Month: June 2022

He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3

It has become a routine thing to see people walking around with braces on their knees, canes in their hands, pushing walkers, wearing sports tape on their arms, knees, etc., or wearing boots on their foot for some kind of injury. It is also routine to ask about their injury, offer condolences, wish them a speedy healing process, then go on about our daily routine and forget that encounter. That is just human nature.

It doesn’t really affect us much unless it happens to us. About four weeks ago, I felt a sudden pain in my right foot. It was so strange because I don’t remember doing anything to cause this, and I didn’t have any pain when it occurred. As a friend of mine likes to say, “You know your body is getting older when you go to bed just fine, and then you wake up injured.”

After a thorough examination on the outside of the foot by my resident doctor, he determined that since it was not swollen or bruised, all was well. I just probably rolled it over!

With that diagnosis in mind, I taped up the foot, put on comfortable shoes, and continued to walk on it for the next two weeks with a slight limp and some pain, but nothing unbearable. As a last resort, I visited a real doctor for an x-ray, maybe a cortisone shot, and an expected dismissal. Not to be. The x-ray revealed a break, but in his words, “Good news is you don’t need surgery. Bad news is you get to wear a boot for six weeks.”

I relate this story because this experience has taught me a lot about the healing process. Healing doesn’t happen over night, it takes time. Healing is defined as the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again. We all know that it takes time for bones to mend, wounds to heal, but it can also be a lengthy process for us to heal spiritually and emotionally at times in our lives.

Life brings so many occasions for “breaks” such as betrayal or rejection and wounds such as loss or abuse. Just like my foot, we often don’t know what we did to deserve the pain, rejection, or betrayal, and we don’t remember how, when, or why it happened. We don’t know we are injured until the pain is intense. Doctors can treat the physical wounds that we sustain in life, but only God can help us heal the spiritual and emotional wounds.

Just like physical wounds, spiritual and emotional wounds must be treated. Spiritual and emotional healing is a process, and even though God is the Great Physician, we have a role to play in the healing. Just as we would clean a wound or set a broken bone, spiritual and emotional wounds have to be cleaned and made right. Many of our these wounds are inflicted on us by others, but we make it worse by being unwilling to forgive. When we can finally start the healing that forgiveness affords, we can leave behind all the bitterness, pain, resentfulness and anger.

In Mark 8, Jesus heals the blind man in Bethsaida, but he didn’t do it immediately. He healed him over time by working with him, talking to him and asking him what he was experiencing. At first, the man said that he saw people looking like trees walking, but after more prayer and Jesus’ touch, he began to see clearly.

In our healing process many times it is hard to pray because we feel let down or abandoned by God. It is in these times, when Satan moves in to detract us from the healing process. Susie Larson says, “The enemy loves to see us shifting our gaze from God and His sovereignty to people and circumstances. It is at this point that we begin to reason that if they hadn’t done this or that, we wouldn’t be where we find ourselves nursing the wounds of betrayal or pain.”

God is sovereign, and only He can lead us through total and complete healing. The saying, accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be is the only way to heal. Let God lead us from strength to strength, and glory to glory.

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands–O prosper the work of our hands. Psalm 90:14 and 17

During the years of my youth, it was necessary (or so I was told) for most in our family to learn to play the game of bridge in order to participate with friends and family. My Mama was in several bridge clubs, we always played bridge with our relatives on beach trips, and I was told it was good for your brain!!

Unfortunately for me, the game of bridge has changed a lot since I learned the basic rules and played. In our day, the rules were basic but functional. You must have twelve to fourteen points to open, sixteen to eighteen to open with a no trump bid, eighteen to twenty points to open with two of a suit, otherwise, you bid your longest and strongest suit, you don’t respond to your partner unless you can support their bid and have at least six to eight points or have opening points to change suits. Passing is always an option! The partners who win the bid, declare which suit will be trumps or whether it will be no trump!

The game has morphed into a much higher level of thinking and strategy these days. People play different conventions such as Stayman, Transfer, and Blackwood where you use a system to find out how many aces, kings, points, etc. your partner is holding. It’s all about trying to deduce what is in your partner’s hand and how the hands the two of you hold can blend to make a game. It’s a lot to learn for a novice like me, so I resort to the old theory of “bidding and playing” the hand I was dealt and hoping it works! Unlike my Daddy who used sign language to learn what was in his partner’s hand, the basic rules work for me.

