awaken mercy

this sunday we are going to be talking at our church about the importance of raising up the next generation. as part of this conversation together, we’re going to look at a story from the Bible, found in 2 kings 20 regarding king hezekiah.

in this story, king hezekiah becomes ill and is about to die. in his desperation, he cries out to the lord, and god promises to heal him and give him 15 more years of life. not long some time after this then, hezekiah foolishly invites some representatives from the babylonian empire to come and see all of the riches of his kingdom.

through the prophet isaiah, god tells hezekiah that this was foolish to do, because now the babylonians would plan to attack them in order to take possession of all that hezekiah had shown them. obviously this would be a fairly frightening prophecy for the king to hear. to his surprise though, isaiah also explains to him that this would not happen until after hezekiah had died. we read in the story that this was a tremendous relief to him, because as he states in verse 19, at least he will be okay in his lifetime. in other words, he was only concerned with his life, and he had no care for those who would come after him.

the reason i point this out with father’s day coming up this weekend is that unfortunately, this is too often the way that many people live their lives and think about life. dads, as well as all of us, must care about those coming after us though. we must do what we can to raise up the next generation in a way that honors god and serves him well. it is simply unacceptable for us to only have concern for ourselves and how things will be in our own lives. we need to take seriously our responsibility to raise up the next generation. so do your part…care about those coming after you…set a good example…show them how to live wisely and rightly…and pray for the dad’s you know too…encouraging them to do their part as well.

i must have received at least a handful of identical emails last week from a variety of people. the emails were forwards that were passed on to me regarding the importance of rejecting the new dollar coins because they no longer say “in god we trust” on them. the subject for these emails read – a great way to witness.

not long after receiving these emails, i received a response that one person sent to all of us who had received the original. he pointed out that according to the u.s. mint website, the omission of “in god we trust” was a temporary minting mistake. as a result, according to this man, it was not a government attempt to “get rid of god.” future coins will continue to say “in god we trust.”

as i consider all of this, it got me thinking about one of my major frustrations with american christianity. too often we forget that god is not really interested in whether our government prints “in god we trust” on our coins and currency. instead, he is much more interested in whether we demonstrate that we trust in god through the way that we use our coins and currency. we are often too quick to demand an opportunity to advertise what we believe through statements, words, billboards, and coins. we ought to focus instead on revealing what we believe through the way we live. that’s where the real impact and influence will be seen.

i love the people who forwarded the message to me…and i certainly am not intending to put them down in any way. their heart is right and i appreciate them for that. i do want to challenge all who are following jesus to focus first on the messages that their lives communicate, regardless of what our government does. that is a great way to witness.

my wife and i went to see this latest pixar movie this past weekend. it was amazing. as usual it was entertaining, but beyond that there were so many incredible lessons for life. instead of writing my own review of the movie here, i would encourage you to read the review written by one of my favorite pastors, greg boyd. he took the words right out of my mouth.

click here to read his review…and if you can, grab somebody you love and go see this movie.

in my last post i mentioned a few of the challenges we have experienced with my ten month old son. i mentioned that as we have been trying to help him learn how to sleep in his own bed by himself, god has been teaching me things about my relationship and journey with him. 

in addition to what i described in that previous post, another thing god has been teaching me is that his love for me is so great that he is even willing to let me go through things that i don’t like and don’t want to go through because he knows and desires the good that can come out of them for me.

i was reminded of this over the past few nights when i put my son to bed. we put him in the crib and he looks up at us with sad eyes, arms reaching out for us, and crying his heart out because he wants to be with us. when he does this and we walk out of the room to let him go to sleep, i think to myself that he must be feeling so abandoned by us as we leave him by himself in the darkness of his room.

as much as i love him and want to grab him out of there, i know that it is for his good that he learns how to fall asleep by himself. now i confess that i have not always followed through with this though…i have given in a few times and have grabbed him out of there to let him sleep on me. but i realize that loving him and doing what is best for him means not always doing what he wants in the short term – rather it involves doing what is best for him in the long term as well.

as this relates to my relationship with god, it is amazing to me that he loves me so much that even though it must make his heart ache to see me feeling alone and abandoned by him at times, he is willing to let me endure it for the sake of the good that can come out of it for me. what amazing, powerful, profound, true and persistent love. as a parent this is so difficult to do, yet god loves me so much that he is willing to do this for me.

not only that…one of the things my son does not realize as he sits in his crib feeling abandoned by his dad and left all alone in the darkness of his room, is that i am just outside the door the entire time…peeking in occasionally and always paying attention to what’s going on for him – just as i know god is doing for us.

thank you god for loving me enough to let me endure things that i don’t always want or like in order to experience the good that you are able to bring out of it for me. help me to appreciate that love and to love others in the same way. and thank you god for always being with me – even when it seems to be lonely and dark.

as some of you know, my wife and i are relatively new at parenting. our son was born a little over ten months ago…it has been quite an adventure, and we have learned so many things along the way. he has been such an amazing blessing. we have not been without our share of challenges though. one of the major health issues that our son has faced is reflux. it has made eating and sleeping much more difficult for him than it is for most babies.

as we have tried to deal with and manage the sleeping problems in particular, god has been teaching me a few things about my own life and relationship with him. my son has yet to really establish a pattern for sleeping. everyone told us that he would after a month or two, and then the promise was six months, and then nine months, and now we are at ten months…and there are still no real patterns. 

he is just now getting to the point where he can sleep in his bed without being propped up and without puking up his dinner…so we have begun the process of trying to get him to sleep in his bed. as any parent knows, this is no easy task, especially after he has been sleeping with us much longer than most babies.

when we first tried this a couple weeks ago, the first night was not so bad. the second night was a little better. the third night was like starting all over again, and the fourth night was worse than ever before. then we had a good night, and then not a good night. it was back and forth and back and forth.

in my frustration over the few steps forward few steps backward cycle that seemed to be never ending, i was reminded of my own journey with god. so often with him i take steps forward, and then come crashing down in the wrong direction, then a little movement forward, and more steps backward. when i think about how frustrating the sleeping…not sleeping…sleeping…not sleeping thing has been for me, i wonder how frustrating it must be for god at times to watch me do the same thing – with much more awareness of what i am doing than our son has by the way.

yet thankfully he continues to extend to me mercy and grace. thankfully he continues to catch me when i stumble and maximize the gains that i make through his supernatural work in my life. i am so grateful for this…if only my gratitude would always translate into greater success in avoiding the cycle. i pray that it will for me and for all of you who find yourselves in a similar situation at times. how great is our savior and rescuer, jesus, who has covered all of this through the giving of his life for us.

this is what it’s all about.