“Who do you say I am?”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:15-16)

When Jesus asked His disciples this question, it wasn’t simply to take the pulse of public opinion and gauge His popularity with His followers. The answer to this question – for all of us – is the most crucial box in the flowchart of our faith journey. Who is Jesus?

Some believe that Jesus was one of God’s prophets, along with Moses and Muhammad. Some would say He was a good man. A teacher. A rabbi. A religious man with enough passion to die for a cause He believed in. (That one doesn’t make Jesus much different than the guys who flew the planes into the towers in New York, does it?) The Pharisees accused Him of being possessed by the devil, at worst, and of misleading their religious followers, at best. But are any of those enough to justify or explain the course of history since Jesus walked the earth?

Even if people could agree that the resurrection actually happened (good luck with that in cocktail party conversations), consider the following:

But what if…

Who Jesus is is everything! Make no mistake: in conversations we may have about religion, Jesus will consistently be the sticking point. People can agree that there is a higher power. They may even call that power God. He may be in us, around us, or over us as Creator or Benevolent Fate. But if He didn’t come to earth as a human being to sympathize with our plight and conquer every temptation and pay the price for our individual and corporate sin, then, as the apostle Paul says, our faith is futile, we are still in our sins, and we are to be pitied more than all men (1 Corinthians 15:17,19).

So if we call ourselves followers of Christ, whom are we following? Let’s see what the Bible says about who Jesus is.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; …and he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross…For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form...” (Colossians 1:15-16, 18-20, 2:9)

“…Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…he was buried…he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and…he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

Who did Jesus say He was?

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (John 10:9)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” (John 11:25)

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

Recently I read one of the most creative and least biblical interpretations of that last verse in John. I read the book The Faith Club, which recounts the interfaith dialog between 3 moms – a Muslim, a Jew, and a Christian. As a treatise on the actual doctrine of these faith traditions, the book was lacking, but as a window into the personal faith struggles of many people on a spiritual path, it was enlightening. The Christian woman, Suzanne, comes to the following conclusion after 2 years of dialog with her Muslim and Jewish friends, when a child in a religion class at her church asks a question:

Q: In order for each of you to believe in your religion, don’t you have to believe that the other two are wrong?

A: I’ve thought of the quotes of Jesus saying things like, ‘No one comes to the Father except through me.’ This is something Christians might use to suggest that Christianity is the only path to God. But, what else could Jesus be saying?...He couldn’t be saying that the only way to avoid hell is to be a Christian because the Church was not established in his time. However, he could be saying that if you reject Jesus’ example of living a life of compassion for your fellow man, then you are rejecting God. Of course, a holy life of love and compassion can be lived by any human of any faith. When Jesus talks about who will be in paradise, it is those who fed the hungry, clothed the poor, housed the homeless. He says, ‘Whenever you do this for the least of my brethren, you do it for me.’ In other words, our behavior is transformed by our recognition that God is in our fellow man, not necessarily the belief that Jesus is God.

Deep breath, Jenni. Where do I begin? This answer represents thinking so common in America today that it must be addressed, as much as I would like to dismiss it as well-meaning but misguided random theology. In essence, this paragraph states that it’s what we do, not what we believe that determines our place in eternity. Jesus’ identity doesn’t matter as much as how we behave. This puts him (and the authors say as much in the book) on the same level in history with Gandhi, Muhammad, or Mother Theresa. (Not that Mother Theresa would have stood for the comparison, mind you!)

Followers of Christ, we must settle in our minds firmly who we believe Jesus is. He is everything to our faith or we have nothing at all, in the words of Whitney Houston (“don’t make me clo-ose one more door….”). Jesus Himself said, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). If Jesus’ identity wasn’t crucial to the kingdom of God, then His response to Peter’s claim that He was the Christ rings hollow: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). But it is crucial. Jesus asked who He was to Peter. Peter said that he believed Jesus was the Son of God – the One promised in Jewish Scriptures as the Messiah. Jesus affirmed that identity and then proved it by giving His perfect life and rising again to show the grave who’s boss. If I’m living my life depending on Him to open the way for my relationship with God and cleanse me from my sins, there’s no question more important to answer. And none with greater ramifications if we compromise. Who do you say He is?

• Read Revelation 5. What does this chapter reveal to you about Jesus’ identity? Does it confirm or change what you believed before?

• What parts of the quotation from The Faith Club did you find yourself agreeing with, if any? What parts would you refute? Would you know how to have a discussion with someone who had a similar opinion?

Leftovers?

There is a familiar scene in the lobby of our church after the service on Sunday mornings that I’ve never encountered at other places we’ve visited. On the floor, against the wall, are boxes and boxes of bananas, loaves of bread, and other various food items, waiting to be put into bags and taken home by anyone who needs them. It is one of the visible results of an important ministry called “gleaning”. There is a person in the church who goes to grocery stores in the area collecting food items and bringing them back to the church to use for youth group dinners on Wednesday nights as well as for other uses at the church. In addition to this economical aspect of the ministry, boxes of food for anyone in need are also available on Sunday mornings. And people are seen joyfully stuffing bags full of groceries they will use during the week as they talk to people around them about the message they just heard or about their plans for the week. It is the most natural unnatural thing I’ve seen in a church in years and I love it!

So what is gleaning, after all? We hear the word in expressions like, “What did you glean from that reading?” But because most of us don’t live in a heavily agricultural area, the original meaning of the word is sometimes forgotten. Definitions we may find today include “to gather slowly and laboriously, bit by bit.” Or “to learn, discover, or find out, usually little by little or slowly.” But the other definition for the word sheds light on the common meaning as we hear it in conversation.

The concept can be found in the book of Leviticus, where God instructs the Hebrews to be purposefully inefficient in gathering the harvest so that the poor and aliens among them could come along after the harvesters and take what fell to the ground. Look at the following passage of Scripture:

⁹ When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰ Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10)

This set of instructions, like the rest of God’s Law as we find it in the Old Testament, reflects His heart and His character. He is a loving, compassionate God, who cares for those who are experiencing hard times or are ostracized by society. This, in and of itself, is interesting to some. (Me, for example) But look at how the practice, when used properly, had ramifications into the New Testament and can even show up in our lives today.

In the book of Ruth, Naomi returns to her native land near Bethlehem without her husband or two sons, who have died while they were all living in Moab, but with her daughter-in-law, Ruth. Two widows left to fend for themselves in the wake of great sadness and a tiring journey, they take advantage of the system that exists for those who had been displaced or inconvenienced by life’s circumstances and Ruth goes to a field and follows the servants who are harvesting grain to glean some for herself and Naomi. As luck would have it (or was it God’s hand working there…) “she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech”. (Ruth 2:3) Boaz and Naomi notice each other, they are both people of a solid work ethic and integrity, and Boaz redeems the land that Naomi’s husband left behind at his death, marrying Ruth as part of the deal. Neither had ulterior motives and neither had expectations of romance. They were simply living life as God had ordained for His children to care for each other. And it worked out so beautifully!

Not only did Ruth and Boaz come together to begin a family as a result of their hard work and obedience (and some mutual attraction, I’m guessing), but look at what came from that family tree in just a few generations after Ruth and Boaz had their son:

And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. ¹⁸ This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

¹⁹ Hezron was the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

²⁰ Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

²¹ Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

22 Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David. (Ruth 4:18-22)

That’s King David, by the way. Ancestor of none other than Jesus. Don’t take my word for it. Check out Luke’s account of Jesus’ family tree in Luke 3:21-38. Not only that, but the story of Boaz redeeming the land and lives of those who were alone in the world is a beautiful picture of what Jesus Himself did for us by dying on the cross to buy us back from the sin that was separating us from God. Good stuff, Maynard. (As the Malt-O-Meal commercial dad used to say…)

So what does all this genealogy have to do with gleaning? And what does it have to do with us? I’ll be happy to tell you.

God worked out His plan for the future through people who were living obedient lives. Boaz was a Jewish landowner who had instructed his servants to follow God’s law and leave a little extra for those who might need it. And Ruth was kind and hard working in her support of her mother-in-law. Gleaning wasn’t easy work, either. Hence the connotation for our modern usage that implies learning little by little. It’s bending and reaching in the hot sun to get stalks that then needs to be threshed to get grain to make bread. Freeloading it isn’t. These people are examples to us of how to live for others by living in the spirit of God’s Law. God will bless our lives and the lives of people we may never meet by our participation in His plan. We just need to do what He’s asked us to.

