(Read John 16) Jesus’ life has come down to this. In the final moments he spends with his disciples before his torturous trial, mockery, and death, he seeks to comfort his disciples because he knows what’s coming. He knows the sorrow His disciples will encounter, and He knows how...
Jesus Cares!
Being at Home
(Read John 15) The last couple of years, we’ve been forced to hunker down. When the weather’s nasty, it’s easy to get a warm mug of something to drink, a good book, a snuggly blanket, and just hibernate. However, the pandemic forced us inside for more than just a...
Never Alone
(Read John 14) My mother died several years ago. Since then, I have had countless times when I wish I could share something with her – some good news, significant accomplishment, fun moment, or beautiful sight. Each time, I am touched with a unique kind of loneliness. I miss...
Unmistakable Love
(Read John 13) The whole idea of washing someone else’s feet (or having them wash yours) makes many people cringe. Just the thought of becoming that physically engaged with someone with whom we are not intimate makes us uncomfortable. And maybe that’s the point of Jesus’ actions as recorded...
It Matters (Matthew 25)
Jesus is within a few days of a death he has faced for months, perhaps years. He knows when and how he will die. He has a sense of the soon-to-come event as he shares two parables and an allegory with his disciples. Speaking privately (see Matthew 24:3) and...
Dirt, Dust, and Ashes
Ah, Ash Wednesday! What a bittersweet reminder of what we really are… Say what? Human beings began as dirt. It wasn’t the wholesome substance with which we are familiar and in which something might grow. No, according to Scripture, humans were created from dry dust. Genesis 2:7 makes it...
Fitting In
Mask or no mask? Sit/stand close or far away? Shake hands or bump elbows? Go inside or wait for delivery? It doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing. There are just too many unknowns any more. It isn’t just the pandemic-related issues, either. What pronoun do I...
Image All We Need
The Beatles once sang a popular song that had the very repetitious line “All you need is love.”
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung. …
There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made. …
There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.
Nothing you can see that isn’t shown.
It’s easy.
All you need is love…
The entire sentiment of the song is almost straight out of Scripture, although I’m not sure that John Lennon had the Bible in mind when he wrote it. Solomon covered it well when he shared an interesting observation from his wisdom. “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). There is nothing new under the sun? How can he say that? We have flat-screen TVs, personal communication devices that do almost anything and go almost anywhere, the Internet, drones that find people and deliver meals, and men have stepped briefly on the moon and returned to tell about it. What can Solomon (or John Lennon, for that matter) be saying, then?
Their point is this: While we may do things that look, sound, or act different, humans and their experience in this world are not significantly changed by these “new” things. In fact, every experience that we face in our lives has been faced by someone else. Every joy and sorrow, every triumph and failure, every need and excess has been shared by someone before, and will be again. I smile as I think of the simplicity of the thought. We are not alone. No matter what we face or deal with, we can find someone else who has born a similar burden or leaped with a similar victory. What brings change in us is the love that binds us to the others who have so lived!Valentine’s Day evokes just such empathy. Watching a couple in love brings out some of the strongest responses. Some faun over the lovers, remembering their own infatuation. Others rail at their naiveté, remembering wounds from failures or betrayals. Still others are fascinated, hoping for a taste of the tantalizing sweetness, someday. And others despair, thinking their time is past and their opportunity gone. Such passions! Such human experience! And it is all because of love…
God knows all of these passions. I believe that His love covers the entire gamut (except lust, of course). He has enjoyed the enthusiasm of fresh faith, the sadness of betrayal from friends, the hope that someone would come to him someday, and the despair that is characterized by ultimate judgment. “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (1 John 4:16).
As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, let us remember how much our world has been changed by love, or a lack thereof. It is the greatest gift and the most wonderful commitment we could ever give someone else. And God Himself was willing to give it to us. Let us share it like it was the most precious gift we could ever give. Because it is.
The Tyranny of the Convenient
The forecasts started a week before the “event.” Snow “accumulation” across the southeast of the US – a terrifying prospect for people who normally only see a light snow a couple of times each winter season – was coming in ferocious power. The rumored intensity of the coming storm...
Peace from the Storm
There are very few moments quite as peaceful as the morning after a heavy snow, especially if the power goes out. The morning sun glistens on the new snow, the beauty taking one’s breath away as much as the frigid air. The hush seems almost sacred, a moment of...