Tired But Still Loving!

 I read a story about a 4-year-old boy who was waiting with his mother in the doctor’s office. They were discussing the kinds of earth-shaking issues that concern a four-year old in a doctor’s office. Issues like, "What am I doing here?" and "Where’s the doctor?" and "Why isn’t God married?" and "Does the doctor ever get sick?" – that kind of stuff. Finally the child asked the ultimate question: "Why doesn’t God just get tired and stop?" His mom had to think for several moments. Finally she said, "God is love, and love never gets tired." I think I know what that mom meant, and I would never try to undermine her noble attempt to her help little boy understand how hard and how long, true God-like love will work. The beautiful and immortal words of 1 Corinthians 13 describe a kind of love modern America as a culture has lost touch with – "Love suffers long and is kind . . . bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails" (verses 4-7). But as I reflect on all the Bible teaches about love, I think it is reasonable to say that while true love will never quit, it does, indeed, at times grow tired. Very tired. In a section of Scripture discussing the dramatic difference love and hatred have on life and relationships between people, the apostle John wrote these arresting words sixty years after he witnessed Jesus suffering on the cross – "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). The context and background from which John penned these words reveals that some in John’s day were as confused about the nature of true love as they are today. Some, apparently in close proximity to or perhaps even in the church, were not loving the brethren, and John equates that with hatred. We don’t have space to examine all that is behind John’s statements. But if you read 1 John you can’t help but wonder if the reason some in John’s day were no longer loving was because they just found it too tiring to continue? Life in the church or marriage or any other human relationship can wear you down, especially when you love enough to hang in there and suffer long! Selfish love often quits as soon ass it begins to suffer or get tired.

 Years ago I was blessed – and challenged – by words in a church bulletin article by Bro. John Gipson entitled, "When Love Gets Tired." He began by quoting Ephesians 5:1-2 where Christians are called to "follow (imitate) God and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering ... to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." Bro. Gipson then wrote words that continue to grip me: ". . . love is sometimes more troublesome and worrisome than wonderful, and loving others as Christ loved us often involves the doing of some things that must be done in the name of love: helping with the dishes, folding the laundry, disciplining the kids, and paying the bills. And even when the tasks are a lot more serious – involving real courage and sacrifice – the truth remains the same, the ultimate example was set for us 2,000 years ago. His anguished prayer in Gethsemane makes it clear that Jesus didn’t love dying. But He definitely died loving." Jesus was tired by the time He died, but, to borrow words from John 13:1b, "He loved them to the end." The plain truth is that love that sticks around only when things feel good and pleasing and easy – whatever that kind of love is, it is not the God-like kind that suffers long. No, Jesus didn’t love dying. But the cross forever proclaims He loved us till His dying breath. It’s okay to be tired, but don’t ever quit loving. 

by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

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The Bottle, or What’s in the Bottle?

 The Talmud is the comprehensive written version of vast Jewish oral laws and the subsequent commentaries. It is a challenging religious text, but contains some very practical advice. I ran across one example years ago that has remained in my memory banks. It says, "Examine the contents, not the bottle." We hear the same difficult challenge in our more contemporary idiom, "Don’t judge a book by its cover." Several years ago I experienced first-hand insight into that idea. An acquaintance with whom I shared a mutual interest in the history of the Civil War loaned me, one book at a time, each volume of author Shelby Foote’s three-volume series on that awful war. Foote is famous for this compelling and comprehensive non-fictional narrative history of that war that threatened to literally rip America into two separate nations forever. Written between 1958 and 1974, the three volumes contained a 1.2 million word history of the American Civil War. When I first saw the three books (all first editions), they were dusty and the covers were torn and ragged (I actually ended up attempting to make new covers for them). They just weren’t much to look at. But once I cracked the first volume open and set my eyes on the first line, I was hooked! I found the books to be the most fascinating and thorough and enriching thing I had ever read about that great civil cataclysm that tore

 

