Perspective, Again

In 2009 I wrote a post here titled “Perspective” about my anxiety at the time with the economy, the 2008 election, and all the bad things going on in the world - both real and perceived - and how the Lord helped me focus on Him instead of the fear. 

Who knew then how much worse it would get in the years to come? A major recession, the Covid pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and Israel. Donald Trump inciting the violent January 6 attack on the Capitol because he couldn’t accept that he lost the election.

This 2024 election weighs heavy on my heart as we face a choice between what seems to me like marxist liberalism vs. fascist conservatism and it leaves me feeling like - to use a colloquialism - we’re screwed either way. I am once again struggling with worry over politics, the economy, world affairs, and the moral decline of our country. But as I re-read that entry in 2009, I once again find my peace in God’s presence amidst the uncertainty, and find that the prayer I wrote then is just as applicable and empowering today with a few additions:

 Dear Lord, 

I bring you my shortcomings...

because Your Word says that in my weakness you are strong and I feel like such a wimp in these trying times. I have so many faults and shortcomings but when I look closer, I see they are by your design as behind each one is a strength waiting to develop as I surrender them to you.

I bring you my worship and praise...
because Your Word says you inhabit the praise of your people and when I worship You, I feel your presence. Today I praise your names Jehovah Jireh, because you are the Lord who provides, and Elohim Shomri, the Lord who protects me.

I bring you my prayer...
because Your Word says to tell you my hurts, fears, concerns, and needs so that I'm not anxious about anything. Help me take my anxious thoughts captive and leave them with You, knowing that nothing is happening that isn't passing through Your hands first. You are in control of all things including an election. Thank you for your provision and protection.

You spoke to me from Your Word…

"I have loved you with an everlasting love."
Jeremiah 31:3
"The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Deuteronomy 33:27

“Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.

He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. 

He remains faithful forever.”

Psalm 146:3-6

You whispered to me…

Don’t worry. I’ve got this.

What’s on Your Altar?

"Everybody has an altar. And every altar has a throne. So how do you know where and what you worship? It’s easy. You simply follow the trail of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your loyalty. At the end of that trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever, is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you. On that throne is what you worship."   - Louie Giglio

What’s on your altar? It can be relationships, a job/career, or service to others. A hobby or travel to beautiful places can be great for mental health. Bible study, ministry, and intercessory prayer are definitely worthy of space. Even material collections that bring us joy might show up on the altar. 

But what about the throne? Any thing or person that becomes an obsession or a singular focus of our money, time, affection, loyalty, and energy threatens to take over the throne of our lives. It could be the pursuit of wealth or status above all else. Or the pursuit of youth and beauty. Maybe social media consumes our time and energy. Any number of addictions might battle for prominence. 

For some a presidential candidate sits on the throne as an object of messiah-like worship. Sadly, I have witnessed this a lot the past few years and more-so lately. 

I hope Jesus is on the throne of my altar. I think He mostly is, but it’s a battle with the many other things vying for a place as well. 

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” - Matthew 6:21

Scarlet Letters

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” tells the story of Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman caught in adultery and forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest to expose her sin and shame. Public shame for sin is politically incorrect these days and that’s a topic I’d like to explore in another post sometime. But today this story has me thinking about the other side of wearing a “scarlet letter”; the misuse of it as we define ourselves or others by something long after amends have been made and forgiveness granted.

I’m reminded of another story in scripture when a woman found in the act of adultery was brought before Jesus. Here’s how it played out as recorded in John 8:

The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. "Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court. (v. 3-9)

I sometimes wonder if the woman was set up for the purpose of trapping Jesus. If Jesus said, "Let her go," then it would seem that he is breaking the Mosaic law. If he said, "Execute her for the crime of adultery," then Jesus would seem harsh and would break Roman law, because the Romans had taken away the right of Jews to officially execute people for religious offenses. But the fact is, she was guilty. Whether it was a set up or not, she was caught in the act of adultery and law was clear about the punishment. On a side note, I wonder what Jesus wrote in the ground…maybe the names of the accusers in the group who at one time or another had committed adultery with this same woman? Or perhaps he listed the sins they were guilty of themselves. We aren’t told but whatever it was it seems to have influenced the outcome.

Jesus never denied the woman sinned. He never denied the penalty the law required or the Pharisees’ right to carry out the judgment. What he did was force the accusers to acknowledge that they themselves were sinners. In Jewish law, witnesses to a capital offense were the ones who began the stoning. One commentator suggests that when Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her,” he was really saying "all right, let’s execute her. But let’s do it right. One of the witnesses has to have a hand in her execution. So who among you is the one who witnessed this crime, but only brought to me the woman, not the man?" Perhaps, caught in the trap themselves, the men left rather than expose their own guilt.

If the story ended there it would still be a good lesson for us. But for me, the beauty is what followed:

Straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?" She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more." (v.10-11)

We aren’t told in this account who the woman was or what happened after that but I have to imagine that after such mercy and forgiveness that she changed her ways. I can also imagine that it wasn’t easy because like Hester Prynne, she was likely defined by her past even if she never committed adultery again. The accusers were likely still pointing at her, gossiping about her; still trying to put the focus on her so that their own sins would not be found out. She likely had her own moments of self-condemnation.

These stories happen to be about adultery but that isn’t the point. What is on my mind today is how we let any sin define us long after we’ve confessed and received forgiveness from Jesus. Sometimes we allow another to keep putting a scarlet letter on our chests without justification. Sometimes we wake up every morning and pin it on ourselves out of shame for something we did years ago or even something that was done to us that we have no reason to feel guilty about. Mostly though, we have an enemy, Satan, who continually whispers in our ear each letter that represents why we are guilty, beyond forgiveness, beyond the reach of mercy and grace of the Saviour, beyond redemption, beyond hope. His greatest weapon against us is accusation to cause doubt in what Jesus did on the cross.

What are some of the scarlet letters you carry around? I have my own collection that I drag out every now and then in my moments of doubt but then I choose to lay them at Jesus’ feet. In the shadow of the cross scarlet letters lose their power. Like the woman brought before him, if we just look through the filter of redemption we will find our accusers, or rather THE accuser, have left empty-handed with no evidence against us. 

Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He promises forgiveness when we confess wrong doing (1 John 1:9) and not only forgiveness but that the sin is removed and forgotten (Psalm 103:12). Those are powerful promises that make the scarlet letters fall away as Jesus whispers in our ear, "neither do I condemn you."

(reposted from 2010)

The Way We Like it Doesn't Change the Truth

Retired Church of Uganda Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi said, "The moment you’re far away from your Bible and you are not making a difference with your Bible, then you are losing God’s wisdom to help you to walk righteously before Him."  

That is one source of the weakening of the church. Without the personal study of scripture with the Holy Spirit guiding us to truth, we rely more on experiences or teaching that makes us feel good without questioning whether they are Biblical. We rely more on what the latest best-selling author or charismatic pastor of a mega-church is saying without testing it against what God says, or we rely on social media to form our opinions and even our theology based on what is going around on X (formerly Twitter) or Facebook. 

Without the Bible to guide us, we are in danger of being lured into believing what God says is sin really isn’t, justifying it by saying scripture was misinterpreted, that it applied to a different people or time or circumstance and is irrelevant to us today, or that it isn't what God really meant.  We try to convince ourselves that if God really loves us that means he wants us to be happy even if it goes against his word. 

It sobers me because I know God is clear that not everyone who stands before him saying "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. There will be no excuses, no debate anyone can give to convince Him that they are the exception to what He told us in his word.

We can spin it any way we want but as Orombi says, "the way you like it doesn’t change the truth that is in the Scripture."