God’s heart is full of compassion for the downtrodden. As followers of God, we are called to emulate His priorities in our lives and pray for His heart for those less fortunate than we are. The Law was given to show God’s people how to live with His character. That includes keeping our eyes open for opportunities to bless others with the abundance we have received from Him.

So does God condone wastefulness? No. It would be easy to justify in the culture we live in as Americans, but this book of the Bible doesn’t make that case. Instead, it reveals a purposeful intent to leave selfish ambition behind and let go of some of what we perceive to be ours so others can be blessed, too. It’s a picture of community as God planned it: His children taking care of themselves and taking care of each other. And when we live by God’s plan, everybody wins.

• Read the following passages of the Law and see if you can find a similar concept of God’s symbiotic purposes for His people.

~ Leviticus 7:28-34 ~ 2 Chronicles 31:2-8 ~ Numbers 18:8-13

• What are some examples of modern gleaning that you and your family can discuss and institute? Here are some to get you started:

~ Instead of dumping extra change in the jar of your favorite coffee place, why not save it and give it to a charity each month?

~ When buying staple items at the grocery store, consider buying double of the most useful items and take them to a local food bank.

~ Why not make 2 entrees for dinner and take one to a neighbor or friend who may be alone or struggling financially instead of simply throwing out leftovers?

Who I Will Become

Many of you have undoubtedly read “The Ugly Duckling”, by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. In the story, a mother duck’s eggs hatch and one of them is homelier than the others. The barnyard animals tease him for looking the way he does, and so do many other animals he encounters in his first year of life. By the next spring, however, he is welcomed by a family of beautiful swans, as he has become one of them over the course of the long, cold winter.

If only he had known from his birth who he really was! If only someone had made it clear to him that the way he began life was not to be the end of the story. And how comforting it might have been to the shivering baby swan (a cygnet, for avian fans) to know that he would find a place to belong and that he was on the brink of discovering his personal potential and beauty. And how like that cygnet I frequently am. How often I lose sight of all that God created me to be because I am overwhelmed or distracted by my present circumstances. Not seeing the forest for the trees, as it were. And what would life be like if I could rise above it and hear God’s name for me? Sense His purpose for me so clearly that all else would fade in comparison.

In the Old Testament book of Judges, we see a biblical version of “The Ugly Duckling” in some ways. The tribes of Israel are stuck in a cycle of sin and captivity wherein they only cry out to God – their Creator and Deliverer – when they are under the reign of particularly heinous and cruel captors. God would have it otherwise, but human nature is hard to change. So, being the compassionate God He is, He sends them a judge – a person through whom God will deliver His people once again – and attempts, once more, to appeal to their hearts to have consistent relationship with Him. Gideon fits the bill (no pun intended. get it? Ducks? Swans? Bill? Anyway…) and has his own encounter with God’s angel:

¹¹ The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midinaites. ¹² When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³ “But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴ The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵ “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶ The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

¹⁷ Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me….” (Judges 6:11-17)

The main difference between the angel’s perspective and Gideon’s is a matter of focus. Gideon only sees his own reality. Notice his discussion points in the conversation with the angel:

• God can’t be present, or bad things wouldn’t happen.

• I am too weak and/or too small to be effective.

• My background doesn’t qualify me to be a leader or accomplish great things.

Do any of those excuses sound familiar? I’ve said them all to myself at one time or another, I think. But I will tell you this: they are lies. They may or may not be lies because of your particular circumstances, but they are certainly lies when we take into consideration the power of the God who made us and chooses us to participate in His kingdom work and purposes.

In Gideon’s situation, God had indeed given the Israelites over to the cruel Midianites and Gideon really did come from one of the smallest tribes of Israel – the half-tribe of Manasseh. And Gideon and his family were so afraid of the marauding Midianites, who would steal the livestock and crops without provocation, that he was threshing wheat in a depressed area of earth so that he could hide and hopefully keep some of the grain for his own family to eat. There was no evidence of coming victory or freedom that day as Gideon hoped that his day wouldn’t end in violence or humiliation. But God had other plans for Gideon! Look at God’s focus in the conversation:

• You are a warrior.

