THOSE THORNY QUESTIONS

Buds are emerging on our rose stems, but oh, the thorns!

Why is life at times so thorny? I’ve asked myself that many times in the past few years—and not just during my spring rose-pruning duties. Thorny problems and relationships are part of our sin-filled world. We usually complain about them. But I was recently reminded of the better perspective expressed by Dr. George Matheson (1842-1906), a renowned Scottish preacher who endured life blind:

My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn.  I have thanked thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn.  I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensated for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.  Teach me the value of my thorn.

Of course, any reference to a “spiritual thorn” leads inevitably to Paul’s use of that term. At some time (perhaps when nearly stoned to death?) he had a vision of Heaven, too wonderful to express in earthly terms.

But to keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud.  Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.  Each time he said, “My gracious favor is all you need.  My power works best in your weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me. Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite content with my weaknesses and with insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7b-10 NLT)

What was the thorn?  Nobody knows.  Some ideas: malaria, epilepsy, an eye disease (inferred from Galatians 4:13-15). Whatever, it was chronic and debilitating, interfering with his ministry. Its presence kept Paul humble and dependent on God to just get through the day.  Somehow, seeing Paul’s strength in weakness inspired those around him who had their own version of a disabling “thorn.”

And these lessons still apply. We’re tempted to rely on our own cleverness or abilities to get by in life. But when we’re faced with our true selves, we have a choice: curl up and complain, or trust God for His will in His time.

I sense that lesson in Dr. Matheson. When he aspired to become a pastor—just as his sight was going—naysayers probably suggested it wouldn’t work out. But God provided a way through his devoted sister, who herself learned Greek, Latin and Hebrew to help him in his theological studies. Throughout his life she helped with his pastoral and calling duties.

Most hymnals still include “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go,” whose lyrics came to him with such fluency and speed one night that he attributed it to “a dayspring from on high”—the Lord’s inspiration.  The key words of its four verses are “love,” “light,” “joy,” “cross.” All remind me of the Lord Jesus, the One who showed us God’s love.  Who called Himself the “Light of the World.”  And who, “for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2 NIV).

All because of a Love that will not let us go.

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

GETTING PAST WINTER

Is winter ending? Is spring here? We kept asking ourselves those questions in February as the weather kept teasing us with mild days and snowstorms. Late in February, a friend brought a handful of pussy willows from her yard. It wasn’t lost on me that this harbinger of spring came by the hand of someone who has endured a recent siege of “winters” in her family that included her mother’s death, father’s decline, widowed daughter’s cancer,  husband’s heart issues, and other challenges.

I thought of this passage in the Song of Solomon, which on the first level addresses the awakening of pure love between a man and a maiden:

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.  Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. (Song of Solomon 2:11-12 NIV)

On other levels it speaks of our relationship with our Creator and Redeemer. God’s love can awaken non-believers from the winter of indifference and lead them to the fresh life of faith and joy. It doesn’t stop there, for the cycles of joy and sorrow are part of the human condition of both Christians and non-Christians. But we don’t need to stay in spiritual winters. There’s always the re-awakening of a spiritual spring through the power and hope of the risen Lord Jesus.

SHEDDING SOME LIGHT

One of the devotionals on my bookshelf is First Light by the late William Stoddard (Multnomah, 1990). He was a longtime Presbyterian pastor and, in retirement, the Protestant chaplain for two cruise lines. I appreciate this book because it’s not a quickie one-minute in-and-out devotional.  Each day’s reading includes several passages, and a four sections: What is God saying?  How does this apply to us? Pray with me. Moving on in the life of prayer.In his Day 81 devotional (which, if started on Jan. 1, would end up toward the end of March) the main scripture is Song of Solomon 2, and concludes: 

Let us be confident that Christ will bring the freshness and fragrance of spring into our lives. It may be winter all around us.  The earth may be frozen and hard.  Yet prayer can bring springtime to our souls, because it is centered on the living Christ and based on the power of His resurrection. (p. 163)

I don’t know about you, but I needed that reminder. Hurting people are all around me. But that's not the end of the story:

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12-13)

Does that say “Easter” to you?  It does to me!

