Sometimes It Doesn’t Make Sense

The storm was so bad they literally wrapped ropes around the ship to hold it together.

For fourteen days they were at the mercy of the storm, most of the time without food. Everything that wasn’t “nailed down” had been thrown overboard, and they had given up all hope of being saved.

Paul warned them it wouldn’t end well, and they didn’t listen. Still, the Lord assured Paul that none would lose their lives, and Paul shared that with his shipmates. On the fourteenth night they realized they were near land, so they dropped anchor, hoping the ship would hold together long enough to make a run at the beach during daylight. Some of the men tried to slip away in the lifeboat, but Paul warned the centurion guarding him that if that happened, the centurion would not be saved. 

The centurion did the unthinkable; he got rid of the lifeboat. He cut the ropes and let it drift away. He was “all-in.” From a human perspective it made more sense to keep the lifeboat "just in case," but the centurion thought his best option was to put his trust in God, even if that trust was only by proxy through Paul.

A friend of mine once ignored the leading of God to go on a short-term mission trip. The region to which God was calling him was just too dangerous, and then he ended up almost being killed at home in a traffic accident. That’s when he learned the safest thing to do is to trust God, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense.

This all makes me wonder where the lifeboats are in my life. Where am I fooling myself, thinking I’m all in and yet holding on to other options just in case? Where is God calling me to sell out, and yet I’m keeping a lifeboat around because it makes sense? Where are the ropes that need to be cut make sure my trust is in God and nowhere else?

What about you? Are you letting anything hang around that might tempt you to trust someone or something other than God? Maybe it’s time to sharpen some knives and cuts some ropes.

(See Acts 27 for the story as it’s told in the Bible.)

Don't Surrender to Fear

In reading the book of Joshua I am struck by how often God encourages Joshua not to be afraid. Joshua must have been dealing with fear for the Lord to encourage him to be strong and courageous. When I remember who Joshua was, I find myself encouraged that this great, seemingly fearless leader of God’s people had to receive regular encouragement from God not to be afraid. His willingness to overcome his fear and trust God was what allowed him to lead the Hebrew people to take possession of the Promised Land.

I seldom think of myself as “fearful.” I use words like common sense and wisdom sometimes when what I really am is afaid. I can provide lists of why I have not moved forward to blaze the trails for God in this world that I’ve dreamed about. When I’m really honest with myself and others, it’s fear that holds me back; fear of failure, fear of looking stupid, fear of not having the approval of others, and even fear of what I might lose in terms of material possessions and finances.

Today I hear the voice of God whispering to me in the same way he whispered to Joshua millenia ago. He says to me be strong and courageous. Fear not. I will be with you. You will succeed.

Those whispers are not for me alone. They are for you. What dreams has God given you to advance his cause? What fears are holding you back? Listen! You will hear him say to you...

"Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9, GNB) 

A Christmas Thought

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” Every human heart has felt the chill of these words, both from personal experience and the experience of others. We don’t have to look very far in our world to see the brokenness that gives rise to these words.  The mother who holds her still-born child in her arms, the child who hides in the closet to avoid the rage of an abusive parent, the family caught in the grips of addiction and countless others know, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

            “It wasn’t supposed to be like this” is written across the walls of a home that has every materialistic advantage but lacks the warmth of love.  You can see it in the eyes of a man who suffers the indignity of filling out yet one more form as he tries to find a way to feed his family. With deafening silence it speaks in a family who is trying to gather for the first time after the death of a loved one. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

            You can hear it in the wake of broken relationships. You can see it on the landscape of war-ravaged countries. It howls through the air on cold dark nights and swirls under bridges where homeless men and  women huddle for shelter. The words hang like an invisible sign over communities and businesses where basic human dignity and justice has been stripped away by the greed, selfishness and indifference of others. Where people are held in bondage, be it physical bondage or a prison of thought, the words rise in one mighty but all too often silent chorus, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

             

God looked down on creation and saw the heartache, misery, and agony gripping people, people whom he created, loved and cherished. He heard their anguish and saw their inability to free themselves from the self-destructive cycles of physical and spiritual death. His own heart ached, and a mighty cry rose from his heart that thundered across the canopy of creation as every fiber of his being cried out, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!

God was not content to leave us alone in our pain. He could not bear the thought of our captivity to things that were not the way they were supposed to be.  And so, knowing we were incapable of extricating ourselves from that bondage, he reached out not only to comfort us in our sorrow, but to rescue us .

And so, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6, NIV84)

Joseph was told this child would save people from the destructive, disintegrating force that rips the very fabric of our world apart as it separates and distorts our relationships with each other and with God – for that is what sin does.  Joseph was told he, Jesus, would “save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

And so Jesus is born to repair the breach. He comes to restore the broken relationship between God and people as he offers forgiveness and mercy. The restoration of the wholeness of that relationship does not and cannot happen without impacting our relationships with each other toward wholeness. And that impact cannot help but lead us toward a life in a world where things are more like they way they were supposed to be. No wonder Jesus says,  “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5)

            As I think of the birth of Jesus at Christmas, I think of the brokenness of my life and of our world. I think of God who never intended for it to be this way, and who, in his great and overwhelming love for us all, came to save us from the disintegration of our sin and to make all things new. In as much as I am “in Christ,” I am part of the new thing God is doing. Christmas is not only the birth of Jesus. It is the birth of a people and a world that God is making new.