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Spare Change February 2018

Do you ever wish that you would find an old dingy oil lamp at a garage sale or flea market?  Then when you brought it home and started polishing it a genie floated out from among a cloud of blue smoke.  Maybe he sounds like Robin Williams, maybe he doesn’t, the point is he offers you three wishes.  You can’t believe your luck.  These wishes will transform your life; that is until you realize that you can’t wish for infinite wishes…bummer.  But three is still good, right?

At the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka asked Charlie, “Do you know what happened to the boy that suddenly got everything he ever wanted?...He lived   happily ever after.”  But is it good to get everything we want?  Wouldn’t life be easier, won’t we all be happier if we got everything we wanted?  I propose to you that it would indeed not be better.  I propose that the struggle in life actually makes life better.  I understand that all trials and struggles are not the same, but generally when we have to strive to gain things in this life, isn’t it better?  It certainly makes those things seem more valuable.

I can tell you that a few weeks after Christmas the gifts my children received are not valued as much.  They are tired of them and some of them are even broken, but I have seen where my oldest child has earned money for babysitting and she values that money and if she buys something with it, that possession is prized.  I also know I have a couple of pieces of paper on the wall in my office that took a lot of time and energy to earn.  No one handed me my bachelor’s and master’s degrees, I had to put in long hours of study, class time, writing   papers, and taking tests to earn them.  They are two of the most valuable pieces of paper I own.

The same is true for trials in our life.  When we struggle we are made spiritually stronger.  James says in James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.   And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”   James  encourages us to change our perspective on struggles.  To not think of them as burdens but as blessings that help us to grow stronger.  We are to look upon them with joy!  And after we have strived and strained with our various trials we can look at our life and realize that we made it by the grace and power of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in turn has produced a spiritual strength, wisdom, and perseverance in us.

Now I realize that this is easier said than done; but if we begin to simply pray and ask God to help us change our perspective, He will.  We also need to start with looking at the small stuff.  Maybe you had a flat tire and were late to work but in that you were able to spend a few extra minutes with the kids or you were able to interact with someone that helped you change a tire.  Maybe you’re sitting in the hospital getting a treatment and your attitude and faith is an encouragement and inspiration to the nurses.  Maybe you’ve just had a long day and all you want to do it veg out in front of the TV but instead you stay on your feet to serve your spouse who has also had a long day.  These examples may not seem like very big things but often the little trials will prepare us for the big trials in life.

One last thought I will leave you with.  A few years ago, I visited a butterfly display at a zoo.  The zoo keeper there was showing us how the butterflies came out of their cocoon.  He stressed the point to the kids in the group to never help a butterfly out of its cocoon.  We might look at them and think they need our help.  We can ease their struggle by just opening that cocoon for them, but what we don’t realize is that the struggle to get out of the cocoon is what helps the butterfly get its strength to fly.  If you “helped” it, then its wings would wilt, and it would quickly die.  It is in the   struggle the butterfly finds its strength.  The same is true for us, we find our strength in Jesus when we trust Him through the struggle.  So the next time you come up against a trial, start with prayer and ask Jesus to help you use it to grow for His glory.

Spare Change January 2018

2017 has been a roller coaster of a year.  There have been many good things that have encouraged and uplifted me-- like my life group, my d-group (discipleship group), personal growth as a husband and father.  There have also been some bad things like deaths of treasured saints, death of a colleague, and other various ministry related personal issues;   however, through all the ups and downs God has taught me a lot.

1. Never Stop Personally Growing
Albert Einstein is famous for saying, “Once you stop learning, you start dying.” This past year has been a huge year for me in personal growth.  At the end of 2016 I didn’t like the person I had become so I challenged myself in the areas of leadership and temperament.  I have grown, and have more growing to do, but it dawned on me that we should never stop evaluating and growing.  We can’t think we have arrived, because we never do.  I challenge you to take a hard, honest look at the person you are, including your flaws.  What areas do you need to grow in?  Pray about it, ask others to help you, and read books.  Remember, you control who you are becoming.

2. Remain Positive
Wow, this was a revelation to me.  I had a friend notice that I had become increasingly negative.  Always seeing the problems with any idea.  I had lost my imagination and capacity to dream.  I had become a real-life Debbie Downer.  So, I took another hard look at my life and committed to try to be a more positive person.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t buy into the power of positive thinking/new age/dream board kind of thinking; however, I do feel that you can accomplish more, have deeper friendships, and be an overall better person if you try to be positive.  Just being open to new ideas and seeing how they might work will help you to be happier and more productive.

3. Remember What is Important
It is easy to lose sight of what is important and focus on the wrong things.  There are so many temptations to focus too much on things that really don’t matter.  One trap for many people is to focus on the hurts of the past instead of the blessings.  Charles Spurgeon once said, “… we write our benefits in dust and our injuries in marble, and it is equally true that we generally inscribe our afflictions upon brass, while the records of the deliverances of God are written in water.”  Do you forget the blessings in your life only to remember the afflictions?  We have to focus on what is truly important in life.  For me that is my faith, my family, and my friends.  Everything that is important to me revolves around relationships, so you could say that relationships are truly the most important things.  For a task-oriented person and recovering control freak, this can be difficult, but God has taught me through the painful lessons of friends dying over the past couple of years that it's people that matter.

4. The Pain of Death is Healed by the Gospel
As I said before I have experienced a lot of death over the past couple of years.  Double digits of faithful saints have passed away in our church, many that I was close too.  One person in particular I miss dearly, I often wish I could call her up so she could pray for various situations in my life.  I also experienced a painful loss of a colleague that shook me to the core.  If not for my faith, my family, and my friends I’m not sure I would have been able to cope with it.  This leads me to conclude that one of the worst things we can experience in this life is death.  Every time someone close to me dies, it feels like a little piece of my heart goes with them.  Their absences leave a little hole in my heart.  Thankfully, that hole is filled by Jesus.  Death does not mean the end for me or anyone that has the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That is why I have resolved, in the face of death, to be more open with my faith than ever.  This pain is being transformed into a boldness to tell everyone that Jesus is our ONLY hope in the face of such pain and suffering.  I know I will see my beloved friends again.  I know even in my death I will be held fast by the righteous sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  HE IS MY HOPE!!!