Surviving An Insane World

Our world seems increasingly insane.  We are entering a Presidential election year with two aged candidates.  Each one accuses the other of senility! One is in court on trial for criminal acts. Neither party has met to nominate a candidate, but there are no other options in sight.

 All wars are insane, but the wars in Ukraine, Israel and Gaza seem especially so.  Islamic terrorists have turned to attacks on Russia with the U.S. and the West still in their sights. 

Transgender women are wanting to compete in women’s sports. Caitlin Jenner, who won the Olympic decathlon when she was Bruce, has come out against trans women competing in women’s sports while Dawn Staley, coach of NCAA women’s champion basketball team, defends it.

We live our lives under a canopy of satellite communications that determine much of our daily lives.  Artificial Intelligence is at the door, threatening to distort perceptions of reality and, perhaps, take over!

Of course, the world has always had its insanity. Wars with their atrocities that leave innocent victims in their wake have always been with us.  Ancient Greece and Rome were no less conflicted about gender identity and sexuality than we are.  One needs only read the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to document the insanity of that day. While the digital world is new, efforts to confuse and distort perceptions of the truth are not. Pilate, while judging Jesus, asked the same question that is being asked today, “What is truth?”

 Interestingly, the Apostle Paul was accused of being insane when he was imprisoned at Caesarea.  After Paul told Festus and King Agrippa that he was a persecutor of Christians until Jesus himself appeared to him, Festus interrupted and said, “You are out of your mind Paul! Your great learning has driven you insane!"  To which Paul responded, “I am not insane. What I am saying is true and reasonable,” (Acts 26).

If we wish to preserve our sanity in an insane world, we need to choose Paul’s “insanity.” Faith in Jesus Christ leads to the discovery that God loves us.  “This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins,” (1 John 4:10).

`Having experienced God’s love, we are free to love one another, as Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another,” (John 13:34). And again, “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  …  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” (Matthew 5:43-48).

Paul defined love in this way. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails,” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

 However insane the world may seem, this always remains true and reasonable, to know God’s love and to love others, especially those who differ from us in appearance and opinion. 

Words

 When we were children we had a saying: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  We usually quoted this little jingle when words had hurt us, and it was usually followed by sticking out our tongue for emphasis.  Somehow this ditty has been passed down through the generations, even though it is not true. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can destroy us.

It is not the well thought out words that give us trouble, words that we wrestle with before writing them down, words that we edit a dozen times before finally putting them in print.  The words that trouble us and cause our difficulty are the careless words, the thoughtless words, the words that escape our lips without thinking.  These words cannot be called back.  Unlike animals escaped from the cage, words cannot be hunted down and returned to captivity.

 Sometimes the careless words run rampant, causing unknown damage without our knowledge.  We don’t even remember what we said, or when we said it. But the damage is done, nonetheless. 

 We try to bury our careless words beneath repeated apologies.  “I’m sorry.”  Or “I didn’t mean it.”  Sometimes we are forgiven.  Sometimes others claim to overlook them. But words are rarely forgotten.  They lodge in the memory and cast a shadow on everything else. 

 Jesus said, “I tell you that men will have to give account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” (Matt. 12:36) Jesus was referring to our final judgment before God.  Ultimately, when we stand before Him we will be required to give account for every careless word.  Perhaps he had something else in mind.  Perhaps He was drawing our attention to the reality of human relations.  Careless words destroy relationships. 

 We have seen prominent careers come to an abrupt end due to careless words spoken in the public arena.  Like the classic movie, A Face In the Crowd, few are able to overcome racial slurs and arrogant expletives caught on an open microphone.  But more damaging to us all are the careless words spoken in the privacy of our homes. Careless words chip away at relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children.  They leave families fractured and psyches shattered.

 On the other hand, an encouraging word, the right word spoken at the right time, can make an enormous difference.  The opposite of careless words is not careful words, words that are guarded and self-serving, but caring words, words that are spoken in the interest of others.

 Nothing is more important than learning the discipline of our speech.  James compared the tongue to the small rudder that turns a huge ship, or the bit placed in the mouth of a horse, able to harness the animal's great strength.  Careless words, he said, are like sparks that ignite an uncontrollable fire that consumes everything in its path.  “If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.” (James 3:2).

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Young Messiah

 We don’t know much about Jesus’ childhood. For the most part, the Bible is silent regarding these years.  We do know that Joseph took his family to Egypt following Jesus’ birth in order to protect the child from King Herod’s paranoid wrath.  After their departure from Bethlehem, Herod’s soldiers attacked the small village slaughtering all the male children under the age of two. The event was consistent with Herod’s brutal rule. We can only imagine the grief and sorrow suffered by the Bethlehemites.

