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Published: 10 June 2016

Of course we’ve all been hurt lately!  Somebody hurt our feelings with a crude comment or offhand remark.  Somebody looked at us funny.  Somebody turned us down when we asked really nice.  Somebody overlooked us.  Somebody forgot to invite us.  Somebody said something behind our back.  Somebody “done somebody wrong.”  But, if I may redirect you to the original question, “Have you hurt anybody lately?”  It is amazing how quick we are to acknowledge how we have been hurt but how slow we are to recognize how we have hurt others.   Sometimes people don’t even know they hurt us.  Sometimes they have hurt us intentionally.  Sometimes we don’t know how we hurt people and sometimes we are mean-spirited or selfish and we hurt others on purpose.  Or, if we didn’t intend to hurt them, we don’t really care that we did.  What does this ability to recognize trespasses against us more quickly than our trespasses against others say about us?  First, it reveals that we have the capacity to know these things.  This is unique to humanity.  When a bluegill is being filleted, he/she is not saying, “This really hurts my feelings.”  Nemo was able to express his deepest psychological meanderings but you did know that was a cartoon, right?  Second, it reveals that we are more concerned about ourselves than we are about others.  No one has to teach us to love ourselves, we come by that rather naturally.  Third, it reveals that there is injustice in the world.  In other words, something is wrong with the place we live in.  There’s a “wobble” to the whole thing.  Fourth, it reveals that something better is possible.  If injustice and hurt was the norm, we wouldn’t see a problem.  Very few people notice something unless it doesn’t work.  How many of you notice all the work our tech crew does every week—until something goes wrong?  We could go on but my purpose is not to exhaust the junk behind the problem, it is to help us recognize it and do something about it.  On Sunday, we’ll be studying Peter’s denial of Jesus.  We are quick to identify with Peter because we have all dropped the ball like he did.  What I’d like you to be on the lookout for is what Jesus did with the hurt.  Maybe we should be thinking more about how we have hurt others and a bit more gracious towards those who have hurt us.

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Published: 04 June 2016

I think it was C.S. Lewis who once wrote something to this effect, “Never count on ultimate happiness from something that can be taken away.”  I’m sorry I don’t have that exact and that I do not have the source but the truth remains nevertheless.  He, (or whoever said that) didn’t mean we couldn’t enjoy things in this life.  “God has given us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17).  What he meant was that ultimate happiness comes from being held by the Giver of gifts rather than holding too tightly to the gifts!  We simply hold some things too tightly for our good and when they are gone, we are devastated.  This is the struggle with material things, they have such allure but like a mirage, they are not what we really want or need deep down in the recesses of our being.  I won’t be talking about this on Sunday but this was the case with the high priest Caiaphas.  He didn’t want the Messiah to come because it would unseat him from his place of power and profit.  Imagine clutching a position/title so tightly that you wouldn’t even want Jesus to have it!  It is really hard to loosen our grip on various things of this life.  It’s not always material things, some people don’t care about stuff at all.  There are other things we hold too tightly; inappropriate relationships, secret practices, personal desires, positions or titles etc.  Personally, I enjoy a lot of things in life.  I enjoy family, friends, solitude, books, guitars, guns, hunting, fishing, gardening, exercise and even my work (most of the time ).  But, all those things are passing away because they are fragile.  I think this is why Paul wrote, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  Christ is the one possession that cannot be taken away.  Nothing can separate us from His love and when we die, we’ll finally have a more complete realization of Him.  We can’t hold onto Jesus too tightly but we really should loosen our grip on everything else.  Jesus was smart and He said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  That wasn’t a rebuke for enjoying your super-large flat screen TV.  It was a reminder that to count on it for ultimate happiness is silly.  Ultimate happiness comes from being held by the Giver rather than holding His gifts too tightly.