Lemons and Lemonade

"Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel."                      Philippians 1:12

            People are funny about encountering matters of suffering and adversity in other people's lives. Some will shy away from any mention of it, quickly changing the subject to more mundane matters, as if fearful that even talking about it will prove to be contagious, bringing some vengeful spirit down upon their heads to heap a similar serving of adversity upon the listener. Some will grow uncomfortable, feeling helpless to say or do just the right thing to adequately express their sympathy, not realizing that all they really need to do is listen. A lot of them know someone who endured "exactly the same thing, except..." and the story soon wings away from the here and now to some often unrelated situation that doesn't really help much in the telling. A few callous sorts will hurry away at any sign of bad news because they don't want to be subjected to what they view as the hopeless drama of another's life, when they figure nothing like that will ever happen to them, when they're sure the hapless individuals involved likely brought the trouble down upon their own heads through their own acts of stupidity, carelessness or whatever. And there's the know-it-all that is only too happy to point out just exactly what acts of stupidity these individuals did to cause all this, and how they can go about making all their troubles go away, easier than reading a Dear Abby column in the newspaper. "Voila, troubles begone, nice and tidy, now let's talk about me!"

            On the other hand, people are just as funny about their own suffering and adversity! Some won't whisper a word of it, as if it were all a huge, shameful secret, and will try to keep up the stoic pretense that all is well, as if there's something noble about suffering in silence if you have to suffer at all. Some will holler and shout that the whole world is to blame, everyone except themselves in every regard, and demand that somebody- maybe God or maybe the government- do something about it while they sit and wait. Many will take charge and do everything they can to set things as right as they can, often while coercing everyone around them to take the same steps to avoid their woe, while others will be immobilized by shock, fear and a loss of hope. A few will obsess about their suffering to the point that they will insist on sharing every excruciating detail of it with anyone and everyone whose attention they can snare for even a moment. There's even some who wear their suffering like a badge of honor, bragging to anyone who dares tell them of their own adversity that they've had it much, much worse than anyone else- to the nth degree worse!- an odd sort of 'one-up-manship' if I do say so.

            I don't describe these types of people to mock or point fingers, mind you, because even while one finger is pointing outwards, at least three more are pointed right back at me! Yep... one or more of these scenarios has described me at one time or another. Maybe they have you, as well. Like I said, people are funny! We come with all sorts of quirks! One of the more admirable quirks is the ability to laugh at ourselves and find humor in life. But I digress...

            There are much better examples to which to aspire when it comes to dealing with adversity, ours or others'. Christ, of course, is the ultimate example. I don't think many of us will ever be subjected to the degree of suffering to which He was, but there is much to be learned from Him about dealing with any degree of adversity, just the same.  When it's others who are suffering, we can emulate His quiet compassion, powerful prayers of intercession, helping hands, and open arms. When we're the ones suffering, we can strive to keep the Father's will at the forefront while we submit to His plan, continue to make time to pray, reach out to other's amongst believers (as when Jesus asked some of His disciples to join Him in the garden, even if they didn't do such a good job of it), and forgive others for their hand in our suffering. I'm sure there are many other traits we can strive to carry away with us from Jesus' example. But I'm not prepared to get into an exhaustive study of that at this time, not when Jesus Himself seems to me, at least, such a lofty example to follow, when I'm but merely a fallen, totally fallible human being in, what often feels to me, a particularly broken state.

            Instead, I wanted to point out the attitude seen in Paul, who delighted in his suffering while he was in prison, because, as he says in Philippians 1:12, everything that happened to him really served to advance the gospel... Wow. He was in prison, because there were Jews in Jerusalem who wanted him dead for preaching the gospel, and he had been transported to Rome to be tried before Caesar. There, he took the opportunity to preach the gospel to the prison officials, guards and other prisoners, thus extending the reach of the good news even further. Paul took lemons and made lemonade, as the popular saying goes... Now there's a do-able attitude that I can carry away with me! Instead of throwing myself pity parties over my adversities, I want to be able to find joy in suffering because I've been able to turn it around to serving God in some small but significant way. Instead of being locked in fear of further adversity, I want to be bold about doing whatever I can to advance the gospel, then seeing the suffering as proof of my effective efforts. Instead of leaving prison doors locked tight, I want to do my part to throw them wide open in every way that really counts, for everyone, for we're all suffering here.

