I’ve been thinking about material possessions a lot lately. How we are often too worried about them; having the right stuff or the most up-to-date things. How they seem like a big deal but they’re really not. A lot of things can put material possessions into perspective.
For example, in the past few months, I’ve personally known two families who have lost their homes to fires. The first family was Cameron’s aunt, uncle, and cousins. Six months after they lost Cameron, they lost their house. They lost absolutely everything; they just escaped with the clothes on their backs. And just last night, my little brother’s friend and his family lost their house to a fire. Events like that really put things into perspective for me. It also shows how easy it is to replace material possessions. Some objects may mean the world to us, but then you look at situations like the ones I just mentioned and you see how easy it really is to lose them.
And just last month, I found myself a little too concerned with my material possessions. I lost a box full of all my shorts and capris. I searched the whole house and couldn’t find the box. And for a while, I was really upset. A little upset that all the clothes I liked were missing, but also upset because I would have to do shopping to replace them. And I hate clothes shopping. But then I reminded myself of how I’m fortunate enough to even be able to go out and buy new clothes.
And I stumbled across a few great Bible verses. Matthew 6:25-34 is such a great reminder:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
There’s also a Sanctus Real song that echoes these verses. And there’s a Switchfoot song that talks about how minor material possessions are. All these references are great reminders that material possessions are so temporary and that God is the one permanent thing in life. Everything around us may change; we might move far away, we might lose our home to a fire, we might lose someone we love, and everything that can go wrong might go wrong. But through those trials we know that God is still there and He will never change.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
These Things Take Time
The sermon at church yesterday was a good one. It was one of those things where if it would have been preached exactly a year ago, you would’ve left thinking, That was a nice sermon. I’ll have to remember that for later. But because it happened when it did, I found it extremely beneficial. It was called “How can a good God allow suffering?” I just wanted to share some points that I found to be interesting from the sermon.
The pastor was saying how if God is all-good and all-powerful, then why can’t He just destroy evil? There are two potential answers to why He doesn’t destroy evil. The first is that God is not all-good and all-powerful, which we obviously know isn’t true. So the second is that evil will be destroyed someday, which must be the solution since we know that God is an all-good and all-powerful God. The pastor then went on to ask another question (as you can imagine, there were lots of questions asked during this sermon), which was “Why did God allow suffering in the first place?” If you look in the Bible in Genesis 2 and 3, you’ll see that God gave us a choice because He loves us. Another question was “Why doesn’t God just put an end to evil and suffering now?” I thought this answer was extremely interesting. If God was to put an end to evil and suffering right this second, who and what would be left? We are evil beings; from the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned against God, we’ve been born with a human nature to stray from God. So if God destroyed all evil and suffering, nothing would be left. Also, God is a patient God. As I’ve seen throughout my own life, through the hard times and suffering, there are more opportunities for God to be glorified. It’s totally true if you think about it. If bad things didn’t happen in our lives, no one would overcome anything. It wouldn’t be a struggle to get out of bed and return to normal life. We wouldn’t have stories of God helping us through those difficult situations because without evil, there would be no difficult situations! And even though evil sucks and suffering hurts, they are great opportunities to share your faith. God can be glorified through the hurt and sadness, if just for the simple truth that we are still alive and breathing. It’s a testimony to God’s goodness and power that we can still stand and go on with our lives after suffering whatever it may be.
There were also a few things that the pastor said that caught my attention and still have me thinking about them. One of them is this: Has God ever not done what He promised to do? Sure things happen and go wrong sometimes but God is still faithful and good. Something else he said was interesting to me: There is no trust without obedience and there is no hope without perseverance.
On the topic of evil, suffering, and all the questions that go along with those two things, I thought of a song that I’ve become quite fond of lately. Back in March, I saw Sanctus Real in concert. They just came out with a new CD and they played all their new songs. One of them caught my attention right away. The lyrics were just so true and captivating. Here’s a sample:
I want to know why pain makes me stronger / I want to know why good men die / Why am I so afraid of the dark, but I stray from the light? / I want to know why You gave me eyes when faith is how I see / And tell me, is it easier to doubt or harder to believe? / Oh, there’s so many questions stirring in me / And I’m wondering why / Sometimes the truth ain’t easy to find / I wanna know all the answers / But I’m learning that these things take time
I just think it’s so neat how God puts people or events in your life at just the moment you need them. The whole time during the sermon yesterday, this song was stuck in my head. And I just love it; it talks about questions we all have and tells us that we’ve got to give it time. We’re not going to figure everything out right away, and that’s okay. That’s how it’s supposed to be. In fact, we may never know the answers to some of the questions we have. But once our lives on earth are through and we get to heaven, those questions won’t matter anymore. All those questions are born out of evil and suffering, and how can such questions exist in a place without evil?
