Tag: Hope

Posted on

Greatness in 2022 and Beyond

Psalm 102:18, “Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.”

“God is looking for those with whom He can do the impossible — what a pity that we plan only the things that we can do by ourselves.” – A. W. Tozer

As I read down the list of famous people who passed on during 2021, it brought mixed feelings. There is the delight of emotions driven by what was going on in my life when they first came to my attention. There was admiration for what they had accomplished and the dedication to their craft. But there was also the melancholia of a time passed that will never be again. I started to think of people who achieved worldly greatness to see that season come to an end.

1 Peter 4:7-8, “For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and be sober-minded for the sake of pray. Most important of all, you must sincerely love each other because love wipes away many sins.”

Not All Worldly Achievements Come to an End.

If you have painted a picture, played in a band, penned a book, inspired a song, starred in a movie, people might remember your name, they might recall a memory, or they might even conjure an emotion, but will they remember you? How fleeting is fame? The euphoria of accomplishment fades over time as we create new goals to surpass. In time, skills digress, and we must be content to rest on our laurels.

I believe deep down inside, we all crave greatness. Many of us suppress that urge because we think it is beyond us, but it still lurks in the shadows; it nags at us from dark recesses when we are left alone too long. We look at social media and the news (doomscrolling), envious of what is not ours. The world defines greatness, and we strive to emulate it.

Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

One of my favorite quotes comes from the book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Greatness is not a Thing; it is an Emotion

This quote has become one of my life passages. As time passes, people will not remember your acts of kindness and goodness, but they will remember someone who made them feel loved. The name, the place, the exact actions are fading flowers and wisps of smoke, but the feelings stay with us the rest of our lives. It is not the accomplishment that survives time; it is the emotion the accomplishment brought on.

A movie, a song, or a picture trigger deeper meaning from the soul. They water the seed that grows from our hearts. Greatness is not a thing; it is an emotion. The awards and the platitudes are the trappings of success and greatness; the true indication of greatness is in changed lives. What seeds have you planted in the hearts of those you have touched?

Luke 16:9-10, “Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.”

The Ripple Effect

Psalm 78:6, “That the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children.”

There is a ripple effect to everything we do, good or bad. When we are in a bad mood and bark at another, our lousy mood can put them in a bad mood, and they, in turn, speak poorly to someone else. The same is true; if we smile and speak kindly to someone who is not in a good mood, it may raise their spirits, causing them to treat others kindlier.

How many times has someone, uninvolved in your conversation, watched silently to the way you behaved and drew a conclusion about who you are; were they drawn closer to God or pushed away? Who did they tell? Did they decide on how to react toward you in the future based on what they saw in the past?

Greatness does not come from being right, being the best, having authority or position in life; it comes from the moments when you made others feel loved and appreciated.

Great people will tell you that greatness is not an event; it is a lifetime dedication to that for which they have passion. It is consistent over time. It is not the pinnacle of the mountain; it isn’t even the climb. It is the years of dedication and preparation to a passion that consumes them. Live life with purpose.

John 6: 68-69, “Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.’”

Posted on

Uncertainty

Matthew 6:31-33, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

WORRY, WORRY, WORRY

We all have worries; we all have concerns for the future. Uncertainty is the killer. It is the one thing that we, as humans, have the most trouble dealing with. Some of us are more risk-averse than others, but we all hate uncertainty.

Most of us save for retirement. If we have children, we save for education and weddings. If we are prudent savers, we have savings for household emergencies, vacations, and medical problems. We are concerned about our health, our jobs, and our loved ones. As humans, we are constantly trying to look into the future to anticipate uncertainty.

It is tough for us to put our futures in the hands of the One who created us; the same entity that predestined our future. Yet, he is the same superpower that sees all things, knows all things, and loves us unconditionally.

John 14:1, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us that we need these things: Physiological, Safety, Love and Being, Esteem, and Self-Actualization. First, we needed to take care of our physical being with air, food, and water; then, we needed to protect ourselves from danger, including clothes, sleep, and warmth. After we are feed and safe, we turn to love and being loved, including friendship, intimacy, and acceptance by others. Only then did we care about our emotional well-being. Only then do we care about growing as a person and improving ourselves. The lower-level needs, when unmet, prove to be dissatisfiers; in that, we satisfy them to avoid unpleasantness. The higher-level needs stem from a desire to grow and become more. Some people can become unbalanced in that their hierarchy changes order; for example, someone may need esteem more than love. There are many cases where some cultures put much more weight on the higher levels over the lower levels. For example, they would sacrifice food and safety to be seen as valuable or improve their social position. Whatever the case, when life becomes uncertain, we struggle.

