Month: October 2019

It’s been a hard week, trying to keep pace with responsibilities and expectations while voices of criticism and condemnation whisper in the background. It has wearied me beyond my capacity of will power. Trying to believe the familiar verses I quote to myself only adds to the load of failure I’m carrying. I don’t always know where the help will come from, but I always know that my friend, Jesus, will provide what I need. Yesterday it came from a mentor I visit with once a month, a precious long-time friend. As we were parting, she shared Psalm 27:8 with me from the New Living Translation. “My heart has heard you say, Come and talk with me. And my heart responds, Lord, I am coming.” This morning I spent time studying and meditating on that verse and found it to be the help I needed. Here are some excerpts of what Alexander MacLaren had to say about the passage in his Expositions of Holy Scripture:

Our restlessness, our yearnings, our movings about as aliens in the midst of things seen and visible, all these bid us turn to Him in whom alone our capacities can be satisfied, and the hunger of our souls appeased. . . . In the face of Jesus Christ, ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God’ beams out upon us, as it never shone on this Psalmist of old. The voice that he heard calling him was less penetrating and less laden with love than the voice that calls us. They sound to us from the cradle and the cross, and they are wafted down to us from the throne. God’s merciful invitation to us poor men never has taken, nor will, nor can, take a sweeter and more attractive form than in Christ’s version of it: ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’                                                                                           

I envision Him sitting on a bench where warmth and light emanate from Him over a beautiful garden. I stand in the shadows surrounded by the chill of darkness. He looks at me and pats the place next to Him, an invitation to come sit with Him. I walk quickly to be close to Him. The light of His love begins to warm that chilly place in my heart. He asks about the burden I’m holding, and the light of His truth begins to reveal the deception that I wasn’t even aware had crept in. I tell Him about it, and He offers to take it. My hesitation comes from I’m believing I’m responsible for and capable of taking care of it, which is a lie. The truth is that everything I feel responsible for and worry about is in the capable hands of His control. What I choose to believe will determine what I do with the burden. If I continue to believe the lie, I cannot have the rest He offers. If I change my thinking and believe the truth that He has spoken, He replaces the burden with rest.

Again, I refer to Alexander MacLaren, “there is only one tract of human experience in which the promise is always and absolutely fulfilled: Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find.” What am I seeking? What are you seeking? The lies of self-sufficiency, misplaced responsibility, and assumed expectation will always be calling to us. May our hearts, minds, souls, and strength be turned toward Jesus, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” (Hebrews 1:3) No other person or thing can deliver on the promise of rest we seek, no matter how much we believe it can. And that’s the truth!

As Americans, we don’t realize how rich we are. People living in many places of the world don’t have access to resources we take for granted. This is most prominent in my life right now in the area of food. And I don’t think it’s just me. A quick search on the internet for diets will yield dozens of options. Individuals and companies are making a lot of money from them. So, I know I’m not the only one struggling to reduce my calorie intake. Not having enough money to buy the abundance of food I store in my kitchen would seem to be the easiest and most cost-effective way to keep those extra pounds off this body. Why don’t I just stop buying food that I don’t need or isn’t healthy? That question led me to realize that living in excess is as challenging as living in poverty.

In my quest to know what Jesus would do in the circumstances of my life, He reminded me of the temptation He experienced in Matthew 4. At first glance, it doesn’t seem that He was experiencing excess. The wilderness was a barren place with no food. But He was the One who had created everything and could just speak a word to have any and all the food He wanted. That’s excess! Everywhere He went, at all times, He had access to more than whatever He needed. How was He able to restrain Himself? “He was God” is an unsatisfying Sunday School answer. I’m better helped by remembering what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Truly, “because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 2:18; 4:15-16

He doesn’t offer a standard for me attain, but grace to attain the standard that He lived in His humanity. Once again I’m faced with the tension of Divinity and humanity in this body, and am encouraged by the grace of His presence. May you find this encouragement in the circumstances of your life today. I’d like to know your thoughts. If you’re not comfortable commenting here, you can contact me at doucettenest@gmail.com

One of my favorite movies (and I have quite a few) is Harvey. It’s the story of a man (Elwood P. Dowd played by Jimmy Stewart) whose best friend is a pooka named Harvey, an invisible 6 ft. 3.5 in. white rabbit. Throughout the movie Elwood talks and refers to Harvey assuming everyone knows he’s real. I love the world Elwood lives in. He doesn’t seem to acknowledge the skepticism or outright unbelief of people. And he’s true to what he believes. Although Harvey is unseen by others, Elwood always introduces him to friends and consults him when making a decision. Sometimes he simply converses with Harvey, knowing that he understands like no one else does.

This movie is on my mind because I just returned from a trip to Massachusetts, where I lived for most of my life. I drove around areas that have so many memories, visually looking at places that hold emotions within me. How do I separate the past from the present? There is this intangible, unseen part of me that continues to exist when its time has passed, like a ghost walking next me. Not a scary ghost, but someone who can only understand the emotions because of shared experience. Then I realize it’s not a ghost. It’s Jesus! He was with me through all the experiences these places bring to my mind, the good and the bad. I can talk with Him about them like I can talk with no other person. He understands like no other person can. He laughs and cries with me as we reflect on those memories together.

In the past I’ve believed that I needed to make sure I’d confessed any sin I may have committed or acknowledged my unworthiness before enjoying His presence. That ritual was burdensome and sometimes kept me from going to Him at all. It certainly didn’t make for the kind of relationship I thought I should have with Him. Now I know that I don’t need a ritual of repentance to assure my acceptability of His attention. I need only to turn to Him, because He’s always there and I’m always acceptable to Him (Ephesians 1:4).

Jesus is always with us and more real than Harvey is to Elwood P. Dowd. We are children of God, the treasure He gladly sacrificed His Son to redeem. The freedom He purchased for us should never be overshadowed by some sense of shame of unworthiness. May you know this reality today. And I would love to hear from you, wherever you are on this transient road of mortal life that we’re traveling together toward our eternal Home.