• Work with what you have.

• I have chosen you.

• I will be with you.

God’s message to Gideon was the full reality. The angel called Gideon by the name of his full potential in God. He told Gideon to go in the strength he had to defeat the Midianites. Although Gideon knew his strength and stature were unimpressive, because God had chosen him and His Presence would be with him, he was about to become a warrior for God’s victory!

What happens when we believe the lie that God is only with us when things are good? Besides ignoring chunks of Scripture to the contrary (James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:3-7, 2 Corinthians 1:3-10 as a few examples), we also miss opportunities to run to God in the midst of our difficult circumstances. By rejecting trials as coming from God to refine our faith, we also reject the comfort and the Presence that He offers to carry us through those trials. And we risk missing the maturity that only comes in persevering through the rough patches to use our wisdom to comfort and walk with others when similar situations befall them.

What is the danger in believing in our own limited potential? This one may be more difficult to see, but for that very reason may be more insidiously toxic than the first. Placing my focus on my own limitations – physical, spiritual or professional – does the most damage by virtue of its focus – me. And I am never ever going to be as effective in life in my own power as I will when I am trusting God’s. Never. God simply won’t allow it. Choosing to focus on God’s power and His purpose in my life brings hope and real kingdom action. And I find that removing me from the equation always has better results for God’s glory.

Listen, God really had abandoned the Israelites and left them to their own devices among the foreign nations that surrounded them. Their pattern of disobedience and complacency left Him no alternative. But all it took, time and time again, was the sincere cry for help from His children. There were consequences for their disobedience, but He was and is a compassionate God whose heart beats for honest relationship with His people. And He will use one person to affect many if that one is willing to follow and believe God’s reality. Gideon was afraid and stuck in his idea of who he thought he was at the time God’s angel came to him. But he was called “warrior” and told to go in the strength he had to bring victory for God’s people. At the time, it was strength Gideon didn’t even know he possessed! But knowledge of God’s Presence + whatever strength we have = change. God doesn’t want us to believe we’re spiritual “ugly ducklings” when He has called us and equipped us to be beautiful and victorious swans.

• Read Judges 6 and 7. Where do you see the tension between Gideon’s ability and God’s supernatural leading?

• Read Luke 7:11-17. How do Jesus’ words in verse 13 demonstrate both His power and His compassion in what seems like a hopeless situation? How does His complete knowledge of your circumstances and His complete ability to deal with them bring you comfort or reassurance?

•Is there anything in your life currently that needs God’s perspective? Spend time this week asking Him to give you His reality check so you can trust Him more fully with your potential as you learn to rely on Him and move forward in obedience.

Crocosmia

The slender, sun-dappled leaves of the orange crocosmia sway in the summer breeze, clapping their verdant hands, rejoicing in the summer day. I breathe deeply of the air, the mood, the ambience. This is summer: slow and languid, gentle and lovely. It's how it should be, but not how it has been. Instead, interruptions of tragic phone calls, funeral, and tears. Heaviness where frivolity should reign. Hotels and rental cars in place of lazy boredom in the heat.

But God's blessing comes in the waving crocosmia. In the warm sun on my face. A cold beer. A kiss on the temple before sleepy eyes greet the day.

We are not together anymore, but those who remain will speak more boldly. Embrace more readily. Breathe summer air and gaze intently at the dancing crocosmia while it's in bloom...

Attitude Adjustment

Recently, as I’ve been walking with family and friends through tragedy and the waves of difficulties in life, I’ve been reminded of some foundational truths that I fear I’d lost sight of. In wondering how God will turn around my circumstances or what He will reveal about the purpose and direction of my life, some words of Scripture in song have pierced through what I think has been selfish thinking as my thoughts and prayers have been rather jennicentric. Like Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe, I am having to replace myself as the center of things with the Son.

Yes, God comes to us in pain and He is near when we call Him. He does care about what concerns us and He can work miracles in our lives and in the lives of the people around us. However, when my eyes are on those things alone, it is easy to forget that I am simply a sinner in need of grace. I was lost and now am found. I needed a Savior to understand God and it is only by His blood and power that I am who I’m becoming.

Take a look at this sober reminder of basic theology with me, will you?

