Yearly Archives: 2012

That’s news to me!

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We’ve all heard the expression, “No news is good news.” In other words, since bad news travels fast, no new news probably means there’s no bad news, since that would come before good news, which then assumes all the news we haven’t yet heard is good. Whew!

Both good and bad news can take us by surprise, which is great with good news and awful with bad. When bad news does come, our responses tell a great deal about us. Do we panic? Despair? Jump to extreme conclusions?

As Christians we ought to be able to monitor our reactions by way of biblical truth. Believing that God travels with us through every bad-news-situation and that he won’t allow us to come into more than we can handle should be enough to stave off negative responses, but sometimes it just isn’t.

Eight weeks ago I got some bad news in the form of a secret from one of my kids. Katy and Hans called from England to ask for prayer about a serious matter, and I was more than happy to do so. Going into God’s throne room with my children is one of life’s highest privileges and a great way to sidestep anxiety.

Today I’m happy to report the Lord answered our prayers as we’d hoped, and the new news that wasn’t meant to be broadcast 8 weeks ago can now be joyfully told far and wide: Katy and Hans will welcome baby #4 in May!

But what about those times when news that comes to us is all bad and a rescue or change doesn’t occur? What if God chooses to let the bad stuff stand? What if our baby had miscarried?

I believe bad news is God-given opportunity to exercise our faith muscles. It’s a chance to prove to ourselves and him what we really think. Do we trust him like we say we do? Do we believe he acts on our prayers? Do we accept that he still loves us when the bad news is really bad?

If we can answer yes, then bad news shouldn’t throw us. So why does it? Maybe because we don’t have a pre-news strategy in place ahead of time. For example, we could determine that whenever bad news comes, we won’t speak until after asking God to control our words. Or we could tell ourselves we’ll search for blessings in the news. Or we could express quick thanks that God will walk with us through it.

Those responses are far better than fear or anguish. After all, much of what we first hear in a bad-news flash isn’t usually accurate, and the extremes we dread don’t often happen.

And once in a while, the news that looks all bad changes into something really wonderful…. like a brand new grandbaby!

The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name… I will be with them in trouble…. I will rescue and honor them.” (Psalm 91:14-15)

Satisfying Our Hunger

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Louisa and I set our alarms to rise early this morning. We needed to stuff two 20 pound turkeys, peel 15 pounds of potatoes, and finish preparations for an extended family Thanksgiving dinner. Cooking side-by-side made it fun, and we chatted away through the hours.

I thought of the rest of the world and how so many don’t have a chance to sit at a dinner table like most Americans do on Thanksgiving. Some people have never known that very-full feeling we all experience on this day of feasting, and it’s almost embarrassing to say we experience it often.

Thanksgiving fell on an early date this year, because November 1 was a Thursday. So when I opened my Spurgeon devotional today, I didn’t expect it to be about the holiday. After all, he was writing from England, where Thanksgiving doesn’t exist. But lo and behold, his thoughts were perfect:

“Hunger is by no means a pleasant sensation. Yet blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Such persons shall not only have their hunger relieved with a little food, but they shall be… filled with goodness by Jehovah himself.” *

If only we made it our top priority to “get filled” the biblical way rather than trying to fill ourselves by satisfying hungers that are inappropriate, out of proportion, or  even sinful. Attempting to find satisfaction by indulging in the wrong things does bring a measure of pleasure at the time, but the feeling never lasts. Badly chosen pleasures don’t fill us for long, because they don’t address the hunger pangs of the heart and soul.

There’s only one way to satisfy those hunger pangs, and Spurgeon said it well: “The Lord will satisfy soul-longings, however great and all-absorbing they may be.”

That super-full feeling after a big meal eventually disappears, and tomorrow our stomachs will growl again and we’ll be quick to fill them up. No matter how much we eat, we’ll always be hungry in a few hours, because stomach-satisfaction is short lived. And though we don’t think so at the time, other pursuits to get satisfied apart from the Lord’s doing it are just as repeatedly needy as a stomach.

We don’t like to experience hunger pangs, but God actually encourages them, at least spiritual hunger pangs. Spurgeon says, “It is well to have [soul]-longings, and the more intense they are the better. Come, let us not fret because we long and hunger, but let us long and hunger to see God magnified [in our lives].”

On this Thanksgiving night, I’m most thankful not for the lavish feast we consumed today but for the ongoing banquet the Lord offers to anyone who seeks to satisfy soul-hunger through him.

By the way, while I’m speaking of being thankful, the clean-up crew was pretty high on my list, too!

“The Lord satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:9)

* Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith, Daily Readings by C.H.Spurgeon

Mending Mess-ups

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When I was 15, I pulled one too many pranks at summer camp and got sent home by the frustrated director. Although I was more than happy to get out from under his leadership at the time, I dreaded telling my parents what had happened, knowing they’d be angry with me.

The days that followed were full of tension as my folks laid out disciplinary restrictions, and worst of all, they made me apologize to the camp director for my bad behavior. Because he and his wife were friends of my parents, I had caused some significant embarrassment.

All of us mess up once in a while, or as in my case, more frequently. We misjudge situations, base our opinions on false information, act immaturely, or snap at people, all because we want our own way.

How does God feel when we act like this? Surely he’s disappointed, disgusted, even angry. But I have a hunch he holds out hope that with enough mess-ups, we’ll learn how to do better next time. One thing is sure: he doesn’t love us any less when we behave badly. Scripture uses the words “unfailing love” over 40 times to describe the way God loves us. This kind of love is trustworthy, consistent, and sure. And best of all, our mess-ups can’t possibly erode it.

My former camp director and I eventually bumped into each other many years after he sent me home… 47 years, to be exact. Truth be told, I’d felt badly about my behavior those many years and was grateful for the chance to mend the relationship. But while I was thinking of what to say to him, he beat me to it, asking if I would forgive him for sending me home from camp. And he said it in front of 250 people.

I followed that by asking him if he would forgive me. Before our very public conversation ended, we were both laughing, a sure sign that our messy history had been all cleaned up. Although it took nearly 5 decades to straighten it out, I’m pretty sure God was laughing that day, too, right after he’d breathed a great big sigh of it’s-about-time.

The camp director and I kept communicating for quite a while after our conversation and actually became sincere friends, surely the result of God’s loving work within both of us.

As for my parents, their love for me remained unfailing, too. My poor behavior hadn’t eroded it, and once that summer was over, they never brought up the incident again.

“Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)