 Joseph made a home for the family in Egypt and waited.  When Herod died, Joseph and Mary returned with their young family to their home in Nazareth.   Matthew points out that this was a fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”  (Matthew 2:15). 

 Anne Rice wrote a book that was later made into a movie based on this time in Jesus’ life, Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt.  The book and the movie try to imagine what Jesus would have been like as a child, how He and His family would have wrestled with the growing awareness of His identity.  The Bible only tells us that “He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” 

 Almost as interesting as the movie’s plot is the journey of the author who wrote the book upon which it is based.  Anne Rice grew to fame writing the Vampire Chronicles while professing to be an atheist. She shocked the secular world when, in 2002, she announced she was done with vampires. After thirty-eight years as a professed atheist, she said she had found faith in Christ and returned to the Catholic Church.

 Eight years later, she rocked the Christian world by proclaiming she was renouncing Christianity. She stated, "For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity.” She went on to say, “My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me.”  Rice died December 11, 2021 at the age of 80.

 Anne represents many who continue to believe in Christ but have left organized Christian churches. George Barna, the leading researcher on faith in America, reported in 2008 that “a majority of adults now believe that there are various biblically legitimate alternatives to participation in a conventional church.” It appears that there is a growing number of people who claim faith in Jesus but want little or nothing to do with the institutional church.

 Worldwide, we are witnessing the largest growth in the number of Jesus followers in history. The number of believers in Africa grew from 9 million to 360 million in the last century. More Muslims have come to faith in Christ in the last two decades than at any other time in history.  Churches, what they look like and how they function, are changing while the number of Jesus followers is growing.

Season of Doubt

 This is the week after Easter.  The week of doubting. 

 On that first day of the week, the day we celebrate as Easter, Jesus appeared early to the women at the tomb.  That same day, he also appeared to two sojourners on their way to Emmaus, a village about 7 miles distant from Jerusalem. The women and those who saw him at Emmaus returned and  reported what they saw to the disciples who were in hiding. 

According to Mark’s account. Mary Magdalene was the first to report to his disciples. “When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.  After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country. They went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either,” (Mark 16:11-13).

That evening, Jesus appeared to his disciples, ten of them, at least.  According to John, Thomas was not there. They told Thomas about what they had seen. But Thomas would not accept it. He said, “ ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.’ “(John 20:25).   For a full week Thomas continued in his doubt and his refusal until the following Sunday when Jesus appeared to them again with Thomas present.  He fell on his knees and said, “ ‘“My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.’ ”(John 20:28-29). 

 Later, when Jesus met with them in Galilee and issued his great commission, Matthew states, “When they saw Him, they worshipped him, but some were doubtful,” (Matthew 28:17).

 I am glad the Scripture included these references.  I am glad that God is greater than our doubts.  We don’t have to have all the answers.  All of our knowledge is partial. None is perfect. None is complete.  But, we can believe.  Often, we are like the father who cried to Jesus, “I believe, help my unbelief.”

 Sometimes we doubt because we are disillusioned or disappointed by those in whom we placed our trust.  People will fail us. Sometimes we doubt because life doesn’t turn out the way we expected.  Sometimes we doubt because the innocent suffer and die.  A loved one dies, and we struggle with grief and loss. Sometimes we doubt because of the violence and war that continues unabated.

 And yet, there is something deep within that speaks to us. A voice that will not be silent, even though it may be nothing more than a whisper.  For me, it is the voice of the Savior speaking to Jairus after his servant has told him that his daughter is dead.  “Stop fearing, only believe.”  There is someone greater, someone higher, there is something better and beyond our best imagination.  We were given a glimpse when Jesus was raised from the dead.

Intelligent Design

 It has been 10 years since  Eric Hedin, an Assistant Professor of Physics at Ball State, promoted the idea to his students that the complex and intricate balance in nature reflects an intelligent design as opposed to a random series of accidental events.  The president of the University ruled that such teaching was not a scientific discipline and had no place in academia, an opinion widely shared in the academic community. Dr. Hedin once taught a course entitled The Boundaries of Science that was later cancelled.

 Baylor University was embroiled in the controversy when Robert Marks, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering set up a website and lab on the Baylor server to investigate intelligent design in 2007. Marks used the term “Evolutionary Informatics Lab.” Both the website and the lab were shut down within months and removed from the Baylor server. The lab continues on a third-party server at evoinfo.org.

