Easter Week: More than just chocolate eggs?

One thing constantly amazes me about human beings.  We are able to suffer some of the most grievous and most cruel imaginings, and yet often the body, mind, and soul can miraculously be restored.  If we are given a chance, and often this is only afforded through the compassion of others.  

This theme keeps popping up in my life, evoking from me a strange curiosity and wondering.  My wife is a doctor and I am constantly around stories of people being healed, but in all fairness these stories are tragically associated with stories of being people un-healed.  There are those who do not get better, take unexpected turns for the worse, or are too broken for a healing hand to help.

Perhaps we are all too aware of these tragedies in our midst.  The media tends to gravitate towards stories of corruption, depravity, death, and mayhem.  It can be difficult at best to believe there is good in this world at times, unless we search for something to drag us back to the reality of its existence on occasion.

Last week I gathered with other believers in Christ, and as we finished our time in worship a guest speaker who grew up in Uganda stood to share with us her story.  It was simple in the end.  She had been born into such poverty that her parents had sold her into slavery.  It was a choice between this or letting her die.  So from an age where most of us are getting dressed up by our parents so pictures can be sent world wide of our insane cuteness, she was being forced to wake up before dawn to go and draw water for her...owners.

The quote she said that most stuck in my heart was, "Do not cry for me tonight.  I have lived and have experienced the joy of compassion."  You see her life was changed by one of those countless folks who give money to an organization that reaches out to these children, freeing them from a lifestyle of slavery and offering for them instead - a family, food, education - freedom.

A group called Fountains of Peace changed her life forever, and listening to her speak I could not help but think about how the only thing that seemed to remain in her from that terrible start to life was a drive to help the other children still in that situation.  She was not broken.  She was not irreparably damaged.  She is whole and an agent of change!  She was restored by her God thanks to the help of her brothers and sisters.

Another story I read this past week touched me because it put stories like this one I have just shared into vivid photos.  This is a story of an abused dog that had been tossed down a trash chute.  As unimaginable as that is to me as a human being, what is even better then the evilness of this act, is the compassion of the countless acts that nursed this dog back to health.  Read the story by clicking here.   

It truly is amazing how much change we can bring about in the lives of others.  Moving into the celebration of Easter I am focused intently on the idea of resurrection.  My whole faith and life depends on a belief that resurrection is not just something that happened over 2,000 years ago, but is something that continues to happen on a daily basis in my life and in the lives of others.

If you get a chance open up the Bible and read Psalm 118, the psalm which is most likely being referred to when the people shout to Jesus as he proceeds into Jerusalem on the donkey, "Hosanna!" (in John 12 and Matthew 21)  As a form of exclamation this word most often is translated from the Hebrew as "Save us!" (as seen in Psalm 118:25)

People all around us are shouting "hosanna" and you or I just might be the answer God is sending them.  Will you kneel down and embrace the disfigured man?  Will you nurse an animal back to health?  Will you give a monthly donation so a child can be freed to live?  Where is someone shouting or even whispering "hosanna" near you, maybe too weak to raise their voice any longer?  Will you save someone?

The tomb is empty and Christ lives.  He lives in us.  Let us be the loving arms of God to those around us this week as we turn to celebrate the greatest miracle of all!

Indissoluble Union: Baby Steps

I was reading today in John 10 and I hit verse 34 - Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ - and the scripture cannot be annulled - can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?”  (read Psalm 86 too)

So interesting.  I've always been fascinated with how we perceive ourselves in Christ.  For instance, the idea of the priesthood of all believers is a favorite of mine.  But there has always been the notion that we are missing something... that we haven't quite understood some key aspect of it all.  And then I read a verse like this and it reminds me.

Oh ya, we ARE sons and daughters of the Most High.  I tend to think of myself, as I have been taught, as a little Jesus growing and becoming more like Jesus everyday.  But as I sit here I wonder, is this correct?  Is it possible that I am not meant to live as someone who might one day be more like Jesus and then be wholly like him in death, but that we who are in Christ are to live fully as Christ NOW and in the present?

Yes I know this question leads to a difficult, "Ok buddy, it's not that easy to just be like Jesus" sort of response.  What I am trying to get at though is our, or at least mine, thinking does not allow for us to be the Jesus we need to be because we are trying to hard to be someone else.  What if, just what if, you could learn to believe and cherish the concept that as a son or daughter of God, you ARE a son or daughter of God?  The son or daughter of God as was intended in the creation of you.

As I was thinking about this, I took up a new agreement with my brother back home in Memphis to listen to his pastor's sermons so that we could in turn grow together and have some wholesome dialogue.  I listened to the sermon from January the fifth (click anywhere on this sentence to find them), and wouldn't you know it, he was preaching on "how do we live as a child of God?" (pretty good and I recommend a listen if you have time - the sermon also helps to note how we need to behave as those who are in Christ - good stuff). Nice.

To keep this short... I'll tell you one thing.  I am so excited to live the rest of the day focused on being as fully a son of God as I can be - wholly myself.  Yes I have lots of work to do as I become myself, but everyday I'm going to wake up and focus on my indissoluble union in God as God's son - as Brett Baddorf redeemed (I found that in the description in the online pulpit commentary and just love it).

Let us live as who we were born to be - ourselves - fully ourselves in God through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.  To paraphrase a quote from the movie What About Bob, "I'm going to take baby steps on being my true self today."