How do you think you would hold up if your spouse or child were to die, or if you were permanently disabled in an accident? What if you were to lose everything in a catastrophe or be diagnosed with a terminal disease? These are anxiety-raising questions for anyone. But let me raise the stakes a little higher. How can you act like a Christian when these things happen?
I find it very comforting to know that Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. His example shows me that it’s okay to cry when we’re overwhelmed with loss. We don’t need to hide our sadness. We don’t need to hide our anger at the loss of loved ones. As Christians we don’t need to cover up our hurt and pretend to have Christian happiness. It’s okay to grieve.
Remember that faith is for the best of times and the worst of times. Even if it is difficult to do in the middle of your grief, tell God that you believe in him and that you trust Jesus for eternal life. Don’t let your grief distance you from Jesus at the time when you need him the most. At the heart of Christianity is hope. Hope is the expectation of a better tomorrow. When we go through the difficulties, tragedies and disappointments of life, we can trust God to get us through to a better future. As Christians, even when we are looking death in the eye, we know that we will someday rise again from the dead – just like Jesus. And that’s hope!
Related Scripture: Romans 5:2-4
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Friday, July 13, 2007
Monday, July 9, 2007
A Father's Grief
The ancient land of Israel was torn by civil war and King David was forced to flee Jerusalem with a small army of loyal friends. Worse yet, the rebellion was led by the king’s own son, Absalom. Absalom had already murdered his brother and was now trying to kill his father to gain the throne.
Prospects for victory that day were slim and David’s generals insisted that he stay behind lest he be killed. As David reluctantly saw them off, he said, “Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake.” Then the anxious father awaited news.
Later, two runners returned with the news. David’s army was victorious, but twenty thousand lives were lost in the battle and Absalom was one of them. The Bible says, “The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept.” In his grief David wailed, “O my son Absalom!… If only I had died instead of you – O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Absalom was a traitor and a murderer, but he was also David’s son and David loved his son. Armies and thrones and politics were forgotten as the king grieved the death of his son.
Grief is like that. It isn’t rational, it’s emotional and it shakes us to our core. David was devastated by the loss of his son, but he turned to God for solace – just as we can in our grief. Listen to David’s words:
“In my distress I called…out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; … He reached down from on high and took hold of me; … the Lord was my support.”
Related Scripture: Psalm 18:6,16,18
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Prospects for victory that day were slim and David’s generals insisted that he stay behind lest he be killed. As David reluctantly saw them off, he said, “Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake.” Then the anxious father awaited news.
Later, two runners returned with the news. David’s army was victorious, but twenty thousand lives were lost in the battle and Absalom was one of them. The Bible says, “The king was shaken. He went up to the room over the gateway and wept.” In his grief David wailed, “O my son Absalom!… If only I had died instead of you – O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Absalom was a traitor and a murderer, but he was also David’s son and David loved his son. Armies and thrones and politics were forgotten as the king grieved the death of his son.
Grief is like that. It isn’t rational, it’s emotional and it shakes us to our core. David was devastated by the loss of his son, but he turned to God for solace – just as we can in our grief. Listen to David’s words:
“In my distress I called…out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; … He reached down from on high and took hold of me; … the Lord was my support.”
Related Scripture: Psalm 18:6,16,18
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Who's the Better Worker?
Imagine that you are choosing between two job possibilities. You write out the pros and cons and ask God for direction. Much of your life hinges on the decision of where you work – where you live, your income and the people you’ll know. But I would like to suggest that even more important than where you work is how you work.
By way of example, let’s imagine two men at the end of their careers, standing before God. Paul, a successful CEO, says to God, “I want you to know that I made great choices. I went to the best schools. I worked my way up in a Fortune 500 company and successfully ran for political office. Life was good and now I’m ready for heaven.”
God replies, “Paul, your life was bad. You walked on the helpless and hurt people every step of the way. You ignored every principle of justice and righteousness I gave you in the Bible. You were a sinful and unfaithful servant.”
Then it’s Fred’s turn. Fred, a factory worker, says to God, “I’m afraid I made the wrong choice. I should have stayed in school and become a doctor. Then I would have had a more successful life.”
God answers, “Fred, you’ve got it all wrong. I don’t measure your life by your title or income, but by the way you lived for me in the factory. I saw your love and kindness. I heard you tell my gospel to others. I watched you respond righteously to temptation. Well done, good and faithful factory worker.”
