Would I be Brave Enough?

Reading through the Bible every year yields such amazing new insights.  I'm reading the Bible Chronologically AND doing another through the Bible reading plan with our church and both of them had different portions of the story of Noah in Genesis as part of today's reading. 

And I got to really thinking about every detail of Noah's story and I noticed that Noah was the ONLY person God found in the ENTIRE world who was faithfully walking with God.  Every single other person on earth was wicked and violent.  Even Noah's sons weren't counted among the righteous until AFTER the flood - they and the rest of the family were saved because of Noah's faithfulness.  After the flood it was easy to believe - there was STRONG evidence of God's existence AND no opposition!  But before the flood there was unrelenting violence and wickedness - not easy to be the single voice of reason and purity in that dangerous crowd. 

And in God's way of reinforcing an idea in my mind, my son had a devotional last night about Noah and so I brought this thought up and asked my son if he thought he would have the courage to stand up for Jesus even if he was the only believer in the WHOLE WORLD.  What he told me was pretty amazing for a 13 year old boy.  He told me he would always be compelled.  I asked "compelled to do what?"  And he responded "compelled to Christ."  Wow!  I hope he truly WOULD be that strong in the face of opposition from every side.

Would you?

Life is a Chronic Illness

The day you are born is the day you begin to die - a saying I have heard and repeated often.  But today I looked it up to see who said it and found that there's more to that saying.

Simone de Beauvoir goes on to say "But between birth and death there's life."  I hadn't heard that part of the quote before- but how obviously true!  We mark each year as it passes the month and day we we're born and we look back at the end of each year to reflect on all the life we lived the previous year.  We resolve to better ourselves at the beginning of each new year and every day we fully intend to keep on living. 

Each year gets a little harder as we age but we are also richer in experience and we build on those experiences in subsequent years.  And it's wonderful and terrible at the same time.  We look forward to the future but we dread it too.

I don't know about you but I don't know a single person- young or old - who has not experienced the consequences of our sin nature in their lives.  The young get sick, feel tired, break bones, twist ankles, trip and fall - just like the elderly.  (Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. - Isaiah 40:30). 

All of that to say that, while you may not have a diagnosis of a chronic illness like Multiple Sclerosis and I may not have Chron's Disease or any number of diagnoses, we all suffer from the effects of sin in one way or another.   We all have more in common than we think because we all struggle with a chronic illness that is called "Life as a Human Being."  Our struggles are different but equally difficult for each individual to bear alone.  That's why God told us NOT to bear them alone (‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6:2‬ - Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.)

We need to not only be sensitive to the needs of those around us but we need to reach out and ask for help when our burdens get heavy.  (‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭4:12‬ - Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.)  We are stronger together. 

Trust in the Lord with all your strength.   And then look for Him to send help - and don't reject help offered by the people of God out of a sense of pride or so as not to be a burden to others.  God created us in His image so it's not a surprise we don't like to admit there are things we can't do or need help with.   

The only One who truly CAN do it all is God.  We need to remember we aren't Him and we are actually commanded to bear eachother's burdens.