Its all about perspective…

Yesterday morning, I laid in bed with my wife and kids and watched hilarious videos online. We laughed, we joked, and as my kids put it, we had “tickle time”. Tickle time is where i wrestle them and tickle them. Hearing their laughter bubble up to the point where I could hardly contain myself and I begin laughing. This is only my experience though. Others may have similar experiences of a good life, healthy kids, and no real problems in their lives, yet those around us may live a completely different life.

Dan recently went to the hospital because he thought that he had a case of flu, but soon found that he had a mass in his liver. Through many complications, had a very terrible month and Dan even came close to losing his life. He has two very young kids, a strong career, and a well liked and loved man; yet in the course of a few days he went from being seemingly well, to being hours away from death.

Dave and Katie are enjoying life as newlyweds. Last May, Dave & Katie stood before friends in family in a picturesque scene of downtown Minneapolis as we witnessed the joining of two lives. They had dated in high school, but after some time apart found their lives to intersect once again only to prove a love that would to be joined a few years later. Over six months into their marriage, they are as in love as ever, looking at a long life ahead of them.

Christine found herself back into a relationship that placed her into a realm of constant fear and anticipation of the worst. She would find herself in need of making choices that would affect the rest of her and her daughter’s life. Would she stay in a relationship that could bring some levels of stability yet would kill others or go out on a limb to live a life that she wouldn’t regret for herself and her daughter? After a jump of faith, she made the move to live a life that is true to herself and to her daughter.

Matt would be seen by many to be on top of the world. He was leading a highly successful church, has a beautiful family, and a very promising life ahead of him. On the morning of Thanksgiving, he would suffer a seizure that would lead doctors to soon discover a mass on his brain to be a malignant tumor. Now looking ahead at chemotherapy, and an uncertain future, how would he adjust to a world shaken by the unseen.

Each and every day we go about our lives with no signs of tragedy and few signs of pain, yet unknown to us, the person sitting next to us at work could be in the midst of the greatest changes that they have ever seen. I can continue on for hours of people around me who have been in worlds that I can’t imagine, all while my life seems completely normal. Do we know what those around us are facing in life? Do you enter into the joy and/or tragedy with them? I would question how you really live if your life is only about yourself. While the pain that you will take on with those around you, will mark your life, wouldn’t you rather they not walk alone or are you so consumed within yourself that it doesn’t matter to you?

My challenge to you tonight is to find what is going in the life of people around you and enter in. Yes, you will get hurt, yes you will experience pain, but you will also experience a joy that is unprecedented. Besides what you will take from it, what will you give away in that journey?

Faith in Hard Times

Growing up, i had some how gotten the belief that when something bad was happening to you it was either your actions that caused it to happen to you or a spiritual attack. I have a few ideas of better theology these days but there are still plenty of times that i truly don’t understand why things happen the way they do. There were plenty of times where my actions were not the best reflections of myself or my beliefs and then something bad would happen. Is it by chance or appropriate? Then there were other times that I was clicking “correctly” on all cylinders and something bad still happens. Both being written off as “why” the bad happens.

In those cases, for a lot of people they try to do the right thing, be the right thing, etc.. and then their parent still dies from cancer. Our belief systems are often based on what we DO or anything of the nature yet the bad things in life still happen. Once life falls in around us we blame God for what has happened and that he wasn’t faithful to US. I have caught myself in this same mindset and can’t get over how narcissistic I can be in life.

I don’t fully understand why we go through trials and tough times in life, but we do and/or we will go through hard times. Living in Detroit, you see this more often than you’d like, but it gives a great look at where our beliefs stand. Even in the massive job loss in our area, people losing their jobs, homes, cars, and even marriages; when it all comes crashing down, how do we react?

In those hard times, where do we fall to? How do we react? There is no shadow of a doubt that we will struggle, have pain and fear, but where do we rest?

A pastor from Texas, Matt Chandler had a seizure on thanksgiving morning; and after tests they found that he had a tumor on his brain. I am sure some skeptics would say that he has some “hidden sin” that has caused this or that because his church has been so successful that Satan is trying to take him down..

Ultimately, WHO KNOWS!!!! but his reaction to the whole deal is inspiring. I am not sure what state I would be in if this were me, but it sure makes me think about it…

When I face a hard part of life, how do I handle myself in it? What is my faith shaped in? What would my reactions be?

How about you?