The Power Within

From reading Francis Collins’ book, The Language of God, I understand that the following facts.  First, the earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.  Second, there are 6 billion of us currently on the earth.  Third, dinosaurs lived 230 million years ago, and they to an end about 65 million years ago.  Fourth, modern Homo sapiens date from about 195,000 years ago.  Also, I heard recently the following: “Imagine if the life of earth is a 12-hr clock, humans have existed only the last 100th of a second.”  God, we are but a blink in time!

“Honestly,” a friend said, “I heard you talk about prayer, but do you actually believe in the power of prayer?” I looked at him and said, “yes, and you should, too.” My faith in John 3:16 is the bottom line. It convinces me of the following:

1. God listens to prayers.

2. God answers prayers.

Jesus said, “…I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” [Matthew 17:20]. It is all about “faith.”

It is all about God, and asking in prayer in accordance to His will. Prayer is all about God answering our prayers, but we must pray often enough to get a sense of His will. And, we need to pray passionately, not eloquently.

Prayer isn’t about certain words or phrases or babbling like pagans. Prayer is talking with God. All you have to do is ask God for His help. Philippians 4:6-7 tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” In other words, never underestimate the power of prayer.

A faithful friend is a strong defense, and he that hath found him, hath found a treasure. — Ecclesiastics 6:14

The need to forgive is important. Jesus Christ died on the cross to forgive us of our sins. His example is the ultimate of love. We are expected to do the same and, as a result, we are forgiven. I have thought about what this means more than once, but today it seems to be something I need to write about.

My past as a college teacher spans nearly 40 years. Many times I’ve come into contact with others who wanted to talk. One such person said “I lost a dear friend and colleague to differences that separated us then and now.” Later, she said:

It was painful then and less so now, but the feelings toward this person remain with me. I can’t say that all of the issues between us were created by this person (another female colleague). In my heart, I feel they were. The things that were done hurt me and my family. To this day I still don’t understand why it all happened. I know that I miss her, yet I really don’t know her anymore. She has never written to me or talked to me (now 15+ years) nor have I tried to contact her. Strange as it sounds, she might not even realize what she did to our friendship. And yet, I must believe that she does. I also believe she has no motivation to speak to me or to apologize for her behavior. We are now as though we never knew each other, and I find that sad and disappointing. More than once I’ve wanted to talk to her. Not knowing what she thinks keeps me from doing so. Also, I don’t because I know in my heart she destroyed our relationship. I still think about it from time to time, and I still wish for what we had – a special friendship!

And so, that is where I am with this introduction. If she doesn’t speak out and forgive her colleague or apologize for her behavior as well, I’m afraid they will never be friends again. As it stands, that is the case today. This raises two questions:

1. Should she say something?
2. Should she bury the emotions?

If she were to say something, it might be the first step to opening communication between them. Having said that, as it turns out, the person to whom I’m speaking about is not the kind of person who asks forgiveness very easily. After all, from her point of view, why does she need forgiveness when her friend is the one who destroyed their personal and professional relationship? Maybe it would be easier if she were more inclined to be forgiving. The fact is there are people who are inclined to ask forgiveness and there are people who are less inclined to ask forgiveness. At times I think the latter group overdoes it. This causes me to wonder if those who are ready to forgive at the drop of a hat really mean it.

Also, I must point out that I’m not convinced that she is ready to forgive her colleague from years past. In some sense, it is too easy to write a letter, pick up the phone, or email her. As I understand it, her behavior for the better part of 6 years while at another job with this lady was pure hell and, therefore, for her husband and children, too. It was so bad that on occasion she referred to her as an “evil” person.

I wonder if it is true that evil people live among us. I know that she thinks so while wishing it otherwise. And, now, at this very moment, the first real opportunity to talk about what had happened between the two of them, she feels somewhat foolish (like a cry baby, if you will).