When God called Moses, one of his first questions to him was, “What is that in your hand?” Moses was holding his shepherd’s staff which he used every day to tend and protect his sheep. Moses used it for one thing, but God had a different plan for the staff- a greater one. He had Moses use that staff to part the Red Sea and lead Israel into the Promised Land.

Just like Moses, sometimes God asks us the question, “What is that in your hand?” Is it strength, courage, honesty, leadership, love, hope, joy? What strength are we holding that we can use for others?

God doesn’t use conventions or trumps to help us find out what’s in our hand, but He does want us to use the talents, experiences, relationships, education, mind, and resources that He has given us to find our strengths that can be used for His service.

Martin Seligman talks about strengths, which are different for different folks, but he gives six categories in which most of us can find our own special strength. First, we should explore our own individual wisdom and knowledge. Things such as curiosity, love or learning, sound judgment and social intelligence. Think how many people could be influenced by sharing these strengths! We should count this as part of what’s in our hand.

Secondly, we should explore courage. This addition to strengths in our hand includes perseverance and integrity. Next, we need to evaluate humanity in our hand. The capacity for kindness, and the ability to show mercy is part of this strength.

Justice is the fourth strength that could make up our hand of strength. This includes the ability to bring about fairness and leadership. The fifth strength one could add to their hand is temperance. Qualities like self control, prudence, and humility are part of this strength.

Finally, transcendence where one possesses an appreciation for beauty, the expression of gratitude, the ability to hope, and the capacity for joy! We all have the capacity for each of these strengths, but the ones which resonate most with us individually make up the hand of signature strengths we have holding.

At this point, we can begin to understand our calling. We just celebrated Father’s Day and had the opportunity to celebrate the strengths that we see or saw in these hands of love and care. Thank you, Dads for using what’s in your hand to bless your children and families.

When we know what’s in our hand, God can use us to serve and glorify Him.

The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with His hand. Psalm 37:23-24

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Proverbs 3:5 from The Message

Sometimes the hype over an event or happening is so great that we just have to see it for ourselves to believe it. In this case, it was a movie. It has been a long time since a movie has struck such a positive chord with me, not only for entertainment value, but also for relevance to the times in which we live. It’s hard to believe that it’s been thirty six years (1986) since Top Gun hit the theatres and became such a popular movie. The country was grieving the loss of the Challenger astronauts, the Iran Contra Affair, and economic scares, so a movie which highlighted our country and its brave men and women was a reason to celebrate.

Likewise, the timing of Top Gun 2, Maverick has come out at a time when our country is suffering from inflation, shortages, gun violence, threats of national security, and fighting among our leaders. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that although times, culture, and values may seemingly change, the truths from which we glean our heritage does not.

It was easy to identify with the changes in the generations, attitudes, and appearances of those people we remember vividly from the 1986 movie. Some changes are hardly noticeable physically, some are very sad, and some such as the attitudes of a younger generation can just make you wonder when we lost respect for our older generation and all their contributions.

In the movie, Maverick is like many of us as we grow older and our career goals or plans change because of circumstances beyond our control. We can find ourselves facing an uncertain future while dealing with circumstances or confronting mistakes or decisions that we have made in the past. We begin to wonder if we have any mission or purpose in life. Things can change just as quickly for us as it did for Maverick in the movie. He was called out of his safe place and picked to train a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has seen.

Maverick’s purpose was to energize, motivate, encourage, evaluate, and ultimately pick the best from the candidates to whom he was assigned. There are many quotes from the movie which rang true with me, but one keeps coming back to my mind almost every day. The men were doubting the ability of the F-18 fighter jet to execute the requirements of the mission at hand, when Rooster reminds Maverick, “It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot”. This is the perfect analogy as we move through life’s ups and downs. It’s not the situation, it’s who’s in charge of the situation.

It’s become obvious to me that how we handle our situation depends on whether we think God is our pilot or our co-pilot. In other words, who is flying this plane of life? Is it God or are we doing it ourselves? If God is our co-pilot as the motto states, then it infers that He’s piloting just in case we can’t handle everything ourselves. A marquee on a local church once declared, “If God is your co-pilot, change seats!”

If God is just our co-pilot, we will live in a constant state of anxiety thinking everything depends on us. We will also let our outlook on life be dictated by our surroundings or by our critics. Without the pilot, we will be a slave to the opinion of others rather than being secure in our faith and God’s plan.

