Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp. Psalm 149:3
Life, if we look hard enough, will bring smiles to your face! Not long after our loss, my wife and I got involved in a ballroom dance ministry where we learned the dance steps that helped me to lead and her to follow. For anyone experiencing loss, you learn quickly that each person grieves differently, like two ships passing in the night. I learned in my grief that because I have the holy spirit residing in me, I have a never-ending joy bubbling up that gives me a reason to smile, to laugh, and enjoy life again.
Whereas we are sad following a loss, we can't remain in that box forever. Eventually, we have to continue living. So, put your headphones on and try not to smile watching this video clip while listening to these lyrics.
You may just find yourself toe-tapping along with the beat!
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, Psalm 95
I knew there were benefits to listening to music, but not this many. It explains why I love listening to KTIS FM in the morning drive to and again in my return trip home. Music is the key to feeling good about oneself because it releases the dopamines throughout our body.
One of the distressing things about losing a loved one is depriving ourselves of the pleasure of music. We turn off the radio when the song on it reminds us the music our loved one loves, or we sit in silence hoping the mere silence will make us feel better without realizing we need the pulsating effects of music to stimulate our brain. The music we enjoy listening to stimulates areas of both areas of our brain. What I didn't realize was that when students listened to music prior to taking a test they actually did better on that test.
Studies suggest that when children listen to music before completing a math test they actually did better on that test. Studies also suggest that music often helps dementia patients and severely brain damaged individuals to better recall personal memories!
Then there was the study that suggested that when people who listened to music prior to undergoing their surgical procedures had lower pain scores and required less of the pain medications, and doctors who listened to music prior to performing surgery actually had better technique performing that procedure.
I postulated that music, not opioids, holds the key to being the greatest pain reliever for people.
As I reflected on these benefits, my mind became consumed by this incredible body that God created in the beginning with a mind that has so many healing benefits when we listen to music.
In this age where people somehow think silence, not music is golden, we ought to change the way we think about music because music actually can help us heal from the damaging effects of grief and trauma. While I cannot explain it, all I know is that when I listen to music on the radio I feel good.
Since our lives in heaven will one day be filled with singing praises to our King, let us practice for the real thing by listening to Christian songs on our radios- on the drive time to and from work. Try it and you too may experience the releasing of those dopamines throughout your system!
Our God truly is the master builder of all of us- he truly understands what ails us in this life!
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
On Saturday, I attended a small gathering of friends. It was a good time that began with a picnic at the Como Zoo pavilion with lots of conversations and catching up on memories. Our group had this pavilion only until 2 pm when another larger group celebrating family and their connection to their beloved Rondo neighborhood.
Earlier, I picked up a large sheet cake with the words, 'celebrating family and love' to honor those we were getting together with at this park. We realized that there was far more cake that any of us could ever eat.
As 2:00 pm approached I met some of the participants at the next gathering. One African American man named Ronald said through ancestral research that one of their friends had done revealed they were able to trace their 3 families back before slavery. I shook his hand while giving him eye contact and wanting to know more about the origination of their event.
As we moved our belongings from the shelter we were at to a picnic bench beneath a tree I reflected on the uneaten cake and had an idea. I decided to make my pitch with our group regarding donating the rest of our 'Celebrating family and love' cake to the Rondo gathering since they too were celebrating family and love. Everyone liked the idea. I picked up the cake and walked over to one of the gentlemen in this group and explained that we had far too much cake for our group to consume and wanted to share it with their group, pointing to the Celebrate family and love inscription on the cake. Several of them graciously thanked me for this contribution.
Fast forward and now we're eating dinner in a Green Mill restaurant. One individual in our group began talking about mindfulness and making a partial living reading astrological signs to people. I was tired of always being told my worldview was obsolete and decided to share my worldview about God coming down to earth in the form of a baby boy named Jesus and growing in stature, learning the struggles of life on earth and teaching people about the truth of God's word before being judged, sentenced and dying on the cross for us all n order to provide a way for all of our sins's to be forgiven through his death and resurrection and that Jesus Christ is very much alive changing lives even today when they have a personal encounter with Him. Then I added that it was in 1974 when I prayed to individually receive Christ into my heart where I sense the very presence of Jesus- even when bad things happen.
Later that night I read Hebrews 11 commonly known as the hall of faith. In the very first verse of Hebrews are these words, Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Then the chapter goes on reveals the faith of men and woman in the bible. Then there were countless others revealed at the end of that chapter who suffered for Jesus:
"But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half,[d] and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. "
As I reflected on the large Rondo group of families celebrating family and love, I thought about their own unjust suffering at the hands of people who saw themselves as righteous, but who were evil on the inside.
