Faith Reflections

Just a Reminder….

A recent article by Sanjay Gupta, M.D., in Time Magazine (June 15, 2009) is subtitled “A new study shows that simple e-mail reminders can prod recipients to eat better and exercise more.”

Dr. Gupta goes on to write, “According to a study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, simple e-mail reminders to eat more healthfully or increase physical activity had a significant effect on the recipients’ behavior… E-mail recipients got to choose one of three focus areas: boosting physical activity, increasing fruit and vegetable intake or decreasing sugars and saturated fats.

“These little suggestions worked.  By the end of the 16-week study…participants who received the physical activity e-mails increased their exercise regimen by an hour a week more than the control group had. And participants who focused on a healthy diet reduced the saturated fats and trans fats they consumed by more than 1 g a day. Turns out the people who wanted to increase their fruit and vegetable intake were among the healthiest to start with, but even they bumped their consumption of those foods by about a third of a cup per day.” (p. 56)

It’s not much of a stretch, then, to apply the results of the study to reading a new blog entry in Faith Reflections in the middle of your week. Reading a new blog entry here in the middle of the week should help you keep a spiritual focus to your week!

New information is always good but sometimes we just need to be reminded of what we already know. Once in a while you may gain a new insight from this blog but more often than not it’s probably just reminding you of something you already knew. That’s OK.

Lots of things are going on today. We all have places to go, people to see, and things to do. It’s good to be reminded of the holy in the midst of the hubbub. God wants to be with us and work with us in the midst of our daily activities, not just in the more formal religious moments of a private prayer-time at the beginning or end of the day or in public worship service at the end or beginning of a new week. Being reminded of God’s presence right NOW makes this a sacred moment! God is not only in the big events with us but His presence also makes sacred the small stuff!

Singing Before Dawn

The birds were singing before the dawn! The new day is still almost dark and yet the birds are already singing! They don’t wait to sing until it gets light but sing before the light.

It reminds me to have faith in God that things will brighten up, and act accordingly, while they still seem darkest.  Hope is the song we sing to the tune of faith!

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

A Mansion Here or There

Ed McMahon's mansion up until his death.

Ed McMahon, iconic entertainer who was best known as Johnny Carson’s sidekick, died recently.  He had been in the news in the last few months because he had defaulted on the 4.8 million dollar loan on his Beverly Hills mansion.  He was determined to hold on to his home.  It’s now a mute point.  Death has a way of removing us from all of our earthly problems.

Jesus told his followers, “In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)  We all need a roof over our heads and food on our table, but Jesus makes it clear that this should not be our primary focus.  It’s not easy keeping the primary focus on the spiritual realm because it’s so intangible compared to the physical realm which is so tangible.

It comes easy to yearn for bigger and nicer homes, food that can justify the label “gourmet” and experiences that can provide immediate satisfaction.  Investing in the spiritual dimension of living takes intentional effort.  Jesus once told a story about a rich farmer who was primarily focused on acquiring wealth in this life.  He quotes God addressing the man.  “You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded from you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?  This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:20-21)

Wise is the person who plans and invests for the future and foolish is the person who doesn’t.  It seems to me that a key issue is determining just how far into the future you feel you should be planning, up to the point of death or beyond, so that you’re acting wisely and not foolishly.

The Mystery of Great Tragedy

What follows is the column that will be published in my hometown paper in Parkersburg, Iowa, next week.  Parkersburg suffered the murder of its football coach, community leader and great Christian man, Ed Thomas.  His death has made national news.  I knew Ed.  He was a leader in my home church in Parkersburg.  My column appears weekly in the paper.  Here’s what will appear….

The tragic loss of Ed Thomas leaves our thoughts reeling in an effort to make any sense out of it all.  “Why?” is the question that begs to be answered, and keeps begging, for there seems to be no answer.  An evil deed makes no sense and is the ultimate expression of “a riddle wrapped in mystery inside an enigma.”

Ironically, it’s those without a belief in God who have no issue with tragedy.  Apart from God there is no ultimate reason for things to happen or not happen.  Those of us who are firm in our conviction that God exists, that He is attentive to us, and that He seeks to make our individual stories part of His bigger story, we have a problem understanding the meaning of great tragedy!

Faith in God compels us to believe that God is all-loving and wants what’s best for us, all-wise and knows what’s best for us, and all-powerful and can do what’s best for us.  But this triune affirmation about God faces the ultimate test with a tragedy of the magnitude of a good and godly man like Ed Thomas being murdered.  It makes personal the frequently asked question of why bad things happen to good people.  We may believe God does not produce evil, for He is ultimately good, but it is obvious He permits evil.  And so we are back to the “Why?” question.

This is, it seems, the crucial place to practice faith, to determine to have an unswerving faith and trust in God in the face of great tragedy.  Faith needs to become a choice, not a victim, of tragedy.  It means we decide to believe, all over again, God when He declared, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)  In the face of the mystery of great tragedy the best we can do (and I believe it’s ultimately more than enough) is to cling to the truth that God is unfolding His great and grand purposes for those who remain stubbornly committed to Him.