American culture to threads for four bloody and bitter years. I’m glad I didn’t judge those books by their covers! The content was excellent although the "bottles" (that is, books!) were aged and worn. Later, a closer friend (and a great brother in Christ) learned of my interest in Civil War history and found and provided for me (as a gift!) a beautiful complete set of all three volumes – again all first editions. This time the books themselves and their covers were in much better physical shape than the first set I read. Both sets of books tell the exact same story – same content, but very different looking bottles. Americans are into judging bottles and books (people, that is) by outward appearance, not content. As a culture we spend gargantuan amounts of money and efforts seeking to beautify and decorate the body. We measure beauty not on the basis of character but clothing. Many believe the false notion that the beauty of the bottle is more important than its contents. We augment body parts and spend tons of money on hair. We paint and pierce parts of the anatomy from head to toe. Several years ago TV celebrity Ellen Degeneres was in an ad for "Simply Ageless" Cover Girl makeup. In that ad she came out loud and proud with what millions of Americans, including some Christians, believe. She crooned into the camera, "Inner beauty is important, but not nearly as important as outer beauty." But that’s a lie. God has something very different to say. Hear the words of the Lord in 1 Samuel 16:7 as Samuel vetted a possible replacement for King Saul – "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Now God wouldn’t have any of us to misuse or not be concerned about our bottles – that is, our bodies (see 1 Cor.6:18-20). But He admonishes us the soul is more important than skin, and character more important than clothing. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who are pure in heart, For they shall see God" (Matt.5:8). It is the "hidden person of the heart" that is most precious in God’s sight (1 Pet.3:5). The Lord’s chief concern is how we adorn and beautify our souls, not our bodies. If you desire His favor, be sure to examine the contents, not just the bottle.

    by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Don’t Run Out Of Whack!

 A lady named Jacqueline Power said, "A sign on the elevator door in the building where I worked said, ‘This elevator is out of whack.’ Later someone had penciled in, ‘More whack is on order.’ " Do you ever feel like you’ve "out of whack?" The phrase just means something is not working properly or, as we say with another idiom, "not up to speed." A big challenge facing every Christian is to not run out of whack! And a big problem is, many do. The apostle Paul addresses the problem in a single little verse of Scripture in Romans 12:11. The verse lays out a simple, clear challenge that has proven difficult for many Christians to consistently practice: "not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." I like the King James Version in this verse – "Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord." The "business" referred can properly stand for the Lord’s business and / or the business of living the Christian life, in whatever capacity that might be. Elders can, and do, run of whack when they began to take their God-given role as overseers and shepherds lightly, and when they fail to properly and zealously keep watch over God’s flock where they serve. Preachers can run out of whack if they take their eye off of the Christ and the cross and begin to grow discouraged by a lack of visible progress or by sin and setbacks in the lives of people in the congregation where they preach and serve. Deacons can fail to "deke" – that is, they grow lukewarm about the charge they have been given by the congregation to serve and take care of some responsibility in the church. Every member of the church is daily engaged in the good fight of faith and is the target of a relentless foe who never runs out of diabolical whack – the devil – who "walks about as a roaring lion Bible, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Bible class teachers can lose their enthusiasm for the God’s word and get lazy and sloppy in their preparation. In the face of that perpetual possibility, Paul’s words in Romans 12:11 challenge every Christian: "Don’t run out of spiritual whack!"

 There are ten words in Romans 12:11 (King James and New King James Versions). In them Paul acknowledges it is easy to get discouraged and dispirited or distracted as we strive to live the Christian life. Like a physical muscle grows tired after long, hard exertion, so we, too, can grow weary while doing good (Galatians 6:9). The danger is not necessarily that we get tired, but that we tire to the point we faint or lose heart and lose all our spiritual whack. Someone observed that you may be on the right track, but you will get run over if you just sit there. That is certainly true of the Christian life. One of the most acute dangers in the spiritual life is that a person is baptized into Christ and is on fire with love and zeal, but then they begin "lagging in diligence." Like a flame that flickers and burns out, the initial commitment and enthusiasm for Bible reading, worship, and serving cools off to the point we just sit down and cease serving the Lord! A lady named Carol Leifer said, "I’m not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain." But my friends, we can’t do that as Christians and please God! And we can’t be like Robert Hutchins who said, "Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes." And we can’t be like Jo Bran who commented, "My favorite machine in the gym is the vending machine." No, my dear friends. The reward we seek is not for those who run out of spiritual whack, for Jesus promised a crown of life to those who are "faithful until death" (Rev.2:10). As a Christian, whatever you do, you must see it through. Don’t run out of whack!

      by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN