Lessons from Road Rage

One of my worst qualities is how I drive. It's just a fact of my life. I'm not really a good driver, nor am I consistently conscientious. I am easily distracted and quickly stress out over normal roadway situations. But, perhaps the worst of my qualities that surfaces when I drive is my road rage. I simply cannot tolerate it when people don't understand what is going on on the road and thus inconvenience me. I can often be seen talking very sternly to screaming at drivers around me, explaining to them exactly what it is that they are doing wrong and why it is that this action makes them a crazy person. This is, admittedly, not the most effective method of getting through to them, but I'm just so frustrated that they can't do what they need to do.

Now with this introduction you are probably thinking that I am writing a blog on patience, or level-headedness, or having a Christlike attitude in all situations.

I'm not.

See, as I was driving home from Dunkin' I had the (not at all rare) occasion to yell at the driver in front of me. We were at a 4 way intersection in which everyone had a stop sign but us. I get it, it's a confusing sort of thing. But, I imagined that the driver in front of me, who was initially confused, would survey the situation, realize that he didn't need to be stopped, and the whole stopping-ordeal would end quickly. I soon realized that this was not the case and flashed my lights at him. When this wasn't enough to encourage him to take the appropriate action I began to yell "We don't have a stop sign! We don't have to stop! Why are you stopping?! No one else is going! Everyone is waiting for you! Go! Go! Go!" Eventually, the confused driver got with the program (but certainly not because he listened to what I said) and we proceeded on our merry way. It wasn't my proudest moment, but when I got to thinking about it I saw that there was a biblical application in this scenario that I had never before considered.


Let's assume for a moment that we are the confused driver holding up the show. Let's also assume that God designed the road and this whole scenario for us, and that he has made sure that the Holy Spirit through the Bible is stuck behind us in traffic.

Here we are just meandering down the road of life, when we get to a situation that we should blow right past without stopping to get involved. It's a place we don't need to be, and it's time to get a move on. God, in his great wisdom, has given us lots of indicators about the appropriate actions in this situation. There are the road signs, that is--our natural sense of morality, telling us what to do and there are tons of Christian cars around us who are all taking the appropriate actions. This should certainly be enough for us to relatively quickly figure out what we should be doing in this situation--namely, getting out of it.
Of course, we are dead-set on doing things our way, or else we aren't even paying attention to what is going on around us, so in his great mercy God has put someone behind us on the road who knows what's going on, and is happy to set us in the right direction. So, when we don't understand the road signs, and we don't pay attention to the cars around us, the Holy Spirit sits behind us and flashes his lights and yells at the top of his lungs "Not that way! That's not the right choice! That won't make you happy! There's a better way! Listen to me!" Now we are even more dense than the people we encounter on physical roads. We simply are not going to ever get with the program unless we listen, otherwise we are just going to make a big mess of things.

Luckily for us, the major difference between my situation on the road today and the situation with us and the Holy Spirit is that we can hear him if we want to. When I'm behind a confused driver on a physical road, he can't be expected to respond to my commands because it's impossible for him to hear me. However, when we are in a situation where we must make choices in life, we only don't hear the Holy Spirit because we choose not to. The Bible is always here for us as a resource, but if we don't pick it up, all of the Holy Spirit's yelling falls on deaf ears. Should we be able to understand what's right to do using road signs and context clues? Yes. But we won't, so we need to be constantly in the word for guidance. We need to tune in, as it were, to the guy behind us in traffic who knows how we should be acting.

The second notable difference in these two situations is that, while I just yell at drivers on the road because I'm selfish and impatient, the Holy Spirit yells at us through God's word because he loves us so much that he wants us to only make good choices. He gave us lots of indications outside of the Bible that should tell us how to behave, and then he went the extra mile to spell it out for us very explicitly because he wants to be with us. If we ignore our conscience, or the good influences around us, but especially if we ignore His word, we aren't going to do the right things, and God cannot tolerate sin.


So really this is just a very weird (and probably convoluted?) way of me encouraging all of us to not ignore God. We need to be reading his word, and looking for his instructions in our lives or else we will be "that guy" who just can't get it together. And in life, not listening makes us more than just an inconvenience to those around us, it causes us to miss out on our reward. Nobody wants to be "that guy" on the road, and we certainly don't want to be him in life. Let us be always more diligent in our study, and more conscientious as we make decisions.

Letting Satan Win

For Spring Break this year I have traveled to North Carolina and am staying with my aunt and uncle. Time with them and my two little cousins has provided me with a nice change of pace, but has also provided me with many learning opportunities. One of these opportunities is the topic of my blog today.

My almost-4-year-old cousin had a rough day on Monday. He pushed his friend, and didn't eat nicely, and generally speaking just did not obey. I imagine that little boys just have days like that. We all have days like that.