Also, I need to make a correction. My dear friend pointed out a mistake in my thinking. I don’t know if I wrote it late at night or what, but I got a little confused in my theology. Here’s what I originally said:
“That quote put a lot of things in perspective for me. I learned that while it was a part of God’s will that Cameron was taken home so early, in a weird way, it wasn’t. God didn’t want to take him at such a great part of his life. But because of the fall of man, we have a whole set of problems that come and affect God’s perfect will. But God is all-knowing, so He knew in advance that sin was going to mess up His perfect plans. But He still allows it to happen because of freewill and the sacrifice that was paid through Jesus’ death on the cross. Just because I discovered this, it didn’t make the pain go away. But it helped me work though everything and realize that I shouldn’t be mad or upset at God. God’s plan wasn’t to take Cameron on August 1, but because of all the sin of this world, it happened that way.”
I need to clarify a few things. First off, it was part of God’s plan for Cameron to be taken to heaven on August 1. Of course, we have free-will and will occasionally go against God’s plans. But ultimately, our lives go according to God’s plans. I really don’t know what I was thinking; perhaps I was thinking about how his life ended in an accident and that if there was no sin, accidents wouldn’t exist. I don’t know. But I apologize for going a little crazy on you. It wasn’t my intention to set you up to false thinking.
The pastor was saying how if God is all-good and all-powerful, then why can’t He just destroy evil? There are two potential answers to why He doesn’t destroy evil. The first is that God is not all-good and all-powerful, which we obviously know isn’t true. So the second is that evil will be destroyed someday, which must be the solution since we know that God is an all-good and all-powerful God. The pastor then went on to ask another question (as you can imagine, there were lots of questions asked during this sermon), which was “Why did God allow suffering in the first place?” If you look in the Bible in Genesis 2 and 3, you’ll see that God gave us a choice because He loves us. Another question was “Why doesn’t God just put an end to evil and suffering now?” I thought this answer was extremely interesting. If God was to put an end to evil and suffering right this second, who and what would be left? We are evil beings; from the beginning when Adam and Eve sinned against God, we’ve been born with a human nature to stray from God. So if God destroyed all evil and suffering, nothing would be left. Also, God is a patient God. As I’ve seen throughout my own life, through the hard times and suffering, there are more opportunities for God to be glorified. It’s totally true if you think about it. If bad things didn’t happen in our lives, no one would overcome anything. It wouldn’t be a struggle to get out of bed and return to normal life. We wouldn’t have stories of God helping us through those difficult situations because without evil, there would be no difficult situations! And even though evil sucks and suffering hurts, they are great opportunities to share your faith. God can be glorified through the hurt and sadness, if just for the simple truth that we are still alive and breathing. It’s a testimony to God’s goodness and power that we can still stand and go on with our lives after suffering whatever it may be.
There were also a few things that the pastor said that caught my attention and still have me thinking about them. One of them is this: Has God ever not done what He promised to do? Sure things happen and go wrong sometimes but God is still faithful and good. Something else he said was interesting to me: There is no trust without obedience and there is no hope without perseverance.
On the topic of evil, suffering, and all the questions that go along with those two things, I thought of a song that I’ve become quite fond of lately. Back in March, I saw Sanctus Real in concert. They just came out with a new CD and they played all their new songs. One of them caught my attention right away. The lyrics were just so true and captivating. Here’s a sample:
I want to know why pain makes me stronger / I want to know why good men die / Why am I so afraid of the dark, but I stray from the light? / I want to know why You gave me eyes when faith is how I see / And tell me, is it easier to doubt or harder to believe? / Oh, there’s so many questions stirring in me / And I’m wondering why / Sometimes the truth ain’t easy to find / I wanna know all the answers / But I’m learning that these things take time
I just think it’s so neat how God puts people or events in your life at just the moment you need them. The whole time during the sermon yesterday, this song was stuck in my head. And I just love it; it talks about questions we all have and tells us that we’ve got to give it time. We’re not going to figure everything out right away, and that’s okay. That’s how it’s supposed to be. In fact, we may never know the answers to some of the questions we have. But once our lives on earth are through and we get to heaven, those questions won’t matter anymore. All those questions are born out of evil and suffering, and how can such questions exist in a place without evil?
Also, I need to make a correction. My dear friend pointed out a mistake in my thinking. I don’t know if I wrote it late at night or what, but I got a little confused in my theology. Here’s what I originally said:
“That quote put a lot of things in perspective for me. I learned that while it was a part of God’s will that Cameron was taken home so early, in a weird way, it wasn’t. God didn’t want to take him at such a great part of his life. But because of the fall of man, we have a whole set of problems that come and affect God’s perfect will. But God is all-knowing, so He knew in advance that sin was going to mess up His perfect plans. But He still allows it to happen because of freewill and the sacrifice that was paid through Jesus’ death on the cross. Just because I discovered this, it didn’t make the pain go away. But it helped me work though everything and realize that I shouldn’t be mad or upset at God. God’s plan wasn’t to take Cameron on August 1, but because of all the sin of this world, it happened that way.”
I need to clarify a few things. First off, it was part of God’s plan for Cameron to be taken to heaven on August 1. Of course, we have free-will and will occasionally go against God’s plans. But ultimately, our lives go according to God’s plans. I really don’t know what I was thinking; perhaps I was thinking about how his life ended in an accident and that if there was no sin, accidents wouldn’t exist. I don’t know. But I apologize for going a little crazy on you. It wasn’t my intention to set you up to false thinking.
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