The Bible's "Chew" Program

My menu-planning depends a lot on some stickers that declare “half-off” or some other discounted price. You should see me at my local grocery store rummaging through the clearance meat! Typically I grab pork chops, beef or chicken fajita strips, or stew portions over the huge, longer-cooking, “chewier” roasts.  Sometimes I wonder what “meat” Paul had in mind (lamb? goat?) when he wrote his milk-and-meat analogy regarding spiritual immaturity.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat…” (1 Corinthians 3:2 KJV)
A newer translation clarifies Paul’s point:
I had to feed you with milk and not with solid food, because you couldn’t handle anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your own sinful desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other….You are acting like people who don’t belong to the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 3:2-3 NLT) 

My older grandsons (3 and 4 ½) are big into meat (as in pepperoni pizza) but their baby brother at this point can only handle “mama milk.”  Just as humans go beyond milk, so should Christians. But Paul was seeing too church members who should have progressed way beyond the basic truths that Christ died for their sins. They had the label of believer, but not the lifestyle.

DISSECTING THE MEAT

Recently someone’s strange interpretation of Matthew 18:15-17 sent me back to my study aids to get at the “meat” and truth of Jesus’ words about church discipline. There’s more about dealing with erring believers than that passage. Jesus’ advice in Matthew was progressive chances to repent and change. First, a more mature believer would go privately to someone with a serious sin. If the offender resisted, two or three “backup” people (witnesses) would return. If still no change, then it was brought to the attention of the whole church. The implication was that this person was known in the church and their sin affected many people. Most offenders would resist getting this far, either because they truly realize the need for repentance or in their arrogance and spiritual stubbornness they don't care.

I’ve witnessed situations where this procedure was followed, both involving sexual sin among leaders. Because of its damage to the church’s reputation and integrity, their sin had to be dealt with severely but with as much love as possible. One time, because I knew the person and grieved their fall, I was present for that step of church involvement. I remember weeping as the person tearfully confessed his sin and then knelt as church leaders gathered around to pray and encourage him through the restoration process.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

The rowdy Corinthian church was a classic application of this rule. It was tolerating the blatant sin of someone who married his father’s wife—perhaps a stepmother. Kick him out, Paul demanded (1 Corinthians 5:5).  He also shamed the church for getting soft on those who called themselves believers but practiced obvious sin besides immorality. These included people “known to be guilty of greed, or...an idolater—that is, whose soul is devoted to any object that usurps the place of God—or [is] a person with a foul tongue (railing, abusing, reviling, slandering),  or is a drunkard, or a swindler or a robber” (1 Cor. 5:11 Amplified).  

The “meat” of the Word is not just that “Jesus loves me, this I know.” It’s also that we are allowing His Spirit to convict of those life choices that "usurp the place of God" or habits of the world, like a foul mouth. Only then can the Spirit transform us into living out godly “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control”  (Galatians 5:22-23 NIV).

MORE TO CHEW ON

But what of those who “become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:26 NKJV)—those reflections of the Corinthian problem?  Paul’s counsel follows: Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently (NIV). Echoes of step number one in Jesus’ Matthew 18 instruction! 

Both these approaches—public, progressive rebuke of stubborn, blatant sin, and humble reprimanding of carnal Christians by caring brethren--have their places. Both deserve “chewing” on as we choose how to live out Jesus’ love among the spiritually arrogant and the spiritually struggling. 

Hidden values

“You never know until you go.”  That’s the slogan my husband uses a lot in his hobby of going to yard sales.  He typically finds bikes and mowers to clean up, fix and re-sell.  But I doubt if he will ever match the surprises reported in one internet article.
*A decorative egg found in a flea market was made of gold so a bit pricey at $14,000. But it proved to be a Faberge Egg, an Easter gift from a Russian czar to his wife in 1887, thought lost. The winning auction bid: $33 million.
*An old Flemish painting in an old frame, $3 at a thrift store in South Carolina. Proven to have been produced around 1650, it was auctioned at $190,000.
*Two of the 24 original copies of the Declaration of Independence surfaced.  One, found in pristine condition hidden behind a painting bought for $4 at a Pennsylvania  thrift shop, fetched $2.4 million. Another came off somebody’s garage wall during a “clutter” purge, was bought for $2.48 at a Tennessee thrift store, and fetched $477,650 at an auction.
*A sweater bought for a dollar at a Tennessee thrift store had a clue inside: a nametag that said “Vince Lombardi,” the legendary football coach. It auctioned for $43,020.
*A piece of jewelry purchased at a Philadelphia flea market brought its owner lots of compliments. Then she learned it had been made by famed American sculptor Alexander Calder, and was once displayed at the New York Museum of Modern Art.  It sold to Christie’s for $267,750.
*An abstract painting donated to a church yard sale in North Carolina got no takers, so ended up at a local Goodwill. A local artist stopped in the store for a blanket and noticed it, thinking she could repurpose the canvas for her own zany-cat paintings. A friend suggested she research the artist’s name, “Illya Bolowsky,” found to be a giant of abstract art.  Titled “Vertical Diamond,” it brought $34,375 at auction.

