Month: February 2025

But I, yes I, am the one who takes care of your sins; that’s what I do. Isaiah 43:25

I think we would be hard pressed to find a person in this world who doesn’t need some sort of closure in their life. It could be the closure of a hurt, a misunderstanding, a relationship, a mistake, an injustice, a betrayal, a friendship, or multiple other things. Closure is defined as the resolution or completion of a life event, problem, or situation, and we all need it at one time or another.

There’s just a time that comes when we know that it’s time to shut the door on the past and move on to the future. Something that happens just makes us know it’s time for closure. Joyce Meyer said it this way, The devil wants each of us to concentrate on how far we have fallen, rather than how far we have risen. He would love us to focus on our past rather than our future and how far we have come. God wants us to focus on our strengths and not our weaknesses, our victories and not our losses, our joys and not our problems.

I personally know how hard it gets at times and in situations to put a closure to things because our human tendency is to think that if we do, it’s over. I’m here to tell you that putting closure to the past is freeing, and it means a new beginning. For example, when we set out to buy a new home, there has to be a closure on the property. The house closure is a transferrence of property ownership. The current owner relinquishes the property to the new owner. Actually, it’s not an ending but rather a new beginning for both parties. Neither party would be able to reach their goal if they decided to hold onto the past.

Rick Warren likens closure to a trapeze artist who swings out on one bar and then has to reach out and grab the other. At some point, the artist must let go of one bar in order to grab the next one or they are left hanging!

Some closure is more dramtic than others. For example, I can’t even imagine what Noah must have been thinking when God shut the door to the ark leaving him aboard with his wife, three sons, and their wives plus a whole lot of animals! God provided closure for Noah by shutting the door. He implemented closure and began the pattern of new life, a new beginning, and a new environment. While Noah and his family were aboard the ark, transformation happened. They learned the worth of God and that He, and He alone forgives our sins and leads us.

It takes this kind of transformation for us in our lives to achieve closure. In Phillippians 3:13-14, Paul concertedly decided to put closure to things when he wrote, But one thing I do; forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. He decided that if he didn’t do anything else, he was going to do one thing. He would not allow past circumstances and situations to stop him from fulfilling his purpose. He believed God, he trusted God, and he relied on God.

Sometimes it’s hard to look back on hurts and bring closure. The story is told of a minister’s wife who came back to a former church for a funeral. She was greeted at the door by a man who never really liked her husband, but he greeted her warmly. She thanked him, but she couldn’t resist turning around to look at the beautiful campus and buildings which were built during their tenure. She remarked, “Look at all this! My husband loved it all.” The man obviouosly mishearing the words couldn’t wait to tell the new minister what he thought she had said. He mistakenly said, “She said her husband built it all.” The next day on Facebook was a post from the minister which read, “Only God can build a church.” She knew immediately what had happened, but she couldn’t bring herself to confront him and get closure. It’s hard when a wrong has occurred, and you never get to tell your side of the story!

There’s one thing I’ve learned when we get to a dead end in our lives, life isn’t over. We just need to change directions. God did just that with Noah, and in His infinite wisdom gave mankind another chance to get things right. He put out a detour sign. Christ never lost the focus of His purpose even though He took a detour by coming here to live amongst us. We need to be just as adamant as Paul was and say to ourselves, no matter what I’m going through, I am bringing closure to the mess. It’s finished! I’m forgetting what’s behind and pressing forward.

Socrates says it this way: the ultinate goal of human existence is not just to live, but to live a good, meaningful, and virtuous life. As they say in the movie industry, That’s a wrap!!

Keep your eye straight ahead; ignore all the sideshow distractions. Proverbs 4:25

Our world of today is filled with commonplace distractions. Things such as social media, regrets, multitasking, clutter, visual distractions, gossip, pursuit of perfection, and thoughts of others. A distraction can be anything that takes your mind off a task that needs your concentration.

The story is told an “ADD” husband who was so distracted over one thing or another that he had to have his wife tell him almost everything. One day his wife walked into the room and said, “Here’s the sweater you asked me to find.” He said, “Are we going somewhere or am I just cold?” Some of us can all identify.

In Greek mythology Ulysses is coming back from the Trojan war, and it takes him ten years to get home. He faces one distraction after another. One of the most popular distractions in the story was the Sirens, a group of beautiful women who sang irresistably seductive songs. Once the sailors gave in to the distraction, their boats crashed on the hidden rocks that were lurking right beneath the surface of the sea. Once the demonic cannibals whose alluring disguise and mesmerizing melodies had drawn them close, the Sirens wasted little time devouring their flesh.