You see, the true measure of our lives is not our choice of occupation, it’s whether we chose to live God’s way or sin’s way.
Related Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-13 & I Timothy 6:17
© 2007 Leith Anderson
By way of example, let’s imagine two men at the end of their careers, standing before God. Paul, a successful CEO, says to God, “I want you to know that I made great choices. I went to the best schools. I worked my way up in a Fortune 500 company and successfully ran for political office. Life was good and now I’m ready for heaven.”
God replies, “Paul, your life was bad. You walked on the helpless and hurt people every step of the way. You ignored every principle of justice and righteousness I gave you in the Bible. You were a sinful and unfaithful servant.”
Then it’s Fred’s turn. Fred, a factory worker, says to God, “I’m afraid I made the wrong choice. I should have stayed in school and become a doctor. Then I would have had a more successful life.”
God answers, “Fred, you’ve got it all wrong. I don’t measure your life by your title or income, but by the way you lived for me in the factory. I saw your love and kindness. I heard you tell my gospel to others. I watched you respond righteously to temptation. Well done, good and faithful factory worker.”
You see, the true measure of our lives is not our choice of occupation, it’s whether we chose to live God’s way or sin’s way.
Related Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:12-13 & I Timothy 6:17
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Friday, June 29, 2007
What If?
If you happen to be married, are you ever tempted to wonder what your life would be like if you had married someone else? When things aren’t going well in your marriage such thoughts may be tempting, but they won’t solve your problems.
When a Christian couple is faced with such questions, they may agonize over the absence of clear counsel in the Bible on the subject, while ignoring the counsel that is there. Maybe the issue isn’t whether or not they married the right person.
This was greatly impressed upon me some years ago by a couple who were considering marriage. There was a significant difference in their ages and family members were concerned that it wasn’t a wise idea. The man and woman were both committed Christians and diligent students of the Bible. They painstakingly researched what the Bible had to say about marriage and reached a significant conclusion. They determined that the Bible said comparatively little about who you marry, but a great deal about the way you treat one another once you are married.
I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter who you marry, obviously it’s a very important decision. But once it’s made, don’t fantasize about what life would be like if you had married someone else. Start demonstrating Christian love to the person you married.
When we ask ourselves, “Did I marry the wrong person?” we are asking the wrong question. We are wondering if we married the wrong person, while God is asking us if we are loving the person we married.
Related Scripture: Ephesians 5:28, 33
© 2007 Leith Anderson
When a Christian couple is faced with such questions, they may agonize over the absence of clear counsel in the Bible on the subject, while ignoring the counsel that is there. Maybe the issue isn’t whether or not they married the right person.
This was greatly impressed upon me some years ago by a couple who were considering marriage. There was a significant difference in their ages and family members were concerned that it wasn’t a wise idea. The man and woman were both committed Christians and diligent students of the Bible. They painstakingly researched what the Bible had to say about marriage and reached a significant conclusion. They determined that the Bible said comparatively little about who you marry, but a great deal about the way you treat one another once you are married.
I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter who you marry, obviously it’s a very important decision. But once it’s made, don’t fantasize about what life would be like if you had married someone else. Start demonstrating Christian love to the person you married.
When we ask ourselves, “Did I marry the wrong person?” we are asking the wrong question. We are wondering if we married the wrong person, while God is asking us if we are loving the person we married.
Related Scripture: Ephesians 5:28, 33
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Thursday, June 28, 2007
The Road Less Traveled
All of life is a journey filled with decisions. The poet Robert Frost reflects on the impact of those decisions in his poem, The Road Not Taken.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
There is hardly a one of us who has not wrestled with “what if?” What if we had chosen a different road? We are prone to mope around in regret over choosing the wrong road or getting off course. But God is more concerned about the way we walk than the route we take. He cares more about what we do when we recognize the need for a correction, than he does with the fact that we got off course.
The Bible provides direction for our lives. It says, “[God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” You see, it’s not so much which path we take, it’s letting God’s word light our way along that path.
Related Scripture: Psalm 119:105
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
There is hardly a one of us who has not wrestled with “what if?” What if we had chosen a different road? We are prone to mope around in regret over choosing the wrong road or getting off course. But God is more concerned about the way we walk than the route we take. He cares more about what we do when we recognize the need for a correction, than he does with the fact that we got off course.
The Bible provides direction for our lives. It says, “[God’s] word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” You see, it’s not so much which path we take, it’s letting God’s word light our way along that path.