 This month a bill permitting discussion of Intelligent Design in the classroom was passed by the House in West Virginia and sent to the Senate for approval.  The ACLU claims the bill violates the “establishment clause” separating church and state. 

 Regardless of academic positions on the subject, reflections on creation, purpose and intelligence beyond our own are important to all of us. We must ask the questions, “Are we alone?”  “Is there anyone else out there?” “Is the human race simply the result of eons of random chance on this third planet from the sun?”  “Have millions of years of random chance and survival of the fittest resulted in, well, ‘us?’” Or are we created in the divine image of the Creator? 

 We consider ourselves intelligent.  We can solve problems. We can manipulate the natural laws of physics to make them work for us resulting in mechanical and electronic machines that magnify our strength and accelerate our speed.  We can ponder ourselves and our own existence. We can imagine things as they could be.

 We are quickly making strides in our own creation of artificial intelligence, the design of robotic machinery that perform complex tasks. We already have cars that can drive themselves.  Information technology is taking us into realms reserved for the writers of science fiction. “Data,” the popular android on Star Trek, may not be so far-fetched after all.

 So, whenever we finally create “Data” and others like him, what will the androids think?  Will they sit around and discuss whether they were the result of random coincidence, concluding that they have no accountability or connection to the humans that created them?

 The Bible is quite clear regarding our own origin.  The Psalmist says, “For You formed my inward parts;

You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret.” (Psalm 139:13-15).

 Something beyond science resonates within us when we stand in awe on the rim of the Grand Canyon; when we behold the beauty of a sunset splashing the sky with crimson, purple and gold; when we walk by the sea listening to the waves crashing on the shore. When we watch a bird take flight, singing in the branches of a tree.  Only worship will satisfy the emptiness within. The realization that we are part of a grand design in the mind of God calls us to accountability and fills us with meaning, purpose and peace.

The Art of Aging

 I have discovered another principle of physics.  As the body grows older gravity increases. When the body is young, its parts stay in place, firm and fit. But as age sets in the parts start to slide -- downward. And the energy expended to lift the body from a sedentary position increases.

 I love to watch children skipping and dancing down the sidewalk.  My grandchildren, 8, 6 and 2, run wherever they go, and climb anything they can find.  I enjoy the grace of teenagers gliding effortlessly on skateboards, sprinting after a fly ball, leaping to make the catch.  And I think to myself, once upon a time, that was me!

 There are different perspectives about growing old.  “Grow old along with me” wrote Robert Browning, “ the best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made:  our times are in His hand.”

 Thomas Jefferson was not so kind. “First one faculty withdrawn and then another, sight, hearing, memory, affection and friends, filched one by one, till we are left among strangers, the mere monuments of time, facts, and specimens of antiquity for the observation of the curious.”

I have heard others say, “There is nothing good about growing old.”  And, “growing old isn’t for wimps.”  I met with some of my childhood friends last week.  Four of us were together in Mrs. Pritchett’s first grade class.  That was seventy years ago! We know a little bit about aging. 

 When Billy Graham was in his nineties he wrote, “I can’t truthfully say that I have liked growing older. At times I wish I could still do everything I once did – but I can’t. I wish I didn’t have to face the infirmities and uncertainties that seem to be part of this stage of life – but I do.” He asks the important question, “Is old age only a cruel burden that grows heavier and heavier as the years go by, with nothing to look forward to but death? Or can it be something more?”

 In his book, Nearing Home, Graham wrote, “Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life. … When granted many years of life, growing old in age is natural, but growing old in grace is a choice. Growing older with grace is possible to all who set their hearts and minds on the Giver of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 My wife and I celebrated our fiftieth anniversary five years ago .  I wrote a book about our journey and published it on Amazon, Our Story.  It highlights our life together for more than half a century with joy, laughter, celebration, sorrow, loss and disappointment.  The longer we live, the deeper we discover life’s textures. The colors become more vibrant, and the blessings and goodness of God, more clear.

 Along with David, I can say, “I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  We will not conceal them from their children, but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wondrous works which He has done!” (Psalm 78:2-4).

Something About That Name

 When my daughter was little, I rocked her to sleep every night and sang the same song:  Jesus, There Is Something About That Name.  One line in song says, “Kings and kingdoms shall all pass away, but there is something about that name.”  My daughter is now the mother of three. When her children were little, she sang the same song to them.   

 A few years ago, my wife and I chose to launch our 50^th year of marriage with a trip to Israel. We spent several days in Jerusalem, walking through the Garden of Gethsemane, looking on the Holy City from the Mount of Olives, visiting the Pool of Siloam and the Western Wall.  We sat on the Southern steps to the temple and walked the Via Dolorosa. 