Grow up “Sherry” (not her real name), she catches herself saying. “Grow up. This is stupid. Get over it.” Well, in many ways, I believe she is over it. She is human though, and she does have the right to try and understand life and, where possible, learn from her experiences. And, part of what I’ve learned over the years is that it is okay to sit, listen, and share thoughts with another person who feels comfortable enough to do so.

Should she forgive this person or not is the question? And, if she does, what does it mean to her and the events that transpired years earlier? Answers to these questions aren’t easy, but there are smart people with excellent ideas to consider. Take, for example, the article “When to Forgive” by the American theologian – Avery Dulles [1].

In short, Dulles says that forgiveness is not automatic. He argues “…that the person receiving it be sorry for any wrong committed….” His comment speaks to the heart of the matter. She has no way of knowing that her friend is sorry. Also, she has no tolerance for being caught a fool a second time. What if the person repeated the evil actions again? Frankly, I’m not sure what Sherry or her family would do this time around. So, you can see if she were to extend forgiveness without knowing the heart of the other person, then more harm may result to everyone. I don’t think she could deal with that very well.

Similarly, as pointed out by Steven Payne [2] in “Apology Accepted,” for the battered wife to apologize to other husband for burning supper may be viewed as “enabling her abuser.” Being an enabler is not the right way to regain or maintain a friendship. So, should she forgive this person but not apologize to her and, if so, what does that mean as a Christian (which she is)? Or, perhaps stated somewhat differently, should she forgive her or should she wait for the apology from this person and, if so, how long?

Ideally, an apology would lay the foundation for a hopeful coming together. But, what if she apologized but didn’t want anything to do with Sherry? Does she want an apology, or does she want the old friendship, or both? Also, what if this other person said “I’m sorry” but, then, she turned and walked away? She may have acknowledged her responsibility in humiliating and shaming Sherry by taking responsibility for what she did, but have no interest in associating with her.

As you can see, there is more than one possible outcome. That is life. It is exciting, interesting, and complex.

Betrayer is a serious matter. Sherry feels betrayed, and she is living it (i.e., when she allows herself to touch the moments of yesterday). What happened to her is a betrayer of friendship that hurts to the core. Whether Sherry can live with her feelings is up to her. Waiting for an apology is not the right course of action though. Maybe what ought to be done is this: What if Sherry wrote her friend and said her piece, realizing that (being human) her involvement, however unknown to her may have contributed to the failed friendship.

In other words, it takes a big person to forgive the other person through an apology when that person feels it isn’t her fault. It may not straighten anything out except the feeling that “now it is in the past, all of it.” Being Christian, after all, is about forgiveness. And, it is central to putting the past behind you so that you can live comfortably in the present. Who knows, Sherry’s friend may get it or she may not until much later or, perhaps, never. One thing is for sure, not stepping up to the plate to promote reconciliation means the door is likely to be closed and the past will continue to inflict its unresolved issues on the future. So, why not “Just do it” or as Payne [2] said in his article:

“…go ahead and take a chance. Try apologizing, as Jesus says, to the brother or sister, husband or wife, parent or child, teach or student, boss or employee, friend or stranger, who may have anything against you.” – Mt 5:23

References

1. Dulles, A. (2002). When to Forgive. America. 187:7. p. 8.
2. Payne, S. (2007). Apology Accepted. Spiritual Life: A Journal of Contemporary Spirituality. 53:1:23-34.

At times, like today, everything started off rather normal. I sat down for breakfast. It was really good. Then, I went for a walk with my wife. Life is good. After an hour walking, even with good conversation, I was tired. I guess I didn’t know how tired as was or even why. Immediately, my wife starts cleaning the house like she is connected to some sort of super charger. I said, “Hey, that’s it for me. I can’t keep cutting the yard (a 3-hour job), cleaning the house, planting flowers, cutting dead limbs from trees, and on and on when not at work. I should point out that we took today, Friday, off to get a jump on the weekend. I didn’t realize how big of a jump, given that we got started Thursday afternoon. It was just last weekend that we planted what seemed to be 1000 plants around the house. Maybe it was 25 plants. But, after removing grass and two inches of dirt from 90 square feet and replanting it elsewhere in the yard the day before, my shoulders were hurting and, as I said, I was tired. I guess getting older changes things.

