More on Practicing What I Didn’t Get to Teach in BC
Through two previous posts–JOMO NOT FOMO and JOMO AND THE GOLDEN RULE, I promised to recount my “Golden Rule Joy” encounter with my Idaho hospital roommate. Time to deliver.
Both nights of my stay at Kootenai Health I enjoyed the “delights” of a so-called semi-private room. Two beds jammed side-by-side into a smallish space with only a flimsy draw curtain between occupants makes for relative visual privacy only. You overhear just about any and everything going on with your roomie ALL NIGHT LONG. So much for HIPAA compliance. No one sleeps particularly well in a hospital given all that must occur for patient care. I get that. But when your first night partner never turns off his TV to boot–well prospects for any decent rest suffer a nearly insurmountable challenge.
Night number two brought a glimmer of hope for a better night’s sleep. Roommate #1 got moved elsewhere, somewhere around 9 PM. Hallelujah! I prayed. Lord, please don’t let them wheel a newbie in here until tomorrow. I’m so tired. I’m sick with pneumonia. I need my rest. Have mercy on me, Father! And the Lord heard my prayer. He quickly answered with a resounding No.
By midnight roommate #2 arrived intermittently hacking, coughing, and cursing up a storm. I kid you not. Within the first fifteen minutes of entering the room, the man blasphemed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ a total of three different times. Not only that, within minutes of getting situated in his bed, he turned on his TV and you guessed it–left it on ALL NIGHT LONG. Good grief. Things went from bad to worse just like that. I lay there a mixture of emotion stewing over such inconsiderate treatment by a fellow human being.
Just then began my JOMO learning experience. The Lord brought to mind the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” I asked myself this question. If the circumstances were reversed, what would I wish my roommate would do for me? The answer came lightning fast. Pray for me! So, by God’s grace and with the Spirit’s help, I immediately traded my complaining, unthankful spirit, for a prayerful and merciful one. I had no idea what potentially life-threatening illness the man faced nor how serious his condition. A wave of compassion swelled within me and I prayed for his body and his soul. God prevented my teaching the Golden Rule in a church camp in Canada so I might learn something about practicing the Golden Rule in a hospital in Idaho. Welcome to JOMO.
The next morning Jan and I overheard doctors talking with my roommate about his head and neck cancer. He faced surgery that day to place a peg tube in his side to meet his nutritional needs while undergoing treatment to his throat. Hearing all that jumped my compassion quotient to an even higher level given my own tongue cancer story. When the doctors left, I snagged the opportunity to peek around the curtain. I introduced my survivor self. I told him and his wife how I felt strangely moved in the night to pray for him and now I knew why. Unfortunately, there was no time to share the gospel with him. I did however encourage him that I would continue to pray for him from afar.
Who knows how the Lord might use such a small thing to do a greater thing in Steve’s heart? I covet your prayers with me for him, if he comes to mind. Thank you!
In my quiet time with the Lord this morning, I read this from William Jay’s devotional Morning Exercises:
A natural man is only concerned to escape from trouble, but the Christian is anxious to have it sanctified and improved. He is commanded to hear the rod. While God chastens he teaches. I must therefore be in a learning frame of mind. I must say unto God, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.” “I will hear what, by this event, God the Lord will speak.”
In my recent post JOMO NOT FOMO, I shared something of the same idea as a result of the providential curve ball which landed me in an Idaho hospital with aspiration pneumonia. Part of the joy of missing out on teaching at the church camp in Canada was the benefit of a sharpened focus on hearing what God is saying and doing in the change of events. I alluded to a conversation I engaged with my hospital roommate who just so happened to be suffering with head and neck cancer–the very same kind which afflicted me back in 2005. How my health troubles were “sanctified and improved” by that encounter centered on one of the messages I planned to give at the camp from Matthew 7:1-12.
Jesus closed his teaching on how to engage others constructively in relational conflicts with the well-known and so-called Golden Rule. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Before I can share about the Golden Rule joy I gained from missing out in Canada through my roommate story, I need to unpack the message content from the talk I never gave, but Jesus led me to practice.
The Golden Rule has been called “the Everest of all ethical teaching.” The Reformed Study Bible entry notes:
This principle was stated in a negative form by various ancient thinkers as, “Do not do to others what you do not want done to you.” Jesus makes it a positive obligation, a requirement to proactively do for others the good one wants for oneself. Here it appears after the discussion of God’s goodness and His willingness to give.
