While listening to Joel Oswalt fill in Sunday for our regular preacher with a topic of the apostle’s impatience as illustrated by the feeding of thousands on two occasions in Mark 6 and 8, I backtracked to the story of the demon-possessed man and the herd of swine described by Jesus in Mark 5:1-20. It struck me that I’d heard numerous sermons and Bible classes that expounded on this narration, but most of them focused on the upset townsfolk or the poorly treated pigs. What caught my mind’s eye for that moment in time were the action verbs used to describe the man suffering with the demon. They truly told the story of his life struggle…and of mine.
When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. (Mark 5:2-5)
This cave-dweller led a remarkably grim life. Notice the actions that were his daily regimen. He tore the chains and broke the irons that bound him. Why was he bound? He was different. He scared the “good” townspeople. They were deathly afraid of him, so a mob would periodically hunt him down and restrain him to ensure the safety of the mothers, sisters, grandmas, and daughters of the village. It didn’t work. He would get loose and roam the hills 24/7 crying out and terrifyingly interrupting their night’s respite. No doubt that was quite an eerie sound. He didn’t enjoy this life; in fact he used cutting as a mode of escape as many distraught and depressed people do today. Rather than a razor blade or knife, he used sharpened stones. Perhaps he found and used those flattened riverside rocks – the type Opie might have used to skip in the old fishin’ hole as he trekked there after school while his sheriff-pa whistled that Andy Griffith theme music. What a life! Fortunately his didn’t end there prematurely.
There came a day when Jesus showed up in this maniac’d neighborhood. Perhaps in his hill-meanderings his daily forage took him to a landfill where he discovered the previous week’s Jerusalem Herald – no doubt discarded after its owner, in whose driveway it had been tossed from a chariot by the carrier on an early morning delivery – finished reading it and sent it out to be recycled. That edition just happened to carry an account of the miracle worker’s imminent arrival by boat in the region of the Gerasenes near the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee. And hence the plot thickens…
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice. “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!” (Mark 5:6-7)
I believe this was a very intelligent man before the evil spirit preempted his countenance. He recognized Jesus from a distance and took immediate action. You could make a case for the demon being in control, but I think the real man shone through at that moment. An evil spirit could have been expected to run back to the familiar tombs and hide. Not this guy. He seized his first and perhaps only opportunity. He assumed the posture of reverence and humility before the one whom he loudly identified as the Most High God’s Son. The demon did get a word in edgewise with a last ditch effort to save itself. But the man’s actions prevailed. This is where the herd of swine comes in; but let’s look Beyond the Pigs. (Catchy title don’t you think?)
After the pigs’ follow-the-leader group suicide antics and the subsequent report of catastrophe by the herders, the towns folk swarmed into the countryside to see what was the matter (unintentional “Night Before Christmas” allusion, I assure you). The sight they beheld terrified them more than the demonic ravings of previous months. The hitherto disrobed and ranting lunatic was sitting fully dressed and in his right mind. He even seemed to understand what this visiting prophet Jesus was saying. All they could think of to do was plead with Jesus to leave their region before any more damage was done.
As Jesus was boarding his grounded boat acquiescing to their wishes, the now demon-free tomb inhabitant (surely he didn’t as yet have another address upon which to hang his hat) sought a change of venue:
As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “God home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed. (Mark 5:18-20)
Rather then sit and bemoan the fact that Jesus would not allow him to join the group and participate in the next leg of his journey, this guy remembers he has a family. More importantly, he now has a mission that, as it turns out, is the Great Commission. (Sound familiar?) He begins to preach Jesus to 10 cities. I can imagine his contagious enthusiasm, his unquenchable passion, his relentless energy! So let’s recap…
The demoniac becomes a preacher. The herders are in the unemployment line. The towns folk are off the Sominex and getting a good night’s sleep for the first time in who knows how long. The Sea of Galilee has an extreme level of pork-imposed toxicity. A family has been reunited. And, let us not overlook that Jesus…remember what he does next? He lies down in the stern of the boat and goes fast asleep on a pillow. He is so tired that he sleeps through that horrendous squall so violent that waves wash over the boat nearly swamping it. (Did Jesus' part of the boat get drenched?) Alas, Jesus wakens and in an instant doesn’t just fix things, he completely calms the storm.
