We Need Rest

Confession: I am a list keeper. I make lists at the start of the day, and throughout the day I check off the items one by one. I tend not to stop until everything is finished on the list. I guess I see rest as the reward for finishing all my tasks. The problem is, rarely is everything completed at the end of the day.

We all struggle with taking the time to rest as evidenced by the high numbers of people treated for stress-related illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma, depression, and anxiety. In fact, an estimated 75% of doctor’s visits are for such stress related illnesses. A Gallup Poll revealed that 40% of adults get less than the recommended amount of sleep each night.[1]

Doctors encourage us to rest from our work and get a solid eight hours of sleep. They offer many suggestions on how to relax our body and mind. They encourage healthy habits that keep our bodies and minds strong. These are all good things. We should rest our bodies and take care of them. After all, God created us, and we should steward the gift of our bodies and health well. But there are other reasons we should rest. In fact, God’s Word shows us that rest is a good thing...To read the rest of this post, visit Servant's of Grace.

The Hope of Psalm 88

After a recent talk I gave, an attendee shared that Psalm 88 was her favorite psalm. For those of us familiar with it, we might hear such a comment and raise our eyebrows in confusion.

Psalm 88? Really?

Psalm 88 isn’t a feel-good, everything-will-be-alright kind of psalm. In fact, it’s the darkest one. If we put it to music, it’d be set to the tune of a sad country song—if not a funeral dirge. Hear the despair of the psalmist’s words:

O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry! For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. (vv. 1–3)

Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (v. 7)

O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? (v. 14)

While other biblical laments end on a note of trust and worship, this one ends without any light or hope. It simply concludes, “Darkness is my closest friend.” The end.

Despite the dark tone, however, there is hope to be found in Psalm 88. Here are four reasons...to read the rest of this post, visit The Gospel Coalition, my writing home today.

Hope for the Anxious Heart

It doesn’t take much for me to worry. A news story. A sick child. An unexpected bill. A phone call late at night. Whatever the worry, I dwell and mull over it endlessly. I fret and think, “What if?” I search the internet for hidden solutions and anticipate all potential scenarios, sometimes to the point of losing sleep.  

The problem of anxiety

We all know what it’s like to worry about something; it’s a regular companion for many of us. As it turns out, so is its close cousin: anxiety. According to NAMI, anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issue in the United States. Approximately 18 percent of adults and eight percent of children and teenagers have an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety, while related to worry, is different in that it’s persistent, ongoing and broader in scope. While we can usually work through our worries to find a solution—not so with anxiety. Anxiety is excessive worry about multiple things, even when there isn’t anything wrong. Such anxiety fills people with dread, fear and apprehension. They anticipate the worst and are always wary and watching. It also expresses itself physically. They feel tense and irritable. Their heart races. Their stomach feels sick, and they can’t sleep. Some who struggle with anxiety have panic attacks—which often feel like a heart attack—bringing on even more anxiety...

To read the rest of this post, visit ERLC, my writing home today.

Love for the Broken

I first understood there was something wrong when I was eight years old. One summer day I was sitting on the couch in our living room, my bare toes plunged deep into the shaggy blue carpet. As usual, my face was buried in a book. I heard him walk in the front door, the screen slamming shut behind him. He leaned over the couch and asked, "What are you reading?"

"Henry Huggins," I answered.

"Can I see?" he asked.

He sat down next to me and picked up my book. As he struggled and stumbled over the words, I grew embarrassed for him. He passed it back to me and said, "Too many words for me."

I then opened my book back up and read aloud to my thirty-five year old uncle.

My mother’s older brother lived with us on and off throughout my childhood because of an ongoing battle with mental illness. One of my earliest childhood memories is of my mom backing out of the driveway and right into my tricycle. It was years later that I learned she was in a hurry to take my uncle to the hospital for psychiatric treatment. Twice he attempted to take his own life while living with us. Not only did he battle mental illness, he also had a low IQ. From late adolescence until the day he retired, he worked for the Department of Labor, in the photocopy department.

In many ways, he was like a child in a grown man's body.

Growing up, I sensed that he was misunderstood by everyone around him. It seemed like no one knew how to help him or how to relate to him. Sometimes, he was even taken advantage of by people he met. He tried multiple times living on his own but somehow always ended up back at our house.

My uncle had a deep voice, just like my grandfather, and a quick smile. But the older I got, the more I realized he was different than the other adults around me. One day during my teens, he called on the phone and I answered. He spoke in a whisper and told me someone had been in his apartment and moved things around. He sounded frightened and rambled such that I couldn’t catch everything he said. “Mom! It’s for you!” I called.

I suppose being around my uncle is part of the reason why when I left home for college I chose to study counseling. It was in college and then graduate school where I learned more about his problems and his needs. I was able to encourage the family to find a suitable place for him to live, a group home where he could be among other people with similar challenges, limitations, and struggles.

When my oldest son was about a year old, I took him to visit my uncle. He was older and the hard life was wearing on his body. He moved with slowness, both in mind and body. I met his roommate and saw where he spent his days. It was the last time I saw him.

When he passed away a year later, I wept both in sadness and in joy. Sadness at a life lived with such pain. A life where he was misunderstood, looked down upon, isolated, and different from everyone else. A life where he never fully functioned on his own but was dependent on those around him. But there was also joy because he had a child-like faith. I rejoiced that he finally had shed the curse and the brokenness of his mind and body and now lived with Jesus.

