That’s a good question to ask. The answer to that may actually set us back on our heels for a short period to time. Or maybe a bit longer. Here’s why:

Most, or many, of us tend to think, or are told, that it is always God’s will to heal us. Or to have good things happen to us. We loathe pain and discomfort as more than just a glitch because we see little or no purpose in it. What can be so good about pain anyway? When I had my knee replaced in 11/24, I knew pain. I had been warned to keep up on the pain meds, to not let the pain get ahead of me. Since I refused to take the oxy the way it was prescribed due to horror stories I have heard, the pain did indeed get ahead of me. It kept me up at night and I was unable to even stay in bed one minute at first. The pain was real. The pain brought tears to my eyes multiple times. But in that pain was healing. And I can also say that in that pain were cries to God for relief. 

So…can God be glorified in the pain? Most definitely. Can God be glorified in a life facing a grim cancer diagnosis? Most definitely. Can God be glorified in a life facing a divorce? Most definitely. Can God be glorified in a long-term diagnosis where there is no cure? Most definitely. 

Like everyone else, I have no idea what the future holds. I have no crystal ball (as if that would help). I certainly won’t consult some huckster, a joke, or a tool of Satan. No. I will place my future in the hands of the ONE who does know the future. See, I believe my greatest comfort is in knowing Jesus. I believe nothing can separate me from His love. I believe that everything that happens to me passes through His hands of love first and He will use it for His glory and my good. 

Lest you think I have received some grim diagnosis…I haven’t. However…I have a friend who is facing a grim cancer diagnosis. I have a “sheep” from the church I pastor who is facing a divorce due to an abusive situation. I have “sheep”/friends who are moving hundreds of miles away in just a few weeks. I have a “sheep” who may be facing a long-term diagnosis where there is no cure.

All painful to see and be a part of but in all of this, I firmly believe God will be glorified. Just don’t ask me how. 

I suspect most of us could answer “Yes” to that question. Some more often than others due to life’s circumstances, but still alone. I will borrow a phrase from others when that happens: “a dark night of the soul.” 

Been there, done that. Life presses in. Despair is at the doorstep. Every breath (physically and spiritually) seems hard to come by. It makes you feel like you are suffocating. Physically, you are wrung out, wondering if there is another step left in your legs. Emotionally, you are drained, wiped out. You feel like you have truly reached the end of your rope. And spiritually? You feel hung out to dry. God seems a million miles away. You feel a coldness, a draft, in your soul.

I think David knew that feeling. In Psalm 56:1 he says, “O God, have mercy on me, for people are hounding me. My foes attack me all day long.” Verse 2 is more of the same thoughts, but then verses 3-4 show a reversal: “But when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. I praise God for what He has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?” But that’s not all! Verse 8 tells us that “God keeps track of all our sorrows, and He has collected all our tears in a bottle.” The final coup de grace is a phrase in verse 9: “This I know: God is on my side!” 

God is for me. God is on my side. Even when life seems to be splintering and getting hacked to pieces, I am not alone. You are not alone. Don’t give in to despair and defeat. God is in every detail. Even when you way looks dark…

…RUN TO THE LIGHT! 

{All Scripture is from the NLT}

I was reminded of the price paid for me to be able to worship as I please; to speak as I please; to live as I choose; even demonstrate (right or wrong) because of men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives. I’m humbled by that. (Perhaps the ingrates who hate our country or abuse their freedom should move to Russia, China or another country where freedom to do those things is not an issue, i.e. it’s not allowed except under penalty of death). I also distinctly remember a Savior who paid the ultimate price even though undeserved.

Back to Sunday: overcome by his emotions, he was unable to continue so he asked me to. Then he apologized to the church. My first words were, “No apology necessary.” There have been times I have tearfully struggled to complete a thought or to continue. When one of my best friends died after a 15 year battle with prostate cancer, I choked up. When my best friend, Dave, died less than a year ago after an 18 month battle with a glioblastoma, I lost it. 

There’s nothing “manly” or “womanly” about being stoic. Denying or hiding one’s feelings or emotions is not a “win.” It’s time to realize we need each other, if for no other reason than a shoulder to cry on or to lean on. 

Find a shoulder. Be a shoulder. 

That is a good-and very valid-mantra to live by. No lesson learned should ever be wasted. Please listen to these words. Read them slowly and thoughtfully:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our suffering, you will also share in the comfort God give us.  2 Cor. 1:3-7 (NLT)

The gist of that passage is Paul telling the Corinthians “what we have been comforted with, we will comfort you.” 

No lesson learned should ever be wasted or discarded. Big or little. Seemingly insignificant or hugely life-changing. Heart-wrenching or just heart-touching. As we have been comforted, we must pass on that same comfort. 

Nothing learned, no comfort experienced, should EVER be kept to ourselves. So…open your eyes and look around and start asking yourself, “Who can I help today?”  Then…comfort away!! 

