A Covid-broken Heart

 

Monday, February 21, 2022

O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage!  Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me.  Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins.  My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear.  My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.  I am bent over and racked with pain.  All day long I walk around filled with grief.  A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken.  I am exhausted and completely crushed.  My groans come from an anguished heart.  You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh.  My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind.  My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease.  Even my own family stands at a distance.  Meanwhile, my enemies lay traps to kill me.  Those who wish me harm make plans to ruin me.  All day long they plan their treachery.  But I am deaf to all their threats.  I am silent before them as one who cannot speak.  I choose to hear nothing, and I make no reply.  For I am waiting for you, O Lord.  You must answer for me, O Lord my God.  I prayed, “Don’t let my enemies gloat over me or rejoice at my downfall.”  I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain.  But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done.  I have many aggressive enemies; they hate me without reason.  They repay me evil for good and oppose me for pursuing good.  Do not abandon me, O Lord.  Do not stand at a distance, my God.  Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior.  Psalm 38:1-22

David’s self-diagnosed situational distress symptoms parallel takotsubo, commonly known as broken-heart syndrome.[1]  Assaulted by raging fever, exhaustion, and difficulty breathing, the heart, crushed and broken, groans in shock-induced cardiomyopathy; it’s a sad parallel to what modern-day pandemic grief is pushing on the world’s human family.

Our reality the past two years has developed a worldwide epidemic of languishing in lethargy and misery as a response to the ruin of COVID’s bio-physical symptoms.  It is the essence of King David’s spiritual malaise, his sins have “found him out,”[2] and his life has come to a grinding halt in an overwhelming sense of guilt/grief.  His heart can only stand in shock against the revelation of life’s fragile and tenuous nature.  What looms before him is the very-real possibility of slipping into the darkness; all else, kingdom, family, riches, and even the simple act of breathing, are superfluous compared to getting relief from the approaching darkness.  If it’s truly possible to “languish” in a panic-attack mode…this is it!

David’s reaction to the monster that stands ready to chew him (even the memory of him) to pieces, is confession.  As one who, in his youth, knew the presence of God well, David’s understanding of his guilt brought an outpouring of shame and inner urging to return to the place of forgiveness.  He longed to be clean.  Accepting responsibility for the calamity which now defined his character, David asked God to purge his guilt and shame, and come close.

Perhaps the pan-human response to the takotsubo broken-heart pandemia is a return to God the way David knew was right…confession…owning who we are, and what we’ve done in ignoring our Creator’s way.  That seems to be the only first step in the right direction.

For You Today

Each of us can only take the first step in our own journey.  I cannot take yours, nor can you take mine.  With God, repentance is a singular affair.  Like breathing, air in my lungs does no good in keeping your life afloat.  There are some things each of us needs to do to address that which breaks our Heavenly Father’s heart.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and other images:  Harvard Health Publishing  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

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[1] Harvard Health Publishing

[2] See Numbers 32:23

While You're Waiting

[1]

Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring.  They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.  You, too, must be patient.  Take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.  Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged.  For look—the Judge is standing at the door!  We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.  For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end, for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy.  But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else.  Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned.  James 5:7-12^(NLT)

There is a reality that one day Jesus will break through the Eastern skies and change everything; he will come in the clouds and in glory and, with finality, reconcile everyone and everything in creation to the Father’s will.  This is our blessed hope and faith.  His resurrection and bodily return, to set at right that which has been so wrong, is the center of all that Christians hold dear.

In the church we sing, talk, and think a lot about the second coming of Jesus, and that reunion we are anticipating with loved ones who have gone one to be with God.  Just consider hymns we sang:  We’ll Understand It Better By and By, and Victory in Jesus. These point to that blessed moment when we see our loved ones, and our Lord Jesus.  But, besides thinking about what’s going to happen in the future, we also have to understand what we should be concentrating on in the here and now!    

