It doesn’t take long to figure out that we live in an angry world. Read the headlines on any given day and you see anger on display in politics, movies, TV shows, and sports. Spend any amount of time in any family and you’ll see anger expressed almost daily. When a day goes by without conflict, it’s a miracle of God.
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With six people in our family, we’ve had lots of opportunities to visit the doctor. We have experienced everything from colds, flus and ear infections all the way to viral meningitis, serum sickness like reaction and life-threatening allergies. And, I’m not even talking about the injuries! We have had our share of doctor visits.
Isaiah 63:5 I was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So I myself stepped in to save them with my strong arm. Don lumbered into my office, shoulders stooped. He was the pastor of a mid-sized congregation in my area. He referred clients to me in the past. He stopped by to talk over whether or not he should resign as pastor from his church. “Last Sunday was a horrible day. I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” he said. “After church I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed. My wife is really worried about me.”
During the Fall of 1999, I entered the final year of my Master’s program, and was given the daunting task of finding a counseling center at which I was to fulfill my practicum experience as a student. This was an exciting time wherein I was to take all of the book knowledge I had acquired as a student of counseling, and begin to apply it in an actual counseling setting. Personally, it was a time of great enthusiasm as I was moving into the next big step of my career and ministry. Simultaneously, I felt much uncertainty in that I had never done anything like this before. Little did I know this “next step” of my educational life would change the course of my counseling ministry forever!
What must we leave behind if we are to follow Christ? The simplest answer is that we must leave behind idolatry. That’s the very first commandment—you shall have no other gods before me. They don’t have to be obvious representations of the divine; they don’t have to be stone or wood or marble. There are all sorts of gods: education, athletics, marriage, choice, power, self-expression, beauty, achievement. Whatever you give your whole life for, there’s your idol.
The workers were an hour and a half late arriving at my home. Now that they had finally come, I struggled to get my dogs outside, necessitating my dragging them out of the house by their collars. I had been working on an article on my laptop in the kitchen, getting ready to eat lunch and I now, too, needed to get out of the way. So I decided to stack a plate, a boxed salad, two phones and a nice big cup of coffee on a tray and try to navigate my way out the sliding door onto my patio. Strange thing, though…that tray? It was actually the keyboard of my laptop. I’m sure you can guess what happened next. The coffee went flying and my computer fried.
<p> Have you ever wondered if the people around you deal with the things you do in your relationships? Have you ever wondered if other marriages deal with petty differences, or with the collision of differing agendas? Have you ever wondered if other parents struggle with resistant children and the impatience that greets you when it happens? Have you ever wondered if other people get in trouble with their neighbors or fall out of favor with a friend? Have you ever wondered if other people experience harmless conversations suddenly turning angry, or misunderstanding getting in the way of an otherwise productive friendship? Have you ever wondered if other people get as exhausted as you do with the mess of relationships? Have you ever wondered if other people say to themselves, "Christians; you can't live with them and you can't live without them?"
This past month we all watched with horror the video where National Football League player Ray Rice punched his girlfriend in the face and dragged her unconscious body out of the elevator like a sack of potatoes. Day by day public outcry grew over the NFL’s initial treatment of the incident and the lack of serious sanctions against Rice. Thankfully public pressure prevailed and NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, reversed his position. He was humble enough to issue a public apology. He said he was wrong in the way he handled the incident and committed to do better in the future regarding the entire National Football’s League handling of domestic abuse cases.
"...And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you." (v.25b) You and I are creatures of desire. There is nothing you ever choose, do, or say that is not the product of desire. Desire not only directs your choices, it shapes your dreams. Desire forms your moments of greatest joy and darkest grief. Desire makes you envious of one person while being glad you're not another. Desire keeps you awake at night or puts you soundly to sleep.
<p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; font-family: franklin-gothic-urw-n4, franklin-gothic-urw, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(60, 60, 60) !important;"> This is the 5th devotional in an 8 part series.</p> <p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 18px; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px; font-family: franklin-gothic-urw-n4, franklin-gothic-urw, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(60, 60, 60) !important;"> Have you ever wondered if the people around you deal with the things you do in your relationships? Have you ever wondered if other marriages deal with petty differences, or with the collision of differing agendas? Have you ever wondered if other parents struggle with resistant children and the impatience that greets you when it happens? Have you ever wondered if other people get in trouble with their neighbors or fall out of favor with a friend?</p>