Prevention vs. Redemption (Friday Devotional)

 

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

- Romans 8:28

Beginning in 1944, Smokey the Bear was an omnipresent mascot for the U.S. Forest Service. In print, radio, and television advertisements, Smokey was a constant reminder to kids and adults alike that the safety of America’s wilderness was up to them: “Only you can prevent forest fires.” For decades, people did everything in their power to ensure that the nation’s forests remained flame-free, preventing fires as much as possible and extinguishing those they came across.

But as naturalists continued studying fire ecology, Smokey started to become a bit of a problem. You see, while manmade wildfires are indeed something to be avoided, natural fires (such as those caused by lightning strikes) are actually necessary for the health of forests. Part of the natural life cycle of the wilderness is for fire to burn up dead trees and underbrush, and decades of fire suppression—aided by Smokey’s campaigns—had led to dense forests with too much fuel. Now whenever a fire inevitably struck, it was virtually impossible to contain.

These days, Smokey is still around, but his website has a page specifically devoted to the “Benefits of Fire,” and his motto has changed to “Only you can prevent wildfires.” A lesson has been learned—as counterintuitive as it may seem, sometimes fire is actually helpful.

In life, we tend to respond to pain with the early absolutism of Smokey the Bear—it is to be prevented, suppressed, and extinguished at all costs. Nobody wants to be hurt, right? So instead of dealing with our feelings, we suppress them. Instead of addressing conflicts, we ignore them. Instead of grieving, we seek any distraction we can find.

But the gospel offers a different perspective on pain. The cross of Christ reminds us that while pain remains an awful reality in our fallen world, God is capable of redeeming it for His purposes. The same God who turned crucifixion into salvation can turn the worst this world has to offer into something glorious.

Our world teaches us to approach pain with fear and trembling, to pray only for escape from its clutches. But may God give you faith to imagine redemption where you can see only misery, to envision God’s goodness when you can only see the world’s badness. Because while no one wants to get burned, there is peace in knowing that sometimes even fire can lead to new life.

Embracing Our Calling (Friday Devotional)

 

Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

- James 4:17

For days this week I’ve been dodging the responsibility of unloading the dishwasher. It started Tuesday morning when, in a rush, I dropped my coffee cup in the sink, knowing that if I opened up the dishwasher, I’d find it full of clean dishes needing to be put away. Wednesday I did the same thing at lunchtime. By yesterday, there was a small collection of cups, plates, and silverware in the sink, all the result of my unwillingness to open the dishwasher and confront the job that needed to be done. All week long, my attitude was as irrational as it was lazy: if I never opened the dishwasher, I’d never have to do the job.

That attitude is an easy one to have in life, from trivial things like household chores to larger issues of right and wrong—we think if we can simply ignore things, we have no responsibility to deal with them. If we remain passive when activity is needed, we may not be heroes, but we’re not guilty either. Ignorance, as the cliché goes, is bliss.

But the Lord calls us to a higher standard than ‘hear no evil, see no evil.’ Our responsibility as people of God is to take the opportunities given to us to show people His love, to serve with glad and gracious hearts. When confronted with the chance to do right, we have not just the option but the obligation to do so.

The Lord has called us to be his ambassadors in this world, showing and telling our neighbors who God is with everything we do. May we embrace that responsibility instead of dodging it.

Riddles and Revelations (Friday Devotional)

 

No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

- John 1:18

I love a good riddle, something to tease your brain and get you thinking.

For example, Mississippi has 4 S’s and 4 I’s. Can you spell that without using S or I? Answer: T-H-A-T.

Here’s another: Grandpa went out for a walk and it started to rain. He didn’t bring an umbrella or a hat. His clothes got soaked, but not a hair on his head was wet. How is this possible? Answer: He’s bald!

One more: Name 3 consecutive days without naming any of the days of the week. Answer: Yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Riddles like these make you think outside the box for a moment; they leave you grasping for an answer that you know is simple, but you just can’t quite get your mind around. The fun—and the frustration—of riddles is the search for answers that so often elude you.

For many, God is just such a riddle. People look at creation and believe that someone brought it into being, but they can’t quite wrap their minds around the idea of a divine Creator. They read God’s promises in the Bible, but they look at a world rife with injustice and destruction and can’t bring themselves to believe. They can fathom that the answers to their questions are found in God, but God Himself remains unknown to them.

The good news is that in Christ, God has revealed Himself to us; He has shown us exactly who He is. We no longer have to wonder what God is like, because Jesus is “the image of the invisible God,” the “Word made flesh.” Whatever questions you have about the grace of God, the power of God, the truth of God, and the love of God, all of these questions find their answers in Jesus.

In Christ, God is not a riddle to be solved, but a revelation to be seen. So if you want to know what God is like, you can stop racking your brain—instead, simply open your eyes. Look to Jesus and you’ll see the glory of God.

How Will They Remember You? (Friday Devotional)

By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 

- Galatians 5:22-23

One of the strange realities of my vocation is that I attend a lot of funerals. Sometimes I do so as the officiant, there to comfort a mourning family and offer the hope of the gospel. Other times I am simply one more person in the pew, attending the service as a gesture of respect for the deceased and kindness for the grieving family.

Having been to so many funerals, I’ve learned what to expect from the obituaries and the speakers. Accomplishments are listed, stories shared, and a life is summed up in just a few short minutes. Decades of work are described in a sentence or two, countless family memories are reduced to two or three anecdotes. Services like these make you think about what really matters in the end.