            Now... who wants to join me for a glass of lemonade? :-)

            Father, thank you so much for caring about all our sorrows, and for showing us how to deal with them. Thank you for throwing open the prison doors of sin, setting us free with Your Good News! Show us how to be more compassionate towards our fellow sufferers, how to handle our own adversities with grace, and how to use all of it to advance the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.

*The above was published in the July/August 2010 issue of The Encourager, a newsletter "written to encourage and inspire those living with chronic illnesses by guest writers and those who have learned their physical weaknesses allow God to reveal His strength and power." For more information about subscribing to the newsletter, or contributing as a writer, contact me via the comments field, and I'll give you the editor's contact info.

Excuses, Excuses!

Note: The following is one of those pieces that was started and then sat unfinished due to the writer's block mentioned in "Heart for People". It feels good to finally finish it. :-)


Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.        -Romans 12:11

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.        -1 Peter 4:10

    Judging by the desperate pleas for volunteers for various ministries within the churches, and the way it's so often the same faces serving in the same capacity with a pretty high predictability, I think it's probably safe to say that many of us have been guilty at one time or another of making excuses to not participate in some sort of ministry or answer the nudge of the Holy Spirit to do something for the Lord. I'm not talking about excusing oneself from one noble cause for the sake of a higher calling here. I'm talking about avoiding ministry altogether because we're too busy, too tired, too poor, or any number of other superlatives that crop up in human life. And I think we can all recognize them as rather poor excuses when we take the time to really look at them, since they're often the result of placing our priorities in the wrong order, and deep down, we know that... For these are the very excuses that often leave us feeling guilty or defensive even as we're uttering them and backing away while glancing frantically at our watches and then pretending we see someone we were supposed to be meeting over the shoulder of the person doing the asking and beating a hasty retreat. Not pointing any fingers, mind you... I'm guilty too. Just sayin'.

     But there's one excuse that I recently recognized in my own life that on the surface looked mighty alright... Are you ready?

    "I want to give my best to the Lord, and right now I can't live up to my best."

    WHOOOIIIIEEE!! That sure sounds like a doozy of an excuse, doesn't it?!?

     Too bad it's no good! That's right! No good! It's just plain old procrastination and laziness dressed up in cheap gold paint! My oh my... I've got a sneaky little heart, don't I?!? (embarrassed giggle) I almost got away with that one, too! Fortunately God was persistently whispering in my ear, revealing it for what it was!

    So what's wrong with it? Well... We all have days in which we're unable to meet our ideal standards, and in fact, I believe that the majority of our days are like that!  In my case, it's poor health that has always seemed to stop me, but I can easily imagine someone with financial trouble or someone who's working two jobs using that same excuse. "Maybe when things are better, I can do something for ministry, but right now I just don't have anything worthy to offer."  Have you ever said that? But difficulties didn't stop Mother Theresa, did it? (What, you think she never had any problems?) And it doesn't seem to be stopping those predictable faces you always see serving in the church, does it? (Everybody suffers from some sort of hardship!)

    Waiting until we can do our best sounds like a noble plan, until you consider that the Lord wants the best we have to offer today- no matter how little that may seem to us- not the best we can offer someday. After all, that "someday" may never come! Take the story of the widow who gave two copper coins to the temple (Luke 21:1-4). Sure doesn't seem like much, but it was the best she had to give that day, all she had to give that day, and God knew it, and found her offering of greater value than the larger, but spiritually paltry and relatively insignificant, portion that wealthier people gave of their possessions. The same standard applies to every aspect of our lives today. We may not be able to give what we think we ought, but we should give whatever we have, with a cheerful heart, for today. If we're too ill to go out and serve in a physical capacity, then we can spend time in prayer for everyone we know who is in need of the Lord's intervention. We need only be conscious to do that! If we really are too poor to give much to charity, we can give what we can, be it a few coins like the widow, or some of our time. If we're so busy that we don't have time to turn around despite examining our priorities, we can offer encouraging words to anyone we encounter who may need it. Regardless of our circumstances, there are always opportunities to use our gifts and blessings to serve others, always some way we can give something back to the Lord, to give our best for the day, even if it seems paltry compared to what someone else is able to give. All summed up, you'll still be giving more to Him than if you "wait for a better day." And while it might not seem like much of an offering to us, for someone else, it could mean everything.