These days, my children have the opportunity to be around other children who are different than they. When they see someone behave in a way that is strange or peculiar or meet someone that looks different, we talk about it and discuss the possible challenges they face in life—the hardships and the sorrows. I want my children to love the broken and not to fear those who are different from them. I want them to look at the brokenness that is both around them and within them and understand the significance of the Fall—how all the sorrow, sickness, and brokenness we experience is the result of mankind’s fall into sin. I want them to see the need we all have for Jesus and his redeeming grace. I want them to have compassion and mercy for others, just as our Savior has for us.

I still have Henry Huggins on my bookshelf and whenever I look at it I think of my uncle. Part of me hopes that if not now, then in the new earth, he'll crack open a book—maybe even Henry Huggins—and read it from cover to cover. Perhaps I will even sit next to him and this time, he will read it out loud to me.

The Master Artist and Your Life's Portrait

My son was working on a drawing project one day, and I walked over to look at his progress. “Hey, Buddy, don’t push down so hard with your pencil. Remember what your teacher told you? You’ll end up with ghost lines.”

He sighed. “I know.” Picking up his eraser, he scratched furiously at the lines. But they were still there. My son learned in art class that when you are drawing in pencil, it is important to sketch lightly because if you need to erase something, you won’t have ghost lines. But if you push down when you draw, no matter how hard you try to erase it, there will be a faint line showing what was once there.

The Lines in Us

My life is filled with ghost lines. Most days, when I glance at the portrait of my life, I don’t notice them. But sometimes I am forced to step in close, like when something triggers a memory. Many of these memories, though redeemed through Christ’s work in my life, still reveal ghost lines scratched onto the canvas of my life. In fact, the closer I look, the more lines I see...to read the rest of this post, visit Desiring God, my writing home for today.

Grace 101

I started blogging about twelve years ago. If you don't already know, blogging and writing can be a lonely venture. At that time, I didn't know any bloggers. So I explored around online and joined a few blogging communities. Some of those communities had hundreds of bloggers!

As I read blogs and got to know other bloggers, I thought I had found my place. After all, I heard familiar words I had grown up with in the church: words like grace, mercy, love, and redemption. It's kind of like when you go somewhere new and you meet someone who knows someone you know. You start sharing stories about that person and you smile and laugh over the shared connection. It started out like that for me, but the more I participated in some of these communities, the more I realized we didn't actually know the same grace that people wrote about. It was like talking to someone about Susie Smith from high school and then realizing there were two Susie Smith's and we were each talking about a different Susie.

What I discovered was, though we used the same word, our definitions of grace were very different.

In Christianity these days, and even outside of Christianity, many people use the word grace. Everyone knows the hymn Amazing Grace and even popular musicians sing it. But not everyone knows the grace of the Bible.

There are multiple ways I've heard grace misused and misunderstood. Sometimes it is nuanced in a way that leads to misunderstanding. Sometimes people emphasize grace in one area of faith but not in others. Sometimes they use it interchangeably with words like patience or forbearance. But the definition that concerns me the most is when it is used to mean overlooking something (most often sin) as in "This is who I am and God accepts me that way. He gives me grace to be myself." 

God's grace is bigger, greater, deeper, and more amazing than many people realize. It is important that we understand the grace of the Bible so that when we hear people talk about it or read it in a blog, article, or book, we know what the writer is talking about. Because believing in a grace that is different from the Bible is not only misleading, it is also dangerous to our faith.

There is much to learn from God's word about his grace, but here are few things to start:

A Few Things About God's Grace

God's grace provides all things; all is grace: Everything we have, even the very breath we breathe is a gift of God's grace. "Nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25). Even those who are not saved benefit from this grace, which we call God's "common grace." "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45).

God's grace awakens us from death to life: Grace is God's unmerited favor toward us as sinners. It is love and kindness that we don't deserve. It began in eternity past when he chose us in Christ to be adopted into the family of God (Ephesians 1:4-5). By his grace, he awakens us from spiritual death and gives us new life, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:1-6). 

God's grace saves us: We can't save ourselves; salvation is God's work. "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Ephesians 2:8). "Unless we are born of the Spirit of God, unless God sheds His holy love in our hearts, unless He stoops in His grace to change our hearts, we will not love Him. He is the One who takes the initiative to restore our souls." (The Holiness of God p. 180).

God's grace trains us: Upon salvation, God does not leave us in our sin. He forgives our sin because of the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf and accepts Christ's perfect and righteous life lived for us. But he doesn't leave us there to continue in our sin. He doesn't overlook our sin and say it's all okay with him. Rather, he trains us by his grace to put off sin and put on obedience. "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (Titus 2:11-14).

God's grace sanctifies us: By his grace, God changes and transforms us into the likeness of his Son. "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10, emphasis mine). "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13, emphasis mine). 

God's grace completes us: God will finish the work he began in us. "He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (1 Corinthians 1:8-9). "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

Grace is a beautiful word that is essential to our faith. It is the ground on which we stand. Because it is so important, we need to know what it means so that we are not drawn away or misled by false teaching. And the more we learn, understand, and consider God's grace—the depth and breadth of it—the more we are able to sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!" 

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