The Purpose of Pain

I have realized this week that we often have a disjointed view of pain.  When pain causes me to pull my hand back from further injury from a flame, or a sharp object, or a moving object scraping away my skin, I view pain as a good thing.  I appreciate the warning that the pain is to me in removing my hand from the place where further injury could occur.

When a pain causes us to go to the doctor and get checked out, so that the doctor finds the underlying cause of the pain and fixes something that could have caused our body a great deal of harm.  While we do not enjoy the pain, we can appreciate the purpose it has served in our body.

Pain is God's way of telling us that there is something wrong.  For those who suffer from chronic pain, it would be easy to say "Enough!," but the truth remains that the pain tells us that there is something wrong. 

Our view of pain becomes disjointed when we move away from the physical realm.  Pain in relationships.  Pain from people, pain in losing something we care about.  These things aren't physical pain, although the pain caused can affect us physically.  When we move into this realm, we more often than not view the pain as the problem.  We seek to remove the pain.  Someone has hurt me, I will not give them that opportunity again  so we shut them out.  We have lost someone we love, so we purpose not to love that deeply again.  We take offense at something someone says to us, and we view them as the problem. 

If we carry over our lesson from physical pain, could it be that we often look to solve our pain by fixing other people?  Why is that?  Could it be that emotional pain in our hearts and minds is more indicative of something wrong in us?  Why do I take offense at gossip shared about me?  Because I have pride in who I am, or in what I've done, and it hurts my pride.  Certainly the gossip is wrong, and should be fixed, but is it possible that the pain is pointing to a part of myself that also needs to get fixed?  If we dealt with the pain from that perspective, it will free us up to forgive as God desires us to. 

I don't know if I've been as clear as the thoughts seem to be in my mind, today, but I hope I've encouraged you to view emotional pain in a different light.  As a symptom of pride in some form in our lives that needs to be dealt with.  When we count up the wrongs against us in our minds, it forms a blockade in our hearts against forgiveness, but when we take ourselves out of the picture, remove the pride that tells us that we deserve better treatment than we got, we'll be free to live without pain, and with forgiving hearts.

Why deal with pride?  because:

"He must increase,

but I must decrease" 

John 3:30

God is Good

It almost feels silly to title a blog entry that "God is good."  Of course He is good, basically, the whole point of my blog is to comment on situations in life and show God's goodness and how God shows his love and mercy and grace in all of life's circumstances.  Many things over the past few weeks have been piling up to declare God's goodness, and I wanted to share some of them.

God promises to provide for our needs.  We know that, but normally we like to figure out how it will all work out.  I'm a budget guy, I like to see it in my budget, figure out how to make the budget work, and stick to it.  The problem is, 6 growing children has made it harder and harder to stick to our budget in the food and clothing categories.  Not the end of the world, I assure you, but still something that was beginning to weigh on my mind.  Garage sales had come up short the last two summers, the garden hasn't been as productive in the freezing and canning areas, so we were beginning to feel a pinch.

A couple of weeks ago, I began more earnestly praying for God to provide our needs.  At times it feels selfish, because we already have so much, but I knew that God wants us to call out to him and trust his provision.  Strange things have been happening ever since.  We had a windfall of clothing finds at the first set of garage sales of the season, on top of a friend offering to buy things we needed at garage sales.  So much for the clothing budget pinch.  We continue to pray that God would provide for those needs, but less worried about how.  That's up to God.

Last week, I got a check in the mail from the NY labor dept.  It said that I had been underpaid at a previous job over 6 years ago, and the check was what was owed me by my previous employer.  Not a significant check, but a reminder that God has more resources to meet our needs than we know about.

This week, we were the beneficiaries of some leftover food from a wedding reception.  I had just told the church on Sunday that it is strange to pray for our daily bread when we know where it is already - whether we have the loaves on the counter, or have the flour to make bread in the cupboard.  But there, in the pile of food that was given to us, were 36 rolls to go with the sliced roast beef.  Truth was, I didn't know where my daily bread was coming from, and God had to remind me.  It comes from him.