It’s Morning!

Morning’s my favorite time of day!  Just finished reading what was next for me to read in the Bible this morning (a New Testament passage and a Psalm) and a thought from Thomas A’ Kempis.  It’s 6:30 and I’m sitting on the patio.  The birds are singing, the air is fresh and I see the glow of the sun coming through the neighbor’s trees.

Good morning, Lord!  This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!  Today is a precious gift from God, never to be repeated.  Lord, help me to use it well!

Despite Weakness

Best selling Christian author Kathleen Norris writes, “Once when I was sunk deep in lethargy, I received a copy of an article about my writing in which the author termed me a ‘a docent of hope.’ How strange it was to be reminded that the books I had written over the past decade…were out there in the world, proclaiming good news while I sat stupefied, unable to write even a postcard. The disparity was grim, but funny: God’s grace working despite my weakness, or maybe because of it.” (Acedia & me, pp. 228-229)

I don’t write this from some ivory tower position. I write this from facing the same challenges of making sense out of an imperfect world with imperfect people just as you do. I recall one afternoon last week when I pondered over some broken relationships between Christians of which I’m aware. I visited and prayed with four people in the hospital or at home struggling with physical ailments and much pain, and one person with the pain of deep grief. Life’s not always fun.

I’m reminded of what Mother Teresa wrote to her confessor in 1979. (Don’t worry, I’m not at this point, just wanted to give you a great illustration of what we’re considering.) She wrote to him, “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.” (quoted in A Great and Terrible Love, Mark Galli, pp. 61-62) People are surprised that the saintly woman who gave so many people help from God often felt helpless in connecting to God herself.

You can take comfort in the fact that your struggle to find joy, meaning, satisfaction, and strength to deal with this day is a normal struggle! I know, I face it too. Everybody does.

But we can expect God to see us through it! I can tell you this “despite my weakness, or maybe because of it.” This blog is just one beggar telling a bunch of beggars about a morsel of food that’s available.

God loves us! We are in His presence! He will sustain and guide us! — What a morsel of truth to chew on today!

Facing Today

Was just going over my sermon manuscript for tonight and Sunday. Will quote the apostle Paul when he was in a bad storm at sea and all 276 would be shipwrecked on an island. It’s a good quote to remember through the day. “The God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me.” I put it into the present tense… “The God whose I am and whom I serve stands beside me.” Yes!

Keeping First What Should be First

A prayer of Thomas A’ Kempis (500 years ago, William Creasy paraphrase)

“Everything that is not you I find frail and unstable. Having many friends will be of no help to me nor can powerful associates aid me. Prudent advisors cannot help me nor can learned books comfort me. Wealth cannot ransom me nor can any hidden place keep me safe. None of this will help if you yourself do not aid, comfort, console, teach and care for me. All things that seem to be for our peace and happiness are nothing without you. Truly, they bring us no happiness at all.”(p. 161)

His Morning Love

“Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.  Show me  the way to go, for to you I lift up my soul.” Psalm 143:8

(Photo of “Popo” the volcano from the front porch of the house at Refuge Ranch — where our daughter, Julie, and her family live.)

Amazing Grace after a Tornado

It was just over a year ago on a Sunday evening that an EF5 tornado destroyed the southern part of my home town of Parkersburg, Iowa.  My mother lived in the southern part of the town.  Her attached garage was destroyed but her house stood, though it was determined it had been damaged beyond repair and needed to be torn down.  She survived by going to the basement and praying for the Lord’s protection.

I drove all night to join the family on Monday morning to help Mom deal with it all.  The destruction to that part of town was complete, with about 3o0 homes destroyed, a thousand cars but twisted wreckage, and every tree left with only a trunk and a few major, twisted branches.

What was amazing was how people from all over came to help.  It wasn’t just friends and family, but strangers too.  The Red Cross vans roamed through town announcing on their loudspeakers they had free sandwiches, water and coffee.  Hundreds of free meals were served at the American Legion Hall — food donated by people, groups, and restaurants from all over Iowa.  I’m grateful to some volunteers from a state wildlife management group who helped cut and haul Mom’s destroyed trees.

We don’t know why God allows tragedy, especially natural tragedies that are often called “acts of God.”  But one thing is for certain and that is how tragedy brings out acts of love and grace.  When I think of that very busy Monday morning with dozens of chain saws whining away and hundreds of out-of-towners helping with the recovery and clean-up it’s just amazing, amazing grace!

Compare that Monday with the normal Monday the week before when the town of Parkersburg lazily went about a normal start to a new work week.  It’s obvious which of the two Mondays saw God’s grace working through hundreds of people  and an even greater number of people uttering prayers of thanks for lives spared.

No one would wish a tornado on any town, but it happened and God worked through it all.  Kathleen Norris writes, “For grace to be grace, it must give us things we didn’t know we needed and take us to places where we didn’t want to go.  As we stumble through the crazily altered landscape of our lives, we find that God is enjoying our attention as never before.  And maybe that’s the point.” (Acedia & Me, p. 230)