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  • Mark 8:14 am on March 21, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    You Meant Evil, God Meant Good 

    Israel has just died – a pinnacle and tragic moment for the story of God’s people. God has brought them into safety, but not without some torment. Specifically, Joseph – Israel’s favorite son, was beaten by his brothers and thrown into a pit. His life as the favorite son was absolutely trounced and upended all in one moment. But he was spared his life. He found his way to the highest place in all Egypt! What a comeback! And then his brothers and father, during a severe famine, made their way to Egypt to seek safety from starvation, where Israel is laid to rest.

    Of course, the brothers are now scared that Joseph will punish them for their abuse and torture of him as a child. But Joseph is not like most younger brothers. He is not like most PEOPLE.  Here’s why:

    All of us have trauma from our past, just like Joseph. And we live it out in our present. I am no different – I react, and recoil from the triggers that go off whenever I am reminded of some painful memory (even if I don’t consciously remember what originally caused the pain.)

    We may know that what we’re doing in reaction to today’s event is disproportionately elevating the importance of today’s event (“You left the socks on the floor AGAIN!!???!?”) We tell ourselves lies about ourselves, (“No one cares about me, just look at those socks on the floor!”) about God, (“What kind of God would create a world where socks are left on the floor!?”) and about those we close to us.

    All of it is drawing on early life experiences, where demons have crept into our fragile, innocent hearts and replaced the truth with lies, clarity with deception.

    But somehow – Joseph was able to overcome all that. It was certainly a trauma for him to be thrown by his own brothers into that pit, but as he faces his brothers in Genesis 50:20 he declares,

    “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

    This is supernatural healing! This is the return from darkness, and into light! Some people in Joseph’s place might have made it out of that pit physically, but mentally and spiritually they allow themselves to remain stuck in that pit for the rest of their lives. To make matters worse, they won’t rest until everyone is in that pit with them!

    My question is: “Are traumas and the resulting “triggers” permanent, or can we overcome them?”

    I have to rely on God’s Word here, and throughout the Bible – we can return from darkness, trauma, pain, and move to light, freedom, and salvation. This is the “working out of our salvation,” the “binding up the strong man,” the Satan speaking lies in our hearts. And yet, if we try to do this salvation work on our own, if we set out to “bind the strong man” we will lose!  We will end in frustration (others had to help Joseph out of his pit, and beyond human intervention, and God was there guiding Joseph forward).

    But maybe the most important part of Joseph’s tale is how he views his own story. He knows that it wasn’t his doing that got him to where he is today, it was “God who meant it for good…” Out of this new narrative, Joseph is able to “speak kindly” to his brothers, the very ones who had plotted his destruction many years ago. Joseph was able to see clearly, while his brothers were still trapped in fear of their brother’s punishment. Joseph saw that God had used a horrific situation and used it to bring hope and healing to many people during a drastic famine.

    Take stock of your memories. Mark my words, they are taking stock of you.

    Take your painful experiences to the LORD, and ask him to give you new lenses through which to view your story!

    It’s the difference of giving hope and life to many others, or sitting stuck in your own pit.

     

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    • Mark Willis 8:37 am on March 21, 2012 Permalink

      There is an old Taoist story about a wise man on the northern frontier of China. One day, for no apparent reason, a young man’s horse ran away and was taken by nomads across the border. Everyone tried offer consolation for the man’s ill fortune, but his father, a wise man, said, “What makes you so sure that this is not a blessing?”
      Months later, the horse returned, bringing with her a magnificent stallion. This time everyone was full of congratulations for the son’s good fortune. But now his father said, “What makes you so sure this isn’t a disaster?” Their household was made richer by this fine horse, which the son loved to ride. But one day he fell off the horse and broke his hip. Once again, everyone offered their consolation for his bad luck, but the father said, “What makes you so sure this is not a blessing?”
      A year later the nomads mounted an invasion across the border, and every able-bodied man was required to take up his bow and go into battle. The Chinese frontiersmen lost nine out of ten men. Only because the son was lame did father and son survive to take care of each other. truly, the story reminds us, blessing turns to disaster, and disaster to blessing: The changes have no end, nor can the mystery be fathomed. (Wayne Muller, Sabbath, p.187-88)

  • Mark 9:44 am on January 18, 2012 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W.   

    To Keep It…SHARE IT! 

    Over the last few weeks I’ve been diving into the life of Bill W.

    Most Americans have either never heard of him or know all about him.  He sort of designed it that way.

