Snapshots?

A good friend and brother in the faith suffered a broken heart after ending a relationship with his girlfriend and mother of his son. It pained me more to watch him struggle to keep the relationship going. AFTER ALL, I knew the mother of his new son had failed in other relationships and I feared he’d get hurt. In my opinion she wasn’t fully committed to him, He got CAUGHT DREAMING.

It hurt me to see him suffer, all in the name of HOPE. Hope that he could change her, hope she would love him no matter what. Listening to him brought back memories of my first broken heart when my high school sweetheart and I broke up in 1994, I was sure I’d never love again.

After three years of getting to know each other and growing together in love, it ended—not because of us, but because of her family. For months we snuck around and saw each other every chance we could. In my heart I still cared about her deeply and I cried out to God LET IT BE LOVE. But in my soul, in my gut—I knew that I couldn’t love her as much she deserved and I knew that I needed to move on and LET IT GO. I knew that it wasn’t God’s time for me to get married and Igave up. However, I knew there was hope in front of me.

As a young Christian, I was well aware of the wisdom of King Solomon. But God had to teach me that there really is a time for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1–27). Notice Solomon doesn’t say that there is a time for only fun and happy things (hedonism), but also the bad things (reality). Just ask Job.

The things in life that we wish we could avoid: pain, death, war, crying and even hate also have a specific place and purpose in our lives (Ecc. 3:8)—the purest gold only comes from the hottest fires. As summer draws to a close, I’m sure that as you look back there will be both good times and bad times, each are snapshots of what make up this thing we call life, some good and some bad. And that is what this final blog of the summer and my series The Curse will be about.

BALANCE?

To be completely honest, I wish that life was one big party where everything always worked out how I wanted it to, LET’S PARTY. TRUST me I wish that I didn’t have to experience all of the BAD times in my life. Like the painful breakups, my accident and having seizures. Or being fired from my job of fifteen years and having to trust God to make ends meet. Or watching my DREAMS slowly fade away IN TIME.

Like watching my father waste away from lung cancer and die a horrible painful death; which is appropriate seeing how this month marks ten years since he died. After my accident, he told me that parents should never see their child die. No, I wouldn’t wish a brain injury on my worst enemy. But these are all effects of the curse, that’s life on this side of death.

Even Christians mistakenly think that we are called to love everything and life is always some peaceful utopia—but the Bible also says there are times of war and we should hate the evil things in this life. Look at the nation of Israel today; it seems as if there will never be peace between it and Palestine.

Even if you were the only person on an island, you would have problems. The Bible is clear that the curse affects everything in creation. King Solomon was right though; there is a time for everything good or bad, it’s wisdom that teaches us when to HOLD ON or when to let go.

It’s when God seems silent, we need to listen more—it’s the same letters, just rearranged. Change your perspective. Are we as a body so DEAF that we only hear half of the gospel? If so, we are LOSIN’ IT—even L.S.D. trips eventually crash.

No matter how hard we try to make life an feel good all the time PRAISE, PARTY ROCK—there will be bumps in the road, whether disappointments or whatever. The apostle Paul told the young church in Corinth that while they were free, not everything was good for them (1 Corinthians 10:2)—we are not free to sin. This is where hedonism fails us; the pleasure principle isn’t the point to life. There will be good and bad times, which balances us out.

Let me be LOUD AND CLEAR, I’m not referring to the new age doctrine of balance. This balance teaching has caused many Christians to stumble, believing it is okay to enjoy a little bit of everything as long as you don’t go too far. Many actually believe the Bible teaches, “Everything in moderation.”

When actually, it was Aristotle who said that and he was a Greek philosopher. We are called to be different from the world, an ANOMALY. Everything about Christianity demands that we are fully committed to Christ alone. This means you forsake all and go all in. It’s like the classic church sign wisdom, “Our Heavenly Father wants full custody, not just weekend visits.”

This was the Apostle Paul’s plea with the church at Ephesus, they thought they could balance their faith with wine and debauchery (hedonism) (Ephesians 5:15–18). I know because I’m an alcoholic and addict in recovery. Jesus’ command is it’s all or NUTHIN’ (Luke 14:33)! The early disciples knew that Jesus is the only real hope of a LIMITLESS LIFE any of us have. Hold on to hope, Jesus—let go of this world. A full life has both good times and bad times—hedonism is just a half-life of fleeting pleasures. God takes our mistakes and pain, and then gives us beauty for ashes.

HOPE?

A few weeks ago my pastor’s nephew gave his life to Christ. As he stood before the congregation, I could see the FEAR on his face. I decided to walk down with some other men and pray over him. Afterwards, I pulled him to the side and told him that he just declared war against the devil.

My pastor and I both warned him that the enemy would attack him even more, it will seem like someone hit the crazy button and there will be more temptation and possibly more pain (1 Peter 4:12). But, we’re NOT AFRAID OF THE PAIN, God uses both the good and bad things for our good, He doesn’t ZONE OUT the bad—He uses it (Romans 8:28). Hedonism is a weak because there is no need to be brave when everything is going how we want—there is no need for hope and we’re left hopeless.

Job cried out, “Though you slay me, yet I will hope in Him (Job 13:15 –16).” Not in the blessings or things. Most false teachers and prophets today raise a BIBLE IN THE AIR and say I KNOW God wants to give you HOUSES AND CARS. They’ve TWISTED the truth to simply make people happy, not holy. They are just blowing smoke like chimneys. You can live like a CELEBRITY and HAVE IT ALL and still have no eternal hope.

However, the good news about the Curse is that Jesus SHUT IT DOWN for Christians on the cross, in the scope of eternity these temporary pleasures, trials and tribulations become only brief snapshots.