Anyway, half way through the day he and his momma had to have a heart to heart about his behavior. In this conversation, which I overheard, he told his mom that he had let Satan win that day, but that he was going to make good choices the rest of the day and not let Satan win anymore. Later, at dinner, he prayed to God that we would all do better about making good choices.

And that's what I want to talk about today. So many things about that are just right and good and should be emulated. To spell out the goodness of this situation more clearly for us, I'll make a list as I sometimes like to do. This list represents the chronological order of events in my cousin's day and will hopefully encourage us to make his choices our choices. Here we go:

1. He made choices that he knew were wrong. (This isn't something that we should do, but it happens to all of us.)
2. He recognized that these choices constituted a victory for Satan, but that he was the cause of them. "I let Satan win." (We miss this step in the process a lot, which causes us to continue sinning. This is also a trick of Satan--making us think that our sin isn't sin. Alternatively, when we do recognize our sin, we sometimes fall victim to the trap of thinking that Satan was the only cause and so absolve ourselves of responsibility. We shouldn't do this either. It's somewhat easier for the 4-year-old than for us because someone else is directly telling him that this or that thing is wrong and shouldn't be done. We have the bible for that, which may seem less direct, but it leaves us without excuse. We can still look at our actions, see that they do not align with God's will for us, and realize that through our choices, we let Satan win.)
3. He determined to not let Satan win anymore for the rest of the day. When he realized his error he took immediate action to make it better. (This is important, because he moved on. He felt bad about doing wrong, but that didn't stop him from doing better. Often, we do wrong and we wallow and moan and feel bad about ourselves instead of becoming better people who do better things. And it doesn't mean that we will never struggle and do bad again. I'm certain that my cousin will do the wrong thing again. But, we have to determine within ourselves that we are the types of people that will try to do better.)
4. He asked God to help him do better. (We certainly can't forget to do this. We can't justify ourselves, nor can we do good, without God's help. When we do bad, God is still there for us and is definitely willing to support us and strengthen us in our fight against Satan.)

Jesus encourages his followers to be like children (Mark 10:14-15) and I think from now on when I think of that principle, I will think of this example. I hope you are all encouraged by this and that you have an uplifting week of serving The Lord. 

The Basics

Sigh. Somehow it became Saturday night and I haven't blogged yet this week. I don't feel as bad about this as I did a couple weeks ago though, because it wasn't for a lack of ideas that I fell down on the job. I've just been busy. I thought about writing about Judas this week, or some of the other things in the book of John because that's where I'm reading right now. Honestly though, I'm really tired and I want to go to bed, so I'm going to just write something really basic that I've been thinking about a lot. That doesn't mean it's not profitable, but I do apologize that I may not be giving it 100% tonight because we should always be giving 100% to spiritual things. 

 

"If you love me, keep my commandments" John 14:15

If I don't try to keep the commandments of The Lord, I don't love him. 

"Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself" James 2:17

If my faith doesn't make me do something, I don't have faith. 

These verses show us that it's not really a matter of "stop saying and start doing" when it comes to our spiritual lives. (Works, after all, don't make you righteous. God justifies you because he is gracious to those who have faith in him.) It's more of a matter of not being honest with ourselves and realizing that if we aren't following God's commandments, and doing good things because God is God, we don't have the qualities of faith and love that we think we have. 

So we need to just stop it right now with the "I love Jesus, but I'm going to get drunk every weekend" or the even more subtle "I love Jesus, but maybe I don't have to try so hard to stop thinking this kind of bad thought...I like this thought." And we certainly have to stop saying things like "Works can't save me so I'm just going to believe in Jesus and live only for myself" or the much more insidious "Faith saves me, so I shouldn't do this or that good thing lest people think I believe justification comes through works."

That's not love and that's not faith. If I have true love for and faith in my Lord, I will do things for him and for his people. It's the natural consequence of those attitudes. I know it's hard because no one can be perfected in love and faith on this earth, but we have to push in that direction. As we work on our hearts, the outward signs of the goodness of the inner man will increase and be perfected along with us. 

Evangelism isn't a Cake Walk

We aren't promised an easy life as Christians. We know that. There are all sorts of verses that tell us that. The one verse that seems most clear to me is John 16:33 where Jesus says to his disciples:

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

We can't deny that we are guaranteed tribulations in this world. Things are going to be hard--I don't deny that. But I think I've always assumed that there would be SOME THINGS that wouldn't be hard.

One such thing that I assumed wouldn't make my life difficult, that would be straight forward and rewarding, was evangelism. I don't know why in America I thought this would be the thing that wouldn't be hard. But the conversation in my mind literally went, "Sure, people will persecute you for being a Christian, and not sinning will be difficult sometimes, and maybe you won't be a part of some sort of in crowd, but God wants you to evangelize, so that will never be a thorn in your side."

