Bitter or Better?

By Lori Freeland –

Why is it that when bad things happen to some people they emerge better and stronger at the other end of the crisis while other people shrivel up and build steel walls to keep others out?

Eight years ago, my son was diagnosed with leukemia right before his eleventh birthday. Because his age put him at a higher risk, his treatment plan was harsh and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We spent a lot of time in the hospital the first year of his almost four-year struggle.

When you’re in and out of a small isolated hall on the fourth floor of the children’s wing, bonding with other parents becomes natural. Seeing the same faces over and over makes for fast friendships. Especially when you’re taking cover in the same sterile foxhole.

Years later, a few of those moms I befriended have grown stronger, others have broken, and some are barely hanging on years after cancer rocked their world. It almost doesn’t seem to matter if the child made it to remission or not.

When something bad happens, you have two choices. Be bitter or be better.

So what made the difference in these moms? Personality? Personal beliefs? Support system?

From my experience, I would have to say none of those things.

I believe hope made the difference. But not any hope. Hope in something real. Hope in something outside of ourselves. Hope in a life-changing God.

If you choose to be bitter, you build your future on rage and hate and resentment. And really when you think about that, all that anger only hurts you. That big ball of acid tartness you’re carrying around your heart only eats at you. No one else. The bitterness steals your joy and renders you useless to reach out to anyone else.

“Another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having enjoyed anything good” (Job 21:25 NIV).

If you choose to be better, you let all the bad stuff go. You ask God to take an extremely horrible situation and make something beautiful. He can, you know. He’s the only one that can turn ugly into exquisite. He uses your trials to transform and uses you to help others.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” James 1:2-5).

The next time you face a trauma, remember you aren’t powerless. You have the will to choose, will this struggle make you bitter or better?

Things I Never Thought I’d Say

By Janet Morris Grimes –

Sometimes I have to chuckle at what our society has become. Just a few short years ago, the following statements would have made little sense:

“You will never guess who just tweeted me?”

“Did you check me in at this restaurant?”

“I need a good status update.”

“Heading to Starbucks to do my homework.”

“Double click on it.”

“Scan it.”

“Did you Google it?”

“I got an email from my car saying my tire pressure is low.”

“Can you go return these movies to the Redbox machine?”

“I DVR’d the game. Don’t tell me who won.”

“Did you get my Hey-tell message?”

“Hopefully, our video will go viral.”

“Don’t click on that link. You will get a virus or lose your hard drive.”

“I’ve been hacked by someone in Bangladesh.”

“My GPS almost sent me straight into a lake.”

“I am running out of memory.”

These statements make perfect sense to us today, but within a few short years, they are likely to be obsolete as well. It is impossible to keep up with the changes in technology, and at times, the challenge to do so can be overwhelming and exhausting. As soon as we master a new gadget, another comes along to remind us that we will never catch up.

I recently read of a new television series on NBC called “Revolution” that depicts life in the United States fifteen years after an electromagnetic pulse has disabled all electronics. There simply is no power, and survival goes to those who learn to do without it.

I find that frightening as my below average survival skills learned from the Girl Scouts thirty years ago have not been well-maintained. I was forced to clear all remnants of how to weave together a raft made from twigs from my brain so that I could upgrade to the latest version of Twitter.

One only has so much memory available, after all.

I have no idea what the future holds; technology or otherwise. But I know that God has it all in the palm of His hand. And He never changes.

Thank goodness. That is more than enough for me.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17 NIV).

Don’t Blast the Bighorn Sheep

By Peter Lundell –

For the first time in my life I saw bighorn sheep. Normally reclusive, a heard of twelve stopped to eat near a roadside. The alpha male kept watch and nudged the rear ends of the others to keep them together. Two sheep pranced up a rock face that must have been 60 degrees. I could hardly believe my eyes.

Cars stopped along the roadside, and people milled about taking photos. A silent awe lingered in our midst. We all knew we were privileged to witness this gift of nature, which could vanish at any moment. Everything any of us had been doing stopped as we took in this blessing.

Suddenly a car horn blasted the holy silence, and we sheep oglers turned in shock and disbelief. A not-so-interested driver maneuvered her car along the road and seemed only to care that everyone else got out of the way. I doubted it was an emergency because she only expressed impatience of one who didn’t want to be bothered—in a national park, hours from anywhere else to go.

The contrast jolted me. How could a person be so oblivious? So self-interested? So willfully disdainful of a rare experience? I did not know.

