Finish the Assignment

Perspective is a funny thing. It causes people to see things differently than another individual simply because of the vantage point one has. Individuals look at the very same thing and yet draw different conclusions all because their outlook differs from another’s. I have observed how differently children respond to rollercoaster lines at an amusement park. An excited child looks at a line winding before them as unending, feeling it was progressing too slowly, envisioning the thrills about to occur, and fearing the ride may close before they ever get there. Seeing the same line, another child with some sort of apprehension concerning the ride sees the line moving too quickly, conjuring scenarios of potential catastrophes, and hoping the ride would close down before they got to the boarding spot. Same line, different child, alternate perspectives, and resulting in different emotions.

     Life is often like that as perspectives alter the way we process what will happen in the future. In some ways we are all headed for a “rollercoaster” called life and view that prospect very differently. Some have an adventurous spirit built into their DNA while others are injected with a sense of apprehension as they process what lay before them. The adventurous seem to be inoculated with a sense of immortality. Another, bearing the weight of apprehension, feels their mortality deeply and often events in their lives are seen as a threat to their longevity. The reality the Bible enjoins is “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Proverbs 27:1 NIV). Neither the adventurous nor the apprehensive has a perspective that is assured.

     The tragic events that have occurred in recent months has made clear that one’s perspectives may not reflect or alter reality. A trip to the grocery store, a day at the elementary school in the last days before summer vacation, or a night of relaxation on a city street may be drastically altered by the deviant and distorted perspective of another. In other cases, a trip in a car, a ride on a bike, a walk on a country road, a rumble of thunder on a Spring evening, or attendance at a religious service, all can end very differently than anticipated. Does this mean we should shelter in place because nowhere, no time, and no one is safe? Does this mean we embrace a fatalistic view of life, “Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die?”

     David the Psalmist suggests that there is another alternative as we face the rigors of life. David has gone through numerous difficulties before his writing of Psalm 39 and is cautions as to how he responds to those painful experiences. He curbs his tongue. He acknowledges the distress that is boiling in his life. He then asks God to give him a necessary perspective in life. He writes these powerful words, “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath… Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest—a traveler passing through, as my ancestors were before me” (39:4-5, 12 NLT).

     Perhaps adversity and age help one to appreciate what David is saying. As people travel through life, they experience the tears of misfortune and understand what was churning in David’s emotions. Others advanced in years have seen or experienced hardships in what they consider a brief life. They process how life moves so quickly and not without difficulty. Perhaps that is why the “Prayer of Moses” is recorded in the Psalms, “But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we are gone…Teach us to make the most of our time, so that we may grow in wisdom” (90:10, 12 NLT).

     One activity that has recently caused me to appreciate Psalm 90 is to read the obituary pages in the newspaper. Years ago, the obituary had little interest to me. These were old people. I had as Robert Frost said, “Miles to go before I sleep” (“Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”). In recent years I glance at the obituary pages with a different perspective. I am seeing people that are more my contemporaries. Suddenly I’m sensing, “Maybe I don’t have so many miles to go before I sleep!” Then the follow-up question is, “What am I doing with the miles, or years, that are left?” Perhaps the request in Psalm 90:12 is a wise one, “Teach us to make the most of our time.”

     What do we do to “make the most of our time?” Perhaps Jesus summarized it well when he said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind… equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37, 39 NLT). What kind of adjustments do you think would occur in our lives if this was the monitor of the moments of our fleeting life? Maybe more time would be spent developing our friendship and intimacy with God than developing friends or likes on social media. Perhaps it would mean less amusements and more investments of time in healthy relationships that reflect our love of people. Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Life shares an important reminder, “Life is a gift... Life is a test... Life is a temporary assignment....” I would add, “Boldly finish the assignment we are given in life to the glory of God.”       

Wisdom Infused with Integrity

Tis the season of college graduations! Mortarboards and tassels will be flying as exuberant graduates are flooded with joyful emotions. Grads fling those awkward headpieces skyward and give a collective shout of glee. Common sense will arrive a bit later when they must collect those academic caps and turn them in to the administration to avoid a fine! Now that a milestone is past – bring on the rest of life! You know – the real world. The world where college loans will be paid back (at least they have been historically), where they enter the work force at the bottom of the totem pole, where they try to transition into a world where they cannot cut commitments, and where there are no extensions on deadlines that are given. Some will have little problem adjusting because they were already living in the real world. Others will struggle because their extended adolescence has finally come to a screeching halt.

