HOPE PROPELS US

Let's continue with the subject of hope. We must find a reason to keep going. The pessimist claims everything and everyone is against his success. Or he imagines the odds are all stacked against him. Yet even the most blatant cynic clasps tightly to the belief that things must get better for him, or he would terminate his life. We label this inherent desire to believe that a better way is possible as ‘ hope.’ Job, in the Old Testament, had every reason to give up: he lost possessions, children, health and friendships. In this desperate, forlorn condition, he proclaims to his former friends, now his present accusers, that he resolves to continue to cling to his hope in God, even if God should take the only thing he has left- his life. You and I decide whether or not we should keep believing things can improve. No one else does that for us.

HOPE AND 'DE TROBLS OF DE WORL'

I'm making a shift to another topic for a while. It's another common need for all of us: HOPE. We have a false notion that normal life has no downs. Not true. But when we're at the bottom, we need to hear a forecast for sun tomorrow.
“That’s living,” we hear someone say. She means when you can give vent to your appetites (they are God-given don’t forget), you’ve really lived. Or when you can shop ‘til you drop, golf 36 holes in a day, feast on a holiday until you’re forced to loosen your belt, have an entire day to yourself, indulge in a series of concerts by your favorite performer - that’s living. Really? Those are exceptions for 90% of us. Tears over a child killed by a drunk driver, anger over neglect by someone we thought loved us, deep pain from treatment for cancer, terrible disappointment over a child choosing a wayward life, grief over lost loved ones in war- all prove that life abounds in troubles. But God intends for us to have hope while in the midst of such a life. Stay tune for more sun.

LOVE DRIVES OUT FEAR

Have you noticed how fear can easily spoil a good day? It ruins joyous events, spoils happy relationships, destroys anticipated celebrations, and robs us of peace. Sadly, this destructive emotion has a wild nature, being tough to control. It centers in wanting to remain safe. Fear presents itself as a guard against possible danger. Still, controlling it lies within each of us when we step into a new outlook: love. “Perfect love casts out fear.” Allow authentic care and concern for the person to overshadow fear. Love melts our hyper sensitivities and apprehensions. But fears will crowd back in when we insist on protecting ourselves. And when it is circumstances we fear, our love for our Almighty Father who holds the whole world in His hand, dissolves our fear. Love gives us wonderful freedom.

LOVONG OTHERS AS WE LOVE OURSELVES

Repetition usually suggests importance. To love others as we love ourselves is one of the Bible's most repeated commands. Loving your neighbor is the opposite of selfishness. You don't have to work hard at becoming proficient at being selfish. Love, however takes a concious act. Fortunately, unselfishness is possible for us. Love points to a source of power, quite beyond us; namely God. When Jesus was asked by someone who his neighbor was, Jesus responded by telling the story of the good Samaritan. In this story a beat up man beside the road is helped by a complete stranger. That is love with the right motive.
It is not self-seeking.

LOVE HEALS

Unloved people are sick more often. I cannot think of anything more peace-filling, more soothing, more contentment inducing than to be loved. To be reassured of someone’s love, is like having a fresh shower with a cool breeze after a lengthy dry period that drains the earth of all moisture. Love is the most profound encounter with which God blesses us. Ah, it is like being wrapped in a soft blanket of God’s loving energy. Love impacts our mental and physical well-being. Without exaggeration, we can declare that it essential for our survival. Indeed, it mysteriously touches our emotions, but it also affects our body. Notice how much better you feel physically and how your mood improves when you receive a hug or affection, or when you have expressed your love to someone or participate in an act of love? Loving and being loved actually improves our level of health.

LOVE AS SERVANTHOOD

"What will I get out of it?" That, unfortunately, is an automatic question when anything is presented to us. A google on the subject of “personal success” will get you over twenty-six million hits. Googling “servanthood” will bring you one-tenth of that number of hits.
The difference reveals how self-centered we are. Our Master, Jesus, bored to that precise deficiency in all of us when he washed the disciples’ feet. And Peter, the natural leader of this group of young men, represents our own assumptions about who is really great. Peter thought it had to be those who are customarily honored by position. Jesus illustrated greatness and success as acts of serving other people, disregarding our own benefits. This means for us that we reconfigure our definitions of success to treasured acts of love through self-denial.

PARDON IS LOVE

Three days after I smoked my first cigarettes, my Dad confronted me. I was twelve at the time and appreciated how he spoke quietly (not always typical of Dad) and persuasively. He forgave me and did not punish me. His forgiveness showed me that he loved me. When the prodigal son returned home, after squandering his entire heritage, his father pardoned him. That was love. Our heavenly Father knows how many times we stepped over the line but took the punishment Himself in Jesus, and forgives us as we ask Him. Pardon is never deserved; it is always an act of mercy. We receive this merciful gesture from God every day. We are asked by the Lord, God, to extend pardon to all those who violate our rights and mistreat us, and that is authentic, life-proven love.