Never overlook the action steps in some of Jesus best-loved tales. On his way to the peace of Christ that passes all understanding, the demon-possessed man in this story…
· ran to Jesus,
· fell on his feet before Jesus,
· shouted his belief in Jesus,
· begged Jesus to let him accompany him,
· went home to Decapolis, and
· told what Jesus had done for him.
Perhaps we should follow his example. It might be supposed that this man was now fine. I disagree. FINE (Frustrated, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotionally disturbed) is what he was before his close encounter with Jesus. Now he was simply okay. That’s my favorite acronym these days: OK = On Knees or On Knees And Yearning...for healing or maybe for Jesus...
Monday, February 22, 2010
Beyond the Pigs
I am a Christian, married over 49 years to my amazing wife, Delores; retired after 40 years as an educator including 10 years as a high school English teacher, 14 years as a school administrator, and 16 years as professor of education at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, TN; 4 children and 11 grandchildren.
Baby Steps to a Healthy Lifestyle
The journey to a healthy lifestyle can be long and filled with many hurdles that need surmounting in small, toddler-type steps with consistency and persistence. Of course, healthy living or any other concerted effort at improvement must be preceded by a desire to succeed. The want to must be present along with the support of significant others such as a wonderful spouse/best friend, other family and friends, and even the doctor(s) and other personnel at the clinic. These latter professionals should be positively upbeat, enthusiastically happy, energetically passionate about health, know your name quickly, and care about your health challenges. Delores and I found all this together at Exodus Health Clinic in Brentwood, Tennessee. If we can do it at our age, so can you. Unless my memory fails me, here are the steps we took on the road to a healthier lifestyle:
1. Saw a wellness physician chiropractor who advocates and practices holistic health – nutrition and diet; vitamins and supplements; restoring the Arc of Life in the neck and straightening the spine by anti-inflammatory adjustments (three times a week for the first three months); adjustments that fix the spine and don’t just relieve symptomatic pain (although they do that, too); changing the body from acidic to alkaline (mainly by what we do and don’t put into it); detoxifying the body of unnatural and unnecessary chemicals and substances; and developing a positive attitude with a life vision and action goals.
2. Began shopping for and eating on Dr. Axe’s Healing Diet (natural/organic/raw fruits and veggies; grass fed, range free, hormone free beef, bison, chicken; cage free eggs; wild caught Alaskan tuna and salmon; basically replacing our man diet with God food and learning that fast food doesn’t have to be junk food). Within one month we had lost weight, gotten off all medications (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol); and were feeling great with maximum levels of energy and vitality. Cooking healthily together became a favorite couple’s activity with a lot of experimenting in the kitchen.
3. Eschew many of the toxic substances never to put in your body mainly because they are toxic. These included, but are not necessarily limited to pork, shrimp, artificial sweeteners, pasteurized dairy, and processed sugar.
4. Started taking the “right” healthy vitamins, nutrients, and supplements (natural, raw, and/or organic) as recommended by our wellness physician. This meant chunking the Wal-Mart multi-vitamin and selecting a natural, whole foods (a type, not a store) vitamin. We discovered that vitacost.com is a Website that has all sorts of natural, organic, raw, and healthy foods, vitamins, nutrients, supplements, and even hygiene products, most at much lower cost than Whole Foods (the store) or other stores (if you can even find any of this at other stores – Kroger in our Middle Tennessee area does have some).
5. Rid our kitchen of the microwave. Lots of research is available on the unhealthy nature of that appliance – not only the radiation danger but also what that level of cooking heat does to anything healthy in most foods even just “warmed” in the wave machine (tsunami when it comes to healthy living). Yes, warming foods in the toaster oven or on the stove top does take a little longer; but it is so much healthier and better tasting that way.
6. Without a microwave we no longer use for all the plastic containers we had used for years for warming stuff to eating temperature. We still use some of the “safer” plastics (odd numbers, it seems) to store food in the refrigerator and take in our lunches.
7. Tossed the Teflon-coated cookware in favor of much healthier stainless steel and glass cookware.
8. Changed our drinking habits to healthy water (Delores does tea as well – often hot, especially in this cold winter of 2010). We got an Aquasana filter for our kitchen sink for most of our drinking and cooking water as well as one for the master bath shower so our bodies aren’t soaked in chlorine, lead, and other toxic chemicals every time we bathe. We rely on bottled spring water mostly when away from home as well.
9. Evolved into using natural personal and household hygiene products (still making this gradual transition). We probably should have chunked the junk immediately, but we didn’t. We eased into it as we ran out of something. We have mostly replaced things such as the laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, bath bar soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, breath mints, etc. I am ordering natural sunscreen and bug repellent for my mission trip to Honduras this June.