God Sees Us

I pay attention to men and women in the Bible who are the misfits because there is always a lesson to learn from their stories. One of my favorites is that of Hagar, the slave of Sarah and Abraham. The story is in Genesis 16 and to summarize, Sarah (then called Sarai) had been unable to conceive so she encouraged Abraham (then called Abram) to have a child through their Egyptian servant, Hagar. Hagar taunted Sarah after becoming pregnant and in turn, Sarah treated Hagar harshly to the point that she fled into the desert.

If anyone felt invisible and unwanted, it was Hagar.  She was living every woman's nightmare…pregnant, alone, utterly abandoned. Or so she thought. God knew her circumstance and sent an angel to minister to her. After this encounter with the Lord, Hagar said to him (verse 13), "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." In Hebrew, that name is El-Roi, the God who sees.

I'm reminded of a line from the movie Shall We Dance?, a story about a man (played by Richard Gere) who takes up ballroom dancing while going through a midlife crisis. In one scene his wife (played by Susan Sarandon) is explaining to someone why people get married: "Because we need a witness to our lives. There's a billion people on the planet. I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage...you're saying 'your life will not go unnoticed, because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed, because I will witness it.'"

Isn't that what we all want to some degree? To be seen? Witnessed? Acknowledged?  El-Roi does this for us. He says to each of us, "your life will not go unnoticed, because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed, because I will witness it. I see you."

When we forget that our heavenly Father sees us, we will feel invisible and unimportant and will seek acknowledgement from others that will always leave us wanting.  That’s why the story of Hagar is an important reminder of God’s character. It reminds us that even if no one else notices, God witnesses a life he lovingly created for his glory and purpose.  He never abandons his watch over us. He sees us through the filter of Jesus and the cross, redeemed and worthy. That's hardly insignificant!

God has much to say about how important we are to him.  Psalm 139 is a beautiful testament of the God who sees as he supervised the formation of each one of us before we were born and has remained constantly aware of every moment of our lives thereafter. In fact, there is nowhere we can go that he does not see.  Psalm 121 tells us that the Lord never takes a break from watching over us.  Isaiah 61:3 says we are a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor. Isaiah 40:10 reminds us that even if the mountains fall, His unfailing love for us will not be shaken nor his covenant removed. 

No matter how invisible we feel on this planet at times, we are never out of God’s sight. Even if no one else ever knows who we are, even if we never get credit for anything good that we've done, God sees us inside and out.

The Heart Wants to Remember

"The heart wants to remember. That is why we journal, and take pictures of the events of our lives. Even without the actual pictures and written words, the heart records and remembers every experience, even if at the conscious level we sometimes forget...we need altars to commemorate the special events of our lives, and we need signposts to lead those we are leaving behind. The heart not only wants to remember, it needs to remember where it has gone, in order to move forward."

My friend Lidj (Crown of Beauty) wrote this on a post at her blog and it caught my attention. I feel the same way. The heart wants to remember but the heart also wants to be remembered. We want to know our lives count for something; that we are important to others. I think that's why we blog, tweet and Facebook. We not only want to remember the moments of our lives, but we also want to be acknowledged and to know our presence has mattered to someone else.

Friends and family who love us serve as witnesses to our lives. So does God. His heart remembers. The same God who is my Savior is also the One who knows how many hairs I have on my head (and how many are white and how many are still brown!), has the sands of the sea numbered, and takes note when a tiny sparrow dies. Not only am I cherished by Him, everything I do for Him is of great importance and He takes note of those moments in my life even if no one else ever sees.

My heart wants to remember not only the moments and events of my life and those of my family and friends, but also of the ways God was present in them.

(reposted from 2009)

The Hidden Years

"In hidden years, God is our only consistent audience. Others come and go, but only He always sees. God alone realizes our full potential and comprehends the longings in our souls. When no one else is interested (let alone impressed by) our capabilities and dreams, God is STILL wholeheartedly with fatherly pride shouting His love over us. Anonymous seasons afford us the opportunity to establish God as our souls' true point of reference if we resist underestimating how He treasures our hiddenness and take the time to decide whose attention and acceptance really matters in our lives."

Alicia Britt Chole