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.