Tag: hope

Fresh Start

Sometimes we just need a reboot. Just as rebooting requires a shut down and a moment of rest before a restart, something must end and pause before we can begin again.

The Upward Path1 Comment

God has gifted us with necessary endings in order that we might not be overcome with despair and discouraged to the point of giving up. Just as the day and the week and even the year may end in weariness of heart and mind and spirit, there is a time for rest between the end of one and the beginning of another. We lay our heads down, close our eyes and take refreshment in the sleep of restoration.

Life is a lot like rebooting a computer. Rebooting is the thing I do when my computer acts up and everything else has fail to remedy the problem. Turn it off, shut it down, disconnect it’s power source; let it rest and plug it in, turn it on and voila! Problems and issues resolved and I am back on line.

Sometimes we just need a reboot. Just as rebooting requires a shut down and a moment of rest before a restart, something must end and pause before we can begin again. A difficult day may end in a fog of despair and gloom but after a good night’s sleep morning dawns with fresh hope, battle-readiness, and a grace-strengthened, renewed mind and spirit equal to whatever the day brings. There must be rest for the weary in order to revive and restore the fatigued spirit, mind and body.

While each day promises a new beginning, on a larger scale, each week has a Monday. How many times have we decided that we would begin a new thing on “Monday?” I have started many a self-improvement plan on “Monday.” Monday is a pivot day. Whatever new plan I have initiated and failed at can always be reinstated on the following “Monday.” There is a curious hope is the power of Monday reset.

The year 2020 came to a close with resounding cheers and jeers. People find hope in a new year. We look forward to and anticipate blessings in the year ahead. God created us needing a fresh place to begin again so it only stands to reason that people look to the calendar for endings, rest and new beginnings.

Those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus recognize that morning is not our savior; Monday is not our savior; January 1st is not our savior. Jesus, who is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13) gave us, in perfect wisdom, beginnings and endings that we might not faint or grow weary to the point of despair but that we might be renewed and strengthened with the hope of new morning mercies. Jesus, in whom strengthening grace sufficient for the day is found, is our Savior, Redeemer and Deliverer.

How easy it is to forget that our hope does not lie in a moment in time but the One created time! I must be reminded that my hope, my confident assurance, is rooted in the promises of God stated over and over again, throughout His Word; He will never leave us or forsake us; His steadfast love endures forever and His mercies never end.

Philippians 3:14 But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And so disciplining our hearts to focus on Jesus; not looking back to the past, counting the cost and bemoaning what was lost but forgetting, in a sense, that none of it matters or has genuine value compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. With eyes riveted on the prize, reaching out for what is yet beyond us, straining forward, pressing toward that which our eyes behold.

As we begin afresh the year 2021 let us look to Jesus, the anchor of our hope, to the praise of His glory, and cast a blessing to one another with a resounding Happy New Year!

Life Is Difficult – Thank You M. Scott Peck

As we are about the business of recreating a better “me” through self awareness and the power of best practices, God is about the business of transforming; creating a new person in Christ, by the power of His Word and the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.

The Upward Path5 Comments

Life is difficult. Most of us muddle our way through trying to escape the difficulties, patch up the wounds and fight against the things that continue to cause us discomfort and pain. Often times the running and kicking back only causes more distress and deepens our discouragement. We are left battle weary and no more trouble free than when we began.

Perhaps, we have imagined life differently; an easier and smoother ride. Matthew 6:34 reminds us that there is always hardship and each day has it’s own trouble. Just as the changing seasons bringing their own blessings and problems, our daily circumstances may change but life is never trouble free. There is always something we would love to avoid, deny or escape.

I read M. Scott Peck’s book, The Road Less Traveled, back in the early 80’s. Just as he was on a spiritual journey of making sense of life and people and God, I was on my own similar trek. I struggled to understand the purposes of life, relationships, love, difficulties and pain; the connection between God, myself and real life. I was torn between outwardly pretending that life wasn’t difficult and internally weeping under the weight of it. As a twenty-something, separated and nearly divorced Christian woman who didn’t know her Bible well, this book was revolutionary. It had given me new perspective.

He had me with the first two paragraghs of chapter one.

“Life is difficult.”

“This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult-once we truly understand and accept it-then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

I found truth in these few sentences. Reading on, he highlights the necessity of suffering and the value of experiencing pain. He lays out disciplines for experiencing pain and meeting it head on rather than avoiding it. These personal practices were good, wise and helpful. Who would disagree with taking responsibility for your choices or delaying gratification? These are choices that differentiate the proverbial children from adults. My need to grow up, face difficulties head on and do hard things became clear.