I’ve been reading Good & Angry by the late David Powlison. The 2016 book has been sitting on my office book shelf since I got it over a year ago, but just never took the time to read it due to needing to read other books. The book, as you can surmise, is about anger and it is subtitled “Redeeming Anger, Irrational Complaining, and Bitterness.” Since I am considering preaching on those subjects in July and August I thought I would read it. So far, so good. 

Powlison says this: 

In real life, anger is the reaction that incinerates marriages and disintegrates families. It energizes gossip and guns down classmates. It divides churches, turns friendships into enmity, and erupts in road rage. It is the stuff of every form of grievance and bitterness…Anger is also the basic DNA of complaining, brooding, irritability, and bickering…The crucial issues in anger touch every one of us. (p.8)

That about says it all doesn’t it?  But there is more! He goes on to describe 3 different types of angry people. Here they are with my very brief summary:

1. Domestic Gunslinger. After describing a couple who literally had a gunfight in their house, Powlison says, “A gunfight is one way to cut another person off and protect your turf.” (p.11) He, of course, wasn’t talking about a literal gunfight, but simply fighting to get your own way, regardless of the other person’s feelings. 

2. The Volcano. My guess is that we are all familiar with this one. Someone suddenly has an outburst and we wonder, “Where in the world did that come from?” We never saw it coming. Rage seethes, often below the surface, until “the moment” when eruption happens. Someone pushes a button and regurgitation is the reaction. 

3. The Iceberg. This is the person who seems under control, but actually lives in a universe that features him or her. Everything they feel or say can be traced back to past actions, by someone else. Everyone is against them. And yet, they appear to be cool, calm, and collected on the outside.

I’m not a professional counselor and certainly don’t know the answers to all of this. But I think it is important that we acknowledge that we are all angry to some degree. I thought I was fine this morning until things started going awry-little things that don’t amount to a hill of beans-and I found myself being annoyed. Like typing this. Do you know many times I have had to stop and make corrections? You don’t want to know, nor do you want to take a thermometer to my collar.

Long story short: get control of your anger. 

I heard those words yesterday. Nothing serious. For the past few years I have been dealing with and being treated for a trigger finger of my left index finger. It bends and catches and then pops back up (painfully sometimes). I’ve had several injections to try and calm it down. Unfortunately, none worked long-term. But that was not why I was there. I have developed the same condition on my right middle finger (yeah THAT one)-my dominant hand. In the process of treating that is when I heard the “solution” to the left index finger. 

So she gave me an injection in my right middle finger trigger point. It. hurt. like. fire! My hand burned and the finger felt like it was going to explode. (She warned me). Yesterday afternoon it felt swollen and hurt to touch the knuckle or the palm of that hand. It also hurt to bend it. 

This morning it feels better than it has in weeks. In my case, the pain came before the healing. How long will it last-who knows? But I’ll take it! 

There are much bigger things going on in my life-and yours-than trigger finger misery. Serious health issues. Prodigal children. Job loss. Loss of someone you love. And more. (Those are just examples). While I believe it to be true, to hear someone say, “God is working all things together for your good” sounds so blah. True, but blah. Hurting people don’t need spiritual platitudes. They need your heart. The thing is: God is doing so much more than we can see or know. I read a quote by Pastor John Piper:

God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them. 

We don’t know-we may never know-the answer to the “Why?” question. As hollow as it may sound at the time, He is working all things for my good….whether I see it or not. 

I think I’ll have the temporary pain of the surgery for the long-term benefit. 

{Update on surgery request: no definitive results yet. Atypical cells were found but that can be different things. Every colonoscopy I have had, but one, had irregular cells. All removed and a clean bill of health given. Thanks for praying and please keep doing so.}

I have preached that for years. This past weekend that truth came home to roost for me. I received a text from a long-time person I know. The gist of his text was that he wanted me to know he found his way back to Jesus. His life had been a wreck when someone reached out to him years ago and pointed him to Jesus. Along the way though, he soured on that commitment. Said he was a Deist at one point, then basically nothing. Along the way, choices were made that devastated others, ruined relationships, and led him further and further away. But deaths of friends began to wake him up; a son’s commitment to Jesus; a contact from that old friend who initially reached out to him; and the work of the Holy Spirit, drew him back into the loving arms of the Savior who never stopped loving and wooing him. 

I was reminded of the thief on the cross who used his exposure to Jesus and his final moments alive to ask Jesus to remember him. I told this person in a return text how happy this makes my heart and how he was never out of God’s hand or eye and this proves no one is ever too far gone to come home. I also told him he answered a prayer of mine that he didn’t even know about. 

No one is ever too far gone. If you know someone you have been praying for for years, don’t give up. Until they breathe their last breath, they can come home to the Savior’s arms. He can take the most crusty, sin-hardened heart and melt it and make it His. 

The proof was in a text this past weekend. 

