“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven    Matthew 5:14-16

Reading this passage from the incomparable Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5, I was reminded again of the concept about the “city on the hill” which would be a light for others to follow. An example of freedom and right living that could serve as an example to the rest of the world- a new order of freedom which could fulfill these words that Jesus spoke.

John Winthrop in 1630 gave a lecture titled “A Model of Christian Charity” in which he used the phrase “as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us”. He meant that this new Puritan experiment of coming to America would serve as a model to the rest of the world. He warned that such a model could be for good or bad. The eyes of the world were on them, and they could determine if this experiment would result in a shining light or as a dire warning to others.

Through the years many speakers, politicians and leaders have alluded to that phrase, stating that America is that light on the hill- a beacon of hope to the rest of the world.

I hope so.

This statement has also been tied to the concept of America’s civil religion, which is a whole other topic, but I am thinking of it in the context that Jesus gave in Matthew 5. He said that we should “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

There have been some spectacular examples of America being that light on the hill to a weary and broken world. Our involvement in World War I as American strength helped to end the butchery of that war which engulfed Europe and much of the world. Again in World War II where America intervened and helped end brutal, oppressive dictatorships and genocide. The Marshall Plan which helped stave off starvation in a ravaged Europe. Medical intervention in Africa and other areas of the world during the AIDS crisis under George W. Bush in 2003 which saved millions of lives.

These are just a few large examples which come to mind quickly-there are many others. In fact, I encourage my readers to fill in the others that come to mind. It is probably healthy these days to call to mind those many examples of American leadership and generosity.

Every day, American generosity around the world is saving lives. However, Winthrop’s words were a warning too. Not everyone sees America as the shining light of freedom and generosity, because there have been too many examples of injustice and oppression in our own land.

I do believe that America is a wonderful country full of generous, hard-working people, who have been given the gift of unique government by our founders. I trust that we can be, in many ways, that light shining on the hill. However we need to remember the end of the passage- that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Prayer: Father we have been given great gifts in our country, help us to use those gifts wisely and generously for your glory, Amen.

“All it takes is a beautiful fake smile to hide an injured soul.”

Robin Williams

“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.”

Robin Williams

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”-                   Erma Bombeck

A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face; a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day.     Proverbs 15:13

I think these quotes from the late Robin Williams are very telling about the soul that lurked underneath the façade we saw. Robin Williams was a genius. The fastest wit I ever saw was Robin Williams riffing on talk shows, or in his monologues. His mind went faster than we could listen to him. You would just try to hang on for the ride to keep up with the delicious humor that came from him.

Yet he also had a deep and sensitive soul. Some of his greatest work was in playing characters who were deeply touched by the suffering of others. It reaffirms my belief that the greatest actors are the comedians, because their humor often comes out of great pain. We now know that Robin Williams hid his pain until he finally couldn’t.

Often, we see only the veneer of people- the face that they desperately want us to see. To be really understood and accepted is the greatest gift we can get. To those who are in emotional pain, I hope and trust that you will reach out to get that understanding.

Prayer: Lord, you have made us marvelously complex creatures. Help us to share those parts of us that are hurting with those who want to help, Amen

 Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life

Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)

            This passage is one of my very favorite ones in scripture. Paul, writing from a Roman jail, is telling people how to be content, and is thanking people for their support and generosity. He is telling people to earnestly rejoice, even while he is in the midst of trouble.

            There is a formula here for contentment. If we rejoice, recognizing that God is near, we will be better able to turn to Him in prayer, especially at those very rattled times. We are to give our petitions to God with thanksgiving. That is, recognizing that we have done what we are supposed to do, and having put it into God’s hands, we are to be thankful that He will then take care of things. How will He take care of things? Well, that is not our problem- that is His concern. Since He loves us, we are to be assured that He will deal with it in our ultimate best interest. Paul then says that the peace of God will then guard our hearts.

            In order to maintain this peace, we then need to think on good, pure and lovely things, uplifting things. Paul is outlining here the most basic of psychological principles- what we dwell on, we become. The part of our spirit that is fed is the part that grows. So, we are to feed the positive, uplifting ideas and surroundings, not the negative, deadly things the world has to offer.

            Paul concludes, if we put these things into practice, the God of peace will be with us. If we let the peace of God guard our hearts, the God of peace will dwell there!

Prayer: Father, thanks for your plan of taking care of us in the times of trouble. Help us to remember that you love us more than we understand, and that you desire us to have you, the God of peace, dwell with us, amen.

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.                                                                                                                               Psalm 139:13-16 (The Message)

As I was watching the news this morning about the devastating hurricane which hit Louisiana the other day, I saw some heartbreaking interviews. One man, who had just lost his home, was in tears, but bravely said, “We’ll come back, we always do”.

I thought back many years to the devastating tornado in Xenia, Ohio. It was, in fact April 3, 1974. That was a day named the “Day of the Killer Tornadoes”. That day, tornadoes of high magnitude ravaged the Midwestern part of the United States. Many cities were greatly damaged. Few were hit as hard as Xenia, where 33 people died, and over 1300 were injured.

