a tragedy happens, it was meant to be this way. Whatever happens happens for a reason. Help me contain myself when I hear this. I want none of this to be the way that we describe the character of God or the actions of God.

The only way that we experience the absence of God is when we impose it. When we impose it, there seems to be little sunshine in life. For you see, I have come to believe that in some of the darkest days of life, the only sunshine we know is that God is present. Perhaps we do not feel it or even know it, but our inadequacies are not limiting the reality of God.

I experienced this one day when flying to a far away destination. When the plane was taking off, there was a terrible storm. I thought that we would be flying in terrible weather all the way. But then it happened. The plane lifted us up into the clouds. We passed through the clouds and then I saw what was otherwise unseen. Above the clouds the sun was still shining. It was a rather beautiful sight. It reminded me while I thought the sun was absent, it was only hidden.

Do not let the blues of life's absences be confused with the character and actions of God. God is with us! God is working for good in all things!

God is a Loving God

I think God must get tired of being blamed.

Okay I know that God does not tire. Nor does God sleep nor slumber. But many times in life, when storms happen (natural or otherwise) God is the one who is blamed.

I have already heard it. Some preacher from nowhere needs to get a headline or two. So the preacher has proclaimed that the flood of the Mighty Mississippi is a punishment from God. It is a sign of the end times. I can hear a chuckle from heaven. God must say, "if they only knew..."

Life happens. Nature takes its course due to the progression of the universe--made by humans and otherwise. Mistakes as well as good choices give birth to consequences. The one thing you can depend on in all of this is God's love. God looks upon us with God's loving heart. During the tragedies of nature, God certainly suffers with humanity.

I think most of the misconceptions of God are the result of bad parenting. Remember when you were a kid, you were warned. It is the image of God that is more like a year round Santa Claus looking for the naughty and nice. When parents could not get the job done, they threatened kids with the divine. I have even had parents tell their kids, "Don't do this, the preacher....." Where I have stopped them in mid sentence and told them I was not God's arm of condemnation.

You see, I believe that love is stronger than fear. Love trumps hatred and bitterness. Love sits with you when there are no words. Love sees you through the storm and flood waters. I am always reminding myself during the "tough times" that whatever tomorrow holds God is there working for goodness. That is what love does.

So during the flood and anxious moments, let the love of God abide and give you peace. God loves you!

Winning Without Losing

I am what my wife calls, "a sore winner". I have gotten better over the years. As a child, I was taught to win. Winning was everything. I have learned as an adult that you can win and still lose.

I loved to play games as a kid. My brother and sisters would not play with me. There is not anything more humiliating in life than to be beat by a kid brother in a game. When they would not play with me, I would play by myself. I am one of the few people that can name all of the rental prices of every piece of property in a Monopoly game with or without hotels. I can still remember most of them to this day. Now there is a talent the world is always seeking!

All of this is leading up to the recent events. One of the evil ones of our world is dead. We won.

My dad asked me the other day if we were supposed to be glad when we kill someone. As a veteran of World War II, even he wondered what was the appropriate response. Maybe the wisdom of his age and faith has brought this question. The world has a different response than the faith.

John Holbert was my seminary professor of Old Testament at SMU. He maintained from his study of the Old Testament that many times what God had instructed was different that what the Hebrew folks did. For example, in the fall of Jericho, the great city, God instructed the Israelites to walk around the city blowing the ram's horns. The scriptures say that the great city's walls fell after seven days on the seventh trip around the city. The fall of the walls was the destruction of the city. It was a done deal. Now in previous wars, the instructions were given to kill all--spare none. However, God gave no such instructions for this war. However, they did what they had always done--spared none--except Rahab.

Dr. Holbert, who is one of the great scholars of the Bible, makes the argument that some of the destruction and killing of the Old Testament attributed to following God is really humans being humans--justifying their actions with God. God's directions are more merciful than we as humans are comfortable with.

The Book of Proverbs gives a warning to all of us. Proverbs 24:17 says, "Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles." This is opposite of what the enemy does as shown in Psalm 35:15. But that is what the world does. The world does not celebrate as God does.

So what is our response to the events of the last few days.

Hate what is evil. Yes, I said Hate. Hatred of those who do or have done evil is a faithful response. Hate poverty. Hate injustice. Hate those who oppress. Hate those who take religion and make it what has never been intended for.

Use the defeat of evil to give God praise and glory. Celebrate that evil, or at least a portion of it in our world, has now come to an end. Celebrate justice but know that the handmaiden of justice is mercy. Remind yourself that God does reign in this world. God's kingdom can come. Let us make sure that we are about bringing God's kingdom on earth and no one else's.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a theologian during World War II. As a Lutheran pastor, he struggled with the ethical and moral dilemma of whether to participate in a plot to murder Hitler. On the basis of doing more good than harm, he chose to participate. The plot failed. Bonhoeffer could have escaped to the USA and lived a pretty comfortable life. However, because of his choice to participate in the plot, he also saw it as his responsibility to stay in the suffering of his people. He spent the last years of his life in a German concentration camp where just days before the liberation, his captor made sure that he was executed. His ministry there changed our world.

Some would argue that Bonhoeffer lost. He did lose his life only to gain his life and life everlasting.

Let's make sure that in our winning, we do not lose. And in our losing, may we win what only God can give.