     Last year (2020-2021) according one source (www.thinkimpact.com/college-graduates-statistics) there were approximately 4,000,000 college students graduating. That number was broken down into 983,000 associate’s degrees; 1,998,000 bachelor’s degrees; 833,000 master’s degree; and 187,000 doctor’s degree. That is a lot of flying mortarboards! Congratulations to those who have accomplished this milestone. Not all who begin post- secondary education accomplish this goal. Only 34% to 62% of the students in Bachelor degree programs – dependent on the type of institution – graduate.  

     Those who are graduating are likely filled with assumptions and dreams that they have attached to their accomplishments. Many expectations are enhanced as graduates hear about the shortage of workers. Visions of certain positions, compensations, and perks dance in their heads. However, some will come to the sad realization that their aspirations were but delusions of grandeur. They will enter the work force realizing that what they had planned may have to be drastically altered. Shortages in the work force do not diminish competition for positions.

     What does the world around us look for in a potential person to hire? I am sure there are a litany of suggestions. Perhaps the legendary Warren Buffet, highly respected multibillionaire and Chairman/CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, makes the greatest observation. Buffet says, "In looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." In a world that prizes knowledge, character is held in higher esteem. It seems to me that there is an abundance of knowledge and a dearth of wisdom that is infused with integrity. Wisdom is applied knowledge. Integrity is the constraining force that positively influences one’s character even when no one is looking. Many a wise person has become a shipwreck when they cast off their anchor of integrity.

     Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu political ethicist, observed the world and concluded, "There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics." Integrity is cross cultural. Tragically it is absent or greatly diminished in many settings and it appears increasingly so. The character of integrity is desired worldwide because humanity is made in the image of God. Thus, His character is designed to be reflected in those He created. Often, however, it is not.

     When young King Solomon was assigned the mega task of ruling the people of Israel following the impressive rule of his father King David, God visited him. God asked him what he wanted. Solomon’s reply was, “Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:9 NLT). He knew he needed wisdom (“understanding heart”) but it needed to be coupled with integrity that involved knowing the “difference between right and wrong.” God was pleased with his request (3:10). Fusing these two qualities, wisdom and integrity, would indeed make a good king for God’s people. The result was that he accomplished great works, acquired great wealth, and the nation was blessed. Decades later as his reign ends, we see an old man who is now lacking integrity. This occurred because “his heart was not loyal to the Lord His God” (11:4) and the “Lord became angry… because his heart was turned from the Lord” (11:9). Integrity must always be maintained. One hymn writer realized there is a danger to drift from a life of integrity and wrote, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, oh take and seal it.” He is aware of an integrity drift and asks God to keep his life on course.

     Are we living lives that are pairing wisdom with integrity? Perhaps we are allowing influences around us to reset our course in life. Maybe passions in our lives are driving us and we are seeking not what is right but what makes us feel good. Possibly entitlement has deluded us into thinking we deserve what we want or are doing. Could it be we are just living careless lives and not evaluating what we are doing?

     Harvard Business Review concludes “behavioral integrity,” where words and actions are in alignment, is a necessity in business. It is in all of life. Solomon shared this proverb with his son, “People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will be exposed” (Proverbs 10:9). Sadly, Solomon lacked “behavioral integrity” and it showed. May we seek to be people who not only talk about and want integrity, but also allow integrity to be fused with wisdom as we live our lives in this world.   

Hope Restored

   

  A repeated phrase often heard lately is, “We had hoped…” This is followed by an aspiration that has suddenly vaporized in the chaos of a world that feels like it is in freefall into an abyss of despair. Two years ago it was, “We had hoped to celebrate our anniversary in a special way.” That hope morphed into a backyard cookout for two and a zoom call from family and friends garbed in individual masks. Last year we had hoped the Covid catastrophe would be over. That hope also vanished as stage two of the pandemic kicked in and restrictions continued, and uncertainty reigned. This year the normalcy we anticipated was trashed by hyperinflation, war, and worldwide gloom. Now we simply hope to pull up to the gas pump and fill up the tank without taking a second mortgage on our house. Hope has pretty much been absent in our vocabulary in recent years. It now is something we dream may once again emerge in our world.

     The effects of this lost hope have emerged in numerous ways. The Harris Poll, compiled March 1-3 for the American Psychological Association’s (APA), found events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, and inflation are causing significant stress among the American public. APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr. concludes. “But these data suggest that we’re now reaching unprecedented levels of stress that will challenge our ability to cope.” Larger stresses have bred numerous individual stressors such as short tempers (“Get off the road stupid!”), fractured communication (“Think like me or you are an idiot!”), increased family dysfunction (“What do you mean I am hard to live with?), engaged in poor health practices (“Pass me another sleeve of Oreos now!”), and dozens of other such indicators. The same APA poll reported that a high percentage said their mental health was greatly affected by what has felt like a "constant stream of crises without a break over the last two years" (nbcnews.com/health/health-news).