On the other hand, when God is our pilot, things will happen to correct wrong doings. Instead of looking for someone to blame, it’s important to try and see the hand of God at work in our situation. When God is at work in us we can begin to see things happen. First, our future isn’t in the hands of others, it’s in the hand of God. Secondly, wherever God wants us to be, He will put us there. Finally, our God given assignment doesn’t call for the approval of everyone, but it does require our cooperation.

If God is our pilot, no one can prevent God from using us, blessing us, and giving us success except our own doubts and fears. Steven Huang says, “I can see God working through the heartache, and I have learned many lessons from what I have experienced. He needed to get my attention to show me where I needed to be.” It’s all about the pilot.

Let the pilot, pilot! It’s the only way to fly!

Jesus Savior, pilot me over life’s tempestuous sea; Unknown waves before me roll, Hiding rock and treacherous shoal. Chart and compass come from Thee, Jesus Savior, pilot me. Edward Hopper

Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything – encores to the end of time. 1 Peter 4:11 from The Message

Many times when we are out and about during our daily lives, it’s not uncommon to notice two entrances to stores, hotels, apartments, or restaurants. One entrance is the designated entrance for customers or guests while the other one is clearly marked as the service entrance. The service entrance is utilized by those who don’t avail themselves of the services of the store, hotel, restaurant, etc., but rather provide services such as deliveries, storage, or maintenance for the above places of business. Most times the areas are clearly marked with signs.

A few weeks ago Randy and I visited South Carolina. It was a longer drive than anticipated because of road work, traffic, etc., so we were ready to arrive to say the least. We had been looking forward to this get away for a while, and I was especially looking forward to driving along the entrance road to the hotel. The pictures of the property on line were so beautiful that I couldn’t wait! Unfortunately, Randy was so anxious to just “be there” that he turned onto the first road he saw which was clearly marked service entrance.

We traveled the road with trucks that were there for maintenance work, trailers and mowers clearly there for the grounds, and even a golf cart or two filled with towels, etc. for the guests. No one seemed to really notice us because, after all, we were in a truck, too. In a couple of miles, we turned onto the road that I had been anxious to see, and truthfully, that road was not nearly as beautiful as the service road we had traveled.

Sometimes I think that’s the way it is in life. We don’t realize how much fuller life can be when we devote more of it to the service part and less of it to the receiving part until we’ve been there. It’s so much more fulfilling to serve others than to be the recipient. The service that I have in mind is the kind that completely focuses on the purpose and will of another which is not for my personal benefit. God seems to use us best when we are at our weakest, facing tough times, or discouraged and shows us how to use the service entrance of life.

In the book of Malachi, the Israelites asked the question, “What is the use in serving God?” It’s a question many of us have asked particularly when times are hard and our faith is tested to the breaking point. The psalmist answers that question by saying: “Praise the Lord! All who fear and trust Him are blessed beyond expression…such a man will not be overthrown by evil circumstances. God’s constant care of him will make a deep impression on all who see it. For he is settled in his mind that Jehovah will take care of him. That is why he is not afraid, but can calmly face his foes. He gives generously to those in need. His deeds will never be forgotten.” Psalm 112: 1-9 (selected verses) Our attitude toward service should be the same as Jesus’.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to work a customer service hotline these days! There is so much impatience, volatility, and selfishness, and unfortunately, it’s probably directed to the innocent person who answered the phone. I’ve discovered that respecting the efforts of those people gets better results every time.

In this world of today many of us who go into a restaurant, a store, a hospital, a school, a government facility, etc. will exit with one question, “What ever happened to service?” We are upset that there aren’t enough people to properly serve or provide service to meet our needs. It’s this same kind of sentiment that Jesus must feel as He watches all of us go about our lives demanding service without ever offering it.

The funny thing the story of us using the service entrance that day is that when we arrived at the hotel, we encountered many of those people we had passed along the way. Our encounter brought us in touch with the many people it takes to serve in order to make something successful.

When life seems to be handing us only tough situations, we only need to look at life and others through the eyes and heart of Jesus so that we can gain the heart and mind of what it means to serve.

Oh Jesus I have promised, to serve Thee to the end; Be Thou forever near me, my Master and my friend. I shall not fear the battle if Thou art by my side; Nor wander from the pathway if Thy will be my guide. John Ernest Bode