These are the highlights, but by no means the total of God's blessings over the past few weeks.  I could tell of God working to neutralize gossip and false witness in the church and town, of God working in a families lives to grow and challenge them in Gods Word, of answers to prayer on many fronts.  Sometimes we focus on the struggles and the challenges, but today, I wanted to focus on the blessings.  God is good!

Praise ye the LORD. 
O give thanks unto the LORD; 

for he is good: 
for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 106:1

Chickens, Part II

I've learned a lot about chickens in the last few weeks.  They are often classified as not too smart.  They will kick their food out of the dish, they will kick bedding into the water dish, sometimes they will shiver rather than go toward the heat lamp, and sometimes, you may have to gently put a chicken's beak in the water to get it to drink. 

This morning, while cleaning out one of the brooder compartments, one with chicks in it that we have had two full weeks now, I was impressed with how terrified these chicks are of me.  We have fed them, cleaned their bedding, provided fresh, clean water, and provided adequate heat as their feathers are growing in.  But they are still terrified to be held.  We are told that the more time a chick spends being held and in contact with humans, the tamer they will be as adult chickens around humans.

I suppose they don't know what is going on, for the most part, and are scared, wondering what I will do to them.  Yet it is a neat principle for us to understand: the more the contact, the more comfortable they become.  On the spiritual side, the more contact we have with God, through prayer and time in His Word, the more comfortable we are with Him.  As we learn and grow, the difficulties in life won't terrify us as they did before, because we'll trust God's hands.  We won't doubt His plan and how it is playing out in our lives, because we have become comfortable with His handling of us.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.   - Psalm 16:11

God's presence is terrifying to think of in terms of His holiness and righteousness, but when we understand His love, kindness, and care for us, His presence can be a source of joy in our lives.

Chickens!

No, I'm not calling names.  We have recently been working at raising chicks.  That will be my excuse of the day for not blogging for the last several weeks.  We are well into the process of raising chickens - a pretty, red coop in the side yard, a reinforced run for the chickens to roam in, and heat lamps in the brooder room full of 22 baby and not so baby chicks.  They range from a few days old, up to 4-5 weeks old at this point.  We have Cornish Rock (meat birds), Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Amberlinks, and some assorted birds that we are unsure of what they are as of yet. 

This far into the process, we have learned something.  Chickens are a lot of work!  Building the coop, preparing the brooders, cleaning the brooders, feeding and watering the chickens.  There has been plenty to do!  There hasn't been any complaints about all the work, as of yet.  The families love for the cute, cudly chickens, and my love for designing and building things have made the work light. 

We heard that chickens are easy to raise, and I guess in comparison, they are right.  Compared to children, chicks are low maintenance.  Compared to cows, they don't eat very much.  Compared to elephants, they don't soil their bedding much. 

Then I think of our Heavenly Father.  He not only provides for the chickens of the field (loose translation), and the flowers of the field, but He provides for us.  What a lot of work that must entail on a daily basis - but my God is up to the task, and has the love to mean that the work will not become a burden to him.

As you think of the work you have in caring for your responsibilities, remember the joy Our Heavenly Father has in caring for His responsibilities and smile, realizing that even though His burden is so great, He has promised to take all of our cares upon Him as well.

Humble yourselves therefore 

under the mighty hand of God, 

that he may exalt you in due time:

Casting all your care upon him; 

for he careth for you.- I Peter 5:6-7

When things look dark.

It has been a few weeks since a post.  That means that I've been a lazy blogger.  There has been plenty of lessons learned over the past 3-4 weeks, I just haven't sat down to put them into writing.  There have been a few discouragements, but, as always, I am amazed at the goodness of God in turning dark times into bright times.

Perhaps no where is that point made more clearly than the events that we celebrate this week.  Jesus was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death without actually being convicted.  Instead of passover being a time to celebrate God's deliverance, his disciples and followers were mourning his loss.  A three year 'ride' that they thought would propel them into leadership in Jesus' kingdom appeared to be brought to a screeching halt.  They probably felt a huge sense of loss - of Jesus, and maybe the loss of three years of their lives, their reputations, their dreams.

With God, darkness doesn't have to be the end.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, God can turn dark times in our lives into bright times as well.  It starts by turning the darkness of our sin into the brightness of Jesus' righteousness. 