I was working then at the State Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, which is just west of Xenia. We were called on to help deliver some emergency counseling services to survivors of the recent trauma. Many of the victims were in shock, and we wondered what we could do as counselors to help these people. It became apparent that what we could do was listen to their stories. That was about all we could do, but it was helpful. People just needed to express what they had just been through. We had no good answers, no magic solutions for people who had just been through a trauma we could not ourselves understand. We could just listen.

Everyone can benefit from just being encouraged to tell their story. Indeed, we all have a story. No matter the experiences we have had, no matter how dramatic or mundane that story might be, it is important. That is the message that we deliver- “Your story is important!

We as human beings are developing a life story. None of us should take the value of that story for granted.

Prayer: Lord, help us to make our story valuable to you and other people, Amen

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?”

He said “Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.”

 Jesus said “Feed my sheep…”                                                                                                                     John 21:17

The apostle Peter must have suffered a tremendous amount of guilt after he, unfortunately, fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus laid out to him at the Last Supper.

Jesus had told Peter that he would be a betrayer when the times got hard, but Peter in his pride and arrogance protested. Alas, as Jesus had predicted, Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed at that courtyard after Jesus had been arrested.

Peter was devastated and was in need of personal healing from Jesus. He may have known that he was forgiven by Jesus’ death, or maybe not. Such a truth is so overwhelming and earth changing, the disciples perhaps had only a glimmer of this truth at that point. But Peter needed a personal touch from Jesus.

So, at the end of Jesus’ stay on earth, Jesus had some unfinished business with Peter. Jesus took him aside and reminded him of his threefold denial of Jesus with a threefold question of Peter: “Do you truly love me?”

Peter must have known that Jesus was reliving that denial scene at the time of the arrest, and he was troubled that Jesus really would question his love. “Surely you know that I love you Jesus” Peter said, “You know all things!” Jesus, in his profound wisdom, knew that Peter needed to own his past sins in a very clear way to know the impact of them. Peter needed to learn about remorse, not just forgiveness. Remorse is contrition driven by seeing the pain of the one offended, not mainly for the remediation of the pain of the offender. Jesus, when the lesson was sufficiently understood by Peter, offered not just forgiveness, but meaningful restoration.  “Feed my sheep” Jesus said.

So often our guilt separates us from true fellowship with Jesus. Jesus will have none of it, and instead offers us a place of meaning and dignity. He is that kind of Redeemer!

Prayer: Father, thank you for giving us the Son who not only teaches us forgiveness, but also restoration and dignity. What an amazing gift and plan!  Amen.

After this, many of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”

 Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”                                            John 6:66-69

We are always surrounded by events which cause us to question “Where is God in this?” This is simply a part of the human experience, and it is not an unfair question. We are made to be reasoning and curious by our Creator, so we use those sentient tools to try to reason out the problems we encounter on this earth. Yet, we always come up against those questions which cannot be answered. “Why did that child need to die?”  “How does evil continue to prosper?”

We turn to our loving Father, and we find no answers to these perplexing and disturbing questions. But we are faced with the other alternative- where do we turn if not to God?

We are not promised answers to those terribly hard questions. We, the created, are not the Creator. Submission to that fact is, to me, reassuring. I don’t have the answers, but I am also not the One in charge. Knowing that this creation is a massive miracle in and of itself, that our existence alone is cause for the wildest celebration, is good enough for me to recognize his might, power, and sovereignty. God does not owe me explanations.

I just owe God my trust.  

Prayer: When we don’t understand, we just trust you, Amen.

Please enjoy this reflection from the Archive as I take the weekend off. Blessings!

 “At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.”

II Corinthians 8:1-15

This rich passage of scripture contains some real nuggets of truth which I have often overlooked. Paul makes the case that we have our “riches” through the “poverty” of Jesus. Jesus willingly gave up his position to die a grievous death, only because we were too poor to do that ourselves- we do not have such capacity. Love always entails sacrifice. Indeed, there cannot be love without sacrifice. This was so clearly shown by Jesus.

Paul then goes on to say that the church at Corinth excelled in many areas, but they also needed to excel in the area of giving. Further, he states, that their “plenty” would supply the needs of the church at Jerusalem, but, the help that was given to the church in Jerusalem would fill the “need” of the Corinthians.

The direct and surface conclusion of that statement was that the Corinthians would supply help for the believers at Jerusalem, and that the believers in Jerusalem would reciprocate if situations reversed. However, I think there is a deeper truth to be gleaned here. Paul is saying that by receiving the help from the Corinthians, the church at Jerusalem would actually be supplying the need of the Corinthians. The need of the church at Corinth was to give.

During this time of the COVID-19 health crisis, we have seen some beautiful stories of creative giving. People are finding ingenious ways to help other people. In this way, the dreaded crisis has brought out the very best in the human spirit. I pray that such creative ideas and acts continue long after this crisis has passed.

The lesson for us I think is obvious. Giving is not just for the sake of those who are on the receiving end. Indeed, the need to give to others is fundamental to our spiritual and emotional health. God has designed us as humans to be interdependent. We can only thrive in the context of giving to one another. God has commanded that we meet the needs of His kingdom by giving to others. In so doing, we not only help those who receive our help, we are blessed ourselves. Through sharing our “plenty”, we get what we “need” spiritually and emotionally.