Clearly this perspective came from an ignorance of the Bible, or perhaps some sort of wishful thinking and idealism that I was magically impervious to the struggles of the great men of the Bible. Two occasions that specifically come to mind that prove how wrong I really was are Ezekiel and the 70.

In Ezekiel 2 and 3 God tells Ezekiel that preaching to the Israelites will be like having thorns all over him and sitting on scorpions. To top it off, in 3:7 He tells Ezekiel outright that the Israelites aren't even going to listen to what he has to say. Evangelism wasn't going to be easy for Ezekiel, but God told him to go and to speak.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends 70 (72?) of his followers out to preach the gospel. He says that He is sending them out as lambs among wolves. And then he gives them specific instructions for what to do when people inevitably do not receive their message. Evangelism wasn't going to be easy for the 70, but God told them to go and to speak.

Maybe I was the only crazy person that had this idea that evangelism wouldn't hurt. Maybe I was alone in the view that even if people rejected the gospel (which I know is a constant reality), it wouldn't be so bad for me as a teacher. But if I wasn't alone in that, if you also thought evangelism wasn't one of those trying aspects of the Christian life, you can take comfort along with me by looking back once again to John 16:33.


"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Our Lord and Savior has overcome the world. It's going to be okay, and it's going to be worth it. It's going to be hard, and people will reject the gospel which was so graciously given to mankind, and maybe they will reject you, or treat you badly, or you will feel badly because people you try to teach don't believe...but it will be worth it. Christ has overcome the world.

Being Prepared

I realized today that I didn't post this week, and that I really didn't have an idea for a new post, but that today was in fact the last day of the week. I knew I had to think of something because I told myself that I would post on here every week in 2014 and so far I have. I can't stop now.

So here I was, racking my brain about what I could possibly talk about. I thought about just posting some verses (which would certainly be beneficial), and then I thought of resurrecting one of my less inspired ideas, and then I came up with the idea that I'm going to share with you now.

Maybe you guessed from the title that I will be very ironically talking about preparedness.

I heard a very insightful sermon recently about the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. After Jesus concludes the story he admonishes his listeners to "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." (I'm realizing now that I'm probably just going to plagiarize this sermon right now, so just know that these thoughts are not unique to me)

There are lots of things that we cannot anticipate the time of with any real certainty. Both good things and bad things are going to happen to us with virtually no forewarning. But we can't just let life happen to us. We need to turn good things that happen to us into opportunities for personal growth, and bad things into opportunities to rely more fully on God. The only way to ensure that we use our experiences to their maximum benefit is to be prepared to handle them.

We aren't capable of magically preparing ourselves. That makes me sad because I like to think that I control things and that I can fix them and make them happen and really impact situations. Then again I can take comfort in the fact that God can prepare us for life's challenges through his Word. My best planning outside of his word won't help me handle the highs and lows of life effectively.


So really this post is for the unprepared me more than it is for you. I was really discouraged for a large portion of this week because of things I couldn't control that I wanted to control, but instead of relying on God and going to his word for support, or even thinking diligently about the things I knew from his word that would prepare me for these specific scenarios, I just stayed discouraged. So, when it became the end of the week, I was not prepared with tons of spiritual thoughts I had been thinking during the week because I spent most of it not preparing to be prepared, or perhaps suffering the consequences of being prepared. At the very least I did not spend enough time in the Word this week, which is the key to preparedness for life's situations.

I've been much less discouraged the past couple of days (thanks to some very reliable and encouraging friends, and prayer) but I know I can definitely do a better job letting God prepare me for the situations in my life.

He's here for us and his word is here for us. We cannot forget to utilize those resources.

Run.

What should we do about temptation to sin? That should be a big question in the minds of Christian people. How do we respond when we are confronted with the wrong choice, when we are encouraged to make the wrong choice? We have to have answers for those questions.


When I was thinking about writing this post about how to handle temptations, I immediately thought of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife. He literally flees from the temptation to sin, which is the point I wanted to drive at. But, as I read the story again, something stood out to me that is an equally important way to approach temptation.

Genesis 39:6b-12 
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
  But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.

What I didn't notice before that I noticed on this reading was that Joseph didn't just immediately run away from the problem that was facing him. Potiphar's wife tried to entice him day after day, but his first response wasn't to run. His first response was to refuse her and proclaim his faith. "I can't sin against God this way." He likely had to say these words over and over again to her, having to convince himself to continually deny her, even though she tempted him. I wouldn't claim to know that this was indeed a true temptation for Joseph, except from the evidence we see in the rest of this story.

After he diligently and dutifully spent days and days relying on God and his affirmation of his own faith to resist temptation, the day came when she caught him, tempted him, and he ran away. If he had no desire to sin in this scenario he could have just continued to tell her no. But instead he ran, leaving his responsibilities and his position so that he wouldn't sin.