Related Scripture: Psalm 119:105
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Power of Purpose
We tend to admire individuals who have a strong sense of purpose in their lives. They seem more confident, their direction is set and at the end of their lives there is a tangible way to measure their success – did they achieve their purpose?
No one better demonstrated the power of purpose than Jesus. The Bible clearly identifies his purpose: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It also says, “[Jesus] came to seek and to save what was lost.” All of Jesus’ decisions and actions were determined by his purpose, not chance. He was born in Bethlehem rather than Baltimore, in the first century rather than in the fifth century. He determined who he would heal, where he would preach and which disciples he would pick. Even the circumstances of his death were determined on the basis of this stated purpose. That is why on the cross, with his arms outstretched, he was able to shout out, “It is finished.” His purpose was fulfilled. He had achieved the mission that he had set out to do.
Major corporations and institutions invest considerable time and money in identifying the purpose of their organization. They recognize the power of purpose. A carefully determined and clearly stated purpose becomes the compass by which everything is directed and the standard by which everything is evaluated. They realize that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
And so it is with our lives. We must decide on our purpose and then live it!
Related Scripture: John 3:17 & Luke 19:10
© 2007 Leith Anderson
No one better demonstrated the power of purpose than Jesus. The Bible clearly identifies his purpose: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” It also says, “[Jesus] came to seek and to save what was lost.” All of Jesus’ decisions and actions were determined by his purpose, not chance. He was born in Bethlehem rather than Baltimore, in the first century rather than in the fifth century. He determined who he would heal, where he would preach and which disciples he would pick. Even the circumstances of his death were determined on the basis of this stated purpose. That is why on the cross, with his arms outstretched, he was able to shout out, “It is finished.” His purpose was fulfilled. He had achieved the mission that he had set out to do.
Major corporations and institutions invest considerable time and money in identifying the purpose of their organization. They recognize the power of purpose. A carefully determined and clearly stated purpose becomes the compass by which everything is directed and the standard by which everything is evaluated. They realize that if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.
And so it is with our lives. We must decide on our purpose and then live it!
Related Scripture: John 3:17 & Luke 19:10
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Monday, June 25, 2007
What's the Point of it All?
I have a riddle for you. What can be absolutely empty when it is completely full? The answer is “life.” Life can be so full of busyness that we are booked weeks in advance. It can be filled to the brim with things to do, places to go and promises to keep, yet be painfully empty on the inside.
Centuries ago King Solomon, the wisest, richest and most married man in history, wrote these words: “Meaningless! Meaningless!…Everything is meaningless.” Solomon had an abundance of money, of insight and of relationships, yet he was overwhelmed with the emptiness of his life.
Many suffer from a lack of purpose in life. You see it in the teenager who doesn’t know where to go to college or what to major in. You see it in the individual who finds no fulfillment in spite of a successful career or the homemaker who manages the house and raises the children yet wonders, “What’s the point of it all?” We’re talking about one of the most significant issues facing each one of us. It’s the question, “What am I supposed to do with my life?”
In the English language our questions begin with the interrogatives, “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?” “how?” and “why?” The crucial one is “why.” It’s in answering the “why” question that you discover your purpose in life. Identifying your life purpose focuses your options. Then, instead of making random selections, you choose your college, your career and your mate on the basis of fulfilling your life purpose.
Related Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-2
© 2007 Leith Anderson
Centuries ago King Solomon, the wisest, richest and most married man in history, wrote these words: “Meaningless! Meaningless!…Everything is meaningless.” Solomon had an abundance of money, of insight and of relationships, yet he was overwhelmed with the emptiness of his life.
Many suffer from a lack of purpose in life. You see it in the teenager who doesn’t know where to go to college or what to major in. You see it in the individual who finds no fulfillment in spite of a successful career or the homemaker who manages the house and raises the children yet wonders, “What’s the point of it all?” We’re talking about one of the most significant issues facing each one of us. It’s the question, “What am I supposed to do with my life?”
In the English language our questions begin with the interrogatives, “who?” “what?” “where?” “when?” “how?” and “why?” The crucial one is “why.” It’s in answering the “why” question that you discover your purpose in life. Identifying your life purpose focuses your options. Then, instead of making random selections, you choose your college, your career and your mate on the basis of fulfilling your life purpose.
Related Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1:1-2
© 2007 Leith Anderson
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