     Perhaps the most obvious malaise is the depressive state many people feel when hope vanishes. The World Health Organization found a “global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%” since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Imagine what the percentage might be now with all the other negative issues around the world. Lindsey McKernan, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, observes Americans were "already in an overwhelmed and depleted place." Now she observes there exists a "new threat to our safety."

     When hope is lost, despair quickly fills the void. While we often think of the Easter as a glorious event filled with hope. Remember that first Easter did not start out that way. The biblical records women very early in the morning coming to the tomb where Jesus had been hastily buried. They were not coming with hope. They had come with all the essentials to deal with the dead body of Jesus (Luke 24:1). When they entered the tomb, they were perplexed not finding the body of Jesus (24:3-4). An angelic being had to remind them of what Jesus had been saying – he would be raised on the third day (24:5-8). This hope-filled reminder infused them with renewed hope, and they returned to doubtful disciples who dismissed their report (24:9-11). Later that same day two disciples walked on the road to Emmaus and discussed what had happened and were sad faced (24:13-15, 17). Jesus appearing clandestinely among them asked what was discouraging them. They shared the information, but the crucifixion part of the account had so overwhelmed them that the news of Jesus being risen was not even embraced (24:19-24). Their summation for their depression is encapsulated in their words, “But we had hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel” (24:21). Their hope was gone. Defeat and depression ruled. It took the intervention of Jesus by his teaching of the Scriptures and fellowship in a meal to open their defeated lives to recognize the risen Christ (24:25-32).

      Hope reentered their lives. They retraced their steps and returned to their fellow disciples to give the hope-filled announcement, “The Lord is risen indeed!” (24:34-35). Moments later Jesus appeared confirming their report and underscored that, “These are the words which I spoke to you when I was with you” (24:38-46). Hope can be restored when people are reminded of what Jesus has said and embrace his promises. The disciples were overcome by the trauma of the horrible crucifixion. Now once again they became hope-filled individuals.

     The perils we face in this world are real. The person, promises, and power of Jesus are also real. They can transform the bleak circumstances and prospects we confront in this conflicted world. One promise should stand out like a beacon to us, (John 16:33) “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Easter displays the success of his overcoming work. This Easter season focus your eyes on a triumphant, risen Savior, and not on the bleakness of a broken world. Remember the transformed message the hope-restored disciples proclaimed, “He is risen indeed!”  (Luke 24:34). May this assist us to remove the gloomy clouds that might be overwhelming us.                    

Cover-up or Cleansing?

The media seems to make its living by exposing cover-ups. Almost daily there is a breaking story reporting that some individual or organization has been exposed as covering up some unwise or inappropriate activity. It appears that humanity feels more comfortable camouflaging an error rather than correcting one. In doing so, most often the cover-up becomes more disastrous that the actual event being concealed.  Business advisor, Price Pritchett correctly concludes, “Everybody makes honest mistakes, but there's no such thing as an honest cover-up.”

     What is the definition of “cover-up?” According to Merriam-Webster the term means “concealment of a crime, misdeed, or other wrongdoing, as well as to the act of assisting the wrongdoer in concealing a crime, misdeed, or wrongdoing.” In essence it is trying to conceal what one never wants revealed. One person volunteered that it also refers to a loose outer garment worn at the beach to cover our caloric misdeeds or sedentary practices. That is a secondary meaning perhaps to be considered at another time!

     Cover-ups are designed to disguise rather that remedy an issue. The American rapper, record artist, and fashion designer, Kanye West observing our culture suggests, “We buy a lot of clothes when we don't really need them, Things we buy to cover up what's inside.” Masking and making over our outward appearance will never obscure our internal problems and pains no matter how much we assume others have been deceived. What is concealed will ultimately be revealed regardless of attempted cover-ups. Perhaps it is wiser to consider another alternative. Dan Allender states a better option saying, “Christ never intended to cover up the dark side of life, but rather to illuminate a path through it.”

