“Life
is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon.”
Woody Allen
Recently, we had mouse droppings on a
counter top in our basement. The easiest solution to that predicament is to
ignore them and work around them. The second easiest solution is to clean them
up every time we find them. But most people don’t find either of those options
acceptable. So there are now traps loaded with appetizing treats, awaiting Mr.
Mouse when he next stops in for dinner. Unfortunately, Mr. Mouse is not going
to be very happy, though his unhappiness will be very short lived.
What would you think though if you learned
that we were putting out food and water for this trespasser? Or, that we
learned that his nest wasn’t all that comfortable so we went to Menards and
bought some higher quality nesting materials for Mr. Mouse and family?
While there are a few exceptions, most people
don’t believe that the Mouse family has any right to be happy, particularly if
they are trespassers. But what about everyone else. Isn’t happiness something
that we should seek to help everyone attain? After all, we’re Americans. It’s written
right in our Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Based on
that shouldn’t we do everything we can to help others be happy?
No, I don’t believe that we should. One of
the things that we miss, even in the Church, is that all social problems have a
spiritual root. Yet, ours is a culture that treats “symptoms” (i.e. mouse
droppings) and usually fails to address the disease, the core issue. The core
issue is a spiritual issue, a relationship with God. And when we only treat
symptoms, we can ultimately distract or mask the core issue.
Today we have 12-step and self help groups
for nearly every cultural malady. Those are symptoms. We fail to start with the
question: Why are people addicted to
drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, overeating or even shopping? They’re seeking
to fill a God-shaped void in their life. We can counsel it or anesthetize it,
yet ultimately, it’s a spiritual issue. We need to be careful we don’t become
obstacles to someone seeking to resolve their greatest need by encouraging them
to settle for an inadequate substitute.
Recently, I saw well-intentioned Christians
encouraging someone who was bemoaning how lonely he was to try out web sites,
like Christianmingle.com to find someone he could date and even potentially
marry. His real issue though wasn’t a need for human companionship. That was the
symptom of the real need, which was spiritual. Here was a man who was bitter
that he was lonely, yet he was being encouraged to find someone so he no longer
felt bitter and angry that he was lonely. Yet, if he never addressed that he
was bitter at God for his current situation and found peace with God, I can
nearly guarantee any human relationship was merely going to be a band-aid to
cover over his greater, real need. And his real need would most likely sabotage
any relationship he might find.
Pain is not necessarily a bad thing. Misery,
depression, guilt, etc. are not necessarily bad things. Too often, even well
meaning Christians seek to enable those suffering to mask those feelings by
talking them out, counseling them out, or even medicating them out. Yet, the
core issue is a spiritual one. Only Jesus, the Great Physician of our souls has
the true cure.
God in His love often uses pain, discomfort,
even misery to drive us to Himself. Read Psalm 107 where you’ll see this truth
repeated over and over again. Look at the lives of believers recorded in the
Bible and you’ll see how God used crises to drive them to Himself. If we didn’t
face crises, most of us would be comfortable in our lostness. We might have
some sense of happiness in this world, yet would be miserable for all eternity.
I know in my own life that God used my Dad
being an abuser and a prescription drug addict where I felt so unloved, to
drive me to the One who loved me unconditionally. If I’d not been so miserable,
I might not have run to the Cross and realized God loved me so much that He
gave His only Son to die for my sins so that I could be forgiven, so that I
could have a new Father who is always there, knows all about me – even my worst
times and faithfully loves me.
Today we’re beginning a new series: RU
BORN 2X. It centers on our greatest need, a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ. It addresses our spiritual disease of sin, not just symptoms.
It’s only as we embrace God’s cure of salvation that our lives have purpose,
fulfillment and meaning both now and forever.
Most Americans would claim to be “Christians”
and most of those who attend our church would make the same claim, yet Scripture
warns us to not be cavalier about the validity of our salvation. 2 Corinthians
13:5 urges us, “Examine yourselves, to
see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this
about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet
the test!”
Over the course of the next few weeks, we’re
going to very seriously heed that warning and use the tests of God’s Word as we
examine our own souls to make certain that we truly have salvation, have been
forgiven and are part of God’s Forever Family. Some weeks may give you a sense
of discomfort. But wouldn’t it be better to be uncomfortable now, or even embarrassed
than to have deceived yourself or been deceived by Satan, only to discover at
the end of life, you really didn’t know Jesus and are separated from Him for
all eternity? There’s an old spiritual, Everybody
talkin’ ‘bout Heaven ain’t goin’ there. What a tragedy it would be to talk
about heaven, to know about heaven but miss it!
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