So, James gives us some Godly advice as to what to do while we’re waiting for the return of our Lord:

Have Patience like a Farmer

James uses the illustration of the farmer.  Prepare, plant, protect, nurture, and…….wait!  It’s a long process, but God made it so.  The only thing the farmer can do is wait, because you can’t pull a crop from the ground before it is ready; if you do, it won’t be worth anything.  So, if you’re an impatient farmer you need to develop some patience, or get a new job!

When you come to the table of living your life, bring patience.  How, preacher?  I don’t know…you have to work that out for yourself.  Mainly, I would say, ask God for it, because it is not natural.  We are all impatient.

And while you’re being patient, make certain you’re working on the right kind of crop.  Remember that eternity is long, and whatever you grow is what you’ll reap. 

I had a friend named Eddie once who was a sower.  One day Eddie and I, along with a couple of other friends went to play golf.  Eddie and Jeff were in one cart; while I rode with our other friend.  My partner drove his ball to the left, and the rest of us hit to the right side.  After we located the lone ball on the left, we drove to where Eddie and Jeff were waiting with the other three balls. 

Crossing the fairway, we saw Eddie kicking a ball into the sand trap…then he stepped on it – hard!  He was sowing that golf ball – he mashed it into the ground!

When we arrived, Eddie had that look on his face – like when you’re about to get your pocket picked.  He said, as he pointed to the golf ball seedling, Preacher, your ball is in an awful fix.  I got up close to the ball – it wasn’t mine!  Jeff looked – it wasn’t his; the only ball it could be belonged to our resident golf ball farmer. 

Dear ones, believe it when the Bible says YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT[2]. 

Have patience like a farmer!  What else do we do while we’re waiting?

Proclaim the Kingdom like a Prophet

Living your life in a manner worthy of eternity means you will stand for that which will stand in eternity.  That means sharing God with people, proclaiming the Kingdom.  Here are a few Kingdom principles for proclaiming God’s reign:

Show up

To show up means being deeply involved in the things of God as a priority, not a hobby. 

Have faith – serving Christ is not a game

Besides showing up, there is raising the ante.  The kingdom is no game, but people won’t take your claim that Jesus is Lord seriously if you try to serve in just your own strength.  It is His Spirit that is in charge…never His servants.

Proclaim – no time to be timid

When it comes to proclaiming the Kingdom, we need to remember that farmers and prophets are not lazy people.  If there is a God to be served, His people need to learn how to throw themselves into the work with everything they’ve got!

Have patience like the farmer, proclaim the Kingdom like a prophet, and…

Have Perseverance like Job

Job had it all – then he had it all taken away.  He went from hero to zero in an afternoon.  His wife got so discouraged she told her husband, why don’t you just curse God and die?  Job hung in there. 

This Old Testament father wasn’t patient like some say; he was actually quite ticked!  Job wanted an answer.  But he did hang in there, and that’s what perseverance is all about.  You know that God is in charge, so you play by His rules, and leave the results to Him.  Patience, Proclamation, Perseverance, and….

Keep Purity in All Your Days

James said a word about our words.  Frankly, what proceeds out of the mouths of even Christians these days would have made our grandparents turn in their graves. 

All your words are worship, so don’t offer slop to our Lord.  He is the Sovereign God of the universe, not the man upstairs.  God knows us, and He hears our words

If God is holy it makes sense to be careful to keep our lives and our words clean!

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.  Hebrews 4:12^(NLT)

Wrong Idea – Right Idea

In Daniel 4 we read the story of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.  He was – to say the least – full of himself. 

God used the Babylonian king to teach Israel a lesson; he was able to defeat Jerusalem and enslave the nation.  This was the captivity that we read about in Daniel.[3]  Nebuchadnezzar was the one who had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace; God delivered them, but the king’s humility was short-lived. 

He surveyed his kingdom and imagined he had created Wonderland.  Nebuchadnezzar celebrated his own greatness by creating a gold statue of himself, 9 feet wide and 90 feet tall.  Everyone was to bow down and worship towards that statue whenever the trumpet sounded in the city.  Nebuchadnezzar imagined he was God.