Then I thought, am I ever that way? I’m often busy, and sometimes I get impatient. And when I am, I may be unaware of what I’m blasting out of my way. I do not like to think that I’m like that lady in the car. But sometimes I am.

God’s hand and things he would show us can be found anywhere and any time. I intend to avoid blasting my horns of impatience. I will avoid hurry, my eyes open, ready to see what God might show me at unexpected moments each day.

I hope you do too.

PRAYER: Lord, sometimes I’m in a hurry. May my heart always be attuned to whatever You have to show me and whenever that may be. My agenda is second; Yours is first. May I never forget.

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10, NIV).

More than a Mascot

By Dawn Wilson –

Years ago, when my younger son played baseball for the Phillies’ minor league Batavia Muckdogs, I laughed as the mascot dog—now named Homer—entertained fans at Dwyer Stadium. He was clumsy and hilarious. These days, my older son sometimes dresses up as a mascot, Odin, for the Valhalla High School football team. I get a kick out of seeing him on the field, joking around and cheering on the team.

Mascots are adopted by teams as a symbols of groups and teams; but there are some strange ones: the Banana Slug, Sebastian the Ibis, Zippy the Kangaroo, the Boll Weevil. Maybe the strangest one is Stanford University’s unofficial mascot, “The Tree.” To quote one observer, “It looks like it was made with Elmer’s glue and construction paper by a group of first graders.”

Mascots supposedly bring good luck. (To watch some of the blooper videos on YouTube, I think the mascots need some luck of their own! They trip, fall, and generally make fools of themselves. One mascot jumped on a trampoline into a basketball hoop, and lost his pants before exiting the net!) We all love those crazy mascots. They’re great to have around, if only for a good laugh.

But some time ago, I read a statement by David Bryant that made me think about this word “mascot” in a far more serious light. “We often find ourselves making Jesus our mascot,” Bryant said, “instead of our Monarch. He’s around, but not in charge.”

“I’ve never done that,” I thought. But then the Spirit of God showed me ways that I have sometimes treated Jesus like a “lucky rabbit’s foot” or a magic “Jeanie in a bottle”—a good luck charm to keep me safe.

We may laugh at a mascot, but we’d never bow before one. We’re told in scripture, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11).

Jesus is not my mascot. Jesus is not, as some people say, my “Homeboy.” No, Jesus is Lord. He is Master. And just saying those words is not enough. Jesus told people, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). We show the world that Jesus is our Lord when we obey Him, when He is the center of our existence and we manifest His love throughout the world.

Jesus is my Lord because He is my very life (Colossians 3:1-4)—a life I have because He died for me. I can’t think of a mascot anywhere who would love me enough to die for me.

Not Being in the “In Crowd”

By Jarrod Spencer –

The “in crowd” is that imaginary group that haunts almost everyone at one point in his life. We all want to be “somebody” in society. We want to be accepted by people. Maybe not all of them, but someone. This especially holds true when it comes to our peers. Of course, as children, when we start to experience this initial desire, we know our parents love us and think we’re important, but the desire goes beyond that. We are wanting to grasp on to “independency” and that means being “me” in a group of others.

I received a comment on my blog last week about my sermon, entitled “Rejected,” that started a few thoughts. One of the thoughts went to Jesus being on the cross. I was thinking how He must have felt; not only because He was not in the “in crowd” at this point in His life, but also that His own Father was rejecting Him. To make matters worse, the rejection came by, in essence, His Father choosing others over Him!

I don’t know of any children who, when feeling a sense of misery, would like to have their parents take the side of a peer over themselves. Can you imagine how you would feel if you knew you were being mistreated and your parents chose “the other person” over you? Maybe for some of you, that has been the case, of which you can relate. Or the person taking sides may have been an adult friend (i.e. teacher, coach, neighbor) or even a peer who chose someone else over you.

I would like to think that Jesus was saying, in His mind, “It’s Okay, Father, I understand why You are choosing them over Me.” But then I also want to think that Jesus was human and in the midst of suffering, His “realness” set in and He wanted to be rescued. Maybe He was thinking, “Let’s get this situation over with.” There were probably lots of thoughts going through His head, that we will never know about while on earth.

Though He wasn’t in the “in crowd” at that moment, I am more-than-grateful for His willingness to be in the “out crowd” for me and my sins!

PRAYER: Father, thank You for understanding me and loving me no matter what “crowd” I am in. With You I will always be in the “in crowd.”

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (I Timothy 4:12 NIV).

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