When we don’t know where the next meal will come from or have a safe place to sleep, life becomes stressful. In first-world nations, we seldom worry about existence levels of food and safety and worry more about our positional existence. We worry about our place in society, how nutritious our food is, how good our neighborhood is, and how secure our job is. Many a marriage has broken up because one party or the other wasn’t pulling their weight, providing for the basic level needs of the other; physiological and safety trumps love.

Luke 12:22b-23, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.”

Interestingly, most people are more concerned about what other people think of them than what they feel about themselves; their self-view is a derivative of their worldview. They need to sense that they are valued by others more than it is to have personal growth. Only when they are secure in their view of how others see them, do they turn to personal growth. True satisfaction in life can only begin once we believe we are valuable and start to grow as a person.

HOW DO WE FLIP THE SCRIPT?

Philippians 4:6-7, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I’m not much of a prosperity gospel kind of guy. I’m a guy who believes that God sometimes gets involved with tough love. Faith that our prayers will be answered is more about seeing God’s results than obtaining our results. Sometimes the outcome of prayer is not what we ask for but what we need. And as my dad might say, “sometimes that is a swift kick in the pants.” I believe certainty comes from knowing that God has your best interest in mind, not from getting everything you think you need.

Matthew 13:22, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

I get caught in this trap; I tell God exactly what I need to solve the problem the way I see it. Fortunately, God’s view is much greater than my view. Most of the time, the immediate crisis has long-term implications that I cannot begin to understand. So I try to remember that there is a ripple effect through eternity in all things.

Luke 12:24, “Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!”

Flipping the script on uncertainty is not believing that God loves you; it is knowing that He does. Overcoming uncertainty is knowing that it is only uncertain to you, not God. The book “When Helping Hurts” talks about rescuing someone relieves a temporary situation but robs the person of valuable skills needed to survive long term. Helping a person use their available resources to help themselves, builds the person up and creates confidence to survive. Sometimes we want to be rescued when what we need is to be helped.

EVERYDAY MIRACLES

My comfort does not rest so much in believing as it does in knowing. How the problem will be solved is not as important as knowing that God will solve it; in His time and in His way. I will see the solution only if I know that He always answers prayer. I have seen and experienced miracles disguised as everyday activities. I have seen problems solved by people finding things they thought were long lost. I’ve seen and heard of overdue promotions and pay raises coming when the person needed it most. I know people who got a short-term gig when they were unemployed, that got them through until they found a permanent job. I had seen disenfranchised family members come together when the need arose; I have seen fear erased with a hug, a kind word, or a knowing glance. I have seen broken hearts mended by a new puppy. None of this looked like manna from heaven; it wasn’t the parting of the Red Sea. But, all of this, by the grace of God, is answered prayer.

1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The One who fears is not made perfect in love.”

The cure for uncertainty is not having a crystal ball that shows us the future; it is living with the knowledge that God cares. God is not capricious or arbitrary; He is constant, unchangeable, and passionately in love with you.

Posted on

Being Different

As Christians, we know that once we commit of lives to Christ, we become members of His family and are assured an inheritance in His Kingdom. We know that we will spend eternity with Him. We know that our lives here on earth are fleeting; they are but a whisper through eternity.

James 4:14, “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

TODAY

But today is all we have. Today we have to face the dragons that are determined to devour us. No matter how much hope we have in our future, today is still today. We have never experienced eternity. We have no vision or memory to give us courage. We have a promise which we know to be true, but what about today?

Revelation 12:12, “Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

I get overwhelmed with today. I have issues, my friends have issues, and my country has issues. Many of these issues seem to multiply over time. Some of us, or our loved ones, are dealing with Illnesses or depression that will not go away. Many of us see social trends that are both harmful and, even worse, normalized. Some of us have fractured relationships that we hold so dear. At times, today is a tough place to be.

Psalms 54:4, “Surely God is my helper; the Lord is the sustainer of my soul.”

Someone reminded me this last week that in every situation, I have two choices; I can let it devour me, or I can lean into it. I can fight it on my own, risking it overwhelming me, or I can give it to Christ to see how He will use it for His kingdom. I can dig in my heels, stiffen my back and wait for the full force of it, or I can embrace it, asking Christ to intervene.

There is nothing in your life that God has not foreseen. There is nothing that He can not use for His glory. There are no surprises, no unexpected events, and no actions beyond God control.

Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah Lord God! It is You who made the heavens and the earth, by Your great power and Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You.”

BECOME A LIGHT

I am old enough that I stopped asking God, “Why?”. I now ask Him, “What’s next?”. I often see the cause and effect, but there are so many situations in my life that I don’t fully understand. In those situations, the reason why becomes superfluous. Knowing why won’t change the day. The real question becomes, what do you want me to do next? What do I do in the middle of this darkness? God does not ask me to find a light; He asks me to become a light.

John 1:5, “But if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask God who gives to all generously and without reproach and it will be given to you.”

This approach may seem counterintuitive. When we need someone to reach down into our lives to help us stand, God, asks us to extend a helping hand to others. Everything we go through in life is not isolated to us. We are not the only ones affected; others become collateral damage—other people in our life hurt with us. Our testimony is how we react in hard times. Are we Victims or Victorious? Is the God we worship passive or active? Are we different because of the hope we have in Him?

Psalms 16:3, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do and He will establish your plans.”

Hard truths are not easy to understand. Living the Gospel requires us to be different. That difference does not come naturally. It is born and nurtured through our faith that God has been, is, and always will be there for us. We have never experienced eternity with Christ, but we have seen what He had done through us when we were open to His lead. That history is what we use to guide us to Him in times of uncertainty and trouble. That is what makes us different. You have the full force of the Holy Spirit that lives in you.

2 Timothy 1:7, “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.”

It takes courage to be different. But being different in a fallen world is not a bad thing. On the contrary, bringing compassion, grace, and love to those who hurt with you is the best way to heal your wounds.

Job 42:2, “I know You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”

Posted on

Living on Purpose

Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

On a grand scale, our purpose is clearly defined in Acts: We are to be witnesses to what Christ has done for us. We are to demonstrate to others what it means to live in Christ. We are not just to teach the gospel but to live it out every day in our lives such that people want to know why we are different.

Acts 1: 8, “But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.”

UNIQUENESS

This overarching purpose is what gives direction to who we are. Each of us is created uniquely to be a witness in a specific way. As the world is made up of many people exhibiting various personalities, skills, knowledge, experiences, and cultures, so should the body of Christian witnesses. There is no formula for who God has called you to be outside of the instructions laid out in the scriptures. Comparing ourselves to anyone else is to limit our impact. Our impact for Christ is as unique as we are.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.”

When chasing our purpose, we sometimes spend too much time deciding the worldly nature of our purpose. We focus so much on trying to be someone that we lose sight of the fact that we are to declare His glory in whatever we do. Although we are called through the spirit to chase a specific occupation or career, what we display every day is our faithful witness.

1 Chronicles 16:24, “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.”

Your job, business, or skill may be the tool that God uses in your life to demonstrate His glory, but it is the way we live out our lives that is the real purpose. Every interaction we have in every situation is an opportunity to show others the difference between the way others live and how Christians live.

1 Peter 4:10-11, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.”

There is no direct analogy between success and kingdom impact. We like to think that being successful is one of the best ways for people to see how God has worked through our lives. The real-life problem is that most people are attracted to God through adversity. Nonbelievers want to see how we act when things are not going as we planned.  Can we be as sure of our faith when we don’t know the path ahead?

Luke 6:28, “bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

SERVANTHOOD

Servanthood is the hard part of our purpose. It is getting down into the dirt and demonstrating that we are willing to be a servant even when being a servant is demeaning. Can we be supportive of a co-worker that just stole your idea? What about the passive-aggressive peer who wants your promotion? Then there is a PTA member or the Subdivision Board member that has let their authority go to their head? There is not a moment in our lives when we are not under someone’s control. Most of these people are nonbelievers. How do we model Christ to those who don’t know Christ?

Titus 1:16, “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work”

I love the ideation aspect of figuring out what God planned for me. I love to see how he uses my experience and opportunities to shape my future. There is this satisfaction in knowing I am on the right path. But in all of this, I must remember that every action in my life has a purpose. It is not just the mission I have been sent on, but every day I wake up.

Holding the door open for someone is works. Showing gratitude and appreciation is works. Letting someone have the closer parking space is works. Paying for a stranger’s cup of coffee is works. Take the time to listen to someone attentively rather than monopolize the conversation is works. Give someone an inspiring book is works. Put your phone away when in the company of others and do not keep checking it is works. Tell someone you do business with how much you appreciate him or her is works. Good works abounds all around you.

