Monthly Archives: June 2024

Leaving Everything Behind

nets

Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Mark 10:28

Peter left his nets and followed Jesus. Now it seems Peter is questioning that decision a little when confronted with the news from Jesus that it is impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God on their own. “Then what are we doing here?” seems to be the connotation from Peter here.

But Jesus assures Peter (and us who follow him),  “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).

Following Jesus means leaving everything behind, but following Jesus also means remembering that we will receive a hundred times more than we left behind because of Christ. There is a very human grief that often takes place when we say good-bye to our previous way of living only for ourselves in order to live only for Christ. That grief may pop up now and then when doubt and fear creep in, as they did here with Peter. But with Christ the reward will always be greater than any sacrifice that we may have made to follow him. There’s no looking back anymore when we follow Jesus. We only move forward. Eternal life in heaven awaits us, which can never compare to anything we will ever leave behind on this earth.

Unswervingly

hold on

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

I love the word unswervingly in this verse. Paul wants us to know that our hold on the hope we have in Jesus should be firm. Hope is not something we should hold on to loosely or distractedly. It is something we hold on to for dear life, because our hope is our very life. It is the very essence of our future.

We are more distracted by things than ever before, unfortunately. Every ping on our phone, every cry from our children, every person that enters the room, every visual we see on our computers or TVs threatens to sway us and swerve us away from the core of our being as children of God and followers of Christ.

The devil wants nothing better than for us to go off course and let go of our hold on hope. Don’t let that happen. In the midst of every temptation, every hardship, every struggle, cling tightly to hope. I think of an old song by Wilson Phillips from the 1990s, “Hold On.” “Hold on for one more day,” the song advises. And the implication is that if you hold on for one day, then you will be open to holding one for the next and the next and the next, until you are holding on with hope every day of your life.

As cliche as the saying is, “taking it one day at a time” will keep your hold on hope strong every day of your life. So it is always good to remember each morning that God has his hold on us and he will never let go. He is more unswerving than us all.

Going the Distance

I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith. And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day. 2 Timothy 4:7-8

The life of faith in Christ is not for wimps. Even St. Paul as he nears the end of his life looks back and is grateful to God for giving him the endurance through the strength of the Holy Spirit to make it all the way to his last days trusting in Christ as his Savior. There can be so many obstacles that get in our way in our race toward the goal of heaven. Struggles, pain, hardships and just the daily grind of living can wear us down and steer us off the path to the prize that has already been won for us in Jesus.

I recently heard about something called “The Magic Hour” in the Ironman competition. It refers to the last hour when people running the race can still qualify as an Ironman finisher. Those who are not professional athletes per se often end up having to muster every bit of strength they have to make it to the very end, to run the distance before the qualifying clock runs out. Some make it at just the last minute, even crawling to the finish line. Others do not make it in time and are understandably crushed.

The blessing for us as Christians is that our strength comes from above and no matter when our last hour on this earth may be or when the Last Day comes, we don’t need to be afraid or worried that we somehow won’t make it across the finish line to heaven. We who believe will always be qualified to enter paradise because of Christ and the suffering and death he endured on the cross for us that we might be released from all pain and suffering forever. We are victorious in him eternally.

Tall Grass

tall grass

There is a large office building I pass by every morning on my walks, and the grass around it is in desperate need of a mow. The grass has gotten so high that much of it is at least knee-high and has gone to seed. This morning on my walk, I noticed a woman from the neighborhood trying to use a weed whacker on the tall grass on one side of the building. But I could tell she was not getting too far. The grass was too long, and the area to cover was far too large to make a dent. I didn’t see that woman with the weed whacker anymore upon my return walk home.

The plight of that woman and the tall grass gnaws at me because I know what she is feeling. She thought she could fix the problem, but the problem is simply too big for one person to tackle. How many things in life are like that? And how many things are like that in a spiritual sense, when we as Christians see sin running rampant around us? We want to do something. We want cut down and get rid of what we can. But it is just not possible for us. That is why Jesus came. The cross serves as a giant sin remover that gets rid of all that is wrong with the world, down to the very roots. We live in a sinful world. We see signs of that every day. But we are not Jesus. Only he can mow down what is messed up on this earth, spiritually speaking, and take us to the perfect paradise of heaven, through his forgiveness and grace.

Cursive Writing

cursive

I just recently learned that my nieces and nephews do not know how to read or write in cursive. On his birthday, for instance, my nephew could not decipher my cursive message to him in his card. It looked like hieroglyphs to him apparently. I attempted to give him a crash course on the unique way that the letters f, b, s, z look in this now “ancient” script, but he did not seem too interested in pursuing that. So I just read my message to him out loud.

Other Gen X people out there have reported similar experiences to me, and there is something about it that makes me feel a little sad and very old. What surprises me is that cursive flows right out of me without even thinking. All those lessons in third grade really paid off, I guess. But I have not been thinking about my non-cursive-knowing audience at all in my greeting-card messaging. So I will be adjusting to printing in those cases, I have decided.

Getting the message of the Gospel across in the old-fashioned ways may not work anymore when reaching out to younger generations either. Christians in middle age and above cannot rely on what we have been used to in the past. Those methods worked well then (and thanks be to God for that), but it is time for us to step up and try new ways of communicating our faith in Christ that can be understood by any age. Maybe that is a video instead of a letter. Maybe it is a post on Instagram instead of poster on a bulletin board. What we have to say about Jesus still matters. We just need to say it in a way that makes sense to the most people.

Rubber Ducks

rubber duck

Do you know that there is a new trend called Jeep ducking? It started during the pandemic and entails owners of Jeep Wranglers placing rubber ducks on the hoods of other Jeep Wranglers. Jeep Wrangler owners then place these rubber ducks on the dashboards of their vehicles. I have seen one Jeep on my street with about ten ducks in the window. The woman who started the trend, Allison Parliament of Ontario, Canada, said, “It was an act of kindness, a healing of sorts, as well as recognition of and greeting to a fellow Jeep owner.”

The phenomenon makes me think of how we can greet and recognize and support fellow Christians. Did you see someone carrying out an act of kindness today? Maybe think about giving them a smile or a wave. We need all the encouragement we can get in our Christian walk, and one way we can do that is to acknowledge one another when we see them and support them in their efforts in some sort of fun, uplifting way. Perhaps you can always have some John 3:16 coins from Creative Communications on hand to hand out to fellow Christians. Or maybe it is a thumbs up or a “Good going!” to any brothers and sisters in Christ you may encounter on your journey of faith. Jeep’s current motto is “Go Anywhere. Do Anything.” It is a reminder to us that Jesus told us to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel” (Mark 16:15). And it reminds us that “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). So get out there and go and do in Christ’s name.