 Everywhere we went we were shoulder to shoulder with people from all over the world, tourists who had come to walk where Jesus walked.  We met a young man from New Zealand, another from Colombia, entire groups from Indonesia, China and Korea. They came from Africa, South America and Europe.  They were Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Non-denominational.  They came from everywhere.  Tour buses lined up on the streets of the city, in spite of the political tensions reported in the news. They came because “there is something about that Name.”

 We visited the Trans-Jordan site, just above the Dead Sea, the most likely place where Jesus was baptized by John.  A barbed wire fence runs down the middle of the Jordan River separating Israel from Jordan.  Armed guards are visible.  On the other side of the river, beyond the barbed-wire fence, a group of Orthodox believers were baptizing, joyfully and with passion. Separated by politics and boundaries, we could not speak to them or touch them, but, like us, they were drawn to that site because Jesus was there.

 In Jerusalem most of the actual places where Jesus walked are buried, beneath many layers.  The temple of His day, built by Herod, was destroyed in 70 AD.  Only the supporting walls remained, including the western wall where hundreds gather to pray every day.

 In the 2^nd century the Roman Emperor Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city with a temple to Jupiter. After 325, Emperor Constantine rebuilt the city as a Christian center. Islamic rulers conquered the city in 638, the Crusaders in 1099. It was conquered by Saladin in 1187. Its walls were destroyed in 1219 then repaired in 1243. It was taken over by the Ottoman Empire in 1517.  Jerusalem has been conquered, destroyed and rebuilt numerous times.

 According to Thomas L. Friedman in his book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, Neil Armstrong visited Israel and stood on the steps to the Temple entrance.  He asked his guide, archeologist Meir Ben Dov, if these were the same steps Jesus walked on.  Ben Dov confirmed that they were. “I have to tell you,” Armstrong said, “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.” 

 The very stones of the city, with the numerous archeological digs, bear witness to history.  Kings and kingdoms have come and gone. But the name of Jesus remains.  2000 years after Jesus first walked the streets of Jerusalem, His name continues to transform people of every language, culture and nation who trust in Him.  

What Time Ya Got?

 Next Sunday, March 10, we will spring forward for Daylight Saving Time.  On Monday, March 11, the Sun will rise an hour later and delay its setting until 7 PM for an extra hour of light.  Well, of course the Sun will rise and set as it always does. But we won’t.  For we are creatures of the clock.

 For most of human history we have measured time by natural phenomena, usually the movement of the Sun: dawn and dusk, shortening and lengthening shadows, and, at night the movement of the stars. Mechanical clocks did not appear until around 1300 in Europe. Pocket watches did not appear until the latter 1600s and were limited to the wealthy.  They were relatively inaccurate, gaining, or losing an hour a day.  They did not become widespread or accurate until the mid-19^th century with advances in technology.  Wrist watches did not become common until the 20^th century. 

Today we live by the clock: school, work, meetings, deadlines, travel, entertainment.  Almost everything we do is dictated by the clock.  The rising and setting of the Sun have become incidental, except for March 10.

 An open space with tall grass sits behind our house. Some would call it a  meadow, some a marsh, and a few might refer to it as a drainage ditch.  On most mornings I sit on our deck overlooking this grassy area at dawn.  In the last few weeks, a peculiar thing has occurred. The black birds have chosen it for their sleeping place. In the pre-dawn darkness, they are silent.  You would not know they were there. But with the first gray light, they begin to chirp to one another. As the light grows, they crescendo into a loud chorus of chirping. Then, at a precise moment, as if a conductor waved his wand, they fall silent for a few seconds. Suddenly, with the first light of day they take flight: hundreds of them, in waves, filling the air with the sound of their wings. They make a few circles and disappear to distant places  to spend the day. 

 Each morning, they fly a little earlier as the days lengthen.  A few weeks ago they flew at 7:15 AM , then 7:00, then 6:45.  This morning the precise time for Sunrise was set for 6:30 AM.  They flew at 6:26 AM. For them, day light saving is constant and daily.  Every day they fly within minutes of the rising Sun. And, in the evening they return, a noisy reunion in the bare-limbed trees above our house. This evening official sunset was 5:55 PM. They began their descent back to the tall grass at 5:54, by the hundreds.  They use every waking moment of the day with precision.