Because God is this good to you, go and do likewise with others! Jesus stresses the importance of embracing this Golden Rule ethic in all our relationships at the end of v. 12: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (emphasis added). In other words, this MO in treating others matters so much as a professed kingdom follower of Jesus because it distills into one sentence the essence of everything taught in the Old Testament. This is Leviticus 19:18 in action: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” Jesus put it this way when asked which is the great commandment in Matthew 22:37-40: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” The Golden Rule puts radical greatest-of-these-is-love into action.
Ken Sande suggests asking ourselves some helpful questions to evaluate how well we do or do not embrace this: “Would I want someone else to treat me the way I have been treating him? How would I feel if I found out people were saying about me what I’ve said about her? If our positions were reversed, how would I feel if he did what I have done?”
Questions like those in application of the Golden Rule with my challenging middle-of-the night hospital roommate made all the difference in whether or not I sanctified and improved that trial and, as a result, more thoroughly experienced the joy of missing out.
Lest this turn into an interminably long post, the rest of the story must wait for the next edition!
From the get-go our Canada adventure seemed destined for surprises necessitating adjustments. It started with a 4:30 AM Delta text about a prolonged delay. I scrambled to book an alternate flight. Jan developed a sore throat soon after our arrival in Idaho. The morning we expected to drive to Kelowna, BC for my weekend speaking engagement, I succumbed to chest congestion and coughing. Off we went to an urgent care. By the end of the day, I was hospitalized with a case of aspiration pneumonia. So much for teaching peacemaking at the church camp.
I must confess my struggle with disappointment. A lot of work went into preparing the four messages I hoped to bring that weekend. I love teaching the Bible, especially when the subject focuses on my passion to promote the blessedness of peacemaking (Matthew 5:9). I looked forward to helping my host and his people with conflict coaching for their respective challenges. And Jan and I both regretted missing out on surveying the glory of God on display in the Canadian wilderness.
Providence, as it has done so often before, threw me a curve ball of changed circumstances (Ecclesiastes 7:13-14). I had a choice to make. FOMO or JOMO? The former acronym, the fear of missing out, I knew all too well. But the latter, the joy of missing out, hit my radar screen for the first time on this trip. Apparently, JOMO is a thing. Who knew? The Lord used it to keep me from wallowing in disappointment in favor of rejoicing (Philippians 4:4) and giving thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18). He showed me at least three upsides to the change in plans.
Checked Pride
When I wrote about the prospect of this Canada engagement in my last post, I put things this way: “The next of those ministry opportunities takes place, Lord willing, this weekend.” I’ve learned over time to qualify all future plans accordingly from texts like James 4:13-17:
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
To add “Lord willing” to one’s future plans is no trivial qualifier. It reveals humility that acknowledges God’s sovereignty over every circumstance. We simply do not know what tomorrow may bring. To presume certainty in planning amounts to sinful boasting which belies the fragility and brevity of life.
Increased Contentment
The longer I live and walk with the Lord I am more convinced than ever of one thing. God cares more about what he is doing in me than what he is doing through me. That pertains particularly through cultivating what Paul calls the secret of contentment in Philippians 4:10-13:
10 I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. 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.
I almost labeled this section “Learned Contentment.” Paul seemed to have arrived at a level of maturity wherein he actually experienced both joy in abundance and need. His JOMO secret of contentment lay in his trust in the Lord’s strength to sustain him in every providence, hard or easy. I’m not there yet, but I rejoice to be learning more along the way of life’s highs and lows.
Sharpened Focus
Not more than two days after returning from our trip, this passage jumped off the page in my daily Bible reading in 1 Corinthians 16:5-9:
5 I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, 6 and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. 7 For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. 8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
Paul clearly looked forward to the prospect of an extended visit with the church at Corinth. But he knew better than to presume upon the Father’s will for the future–hence “if the Lord permits.” Besides, he had no doubt about God’s will for the present–a wide door for effective work in Ephesus! JOMO happens when we ask the Father, What doors will you open for my service now that these others have closed? Perhaps in another post I will write about my interaction with my hospital roommate who it just so happens was suffering from head and neck cancer just like I have!
God is always working through every kind of providence that we may even embrace JOMO. Choose joy for the plans he has to transform us more and more into the likeness of our older brother, King Jesus (Romans 8:29).
I recently added a new page to my website. It’s called Curt’s Links. There you will find additional help for growing as a do-it-best peacemaker and preserver of unity in your church.
