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You are here: Home / Archives for answers for me

In Search of Forgiveness

November 15, 2018 By admin

After explaining forgiveness as best I could at a large Christian gathering a while back, a large line formed to speak with me. Most were tearing up and grateful for the flashlight on their double-standard Christianity—you know—our guzzling up of the forgiveness of God while stiffing those who need forgiveness from our hands. Everyone seemed convicted, until a guy I’ll call Tom stepped up and shook my hand.

He was the exception. He was in his mid-forties and his sister had recently been run down and killed by a raging drunk. He spoke fast and was sure that he hoped the youth rotted in prison, no matter what. He couldn’t see things any other way at the time. Forgiveness looked to him like a band-aid applied to a hole that cut him from neck to abdomen. It was not enough.

As he went on, two thoughts swirled in my mind. The first thought was that we can never leave forgiveness to our emotions. To feel the deep desire to forgive comes with a most mature faith, often the result of days and days—years and years—of practice and an exceptionally tested surrendered-ness to Jesus’ directive.

A desire to forgive minutes after personal loss can come easier and easier, it is true, but only as we are healed and grown over time. And to wait for such a personal maturity before choosing to forgive would sabotage it happening at all. Lucky for us, forgiveness is a choice of will, not a flood of emotionally generousness.

As one friend of mine put it, forgiveness can be spoken while the heart convulses in anger and emotions rage, we are not, after all, the authors of forgiveness, only its loyal subjects. In other words, I can forgive you by speaking the name of Jesus Christ over what you have done and giving all of it and its repercussions to Him. That is the real thing, all feelings aside. When I forgive the matter is finished right there, even though I may still cry for days.

The second thought was that a desire to forgive can be summoned by consciously studying and embracing our own personal depravity. I don’t care how mad you are, if you go to Father God and swap stories, you’ll always leave with enough gratitude necessary to forgive anybody. The short of it is that our debt tore Jesus away from His own family and our mortal ugliness sent Him to His death. Because of you and me, Jesus was beaten past recognition, and right outside Father God’s living room window.

Think on this and you’ll not be quite so vindictive. God, He saw it all. Sensed it all. Heard it all. Yes, and now He still dreams of your tomorrows and hears your prayers. You and your bungled life with all its messes remains His concern. The teachings of Jesus leave no doubt that we wreaked havoc in a beautiful universe because we were so loved and so evil.

They longed for us even as the sins we nurtured threatened to sink our solar system. We careened over the meridian of a cosmos and devastated the lives of far more than one husband and his two little girls, and that was just the beginning. Surely there was a place for this youthful drunk and his tragic crime.

It seems to me, focusing on the loss sustained by Almighty God can address the most painful numbing loss, and lead forgiveness-ward. With the smallest of efforts, we can imagine Father God’s pain and open our hearts up to the raging drunk that kills our kid-sister, extending that same forgiveness Jesus choked out on the cross.

And in a way this can bring us nearer to God. In our devastating loss we no longer have to imagine God’s pain. In fact, we can feel His pain. Yes, we can cry and scream and know a very small touch of what Father God went through for us.

Clarissa Worley Sproul writes from the Pacific Northwest.

The post In Search of Forgiveness appeared first on Answers for Me.

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Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Dear God, News and Feeds Tagged With: anger, answers for me, clarissa-worley, compassion, debt, father, hoped-the-youth, our past, personal, revenge

The Magic of a Smile

November 14, 2018 By admin

When I first moved to California, I felt like a fish out of water. I had moved from New York City to begin graduate school in a very small town located about an hour and a half drive east of Los Angeles. Prior to living in New York, I had been living in Seoul, South Korea. So as you can imagine, coming from two of the largest cities in the world to a small town took some getting used to.

During my first week in California, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood. I saw people watering their lawns, picking lemons and avocados from their trees, and pruning their rose bushes.

“Wow!” I thought, “I’ve only seen this stuff happen in movies!”

As I rounded the block, I saw a jogger that was making his way in my direction. As he approached me, all of the familiar city-living internal warning sirens went off.

“Can you see both his hands? Remember, you can use your keys as a weapon. Why didn’t you take that self-defense course when you had the chance!”

As my mind raced, the jogger stopped, asked me how my day was, welcomed me to the neighborhood and went on his way.

“Well,” I thought. “This is new.”

You see, living in a big city had taught me that on some level I was supposed to mistrust everyone around me. And for good reason, there are a lot of bad people out there. But there are also a lot of good people in the world, many of whom would love to be smiled at and asked how their day was. The jogger had every reason in the world to mistrust me. He didn’t even know me. But the small gesture to say hello made me feel good!

The experience with the jogger popped into my head this afternoon as I rode the train home from work. I decided to put down my book and look at the person in the seat across from me and smile. She smiled back. And you know what? That felt pretty good.

“A joyful heart is good medicine. But a broken spirit dries up the bones,” (Proverbs 17:22, NASB).

Jael Amador write’s from New York, New York.

The post The Magic of a Smile appeared first on Answers for Me.

