Friend of the Wounded Heart

What do you do when people you love are hurting? I’m talking about friends who are hurting, not family. Sometimes they are hurt because of a health issue, a divorce, job loss, addictions, the death of a loved one, a relationship issue, depression, or unresolved stuff from their formative years and family of origin. Sometimes the pain is self-inflicted from poor decisions and other times it’s not because of anything they have, or haven’t done.

Whether the pain is caused by others, or self doesn’t make it any easier on those of us who love them unconditionally. Would to God we could miraculously make the pain, or hurt disappear. That would be too easy wouldn’t it? And it would deny our friend(s) the opportunity:

• · To grow spiritually and personally from the experience
• · To learn something about themselves and the world
• · To model grace despite the hurt/pain
• · To exercise their faith
• · To hear truth spoken in love
• · To face the wound and seek help
• · To begin the process of forgiveness
• · To make peace with themselves, the world and others
• · To be loved unconditionally by us
• · To accept God’s unconditional love despite the pain
• · To be prayed over by us

I have two friends who are hurting this week. One has been hurting a long time. He’s got family of origin baggage that’s preventing him from resolving his chronic anger. Until he comes to term with it and admits it, he’s just going to grow even bitterer. I ache for him because he has so much potential, and many who love him have been praying for peace in his life for a long time. I pray resolution comes soon in his life and more than anything that he will know peace.

My other friend is the victim of Satan’s lies and cultural myths. He is convinced his life is worthless, and that he is making little difference in the world and he wants to throw in the towel and change jobs. The job isn’t the problem. The cultural myth is the belief that things are better on the other side of the mountain in his life. Yep his perspective will change if he makes the move, but the same issues will eventually resurface in the new location and surroundings. He has made a HUGE difference in his career and life. He has made a major impact on my life. He has a beautiful family, reasonably good health, a wonderful home and people who love him dearly. He is a very wealthy man and doesn’t realize it. He has bought into the lie that ultimate peace and contentment is circumstantial, not attitudinal. Now he says otherwise when offering counsel to others, but at the end of the day he is restless and refuses to apply this truth in his own life. I pray God reveals to him just how wonderful his life is and how much he is valued, loved and treasured by me, not for what he has done, but for who he is!

To both of these men whom I love Paul’s words come to mind:

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. ⁵ Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; ⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

¹¹ Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. ¹² I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. ¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:4-7, 11-13 ESV)

Now What?

Lent, Holy Week and Easter have come and gone. So how do we live in a post-Easter world? The end of Luke’s story of Jesus gives us a clue:

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Did you catch it? There’s our answer. We worship with great joy! After receiving the blessing of Jesus, the disciples worshiped with great joy. Years ago pastor Rick Warren said, “Worship is a lifestyle.” While corporate worship (“...continually in the temple blessing God.”) is necessary and wonderful, it is only one aspect of living the Christ-centered life. Our corporate or “temple” worship should be the culmination of our life worship. In corporate worship we bring an offering of praise to God. How are we bringing our offering of praise to God in every day life? How are we taking the Easter blessing (the redemption of our souls) of God through Christ to our normal routine?

The only way the world is going to know, or experience the eternal blessing of God is if those of us who follow Him live out that blessing in the world. And the best way to do that is it to worship with great joy. Live your life with great joy (that doesn’t mean the absence of pain) and people will be drawn to it. They will want to know the source of your joy. The Westminster Confession asks: What is man’s chief aim? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

What a great place to start. Live your life with joy-filled worship. God gives us permission to enjoy life as we bring Him glory. That’s how we live in a post-Easter world!

God Said YES!

He is risen! Resurrection Sunday and God said, YES! Happy Easter!

Holy Thursday Reflection

13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ² During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, ³ Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, ⁴ rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. ⁵ Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” ⁷ Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” ⁸ Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

¹² When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. ¹⁸ I am not speaking of all of you; I knowwhom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ ¹⁹ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. ²⁰ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

(John 13 ESV)

Holy Wednesday Thoughts

“We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.”
― John Piper, Passion of Jesus Christ

Holy Tuesday Reflection

“And though every day a man lives may rightly be a day of repentance, yet is it in these days more becoming, more appropriate, to confess our sins, to fast, and to give alms to the poor; since in these days you may wash clean the sins of the whole year.” - St. John Chrysostom

Holy Week Thought for Monday

Quotes for Holy Week, Monday, April 2nd:

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor... Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting." -Mother Teresa of Calcutta