²¹ But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. ²² We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

²³ For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, ²⁶ for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

²⁷ Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. ²⁸ So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

²⁹ After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. ³⁰ There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. ³¹ Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law. (Romans 3:21-31 NLT)

Verse 22 resonates strongly with me: We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. How can I live my life for weeks at a time without at least acknowledging that fact? Do I really begin to believe that I’m pretty good on my own and that God continues to exist to meet my needs and show off for me? I don’t want to say that’s what it comes down to, but I don’t see what else my lack of humility and appreciation in light of Christ’s sacrifice could communicate to God.

Is it possible to be so consumed by pain or distracted by blessing that I forget my position before the Creator of the universe? Apparently it is and I am dismayed.

Look at the following verses that reflect attitudes toward sin and compare it to yours. What does the comparison do to you?

“I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin.” (Psalm 38:18)

“Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’

Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.’

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’ (Luke 5:4-8)

Is it true that we are freed from the penalty of our sins? If so, then I need to rejoice!

Do we believe that there should even be a penalty? If so, I should be grateful that it has been paid.

Do we take God’s mercy for granted? If so, I have discovered where to begin the list of sins to confess.

Does my reality reflect my theology if I live as if my sin just slows me down a little instead of acknowledging that it prevents me from a relationship with my Father unless I come through the Son? If so, my reality needs an adjustment to the Word of God, which says that I am separated from God without Jesus. But through Jesus I am reconciled. Adopted. Forgiven. Accepted.

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

Knowing Jesus is the only way to know myself. And when the comparison makes itself known, I, like Simon Peter, fall at Jesus’ knees and fully realize the disparity between his holiness and my sinfulness. My attitudes are selfish and self-serving. My words bring death instead of life. My love and concern for even those closest to me is feeble, not to mention the distance I have to grow in learning to care for the poor and marginalized in society. I am not a self-help project who has hit a snag in my quest for improvement; I am a wretch, justified and purchased at the high price of my Savior’s blood. But I want to be so much more.

• Dare to pray Psalm 139: 23-24 this week and mean it.

God-Confidence

I just finished reading Elizabeth Edwards’ book Resilience. She reflects on death, cancer and marital heartache. I know a little something about all three from the past few years of my life, albeit with different details. And yesterday as I contemplated the very recent death of my sister-in-law, my cancer-free child coughing on the couch, and my distant and moody husband, it all felt very present, intense and a little overwhelming. Even a little scary.

Our family’s emotions have run the gamut in the past month, since my sister-in-law was killed. Fear, anger, sadness, disbelief. And I believe there’s a place for all of them in the framework of God’s sovereign love and power. But when does it become destructive to engage in, or dare I say indulge in, certain thoughts and emotions? Where’s the line between the natural progression of healing and obsessive? And is it too early to judge?

Having already wrestled with some hard emotional and theological issues when our son was diagnosed with cancer at age 8, my questions through this round of emotional trauma are different. I learned (through personal experience and the truth of God’s Word) over the course of Charlie’s illness and recovery that God is God. He is good no matter what. He is present and loves me perfectly. He placed the stars in the universe, the planets in orbit, and the individual blood cells in our bodies are under His control. I never asked, “Why Charlie?” when he got cancer. I knew that this world is broken and diseased and we are victims of it. The gospels tell us that rain falls on the wicked as well as the righteous. Good people get cancer and wicked people don’t. C’est la vie. Maybe it was easier to swallow because Charlie recovered and we just celebrated his 13 birthday. Some parents at Seattle Children’s Hospital didn’t go home with their children at the end of treatment. Their theological battles were probably different than mine.

This time around, I’m faced with integrating abstract theology with very personal and unpleasant life experience in a new way. If God reserved wrath and destruction and great personal suffering for His own children when they turned away from Him in the days before the captivity (Old Testament prophets, etc.), how does the grace of Jesus Christ fit now? If I believe that God is powerful enough to have stopped the attack on my sister-in-law and that He loved her perfectly, where do I go with the frustration that He didn’t stop it? Why is there unspeakable evil in the world that God seemingly ignores? And does He really want redemption for everyone, including the man that killed my sister-in-law? Does mercy always triumph over judgment?

