Reluctant Retiree

When we speak about the attributes of people, we are referring to characteristics that they possess and have displayed. For instance, we may say that “she has a lot of patience”, because we have observed her in pressure situations. Or we may say that “he has a lot of love for his family “, because we have watched him in family surroundings. But we may also say that someone has anger issues, because we have seen them explode on occasion. It is fairly easy for us to separate a person from their attributes.

With God, we should not so easily separate His attributes apart from who He is. Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Every morning, when we wake up, we can expect God to give us new mercies and steadfast love. The mercies are not new because He whipped up a new batch of mercy overnight. They are new because we need different kinds of mercy every day, for the new struggles and troubles we will go through each day. These mercies are not something that He possesses, they are, in fact, who He is. God is love. God is mercy. And God is faithful. These attributes, and many others, are who He is, not characteristics He possesses. He has always been love and mercy, and will always be love and mercy, because He is always faithful to His nature.

Every field of endeavor has its big names and beyond that, its superstars with whom no one compares. We have recognizable names in the entertainment area, but we have people declared to be the Queen of Soul and the King of Pop. In sports we have stars of the games, but we also have the Hall of Famers. We have government rulers and Emperors, Kings, Premieres and Presidents. In religion there are the common saints and the revered Saints.

While it is mostly harmless to grant these honors to people, we are in danger when we exalt them to some lofty status. How many times have we seen some superstar or honored person taken down by some ethical or moral failures? We should not place our trust in them or seek to copy their lifestyle.

The Bible declares that Jesus is worthy of honor and worship. It declares further that we should indeed conform to His image. Philippians 2:9-10 says, “Therefore God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Every one of us will bow at the name of Jesus. We can worship now as a choice of our wills, and from an expression of gratitude. Or we will recognize Him as Lord one day out of regret and fear, to spend eternity apart from Him.

We went to watch our grandson wrestle for his high school this morning. Wrestling is a hard sport for me to watch. As each match progresses, I find myself bending and contorting myself along with the athletes, urging them to move in different ways. By the end of the match I am also tired, like I was the one who wrestled.

Wrestling is a short, but intense struggle against an opponent. The grimaces on these athletes’ faces tell the story of pain and determination. They give all that they have to win the battle.

I wonder if the apostle Paul had wrestling as a backdrop when he wrote: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”

Jesus wrestled against sinners continually until He was finally crucified. Unlike the sport of wrestling, the struggle never paused or stopped. We also wrestle against sin and our struggle will not end this side of heaven. The only way that we can win our daily battle against sin is to trust in the one who has already won the struggle, Jesus Christ. Determination alone will not succeed. We are too weak and the fight is too long.

We need the power of God to overcome. We have to choose to trust Jesus every day, every moment, to work within us to give us victory over sin. He is undefeated and will never fail.

I confess that I am not very good at finding lost items. I tear the house apart looking for something and never locate it. However, I do have one failsafe method of finding my lost items. I ask my wife to find it. Invariably she brings me what I had been looking for in a few short moments. I am beginning to think that she hides stuff on purpose to test me.

Many people are on a lifelong quest to find meaning for their lives. They search for it in job security and wealth acquisition. Some seek meaning in various religions. Others look for truth in family and relationships. Some believe that political and social ideologies will give their lives meaning.

While people are searching and not finding satisfactory answers, God remains available to answer these and many other significant questions. He won’t force Himself upon us, and He won’t scold us for our search in all the wrong places.

The Gospel of Mark tells the story of a father bringing his son to Jesus to be healed of a horrible affliction. The father said to Jesus, “‘But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, ‘I believe; help my unbelief.'”

Jesus did not rebuke this desperate father. Instead Jesus did have compassion and healed the boy. In the same way, Jesus does not scold us and reject us in our doubts. Instead, He understands our doubts, helps us through them, and heals our unbelief, if we will let Him. So come to Jesus with your doubts and questions. You will find compassion and healing.

Please don’t speak to others in the same way as our leaders speak to each other. They are constantly trying to tear each other down, questioning motives and integrity. They puff themselves up with distorted claims while mocking the acts of their opponents. Just the fact that they consider other viewpoints as opposition is both disturbing and frustrating. Sarcasm and outright attacks are common.

These speech patterns are not beneficial, in leadership nor in our personal lives. Ephesians 5:19-20 says, “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What would happen if we changed our speech pattern to conform to the Biblical standard, rather than our leadership example? Instead of tearing people down we would be building them up. Instead of considering everyone to be our opponent, we would learn from and cooperate with each other. We would exhibit grace and mercy instead of sarcasm and unforgiveness. We would be thankful instead of complaining and grumbling all the time. A spirit of joyful enthusiasm would prevail over despair and pessimism. More would be accomplished because of cooperation and good will. This would be a environment that we all could thrive in. Let the change begin with you and me!