Overwhelmed?

It is so easy to get overwhelmed with all of the problems in the world. Our politics, conflicts abroad, drugs, school violence and lockdowns, poverty, starvation, the sex and slave trades, religious conflicts (armed, verbal, legislative, etc.), and the list keeps going.

Jesus didn’t heal every sick person in Israel, much less the world, nor did He right every injustice around Him, but He confidently said that He had done everything He came to do.

For us, we aren’t God, so we can’t hope to solve every problem. However, I think the solution is to see what issues impassion you and prayerfully pursue those, and not feel guilty for not pursuing others. It is easy to be guilted by others’ passion, but resist. Many if not most of these problems are desperately real, and so be grateful and encourage others in pursuing their passions, and share yours with them. Just don’t be insulted or think less of them if they don’t jump on board with you. It goes both ways.

We will each have peace and encouragement, and more will be done as we mutually encourage each other while remaining focused on the tasks we’ve been given.

SDG

Following Which Design Plan?

Part of my wing of the chemistry building is nearing the completion of a year-long renovation project. As my teaching lab is moving to the ‘new’ space, I gave the architects detailed plans for how I wanted the space built out, to scale, using industry standard design software, and gave them both hard and electronic copies of the design. You know where this is heading.

What's Missing?

Tonight on the way home, I put in a CD of ‘the greatest sermon ever preached on American soil,’ Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He really says it like it is. When I finish it, I will likely listen to it again. I just finished “Pilgrim’s Progress” by Bunyan, and it was a strange mixture of profundity and triteness, yet, it also, like Edwards, calls us to a higher level of commitment.

Why are you a follower of Christ? What have you sacrificed as rubbish before the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord? What are you really willing to sacrifice? For myself, I’ve sacrificed precious little, and would like to think I’d sacrifice it all, but find myself trying to find ways to have my cake and eat it too.

I Like Love You

In way too many places to list here, Scripture commands us to love one another. One day in a Bible Study in grad school, we were discussing what this means—to put another’s needs above your own, to look out for and guard the well-being of others. I don’t remember now if someone said it, or if it clicked for me—that doesn’t mean I have to like that person or be feeling warm and fuzzy towards them at the moment. The love commanded is that of action and attitude, not emotion.

What has made this stick for me is how surprised I was at the overwhelming relief I felt. I can serve them, even graciously, even if they are not my favorite people, even if they are difficult and annoying, I can still show them love by guarding their well-being, whether physically, emotionally or spiritually. I can even do this willingly and not grudgingly, because they are a human created by God, and, if a Christian, a brother or sister in the Lord.

What is interesting is that when obedience to God’s commands is performed, even when ‘our heart isn’t in it,’ eventually our heart comes around.

Sometimes it is easier to say “I love you,” than it is to say “I like you.” Once more, God turns our expectations upside down.

SDG