Or, as my wife might say, “You can’t write all the time.” Yes, I do sit in the black chair for hours and write about exercise physiology more than I should. I don’t believe it is a passion per se. It is more like “not giving up” kind of thing. You might know what I mean. Remember when you went out for a sport, say football, and the only idea that is floating around is to run off the new ones. Well, most of us who wanted to play badly enough never gave up. No one could run us off or cause us to stop, and I guess my work with exercise physiology is like that.

That makes you think, hu? No wonder I need faith. On a similar point, recently, I wrote a book called, “A Father’s Gift of Prayer.” It is all about prayer and how a father can help his family members get into praying and live the power of Jesus Christ.  Strangely enough, an editor emailed me today saying, “I’ve heard back from the members of our new book committee and I’m afraid we’ll pass on your manuscript. I think there are a lot of good things in here, but, unfortunately, the book falls a little too far outside our publishing scope at this time for us to feel we could market it successfully.”

If I didn’t have faith that gives me the strength to keeping trying, I wouldn’t write anymore. My faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God gives me the strength to keep trying. Sooner or later I will find a publisher. Yet, what is interesting is this: the editor’s comments were probably the “usual nice way” to say “no” to a “nobody” in the Christian book publishing business. Here again, my faith helps me to be resilient. My energy and my desire to work more on the book, to make it better, are still with me. I believe in the book and, therefore, I have something important to do (i.e., if only I can cut back on cutting grass and planting more flowers and eventually some trees in the front yard).

I know Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. My belief in him and God gives me peace of mind as I learn to be a better person. It doesn’t mean that I will not get tired or say the wrong thing from time to time. I am sure I will, but I will stay the course, apologize for not doing what is obviously something my wife and I have an invested interest, and expecting someday (through faith) that my prayer book will be published. This is hope, I believe, and this is courage to live a better day tomorrow and to be a better person. Hi Brenda, I love you. How can I help you today? And, on a positive note as to the editor’s email. It is okay. I appreciate that he took time to consider my proposal.  I sense that he is a nice guy.

Have you wondered the following questions:  What is God?  Who is he?  How did he become what he is?  Why does God exist?  Why is there nothing else like God?  I’m told that the universe just couldn’t be “by chance that is” and, therefore, we and everything else must be part of a pattern of things and events that have been created for a purpose.

“Let there be light….” and so on, as recorded in the Book of Genesis.  Is it that simple?  Man was created, right?  He did not evolve from something else.  Man was created in God’s “…own image and likeness.”  The Bible is God’s word, but it is not a scientific documentation of how the world and people were made.  At least that is what I think is correct, right!

So, what is it about God that you or any person really knows?  Can you feel God’s presence?  Sometimes people think they can feel God’s presence.  Are they right?  Who would know?  It would seem reasonable, I think, that anyone who can create the universe and everything else can be with every person at the very same time.  There would be no reason not to think it is possible, not knowing what is possible in the first place or, perhaps better, believing that anything and everything is possible with God.

Faith is the only thing that makes sense.  Why, because it is a decision one way or the other.  I can either believe in God or not.  After all, we didn’t create ourselves.  Somebody or something, or God (which is what I believe) created all living life and the earth, the universe, and whatever else there is that wasn’t.

The Bible doesn’t tell us where God came from or how God created everything.  Of course, an answer to the first part of the sentence is the big question.  Theories and speculations are interesting, but they don’t answer anything.  Again, it comes down to a person’s decision to “believe” that God exists (or not).

We can choose to believe in God.  Meaning, we can choose not to believe.  Obviously, or so it seems, that when we believe in God, we must also believe in evil.  Yet, evil per se isn’t necessarily a function of not believing in God.  A person may not believe in God, but may not be evil either.  This argues then, what causes evil?  If it is not the lack of God in a person’s life, is it possible to triumph evil being good yet not believing in God?