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Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Vegetarian recipes Tagged With: afternoon, angeles-prior, answers for me, begin-graduate, california, direction, familiar, in-between, jogger, neighborhood, rode-the-train, world

As Little Children

November 7, 2018 By admin

Dear God: I can hear my grandchildren wrestling in the living room and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything more delightful. The baby is just developing his belly laugh and my four-year-old loves making him laugh. They giggle for the shear joy of it and luckily for me, they do it often.

When was the last time I laughed out loud out of joy. A lot of the time I act like things are pretty grim and are no laughing matter. But in reality, life is good. I have children who’ve grown in the Lord, married loving people and birthed children who are healthy and happy – thus the giggling. Sure, I’m getting older and have some aches and pains, but I’m so blessed. God thank for you for all you’ve given me, including the joy of laughing out loud and help me do it more often.

In Jesus’ name. Amen!

Dee Litten Whited writes from the east coast.

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Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Healthy Living, News and Feeds Tagged With: answers for me, appeared-first, belly, getting-older, gratitude, laughing-out, litten-whited, living, married-loving

Life’s Bottom Line

November 6, 2018 By admin

A friend asked me a while back what I’d say if asked what the bottom line in life is. You know, what is the one reality, or belief, or whatever, that is central and essential to life being lived, and lived well? What a question.. What a question. How on earth was a person to know what was life’s bottom line? I chewed on it for a few weeks… and maybe months… and then suddenly it came to me.

If I was Henry Ford and had made the automobile, what would make me happy? Probably that my cars would sell and be driven to death, right? Ok, so God created me, a human being… a brilliantly thinking, feeling, creating, natural wonder of the world, and what could He want more than for me to be born, breathe, thrive, live, feel, think, and engage each moment fully. I am a human being, my bottom line is to fully be me.

What a wonderful thing—to just be. Like the flowers in my yard and the tree over our back porch, within me is the full measure of life and everything else to grow up and thrive. I don’t have to make something of myself to be complete. I came into this world small and wrinkled, but with every bit of everything necessary to expand through the years into a full-sized woman, complete with dreams, desires, abilities and personality.

And this is life’s bottom line. Live and be. Life is a gift I never asked for—it was given to me in its fullness and like the Apostle Paul says, everything needful is ours through Jesus Christ. God set it up that way. I’m innately wired with vision, purpose and destiny. I only need to learn the practice of living and being uniquely myself.

Now as beautiful and simple as that all sounds, It wouldn’t be fair to stop there without mentioning that we all have this condition that has warped us and polluted our grandeur and dignity. Our race was created to resemble God Himself, and yet we’ve been drug down into confusion by a condition that consumes us. As one author put it, we are the most glorious and magnificent of ruins. Brilliant and yet disfigured by a condition of evil—a Hebrew word from Genesis that can be translated with all the negative words just used in the above sentences.

This reality of evil threatens my living and being. It has shattered my psyche into a million pieces, turning my natural instincts backwards and making life seem like a mammoth puzzle seemingly impossible to put together. Evil cuts to the core of not so much what I do, but who I am, my personhood, my livingness. It’s no accident that we stumble and struggle, coping instead of living and shutting down our own thoughts and feelings. No, this is the norm of our evil condition.

And yet, there is hope. We all still resemble God, so we must go to war against evil. We cannot consciously surrender ourselves at any time. This was what Jesus taught. He pointed out that our very nature had gone south, but that His love and guidance could slowly bring the real person we were back to life again. He also clarified the threat of death that hovers in this evil condition, and received it’s full threat in his own dying, breaking the cycle of eternal endings and restoring our chance at eternal living, something we all deeply long for.

And so to know and practice the teachings of Jesus is the only way I have found to live and be completely me. He has taught me that I was created to thrive. He has taught me that I am fully crafted and innately wired for all that my destiny here on earth asks of me. Yes, and He has explained why it’s all such a struggle. He has demystified the great confusions and passions co-existing within my soul. And in the end, taking His word for it, I believe I will be lifted from this evil condition and restored to pure living and being forever.

Clarissa Worley Sproul writes from the Pacific Northwest.

The post Life’s Bottom Line appeared first on Answers for Me.

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Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: Dear God, News and Feeds Tagged With: answers for me, apostle, being me, bottom-line, clarissa-worley, evil, jesus, life's meaning, personhood, self awareness

Which Way, Lord?

October 31, 2018 By admin

Dear God: It probably happens once a day. “Which foot does this go on?” asks 4-year-old Tommy as he holds up his shoes to me. He doesn’t mind asking, knowing that if he puts his shoes on the wrong feet, it will not only be uncomfortable, but he’ll have to start all over again getting his shoes on.

Jesus, I could learn a lot from Tommy, but I dislike asking, even though you’ve invited us to. “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” Luke 11:9 NLT I don’t think You just mean material things. Nearly every time I decide to guess and not ask direction, I end up with the equivalent of sore feet. Help my hard headedness. Help me to trust that you will give me what I ask you for. Make me childlike.

In Jesus’ name. Amen

Dee Litten Whited writes from Virginia.

The post Which Way, Lord? appeared first on Answers for Me.

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Article excerpt posted on en.intercer.net from Answers for Me.

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Filed Under: News and Feeds, Vegetarian recipes Tagged With: answers for me, asks-4-year-old, equivalent, jesus, prayerful, shoes, show us lord, will-receive

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