And now some 40 years later with many trials and difficulties behind me and a fuller knowledge of the Word of God, I can see that while The Road Less Traveled may have set me on a better track of thinking, the ability to actually walk it well was made possible only by the grace of God. I have seen his hand in even the most painful of times. His love for me has transcended pampering and moved toward perfecting. 

I recognize that the issues and solutions presented in Peck’s book were centered on self and although the idea of grace, a greater power, and God were present, they were not prominent and foremost in his philosophy. These are good personal practices but they are not the embodiment of freedom, pain management, or transformative living. What seemed sensical lacked the fullness of truth and the power to transform the one who was broken by life’s difficulties or battered and bruised by their own poor choices. Though acceptance and surrender are a part of Peck’s spiritual equation, surrender to God is the only solid solution for the human condition.

As we are about the business of recreating a better “me” through self awareness and the power of best practices, God is about the business of transforming; creating a new person in Christ, by the power of His Word and the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Pain, difficulties and disappointments are His tools, by which He shapes and forms us into the likeness of Jesus. How we process difficulties determines the condition of our heart toward God, others and ourselves as well as our ability to surrender to God and be changed into the image of Christ.

Yes! Life is difficult. Life’s difficulties are not without purpose.

Romans 5:3-5  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love have been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

James 1:2-4  Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

2 Corinthians 4:16-17  So we do not lose heart . Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

Facing trials head on, accepting circumstances as they are and not as we have hoped them to be is a lesser traveled road. Surrendering our lives, our circumstances, our will and our control to our Loving Father who keeps us sheltered under His wing is the pathway to peace, contentment, joy, renewal and a transformed life.  We will never be as we once were. We will be tempered and humbled.

Life is difficult. There is eternal purpose in our difficulties.

The last line of an interview printed in Psychology Today, quotes M. Scott Peck as saying, “I’m somebody who often, like so many people, preaches what he needs to learn.”

I echo your words, Mr. Peck!

…there is Liberty.

Quarantine is not about your freedoms being taken away. It’s about liberty. Liberty says that I am free as long as my actions do not infringe upon or take away the freedom of others.

The Upward Path1 Comment

We’re doing a new thing. It’s called self-quarantine. We’ve no context for what this means for our future. We’ve never experienced anything globally such as this. We have never experienced anything in our country, our state, our community such as this. The closest my family has come to self-quarantine was the Chickenpox and those quarantined were under 4 feet tall with no drivers’ license, job or responsibility other than making their own bed and picking up their toys.

The Chickenpox was a bit of an inconvenience but nothing more. My kids were itchy and have a few faded scars but other than that our life as a family returned to normal very quickly.

Today we are self-quarantined. Many people are under a mandatory quarantine; only permitted to leave their homes for the necessities of food and medical needs. It seems our state may be heading, very quickly, in that direction. Americans have never known this type of constraint of freedom on a large scale. We, Americans, pride ourselves on our freedoms. We live in a “Free country.” We are free to make our own choices and we resist the government telling us what we can and cannot do with our money, speech, bodies, time etc. We are free to choose. Our state motto is “Live Free or Die.” The idea of quarantine stirs up the perception of loss of Constitutional freedom and produces an inclination to defy the heavy hand of government and defend freedoms.

And so we live in a growing culture of fear. Fear of contracting Covid-19. Fear of spreading the virus. Fear of losing our jobs. Fear of economic crash. Fear of losing control. Fear of losing our freedom.

Dictionary.com defines Fear as an unpleasant emotion caused by a belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or threat and defines Freedom as the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Liberty is not exactly the same as freedom though we use the words interchangeably. Liberty is a type or a subset of freedom that carries with it responsibility and duty. It’s the responsible use of freedom; a freedom with boundaries that are considerate of the freedom of others. It does not act selfishly but for the good of others.

Let us turn our focus to Liberty.

This is true liberty:

1 Corinthians 10:23-24

All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor.

Quarantine is not about your freedoms being taken away. It’s about liberty. Liberty says that I am free as long as my actions do not infringe upon or take away the freedom of others. Can we look at this through the eyes of Liberty and with that freedom, love and consider others before and above ourselves?

Let us willingly, fearlessly, obey the strong suggestions, requests and orders of our leaders. Romans 13 says we all must obey those who rule over us. Those in authority serve God. It’s a conscious, humble act of submission to authority. God did not offer this up as an option. It’s a command. Honor God by honoring those in authority. Romans 13 goes on to remind us to love our neighbor as ourselves and that love does no harm to his neighbor. Can our love be identified in our obedience?

As men and women, brothers and sister in Christ, I encourage you to open the hand that clutches tightly to the fears that so easily overwhelm us and grab hold of Jesus, the anchor of our soul and our hope. Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have said these things so that you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

Now the Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2 Cor. 3:17

Where the Spirit of the Lord is…