Ulysses was warned about the Sirens, so when approaching the island, he ordered his crew to tie him to the mast and to put wax in their ears. He told his crew, “No matter what I say or do, don’t untie me until we are safely at a distance from the island.” Ulysses inwardly wanted to pursue the Sirens, but the ropes prevented him from the distraction.

This is how many Christians approach life. We probably inwardly want to pursue a lot of things that we know are distractions, so we are constantly battling guilt, frustration, despair, hopelessness, and we literally hanging on by our fingernails. We can be so caught up in distractions that we miss the kindnesses in life.

The other day, I was in line at Starbucks doing what I hate when other folks do it, answering texts and being distracted. When I got to the window, I absent mindedly held up my app to pay. I didn’t get it when the attendant said, “The person ahead of you took care of your drink today.” I was so distracted I hadn’t noticed the car ahead of me, and so now I don’t know who to thank for that kindness!!

Rather than let the distractions of this world take away our joy, we need to focus more on the passion in our lives. I love little children because they have such natural enthusiasm for life. They don’t let all the distractions rob them of the joy of life. As we get older, we see less joy and more distraction.

Next we need to move from being distracted to being focused. We are all tempted to be controlled by the tyranny of the urgent. Our lives become controlled by a thousand little things rather than the power of the one most important thing. We just need a little quiet time first thing in the morning to get focused on what’s important. If we start the day running, we will never stop.

In a Reader’s Digest article, Tim Allen, the star of the sitcom, Home Improvement asked, “How much of the day are you distracted?” You think, I’ve got to get the dry cleaning, I’ve got to get that report done, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that. All of the sudden it’s dinnertime. You have a few moments with family and a connection with friends, then it’s bedtime. You read, go to bed, and wake up to start the same thing over again!

Finally, we need to stop wandering in life and begin living life with a purpose. Instead of wandering from one day to the next, we need to stop and ask, “What is my purpose? Why am I here?” It’s important to discover that purpose and not let a thousand little distractions rob us of it. I think of the disciples sleeping in the garden when Jesus needed them to be with Him. The human distraction of neglect trumped their purpose.

Today is a perfect day to put aside distractions and look for passion, focus, and purpose.

My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God because God is love – so you can’t know Him if you do not love, for God is love. John 4:7-8

This week we celebrate Valentine’s Day with the traditional hearts, candy, cards, flowers, and “I love you’s”. It’s all about these things these days, but it didn’t start out that way. Valentine was a Roman Catholic Priest who was martyred on February 14, 270 AD, during the persecution of Emperor Claudius II. Claudius was determined to eradicate Christianity from his empire, and so he began putting to death highly visible and important Christian leaders. Father Valentine was seized, severely beaten, and thrown in jail.

Claudius said to Valentine, “Either renounce the Lord Jesus Christ in front of all this people or be put to death.” Valentine would not, and so on February 14, the jailers came to put him to death by beheading him. As he left the cell, he gave the jailer’s daughter a piece of paper torn into the shape of a heart bearing his name. Years later, the Catholic church made Valentine a saint and dedicated February 14 as a day to remember someone who was willing to die for his love of Jesus Christ. This day, which began with Christians putting special messages on hearts and sharing them, continues to this day.

The heart symbol is the universal symbol of love, affection and care often used to express fondness and emotional connection. On Valentine’s Day, we tend to see a lot of messages of love between sweethearts, friends, and lovers. The words I love you; however, shouldn’t be restricted to one day of the year. The story is told of a wife who dragged her husband to a marriage counseler in an attempt to save their marriage. During their session, the counselor asked, “Do you tell your wife you love her?” The man growled back, “I told her when we got married that I loved her and that if I ever changed my mind, I’d let her know.”

The older we get, the more we realize that people know you love them when you show them and when you tell them. The heart we think about, especially at this time of year, is a loving heart, a heart full of compassion, kindness and care for others. It is gracious and sensitive to others while showing empathy, kindness, generosity and unselfishness. We can’t just think with our head about having a loving heart, but we have to feel with our heart. Fred Craddock says, “The longest journey we will ever take is from our head to our heart.”

