May 28

Written by: tim
5/28/2010 1:16 PM 

It's raining today, again.  We didn't see any baseball this past Tuesday when we went to the Rainiers game on account of "liquid sunshine".  An hour of driving, an hour of sitting around watching the ground crew play "parachute" with tarps and a hotdog so small I swallowed it by accident and no baseball!  I'm not blaming all my problems on the rain (Milli Vanilli anyone?) but the wet stuff is an easy target.  Our house hasn't sold yet, in fact the showings have slowed from about 1 per week to zero for the past month.  To top things off the Mariners couldn't win a playground game of kickball against a bunch of 3rd graders.

Can you see how all of this stuff weighs me down and makes my shoulders slump?  What man could survive and fight through this kind of adversity?

All kidding aside my "problems" over the past week seem trivial, at least they should.  I am thankful most of the weeks in my life contain problems of a similar magnitude, just the everyday things that really shouldn't make anyone feel helpless, hopeless or depressed.  There have also been times when my problems were much greater, when the stress was much higher and when sadness blocked out the other emotions.  Perhaps your week has come with great distress or great joy and maybe it has just come and gone.  I have zero ability to know how you're doing but regardless, I want to share some Memorial Day perspective with you.

We have been born into lives of privilege.  We travel on smooth (well mostly smooth) roads in vehicles that we own and no one tells us that we can't go here or there.  We raise our voices and choose our leaders.  We choose wisely and we choose poorly and then we choose again.  We lift our hands to worship in buildings and there are no officials to disrupt us.  We vocally complain about our government and we do so without fear.  We make money, start businesses, choose spouses and raise families in the reality of freedom.  It is all we know. Do we know what it cost?  Soldiers throughout our history gave themselves up in combat so that we can complain about the small things.  Wives gave up their husbands and husbands their wives. These valiant people fought and died because freedom is precious and it is precarious.

I have been born-again into a life of joy.  I have traveled as a minister of the gospel and I have been granted the gift of raising my family in a beautiful community.  More than that I have been changed and am being changed through the work of the Holy Spirit.  My life is an adventure marked by one blessing after another not because tragedy doesn't strike but because when it does I am held up by my Savior.  I lay my head down to rest at night and sleep with God induced peace.  I fear nothing because I fear God and He loves me.  He loves BIG and He loves lots! I am free from bondage and this life is remarkable.  This new life, this eternal life has come too at great expense not my own.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood."  Hebrews 12:2-4 (NIV)

I struggle just like anyone does.  I have tough times and I understand well what it means to battle against my sinful nature.  When I read, "In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood." I am reminded of just how good I have it.  Whenever I think I might have the "right to complain" this truth sits me down.  Jesus put me in right standing with God not through a written document or a snap of his fingers but through the painful, drawn out shedding of His own blood.  Jesus owes me nothing.  If the rest of my life was one catastrophe after another I would still be a blessed man!

Today I thank God for every man and woman who died for my freedom.

I thank God more for the One Man who died and lives again.  He is sufficient.