Strive to make every moment count. You earn the right to share the Gospel through the way that you live your life everyday. Don’t let hypocrisy stand in the way of someone’s salvation.

FINAL NOTE

James 1:22-25, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

Posted on

Word of the Year – Post Truth

In 2016 the Oxford Word of the Year was “post truth”. Post truth is defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

IRONY

This really struck me as ironic. Ironic in the sense that 2016 we hadn’t come close to the dystopia currently on display today as it concerns post truth. In 2016 we were infants to this concept. After feeding on it for five years we have become raging pre-pubescent adolescents. The future of truth is bleak at best, and may fall out of our consciousness at worst.

This subject, this concept, this “ideology” is evident all around us every day. I was having dinner with a group of good Christian friends and the obligatory anti/for-mask/vaccine debate broke out. Everyone at the table was convinced (in a compassionate loving way) that they knew the truth. They each had their respectable sources and facts. They each had their gospel references. But yet they were on two sides of the same argument. Apparently God is both adamantly for and against all things related to COVID. These disagreements are creating wedges in the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel isn’t a reference tool to win a temporal argument.

James 1:26, “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.”

Rod Dreher wrote an interesting book entitled “Live not by Lies, A Manual for Christian Dissidents”. In it he spends the first half of the book relating the histories of all of the “isms”; Authoritarianism, Totalitarianism, Communism, Socialism, Marxism, Progressivism, Capitalism etc. He writes about how people gravitate to these ideologies based on the existence of an ideal state where everyone is cooperative. He goes on to say that the reality is that we live in a fallen world and the ideal state does not exist here on earth. Ideologies come and go, they all have a shelf life. They are all flawed by the human existence.

There is only one eternal Kingdom, that is the Kingdom established through Christ.

Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

SHOW AND TELL

As Christians do we tell but not show? Do we live based on emotions and worldly beliefs, while telling people of the power of God’s redeeming grace? Do we live in fear that the other side is going to win, all the while professing faith that God is in control? Or do we speak of the reforming grace of God’s word, while living it?

Most, not all, emotional bias have a foundation in fear. We fear that something will happen that will harm us or our loved ones. This fear grows into a belief that there is only one true protection from our fear. That protection, be it a person, place, or thing, becomes what we desire most. That desire starts to overshadow reality. We now have a fear that what we believe is in our best interest might not be in our best interest. This implicit bias drives us to sources that confirm or reaffirm our pre-existing position. We want to feel safe.

So ask yourself, is your fear based on worldly temporal issues or divine issues? Do you live your life avoiding contemporary fears created by current events or do you fear the eternal implication of your convictions? A health fear of the Lord is a fear worth having, all others will pass away.

GOSSIP

Proverbs 16:28, “A perverse man spreads strife, and a slanderer separates intimate friends.”

Are your conversations based on the steadfast word of God or the latest emotion driven opinions? Temporal politics and cultural attitudes will pass away, but God’s word will survive forever. People DO live what they believe. Look at someone’s life and you will see their convictions. People do not live a lie, they live the truth as they see it. What does your life show about you?

Patrik Bendas, son of the Czechoslovakian anti-communist Christian dissident Vaclav Bendas, states “When we look at what is happening in America today, we see that you are building walls and creating gaps between people, for us, we are always willing to speak, to talk with the other side to avoid building walls between people. You know, it is much easier to indoctrinate someone who is enclosed within a set of walls.” When we become hardened and opinionated we are actually fertilizing the ground that will eventually grow division.

Philippians 4:8, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

We should approach every conversation with grace and compassion designed to build someone up, not create a new fear.

GRACE

Good news is that as a Christian you have been saved by Christ grace. You have nothing to fear. Most contemporary issues are just that, contemporary. Years from now we will see that we overstated their implications. If we hold true to God’s word and seek Him when in turmoil, we will be held safe in the palm of His hand. There will be hard times, and some of those hard times will change us, but God’s love will remain steadfast and sure.

Ephesians 4:29, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

Live a life worth living.

Posted on

My Last Day in Toknok

As I sit in my room on the last day of my trip to Kyrgyzstan, I have mixed emotions. These are incredible people. Materially their world is not horrible compared to places like central Africa, but it is not close to Europe or other developed countries. The biggest challenges they have are non-material, it is spiritual, emotional, and cultural.

I had dinner the other night with three incredible young ladies; two were college-educated, and the third was in college. All three of them were exactly the type of person you would want working for you. They were intelligent, positive, and driven to make something of their lives. Their challenge was that they lived in a world that did not value that. They lived in a post-Russian, Muslim, male-dominated society that did not value educated, independent women.