One day God, the real sovereign God of all creation, messed with everything Nebuchadnezzar had.  The king wound up a madman; for the next seven years he wandered the countryside, drooling on himself, grazing on grass like a wild animal. At the end of his days, the Lord allowed his mind to return to normal, and Nebuchadnezzar finally gave God His due.  

Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way.  We can’t say too much about that because most of us follow in those footsteps.  And that’s a little strange, because we know better.  It is much better and easier on human beings to make our plans to honor God, with a view on eternity rather than just what we want.

And that is the simplicity of what to do while you’re waiting for the second coming.  It’s God’s way – it’s the good way!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Let the church say “Amen”!

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[1] Title Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Numbers 32:23

[3] Daniel 3 & 4

Making Sense of Consequences

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

“But if you don’t do what you say, you will be sinning against God; you can be sure that your sin will track you down.   Numbers 32:23 (TMSG)

Some of God’s people didn’t want to cross Jordan.  They saw what the East Bank held and begged Moses to let them stake out their chosen place.  They knew they were required to take part in the warfare that would secure the rest of the Promised Land, but they’d made their choice.

Moses warned them that promising to be part of God’s plan and family was a holy thing, and failure to fulfill those promises would carry consequences; their sin would track them down!

Most people are painfully aware of that “tracking you down” part as being the consequence of sinning against God.  We also are quick to point out our New Testament perspective that God forgives us when we confess.  Note the apostle John:

If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves.  A claim like that is errant nonsense.  On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean breast of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself.  He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.   1 John 1:8 - 9 (TMSG)

So….case settled, right?  Even though we’ve sinned, we’ve confessed and been forgiven; God forgets it – books closed.  Right?

We could say “right” and move on; hardly anyone would question such a doctrine as God’s forgiveness – except for that nagging little fact that any of us who have asked forgiveness have also still experienced consequences of those forgiven sins. 

What’s up with that?

Our sin has tracked us down!

The drug addict who asks forgiveness still deals with craving.  The thief still thinks about stealing.  A child caught in disobedience still tries to distort the truth to head off sitting in time-out.  What happened to all that forgiveness talk?

One of the problems of accepting “part” of a verse is that we get a wrong view of the entire verse.  Even worse, we tend to pass on that view.  Forgiving and forgetting is what God does, but He will not erase what you have done.  What God does with the aftermath of forgiveness is something we tend to block out of the last part of John’s verse…purge us of all wrongdoing.

That’s what consequences are there for – to purge, or squeeze-out our bent towards doing wrong. 

For example, you made a bad decision to exceed the speed limit by double, but you live through the meeting with that telephone pole.  Immediately you beg God (and the traffic judge) to forgive you.  You’re sincere, and you fully intend to change your ways – no more “lead-footing” for you…no sir!  So God forgives, forgets and won’t bring it to the table again.  The traffic judge isn’t so magnanimous - $450 fine and 30 days in jail.

A month later you get out of the slammer and you’ve lost your job because you didn’t show up these past 30 days.  You’ve lost your license for 90 more days as part of the judge’s original sentence, and you’ve also got that mangled pile of junk that used to be your new Lexus.  On top of all that mangled Lexus will stay a junk-pile because you forgot to pay your car insurance. 

Whatever happened to forgiveness?  Was God just playing with my head about that?

God doesn’t “play” at anything connected with sin.  What he wants to do is purge it from your life.  Dealing with a mangled new car, no job and a financial nightmare is how we connect the dots between our actions and the consequences.

God’s not done with us when He forgives and forgets – He uses our behavior to continue teaching us and purging unrighteousness, so we will stand taller in the long run.  God’s in the rehabilitation business with humans, as much as the resurrection business.

Today…for you

If you’ve messed it up so that the consequences are big, remember the consequences are still working on you AND for you.   Despise them not!