Monthly Archives: November 2011

Divine Strategizing

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With age comes wisdom, and at 93, my friend Milton has an abundance of it. Mary, Tom and I are spending 5 days in California with 4 first cousins who hail from Pasadena, Santa Barbara, and Hesperia. In our travels between these dear ones, we had the privilege of spending this afternoon with Milton in Riverside, an hour’s drive inland from Los Angeles. Although he isn’t technically a relative, the two of us are related in the Lord.

Milton and I first became friends after I found myself enamored with his son at 19, well before Nate. Although that dating relationship went by the wayside, in the process I’d made a lifelong buddy of his father, and Milton and I have kept tabs on each other for 47 years.

Today is the second anniversary of Nate’s departure to heaven, and as the hours passed, the significance of November 3rd was continually on my mind. Milton understood. He’s endured the heartache of losing not one but two spouses, Margie to cancer and Eva to Alzheimer’s. Yet his servant-heart sought no credit for nursing both of them through years of difficult disease.

I asked Milton about the time between his marriages. “What made you decide to marry a second time?”

His words revealed his character. “Well,” he said, smiling broadly, “I look back on that decision and see that God was really the one who made it. He knew Eva would need a husband to help her through Alzheimer’s, and he figured I could do that.” Although it got severe toward the end when she no longer knew Milton or even accepted him as her husband, he was in it for the duration.

Today Milton said something sweet. “You know, God knew you needed to marry Nate, too.” And he was right. God knows what we need ahead of time and strategizes accordingly, laying the groundwork for the decisions we will one day make. Then, when the time comes, he’s ready for every situation and better yet, has made us ready as well.

God knew Milton’s wives would need a strong man to carry them through end-stage traumas, so he brought each couple together at the right time to make that work. And he knew I would need Nate’s stabilizing influence, so he put us into each other’s lives at the right moment to make that work, too.

Today as I thought about Nate’s death, I appreciated my friend Milton’s 93 years of wisdom in pointing out my need for him and how God brought us together. I also was reminded of God’s infinity-years of wisdom and the fact that he offers it freely to all of us as we make important decisions. Just as he guided Milton and me, he’s eager to plan for anyone else who wants to take advantage of the divine strategizing he offers.

”The Lord works out everything to its proper end.” (Proverbs 16:4a)

Today’s blog…

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I apologize for the absence of a blog post last night (i.e. this morning).

I’m in California with my siblings and cousins, but last night at posting time, the hotel internet went down.

Hoping to connect later…

Margaret

 

The Buffett Zone

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Warren Buffett, the world’s richest person, has recently been in the news promoting a new approach to our country’s taxes, but there are a number of other things about him more interesting than that. His name, for example: Buffett.

I once heard an interview in which his grandchild said, “He doesn’t give us money unless it’s college tuition. He’s happy to pay for those expenses, but other than that doesn’t give us anything.”

And that’s where his interesting name comes in. The word “buffet” is a potent King James Bible word many of us cut our spiritual teeth on when we were kids. It means to strike against or push repeatedly. Mr. Buffett apparently recognizes that a little life-buffeting is a valuable thing.

Although I know nothing about the man’s spiritual point of view, his reasoning on the buffeting idea falls in line with Scripture. The biblical Paul mentions he’d been buffeted, listing it along with being hungry, thirsty, homeless and naked. His purpose was to warn new believers about what was ahead, urging them to persevere. He told them God would use the weak as strong voices for his saving message.

In another place Paul wrote about Satan buffeting him personally by way of physical pain. He again reminds readers God often displays great power through weak humans if they can rise above pain by taking advantage of God’s sufficient grace to endure.

All of us have been in the Buffet Zone now and again, bumping up against obstacles much like passengers in carnival bumper cars slam into one another. Warren Buffett has refused to use money to shield his grandchildren from the bumps and bruises of life, since those are the basis for a practical education in the “school of hard buffeting-knocks.”

The King James translation includes one more dramatic, instructional use of the word “buffet.” It’s used to describe the blows delivered to Jesus after his arrest: “They spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands.” (Matthew 26:67) And how did Jesus react?

He took it.

It was unfair… blasphemous… hurtful… evil. But he took it.

By responding to extreme, undeserved buffeting in this way, Jesus became our example. We’re to garner inner strength from the Father as he did, counting on him to meet out justice on our behalf. This goes against our natural instincts to lash back and get even. It also contradicts what we’re taught by the world. But becoming fully dependent on God for rescue leaves it up to him to control the buffeting and also the retribution.

This approach sounds risky, but counting on the sufficient grace of God always turns out to be a good risk.

“What glory is it, if, when you are buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? But if, when you do well and suffer for it you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” (1 Peter 2:20)