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

I John 1:9

Once we've taken that step, we find that the darkest that the world has to throw at us cannot hide the light of His glory from shining through in our lives.  I could give many examples from my own life, but if you've asked for forgiveness, you have plenty of your own, and if you haven't come to Jesus for forgiveness, you probably wouldn't believe me anyway.  

I hope as we approach "Good Friday" and Resurrection Sunday, that you are able to celebrate the light that God has shone into your life.

The Things We Get Used To . . .

Have you ever thought how easy it is to get used to things in our lives.  Bad habits can stack up like firewood when we get used to things that are not beneficial.  We get used to driving, instead of walking - even get used to finding the best parking space so we don't have to walk a few extra steps.  We get used to eating for pleasure rather than for nutrition and strength.  We get used to having what we want, when we want it.  We get used to things to the point of feeling we deserve them (affordable health care, nice cars, comfortable homes, 'good' food, high-speed Internet, phone service, cell service, cable/satellite tv, etc.)

How much work does it take to get 'used to' these things?  Very little - in fact, we kind of fall into these habits.

Yet how easy is it to get used to good habits?  Growing in our walk with the Lord, reading our Bibles, prayer,  loving our neighbors, helping those in need?  Why don't we 'fall' into these habits?

The things we get used to easily shows us the things that we value in life.  When we value comfort, convenience, and pleasure it is easy to fall into bad habits.  When we value growth, godliness, and spiritual things, it will be easy to fall into good habits.

Often we may struggle to conform our actions to what we desire them to be, but if we conform our hearts to value those things that God values, we will find it easy to follow through with proper actions.  I must confess that I often fall short in this area,  but as the blog says: "Moving on up" - I hope these thoughts help you (and me) to move on up today.

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.- Luke 6:45

Lessons from a loaf of bread

I love to bake!  I think I pretty much always have.  My favorite things to bake has almost always been sweets: cookies, brownies, cakes, pies - anything sweet.  In an effort towards a more healthy lifestyle, we have been doing more baking of breads and bread products (bagels, pitas, rolls, buns, you name it!)  We have been using whole grain wheat and grinding it at home for over a month now, and have enjoyed the extra flavor of good homemade bread, and the knowledge that our bread was better for us.  This past week, we saw mention of the dangers of whole wheat flour - and an investigation has followed.  Phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors are present in whole grains and many suggest soaking grains to convert the phytic acid and neutralize the enzyme inhibitors.

After looking into various facts and points of view, we have decided that phytic acid is not a dangerous substance for most diets, and enzyme inhibitors are not dangerous when fresh fruits and vegetables are part of the diet.  At this point, you're probably wondering what my point is, this blog is not usually about baking.

In our investigation, we stumbled onto sourdough bread - a fermented starter that neutralizes phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, and food spoilage bacteria.  And the bacteria that causes the rising in the bread, even though killed in the baking process, gives added flavor and nutrients to the bread.  So for the last several days, we have had sourdough starter (named 'Fred') sitting on our counter.  Fred is a hearty guy, but fred needs something on a regular basis.  Fred needs to be fed.  Fred is healthy; his bacteria fight off food spoilage, kill of non-beneficial bacteria, and cause my bread to rise properly when preparing for baking.  Fred takes carbohydrates and gives off tiny CO2 bubbles that make light and fluffy loaves.  But in order to do that, Fred needs food - good food.  So every 12 hours on the counter (2-3 days in the fridge), I need to add more flour and water to Fred to keep him growing and protected.

Fred struck me this morning as a picture of our spiritual lives.  With proper feeding and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we grow healthily to fight off the attacks of sinful influences and spoilage that comes from wrong thoughts and actions.  With proper feeding, growth is evidenced in out lives and spreads easily to infect all areas of our lives.  But without proper feeding, just like Fred, we would cease to grow, and not have the strength to fight off unwanted influences and the spoilage that comes from them.

Fred likes to be fed twice a day, when is your next feeding?

"As newborn babes, 
desire the sincere milk of the word, 

that ye may grow thereby:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." 

- I Peter 2:2-3