Trusting and Building
My wife and I are building a house. This is actually the second time we have done so. In 2006 we built our home in Ellabell, thinking it would be the place we would retire. But God had other plans, and so here we are in Shellman Bluff.
We looked at several existing homes, but none were exactly what we wanted. And so we made the decision to build. We wondered if that was the best thing for us. Building a house is a challenge. It can put a strain on you in many ways.
At the same time, it is also very exciting. Today they are putting the roof rafters up. The hope is to have roof decking in place by the end of the week. And doors and windows will soon be in place. In other words, it’s looking more and more like a house. We still don’t know when we will be living there, but we are closer than we were last month.
Anxiety. Anticipation. Words that are poles apart, and yet they both describe what we are feeling. We anticipate living in a beautiful place that we helped to design. My wife will have her own piano room. I will have a sunroom. But we are anxious about things that we have to do in the meantime. Pick out lights and fans and flooring options and cabinets, and the list goes on, seemingly forever. And of course, someone has to pay for the place.
The Bible says, “Be anxious about nothing…” Can I be blunt? That is a difficult task. Nothing? But there are so many reasons to be anxious. Can we realistically be anxious about nothing?
That is where the rest of the verse applies. “Be anxious about nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” The secret is not to bear down harder, or to be stronger or wiser. The answer is to talk to God, and then trust in Him. Even while building a house in the midst of a pandemic. Trust in the Lord. He is always trustworthy. He will not fail you.
Who’s in Charge
In 2019 I was supposed to go to Haiti on a mission trip, first in January, and then again in April. In January the U.S. state department issued a travel ban due to political unrest in Port au Prince. And later there was a shortage of diesel in Haiti, making both travel and staying at the mission house problematic.
There were ten of us going. We all had a sense of disappointment. When we started to plan the trip there was great excitement, and it had continued to build. I was to teach a group of pastors, and there were to be medical clinics in several nearby villages. Such a trip is truly a life-changing event.
But for reasons we could not fully understand, we had to wait. We had prayed for weeks that the travel ban would be lifted. We had the best of intentions all along. And yet, in the end, we are not able to go. Why? Why would God not open the door for us to serve others in His name?
I admit that I don’t have all of the answers. I do know this. God’s timing is different from ours, and it is always perfect. We trust Him. We believe He sometimes opens, and at other times closes doors. There may be times He tests us to see if we trust Him as we should. At other times He may be protecting us from dangers about which we know nothing.
There are times when God’s answer is “no.” Paul asked for a thorn in the flesh to be removed from his life, but God’s answer was, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Paul was satisfied with that answer. I pray that I will be as well.
You may be facing some disappointment. You wanted something, but it has been delayed, or even not available. Will you trust God to answer in His time and in the right way? He does what is best for us. He is faithful. We can trust Him.
Just FYI, we were finally able to make the trip in September. It was a marvelous experience. The fact is that God knows what He is doing, and again, it is our lot to trust and follow Him. He will not fail you.
“It Ought Not Be So”
I am preaching through the book of James on Sundays, and recently dealt with chapter 2:1-12 where James speaks of the power and the danger of the tongue. He reminds us that the tongue, though small, has the power, both to help and to hurt. He even goes so far as to say, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man…” James declares here, that if you do not sin with your mouth, you can be considered perfect.
But in the previous phrase he had said, “For we all stumble in many ways.” So we see that such perfection is not possible in this world. The truth is that no one controls the tongue perfectly.
In verse 9, James shares a haunting truth about the tongue. “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” What a tragedy!
James says that we go to worship and sing songs of praise, and later that day we speak in a nasty way to, or about, another person. It could be that we go to church in the morning and are deeply moved by the worship. And yet, at lunch in the restaurant, we snap at our server, giving her a piece of our mind. Never mind that most of us do not have enough mind to give away a piece.
In verse 10 we read, “From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” Can you hear the sigh of frustration in James’ voice? These two things, blessing and cursing, are contradictory. They should not come from the same mouth.
More than one Christian has harmed his or her reputation by one foolish sentence or exclamation. More than one nonbeliever has given up on Christianity because of something said to them. Should we not be more careful with our words?
Momma said, “Think before you speak.” She also said, “If you don’t have something nice to say, then say nothing.” Momma was right.
I pray that I will be more careful with the things that I say. I pray the same thing for you. Let us take care to use our words for good. Let us point others to the Lord with the things that we say.
Frustrations
When I was ordained as a pastor, I invited my good friend, Floyd, to preach that night. He began his sermon by reading from Ecclesiastes 10:1, “Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweigh wisdom and honor.”
May I admit to you that I wondered where he was going with that? Who starts a sermon talking about dead flies? But then Floyd began to make his point. It’s the little things in life that can cause trouble for us all. And sometimes we allow those little things to hurt us more than they should.
A few months back, while printing a document I had typed, I inadvertently hit the wrong button on my printer. Since that time, every document I have printed has been front and back, and I have not been able to change the settings. If I want to print only on one side of the page, I have to print each page individually. This takes extra time, and I have to admit that it frustrates me.
I am more than sure I could find a twelve-year-old who could fix the situation for me, but to date I have just lived with it. But again, I have to admit this. It drives me crazy that I haven’t been able to fix it. I’ve tried to follow the instructions on the screen to the best of my ability. But still every document prints on two sides.
The truth is that this is not a big deal. It’s a small matter. And yet it is exactly the kind of thing that causes frustration. It gets under your skin. And if you are not careful you will say or do something that you will regret as you think about it.
Floyd was right. Or better, Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, was right. Dead flies stink. Little things cause us trouble. And we have to work at it to be wise and to make good decisions.
Are there dead flies in your life? Clean them up. Sweep them out. Don’t let the little things destroy your witness. Be careful. Trust the Lord. He will help you as you do.
Trust Always
As I write these words we are waiting on a hurricane. It’s not supposed to hit us hard. Still, there is always that chance that it could change its course, gain strength, and then we would be scrambling in more ways than one.
I used to wonder why in the world anyone would live in a place susceptible to hurricanes… or earthquakes… or tsunamis. Why would you put yourself in a position that you could lose everything in an instant, or where you might have to evacuate and leave everything you own, not certain if it would still be there when you returned? Why indeed?
And then I finally realized this. No matter where we are, and no matter what we do, life is a risk. Nothing that we own is permanent. Not one of us has the promise, even of tomorrow. We are living by faith. Or, in some cases, by fear.
In his short letter, James, the half brother of Jesus, wrote these words, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring…Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’”
In that brief thought James if reminding us of this truth. We are not in control. As much as we wish we were, we simply are not in control. All of life is dependent. We depend on family and friends. But mostly, we are dependent upon the Lord.
So here is the $100,000 question. Do we trust in, and submit to, the One who is in control? I don’t know about you, but there are many times in life that I would prefer to be in charge. I find it difficult to trust and follow the Lord, because I would like to know where I am going, and what I am doing.
But the truth is that we are living moment by moment, and we do not know what the future holds. But you can know the One who holds the future. When a hurricane is coming, trust in the Lord. When a pandemic is present, trust in the Lord. When a crisis hits close to home, trust in the Lord. No matter what you might face, my advice is the same. Trust in the Lord.