Moments of Clarity

Because we are human beings full of likes, dislikes, and contradictions it can often be a real challenge to find clarity in life. It's easy for me to clutter my day with too many things. In the resulting confusion I can easily wander off in the wrong direction.

To stay focused we must have a light that leads us. The amazing thing about God is that he came into our world as the light that brings us home. I love the way it is expressed in the Gospel of John:
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1-5)  Many of us keep resolving to do those things we sense we should do. We want to improve our lives and accomplish dreams. We set goals and strive for improvement. Quite often in our good intentions we begin to fall once more into the trap of competing and confusing priorities.

Simplify

I'm intrigued by the possibilities that come from simplifying my life. Is it better to have a whole list of resolutions, or can I actually make more progress by concentrating on just one thing? In Luke's gospel we are told about the time Jesus visited the home of Martha and Mary. Luke 10:38-42: As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." The Master is reminding us not to be misled by what we sometimes think is most important.

What's Lacking?

At another time a rich young man with good intentions asked Jesus "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" (Mark 10:17). This man had been keeping the commandments the best way he knew how, but he lacked something. His heart was telling him to seek out what was missing. Jesus looked at him with love and told him: "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mark 10:21) Sadly, this man was not ready to accept this truth.

Keeping On

Paul spent his time after his conversion discovering the rich truth of following Christ. He told others it was important to move forward, to not dwell in the past and to press on. He knew he hadn't made it to the finish line, but he kept running the race.Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13). There are many good things to strive for: knowledge, wisdom, acceptance, humility, forgiveness, mercy, enthusiasm, willingness and selfless service. They are all related and they all come together under the banner of one thing. That one thing is love. The unconditional love expressed by God and modeled by our ultimate teacher and brother, Jesus Christ. What "one thing" should we be concentrating on? Where is our focus? Here's the resolve to make, not just on New Year's Day, but every day: love everyone - always. It starts by loving God and accepting God's love. And it's only possible with God's help. "Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquility under every circumstance."- A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), The Pursuit of God [1948]

Jesus once said, "Judge not that ye be not judged." Fair enough. But what happens when we see Him storming into the temple to throw over the money- changers' tables and to kick those rascals out into the streets? Is the poor Man confused, contradicting Himself? We'd like to think not, or else Christianity sort of falls apart, doesn't it? Obviously we have two kinds of judgment being discussed.My opinion,

this is one of the most important distinctions we can ever make, and should be something we reflect on every day of our lives. Why? Because I sincerely believe that Jesus loved the money changers without any reservation at all! Regardless of what we see of Jesus at any time, we can be sure that He is motivated by one thing, and one thing only: LOVE. Jesus brought love into our world and He taught us love. It was the entire essence of His mission here. And if that's your mission, you don't act from anything but love.

But love has a lot of faces, doesn't it? We can think about our relationship with our parents or caretakers when we were young; or we can think of those we take care of today; or we can think of anyone else who cares for us and for whom we care. Doesn't our love -- as imperfect as it is -- take many forms?

Children who see Mommy or Daddy reacting to something they've done and punishing them may think that their parents are angry with them. Sometimes that's true, because we are prone to error. But ideally, we punish our children from love, and love alone, in order to keep them from harm or to teach them how to treat others or to promote any other lesson. Saying "no" is often much more loving than saying "yes" because of what is taught.

This gets trickier when we're reacting to someone that we don't "like," but who we know we must "love." The personality often gets in the way of reaching the ideal, but we need to put aside personality and remember that, at the core, we are all children of LOVE because we are children of God.

I always remember an incredible story of a Buddhist monk who was held prisoner for years by the Chinese (I believe). Later in life when he was freed, he was asked what the hardest thing was about the imprisonment. He said, "They were so cruel, so vicious, and brought us so much pain, I almost lost my compassion for the Chinese." Holding onto that compassion was the hardest thing -- but he knew that for all appearances, and despite all their terrible actions, these people were still children of the ONLY Source of life. He looked beyond appearances, and he did all he could to still love them. Incredible!

Did that monk approve of their actions? Of course not. Today, we may find ourselves in similar situations, if not quite so desperate. I think about the political situation we face, and in general there are two groups of thought: 1) Saddam Hussein was a terrible man and terrorists are terrible people and they all need to be hunted down; the war is a good war. 2) Saddam Hussein was a terrible man, but we should never start a war; George W. Bush is a terrible man for making a bad situation much worse.

Of course there are variations on those themes, but most people lean towards one or the other of these camps. Ideally, though, every Christian in the world ought to be reflecting on the situation -- no matter their viewpoint -- from love.

