When Life Turns Against You

It was the middle of summer and we were busy doing the things that we usually did. We had a family vacation planned and the kids all had things that they wanted to do. We were even making plans for the fall and looked forward to another year. Josh would be graduating from high school and Sarah would be finishing her junior year.

Then all of the plans we had, everything that we were looking forward to changed in a matter of minutes. Our hopes and dreams, the expectations we had along with even the little things like having lunch with friends or planning trips with the men's group all disappeared.

There is a story in the Bible that tells of a similar situation. King David was the greatest King in Israel. He was a man after God's heart and although he had made mistakes in his life, he always admitted his mistakes and asked forgiveness, making things right with God. Later in his life, when things should have been getting easier, one of his sons, who was loved by the people, decided to take over the government.

Because David loved his son, he couldn't bear the thought of fighting against him, so instead, he fled with his immediate family. As he left his home and headed for a hiding place, he stopped at the edge of town watching his family and the servants in his household pass by him, headed for safety. I am sure as he stood there he looked back over the city (named after him - the City of David) and wondered what had brought him to this place in his life. You can read this story in 2 Samuel 15.

There are times in life when it feels like everything is turning against you. All the plans, hopes and dreams are snatched away and you are faced with challenges beyond your abilities and understanding.

As we face the reality of what is going on in our lives, it is easy to feel like life has turned against us and let the discouragement and disappointment dictate our feelings and direction. If all that we hope for is taken away, if everything that is important to us gets destroyed, then we can find ourselves standing at the edge of town looking back over everything that we have accomplished in life and lose hope.

If all of our plans and hopes and dreams are for the daily things, the houses or cars, vacations or trips, crops or jobs, then yes, there is little hope left when those things are taken away.

When we look at the world and what they focus on, most of their energies are focused on improving themselves. If we are Christ Followers, our perspective changes.

Did you realize that as a Christ Follower, you represent the only religious belief system whose central event is the humiliation and death of the main character. Think about it, every other belief system has their main character attaining a higher level or becoming a deity, but followers of Jesus Christ proclaim that their God gave up His privileges and power to become human and then took on the humiliation and death of a criminal, in order to pay the penalty for those who worshiped Him.

When we begin to realize that the God of the universe gave up everything to be in a relationship with us, many of the things that seem necessary and important in our lives begin to look insignificant in comparison.

I was reminded this morning that those things that seem important to us, have little significance when compared to our life in Christ. When we live our lives within the kingdom of God as a Christ Follower, the things of this world loose their influence over us. In the story about Job in the Bible, he lost everything (and he had a lot more to lose than I do) but still he didn't lose his perspective as a Follower of God.

Job made the statement (Job 1:21):

I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing.

The Lord gave, and now he has taken away.

May his name be praised!

The truth is, we were born with nothing (we didn't bring anything with us into this world) and when we die, we can't take anything with us. Which tells me that nothing in this world is important enough to get attached to.

So what should I focus my life on? As for me and my house, we will focus on those things that will have value after our life here finishes. Our hope is not that things will get better in this world, but that more people will become Christ Followers and join Him in kingdom living.

Kingdom living begins now, and continues after these earthly bodies wear out and pass away.

Keep Josh in your prayers. His nurse this morning had to leave because her son was just diagnosed with Foot & Mouth disease. It can be contagious, usually in younger children or people with low immune systems. So Josh could be susceptible. The symptoms are fever, blisters on hands and feet and mouth soars.

Pray for Gods protection for Josh and the other patients here, and healing for the nurses son Dillan.

Keep Josh & Sarah in your prayers as they begin school today. They did start a little yesterday with an Art class. The Houston school district has an educator here and the hospital has a graphics artist that they both worked with.

This is what the class room looks like this morning here at MD Anderson.