In other words, what is the cause for evil if it isn’t evil, as in Satan the flipside of God, not that Satan is equal to God for God could do away with evil if he desired.  Since evil exists, God allows for evil.  But why does God allow for suffering, too?  Disease, hate, greed, and envy can (and often does) cause suffering in much the same way as evil does.

Is suffering an important link to God?  It wouldn’t seem to be since “by faith” a person is saved.  Yet faith per se does not keep a person from suffering, does it?  And, is it necessary to suffer to experience something special?  That is, is it the meaning that associates with suffering that makes suffering okay?  And, if this is so, why must a person suffer to experience the meaning?  Must a child suffer with disease?  What is the purpose?  Is there always a meaning to the disease?

It should be apparent that I have very few if any answers to my questions, except for one answer (i.e., John 3:16).  Also, my limitations are obvious to anyone who reads this piece.  I’m not trained in theology or religious studies.  Maybe that is okay, given that most things regarding God are not provable.

As you may heard before, the only thing bad about life is “meaningless suffering.”  To which I must conclude with:  “Honestly, get real.”  Is there really any good to suffering even when it is meaningful?  This, it seems to me is an argument in the wrong direction (i.e., pointless).  It isn’t hard to suffer, and pain from disease and/or disability (mind and/or body) can result in suffering without it having resulted from evil thoughts and/or actions.

God gave the human race life with all its diversity, complexity, and “freedom.”  Disease (and suffering that associates with it) is part of life as is the air that every human needs to live.  Only God determines with absoluteness everything about him.  Man is therefore subject to everything that is otherwise a multiplicity of imperfections.  Such is the constancy of life given to sin, having a connection to Adam who ate the forbidden fruit.  In a real sense, having eaten from the tree of life, wherein life was without sin and suffering, Adam condemned the human race to life with sin and with judgment.

The irony is that God gave Adam and Eve the freedom of life.  Perhaps the most shocking point is that God’s gift of freedom would potentially allow for evil.  For God to have done otherwise would have argued the creation of robots.  It seems to me that God allows for evil because the humankind is hardly a special creature if there is no choice of options.

Allowing for sin, especially when a person chooses not to sin, argues even more in favor of God’s creation.  And, God says that if you need help in resisting sin, ask me and I will empower you to do so.  Of course, God expects us to resist evil and, therefore, in so doing, we live in accordance with God’s will.

Theological reflections distilled in academics and rituals are important for all the obvious reasons, but I do wonder at times if prayer is all that is needed.  The emphasis on pray, being willing to pray, is easily forgotten with all the celebration of doctrinal propositions, statements, and creeds.

Lord, I ask that You will be with me today.  Open a path for connection with others to pray so that we, singly and collectively, will have the strength and clarity of mind and heart to live a life as you want us to.  May we learn not to be selfishness or impatient in our thinking and dealings with others.  Transform us into your ways so that we will not fear either yesterday or tomorrow.  And, may we help rejuvenate and refresh others in their moments of disease, illness, or weakness.  May Your Spirit of forgiveness and love rest with us and encourage us to model Your love.  Thank You Lord for Your Son Jesus Christ for dying on the cross for our sins.  Amen.

For some, such as myself, faith is an absolute, that is, a given that does not change.  As I’ve posted before, a person either has faith or a person does not.  It is that simple for me.  For others, the concept of faith is viewed as “developmental” or thinking ordered by stages of development.  To me, this is a rather human definition; an interpretation of what some of us mean when talking about faith in God.  It is like saying let think about it and, then, if I can make sense of it – so be it.

The point of faith versus fact (or making sense of it) is, in my opinion, belief not justification.  Why is this so hard to understand unless of course the willingness is not there to believe in the first place?  Hence, looking at theories to understand concept of faith development may be okay by some theologians and educators, but I disagree that it is necessary to have faith in God.  Why can’t a person either have faith or no faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God?

