Archive for Relationships
Forgiveness – The Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Do
Posted by: | Comments
Forgiveness is hard. Forgiving an offender is hard. Let’s just cut through the religiousness we hide behind and tell the truth. It is hard. Oh, not so much when someone cuts us off in traffic or steals that parking place we had our eye on. We can move on pretty quickly when the offense is not relational. But it is in relationships that we have the potential to be hurt, offended, betrayed, and find ourselves with a heart struggling to forgive (and it is in relationships that we also have the potential to hurt others, offend others, betray others. As a matter of fact, all, and I do mean all, relationships must deal with this issue.)Whether it is words spoken or the lack or words spoken when we needed them, actions taken or the lack of actions taken, or the million other ways we can be hurt, at times we all find ourselves at times in the position of having a major offense in our hearts that needs to be dealt with.
We Christians build our faith on Christ forgiving us for our sins. Most of us know what the Word says about forgiveness. It’s not for babies. You won’t be forgiven if you don’t forgive. Your lack of forgiveness allows “the tormentors” to access your life. On and on we could go. God doesn’t give us any wiggle room on the issue, but yet we all find ourselves struggling. How do we overcome?
My Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Posted by: | Comments
In 1969, Paul Simon wrote a powerful song which he and Art Garfunkel recorded in 1970. The expression of Paul’s heart in the song conveys the message that he would be a friend when friends could not be found; that he, himself, would be a bridge over his friend’s troubled water.
I was so struck by this thought yesterday as I listened to a lovely lady share how she had endured so many difficult things, felt alone so often, but God had revealed to her through a prayer team at our church that He had been her bridge every time over those troubled waters. She had not, in fact, been alone. God was there.
How many times have we felt abandoned during our hard times? And truthfully, many people do abandon us, but one thing I have begun to ask God in the last couple of years is that He would show me where He was during dark moments in my past. I, too, find that He has been my bridge, and that often the way He has done that was through others as they became “bridges” for me to walk on. My heart was moved to write these thoughts…
The Bridge
I hear the water below me
The power of its rushing
Stirs the fear within me
Yet the other side
Beckons me to keep walking
This bridge under my feet
Gives me strength
Although it doesn’t completely
Take my fears away
The Diary
Posted by: | Comments
When I was a little girl, I had a diary. It was just a cheap cardboard bound little book with a lock. I kept the key hidden away. Had anyone really wanted to read my diary badly enough, the lock would have been simple to break, yet having a lock on the diary was a sign of power. It was my story and no one was allowed to read it.
Part of the intrigue of a diary is both the power of the writer to lock away their secrets and the risk of someone else finding the diary and reading the author’s most treasured secrets.
To me, there was always something mysteriously wonderful about my diary. For one thing, it was a place I could write my deepest secrets and thoughts in safety. Secondly, there was the beauty of the lock itself. The lock was power. My power. The power to tell my story and then hide it away. I always kept the key hidden far away from the actual diary. My diary could not betray me as long as I kept the key.
There was always the potential for a power shift. If someone else found my diary and my key, opened my diary and read it, then they would have the power of knowing my innermost thoughts.
Of course, diary keeping is quite different today. Online diaries and locked away passwords are the storage places and keys for today’s world, but the dynamics are really the same.
It All Comes Down to Love
Posted by: | CommentsWell, fellow travelers on this journey, we have reached day 21. We will now prepare to break our fast tomorrow. I pray these days have been days of insight for you and days of personal growth in your relationship with God and others. Remember, God is always doing more than you can see and He honors every sacrifice we have made because we wanted to know his heart more.
When Jesus summarized the two most important things about a believer’s life, he said 1) love God, and 2) love others. It all comes down to love so today I end these devotionals with this section of Scripture from 1 Corinthians 13. Read it prayerfully, slowly, listening and being sensitive for any way the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you.
Even if I can speak in all the tongues of earth—and those of the angels, too—but do not have love, I am just a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophesy such that I can comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge, or if I have faith great enough to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own to feed those poorer than I, then hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
The Yucky Stuff
Posted by: | Comments
We know the story. When we read through John 13-17, we can feel the transition happening. Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for what is before them. He tells them repeatedly that he is going away and they can’t come. They are totally confused. Their mission has been to follow Jesus; that was his first words to most of them, “Follow me”. And now, what is this he is saying? They can’t follow anymore?
In the midst of all his instructions, Jesus begins to tell them about his new commandment. “Love one another.” They don’t even really hear it at this point. They don’t seem to even respond to this new word from Jesus. They keep asking about what Jesus means about leaving them. Peter says, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now?”
Jesus cares about their hearts and responds to their distress by telling them not to be worried. And he continues to bring up this love thing. Over and over. “You gotta love each other; this is how people will know you are mine.”
Why do you suppose that love would be challenging for them in the days ahead? They were about to be thrust into a storm such as they’d never seen before. Accusations would escalate. Tempers would flair. Fear would tear their hearts apart. They would watch Jesus be taken from them and crucified.