So, as I wrestle with some of these issues, I find great comfort in resting on the ones that have already been settled for me. As I’ve been reading through Jeremiah this summer, the following verses were the first that spoke to me again in a way that felt familiar – like God quickening my heart to hear Him:

⁵This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,

who depends on flesh for his strength

and whose heart turns away from the LORD.

⁶He will be like a bush in the wastelands;

he will not see prosperity when it comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

In a salt land where no one lives.

⁷But blessed is the man who trusts

in the LORD,

whose confidence is in him.

⁸He will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

Its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

And never fails to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)

The contrast in the cursed one and the blessed one is clear: trusting in God brings peace and blessing while trusting in anything else brings unrest, worry and fear. I know which I want to choose. And I reap the benefits when I follow through. I can see from life experience that this passage doesn’t mean that nothing bad will happen to those who love and trust God and that people who don’t trust Him will be consistently miserable. What I do know is that when my confidence is in God – His mercy, His sovereignty, His perfect love for me, and His strength – I can be more like the tree that bears fruit and doesn’t have fear or anxiety the way I do when I look to other things. Have you experienced that? Is it not true that when we are connected to God and trusting Him for the outcome of our circumstances and the well being of our hearts that we are less anxious and less fearful?

So how does this play out when life is just too much? What does it all mean? When life is difficult and there’s a struggle to get through – hope of relief at the end of a trying time – we wait for God’s reassurance that things will be okay. But what about when the worst possible life scenario has already happened and there’s just waiting for the present pain to subside? What can we cling to? What should we look for? How does God show up now?

I’m finding that so much of the relationship that God and I have built together over the years is the foundation upon which I’m drawing strength and comfort now. I’m not learning new things about God or myself in this season as much as I’m being reminded of what I already knew. It is true that perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). God really is source of comfort, my rock, my fortress, my hope (Psalm 71). It was true in my head; now it’s true in my life. I haven’t had to run to God for comfort so much as I’ve just been made aware that I was already connected to Him.

I can trust in the criminal justice system or my own fortitude or the possessions in my home. But to have my trust there requires that my heart turn away from God and I miss out on peace and comfort in His Presence. On the other hand, when my confidence is in Him – when I come to the full realization that His Presence is more important than the answers – then fear fades, worries evaporate, and fruit in my life blossoms and nourishes.

• Read Psalm 1. How does this psalm expand your understanding of what it means to put your confidence in God? What practical steps can you take this week toward that goal?

• Read Psalm 27:13-14. How does this confidence differ from what some people may label as “blind faith”? What kinds of things in your life lead you toward that kind of God-confidence? How can you build more into your life?

Singing in Prison

Did you know that singing can bring healing and health to the temporal lobes and maybe the deep limbic system of your brain? In a recent book by Dr. Daniel Amen called Change Your Brain Change Your Life there is considerable evidence that humming, singing and even talking can enhance the part of our brains that is responsible for mood and memory. I have a friend who says she can’t wait to get to Heaven when she’ll be able to sing with the angels since people here don’t appreciate her voice! The act itself is good for us and it can often bring us closer to God. Look at how Paul and Silas experienced that when in prison:

²³ After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown in to prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. ²⁴ Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. ²⁷ The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. ²⁸ But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” (Acts 16:23-28)

Imagine sitting in a cold, dark prison and the new guys start singing in the middle of the night. Well, you’re not really getting much sleep anyway so why not have a listen? But why are prisoners praying out loud and singing in the dark? Why does the caged bird sing, after all?

Because the alternative is to shrivel up and concede that the darkness is more powerful and allow the lie that God is not able to save and comfort to become truth in our minds. Paul and Silas chose to run to God for solace and believe the truth they’d come to know about Him, namely that He is all-powerful and all-loving and present with them, even in difficult circumstances. Joseph must have discovered something similar in prison when he was falsely accused of acting inappropriately with the wife of Pharaoh’s official, Potiphar. And Daniel had to have experienced God’s presence in the lions’ den when the angry leaders had him thrown in for praying, of all things! And I would guess that the prophet Jeremiah found comfort in God when his enemies threw him into a dry well and left him for dead because of the unpleasant messages he was speaking. How can we know that these men relied on God in their trouble? Because of what they said and how they acted when they were freed. Only time with God produces the kind of character and clarity that these followers of God modeled after their brushes with death. And in all of those cases – Old and New Testament examples – the people around them were influenced or dramatically changed because of the faith of those imprisoned.