    Bill was a up-and-coming stock trader in the 1920′s and was doing pretty well for himself.  He was a risk taker and the life of the party.  Over the years however he found that it took more and more alcohol to really enjoy himself, and before long, he was drinking just to “feel normal” again.  As the 1929 stock market crashed, he took to drinking heavily, and soon his entire life revolved around the bottle.  He scared his wife Lois and regularly promised sobriety only to let her down time and again.

    He was ‘powerless’ in the face of his own addiction.

    He was brought to the very bottom when his wife finally came to her senses and checked him into a ‘sanitarium’ – a kind of hospital and mental institution for substance abusers and the insane.  He was tied to his bed as he wallowed in his own shame.  This, from a man who was topping the charts on Wall Street only a few years earlier.  He better than any of knew the vicious poison…and luring potion of alcohol.

    He found God in that sanitarium.  From that moment on he began to give himself over to a “Higher Power” – the same way he formerly gave himself over to alcohol.  His wife and friends were at first skeptical, then overjoyed!  But he was not out of the woods yet.  His temptations were still there.  He believed that part of his life now was to share the path to sobriety with other drunks – that somehow he needed to keep telling the story of his own redemption in order to hold on to the sobriety he sought out every day – one day at a time.

    Bill’s returned to work – and on one occasion he was sent to Cincinnati, OH.  Far from his routines in New York City, he found himself tempted more than ever to finding the nearest lounge and no doubt falling off the wagon once again. In a last ditch effort he went out in search of a drunk who might listen to his tale.  He comes across Bob S., drunk and depressed as Bill had been in that sanitarium.

    One movie script of their encounter has Bill sitting down with a skeptical Bob, Bob going on and on about how Bill was wasting his time trying to convince Bob to stop drinking.  ”Doctors, shrinks…they’ve all gave me their best, but nothing stuck,” Bob grunted to Bill, “What makes you think you can do anything for me?”  Bill leaned forward with a drunk’s desperation in his eyes and responded,

    “I’m not here to do anything for you, I’m here for me.”

    Thus began Alcoholics Anonymous.

    Sharing the story of salvation from alcohol is the key to keeping your own sobriety.  “To keep it, you have to share it.”  It’s like breathing – if you want to keep your breath, you have to share it – breathing in and keeping it will only kill you!  You have to let it go to get it again.

     This is how it works on Wikipedia as well, if you want to set the record straight on the wingspan of a flying squirrel, you add your tidbit of knowledge to the flying squirrel Wiki page.  But simultaneously, you share it with the rest of the world.

    It’s like our own salvation.  It’s like the mission of the church.  We are simultaneously “re-presenting” the Gospel to ourselves when we share it with others.  And when a church or a Christian fails to share the Gospel with others, they fail to experience it themselves, and they become more of a problem to the world than a beautiful response to the problems of the world!

    So keep the sobriety of your salvation.  Follow the advice of Bill W., who understood more than most how desperately he needed to give it away, day after day…

    To keep it, SHARE IT!

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  • Mark 10:01 am on January 10, 2012 Permalink | Reply  

    The Mission of Gardening 

    One house church in the Underground Network has made it their mission to reclaim an abandoned space in a Chicago city park. This plot of land was used as a literal trash dump for anyone passing by, making the quarter-acre of land a blight on the entire neighborhood in which the house church was located. The project was started February 2011, where a few folks in one house church drew up some plans for a vegetable garden in this space – and in April they picked up the trash and filth, and built a raised-bed garden – with fresh, rich top soil.

    Their goal was to follow the spirit of 1 Cor 1: 28, 29 – “For God chose things despised by the world, things considered as nothing, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers to be important…” They invited the entire neighborhood to participate, including several gardeners, many of whom were skeptical of the project’s success. Over the year, more and more volunteers contributed their efforts. There was a good sized harvest (for first time gardeners!) and all the grown produce was enjoyed by neighbors and during the house church gatherings. It was beautiful.

    In November 2011, that house church gave birth to another house church, which brought in the neighbors who had worked on the garden – now they knew that there was a Christian church behind the garden, and they wanted to be a part of that kind of church – so this new house church is planning in 2012 to expand the veggie garden, and they are dreaming of opening up a new farmers market to invite regional farmers to sell their produce alongside this little urban garden’s yield.

    All this, from an abandoned lot.

    “God chose the things despised by the world, the things considered as nothing, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important – so no one can boast in the presence of God!”

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    • Jay Abels 12:30 pm on February 1, 2012 Permalink

      There are many ways to sow.   It is always awesome to see the harvest.

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