     There is an Old Testament character who thought he could change his circumstances by covering up a horrible crime and heinous sin. His name is Moses and he tried to cover-up murder. In Exodus 2 we see him as a man of privilege, passion, and presumption. He was an adopted child of Pharaoh’s daughter. He was brought up in her household and enjoyed all the privileges that were associated with that position. Perhaps he had adopted the worldview of his culture and had a lowered value of a human’s life. Perhaps he developed an inflated view of privilege and assumed he could do whatever he wanted to do as a part of Pharaoh’s family. Whatever he presumed because of his privilege, it became fused with his passion.

     Evidently, he had maintained a connection to the heritage from which he had come. On one occasion he observed the mistreatment of “one of his people” (2:11). He allowed passion to control his life and decided he would intervene and deliver the mistreated Israelite. He acted presumptively. He could have stopped the man who was beating one of “his people” by a command as Pharaoh’s household member. But he resorted to doing what he knew was wrong. He “looked this way and that and seeing no one he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (2:12). He was concerned with what humans may see and overlooked the unobstructed view that God had. He then used the shifting sand of Egypt to cover-up what could not be concealed.  Andy Stanley observed, “If it suddenly became impossible for us to cover up all the junk we normally hide from the rest of humanity, I have a feeling we would all get real motivated to [properly] deal with the source of what ails us.”  

     After digging the hole to bury the Egyptian, did Moses walk away thinking he had successfully dealt with what he had done? The problem is buried. Life goes on as usual. What a delusion if this was his thought. The cover-up was brief. Scripture reports that “the next day… two Hebrews were struggling together” (2:13). He again tries to assume the role of “deliverer” and is startled to discover that his cover-up has already been uncovered. The man in the wrong rebuffs Moses by saying, “Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” (2:14). Moses realized what Jesus said centuries later, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs” (Luke 12:2-3).

     What is the result for Moses once he realized his cover-up was blown? Exodus 2:14 reports three consequences. He was afraid. He lost favor in Pharaoh’s family. He had a death sentence issued against him. He runs for his life. Remember, cover-ups do not correct issues. They simply delay consequences at best, and at worst make life even more of a mess than they were. This is why it is so encouraging to see how God deals with our failures and sins. Author and blogger Sharon Christian writes [God] “Doesn't try to cover up our flaws; He starts from scratch and makes us new." The Apostle Paul states it this way, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT). Thankfully God is in the business of cleansing our sins and failures, not covering them up! That is God’s mercy and grace!

Time to Restart

We are now a month into the new year and many of the well-intended resolutions have already bit the dust. New Year’s celebrations consuming mouthwatering snacks, and the left-over holiday sweet treats, when coupled with binge watching football games, has left our dietary intentions in shambles. Eating healthy is but a mirage. Losing pounds we acquired this past year is but a figment of our imagination. In fact, it seems our girth has grown! The exercise program we envisioned remains in the planning stages. We only have gotten as far as buying the exercise clothes, Googled exercise programs, and collected excuses as to why we should wait for more appropriate weather to start this process.

     U.S. News & World Report reported some disappointing findings about resolutions. They revealed, “By the second week of February, some 80 percent of those resolutioners are back home with a new kind of remorse staring back at them in the mirror — the remorse of disappointment.” Great expectations embedded in our resolutions often only yield great exasperations! There are certainly many reasons for this happening. Psychology Today suggests that there are some contributing factors to this lack of success. They propose that there are “… four common ways you are standing in the way of your success… Your goals aren’t clear… You feel overwhelmed. You feel discouraged… You’re not ready to change.” It appears there are more barriers blocking our resolutions than there are bridges to our success.

     With this disappointing news it probably comes as no surprise that many have determined such intentions are futile and simply say, “Why bother?” On one website (discoverhappyhabits.com) they share a plethora of statistics concerning resolutions that they amass and update from year to year. They reported that only “31% of survey participants plan on making resolutions for 2021 while 19% are still undecided.” It appears that a majority of people have concluded, “Why create undue frustration? I’ll just forgo this whole process.” In that same website they discovered that about “one in 10 people who failed said they made too many resolutions.” In essence they spread themselves too thin. They tried to address all the issues needing to be tackled. Their divided attention was such a distraction that they failed in their goals.

     One biblical character who I admire is the Apostle Paul. He had a healthy way to look at life and this enabled him to accomplish much. He was a preacher, a church planter, a theologian, a disciple maker, a defender of the Christian faith before the secular world, an encourager and exhorter of people, and a traveler throughout the Roman world. He expended tremendous energy and effort (2 Corinthians 11:23-28) to carry out the mission he believed he was given by Jesus Christ. In Philippians 3:12-14 he shared the philosophy energizing his life. While he did many things, he was single focused “this one thing I do.”