Not surprisingly, I see some patterns in these stories that can be applied to our lives by asking a few questions about the scene that was played out.

Why were Paul and Silas in prison? There had been a slave girl with a spirit by which she predicted the future and earned a great deal of money for her owners that ran into Paul and Silas as they were out and about preaching and healing in the name of Jesus. They cast that spirit out of her when they saw that it wasn’t of God and the people went nuts, having them beaten and thrown in jail. Their imprisonment came about because of their obedience to God’s call on their lives. Seasons of darkness are sometimes caused by our disobedience, but sometimes they come when we are doing everything right. And God’s timing and plan are always perfect.

How did Paul and Silas respond to their circumstances? They were praying and singing. Their focus was on God, not their situation. They chose hope over despair and faith over fear. In Bill Hybel’s book, Too Busy Not to Pray, he says that the key to prayer that builds our faith is to focus not on the mountain that needs moving, but on the mountain-mover Himself. If we discipline ourselves to focus on God and His character instead of our circumstances or our pain, we will be more likely to connect the dots when He actually answers our prayer.

What happened when they prayed? The first question I wrote in my journal when I read this passage was, “What were they praying for?” Could Paul and Silas have possibly been praying for what eventually happened? How could they have even imagined this outcome?! But they put themselves in a position to hear from God, to be comforted by Him, and to see Him do whatever He was going to do, and then did He ever deliver! Earthquake, doors flying open, prisoners’ chains coming undone, the jailer falling to his knees wanting to be saved… what?! Even if Paul and Silas didn’t expect God to show up exactly like this, there was no doubt that He was acting since there was no other possible explanation. When we pray in the darkness, even when we don’t know exactly what to pray for, we can expect something and be ready for anything.

As I looked back over times in my life that were particularly trying, I tried to lay these filters over my circumstances to see how they applied in my life. What did I do in those times when life fell apart? And did God show up?

I begged. There were many times when my prayers weren’t eloquent – or even comprehensible. They consisted of “Pleeeeeez…” when waiting for blood test results for my son during his cancer treatment. I relied heavily on Romans 8:26 when my marriage was falling apart: “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” My guttural prayers were certainly in that category.

I asked, “What are you showing me?” That question became its own prayer in hard times as I desperately searched for meaning in my suffering and wanted so badly to please God and become more like him – especially if it meant this hard lesson could be over! No joke.

I relied on what I knew was true. We don’t have to believe every thought that comes in our heads and it’s wise not to, especially when wild emotions and circumstances are involved. Memorizing key Scriptures when life is going well is crucial to having a foundation to fall back on when it’s not. Even when I didn’t feel it, I told myself over and over that God did, in fact, want what was best for me and the He was, in fact, in control of my circumstances. I willed myself to believe what was true, not what I felt. That was huge.

I would never choose the most difficult periods of my life over comfort and unadulterated joy, but in retrospect, I can fully embrace them and be thankful because I now know God more deeply than I would if life had been easy. And the people around me have been changed along with me because of those times. That’s not coincidence; it’s how God operates. Yes, Paul and Silas were freed from their chains, but God’s plan included the jailer and his family, too. Yes, Joseph got out of prison by interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream, but God’s plan included all of Jacob’s children and the entire nation of Israel, ultimately. People are watching us in dark times and the result of trusting God and focusing on Him in that darkness has an impact on those around us. We can pray like Elijah, before King Ahab and prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel: “Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” (1 Kings 18:37) That, I’m convinced, is one of His favorite prayers.

• What Scripture do you rely upon in hard times? When did you first discover its comfort and relevance? How has God used that Scripture in your life since then? If you don’t have places in the Bible that you turn to in hard times, do a search and memorize one or more verses for future reference.

• Read more of the story. Expand on today’s lesson by going to Acts 16:16-40 and reading the context surrounding Paul and Silas’ imprisonment. Where do you see yourself in this story? Did you have a dramatic conversion experience when you first came into a relationship with Christ? Have you seen God show up in unexplainable ways when you were crying out to Him in prayer or song? Spend some time praying over this passage and asking God to reveal something new about Himself and your relationship with Him.