I am posting a blog today as an additional entry. Just because I wanted to…

and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:32 (Living Bible)

I was speaking with a colleague recently about the privilege we have as counselors to be able to help people to speak their truth into existence. What I mean by that is, sharing a difficult experience, or letting go of a shameful experience, into the light of day with another human being is freeing. Often, we as counselors have the privilege of being that “trusted person” to whom a client relates a deep, painful part of their life so as to free them from the bondage of secrecy.

Once we can release that deeply held information, perhaps hidden due to shame or guilt or some other reason, we become free of the shackles of the secret. I call that speaking truth into existence so that it is no longer the shameful darkness which needs to be hidden. Rather, the unburdening process becomes the fact of life that makes us human.

Everyone has some kind of darkness in them, large or small. Sharing deeply held beliefs, or even traumatic events, frees the mind and soul. To the extent that we can bring such events into the light of day, there is freedom for all.

It does not need to be a counselor with whom people share such closely held parts of us. A safe, trusted partner, friend, confidant is essential for maintaining a healthy soul.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the plan to give light to chase away darkness, Amen.

But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!      Revelation 2:4 (New Living Translation)

I was having a discussion the other day with a church pastor who was disturbed by the lack of love shown to others outside his congregation. It was not just his congregation, he felt, but his growing sense that the Church in general had lost its love for others. His local church had, he felt, had become more “politically aligned” than “Jesus aligned”.

We discussed the inherent paradox of the gospel, and it appeared that the salvation of the Church may well come from outside of the traditional church. Wild, right? Yes, what a paradox.

What does that mean? The author of Revelation stated in chapter 2 verse 4, “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!”  I think the author meant that the gospel was about loving other people. It seems that “church people” may often not seem to love those outside of that somewhat tight circle quite as well as some people who are not “church people”.  Maybe people who identify as Jesus followers need to demonstrate radical love in ways like those who do not identify as “the Church” embrace others. No matter political ideology, we must align first with the commands of Jesus to love one another.

Jesus said, “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples” (John 13:35).   We must always be aware of having our priorities right. If your political party disintegrated tomorrow, you would be fine, as long as your first priority is Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, give us wisdom in how we demonstrate your love to others, Amen

 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.                                                                                                          Ephesians 5:15-17 (NIV)

I had actually written a different story for today, but recent events call me to write about an extraordinary time in civilization – a time that is right in front of us.

 We are watching – yes, literally watching- death being rained upon innocent women and children in Ukraine. Maternity hospitals are being targeted, apartment buildings are being destroyed, and the wanton terror of indiscriminate shelling of cities continues unabated in Ukraine.

Words cannot adequately describe what the civilized world is trying to deal with. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is not a member of the civilized world. He stands outside of decency and moral standards. He alone, it appears, has decided to revisit the historic pogroms of Russia’s past. The old Tsars of Russia killed or banished Jews in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Josef Stalin visited upon Ukraine, in the early 1930’s, the Holodomor, which was the systematic starvation of Ukraine’s citizens.

Today, Vladimir Putin is once again inflicting heinous crimes upon that land. The Ukrainian people are acting with unimaginable courage, defending their land against a cruel aggressor. The Russian people are getting no real news of this. They get only a steady diet of lies and propaganda. Alas, Truth is another of Putin’s victims.

We can only pray that the Russian people can find truth, and then the courage to depose Putin. I do not, of course know how or if this can happen. In fact, as a broken-hearted individual, I feel helpless and angry, and sad.

As you can see, I write in order to express those feelings. It gives me an outlet to vent those things which I cannot control. I also pray, knowing that I can only acknowledge that this is in God’s hands, not mine.

But those who CAN do something MUST do something. The Russian people, and the civilized world deserve better.

Prayer: Lord, we implore you to deliver us from evil, and to rescue those who are suffering, Amen

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.                                                 Matthew 16:13 (English Standard Version)

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.                                                                                                                      Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

In the past ten days, we have seen a remarkable demonstration of evil in the world. Yes, evil is always present, but there are times that it is so evident, so palpable, that our breath is taken away.  The wanton invasion of Ukraine is evil at work. Period. Such instances strain our understanding of the words of Jesus when he instructed us to pray for deliverance from evil.

I am guessing that you and I, like millions of others, are praying for the Ukrainian people. We pray for them, as well as ourselves, to be delivered from the evil of Vladimir Putin’s genocide. We as Christians are also told to pray for our enemies.

I get confused, and frustrated, and sad.

Then I read that God’s ways are higher than our ways, and his plans higher than our plans. Certainly true, but nonetheless frustrating. After all is said and done, I am left with this conclusion – God must have this, because I surely do not. I relearn my place in the universe- he is God, and I am not.

But God did make us human, with human emotions and intellects, to search after the truth of his word, as well as our honest assessment of our feelings about such evil events. So, we must get in touch with the truth of all these disparate thoughts and emotions.

To summarize, we live in the tension of asking for deliverance from evil; called to pray for our enemies; and recognizing that God has this and we do not.

