Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Parental Perspective

 
            A national charge card has a TV ad that runs variants of this theme: Tickets to a concert, $125; limo ride to the concert, $80; time spent with your daughter who invites you to attend the concert with her, priceless.
            Let me tell you about a few “priceless” things I own. I have a ceramic frog whose wide-open mouth gives access to paper clips. Then there is a piece of cross-stitching that says “I love you, Dad.” Finally, our hall closet has a wooden box that holds assorted extension cords and light bulbs. All are priceless.
            Never mind the fact that the green frog has a bad eye, that the cross-stitching is not quite precise, or that the corners of the box don’t meet evenly. They are priceless because they are gifts made by my children back in their kindergarten days. Now all of them are grown and have children of their own.
            You’re no different, are you? You have pages ripped from coloring books that are pinned to a bulletin board or held on your refrigerator door with magnets. You have craft items on your bedroom dresser or den shelves. And, like my wife, you may have storage boxes filled with “surplus” items too numerous to display.
            Not one of those things has any market value! They will never make a gallery or museum display. And nobody else would give them a second glance. The unique thing about every one of them has to do with perspective. Each was the handiwork of a child I love more than life. Thus each is genuinely priceless to me.
            Do you know why God will listen attentively to your prayers today? Why the Holy Spirit will empower you to face an ordeal of pain or embarrassment that is on your horizon? Why your moral failure that may well cost you a job or your marriage will not jeopardize your relationship with Jesus Christ as your savior?
            The holy eyes that gaze down on us from heaven are not those of a tyrant or enemy or detractor. They are the adoring eyes of the Triune God who created us to bear the divine image and likeness. They are the friendly eyes of a friend and advocate and benefactor. God sees my failures, your fumbling attempts at giving him honor, and our flawed imitations of the one Perfect Son’s life through the eyes of a doting mother or father who is multiplying mercy upon mercy.
            “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13 NRSV). “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NRSV). “Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39 NRSV). Talk about something utterly priceless!
            If you are being hard on yourself, try to remember God’s perspective on you. “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us. Just look at it – we’re called children of God. That’s who we really are” (1 John 3:1 The Message).

Monday, March 21, 2011

Overcoming Blunders with Grace

For the Week of March 21, 2011

            One of the things you have probably noticed too is that little people are jumpy, insecure, and unsure of themselves. Thus they get their feelings hurt easily, tend to be condescending, and – when in position to do so – seem to take a perverse delight in putting others down or humiliating them.
            Several news outlets have carried the story of an awkward moment between White House adviser Valerie Jarrett and the second-ranking general in the United States Army. It took place at a White House dinner where both were guests.
            Four-star Gen. Peter Chiarelli happened to be walking by the table at which Ms. Jarrett was seated. Seeing only the striped pants of his dress uniform, she made the mistake of thinking he was a waiter – and asked him to get her a glass of wine. Uh, did I say earlier that this was the story of an “awkward moment”? It takes very little imagination to imagine what might have happened at that self-conscious juncture! Chagrin? Rebuke? Embarrassment?
            Instead, this is what transpired. The general smiled, walked away briefly, and came back with the glass of wine that had been requested. Advised of her blunder during his brief absence, Ms. Jarrett began to apologize with a red face and an acute sense of needing to set the matter right. With secure good humor and in order to defuse her discomfort, Gen. Chiarelli dismissed her honest mistake and invited her to a meal at his home.
            “It was an honest mistake that anyone could have made,” the General told a CNN reporter who questioned him about the gaffe. “She was sitting. I was standing and walking behind her, and all she saw were the two stripes on my pants – which were almost identical to the waiters’ pants, really. She apologized and will come to the house for dinner, if a date can be worked out in March.”
            You learn a lot about a mom or dad whose awkward toddler spills milk at the table or a boss whose employee spills milk of another kind in the office or plant. The one whose anxious concern is her own embarrassment may smack the kid or berate the worker; the one whose mature reaction is to be concerned for the child or flummoxed member of her staff will seize upon a way to defuse the potential for humiliation and move through it without damage to the other.
            Thank you, Gen. Chiarelli, for displaying what columnist Bob Greene captured beautifully in a title – “4-star general, 5-star grace.”
            The Bible says: “Serve each other in humility, for ‘God opposes the proud but favors the humble’ ” (1 Peter 5:5 NLT).