While the loving heart is the most desirable, things in life can change the way our heart works for us. When we’ve been hurt, it’s easy to put up barriers around our broken heart to prevent another hurt. However, a protective heart can turn into a heart of stone. We can allow our heart to become resistant, unreceptive, and impenetrable even to God. One writer said, “The only thing more painful and with more serious ramifications than a broken heart is a frozen one.” This heart is incapable of tearing down the barriers it has put up and replacing them with forgiveness and love. The trouble with a frozen heart is that it feels nothing – no pain, but also no love. It is a trap that feels like self preservation, but it is actually self destruction.

In his book, Lee, The Last Years Charles Bracelen Flood reports that after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee visited a Kentucky lady who took him to the remains of a grand old tree in her front yard. There she cried bitterly as she told how its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Federal Artillery Fire. She looked to Lee to confirm her frozen heart, but instead, he said, “Cut it down, my dear Madame, and forget it.”

Jesus taught his disciples many things, but all of his teaching can be summed up in His command to love God and love others. (Mark 12:31) The heart is meant for love not bitterness. The love it holds needs to be shared so that it never becomes frozen.

Alan Jackson says it this way: The Older I Get the more I think, You only get a minute better live while you’re in it Cause it’s gone in a blink. And the older I get, the truer it gets, It‘s the people you love, not the money and stuff that makes you rich.

The loving heart is one which is not afraid to love others, and one which loves God above all else.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

No one really knows what is going to happen; no one can predict the future. Ecclesiastes 10:14

February is here and along with it comes the season of predictions! In our kindergarten classes every year, the students loved predicting whether the groundhog would see his shadow or not. We checked out weather forecasts, talked about the science of shadows needing light, and each student made their prediction. Would the ground hog see his shadow and run back into his burrow predicting six more weeks of winter? Would it be cloudy enough that he didn’t see his shadow on this day and give us the prediction of an early spring? According to the results of yesterday, the prediction is six more weeks of winter.

Next, many of us will be predicting the winner of Super Bowl LIX between the Chiefs and the Eagles. The experts say there are certain predictors of the winner. They say such things as previous Super Bowl experience, better defense, ability to score the first points, the team leading at halftime, and the list goes on makes an difference. The fact is, no one knows the winner until the game has been played.

This past week we woke up to the horrible news of an airplane and helicopter crash on the Potomac River near Reagan Airport. The plane was predicted to land without incident, and the service men on the helicopter were predicted to complete their training mission and return to base. As our nation grieves yet another tragedy, our scripture reminds us that no one knows what might happen in any given day, and no one can predict the future. The verse emphasizes the unpredictability of life, and the limitations of humans.

There are those of us who read the horoscopes daily hoping to predict what our day might hold. In spite of all our efforts to arrange a predictable world, there are so many unpredictable things in life that very few things end up as we hoped, planned or thought they might be. One of the greatest sources of stress and anxiety is the necessity of adjusting to the unexpected. Many people are unable to survive the surprises of life which often happen to us while we are in the process of trying to make life more predictable. Life is seldom what we planned but rather what happens to us on the way to what we planned.

There is a legend about a man who very much wanted to know where the stock market would be in thirty days. If he could predict the level of the market in 30 days, he could invest all his assests in such a way that he would make enough money to be secure for the rest of his life. He could make his life predictable. One morning he got up and on his doorstep was a copy of the New York Times dated 30 days in advance. It was a miracle! He grabbed the paper and laid it out on the kitchen table looking, of course, for the financial section. As he searched, his eyes fell upon the obituary column, and he couldn’t resist taking a look. Imagine his surprise when the obituary he found was his own. Now nothing else mattered.

If we have learned anything during our years on this earth it is that life is rarely predictable. Things rarely turn out the way we thought they might; and rarely is the future in the form of what we expected. In spite of all we do to try and make our lives predictable, there are so many unexpected elements in life that we seldom end up as we expected.

God works in mysterious ways in our life and in the lives of those in this world. He works His will through strange people and circumstances. He is not bound by our limited vision of possibilities. Therefore, we have to learn to let God be God. Let Him do it His way.

My Daddy used to love to pretend to sing a few lines of the sonn Ah Sweet Mystery of Life by Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. It certainly wasn’t a melodic rendition, but he seemed to mumble it everytime something in life went in an unexpected direction. The words are prophetic for all of us.

Ah, sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found thee. Ah, I know at last the secret of it all. All the longing, seeking, striving, waiting, yearning. The burning hopes, the joy and idle tears that fall. For ’tis love and love alone the world is seeking, And ’tis love and love alone, that can repay. ‘Tis the answer, ‘Tis the end and all of living. For ’tis love alone that rules for aye.

William Cowper wrote these words: God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathonable mines of never failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs and works His sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense; But trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face.