Father, forgive us our excuses for not serving You through serving others, for being so wrapped up in ourselves that we miss the opportunities to do some good in Your name. Thank You for taking our small efforts and making them into something much bigger and better when we do serve! Open the eyes of our hearts to yet more ways that we may serve You, no matter what the circumstances of our lives are, and give us the encouragement we need to keep giving You the best that we have for today, and guide us towards being able to give You even better for tomorrow. And Lord, bless those who have been selflessly serving you while the rest of us have been making excuses! In Jesus' name, amen.

A Heart for People

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' -Matthew 22:37-38

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. -Galatians 6:9


I've had a serious writer's block going, and it's been going for quite a while. I knew exactly when it started, and even had an inkling why, but didn't quite know from where the source of it was springing.

It started around the time of the election that disappointed and, quite honestly, even scared me, though I'm not going to get into political hot topics right now. That was part of it, but it was more the behavior of people I was observing on the news and interacting with directly, in response to the election that really got to me and shut down my "muse", so to speak... Sickened and saddened me to the point that I just felt I had nothing to say for a while.

Eventually I was able to write something, but only when I got angry about a gross injustice within the Carepage community, where I maintain a page for my health issues. The result of that was "Sin Diagnosis". After I got that out of my system, again I found myself with nothing to say. A friend even gently approached me to inquire as to whether I'd lost my faith, because I hadn't been writing. No... that's remained strong throughout.

After a while, I found myself wanting to write again, to write about what God has been teaching me, and I made a lot of false starts, but just couldn't seem to stick with it and finish anything. My heart wasn't in it. Not really. Because there was this disgruntled feeling inside that I just couldn't get rid of. It didn't help that within my personal life, I was struggling something awful with my health, and feeling like I was doing it all alone. Though we're encouraged to help one another, there just never seems to be anybody near, able and willing to provide any help for me. And I felt discouraged and very lonely.

And it didn't help that, as society continued its decline from bad to worse, going out in public became increasingly unpleasant. Despite police efforts to combat it, road rage continues to get worse, until even driving to the local grocery store sometimes feels like a big risk. And it's getting harder to find anybody who will return a smile and a friendly 'hello', so that sometimes I feel downright invisible because of the lack of response my smiles are getting! Within the stores, people are just pushing their carts around with scowls on their faces, quickly expressing exasperation for people encroaching on their "personal space." An older couple stopped their cart rather than go around my son, who just happened to be in their path and was picking up something he'd dropped before rejoining me, and they turned to glare at me, hands on hips, as if I had no business bringing children into a grocery store. And on another occasion in a different sort of store, a young woman took her frustrations out on my husband, simply because he was "in her way" while he was perusing the shelves looking for a birthday gift for our youngest child. He hadn't even been aware she was there, until she loudly sighed, and he promptly apologized and stepped out of her way, only to be called a foul name in response! This sort of unwarranted rudeness just seems to be skyrocketing lately, in our experience. It's very discouraging. And doesn't do much to make me feel any love for my fellow humans.

And therein lies the crux... I hadn't lost my heart for God. I'd lost my heart for people! I was feeling no love for these people who were doing nothing to deserve any, never mind that it's often those who least deserve love who most need it demonstrated to them. I'd grown weary of doing good, and wanted nothing to do with anybody who might take and then give nothing in return. And THAT was stopping up my desire to write, which is definitely a labor of love that doesn't really yield much tangible reward. Praise God that He always loves us faithfully! Praise God that when you realize your well of love is empty, and ask Him to fill it, He does so abundantly! Asking Him to fill you with His love for others, whether it be for one particular difficult person, or the general mass of mankind, always works! And because His love for people is once again flowing through me, so again are my words flowing out into cyberspace.

Father, thank you so much for Your unfailing love, given freely to us all, though we are undeserving and so often fail to return any love to You. And thank you, Father, for being so generous in sharing that love with us, just for the asking! Help us to apply that where ever there is a need in our lives, where ever there are people that we are having trouble loving. Turn us into veritable fountains of Christ's love, splashing it forth on all around us, luring the lost towards You, and shining a ray of hope into the darkness of this fallen world. In Jesus' name, amen.


P.S. Despite the event that triggered "Sin Diagnosis", www.carepages.com is a terrific place to go to set up a page to keep your family and friends apprised of medical situations, including pregnancies. And it's free!