Prayer: Father, your ways are indeed higher than our ways. You show us that living means giving, and you showed that at a dear price through the death of Jesus. Thank you for your instructions for us, and your immense love, Amen.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ                                      Galatians 6:2

Enjoy this Reflection from the archives as I take a weekend off…

The whole discussion about “Codependence” really revved up in the 1970’s although the concept had been around since Karen Horney’s work in the 1940’s. The essential elements are about the dysfunctional ways that people try to make relationships work. We are called to “bear one another’s burdens”, but not to carry the ones they should and can bear themselves. In other words, we don’t do things for people that they can or should do for themselves.

There is nothing wrong, of course with helping people out of our sense of love or generosity. The question is, what is the motive? Is it to ensure that the other person will love and accept me? Is it out of fear of rejection? Or is it simply that I want to see the other person’s joy, satisfaction and growth?

None of us have perfect motives, but it is important, as I have suggested often, to be aware of my real motives in an honest reflection of myself.

We are called upon to bear one another’s burdens but not to meet our own ego needs of being “the helper”. We must always answer the question “Whose needs are being met here?” Co-dependents tend to lose themselves (or run from themselves) by “caretaking” another person.

In teaching care-givers at church, I used this concept to help them to see what good care-giving is. The bottom line was: Our goal is empowerment, not caretaking

That is, we give tools and assistance at the time to people in order to help them do what they need for themselves. Our job, I told them, was not to solve another person’s problem, it was to get them to the One who can.

In some relationships, ones that tend toward being unhealthy, one partner is dependent on the other person’s poor functioning to satisfy their own emotional needs. We find this, of course in addiction situations, as well as abusive ones that may end up in domestic violence.

Some of the characteristics listed below are from the work of Friel & Friel (1988), and they are instructive on warning signs that may be present in codependent relationships…

My good feelings about who I am stem from being liked by you.

My good feelings about who I am stem from receiving approval from you.

My fear of your anger determines what I say or do.

I use giving as a way of feeling safe in our relationship.

My social circle diminishes as I involve myself with you.

I put my values aside in order to connect with you.

So, we are called to be responsive to the needs of others, and we should respond out of love, and the desire to bring people to health in all ways. That, I believe, is the focus of Galatians 6:2. We just need to be aware of what is going on in our own mind in that decision.

Prayer: Lord, we are all in need at one time or another. Thank you for the comfort of other people in those times, Amen.

 Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “Tell the people to go away to the nearby villages and farms and buy themselves some food, for there is nothing to eat here in this desolate spot, and it is getting late.”

 But Jesus said, “You feed them.”                                                                                                             Mark 6:35-37

I always liked this passage about Jesus feeding the 5000. There are a lot of elements to it, and of course the one we resonate to is the miracle of stretching five loaves of bread and two fish to feed that crowd until they were full. Yes, that was pretty major!

However, there are other themes here too. The one I am thinking about today is that Jesus told the disciples to feed the people. This is just after the disciples had, understandably, tried to get a manageable plan so that these hungry people could eat. They proposed that the people be sent away to purchase their own food.

 But Jesus had a lesson in mind for them. He wanted the disciples to begin to understand their responsibility toward those who would follow the message of Jesus. They were to serve those people, not send them off to forage for themselves. Jesus also did this to have an opportunity to let them know of the power that they had, even miraculous power, if they simply trusted the Master, and also used what was on hand to perform that miracle.

Jesus calls us to serve with what we have in our hand- our talents, strengths and abilities, employed for his service. As the old saying goes, “He doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called”.

So, we are to employ whatever gifts or resources that we have to serve the Kingdom, and God will provide what we need as we move ahead in faith

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the plan that we are called to serve, and that you will provide, Amen

Meanwhile, friends, wait patiently for the Master’s Arrival. You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong. The Master could arrive at any time.                                                     James 5:7-8

I have always felt close to God when I am in the garden or working with plants. So much more, I believe, are farmers, who are working close to the soil with living organisms. They depend on the proper amounts of rain and sunshine to have a successful crop.

We are reminded of our dependence upon God when we are growing plants. Having that close contact with soil, nurturing plants, trying to set just the right environment for growth- these are creative acts. Yet we are dependent on the vagaries of Nature in trying to grow those life-giving plants.

Farmers understand hard work, dependence, patience, sacrifice, the joy of the harvest, and the pain of failed crops. Jesus used a lot of agricultural parables in his teaching, because the people he spoke to lived close to the earth for their very existence.

Most of us these days are not involved with farming for our livelihood. Thank God for those farmers who provide us with abundant food (though, unfortunately, not all share in the abundance), but many of us miss some of those important lessons of dependence upon God for our “daily bread”.

We are both humbled and comforted when we see day-by-day that we are dependent on God for our very existence. As this harvest season begins (in my hemisphere of the earth), let’s remember to be thankful- to the farmers who live in that rhythm of dependence on Nature, and God, who is the creator of that Nature.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for the cycles of nature, which all point to your master plans, Amen