When we accuse God of the evil in this world, we are judging God based on how he carries out OUR agenda when we should look at ourselves as the reason for God's judgment. Then I read Mark 7:21-23 about the heart of men- For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, those evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.
To understand why there is pain and suffering and all things evil, we must look inside of us because when we do we can see how accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts is a start toward changing the world- something as simple as bringing a large sheet cake over to 3 Rondo families celebrating family and love.
9 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
Last night. my wife and I saw the Sony pictures film, Transylvania 3 which is a movie about man's imperfection than simply a film about 'monster's'. We stayed through the entire movie to watch the credits in hopes of seeing our friend's daughter's name- she was one of the animators of this movie.
The most important verse in the bible that drew me to a life decision for serving Christ can be found in John 9. In the 3rd verse, I read "neither this man nor his parents have sinned," Jesus said, " but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him." Back in the day of Christ, it was commonly held that those who were born with a disability were made that way because of some sin either he or his parents have done. God's message to us is that He will work through whatever weakness you have in your body so you can overcome that barrier.
All of us can fill in the blank in John 9. Whatever physical or mental challenge you possess, God's message to you that he wants to work through your weakness with His strength. He does so because He loves you so much. Whether the affliction is depression, autism, paralysis, or one of the many maladies listed in the medical dictionary, God wants to work through your affliction.
Mandy overcame the devastating effects of her deafness to find ways to overcome the seemingly impossible barrier of being on 'America's got talent' to win the golden buzzer.
This is clearly a message to us that nothing is impossible through Christ who strengthens us and that every life is a treasured gift from God!
Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
In my mind, Christopher Reeves was Super man! My favorite scene in the movie, and it was a scene that resonates in the minds of many marred by tragedy, was the one where Lois Lane runs out of gas and her car slips into a crevice caused by the earthquake. By the time Superman found her she was dead. But, unlike the rest of us, Superman was able to reverse the earth's current to just moments before the quake to find an alive Lois Lane sitting behind the wheel of her car. While, Christopher Reeves could do this in his role as Superman, he knew in real life when his spinal cord injury occurred when he fell off his horse, it wasn't possible to simply get up again. Yet, he refused to lose hope and instead used his name to raise money for spinal cord research. https://www.christopherreeve.org/ On their site was this quote from Christopher Reeves:
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.- Christopher Reeve
Through this foundation, we learned some statistics regarding paralysis- that it is more common than previously thought:
According to the study, there are nearly 1 in 50 people living with paralysis – approximately 5.4 million people.
1.)Approximately 1.7 percent of the U.S. population, or 5,357,970 people reported they were living with some form of paralysis, defined by the study as a central nervous system disorder resulting in difficulty or inability to move the upper or lower extremities.
(2)The leading cause of paralysis was stroke (33.7 percent), followed by spinal cord injury (27.3 percent) and multiple sclerosis (18.6 percent). Cerebral Palsy was included in this study because of the varying degree of paralysis it causes.
(3) People living with paralysis have households with lower incomes. Roughly 28% of households with a person who is paralyzed make less than $15,000 per year.
(4) On the employment front, 15.5% of individuals living with paralysis are employed versus 63.1% who are not living with a disability. Additionally, 41.8% of those living with paralysis indicated they were unable to work. For more statistical information I encourage you to go to the Christopher and Dana Reeves foundation.
Christopher Reeves greatest contribution to society may not be his role in Superman, but his desire to leave a lasting legacy so that those suffering from paralysis can maintain their hope of a better tomorrow. In our community of Minneapolis and St. Paul is a young man who has that hope of one day walking again. Jake Jablonsky injured his spinal cord when he was hit in a high school hockey game. Just recently, there was a story about Jake being able to move his toes. Jake, like Christopher Reeves, never gave up hope.
His son, Will Reeve, is one example of someone marred by the tragedy of losing his parents who was taught that tragedy doesn't have to define him.
What many of us discover, myself included, that the choices we make after tragedy occurs determine whether we're on the road leading to destruction (alcohol, drugs, high risk behaviors) or the road leading us to build a living legacy that encourages others in the throes of suffering.
What living legacy do you want to leave your love ones in the face of your personal tragedy? What would your life look like if you worked toward a legacy that honors your loved one? What is the take-away that helps you thrive? Is it developing a ministry that inspires people that hope is possible in the face of tragedy? Is it a career that helps make the world a better place?
Like Will, what would you write to your 13-year old self to encourage him or her in the face of tragedy?
The beauty of my faith is the hope that lies within me- a hope that grows daily as I walk with my living Savior, Jesus.