All three of them were faced with the prospects of either leaving their family and country to pursue their dream or staying where they were and living someone else’s. For them, life started with hard choices. For them, life started with a deep dive into the black pool of uncertainty. Even the prospect of meeting the right man and raising a family required moving away; there are not many Christian men their age. They are not the first nor the last to face this dilemma.

This is the discussion we had, and you can scold me for an older man advising young women.

I have never lived a day in their lives. I have never walked a mile in their shoes. I have never been raised in a culture that puts a constraint on what a person can be. The only experience I have is the Word of God that says He has a plan for us. It is a plan to prosper. He has made us unique creatures explicitly created to use all He gave us to glorify Him. If they compromise on that belief, they compromise on the joy, fulfillment, and impact for His Kingdom that he has written for them.

All this week, we have been teaching hard lessons. We have spent our time telling new business owners the hard truth of managing their businesses. These are Christian business people living in a predominately Muslim world. These are hard lessons because they do not conform to the rules of the world. These hard lessons teach us to do what is right, not what we have a right to do. They tell us that we should love those who hate us, serve those who despise us, and give to those in need that do not value us. Through this, we glorify the One who made all this possible. We do it not as a command but as a form of worship.

We have to apply this teaching to incredible young people with their whole lives in front of them. I am incredibly excited for them and, at the same time, worried and concerned. These young spirits full of energy and hope are the story of fairy tales. They are the forgotten maiden searching for their prince. They are the heroin of God’s story for humanity. Yet like all great stories, it has to start with hard choices.

The sadness is that when I come back, and I will, there can only be one sad ending or another. These young women will have chased God’s vision for their lives, and I may never see them again. Or they will not, and I will see a shell of the person they could have been. My selfish prayer is that God’s plan for them will be revealed in a way that brings us both joy.

Posted on

More Reading Suggestions During My Sabbatical

AN APOLOGY – One of the things I have become acutely aware of is that everything on the front page of the news today is temporary.

WE SERVE AN AWESOME GOD – Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

REDEMPTION OF NAOMI – Her testimony was, “And God painted a new picture of my life.”

Ephesians 3:16-17“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love.”

Posted on

More Reading Suggestions During My Sabbatical

LOVE AS THE WEAPON OF CHOICE – We know from practical experience that love is easy when the two parties are in synch; to love the person who loves you is a comfortable and warm place to be. Let’s move away from the romance novel into real life. Life is full of unlovable people. How do we live a life of peace?

LOVE – My life is not a story of condemnation, but a story of love. The very essence of my relationship with Christ is not my sin, but His love. It defines everything.

NEW YEARS – GOD SAID “IT WAS GOOD” – God does not waste time making second rate things or moments without meaning. God did not create a person or moment on this earth that He did not say, “it is very good…”.

1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Posted on

More Reading Suggestions During My Sabbatical

JOY  – A common question, “If I have a foundation in Christ, why is it that I have trouble finding joy?”

CREATING OUR NEW NORMAL – God sometimes takes things away so we can either appreciate what we had or give us clarity to see what He wants us to have.

LET ME GET HOME BEFORE DARK – Joy and fulfillment come from being who God made you to be. It does not come from things you own, titles you achieve, political causes you support, children you raise, friends you have, or any worldly desire.

1 John 4:16, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

Posted on

The Illusion of Prosperity

I have been thinking about this for some time. I’m trying to figure out what to say and how to say it. I have seen firsthand the plight of the 40% of the world’s population that lives on less than two dollars a day. I have looked into their eyes, I have seen how they live. My focus has been on these people called The Majority World (Africa, Asia, and Latin America). God has given me a skill set, knowledge, and experience that He wants me to use to help these people in any little way I can. Today I look in the opposite direction. I’m looking at one of the most prosperous nation in the world.

Lamentations 3:19-25, “Remember my suffering and my aimless wandering, the wormwood and poison. My soul continues to remember these things and is so discouraged. “The reason I can still find hope is that I keep this one thing in mind: the Lord’s mercy. We were not completely wiped out. His compassion is never limited. It is new every morning. His faithfulness is great. My soul can say, ‘The Lord is my lot in life. That is why I find hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to anyone who seeks help from him.”