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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Measuring Japan’s Tragedy


Date:   For the Week of March 14, 2011

            All of us have heard the grim news. A 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan last Friday. The massive temblor struck at 2:46 p.m. local time and did significant damage to highways, homes, and factories. Amazingly, although they suffered damage, major buildings near the epicenter – designed to withstand Japan’s frequent earthquakes – did not collapse. But the worst was yet to come.
            If the earthquake was the blow from a heavyweight boxer’s left hand, the roundhouse right came from the devastating tsunami that came shortly after the earth had buckled. Seawater, mud, houses, automobiles, and debris of infinite varieties rolled over the island nation. Lives were snuffed out by the thousands.
            Now the world is watching in fear of the possibilities for still more devastation from damaged nuclear plants, aftershocks, exposure, and disease. Aid is pouring in from nations around the world. The Japanese are exhibiting great discipline and composure in the face of their ordeal. Chaos will give way to order again.
            The story of so tragic a situation as this is best told not with numbers and sweeping statements but with personal stories. Mr. Arakawa’s is such a story.
            On Sunday, 60-year-old Hiromitsu Arakawa was rescued. The small house he and his wife lived in was ripped from its foundation in the first wave of Friday’s tsunami. As the two of them tried to keep their heads above the flood and rubble, he saw his wife dragged away and beneath the surface. He managed to cling to the roof of their floating house and finally to scramble onto the roof.
            Late Sunday morning, nine miles south of his hometown of Minimisoma and nine miles out to sea, he was found and saved. The man who had ridden atop his former dwelling for two days had survived. Now he can live – live to grieve his wife, live to find a way to start over, live to mourn the rest of his townspeople who are gone. There is little that we could call celebration in his story of survival.
            Such will be the stories these survivors will tell. They will carry unimaginable memories of terror, loss, and pain of heart. That we sense something of their bereavement and sadness is testimony to the likeness to God we all bear in our basic compassion for one another. It will drive the generous donations many will give to try to alleviate the suffering and to empower a degree of healing.
            So the true measure of Japan’s earthquake-tsunami is less in terms of science’s Richter Scale or corporate losses and more as family members, friends, and strangers who died suddenly. For the rest of us, the measure comes as profound sympathy, generous help, and prayers for healing over time.
            “Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, ‘Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!’ and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup – where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” (James 2:14-17 MSG).

Monday, March 7, 2011

Your Life in God’s Mission

Date:   For the Week of March 7, 2011

            For the sake of argument, let me assume that you have a career path. It may have been challenged of late, and you may be functioning outside your sweet spot. But there is something for which you see yourself best suited. You hope that career will make it possible for you to pay your bills, take care of your family responsibilities, and provide a certain standard of living. You probably also expect it to provide certain less-tangible rewards as titles and social standing.
            But do you also have a calling? Consistent with the way most people hear that term, a calling involves a clear sense of being commissioned by God for some holy task. It is an awareness of the sovereignty of God over who you are and what you are doing with your life. It is the sense that God's hand is on you and that he has a sense of genuine pleasure in what you are doing.
            The real secret to fulfillment is for career and calling to merge into one. Don't you sense Billy Graham has viewed his as one and the same? What about you?
            I believe God is offering you an opportunity to make a difference in the world. I am convinced he wants you to change the world. And I further believe that he wants you to see your job, business, or profession as an extension of his kingdom reign on Planet Earth. Here's what I mean.
            The sense that one's career is also a holy calling really shouldn't startle us. If slaves-become-Christians were counseled to "render service with enthusiasm, as to the Lord and not to men and women, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord" (Ephesians 6:7-8 NRSV), then surely you are supposed to be the best employee or employer the Acme Widget Company has ever seen. If not, why not?
            Above paycheck or promotion, do something that contributes to the good of your world. Let your routine reflect the character and excellence heaven is building into your life. Know that your work is inseparable from your spiritual life — and reflects its authenticity. When your faith cleanses and consecrates your workplace to God, you have found a calling larger than your career.
            Solomon put it this way: "There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their work. This, I saw, is from the hand of God; for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?" (Ecclesiastes 2:24-25).
            Ready to change the world today? God is ready to be your partner.