     How did he carry out that single focus? First, he did not see himself as having arrived. He knew he had lots of growing to do to be all that God wanted him to be. Too often a person thinks so highly of themselves that they do not consider that there is room for improvement. Such an individual will be slow to make changes, if they are even willing to make them at all.

     Second, he did not focus on his past failures or successes. When our focus is on failures of the past we can be weighed down in discouragement. Focusing upon successes may cause one to think there is no more to accomplish. Paul focused ahead and envisioned how God might work in him. Such a forward-looking vision keeps one seeing the future as the place of potential as one moves ahead.

     Third, he realized that energy must be merged with vision for the future. He says he was “straining forward to what lies ahead.” Too often great intentions die because energy and effort are not propelling us in the direction we believe we need to go. I remember watching the salmon in Alaska expending great effort to swim upstream in the mighty current of the Copper River to their spawning grounds. They were motivated to lay their eggs and produce the next generation of salmon. If I saw a salmon floating downstream with the current, I knew it was dead. It takes a live fish to swim against the current. Any dead fish can simply go with the flow. People can learn a powerful lesson from those salmon!

     Paul also shared he was pressing “on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” He knew that he was living life not for himself but for God. Living for something bigger than ourselves is a great motivator in our resolve to accomplish great things.

     Perhaps we need a restart in the new year. Resolve to learn from the words of the Apostle Paul and do the one thing that needs to be done to see your life transformed to impact the world around you.             

Moving Into a New Year

The prognosticators in our culture normally line up in the late Fall of the year to tell people what they think is going to happen in the coming year. These individuals are very free with their opinions, and they think their conclusions are valid as far as their research has led them to believe. It appears that there is nothing about which some social soothsayer has issued as a prediction. Is there hope for our shaky world’s economy? Relax. The Wall Street Journal (12-08-21) issued their prediction, “Expect to see easing inflation alongside somewhat slow growth in gross domestic product.” Then they clarified, “These forecasts were provided before the Omicron variant was discovered in late November, which stirred up volatility across global markets.” Opps! Will the scourge of the Covid-19 virus be conquered this year? Assurances from The Economist announced their prediction that, “Covid-19 is likely to fade away in 2022” (11-8-21). Then came the Omicron variant. Opps!  

     Prognosticators unleash opinions on other issues like political parties successes or failures, prospects of military conflict, projected ecological catastrophes, and the potential collapse of the United States as a world power.  If you can think of an issue that might occur in 2022, you might find some individual or group that will be giving their prediction. Then again, there are the outliers that look at all these predictions and suggest as Jennifer Rubin does in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, “Put away the crystal balls. 2022 is a big question mark.”

     Perhaps it is human nature to want to know about the details of the future and if possible, to seek to control the upcoming realities. It is as if we want insider information on life so that we can manipulate the outcomes of our existence. James in his epistle warns people of the folly of thinking they have the future figured out and can therefore control it. He reminds his readers and us, “Look here, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.’ How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?” (James 4:13-14 NLT). James suggests a better approach. “What you ought to say is, ‘If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.’ Otherwise, you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil” (4:15-16). Does the Bible suggest we should not plan? No. It teaches us to allow our plans to be submissive to God plans and purposes and to hold our plans in our hands rather loosely. How often does one become embittered when their outcomes are not fulfilled, even refusing to alter one’s course out of sheer stubbornness? No wonder there is not only tension with a sovereign God but also in relationships with people with whom we must relate.

     One who was considered the wisest of all men, King Solomon, wrote, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). Tragically later in Solomon’s life he refused to submit to God’s purposes, and was ruled by the plans, passions, and pursuits of his own design. His life is summarized in 1 Kings and reveals his tragic failure. “In Solomon’s old age, [his many wives and concubines] turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God… The Lord was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon did not listen to the Lord’s command” (11:4, 9-10). God had forecasted the future Solomon could have had, but he refused to release control of his life to God and held tightly to his plans for his life. When our plans collide with God’s – things do not come out well for us. Solomon knew this and yet tried to have his plans prevail over God’s.

     So how do we walk into 2022? Are we doomed to fatalistic uncertainty? Perhaps it would be better to look at certainties we can embrace and set aside crystal balls of humanities’ best guesses. A better alternative is to hold on to the assurances God’s Word gives us. First, God loves us (John 3:16). Second, God is powerful (Romans 8:35-39). Third, God is faithful (Lamentations 3:22-23). Fourth, God is merciful and gracious (Ephesians 2:4-5). These assurances are the things we need as we walk into the uncertain would of 2022.