10. Treated the initial cold symptoms naturally. This meant at the first feeling of getting a head cold, I put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in each ear (alternating for three minutes each, then draining and doing the other ear). I felt the fizz as when I put that on a cut. The literature indicates that germs enter the ears as much as the mouth and other facial openings. I also started popping 3-4 thousand mg of Vitamin C per day in 1K doses. My cold symptoms were totally gone in three days and never progressed past the mild stage – no cough or sore throat at all. This was the first time in years that a cold didn’t last at least a week usually turning into a sinus infection and often to bronchitis with a hacking cough that would linger sometimes weeks after the other symptoms had faded. That was over three months ago and no hint of a cold has returned this winter. So much for even the passing thought of getting a flu shot.
11. Purchased and began using pH strips to keep track of our journey from a body that is acidic to alkaline at the “ideal” level of 7.3.
12. Added houseplants to the main rooms. This will help clean and filter the indoor air that is often more polluted than that outdoors. Will add a few more as spring arrives.
13. Exercised more regularly (still not bursting as much as we should) using the traction and head weight apparatuses that Dr. Josh sent home with us (just like the ones we use each time we go to the clinic for adjustments). We also bought some 2, 3, 5, and 8 pound dumbbells to help with the weights that he says we should mix with the burst training. We liberated Jiggling George from the closet and began using that again (vibrating ankle machine that helps with circulation and relaxation in the lower legs.
14. Began reading a lot of healthy living books such as:
· Maximum Energy by Dr. Ted Broer
· The Maker’s Diet by Dr. Jordan Rubin
· Eat To Live by Dr. Joel Furman
· The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth by Dr. Jonny Bowden
· The Anti-Inflammatory Diet by Dr. Andrew Weil
15. Started a Life Plan notebook including numerous articles printed from both the draxe.com and mercola.com Websites. These contain lots of articles on a wide variety of health topics. I copy them, paste them into a blank Microsoft Word document, “clean” them up so they take less paper, and print them. We then read these aloud to each other at various times when at home or traveling.
16. Created a vision board illustrating dreams and goals for both short and long-term. These “visions” for the future included physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual “action items” for the rest of our lives together.
17. Began reading a couples devotional book together. We started with Night Light by James and Shirley Dobson.
1. Saw a wellness physician chiropractor who advocates and practices holistic health – nutrition and diet; vitamins and supplements; restoring the Arc of Life in the neck and straightening the spine by anti-inflammatory adjustments (three times a week for the first three months); adjustments that fix the spine and don’t just relieve symptomatic pain (although they do that, too); changing the body from acidic to alkaline (mainly by what we do and don’t put into it); detoxifying the body of unnatural and unnecessary chemicals and substances; and developing a positive attitude with a life vision and action goals.
2. Began shopping for and eating on Dr. Axe’s Healing Diet (natural/organic/raw fruits and veggies; grass fed, range free, hormone free beef, bison, chicken; cage free eggs; wild caught Alaskan tuna and salmon; basically replacing our man diet with God food and learning that fast food doesn’t have to be junk food). Within one month we had lost weight, gotten off all medications (diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol); and were feeling great with maximum levels of energy and vitality. Cooking healthily together became a favorite couple’s activity with a lot of experimenting in the kitchen.
3. Eschew many of the toxic substances never to put in your body mainly because they are toxic. These included, but are not necessarily limited to pork, shrimp, artificial sweeteners, pasteurized dairy, and processed sugar.
4. Started taking the “right” healthy vitamins, nutrients, and supplements (natural, raw, and/or organic) as recommended by our wellness physician. This meant chunking the Wal-Mart multi-vitamin and selecting a natural, whole foods (a type, not a store) vitamin. We discovered that vitacost.com is a Website that has all sorts of natural, organic, raw, and healthy foods, vitamins, nutrients, supplements, and even hygiene products, most at much lower cost than Whole Foods (the store) or other stores (if you can even find any of this at other stores – Kroger in our Middle Tennessee area does have some).
5. Rid our kitchen of the microwave. Lots of research is available on the unhealthy nature of that appliance – not only the radiation danger but also what that level of cooking heat does to anything healthy in most foods even just “warmed” in the wave machine (tsunami when it comes to healthy living). Yes, warming foods in the toaster oven or on the stove top does take a little longer; but it is so much healthier and better tasting that way.