Prayer: Lord, deliver us from evil, Amen

Tomorrow’s blog drops early tomorrow morning, titled “Deliver us from Evil”. I am going to a once/week format now, posting new blogs on Monday morning, so you can watch for that. Thank you for your faithful following and feedback- I appreciate it!

As always, feel free to check the archives for over 700 previous posts. I started daily reflections on April 1, 2020 as the pandemic was ravaging us. I felt that it was something I could do for myself and my readers. The pandemic is not totally over, but unfortunately, we have a new evil plunged upon the world, which I discuss tomorrow.

We shall hang in there together!

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen.

 I Peter 4:10-11 (New Living Translation)

I am helping to say goodbye to a friend at his memorial service this weekend. I knew him for about 45 years, having first met him as he was being discharged from a hospital.  He lived a remarkable life, yet the vast majority of the world never knew him. They did not know his struggles with serious physical and emotional deficits brought on by devastating seizures he had since birth.

Having some significant physical and cognitive deficits did not deter this man from living a full, meaningful life. He began volunteering at a young age helping to teach swimming to kids with more serious challenges than his own. It was a way to “give back” he often said. He was known around his small town as a dedicated volunteer, and he was recognized as “Volunteer of the Year” in that town several years ago.

He suffered from debilitating seizures, but in 1990, when he was 40 years old, he had neurosurgery which effectively ended those seizures. Five years later, at age 45, he learned to drive. Because he wanted to serve others, he used a car- one donated to him by a family who’s relative he cared for- to give rides to people for medical visits, shopping, etc.

He spent most of his days volunteering at a local food pantry and Christian outreach center running errands, stocking shelves, encouraging others.

He died last week, a victim of complications of COVID-19. He had a number of physical problems later in his life, but he never allowed those health problems to get in the way of  serving others.

The verses above will be used in his memorial service. Fitting, I think, for a person who chose to give meaning to his life by a life of service to others.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the gift of life, and the opportunity to use it for your people, Amen.

Anxious hearts are very heavy, but a word of encouragement does wonders!

Proverbs 12:25 (Living Bible)

Some of my readers may recall that today, March 1, is a holiday. You won’t find it anywhere but on this blog, but rest assured, today is a holiday. Last year I deemed it Affirmation Day. March I is a holiday just because I want it to be. It has, for many years, been my own unofficial start of Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. We need the refreshment of Spring, and I decided that I would simply move it up a few weeks to March 1.

In past years, baseball players would be in Spring Training sites around Florida and Arizona. That really helped me to get into the excitement of anticipation of warm weather and baseball. Since the owners and players in Major League Baseball have decided to rain on that parade this year, so much the more reason to call March 1 a holiday- Affirmation Day.

So, I am reprinting last year’s March 1 blog to explain the holiday. Please enjoy the holiday as you read the reprint of my March 1, 2021 blog…

Today, March 1, is my first day of Spring. In honor of that, I decided that today should be a holiday of sorts, so I have named it Affirmation Day. Today, to celebrate this wonderful holiday, every person is to specifically affirm or encourage someone that they know, be it family or friend, coworker or acquaintance. The celebration of this day is not complete unless one has sent a text, called, emailed, or in some other way communicated a message of appreciation and encouragement to another person.  

I think today is the right day for this because, in his creation, God has reaffirmed to us that another season is coming- a season long awaited and much needed this year. Ancient traditions had festivals to celebrate the end of the season of death (Winter) and the start of the season of new life (Spring). So, isn’t this holiday just the natural evolution of such past celebrations? I say it is.

So, Happy Affirmation Day. Spread the word!

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the reminders of new life springing up around us!

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”     Luke 11: 11-13

I worry about my kids. No, there is no reason to worry- they are bright, successful adults with careers and families of their own, and they are quite competent and able to navigate this world just fine. But I am a dad, and I love them, and I want to make sure that they are OK, happy and moving ahead well in life.

Until I was a parent, I did not understand the love of a parent. Yes, my parents loved me and cared for me, but I had not experienced that love on the other end yet. As a parent, the world looks a bit different. If you are a parent yourself, you know what I mean.

We may not be fully able to understand God’s love for us until we experience loving our children. God cares for each of us in ways that we really cannot completely appreciate, I think.  One of the mysteries of life I suppose.

Luke’s discussion about the love of human fathers, in comparison to the love of our heavenly father, is both enlightening and humbling.

What a reassurance of God’s love for us.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the model of parental love, Amen

I am back from vacation, and I have posted a blog entry for tomorrow. Thank you for your faithfulness in going to the archives while I was away! I will be posting regularly, but not daily in the future. I will give more details later (because I have not yet decided the schedule!), so please stay tuned for updates.

Love to all…

Thank you, dear readers, for your faithful attention to this blog. For the next two weeks I will be taking a little hiatus (that’s what the old TV shows used to say, right?), and there will not be new material until March 1. Until then, please feel free to visit this site and go to the archives where hundreds of oldies lie filed away. Hope you enjoy them,

Blessings,

John