All eight ministries listed contribute their unique focus to this area of our spiritual lives. My mentor and friend Ken Sande heads up a particularly valuable resource called Relational Wisdom (aka, “RW360”). The “About” button includes this summary of their mission:
To develop a new generation of training resources that integrate peacemaking, emotional intelligence, coaching and conciliation. These resources are being used to equip people with improved relational skills they can use not only to resolve conflict but also to prevent it from occurring in the first place.
For a twenty-minute introduction to this indispensable tool for your relational WQ, please check out Kirk Cameron’s interview with Ken:
By the way, I have personally completed the online training course and found it very helpful!
My preparation for a lifetime of pastoral ministry spanned some fifteen years of formal education. Three earned degrees profited me in many ways. But their value paled in comparison to lessons gained over greater time in the school of God’s providence. Ecclesiastes 7:14 sums up the curriculum: In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. Days of adversity—hard providence—make particularly good tutors for valuable lessons in character development.
In my last post Schlump or Sage, I promised next to visit 1 Samuel 24-26 for insight on how God works in this way. (Please click there to read those chapters.) They form a unit where we find David—heir apparent to Israel’s throne—with God in the school of hard providence. He continually escaped King Saul’s bloodthirsty wrath on the run in the wilderness of Judah. Chapter 24 records a dramatic cave encounter where David nearly capitalized on Saul’s vulnerability—going even so far as to cut off a corner of his robe—symbolic of his kingship. But conscience-stricken he stopped short: “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed.” Lesson learned: not my prerogative, God’s. Wait for his timing. Similar training awaits David with Saul again in chapter 26:
9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless?” 10 And David said, “As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish. 11 The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord’s anointed.
David feared God to disobey Leviticus 19:18: You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. He gets the wisdom of Proverbs 20:22: Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.
At first blush, chapter 25 seems out of place. Saul shows up just once in the narrative. A different cast of characters join the story. What’s this mess with moron Nabal and rockstar Abigail all about? THE SAME LESSON! Beware the evil of bloodguilt. Check out David’s bottom line in v. 32:
32 And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! 33 Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! 34 For as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.”
A lesson so important as this to the man after God’s own heart warrants three long chapters to drive it home. Avoid shedding blood not yours to spill. Refuse the temptation to take matters best left up to God into your own hands. Learn to tame rage by cultivating self-restraint.
Here again is the point: The Lord uses trials like conflict to grow us in the virtues of self-restraint and waiting on Him. God uses four things to shape David’s character in this conflict: a great loss, a harsh offense, a wise woman, and a just end.
A great loss (1). The text opens on an ominous note: Now Samuel died. One commentary notes: Since the days of Moses and Joshua, no man had arisen to whom the covenant nation owed so much as to Samuel, who has been justly called the reformer and restorer of the theocracy. Samuel. Last of the judges, first of the prophets. A nation mourns. Most importantly—this friend, mentor, advisor, and guide to David whom he anointed in chapter 16 is gone. Puritan Matthew Henry noted: The loss is the more grievous at this juncture when Saul has grown so outrageous and David is driven from his country; never more need of Samuel than now, yet now he is removed.
Saul had acknowledged David’s right to the throne (24:20), but David—leery of his adversary—still retreated to his stronghold (22). Samuel’s death prompts an even deeper flight south. David was likely unnerved by the development, perhaps even fearful about renewed madness from Saul. Take note. Loss can make you vulnerable. It can set you up for unbelief and leave you off your guard for temptation. God’s man would need to learn the lesson driven home multiple times to Joshua after the death of his mentor and spiritual giant, Moses: Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9). In adversity, consider. God makes it to transform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.
A harsh offense (2-13). David’s request for provisions for his band of brothers smacks to 21st century readers of running a protection racket. No way. Festival times like sheep-shearing meant lavish celebration and deep-pockets Nabal partied like royalty (36). Ancient Eastern cultural sentiment regarded generous hospitality a virtue even without the kind of guardian services David’s men provided from enemy brigands that the household staff called “a wall to us night and day” (16). And the petition by the ten emissaries represented David peaceably, respectfully, and perhaps even professionally since this may have been a kind of invitation to an ongoing contractual arrangement.
