Thursday (1/16/2014

Update:

I worked hard on preparing Tyler and Hannah’s wedding ceremony yesterday (Wednesday).  I got most of it done; I hope to finish it up today (Thursday).  The rehearsal is Friday evening and wedding is on Saturday.   I have a lot of other church work to get done (message, annual report) in the next two days besides the wedding; so I hope to finish it quickly. 

I’m struggling to get as much done in a day as I would like.  Everything takes longer than it used to take and takes more energy.  Whew!  It is long road back to recovery and I am obviously not there yet.  It is a bit frustrating to me because I want to be back to “normal” on the workload I can handle.

Besides doing over an hour of exercises each day, I am spending a good portion of time in devotional and inspirational reading.  I’ve got about six books that I am reading a short chapter out of each day, along with reading my bible, to nourish my spirit and help me maintain a positive mental outlook.  It has been working for me and I don’t want to let it slip.  Add that time to extra rest that my body requires right now along with how the simplest tasks takes me twice as long as they use to and my day is filled up fast.  I can look back at the end of the day and not have much I can cross off my “to do” list; but I’m trying and exhausted by the end of the day.

I am taking this out of context, but the message is the same, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). The bible was talking about temptation leading to sin; I’m using it to say I cannot do everything that I want to do.  I want to do so much more, but right now I just don’t have it to give.  It is strange because in so many ways I feel like I am back to my old self; I desire to get out and go and do; but “my body can’t cash the checks that my mind writes.”  So frustrating!  So I will have to be content with what I can do.  I hope everyone will continue to be patient with me until I get back up to speed.

Thought for the Day:

What about suffering?

Our Western culture’s approach to suffering is to “make the world better, to slowly but surely eliminate suffering right there.” (Timothy Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering).  We might consider it a worthwhile goal if it was truly possible to achieve.  Our secular mindset sees no benefit to suffering.  It isn’t really even a part of our thinking.  Because in our culture personal pleasure and happiness is the de facto purpose of life, suffering is like an unwanted house guest; someone to remove and have nothing to do with.  Its continued presence in our life makes us uncomfortable because it doesn’t belong. 

We are uncomfortable being around someone who is in pain and suffering.  We want to fix it and remove all trace of discomfort (I am not saying that reduction in pain isn’t a good thing—it’s just not the only thing).  Humanly speaking if there is no purpose for pain, then let’s get rid of it.  Not being able to remove all pain and suffering is a painful reminder that we really aren’t in control.

I’ve talked previously about the fact that happiness is not the primary purpose of life.  While happiness sounds like a worthwhile goal, it is beyond us to achieve.  Ultimately, I personally believe that the purpose of life is to please God and give Him glory.  That is the traditional answer of the Christian church throughout the centuries. 

The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Protestant) is

Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

 

In the Baltimore Catechism (Roman Catholic) the question is asked this way:

Q: Why did God make us?

A: God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven.

So why in our Western culture have we made personal happiness the reason and purpose for our life?   We’ve removed God from our lives (or at least pushed Him conveniently into a dark corner) and so what else is there?  Without God, there is no reason to hope for a heaven which is described as a place of joy and happiness.  Even those of us who are religious, we’ve lost so much of our biblical worldview and the concept of looking forward to heaven that in some respects we are no different than the people around us who don’t have any religious faith.  “…the reason for all the emphasis on the here and now of this world is that secularism has no other happiness to offer.  If you can’t find it here, there really is no hope for you” (Timothy Keller, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering).  As a society we have become naively optimistic about human life assuming that we can fix every wrong and solve every problem; and that we can live our lives pain free without fear of suffering and illness.    

All of this leads us to a self-centered life.  I must do everything that I can to please me and what makes me feel good.  The difficulty is that if every person in the world takes that approach, the world will be utter chaos.  What if an orchestra took that approach?  Each musician tried to make the music showcase him or her?

Max Lucado in his book, “It’s Not About Me: Rescue From the Life We Thought We Would Make Us Happy” describes that scene in this way:  “Can you imagine an orchestra with an ‘It’s all about me’ outlook?  Each artist clamoring for self-expression.  Tubas blasting nonstop.  Percussionists pounding to get attention.  The cellist shoving the flutist out of the center-stage chair.  The trumpeter standing atop the conductor’s stool tooting his horn.  Sheet music disregarded.  Conductor ignored… Harmony? Hardly.  Happiness?”

There would be no happiness in that symphony hall.  Fights would soon break out as people attempted to get their way and achieve their personal goals.  There would be hatred and disharmony.  What a mess!  That is a good picture of our world today; everyone seeking to play their own song and upset that nobody else plays along (or would be quiet and not play their own music). 

What the orchestra needs is to follow a conductor; someone who would help channel their efforts and energy.  By following his guidance, they would work together as a team to create beautiful music instead of noisy chaos.   In this illustration we are the individual musicians and God is the conductor.  The simple truth is that without God, our lives are noisy and a complete disaster (I realize that is overstated—that sometimes we can enjoy a bit of our own music—but overall…).  As we follow God, things become better and more like beautiful music.

I know this post doesn’t solve the problem of evil and suffering.  But my goal today was to help you realize why our culture has the attitude about suffering and pain that it does.  I wish pain and suffering could be eradicated.  But since we live in a world filled with pain and suffering, shouldn’t we learn to deal with it and learn to get any possible benefit from it that we can? Let’s not be like the ostrich pretending that pain and suffering doesn’t exist.