 The Bible encourages us to make good use of time. It reminds us that we are mortal, that time is fleeting and that we must choose to use the day efficiently, as the birds do.  The oldest Psalm is Psalm 90, a Psalm of Moses, written hundreds of years before King David was born.  The Psalm reminds us, “The days of our lives are but 70 years, or if by strength, 80.  So teach us to number our days that we may present to thee a heart of wisdom.”

 Jesus reminded us, “We must work the works of Him who sent me while it is day.  Night is coming when no man can work.”

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Miracle of Life

 All of the debate about in vitro-fertilization has made us question again, “What is human life?  When does it begin?” We know that each of us is the result of a single egg from our mother being fertilized by a single sperm from our father. The basis of our existence is amazingly mysterious and beautiful.  

 My daughter was born the year I turned forty. With two sons already thirteen and eight, we were not expecting another child.  In fact, the doctors had told us that having more children was impossible.  But the impossible happened.  The doctor’s first question was, “Do you want to terminate this pregnancy?”  We were stunned.  Such a consideration never entered our minds.  Nine months later my wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl who has blessed our lives immeasurably. I often thought of that doctor’s question when I rocked her to sleep and felt the weight of her slumbering body  against my shoulder. 

 Our daughter is now thirty-seven. Fifteen years ago, I walked her down the aisle.  I then performed their wedding ceremony and danced with her at the reception, one of the highlights of my life. Three years later, they came home and excitedly told us they were expecting a baby, our fourth grandchild.  When they gave us the news of her pregnancy, her baby was no bigger than a small marble. We listened to the baby’s heartbeat as she grew and watched her dancing in the womb.  She now dances around the room with her little sister and brother.

 Before retirement, my wife worked with pregnant and parenting teens in the public schools.  She constantly sought to help them have a healthy pregnancy, healthy birth, learn how to become a good parent, and stay in school to have a better future.  With children and grandchildren of our own and my wife’s occupation, you would think that the process of pregnancy and birth would have become commonplace. But it hasn’t.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  The more I witness the miracle of life by which children are born into the world, the more I stand in awe. 

 David expressed it best in Psalm 139:  “For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” To the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”  (Jeremiah 1:5).

 Every birth, every child and every person is a miracle of God.  We are all more than mere flesh and blood, brain, bone and sinew.  We are made in His likeness, with the awesome freedom to choose good and evil, to bless others or to curse them. We have infinite possibilities and an immortal soul that will one day depart this mortal body. We are eternal beings living in a miraculous universe that astounds our senses. 

Alexei Navalny

Alexei Navalny’s death in Russia’s maximum-security prison in the Arctic Circle reminds us that this generation is like all those that preceded it.  Always there have been despots and regimes willing to commit murder, even genocide, to secure their power. Putin’s chief rival joins a long line of potential adversaries who have met an untimely death.

 The public reaction in Russia is muted.  Everyone knows the dangers of resistance.  According to news sources about 400 people in 8 cities were arrested by state Russian police when they attempted to attend vigils or lay flowers in tribute to Navalny.  A priest was arrested for planning a public prayer vigil. Russia is not the United States.  Freedom of speech and public assembly is not protected.

 I visited Moscow shortly after the Soviet Union dissolved.  It was a bleak place  I viewed the corpse in Lenin’s tomb and descended into the depths of the subway system, the deepest subway in the world, built to serve as bomb shelters during the cold war. 

 Navalny’s death reminds us of events almost a century ago, June 30 through July 2, 1934 when Adolf Hitler consolidated his power by killing adversaries who would oppose him, an event that would come to be known as the Night of the Long Knives.

 A few years ago, my wife and I spent the summer in Nuremberg, Germany.  While there, we toured the Dokuzentrum, the Document Center that was constructed in post WW II Germany at the Nazi rally site that drew millions during Hitler’s rule.  The Center was built to document the atrocities of Nazi Germany, including the Holocaust.  We must not forget the depths to which governments can sink and the need for every generation to protect human rights and freedom.

 The Cross of Jesus Christ casts a dark shadow across the landscape of human history. The Cross bears witness to the depths of human depravity, the injustices to which individuals and governments can sink.  Bound up in the Cross is the innocent suffering in every generation.  All of our sins are there, in the darkness that descended upon Golgotha.

 The Resurrection of Jesus dispels that darkness.  The eye-witness accounts of those who saw Jesus, who spoke with him, ate with him and touched him after he rose from the dead bear witness. Life overcomes death. Righteousness triumphs over evil.  Two thousand years of testimony by believers in every age and every nation affirm this truth. 

 As Isaiah wrote, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble. ... Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary,” (Isaiah 40). 

Why So Lonely?