Nabal doesn’t simply decline the request for aid; he insults the Lord’s anointed with utter contempt. Verse 10: And Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. Don’t miss this. Nabal is Saul’s alter ego—a God-ordained surrogate stand-in. He even sounds like Saul—this son of Jesse. In Saul David duels with a man corrupted by power; in Nabal he feuds with a soul enslaved by wealth (11). Providence tests David’s heart as to what rules it through temptation triggered by both enemies in these 3 chapters. He passes with flying colors in 24 and 26 but nearly flunks fatally here in 25. Verse 13 says it all:
And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage. Verses 21-22 further reveal just how hijacked by rage David had become: Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
Yikes! Who is this David and what has become of the one in 24? Matthew Henry again: If one vexation seems to be over, we must not be secure; a storm may arise from some other point. What you do with and how you react to an egregious personal offense that threatens to trigger an emotional, verbal, text-FB-email, voicemail, and/or face to face murder-in-the-heart rampage says a whole lot about who’s on the throne of your heart at any given moment—the flesh or the Spirit. Are you beast or beauty? The Lord must teach his servant the wisdom of Proverbs 16:32: Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. David acts like Saul here; he desperately needs a “David” to intercept a pending disaster of his own doing which would cost him the throne. The Lord uses trials like conflict to grow us in the virtues of self-restraint and waiting on Him.
A wise woman (14-35). Enter Abagail. How Nabal landed this Proverbs 31 jewel defies imagination! She is everything in discretion and beauty that her pitbull beast of a husband is not. Tipped off by providential info from a servant about the impending disaster, she intervenes on behalf of her worthless husband. She navigates a masterful mediation that saves the day. She models Matthew 5:9blessed-are-the-peacemakers skill—she is swift, decisive, generous, courageous, respectful, responsible, repentant, looking out for other’s interests, God-centered, and confident.
Let’s zero in on just one aspect of this the longest recorded speech by a woman in the Old Testament. Notice the first words out of her mouth face-down before David in v. 24. On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. She took responsibility. Mine’s the blame. She stood in the gap—ultimately averting David’s wrath. Nana Dolce, in a TGC blog post, helps us see that we have here more than a just-be-like wise, masterfully persuasive Abigail:
In Abigail we find something more stunning: a glimpse of the wise Mediator who charged forward to face wrath on behalf of foolish sinners—Jesus. This Mediator offered not just wisdom but his own life: “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—but . . . while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. . . . We have now been justified by his blood, [therefore] much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Rom. 5:7–9). To miss the shadow of the gospel in Abigail’s narrative is to miss the Mediator who turned away God’s wrath to reconcile us to the Father in the biggest story ever told. God brings us conflict as an assignment to help us grow in Christ-likeness through him who bore the wrath for sins like vengeful anger.
A just end (36-44). Abigail’s report to sobered-up Nabal about her actions proves too much for him. Verse 37: his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. Stroke? Heart attack? Not sure. But the writer leaves no doubt about the outcome in v. 38: And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died. David’s words in v. 39 reveal a huge I-get-it:
When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife.
Have you learned this Romans 12:19 lesson? Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” God is not mocked. Whatever we sow, we reap. David passed the anger test here thanks to Abigail’s extraordinary help. But the rest of the text hints that he failed to apply the principle of self-restraint and disciplined waiting in another area of testing: the temptation to lust.
He multiplied wives. He began the “taking” Samuel warned that kings would do (8:11-18). Abigail (42). Ahinoam (43). How can we not see a portent of the Bathsheba disgrace of 2 Samuel 11? And the spilt blood of her husband Uriah? Bloodguilt haunted David and its consequences plagued his descendants from that point on.
No wonder Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:13: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And warned in Matthew 26:14: Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Genesis 4:7 pertains to us all: Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. How? Rely on the strength of the One who waited on the Father with perfect self-restraint under Satan’s temptations in Matthew 4 and arm yourself with the precious promise of 1 Corinthians 10:13: No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
J. I. Packer advised: [God] leaves us in a world of sin to be tried, tested, belaboured by troubles that threaten to crush us—in order that we may glorify Him by our patience under suffering, and in order that He may display the riches of His grace and call forth new praises from us as He constantly upholds and delivers us.
And I venture to add, works in us virtues of self-restraint and patient waiting on Him.
Difference between the two? How we handle our anger. So warns Proverbs, God’s book of wisdom.
“A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back” (29:11).
“The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult” (12:16).
“A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention” (15:18).
“Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (16:32).
James, the Proverbs of the Old Testament, adds its “Amen.”
“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (1:19-20).
Permission to ask the obvious but hard question? Where do you rate on the schlump/sage scale? Are you more the hothead, short-tempered, blow-your-fuse type or the cool, calm, collected self-restraint type? Most, I suspect, fall somewhere in between the two extremes.