Our world prizes success and ambition—but the obituary which reads like a resume is hollow. Our world values wealth and fame—but such things mean little in death. Our world tells us there is no greater joy than winning—but all those victories, all those titles, all those trophies turn to dust eventually.

The truth is that the most joyous funerals I’ve attended have not been for the rich or the famous or the wildly successful, but for the humble, faithful servants who loved the Lord and loved their neighbors. Those whose lives were defined not by the fruit of their intelligence or the fruit of their ambition, but by the fruit of the Spirit. Those who cared more about being good than being great.

Our world is full of worldly men and women who crave glory, power, and acclaim. But in the end, we see what these things are worth. May you instead center your life around grace, mercy, and love. That’s what Jesus did—as his disciples, let’s learn from him.

What's In It For Me? (Friday Devotional)

“As you go, proclaim the good news: ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.”

- Matthew 10:7-8

When you do a good deed, you have certain expectations of the recipient of your kindness. If you mow an elderly neighbor’s lawn, you expect that she will check to see if you’d like a glass of water at some point. If you give a friend a birthday present, you expect that he will reciprocate when your birthday rolls around. If you drop off a box of clothes at Goodwill or the Salvation Army, you expect a receipt so you can write it off when you do your taxes.

None of these expectations are out of line and none of them make your good deeds any less generous. They simply expose these acts of charity as being conditional—I do this for you, and in return you do this for me. Even if the return for your kindness is nothing more than a thank you, you want some kind of response from the person you have helped, some kind of confirmation that your work has been noticed and appreciated.

But when it comes to spreading the Gospel, things are supposed to work differently. When Jesus sent out the twelve disciples to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God was near, empowering them with the Holy Spirit, he did so with a reminder: “you received without payment; give without payment.” On this mission, they were expected to give freely and without regard for what they would receive in return.

We are quick to acknowledge the unconditional nature of God’s love. He sent Christ to die for us while we were still sinners, and the salvation the cross provides is unearned and undeserved. The Holy Spirit that guides, comforts, and encourages us today was given by God just as freely. These are theological truths we embrace, and they show the love and grace of God to be unrestricted and unconditional—He loves us regardless of our response to Him.

What we are slower to remember is that life in the Spirit means loving others with that same kind of grace. It means that acts of compassion are not done with any expectation that you will receive something in return—not money, not applause, not even appreciation. We love not because it makes us look good or feel better about ourselves, but because Christ first loved us. You received without payment; give without payment.

As you think about how you share God’s love, think also about what motivates you to do so. When your kindness goes unanswered, are you resentful of the response or are you driven by grace to love even more? May your compassion be based not on the shifting sand of human reaction, but on the solid rock of God’s grace.

A Shared Shower (Friday Devotional)

 

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

- 2 Corinthians 9:8

When you use a water hose, the water comes out in one targeted stream. There’s not much pressure—you’d use it to wash your car, but not pressure wash your deck—and while plenty of water comes out of the hose, it only goes in whatever direction you point it.

That’s why children everywhere are delighted when they learn that by putting their thumb over the hose, they can turn that steady stream into a pressurized spray. Water that was previously only going in one direction is now going everywhere. Is there more water than before your thumb was over the hose? No, of course not. But what was once a targeted stream now becomes a shared shower.

When it comes to practicing grace, it’s all too easy to do so like a water hose—having been given grace by our Lord, we show it only to a certain, targeted few. Our family members receive our forgiveness, our friends get a share of our compassion, our favorite neighbors are shown kindness. But as for the wider world, we keep people at arm’s length.

But having made grace abound in us, God calls us then to abound in every good work, for grace not to be something we point at a select few but something we shower the world with. It is not just those close to us who need the love of Jesus, but everyone. Grace is not something we should confine to a targeted stream, but something that should be given as a shared shower.

Grace is something we rightfully declare to be a gift from God, something we proclaim to be the key to salvation, something we say we want the world to know. So don’t just say it—spray it.

When Life Speeds By (Friday Devotional)

 

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

- Philippians 4:6

The fastest I’ve ever driven is 100 mph. I was going down a long interstate on a longer trip, I was alone, and I looked down only to realize I was going 90. My immediate reaction was to take my foot off the accelerator and slow down, but then I had a second thought and decided to give it a go. Pressing my foot down on the accelerator and fervently hoping I wouldn’t hear the sound of sirens, I kept going as the speedometer’s needle ticked slowly upwards until it finally hit three digits—100. I excitedly let out a yell and then slowed down immediately, not wanting to tempt fate any more than I already had.

Maybe you’ve never driven that fast—or who knows, maybe you’ve gone faster!—but we’ve all had those days, weeks, even months when we’ve been living at 100 mph. Those days when you wake up early and the whole day is a nonstop rush, consumed by work or school or family, when time to yourself is a luxury never to be granted. When you go to bed with your mind still racing from the day and awaken just a few hours later with the same thoughts immediately springing to mind.

It’s on those days, when everything is speeding by and you’re just trying to keep your eyes on the road, when a few words of prayer are needed more than ever. It’s then that you really need to let God into your day, to turn your anxiety over and make your requests known to Him. It means giving a few precious minutes of your overly busy day to Him, but it’s an investment worth making.

Because while sometimes it can seem like life is going 100 mph sometimes, there’s a comforting truth about turning stress over to God: He can keep up.