More people live in the world today than at any other time in history, more than 8 billion with another 200,000 added daily.  More people live in the United States today than at any other time in history, over 335 million with 80% living in cities.  We are more connected than ever before, by cell phone, text, email and social media. And, despite all this, we are lonely.

 A recent headline in USA Today,  proclaimed, “Americans are lonely and it’s killing them. ”The article went on to say, “ America has a new epidemic. It cannot be treated using traditional therapies even though it has debilitating even deadly consequences. The problem seeping in at the corners of our communities is loneliness.

 Perhaps our drive to gather in huge numbers is a symptom of our loneliness.  Stadiums and sports venues are overflowing.  The Taylor Swift Eras tour has packed out stadiums worldwide, averaging 72,000 per concert in the US. Swift jetted home from Tokyo to join more than 61,000 at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, while more than 200,000 packed the Waste Management golf tournament in Phoenix.

 At one time or another we all feel lonely. Even though we are surrounded by other people.  Sometimes it stems from a feeling that no one seems to understand, that no one knows who we really are “inside.”  Sometimes it stems from having no one in whom we can confide. 

 Sometimes we feel like we just don’t fit in.  This can be especially acute for teenagers trying to find their way, searching for their own identity.  The urge to dress alike, look alike, talk alike and act alike can be overwhelming and leave us with a feeling that, for all our efforts to be accepted, we don’t belong.

 At other times, loneliness is the result of isolation. This can be especially true for the home-bound, the disabled and the elderly, widows and widowers.  Days may pass without having a visitor or someone with whom to talk. 

 So, how do we respond in this age of loneliness.  There are several simple starting places. 

 First, know that God knows you. He knows you better than you know yourself. “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,” (Jeremiah 1:5).  “Lord, you have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I get up; you understand my thought from far away.  You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways, (Psalm 139:1-3).  “

 Second, seek out a faith community.  Go to church.  Participate in a small group where you can be known and loved.  “Not abandoning our own meeting together but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day approaching,” (Hebrews 10:25).   

 Third, be there for someone else.  Seek out the isolated, the ostracized and the rejected.  Be a friend to someone else.  Visit the homebound.  Pick up the phone. Call someone. 

 God never intended that we should be alone or feel lonely. From the outset of creation God saw that “It is not good for man to be alone,” (Genesis 2:18).  “A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows, Is God in His holy dwelling.  God makes a home for the lonely,” (Psalm 68:5-6).

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Accepting One Another

 Most of us know what it is to lose a pet: cats, dogs, birds, hamsters, others.  They are all short lived compared to our own life expectancy.  In our lifetime we will likely experience the emotions of burying one or more of our furry and feathered friends.  Two years ago we laid down our tri-color Corgi, Buddy.  We never forget these special friends who share portions of our life-journey.

 When we found Buddy at Corgi rescue, he had been picked up off the streets.  He was skinny and sick. They called him, “Tex.”  But he quickly informed us that his real name was “Buddy.”  In fact he has a children’s book, Buddy the Floppy Ear Corgi that tells his whole story, not just about his name, but how he was lost, picked up by the “dog police” and rescued.  I wrote it “just the way he told it to me.” According to the story, he learned to accept himself and others just the way God made them. Throughout his life, he continued to teach me lessons.  Those lessons included trust, patience, and perseverance.

 But one of his most important lessons, however,  was “acceptance.”  In an era when humans are increasingly aware of their differences in race, language, culture and national origin, Buddy ignored all of those.  He just saw people, and he accepted them all.

 I took him for a walk through the park.  An entire group of teenagers interrupted their volley ball game and rushed over to greet Buddy.  They surrounded him, laughing and smiling as they stroked his Corgi coat.  We went to Estes Park.  Four times in the space of two blocks, teens, children and adults asked to pet him.  We passed a homeless person. Buddy stopped and waited until a smile spread across the person’s face as they patted his head.

 It didn’t matter to Buddy.  He just grinned his Corgi grin, and accepted them all.  Young, old, white, brown, black, homeless, handicapped, straight or gay.  He didn’t care. It is a lesson humans have to work at.  We tend to look for people like ourselves and suspect those who differ.

 Like the rest of us, the disciple Peter grew up with his own prejudices.  He was a fisherman and a Jew from Capernaum.  After he left his nets to follow Jesus he was constantly having his prejudices challenged.  He followed Jesus through Samaria, a region he had been taught to avoid as a Jew.   He watched Him visit with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well near Sychar.   He saw him touch and heal the lepers, the blind, the lame and beggars. 