     Has there ever been a person who lived like this? The biblical record reveals such a man named Abraham. “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8 NLT). Abraham was walking not just into a new year but into a new life. The key ingredient was to trust the one who was leading him into the unknown. That is the best advice we can follow as we head into a new year. May you have a wonderful new year filled with faith and not fear-filled uncertainty!  

Thanksgiving Attitude Change

The supply chain has become the Grinch that stole Christmas, if you believe the marketing moguls of our consumeristic infused culture. Mass media has issued warnings that Christmas is all but ruined as our expectations and desires are captured in shipping containers at seaports along our nation’s coastlines or in the trailers of eighteen wheelers motoring down our nation’s highways. Media like the New York Times issued the warning, “Those Gifts You Want for the Holidays? Don’t Wait Too Long.” Another piece boldly announces, “Christmas 2021 is already ruined.” The author suggests five possible factors contributing to this “holiday hysteria” surrounding people’s lives (msn.com/en-us/news) including supply-chain problems, President Biden, vaccine mandates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and climate change. Perhaps you would declare other candidates! Incidentally, if these things could ruin your Christmas, then perhaps it is time to develop a better perspective about this holiday.

Perspectives impact the way one views and responds to life. On November 3, 1992, I left the USA for Zaporozhe, Ukraine, via Moscow and Kiev. That day somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean President Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeated incumbent President George H. W. Bush. My traveling partner and I had voted, boarded our flight, and left behind us our very divided, grumbling nation. We landed to discover we had a new president back home.  In Moscow we encountered the vestiges of the USSR and a people that had a multitude of legitimate gripes. The situation in this shattered region after the dissolution of the USSR on December 8, 1991, was even more chaotic politically, socially, and economically than we could have imagined. Additionally, Ukraine had also become an independent state at this time. We were traveling to a Baptist church in Zaporozhe, Ukraine, with whom we had developed a sister church relationship earlier in 1991. When our church became aware of the desperate conditions in our sister church and their city, tractor trailers of humanitarian aid was gathered and shipped from our church to provide for some of their basic human necessities. Our two 12-hour train trips from Moscow and Kiev began the process of perspective adjustment as we saw firsthand the collapse of a nation and the chaos that ensued.

Issues we had thought so horrible in the USA began to pale in comparison to what we saw and experienced. A socialistic communistic empire was in ruins. Much of the infrastructure was broken. Rolling blackouts were the norm in the city of Moscow. Transportation was both obsolete and inadequate. People were selling their personal possessions on the street corners hoping to acquire a few rubles or to barter for necessities. Conditions were worse as we went further east. In newly established Ukraine the chaos was amplified. In Zaporozhe, Ukraine, the shortages were extreme as food, fuel, and medicine were in short supply. Bartering was the norm as currency was all but worthless. One evening I walked in the darkened city where streetlights were inoperable. Our only illumination were the trash fires around which people huddled begging for their survival. Tears came to my eyes. I began to process the ingratitude lodged in my heart that had numbed me to the needs of this corner of the world once viewed by me as the evil empire. Blessed by God beyond measure back home, yet I grumbled about politics, complained about the cost of things, and moaned and lusted over possessions I craved. Perspective was adjusted in those moments as tears and melted snow ran down my face and my heart was convicted of my ungrateful spirit. A new attitude prodded me to do more to actively address the inhumanity I saw in the world.

I returned to the USA just a few days before Thanksgiving. I worshiped freely on Thanksgiving Eve with fellow Christians. This privilege of gathering had been restricted for seventy years in the former USSR. The Ukrainians cherished and enjoyed the privilege they now had to worship. On Thanksgiving Day, I sat in a warm house. I feasted at a banquet-like table laden with an abundance of foods that would literally take days to eat – and likely the leftovers would become a source of grumbling days later. In Ukraine people may have some thin borsch soup and plain dark bread if they were fortunate. My perspective again was altered. My thanks was now heart-felt and not programed gratitude. My eyes saw beyond my immediate world, and I recalled the world of others. My perspective was being translated into action. Genuine empathy is only productive when that emotion is transformed into action. In the Bible the Apostle John summarizes that thought this way, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:16-18).

I had an attitude adjustment that November 1992. Do I need another one? It does not require a trip to some needy area of the world. It requires a heart adjusted to see the needs of the world, both in this nation and the nations around us. This Thanksgiving may we take time to consider the many needs of others and reach out to meet them.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with genuine gratitude and generosity toward others.