6. Without a microwave we no longer use for all the plastic containers we had used for years for warming stuff to eating temperature. We still use some of the “safer” plastics (odd numbers, it seems) to store food in the refrigerator and take in our lunches.
7. Tossed the Teflon-coated cookware in favor of much healthier stainless steel and glass cookware.
8. Changed our drinking habits to healthy water (Delores does tea as well – often hot, especially in this cold winter of 2010). We got an Aquasana filter for our kitchen sink for most of our drinking and cooking water as well as one for the master bath shower so our bodies aren’t soaked in chlorine, lead, and other toxic chemicals every time we bathe. We rely on bottled spring water mostly when away from home as well.
9. Evolved into using natural personal and household hygiene products (still making this gradual transition). We probably should have chunked the junk immediately, but we didn’t. We eased into it as we ran out of something. We have mostly replaced things such as the laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, bath bar soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, breath mints, etc. I am ordering natural sunscreen and bug repellent for my mission trip to Honduras this June.
10. Treated the initial cold symptoms naturally. This meant at the first feeling of getting a head cold, I put a few drops of hydrogen peroxide in each ear (alternating for three minutes each, then draining and doing the other ear). I felt the fizz as when I put that on a cut. The literature indicates that germs enter the ears as much as the mouth and other facial openings. I also started popping 3-4 thousand mg of Vitamin C per day in 1K doses. My cold symptoms were totally gone in three days and never progressed past the mild stage – no cough or sore throat at all. This was the first time in years that a cold didn’t last at least a week usually turning into a sinus infection and often to bronchitis with a hacking cough that would linger sometimes weeks after the other symptoms had faded. That was over three months ago and no hint of a cold has returned this winter. So much for even the passing thought of getting a flu shot.
11. Purchased and began using pH strips to keep track of our journey from a body that is acidic to alkaline at the “ideal” level of 7.3.
12. Added houseplants to the main rooms. This will help clean and filter the indoor air that is often more polluted than that outdoors. Will add a few more as spring arrives.
13. Exercised more regularly (still not bursting as much as we should) using the traction and head weight apparatuses that Dr. Josh sent home with us (just like the ones we use each time we go to the clinic for adjustments). We also bought some 2, 3, 5, and 8 pound dumbbells to help with the weights that he says we should mix with the burst training. We liberated Jiggling George from the closet and began using that again (vibrating ankle machine that helps with circulation and relaxation in the lower legs.
14. Began reading a lot of healthy living books such as:
· Maximum Energy by Dr. Ted Broer
· The Maker’s Diet by Dr. Jordan Rubin
· Eat To Live by Dr. Joel Furman
· The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth by Dr. Jonny Bowden
· The Anti-Inflammatory Diet by Dr. Andrew Weil
15. Started a Life Plan notebook including numerous articles printed from both the draxe.com and mercola.com Websites. These contain lots of articles on a wide variety of health topics. I copy them, paste them into a blank Microsoft Word document, “clean” them up so they take less paper, and print them. We then read these aloud to each other at various times when at home or traveling.
16. Created a vision board illustrating dreams and goals for both short and long-term. These “visions” for the future included physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual “action items” for the rest of our lives together.
17. Began reading a couples devotional book together. We started with Night Light by James and Shirley Dobson.
I am a Christian, married over 49 years to my amazing wife, Delores; retired after 40 years as an educator including 10 years as a high school English teacher, 14 years as a school administrator, and 16 years as professor of education at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, TN; 4 children and 11 grandchildren.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Mission Lazarus Reflection, Part One: Dream or Nightmare
I must admit to a certain level of anxiety since I recently made the commitment to become part of Mission Lazarus, a team of 20 young and old men from the West 7th church of Christ here in Columbia, TN, who journey each year to a location in Latin America for a week of mission-type service. At least the anxiety has diminished a lot over the last daze (no, that’s not a typo), and it has certainly replaced the guilt I’ve experience through the last several decades of not taking advantage of any similar opportunities to serve my God.
Delores and I were part of Campaigns Northeast with a group of students and grads from then Harding College immediately upon my graduation and only five months into our life as a married couple. We were involved in door-knocking and Bible studies in the summer of 1971, as we invited folks in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to study with us or to come to a gospel meeting at the local church of Christ. God gave us some incredible experiences, amazing results, while allowing us some frustrations as well. That was an interesting summer.