 It took a miraculous vision and a visit to a Roman’s home in Caesarea for Peter to finally understand the lessons Jesus sought to teach him along the way.  Peter concluded, “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him” (Acts 10:34-35).

Heaven - What Is It Like?

 Some time ago, I  assisted in the funeral for a close friend.  He was older by almost twenty years, and became my mentor more than thirty years ago.  He was a take-charge kind of guy and I always imagined him going out like John Wayne in The Shootist.  Consistent with his personality, he left specific instructions for his funeral, including the passage he wanted the pastor to preach and the three points he wanted him to make.  To his friends he wrote, “I want there to be more laughter than tears.  After all, I will be in Heaven.”

 I watched him age like I have watched others, the same process I am beginning to see in myself.  As he entered his eighties his strength and vigor began to slip.  The last time we went out to eat he needed a walker to make his way to the table.  Aging is an inescapable experience for all of us who live long.  But in the end, in the “twinkling of an eye … we shall all be changed.”  (1 Corinthians 15:52).

 When my mother was young she was a beauty and a fast runner who won ribbons in track meets.  But in her last years she was feeble and almost blind.  When she was 89 years old and dying, we talked about what it would be like when she woke up in Heaven, able once again to run through the meadow as she did in her youth.  Her body once again characterized by energy, strength, beauty and grace. 

 I have often thought about Heaven and what it might be like.  Someone once said that we might think of everything that is beautiful and good on this earth and multiply it by two.  That of course is a small number, but anything more defies imagination.  I like to think about the sun rising in the east, its light filtering through the leaves warming my face on a cool morning; the birds calling to one another as the day dawns; the scent of freshly cut grass and new turned earth; the fragrance of lilacs in spring and roses in summer; the laughter of children on the playground; the crack of a baseball bat and the smack of a ball in the glove; the weight of a sleeping baby in my arms.  On this earth and in this world, they are enough.  But multiplied by two, or a thousand?  Incomprehensible!

 Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, so that where I am, there you may be also.”  (John 14:3). “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:25-26).

 The Bible says, “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2). “If we have been united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”  (Romans 6:5).

Teach Us To Pray

 In the Academy Award winning movie, Gravity, astronaut Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock, has found her way aboard the Soyuz space craft.  The sole survivor of her mission, she is marooned in space without hope of survival.  Having lost radio contact with her command center, she scans the frequencies seeking someone with whom she might make contact.

 The only person she is able to reach is an Eskimo in the remote tundra who speaks no English.  But the sound of his dogs and the crying of his baby touch her emotions.  She cries. And she cries out in desperation to him, “Say a prayer for me. Maybe I should say a prayer for myself.  But I have never prayed.  No one ever taught me.” 

 How much does the character Ryan Stone represent the present generation?  The world seems to be spinning out of control. Evil is rampant.  Death is certain.  Will no one pray for us?  Will no one teach us to pray?  Centuries ago, another generation felt the same way.  Jesus’ disciples approached him with desperation in their voice and asked, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  And He did. 

 Jesus taught us that prayer does not need to be a memorized formula.  There are no words that are better than any others to address God.  Prayer is a matter of the heart. Jesus told of two men who once prayed. One was very religious and knew all the right words. The other had made a wreck of his life. He was irreligious and broken-hearted about his sin. The first prayed long and eloquent prayers that everyone could hear.  The second, feeling unworthy to lift his eyes to Heaven prayed, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Jesus said the prayer of the second man was the prayer God heard.

 When we pray with a broken and contrite heart, God hears.

 Chuck Colson, special counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969-1973, earned the reputation as Nixon’s “hatchet man.”  If there was anything cruel and dirty that needed doing, Colson could do it.  At the pinnacle of power, Colson was convicted for his Watergate crimes and sent to prison. His world crumbling around him, he sat alone in his parked car and cried out to God.  He didn’t know how to pray. He just knew he needed God to save him. 

 God answered Colson’s prayers.  When he emerged from prison, he was a changed man.  God used him to launch Prison Fellowship and later, Prison Fellowship International.  He spent the rest of his life proclaiming the saving grace of God through Jesus Christ.

 It is never too late to pray.  It is never too late to believe.  Our problems are never too many or too big for God. When we pray our Father who is in Heaven will hear our prayer and will reward us openly. (Matthew 6:5-8).

God of All Comfort

 Six years ago, two weeks before Christmas, our daughter-in-law was diagnosed with a very aggressive breast cancer.  Her children were all still at home.  She endured the chemo treatments with courage, determination, optimism and faith. Her family and friends gathered around her with encouragement, support, and love. Her faith and marriage with our son grew deeper and stronger. 