The story I want to tell today is not about The Majority World, in a small way it is. I was raised in the Midwest in a small farm community. Even though I have spent most of my life away from my childhood home, I still identify it as my home. I have returned twice a year, almost every year for a half-century. I have a vision infused deep within my brain of idyllic small-town America. It fosters a feeling of fondness, wholesomeness, and community that comforts me. This year as I sat in the park, listening to a local rock band sponsored by the City for “Fun Days,” I suddenly realized I was wrong.

THE GROWTH OF A COMMUNITY

First, let me tell you a little history of my home town. My hometown was established in 1836. A gristmill was built because the nearby river had a 15-foot waterfall that provided hydropower. The Illinois and Michigan Canal was to be constructed nearby to provide transportation. Unfortunately, the depression of 1837 bankrupt the state government, and construction on the canal stopped until 1848. The railroad arrived about 1850, becoming the preferred mode of transportation. The great news for my hometown is that industry grew with the hydropower and advent of the railroad. By the 1880s, raceways were built to provide mechanical power to the growing industry sector. By 1911 the raceway helped provide electrical power to the City. My hometown was one of the first to have electric trollies. Growing up, I still remember the rail tracks embedded in the streets from the trolley. Unfortunately, the trolley system went out of service during the Great Depression.

By the early 1900s, an eight-story Carton Factory was built provided ample employment for the City. Today that brooding brick building still towers over Main Street. It became the lifeblood of the community. It operated until 1960. The Federal Government finished Interstate Highway 80 just ten miles north of town in 1967, forever changing the traffic pattern away from my hometown. The power plant that used to power the Carton Factory, and my hometown stopped producing in 1989.

I was fortunate that I grew up in the ’50s and ’60’s when my hometown was called the City of Churches. It was a small town but economically healthy. To this day franchise systems bypass my hometown. All the drug stores, grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, banks, hotels, news paper and even telephone company are local family-owned businesses. We were a community.

THE FALL OF MID AMERICA

I should have noticed it. I should have picked up on the clue when the city motto was changed to the City by the River. I should have seen it when the Carton Factory closed, then the power plant, then the High School, and finally two of the three grade schools. But I didn’t. It was still the small town I grew up in and loved.

I didn’t notice that 100% of the students were now on the free lunch program. I didn’t notice that the shops along Main Street were now bars and Slot Machine Outlets. I didn’t notice that the once vibrant three story hotel on Main Street was now a flophouse for the down and out. I didn’t live there, so I didn’t notice that unemployment was a way of life; Welfare, Unemployment, Food Stamps were lifelines. People didn’t have careers or professions; they had a series of disassociated jobs, mostly at minimum wage. They worked off the books because it wouldn’t reduce their benefits. Working at $5.00 an hour tax-free was better than minimum wage at a burger joint.

That night in the park, what I did notice was a lack of hope. A dark future permeated everyone in the park. Even those with steady jobs felt the pain of their friends and relatives. The City was surviving but on life support. Without government programs, the City would dry up and blow away. Instead, the residence now made life livable with alcohol and more potent stimulants.  I couldn’t help but think of the kids. What was their future? Would they slowly die from inside like the rest of the City?

The decay of small towns is happening all across America. Of the 19,000 incorporated cities in the United States, over 16,000 have a population under 10,000 people.

MY LAMENT

I guess what makes this story hard is that I have no answers. There are four levels of poverty; spiritual, being, relational, and material. Politicians and governments concentrate on material poverty because it is easy to see and measure. They throw money and programs at the result of poverty, not the source. The foundation to recovering from material poverty is to overcome spiritual poverty. In Christ, there is both a hope for the future and a prescription for achieving that hope. With faith in God’s promise through Christ we start to better understand our true worth. We also start to understand the importance of not only lifting ourselves, but those around us. Finally, we create a material environment that sustains our purpose. With Christ-centered hope, anything can be accomplished; people fall back on old habits without it. Generational, systematic, cultural poverty was not created in a generation and will not be overcome in a generation.  Without schools, there will be no jobs, and without jobs, there is no need for schooling. Without hope, no-one cares.

It is a lament. I have no answers; I can only pray and serve. The results belong to God.

Isaiah 40:28-31, “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The eternal God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t grow tired or become weary. His understanding is beyond reach. He gives strength to those who grow tired and increases the strength of those who are weak. Even young people grow tired and become weary, and young men will stumble and fall. Yet, the strength of those who wait with hope in the Lord will be renewed. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and won’t become weary. They will walk and won’t grow tired.”

There is a great book discussing the complexity of poverty entitled “When Helping Hurts.” By Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert.

Purpose Driven Life Proudly powered by WordPress