Reluctant Retiree

In the news this morning the story of another “influencer” dying while taking the ultimate selfie was reported. In an effort to garner more attention, she took too big a risk and lost everything. Many people are desperate to get attention and be famous.

The lure of celebrity is strong and the avenues to gain attention are numerous. All you have to do is post some amazing photos, outlandish opinion, clever video or wild stunt that attracts enough attention to make you feel famous. The pull of celebrity causes people to take great risks physically, emotionally and socially. But failure to gather enough followers often leads to depression and disgrace.

Jesus chose another route entirely. Philippians 2:5-8 says, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus chose the path of humility and servant hood. Yet, even today He is more well known than all the celebrities of the world put together. The next two verses in Philippians give us the truth of the impact of His humility and obedience: “Therefore God has 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.”

Humility leads to exaltation in God’s hands. We are called to submit to God and humbly serve others, as Jesus did. Trying to exalt yourself leads to destruction.

In our area the weather forecast comes on the news four times or more each half hour. I don’t know whether they think we will forget the previous forecast given five minutes before or it’s that nobody watches the news program for very long.

Frankly I have stopped watching the news on TV. If I want to know the forecast, I look on my phone or just look at the sky. Most of us can rightly determine the coming weather by our own observations, except for severe conditions. At an early age we learn to be alert to clouds for incoming rain, for instance. If it is very cold, we know snow is a possibility.

We are not so good at forecasting events or circumstances, however. Who predicted a worldwide pandemic, for instance. We cannot even predict our own life events with any degree of accuracy. We don’t know if we will be sick or healthy, rich or poor, married or single, and happy or sad. News, political and business forecasters are not very accurate either.

It seems that people are not very reliable forecasters, even when we have some signs of what is coming. Jesus scolded us when He said, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but cannot interpret the signs of the times.”

It is far more important to rightly interpret the signs of the times than the weather forecast. It is even more important to rightly determine what God is saying to us. We must continue to listen for His voice and study His word to find out what He has to say. He is speaking to us more often than the weather forecast comes on the news. Seek, listen and observe. You will hear His voice.

I didn’t grow up in the church, so it wasn’t until after I became a believer that I became aware of church traditions. Prayer, communion, membership, and worship were all new to me.

Then I began to learn about the different traditions in various churches. Some have ideas about how you should dress in church. Various churches conduct baptisms in various ways. The length and style of worship services vary.

These different traditions are fine, as long as they don’t hinder the unity of the body of Christ and serve to draw people closer to God. If the traditions separate us and move our hearts away from Him, then we need to abandon the traditions for the sake of the love of God. Jesus said, “So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

If we say that we love God, it is Him and His Word that we must follow, not man-made traditions, if those traditions get in the way of true worship, love and service to God.

Several years ago I was fired from my job. It came as a complete shock to me, as I did not see that coming. This news sent me into a tailspin of depression and doubt. I could not see a way out of this problem. I was over 50, unemployed, and certainly not prepared for retirement. I sought counseling and that helped my emotional state, but didn’t lead to a solution to our financial problems.

Months went by and we were at a critical point, but nothing I tried was solving the problems. Finally God got my attention. I surrendered the troubles to Him, along with my poor attitudes. Immediately, He brought a new opportunity to us. I had not looked in this direction previously. This opportunity could only have come from the hand of God and it proved to be much more fruitful than the previous situation.

Peter experienced the same sort of situation. He boldly asked Jesus to make him walk on the water like Jesus was already doing. Jesus agreed, and Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on water. At some point, Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and started to see the waves and feel the wind. Peter sank into the sea crying out for Jesus to save him. Matthew 14:31 says, “Jesus immediately reached out and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

In the midst of problems, we can take our eyes off of Jesus and become overwhelmed by the troubles. If we do that, we will lose faith in Jesus. However, if we allow Jesus to strengthen our faith in those situations, He will hold us securely and take us through the troubles. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus and give our problems to Him.

Until recently, when someone called us on the telephone, we relied on voice recognition to identify the caller. The more familiar the voice, the more we enjoyed the call. The most familiar voices were those of family members and close friends. The less familiar voices belonged to telephone marketing people. We generally did not enjoy those calls.

Nowadays with apps, such as Skype, FaceTime and Zoom, we can see the person we are talking to. Since many of these calls are prearranged, we look forward to seeing and hearing from loved ones.

Have you ever stopped to think about how God responds to our calls to Him? Does He regard us as telemarketers or as close family members? Psalm 116:1-2 says, “I love the Lord, because He heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because He inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.” It is amazing to me that Almighty God, Creator of all things, actually bends down to hear my call. By faith in Jesus Christ I have been adopted as God’s child. As my Heavenly Father, God is eager to hear the voice of His child.

God also wants to hear your pleas for mercy. Call upon Him often and forever. He will hear and answer you.