Was Saddam Hussein a bad man? We don't really know. He may have been so insane that he wasn't making any conscious decisions. He may have been a puppet for someone who was acting from even worse intentions than his appeared to be. Or … a million other "what ifs?" But did Saddam Hussein do terrible things? YES. Whether or not we went about removing him in the ideal way, those kinds of actions must be stopped if we're to trying implementing God's will in the world. But along the way, we should be stopping him and perhaps punishing him much like a loving parent would -- for order, which means love is our motive.

Likewise, if you're against what our president is doing today, does this mean you should hate him and want him out of office? Ah -- trick question because it asks 2 questions. The fact is, no matter how much we like or don't like our president, we ought to be praying for him and sending ONLY LOVE his way at all times -- even if we are actively campaigning against him.

The more hate we hold inside ourselves, the more we promote hatred and evil in the world. This is not the ideal God holds for us. This is not what Jesus came here to teach. We need to react to what we believe is against order, against God's laws. But we must do so with love in our hearts at all times.

I believe the greatest thing we can do on a world scale is to meditate and/or pray every night, asking that God send love even on those doing the world's worst deeds -- after all, who needs His love the most? If we cannot hold this kind of love in our own hearts, how could we ever expect such people to change their ways?

There are a lot of scary things in life. I’m not referring just to “monsters under the bed and things that go bump in the night”, although to a young child that can be truly frightening. The very real acts of terrorism, continuing warfare around the globe and a spate of recent natural disasters are enough to make anyone want to pull the covers over their head.What causes our fear? Almost always it can be traced to our concern that we can’t face up to something. It doesn’t have to be a global catastrophe. More often it’s the fear that grips us over sudden illness,

a new job or commitment in a personal relationship – the list for each of us is lengthy.

Do Not Be Afraid

It’s interesting that the Bible records many instances of the Divine breaking into our world and how overcome with fright are the people who experience it. Trembling and even fainting away are common reactions. Inevitably words of reassurance follow. The most frequent term is “do not be afraid”. A search in the NIV translation reveals over 80 uses of these comforting words, beginning with Genesis and continuing right through to the last book of the New Testament (Revelation). Clearly God does not want us to be afraid of Him.

Still, we often are scared and ready to run when confronted by things we don’t understand (like God) and certainly when experiencing any supernatural occurrence. It reminds me of little children or pets. You want to assure them of your love, but in their fear all they want to do is flee. The problem has been magnified by the wrong teaching that we better behave and be good or God’s going to get us!

Seeking Us

Despite our constant fears God seems to be going out of His way to seek us. That certainly contradicts the opinions of those who believe that God is distant, removed and impersonal.

I’m still surprised at how often I’m afraid to face things. Even with a belief in a loving God and trusting in His mercy, forgiveness and grace I will still live in fear. This fear can even be low-level and subconscious. I won’t outwardly act fearful, but I’ll avoid confronting a need to change behavior, make amends or give my problems to God.

I’ve found that sitting quietly with the fear can be helpful. That may seem illogical. In actuality, this practice is not a way to torture yourself with your fears. Instead of staying in the fear you can experience it and let go of it. Sometimes we just have to feel the fear before we can become free of it. The internal struggle to run from it may be strong, but if you persist you may discover the power of that fear slowly dissolves. Of course, this is possible only when you let go of the fear and turn it over to a God that assures you that with Him there is nothing to fear. Protection, love and grace are available to give you the strength to face those fears.

Two psalms drive home the importance of trusting in God and not being afraid. The psalmist in 56:11 states, “in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:6 similarly assures, “The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” There is nothing that can happen — not ill fortune, sickness, depression or even death that God cannot help us with.

Still, we have our running shoes on

Paul, the earnest apostle and evangelist of the early church, used the running analogy, but rather than running away he emphasized the importance of running towards the goal and finishing the race (Acts 20:24, Philippians 3:12-14, 2 Timothy 4:7).

I’d really like to be completely free of fear. I sense I never will be, but I have hope of it not ruling my life. The more I become willing to trust in God (and His messengers like friends, family, neighbors and strangers) the easier it is to stem the urge to run away. Instead, I can turn and face the music.

You’ve probably experienced some near misses in your life, such as swerving just in time to avoid an oncoming vehicle. Later, when the adrenaline has subsided and you relate your close call there is laughter. It’s the relief and realization that what you feared was the worst was avoided. It’s not just those close calls. When time heals the wounds of a once devastating event you might be surprised to see God’s comfort came to you and you learned and grew from that hardship.

Is the world a scary place? Sometimes. It’s also beautiful. We can be timid or bold. Jesus said don’t be concerned. Essentially he told us not to sweat the small stuff and that most of what happens is tiny indeed when viewed from a heavenly perspective.