Psalm 103:4-5, “He redeems me from death,
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.”
I had to stop my reading and
just let this sink in. I am awed and
humbled that God has chosen to show Himself so gracious towards me. My life is so full of good things, and the
good things just keep coming.
In July, Roger and I had the
privilege of having all our children and grandchildren, our parents, and most
of our siblings, along with some dear friends, gather with us to celebrate
thirty-five years of the life that God has given us together. And celebrate we did! For a week as a family
we ate together, played games together, hung out at the pool together and
around the firepit; there were laughs, and stories, and time spent just sharing
our hearts, burdens and prayer requests.
We sang together, and we worked together to see the week culminate in a
beautiful ceremony of shared commitment and renewal to the future God still has
in store for us. Everyone pitched in,
from the youngest with rakes and brooms, to the older ones with weed-eaters and
lawn mowers, and from cleaning to cooking, to make sure everything was ready
for our special day. And when it was all
over, we hugged and cried, said our goodbyes, and began looking forward to the
next time we’d all be able to be together again, not knowing when that might be
or what might change before that next time.
We believe what we have as a
family is something to be treasured. But
maybe like your family, we’re not perfect.
We have our moments. We don’t
always agree on everything, nor do things quite the same way. In fact, we can be quite opinionated and
passionate about a lot of different things, and the family setting has often been
the place those things have been “loudly discussed”. But that is part of what makes it so
great. We all have a desire to honor
God. We all love and respect each other. Our love and commitment to Christ keeps our
love and commitment to each other strong.
He always brings us back to what is right, and what may need to be made
right with each other. He makes what we
have worth any effort it may take on each individual part to keep the whole
intact.
Two take-aways: 1) People matter, and 2) It’s not about “stuff”.
People matter.
Relationships matter, but
they take work to be good and strong.
Relationships need mutual respect and consideration, selfless giving and
honesty, humility and forgiveness. The
Scripture says that “if it be possible, as much as lies within you, live peaceably
with all men,” (Romans 12:18). This
infers that in some situations with some people it’s just not going to
happen. We cannot control how others
choose to handle themselves. All we can
do is determine to love like Jesus loves, forgive like Jesus forgives, and pray
for those that would choose not to “live peaceably with all men”.
In a recent conversation with
someone in a rather desperate situation, I was being asked for help. But they also explained they did not want to
hear any of my “Christian hogwash, since my life had been so perfect” (and that
was the decent version of their comments).
Yet, they were calling me! And I
wanted to say, “NO, MY LIFE HAS NOT BEEN PERFECT, BUT IT SURE HAS BEEN
GOOD. And you may not want to hear it,
or acknowledge that God has had anything to do with the fact that my life has
taken quite a different turn than yours, but at least I know that my choices to
honor God and live to serve Him have kept me from the many hard times and
heartbreaks that have come as a result of nothing more than selfish and sinful
choices."
Some hurts are
unavoidable. Some situations are beyond
my control. But even those times, if not
intrinsically good, I can trust God to bring good from or work to my good as He
promises to do (Romans 8:28, James 1:17).
So I said the only thing I could say to this person, “You know me. You may not want to hear it, but it’s all I’ve
got for you. You need God. You need His forgiveness. You need to allow His love to really penetrate
your heart and give you hope and a future.
He can, and He wants to, but He won’t do it against your will. I love you, and I’m praying He will intervene
and give you a chance to know His mercy and grace.” That person is still living in a despairing
and miserable situation, but only because they won’t choose to do
otherwise. And at the same time they
want me to feel guilty and accuse me of thinking I am better than they are
because I have a good life. I refuse to
do it!! I will praise God for filling my
life with good things.
It’s not
about “stuff.”
For some,
having a life filled with good things is all about “stuff”. They can never have enough stuff. We have had times with very little and what
would not be considered, “nice stuff”.
We’ve had times when we have been able to have nice things. “Stuff” can make life a little easier,
pleasant, less stressful maybe. And don’t
get me wrong, I’m grateful for all the “stuff” God has blessed us with. But it’s
not about “stuff”. It’s about being able to go to sleep at night
content with the day you’ve had, happy and at peace. It’s about loving others and knowing you are
loved. It’s about this deep joy inside
even when you are hurting, that just can’t be explained. It’s about being able to trust in Someone
greater than yourself when your inadequacies are overwhelming, when your limits
are stretched, when the situation seems hopeless. My heart is weary for those that, with disdain, shun this type of goodness, goodness
of the purest sort. Stuff is ok; stuff
is nice to have, but having lots of stuff doesn't constitute a good life.
“It’s a
wonderful life!” “Life is good.” “Living the good life.” You know the cliches. However you want to say it, it’s all good and
I’m grateful. I can say that mine is a
wonderful life. I can say my life is
good. And I really hope you can
say with me, “He fills my life with good
things.”
God is great, God is good.