Like Will, your life doesn't have to end with the sirens the night tragedy occurred! For ideas on how you can be a legacy I encourage you to look at this site. http://inheritanceofhope.org/
4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[a]or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4
I started reading a book I found in the Heritage school library one day while helping my wife shift books around. The title caught my eye. When I got home that evening I opened the book to discover the book was written by a Heritage mom who wrote it following the loss of her 17 year old daughter Danielle from a horrific car accident one night. Melody Richards takes the reader through the perils of what it was like when this grief hit their family- the impact it had on her younger sister Ashley and much younger brother Nathan. She gives us not only the horrific emotions her family had, but intersperse through the pages were glimpses of hope of heaven. She writes about the moment she found out about this loss when the police officer woke her up to inform her of the news of the traffic accident and how she told her surviving children of the news while wishing she could spare them of the pain of losing a sister- something she knew was impossible. Several weeks following the funeral, Melody is now watching a youth soccer game when she looked around at all the other spectators, thinking, how can everyone just act as if everything is normal when my life is at a breaking point? Do they not see that my whole life has just been shattered? Her thoughts were exactly our thoughts in the weeks following our own daughter's untimely loss. Melody describes reading Jerry Sittser's book about the loss of his wife, daughter and mother when they were hit by a drunk driver. This statement caught her attention: " Loss requires that we live in a delicate tension. We must mourn, but we must go on living." As the weeks went on, she is sitting in her daughter Ashley's bedroom when her daughter began crying, visibly wracked by exceptional despair. Through her sobs, she cried out, "Who will be my maid of honor at my wedding? Who will I tell when I'm excited about something? She describes her heart aching as she lamented the many dreams her daughter shared with her sister would now never be fulfilled. While Ashley wept in her arms, she remembered all she could do was pray for God to comfort her. She goes on and describes every parents lament in this situation to want to disparately to fix this for her children- to make the pain go away. When she learned that alcohol was a contributing factor to Danielle's accident she wrote about this tension and wondering if she ought to keep this a secret, or use the news to protect other young people from making the tragic mistake of drinking an driving. I recommend this book to everyone who has had to grapple with the sudden loss of a child, or know someone who has.
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
Some say God no longer does miracles. Those that do may believe the Bible is nothing but a book of fairy tales. Many have stopped going to church thinking it is just a waste of time. I beg to differ from that prevalent thinking. I believe we can see miracles if we just open our eyes to the beauty of human nature.
I believe we were created by God to do good in this world and leave it a better place once we leave it.
One case in point comes from Thailand where 12 boys and their soccer coach were trapped in a cave when waters rose blocking their only way out.
Most know that there was a medical doctor from Austria who was especially adept at cave diving who scuba dived to the boys and stayed with them until every last one made it safely out of that cave. He made sure they stayed hydrated and checked their vital signs. The other miracle was a ordinary soccer player, abandoned by his family, who fluently learned 5 languages and at such a time as this was able to act as a interpreter between the rescuers and the rest of the team. He was a boy without the right to citizenship and yet, God used this boy to keep the other's morale up until they could all be rescued.
Why am I mentioning this fact?
I believe a miracle has happened.
All throughout the Bible, God uses the least of these to do mighty works. Take, for example, Gideon. In Judges 6. God calls Gideon to do a mighty work to save Israel. In Verse 15 are these words, "“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.” Over and over, the Lord reminded Gideon that he won't die because He will be with him.
This ordinary soccer player, abandoned and alone, I believe was in the right place and the right time to save his team.
I believe there are many of us who have this inferiority complex who truly believe we can do no good in this world, but God reminds us over and over again that He will be with you no matter what happens to you in this lifetime.
It is as though you're running this marathon and you have the Savior running beside you giving you encouragement that " all things are possible through Christ who strengthens you."
Just as God used Gideon, He can also use you to do a mighty work for Him. Your life truly matters in the lives of others in this world.
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2
Oh, what a week this has been! As a Christian when I heard that the last of the soccer players made it out of the cave I just wanted to shout to the Lord in a mighty crescendo of praise. Like most, I was concerned over the what if's of this event. What if the gusher of water poured from the skies and drowned the soccer players? What if the cave themselves collapse, making their rescue nearly impossible? What if they hadn't stayed hydrated and were too weak to leave the cave?
The only human response to this event was to pray and that we did. From corner to corner on this planet we lifted our hands heavenward and prayed for a miracle- that all 12 boys and heir soccer coach would make it out alive and back home with their families.
Then we waited.
