CAN GOD TRUST YOU?

I asked a friend an important question. She suffers from severe Rheumatoid Arthritis in much of her body. She is also a strong Christian and one of the wisest and gentlest people I know. I asked her how she could still rejoice and trust God in the middle of all her physical pain and troubles.

She looked at me, with joy in her eyes and said, that it was her honor to do something for God. She said that she was glad that he trusted her to suffer and still be faithful. Whew.

I admire her, but I am far behind her in areas of faith and trust. I tend to whine when hard times come by me.

I listened to Ravi Zacharias on youtube last night. He leads or works with a number of different organizations, one of which is Let My People Think. He has much to say on the subject of faith and is a brilliant man. He spoke in a way that was akin to what my friend said. He said that God allows some of his greatest servants to suffer much for him. I must confess that I am not volunteering, but I'm thinking that I could gain a better attitude or perspective from their wisdom.

I have a few extremely difficult people in my life right now. I was rolling the challenge around in my head, thinking that problems can make it hard to trust God. Then the thought came to me; does God trust me to do what I should? Maybe he is handing me difficult people to love, respect, teach and learn from, because he can trust that I will represent him in the way I should. Maybe God trusts me with some of his fragile and broken people who at this moment in their lives, need some compassion.

Can God trust me?

GEMS AND GERMS OF TRUTH

I read another book this week. It was titled, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants. It was written by Malcolm Gladwell, the same author who wrote the popular, Blink, Tipping Point, Outliers and What the Dog Saw. Gladwell is a unique thinker and this latest book challenges our classic thoughts about success and adversity. His book resonated with me.

Sometimes I think finding truth must be a little like tuning my guitar. Since I am no musician, I use the little battery operated tuner. I then tighten or loosen the offending string, trying to come closer and closer to the “E” or whatever note I am searching for. Finally.... success! I find the note that resonates in the right way and I and my little tuner at last find a note that rings true.

True… we know that notes can sound true. I think books, people, ideas, philosophies can also resonate with us because they have a certain bit of truth in them and we humans are drawn to truth because we are designed to long for it and want desperately to find it. 

Lord of the Rings: teaches me, among other things, about clinging to courage when things look hopeless and that I won't necessarily know the whole story or its meaning in my life all at once. I have read it again and again.

I have learned truths from books at the bottom of the heap of sophistication like Little House on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and from the top such as in: Escape from Reason by Francis Shaeffer. I have even found little nuggets of truth in Harry Potter and detective books by Laurie King.

In fact, I think the main “secret” to success for authors must be the existence of a strong bent for truth in the writer's soul. Their ideas, if colored by truth, flow out into the written work and that note of truth resonates again and again in readers minds and hearts.

That may be too long of a digression, so back to Gladwell. I believe that what he said also rings true. He tells us that adversity often gives us exactly what we need to succeed. Think of that! David had youth, mobility, experience with slings and inexperience with armor. All of those things helped to give him success and it made him avoid the standard practice of the day and skip the armor that would have totally immobilized him and neutralized all of his other strengths.

Gladwell also says that while a very high proportion of people in prisons have learning problems, so do many CEO's of highly successful companies. Some people let adversity overcome them and others use the very coping mechanisms they are forced to learn, to overcome adversity and find success. He tells story after story of individual weaknesses being used as strengths.

So now I am looking for and listening for these notes of truth in my own situation. 

I am facing a few things that feel powerfully like adversity right now. I am in a new area and I am an introvert. My husband is more of an introvert than I am. That is hard to overcome when you want to connect in a new community. My house, my art studio room, my “stuff” is mostly far away. We are retired now at half our accustomed income. My sisters, my in-laws, my friends are mostly out of reach. 

I am listening hard for truth. Somewhere in my life are problems that God can help me use as strengths.

I am looking (and praying) for ways my weaknesses can become my strengths.

Any other thoughts, praises, or prayers on that truth?

Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.

FORGIVENESS: THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING....

I just read a book by Leslie Leyland Fields and Dr. Jill Hubbard. It is Titled Forgiving Our Fathers and Mothers:Finding Freedom from Hurt and Hate.

We keep reading about how good it is for our health to let go of bitterness and anger. It seems to be  common knowledge that those angry emotions are a path to high blood pressure, heart disease, and ulcers. 

Even so, this is kind of an embarrassing book to claim to have read and needed, I mean, I don't want everyone to know I still have “issues” hanging around from my parents!? I'm over 50! I have to say though, it was a very powerful book and I learned a lot. Since my goal is to find a healthy normal, I must admit that finding full forgiveness is so very crucial in my search to find normal.

I think that finding normalcy & health in my body, mind, and soul will take a lot of... forgiving.

Some of the highlights from the book: We should see, not just ourselves as mortally wounded, but our parents also. The author had us envision ourselves and our families as wounded travelers, stripped and beaten, lying beside the road as in the Bible story of the good Samaritan. It is true that many of us are emotionally broken and wounded by our past experiences.

Fields gave us another perspective on the past when she quoted Dr. Dan Allender, saying “that every hurt and disaster is also a chance for redemption” (p. 12). Fields also asked her readers if we “will break the generational cycle of selfishness” (p.152). I had not really thought of unforgiveness in the same camp as ...selfishness, but in some ways, it can be that.

My dad was an alcoholic and my mom was a bitter angry woman who favored her one son and did damage to me daily with her vitriolic tongue. As a child, I built walls to protect myself, but now, for health's sake, the walls need to come down and true forgiveness must become mortar needed to rebuild. But what is true forgiveness? Is it forgetting? Is it turning away from bitterness? According to Fields, it is far, far more than that.

The most moving and shocking story from Field's book reported on a note discovered in the pocket of a child in the Ravensbruk death camp. Here I am, trying to forgive a few parental injustices and some lack of love and then I read this magnificent note found in that scene of unimaginable horror:

O Lord... Do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted on us: Instead remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering—our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity, our greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by You, let all these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness, Amen (p. 170)

Can we possibly pray and think this way toward those proven to be our enemies?

Can we plead for the blessings of God on those who hurt us?

Can we see and appreciate the strengths and growth God has given us carved out of injustice and sorrow?

We have faced huge hurts. If we allow it, God can turn those to our good. Is it possible that we can then ask God that blessings and credit for the good He gave us be poured out on those who intended for us only evil?

Those thoughts take my breath away.

May it be so with me, Lord Jesus. Amen.