True confession. Been there done the schlump thing. I tell one sad tale of my struggle with anger in my book. In a particularly challenging season of parenting two young teens, our family sought help from a Christian counselor. When asked to pick an animal which best described their experience of me, their dad, both boys offered the same response: grizzly bear. Get the picture? Busted. Thankfully, I might add.
I certainly don’t profess to qualify as a sage. But with God’s help I have been learning how to move the needle further away from the folly of my rage more to the wisdom of patient self-restraint. And more than not, the Lord has used painful circumstances like that therapy session to work gradual change in my story.
In my next few posts, I plan to camp out on a season in the life of David spanning First Samuel 24-26. There we find the man after God’s own heart enrolled in a training-for-kingship curriculum of God’s design. I call it the school of God’s providence (the holy, wise, and powerful acts by which he preserves and governs all his creatures, and all their actions). Ecclesiastes 7:14 counsels, In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. Days of adversity—hard providence—make particularly good tutors for valuable lessons in character development.
I will aim to convince you from the text of this central truth: The Lord uses trials like conflict to grow us in the virtues of self-restraint and waiting on Him. We will look at four things God uses to shape David’s character through a conflict: a great loss, a harsh offense, a wise woman, and a just end.
May the result in us be less shlumpness and more sageness for His glory and our joy.
An Original Song by Guest Blogger, Jan Leslie Heffelfinger
I wrote this song many, many years ago, but it has really been on my mind this week. “The hits just keep coming,” as Curt likes to say.
The needs and hurts of people we love and in our own lives can be so overwhelming . . . and by coming to love new friends in Idaho, that has only increased!
The Lord is reminding me this week that in any and every circumstance I can choose to thank him for his presence with me, his faithful love for me, and that he is in control even when I don’t understand. He is sovereign, and he is good.
Here is the text of the song–(don’t be confused by “thank you for my wife” . . . I wrote the lyrics so that it could be sung by a group):
Thank you for my family- thanks for where I live
The work that you’ve provided- the friendships that you give
Thank you for my husband- thank you for my wife
Or thank you that I live alone, and you complete my life
I choose to thank you, Lord,
Even when the words come oh, so hard
Even when my heart is weak and sore
Even when I’m feeling battle-scarred
I choose to thank you, Lord,
I have learned you know what’s best for me
Holy Spirit, do your work in me so I will be like you
I choose to thank you, Lord.
Thank you for this trial that shows how weak I am
That brings me to my knees at last to try and understand
Thank you for reminding me, I’m weak but you are strong
It sends me running back to you, and that’s where I belong
I dealt with considerable pain from my tongue cancer and its treatment back in 2005. But it doesn’t compare with my experience these days enduring a pathological fracture of the jaw. Pain which never lets up brings a whole new series of challenges to redeeming suffering as a follower of Jesus.
Knowing I would have hours of windshield time to and from Miami last week for the consult with the surgeon there, I did a search online the day before I left. I wanted to download some resources/messages on the subject of pain. The Lord reminded me of Joni Eareckson Tada along the way. If anyone would have words of wisdom about dealing with chronic pain, she most certainly would. I had no idea just how right that impression from the Lord would prove to be.
Of the half-a-dozen or so talks to which I listened on the road last Monday and Tuesday, this one struck home with the most Holy Spirit force. Nancy and I just finished watching it together prior to my writing this post. Whether your story involves protracted suffering or not, I cannot commend more strongly this teaching from a woman who testifies authentically with the poet, “My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees” (Psalm 119:71, NLT).
Please, I plead with you, do your soul a mega-good. As soon as you possibly can, invest the mere thirty minutes it will take to view Joni’s message. My prayer is that every one of our covenant members at Orlando Grace would do so. Beyond that, of course, all the better.
As promised, here is a link to the Thomas Chalmers’ article I referenced in this morning’s message from Genesis 14. It’s a challenging read, but definitely worth the effort and more than one pass.
In our Resolving Everyday Conflict class last Sunday, the video lesson made mention of a helpful resource for ridding ourselves of the idols that often lie at the root of our conflicts.
I promised I would post a link to the sermon manuscript by Thomas Chalmers entitled “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.” A bit long and dense, perhaps requiring more than one reading, it is well worth the time and effort.
Dr. Chalmers states that “It is seldom that any of our tastes are made to disappear by a mere process of natural extinction,” and “the heart must have something to cling to—and never, by its own voluntary consent, will it so denude itself of all its attachments.” Therefore the superior affection for God through the free Gospel of Christ is necessary to displace worldly affections. This sermon, written by one of the foremost minds of his day, has become seminal for modern thought.