THE NEED IS THERE

When I go along to yard sales, I’m not out for auction-worthy items. I look for simple things: fabric scraps, batting, yarn.  These I transform into baby blankets that I give hospital obstetrics departments to distribute to the “very needy,” as they see fit. I started this project some six years ago after learning how many “very poor” show up to give birth.  One nurse remarked recently as I left several blankets, “We’re having more and more homeless come in.”  At another hospital, a nurse pulled a blue blanket from the middle of the stack I’d just brought in and said, “This will go home with a baby boy tomorrow.”  Well, not home, she added.  Foster care.  Another nurse told of giving a blanket to a woman who came in alone to deliver her fifth baby, crying through the whole process.  There was a language barrier, too. The nurse just gave her one of my blankets as encouragement in this unexplained but traumatic situation.

Though I’ve found “blanket makings” at yard sales and thrift stores, I’ve also been blessed by people who just gave me fabric and batting. One woman and her mother brought me a huge box of serger cone thread in various colors. Some have just given me gift cards to a fabric store. One gift card (from two people) was for $100.  It took my breath away. Every time I swiped that card to buy remnants or on-sale items, I silently said, “Thank you, Lord.  Bless them.”

About a month ago I posed my two older grandsons with the latest “stash” of just-sewn blankets. As infants they got their own specially Nana-sewn blankets. But these will go to a local hospital to bless babies I will never meet. But God knows them.  So far, the blanket project stands at 838. I never know who eventually gets them. But the babies they will warm: priceless.My role model for doing this, a lady in Proverbs 31:She selects wool and flax [or juvenile print flannels!] and works with eager hands...She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. (vv. 13, 20)

Garbage mouths

Someone who looked and talked “rough” had come to look at an item my husband was selling. As the conversation continued, he used profanity, then stopped and remarked to me, “Pardon my French.”  Well, it wasn’t French, and I’m not sure if he caught himself in his weakness because I was a woman or because of the invisible qualities of faith.  I don’t quite recall my reply, but I think I said something like, “Well, thank you.  That’s not how I say things.”

This happened years ago, but I’ve become aware of how “garbage mouth” has also crept into the church.  Yes, we need to welcome those who haven’t reined in those tongues, trusting the Lord Jesus to do His cleansing work as they submit to Him. But I’m bothered by those who do the “Christian things” but cannot tame their tongues.

Please, no more OMG

One thing that slices a knife in my heart is to hear so-called popular oaths spoken in church and even by spiritual leaders from my church’s platform.  That includes the “OMG” slang (said in full or abbreviated).  Automatically I recall the Third Commandment:

You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)
I hope the only time I say the entire “OMG” is when I get to Heaven and kneel in worship, maybe even go face-down, amazed and awed by His purity and glory. I recall how Isaiah described his  own "undoing" in the vision of God’s throne room:
Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my Eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5 NKJV).
Right after that, one of the seraphim (heavenly ministering creature) touched Isaiah’s tongue with a coal he had taken with tongs from the altar, representing purging of Isaiah’s sin.

So-called “casual” swearing isn’t the only habit that saddens me.  Paul named some of those behaviors:

But now put away and rid yourselves [completely] of all these things: anger, rage, bad feeling toward others, curses and slander, and foulmouthed abuse and shameful utterances from your lips! (Colossians 3:8, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

Sick labels

Unless we live in an isolated bubble, there will come time (if it hasn’t happened already) when we’ll experience those sins, or even commit them ourselves.  Last year, someone’s negative attitude toward me climaxed with them calling me a “b---h.”  Knowing this person had used this label for others who'd genuinely tried to help them didn’t take away the sting. I felt cheapened and demeaned by this vulgar term. Ditto for other times I’ve experienced someone’s negative mouth. In highlighting these sins, I’m ever mindful of my own weaknesses, and the need to say, as King David did:

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit with me....O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. (Psalm 51:10, 15 NIV)

Am I alone in being bothered by “OMG”? I welcome feedback in the comments section