 After achieving remission, she returned to work, and, as our grandchildren left for college, she returned to school.  In May of last year, she graduated with a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree.  But, again, shortly before the holidays, the cancer was back.  She opted for a double mastectomy and underwent surgery two days after our family gathered to celebrate Christmas. Knowing that there are many who are entering this new year facing personal challenges, I thought you would appreciate, as I do, what she wrote last week:

 “All is good. Except for that evening call from the oncology surgeon. Plans are derailed, and emotions are high because now it is back to battle. Plans are different this time, previous options are not acceptable; double mastectomy surgery planned in 2024 so that the holidays with family won’t be disrupted. The family! How to tell them that the silent nagging worry was real again?

 Internal reserves are just not available to care for the emotional needs of others. It all feels like too much, even to answer a text or leave the house. This time it will be a quiet battle. It is hard, but with prayer and support it is going to be okay. Attempts at normalcy: meaningful work, a long-planned trip to paradise with loved ones, and preparations for precious family time. My grandfather, the family patriarch, hero of so many over his 103 years of life, passes away leaving an emptiness felt by all.

 Then the call that the battle will begin December 19th. That gives less than a week to completely rearrange life yet again! Now the battle must be shared with others so that life can move forward with additional support. The love and acceptance, willingness to accommodate unexpected needs, complete assurance that worries from home would be attended to without a second thought lifts and humbles. Holidays are celebrated early and joyfully cherished. Everything is okay.

 Weakness and new battle scars received. Rest and recovery are all that can be done now. Wheeling down the halls of the battleground, looking into the eyes of those just inducted into the battle, praying for peace as they learn their battle plans. Seeing those already in the battle, praying for comfort and strength as they endure the daily trauma. Searching the faces of those with shared battle scars, praying for hope and health. The atrium is just ahead, and glorious sunshine is pouring in. Eyes closed, face lifted to the light like a sunflower, kaleidoscopic shapes of yellow and orange dance beneath eyelids while warming rays saturate skin. A wave of peace and assurance that God is in complete control washes over this space. All is well!”

 As I read these words from my daughter-in-law I thought of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4,  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in ^]any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Back to the Moon?

 On January 8 the first lunar rocket since 1972 was launched from the United States at Cape Canaveral, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.  It is an unmanned, robotic, mission. Only the US has ever landed a man on the moon and that was over 50 years ago. This could be the year we return.  NASA hopes to launch the first manned mission to the moon in November and hopes not just to visit, but to live there by the end of the decade. China hopes to have humans living on the moon by 2040.

 I remember those first manned missions, launched long before personal PCs, smart phones and the internet were thought of.   By today’s standards that world looks archaic. But the accomplishments by NASA and a group of astronauts with the “right stuff” is still impressive.

 My wife and I married on December 21, 1968, the day Apollo 8 was launched to carry the first men to orbit the moon.  They reached the moon 3 days later. On Christmas Eve, just before they disappeared to the other side of the moon and lost radio contact with the earth, Borman and his crew read the Genesis account of creation.  (Genesis 1:1-10).  In the distance the earth appeared as a fragile planet on the moon’s horizon. Six and ½ months later we sat in front of our black and white TV and watched Neil Armstrong leap from the last rung of the lander to take “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  On board the lander, while they waited, Buzz Aldrin observed Christian communion.

 James Irwin served as the commander and pilot for the lunar lander on Apollo 15.  He became the 8^th astronaut to step foot on the moon.  After his return Irwin founded the High Flight Foundation as a non-denominational evangelical organization based in Colorado Springs.  He said, “Some people make light of it and ask. ‘How can a technical person, an astronaut, believe in the Bible?’  I guess I also was a skeptic in my early days, but I have come to believe what the Bible says as being true.” 

 The last man to walk on the moon was Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972.  As he departed the moon he said, “We leave as we came, and God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”  Cernan later described his experience. “I felt the world was just too beautiful to have happened by accident.  There has to be something bigger than you and bigger than me. … There has to be a Creator of the universe ... .”

 I do not doubt that God welcomes us to explore His universe, to experience the majesty and mystery of  the moon and beyond.  But, when we do, it is important that we do so with the humility and faith demonstrated by these men who accomplished what no one has been able to do since.

 The Scripture says, “When I ^[c]consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which You have set in place;  what is man that You think of him,
and a son of man that You are concerned about him?  Yet You have made him a little lower than God, and You crown him with glory and majesty!  You have him rule over the works of Your hands; You have put everything under his feet, ... Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:3-9).