{A prayer request: My daughter’s boy friend is having tests done today for possible pancreatic cancer and lesions on his liver. May I ask you to pray for them both and for whatever the results might be? (He is not the subject of this post) Thanks}

Tucked away in the Old Testament book of Daniel is one of the coolest stories and phrases in all of the Bible. The 3 Hebrew young men- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego-are brought before King Nebuchadnezzar because they refused to bow before his idol. The punishment was a fiery furnace. King Neb was so furious he flew into a rage (3:13) and ordered them brought before him. He gave them one more chance to recant and bow. Their answer is classic: “We don’t need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us…But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” (NLT)

And there it is! “If we are thrown…But even if.” No hesitation. No doubt. No whining. No wimping out. They were going to trust no matter what, even if it means being cooked. They trust God would be there with them in the fire and save them, but even if they died, they would never bow to the king. If you know the rest of the story, Neb ordered the furnace 7 times hotter. It was so hot it killed the soldiers who threw them in the fire. Almost immediately the King jumped up in amazement. He saw not 3, but 4 in the furnace. Ordered out, not a hair on their head was singed. (The whole story is found in Daniel 3). 

God replaces our “what if?” with all its questions and puts in its place “even if” with all its reassurance and answers. That has got to be one of the most liberating statements in all of Scripture. Let Him do that for you…replace your “What if?” with “Even if.” 

In Philippians 4:4 the Apostle Paul wrote, “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again-rejoice!”  He continues in verses 6-7a with “Don’t worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace…” (NLT)

Those words seem so strange to us, don’t they? “Me? Rejoice when things are all messed up and going south?” I read recently about a lady named Madame Guyon. She had a difficult life, marked by illness, neglect, and humiliation. When she was 16, her father tricked her into marrying a man who was 22 years older and afflicted with gout. She became his nurse and cared for him tirelessly, living in her mother-in-law’s home, even after she spread vicious lies about her. Guyon deeply trusted God’s character and saw that her father’s deceit and mother-in-law’s lies were both blessings because they enabled her to humbly turn to God and see His great love for her. Rather than growing bitter at the pain she’d endured, she chose to see God’s loving hand in it-that God has brought all her circumstances to draw her closer to Him. 

Vaneetha Rendall Risner, in her book Watching for the Morning writes,

“Everything that is difficult in our lives is a divine invitation to turn to God. Our annoyances can reveal our sin. People who hurt us give us opportunities to forgive.” (p.14)

Believing difficult times in our lives is often God’s invitation to trust Him is something I believe very strongly. That is why I’m asking for prayer. Here it is (no names because of the public nature of this post). Someone I know has a friend who is suspected of having pancreatic cancer and also has some lesions on his liver that will need to be biopsied as well. He is to have an endoscopy on Monday and they will take it from there. If it is cancer, he will have chemo to shrink it, then if that happens, surgery to remove it. My deepest concern is this person is not a Christ-follower. I’m praying if not me then someone can tell him about Jesus and lead him to Christ. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated. 

Meanwhile, “rejoice in the Lord” becomes a tangible and real test. 

I wrote briefly about Anxiety yesterday here. Today I’d like to say a little about Anger (but certainly not exhaustive).

Anger is a curious thing to me. It’s like a double-edged sword. There is good Anger and there is bad Anger. We have all experienced both, but perhaps recognize anger gone wrong with more insight. We’ve dished it out; we  have been dished on. We have seen what it has done to others (by our hands or another’s); we have seen/felt what it has done to us. Sometimes it is mild-frustration, complaining, irritation. Sometimes it is veiled-judgmental thoughts, for example. Sometimes it is “hidden” from view-painted over with a plastic smile, busyness, or an addiction. And sometimes-WHOA LOOK OUT!-everything breaks loose. Words fly. Emotions erupt. Physical manifestations overtake us. Not a pretty sight. 

Anger, to be sure, is not always bad or destructive. While I have mostly described the destructive kind, there is good anger. Anger against sin and injustice. Anger vs prejudice (I am currently reading “Night” by Elie Wiesel, his account of being in a concentration camp). Anger vs sin and false information (abortion, trans mutilation, for example). 

The tricky part is navigating it and confronting it correctly. Not kidding ourselves by saying, “I’m justified in this” in order to curb or salve our guilt. Blaming others, as though our reaction is justified because it is “their fault.” 

The Bible tells us “And don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.” (Eph. 4:26-27 NLT) So there is the admonition to deal with it and not let it stick around. There is justified anger over sin and unrighteousness and blatant disregard for God and others. But even that is to dealt with and not left hanging around.  We must, no need, to be careful that anger does not grip our heart. 

I’ll echo the Bible again: “Don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Other translations say, “Be angry, but don’t sin.” No matter how you shake it it all means the same: don’t let sin hang around in the form of anger. Slam the door.  Or to paraphrase the last part of that verse from Ephesians: “Kick that ladder out from underneath the devil” or “Slam that door in his face.”