The only other team of which we’ve ever been members was in the summer of 1972 – our vacation summer – during which time, fresh from my first year of teaching and Delores’ graduation from Harding, we took four lengthy vacations. We were literally gone almost the entire summer traveling thousands of miles through numerous states to scenic places from our home in Augusta, Arkansas, to Pennsylvania friends met during Campaigns Northeast, Niagara Falls, Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Mt. Ranier inWashington, the Grand Canyon along with Bryce and Zion Canyons in Arizona and Utah, Yosemite and other scenic parts of California, and all points in between. The summer trip applicable to this reflection was to the Navajo Indian reservation in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona (the locale years ago in the television commercial during which they used to advertise a certain model vehicle by setting it via helicopter on top of this spectacularly high rock formation towering above the canyon), to help with a VBS among the Native American children. We took our dog Freckles (yes, kids, there was a time when Mom and Dad actually had a dog – it was B.C., before children) and camped out of the back of our Chevy Vega wagon as I recall.
Alas, Campaigns Northeast and the Arizona VBS were the only two trips of any variety that could be termed as mission work in my life. For these last 38 years, I’ve only watched and financially supported as others committed to that fulfilling interpretation of the Great Commission. Sure, I taught Bible classes, lead singing, occasionally preached and drove a Joy Bus, and was active in other ways in various local congregations; but my fear and preoccupation with myself precluded other such endeavors especially any that would take me outside the boundaries of the United States. I watched, supported, and encouraged as all my children went numerous times to places I only imagined – and I never really imagined my going to or being in those places. They went to the City of Children and other mission destinations in Mexico; the Bahamas; Haiti; Eastern Europe; Australia/New Zealand; and I’m probably forgetting some. I was always proud of their willingness to be involved in His Kingdom in this way, but I also felt a little guilty for not joining them in that type of mission work. I may also have kept my wife from that experience over the last nearly four decades of our marriage.
But finally the guilt is ending. I will be journeying to Honduras this summer from June 5-11. Our tasks will include building a house for a local Christian family (perhaps I can hand the skilled workers bricks or tools), distributing food to those in need (since Honduras is the 2nd poorest nation in Latin America next to Haiti which had that designation even before the tragic earthquake of 2010, that would be almost everybody), studying the Bible with prospects identified by the missionaries, and just “hanging out” with the people.
So what has my nearly 40 years of fear been all about anyway, and what has changed to make me overcome it and commit to this adventure? I have been working on my relationship with my God for the last several years. He has extended His grace to me in an extraordinary manner to relieve me of several of my character defects, particularly fear, guilt, grandiosity, and resentment. This experience has opened the door of opportunity in my life of renewed service (or at least a window – remember Maria and Captain Von Trapp’s short dialogue from the Sound of Music that “when God shuts a door sometimes he opens a window”?). In addition, Delores and I have embarked on a new lifestyle of healthy living and eating. We have both lost weight and gotten off medications (mine for diabetes and high blood pressure). I would be tragically remiss if I didn’t allow my God to carry me through the cavernous opening He has provided. So I’m off to Honduras in June.
A recent discovery of a scripture has helped me reconcile this decision in spite of my still- lingering anxieties. That greatest of all Christian missionaries, the apostle Paul, wrote in Colossians 1: 28-29…We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all HIS energy, which so powerfully works in me. Did you notice the good part? I may struggle in life or on Mission Lazarus, but it can and will be WITH ALL HIS ENERGY – His energy that “so powerfully works in me.” How incredible is that! Along with all the other promises I have from my awesome God, He has promised to empower me and give me His energy when I struggle on Mission Lazarus. With Jesus carrying me, the Spirit interceding for me in my prayer life, and God empowering me, everything is bound to turn out wonderfully. Besides, I’ll be surrounded with Christian brothers who’ve been there and done that. What could there possibly be to cause me fear or anxiety…let’s see…there’s the bugs and the sun and the heat and the sweat and the water and the food and the work and the flights and the bumpy back roads and knowing what to say and NOT KNOWING MORE THAN “un poco” of the language, and… there’s, of course, ME. I need to give all that to God and let Him deal with those struggles. I’ll try. To be continued…
Delores and I were part of Campaigns Northeast with a group of students and grads from then Harding College immediately upon my graduation and only five months into our life as a married couple. We were involved in door-knocking and Bible studies in the summer of 1971, as we invited folks in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to study with us or to come to a gospel meeting at the local church of Christ. God gave us some incredible experiences, amazing results, while allowing us some frustrations as well. That was an interesting summer.