I believe I’m beginning to understand to some extent.  God says, “Have faith in me and you shall have eternal life.”  This reminds me of a short story about a room full of very smart men.  God spoke to them from the other side of the closed door.  He said, “Stand up and come to me.”  All the men looked at each other waiting to see who would move.  One man stood up and walked towards the door.  Several other men asked him, “What are you doing, and have you thought about your actions without obvious time to reflect?”

The standing man said, “Do you mean have I thought about the ‘stages’ of faith development?”  Then, he said, “Please get serious, will you guys?”  He pulls his clothes free from the others, steps over the legs and feet of friends, and leaves the room, saying “I have faith that God is on the other side of the door.  Come with me, and we will all be saved, come with me, please.”  No one moved.  They just looked at him with their mouths open and hearts pounding.

Then, collectively, they came together to think about what the man had done.   Upon his disappearance, they grew scared saying, “We must have faith.  We must go to God, too.”  After a pause, a theologian (or was it an educator) in the back of the room was heard to say, “Let us reconsider what has happened, and let us formulate a framework to better understand this act of faith.”  So, as you might imagined, all the men gathered around the vocal ones to talk, theorize, and justify why they had not stood up when God called them.

In a blink of the eye the lights went out in the room.  For a moment, the men were scared beyond ever before and they wished they had stood up and left the room.  A deep breath later someone said, “Let us formulate yet another theory.”  Almost before he had finished his statement, another man, one who had failed to graduate from high school said, “Why can’t we just believe in God?”  But it was too late.  There was no more sound from the men who were in the room!

In contrast to some who think faith is a fluid concept, I disagree. I believe faith is timeless, non-moving belief. It is even changeless, especially “faith” that says, “I am willing to die with the conviction that I will spend forever with God.”

My point is clear in that to have faith is to believe in God. To think of faith as something I must nurture and develop is not the kind of faith I’m speaking about. There is only one way to think about it. A person either has faith in God or he/she does not. My faith is such that I have always believed in God, which has not been without some inconsistencies in being a religious person. In other words, my relationship with God has been closer at times than at other times.

In this sense, however strange it may sound, the “up and down” rhythms experienced as a human being is similar to that of relating to friends, parents, and co-workers. Life is difficult with all the twists and turns and pulls and pushes, but with God on yourself , that is, “within you,” there is no need to worry.

Jesus, thanks for being in my life. I need you, and my family needs you. Thank you for giving your life for me and my sins and for everyone who has lived and will live. You died on the cross for us. Thank you Jesus. Thank you God for giving us Your Son so that we might have eternal life with You. Thank you for giving me the “powerwithin” to change and to be the person you created me to be. As I look now at my life, I know You are with me and, yes, you are with my family, too. Thank you for being with my family, looking after them, and helping them with life’s issues. I give my life to you to do with it as you please. May my work, words, and deeds reflect on my faith in You.

Recently, I read several postings on the EveryStudent.com website. I found the content helpful and to the point. From “Is Their A God” to “Is God Real” to “Life Issues” (about love, sex, relationships, marriage, and much more), the content is excellent. Hoping that you might think the same, and that you might benefit from from reading sections of the website, I decided to link to it. Here is a copy of one page:

“EveryStudent.com is a safe place to explore questions about who God is and what it might be like to know God. This site contains articles, real life video stories, Q & A’s, and gives you an opportunity to email a question you might have about God. We will email you a personal response to your question. Our desire is to help you see that God is offering you a personal relationship with himself, and how you can begin to know him today. The site is developed by an interdenominational Christian organization: Campus Crusade for Christ, International. You will find this student organization on many college campuses throughout the U.S. and the world. If you are interested in seeing a specific list of the theological beliefs of Campus Crusade for Christ, feel free to email us. We hope that you will consider the possibility of knowing God and his love for you. There is no other relationship we can experience that so completely satisfies the longings of the human heart and mind.”

Check it out. I think you will like it.