I think the dual nature of Joseph's approach to this temptation (resisting while remaining/fleeing) can tell us lots of good things.

1. People of faith will be tempted.
2. Strong faith will help us through temptations, but it won't make us magically impervious to them or incapable of succumbing to them.
3. Reminding ourselves why we shouldn't sin can help us resist temptation.
4. Running from the source of our temptation doesn't always have to be our first response (Although I would never lessen the power or importance of verses 2 Timothy 2:22 or 1 Corinthians 6:18. I would say present resistance is a form of fleeing)
5. We can teach others about God even when we are tempted (Joseph taught Potiphar's wife about serving God amidst this temptation)
6. It's better to run than to give in. 

 I want to spend a little more time talking about point 6 here. I think it's so important that we realize that Joseph couldn't just tell her no forever. Perhaps he could have, but when he felt as though he could no longer resist her, he left. Joseph was a pillar of morality and trust in God, but he had to run away from this temptation. That tells me that it's not shameful to have to run away from sin, or to change what we do so that we resist temptation. It is often necessary, and always beneficial. It wasn't worth it to Joseph to say "No, I can probably just keep telling her no. I want to do the wrong thing, but I probably won't. It's probably fine." When he was honest with himself and realized that he was no longer going to be able to resist her in the way he once had, he took more drastic measures and he kept from sinning.

There should be no length we are unwilling to go to to stop from sinning. Period. If we can resist temptation easily through faith and will-power--great. But if not, let's do whatever we need to do to cut sin out of our lives.

He Set Eternity in our Hearts

Sorry this post is coming so late in the week. For some reason I really had trouble coming up with something to talk about, especially amidst the busyness of lectures, etc.

I decided to talk about something that came up more than once in my week in really subtle ways, but that I think is really interesting and important. Admittedly, I need to think a lot more about this complex subject.

Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
"I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."

Think about that while I tell you these two stories from my week:

One.

I'm very blessed to be able to have lots of conversations about God with people who don't necessarily believe in him or care about what he has to say. In my field, almost everyone is an atheist, but they are generally very interested in my alternative perspective. Recently, during one of these conversations, a colleague of mine asked me a question that she feared was too personal. "Do you really, actually, deep down inside, feel that there is something more?"

That was a weird question for me. People don't usually approach my faith in terms of my feelings about it. I don't usually approach my faith in terms of my feelings about it. But then I realized that the answer to her question was "Absolutely yes, I know there is something more. I can feel it inside of me." I really don't think I had ever said that to a person before, because I focus a lot on intellectually coming to God. But I realized as I answered her, that another way that I believe in God is because I know in my heart that he is the explanation for things. I'm the kind of person who likes to know things only with my brain, but there is something to be said for feeling in your heart that there is something more to life than what you can come up with in your own brain.

After all, that's exactly the premise of Ecc 3:11. God set eternity in our hearts, not so that we can understand all of the things that God has done or what God understands, but so we can understand that there is something more. Like I said, I need to think about that verse and what it means more, but there seemed to be a strong correlation between what my colleague was referencing in my "gut feelings" and the idea of God "setting eternity in our hearts." Whether or not she believed in something more, she was willing to recognize that my belief (especially in life after death) would be something that stemmed at least in part from an internal instinct of some sort.

Now for story number two. This isn't really my story as much as the other one was. I started watching this documentary called "Surviving Progress" on Netflix. I've been busy, so I've only watched about 15 minutes of it. During this fifteen minutes, a evolutionary scientist (I think that was his title) was explaining the differences and similarities between chimps and humans. The major difference he brought out was that when something doesn't work how it is supposed to for a chimp, they just keep trying to do whatever it is and they don't understand why it doesn't work. Alternatively, if something doesn't work in the way that a human expects it to based on prior knowledge, they look for an unobservable factor that could be causing this different outcome.

The scientist, of course, gave no explanation as to why humans, rather than chimps, are capable of understanding that there could be invisible/unobservable things that explain life. Those are his words, not mine. He stated very plainly that humans are looking for unobservable things to explain life, not just individual events.

So here it was again, Ecclesiastes 3:11 from the mouth of a scientist. Humans are seeking explanations that go beyond our senses. What the scientist didn't say, but that I will, is that our Creator gave us that longing to help us search for him.

I don't know if there is anything that one could make of that searching, that longing, or that "gut feeling" without the Creator. If there is just nothing else--no more to this life (or beyond this life)--why is there this pervasive idea that we are looking for something that we naturally perceive inside ourselves?

(Now that I'm reading this, I'm realizing that these ideas are probably also informed in part by C.S. Lewis and his discussion of the Law of Human Nature in Mere Christianity. Regardless, I take comfort and hope in the fact that God gives us tools to help us search for him and find him. And I hope that we can all be aware of those around us who are looking and feeling so that we can help guide them to the true God.)