The only other team of which we’ve ever been members was in the summer of 1972 – our vacation summer – during which time, fresh from my first year of teaching and Delores’ graduation from Harding, we took four lengthy vacations. We were literally gone almost the entire summer traveling thousands of miles through numerous states to scenic places from our home in Augusta, Arkansas, to Pennsylvania friends met during Campaigns Northeast, Niagara Falls, Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Minnesota, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Mt. Ranier inWashington, the Grand Canyon along with Bryce and Zion Canyons in Arizona and Utah, Yosemite and other scenic parts of California, and all points in between. The summer trip applicable to this reflection was to the Navajo Indian reservation in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona (the locale years ago in the television commercial during which they used to advertise a certain model vehicle by setting it via helicopter on top of this spectacularly high rock formation towering above the canyon), to help with a VBS among the Native American children. We took our dog Freckles (yes, kids, there was a time when Mom and Dad actually had a dog – it was B.C., before children) and camped out of the back of our Chevy Vega wagon as I recall.
Alas, Campaigns Northeast and the Arizona VBS were the only two trips of any variety that could be termed as mission work in my life. For these last 38 years, I’ve only watched and financially supported as others committed to that fulfilling interpretation of the Great Commission. Sure, I taught Bible classes, lead singing, occasionally preached and drove a Joy Bus, and was active in other ways in various local congregations; but my fear and preoccupation with myself precluded other such endeavors especially any that would take me outside the boundaries of the United States. I watched, supported, and encouraged as all my children went numerous times to places I only imagined – and I never really imagined my going to or being in those places. They went to the City of Children and other mission destinations in Mexico; the Bahamas; Haiti; Eastern Europe; Australia/New Zealand; and I’m probably forgetting some. I was always proud of their willingness to be involved in His Kingdom in this way, but I also felt a little guilty for not joining them in that type of mission work. I may also have kept my wife from that experience over the last nearly four decades of our marriage.
But finally the guilt is ending. I will be journeying to Honduras this summer from June 5-11. Our tasks will include building a house for a local Christian family (perhaps I can hand the skilled workers bricks or tools), distributing food to those in need (since Honduras is the 2nd poorest nation in Latin America next to Haiti which had that designation even before the tragic earthquake of 2010, that would be almost everybody), studying the Bible with prospects identified by the missionaries, and just “hanging out” with the people.
So what has my nearly 40 years of fear been all about anyway, and what has changed to make me overcome it and commit to this adventure? I have been working on my relationship with my God for the last several years. He has extended His grace to me in an extraordinary manner to relieve me of several of my character defects, particularly fear, guilt, grandiosity, and resentment. This experience has opened the door of opportunity in my life of renewed service (or at least a window – remember Maria and Captain Von Trapp’s short dialogue from the Sound of Music that “when God shuts a door sometimes he opens a window”?). In addition, Delores and I have embarked on a new lifestyle of healthy living and eating. We have both lost weight and gotten off medications (mine for diabetes and high blood pressure). I would be tragically remiss if I didn’t allow my God to carry me through the cavernous opening He has provided. So I’m off to Honduras in June.
A recent discovery of a scripture has helped me reconcile this decision in spite of my still- lingering anxieties. That greatest of all Christian missionaries, the apostle Paul, wrote in Colossians 1: 28-29…We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all HIS energy, which so powerfully works in me. Did you notice the good part? I may struggle in life or on Mission Lazarus, but it can and will be WITH ALL HIS ENERGY – His energy that “so powerfully works in me.” How incredible is that! Along with all the other promises I have from my awesome God, He has promised to empower me and give me His energy when I struggle on Mission Lazarus. With Jesus carrying me, the Spirit interceding for me in my prayer life, and God empowering me, everything is bound to turn out wonderfully. Besides, I’ll be surrounded with Christian brothers who’ve been there and done that. What could there possibly be to cause me fear or anxiety…let’s see…there’s the bugs and the sun and the heat and the sweat and the water and the food and the work and the flights and the bumpy back roads and knowing what to say and NOT KNOWING MORE THAN “un poco” of the language, and… there’s, of course, ME. I need to give all that to God and let Him deal with those struggles. I’ll try. To be continued…
I am a Christian, married over 49 years to my amazing wife, Delores; retired after 40 years as an educator including 10 years as a high school English teacher, 14 years as a school administrator, and 16 years as professor of education at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, TN; 4 children and 11 grandchildren.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)