I learned that this event became a international rescue effort from the medical doctor in Austria with cave exploration skills to the highly trained Thailand Navy Seals to the many volunteers who helped from providing dry socks to providing coffee and other refreshments.
Then we prayed some more even in the face of monsoon rain predicted to hit the area the caves were in.
We learned of the elaborate system to pipe water out of the flooded caves so the rescuers had a chance to get inside to bring them out. A Christian friend remembered hearing that the rain 'just' stopped on the day of the first rescue.
I believe in miracles. I also believe that this was God who showed up when he heard the cascading prayers lifting to heaven.
I discovered that it is better to pray than to worry or fret over the 'what if's'. It is better to pray than to try to control the outcome through needless worrying.
When I woke up in the early morning and discovered that the 3rd and final rescue effort had begun, I shouted praises to the mighty king. I prayed, along with others around the globe, for a successful rescue attempt.
When I heard those boys made out of the cave with the help of those Navy Seals and under the watchful eye of our Lord, I knew that God reigned in this event.
We do have a mighty God who loves us more than we could ever know! He is a mighty and living King who is always in the miracle business One of the Thai rescuers when he came out asked if this was a miracle, or science that made this all possible.
To that response, I can tell you that God created the world we live in and He alone provided the means for this successful international effort to occur.
The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,my shield[a] and the horn[b] of my salvation, my stronghold.Psalm 18:2
No matter how much in shambles your life may be, there is always hope when you see the cross. That was the mood of the moment when construction workers responsible in the rescue effort happened to find this mangled cross beam that became their hope- a hope that God would help them weather the greatest storm in their lives.
The cross isn't attractive when you think about it. For many living during the life of Christ, the cross represented pain, suffering, blood stains, unresolved trauma and even nightmares and flashbacks following the loss of loved one through crucifixion.
Imagine being on the hillside the day of such a event. As you stand there, you see soldiers tying timbers together making 3 crosses and when that was done they bring 3 men to the cross ready to suffer the sentences that were rendered to them. Two of the men were found guilty of their crimes and in the law of that time deserved the sentence. The third, Jesus Christ, was the one the ruler could not find any reason for such a harsh sentence, but had no choice when the people decided that he should die.
Imagine the horror of watching these soldiers nailing stakes into each man's feet, arms and hands, being careful not to kill them for they wanted each of them to suffer and die during the actual crucifixion, not before.
Imagine those who remained with Christ looking up at the face of Jesus with tears streaming down their eyes and heaving heavy sobs trying to find a way to save Jesus who in their minds did so much good in the short life he lived.
If we stopped at the crucifixion, we miss the really important part of the story which is the catharsis for our own lives- that Christ died for you and me.
We forget the empty tomb where Mary and some of his followers happened to find the stone that had been rolled away. We forget the encounters that many of his followers had on the road with him, or the fish fry he ate with them, or appearing in the room with many others before his resurrection.
We forget that Christ isn't dead, but he is alive. We forget that he promised to give us the gift of his holy spirit as a reminder of his everlasting presence in our lives. We even forget that when we receive Him into our lives, our lives are sealed with him.
Those construction workers who found this mangled cross beam cross in a sea of unrecognizable rubble found the hope they needed to continue what would be the worse job in their lives.
Many of us remember what we were doing at the moment September 11, 2001 occurred. Many, no doubt, felt for the men, woman, children who were on those two planes that crashed into the towers. Most have a hard time forgetting the images of the workers in those towers waving towels to get the attention of the rescuers and the few who jumped to their deaths rather than being burned in the inferno.
In the post September 11th years, the cross helped us heal from the pain of that event. We knew that to recover from the trauma and the pain, our only hope was to turn to God in our quiet times, our weekly Church attendance, and in our Bible reading.
The Cross of Jesus Christ, the blood stain cross, reminds us that God loves you so much that he was willing to die for you and all the rest of humanity.
So no matter what personal tragedy might have occurred in your own life, Jesus Christ is ready to take the burden off of you and nail them to His cross.
The cross of Christ continues to stand the test of time because He lives.
The bible is God's love story to mankind. Just when you feel alone and isolated, we are reminded through God's word his precious love for each of us. This was a post from a while ago that I thought worthwhile to post again. As I look out the window this morning it isn't raining, but in 2015 on this day it was.
This morning as the gentle rain fell I read from the book of Psalms. I was reminded by these words in chapter 42:
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation[c] 6 and my God.
No matter what happens that startles you we have an awesome God who wants to be part of your life on this day..it may be raining all day cascading your soul downward and it may be thundering outside, but we have a God that wants to fill the empty spaces of your soul and give your reason to praise him!
