Locusts, Storms and Other Trials

By Hally Franz –

The natural chaos taking place in my yard, and many others throughout theMidwestand southeast, will soon subside. The dull buzzing sound which crescendos to a roar, presumably as the work intensifies, will soon cease. The large, slow-moving creatures currently plaguing us will eventually be no more than mounds of crunchy cicada carcasses.

It is the end of May, and in my part of the country, we have been besieged by locusts for three weeks now. This year marks the emergence of two varieties of cicadas. My limited research on the internet tells me they are called frequently called “locusts,” but, in fact, are not at all the same beast. There are two versions: the 17-year batch and the 13-year brood. They seem as menacing as the Hatfields and McCoys, but evidently aren’t terribly dangerous. My little Chihuahua-Daschund may get sick if he gorges himself on cicada crisps, but sturdy trees and plants will survive the attack. They’re expected to remain through the end of June.

I was relieved to find cicadas don’t linger all season, and, then I remembered a Bible study from a couple years ago. In 2009, one gifted friend from our congregation taught the women’s class about “storms.” Specifically, she examined the temporary nature of hardships in our lives. With biblical support, she addressed the trials that early Christians faced, and we explored those encountered in today’s world, as well as God’s purpose for these events and how to grow through them.

I was going through a struggle of my own at that time. I had resigned my position as a guidance counselor after months of soul-searching and prayer, taking a leap of faith by leaving a well-paying job that I liked. I was experiencing high blood pressure and anxiety. That study was exactly what I needed, and I saved only one thing from the summer lessons—a handout that said “storms don’t last forever.”

Throughout this nation and the world, people are suffering, surviving and rebuilding after literal and figurative storms in their own lives. Some face silly and simple dramas of everyday life, like an outbreak of cicadas. Others, like those inJoplin,Missouri, are recovering from devastating losses. There is comfort in knowing that God sustains us through each trial no matter how long it lasts, and He will be there when it’s over to encourage and strengthen us once again.

PRAYER: Merciful Father, be with those who face struggles throughout our community, country and world. May they find strength and encouragement through You, and may faith grow stronger as a result of those trials.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV).

Next Time, Call for Help

By Robin J. Steinweg –

A boy and his little sister chased down a purse-snatcher at Daytona Beach. The thief, a young woman of twenty, nabbed their mother’s purse and took off with the children in hot pursuit. The ten-year-old girl followed the snatcher into a bathroom and ended up with the purse, while the pilferer ended up in police custody shortly thereafter.

It sounds like a movie script, doesn’t it? I can almost hear kids everywhere cheering and mothers groaning in horror, imagining what might have happened. The children’s own mother said she was proud of them, but told them, “Next time, you call for help!”

Indeed. I wonder if, in the privacy of home, their parents grounded them forever. Still, I can identify with these little heroes. They saw, they conquered. They did it themselves, though everything was stacked against them.

The desire “to do it ourselves” is steeped in us pretty deeply. We assert our independence at a young age. I remember my sons demanding to dress themselves, and coming out in a cacophony of color and patterns, putting everybody’s eyes at peril. We admire the millionaire who started with nothing, the athlete who overcame physical handicaps, and marvel at the log cabin that served as the birthplace for a future president.

We like to do things for ourselves.

What is it that makes me determined to do it on my own?  It might be stubbornness. More likely, it’s simply my old companion, Pride, and his brother Foolishness. “I don’t need to pray about this—I can do it myself.” “Pray? It’s not that bad yet!” “I’m not going to bother God with it; He’s too busy with more important things.” “God helps those who help themselves.”

Pride nudges me and says, “It’ll look great on your resume if you do it alone.”

Foolishness forgets that a God who creates things out of nothing—with just a word— is hardly going to be hindered by time. Busy? Ha!

Wisdom is more likely to say, “God help those who try to help themselves!”

PRAYER: Lord, forgive my stubborn pride and protect me when I go chasing after life without coming to You first. I choose from here on out to chase hard after You instead. You’re with me always, and You know what’s best for me.

” The Lord is near to all who call on Him… He hears their cry and saves them” (Psalm 145:18 – 19 NIV).

 

Professional Liars

By Rosemary Flaaten –

Have you ever been in relationship with someone with whom you were never quite sure if what they said was a true reflection of reality?

The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:2 (MSG) warns that “These [professional] liars have lied so well and for so long that they’ve lost their capacity for truth.”

What a sad statement that someone can lose their capacity for truth. Over an extended period of time, these professional liars convince not only others but themselves as well that a lie is the truth and that the truth is false. Their understanding and convictions are characterized by mayhem and they no longer know right from wrong.

Do you work or live with someone like this? When they speak, you wonder if they can be trusted. Their character has been shredded by dishonesty. Their word is no longer valuable.  You wonder when you may be sideswiped by their deception. A loss of integrity equates to the loss of a trusting relationship.

But, before we sit too long in the judgement seat, pointing our finger at others, let’s examine our own propensity for dishonesty. Perhaps its having an over-inflated sense of our abilities that has blocked our capacity to see our limitations. Perhaps it’s our tendency to turn a blind eye, ignoring our persistent sins such as overeating, gossip or pride. Maybe its a lingering memory that turns us away from God in shame rather than accepting the truth of His love and forgiveness.

Have we become a professional liar to ourselves?  These patterns may be so ingrained within us that we don’t even realize what has happened to us.  Its like a color-blind person, unable to realize that they are not seeing all the hues in the rainbow.  Identifying truth versus lies in our inner being is something we are unable to do.  We are desperate for God’s illuminating truth to show us the lies we harbor. Only then will we be able to reverse our tendency and become a person of honesty and integrity; a person known for truth.

PRAYER: Lord, show me where I have become blind to deception and may my heart and mind be opened to Your truth.

What you’re after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life” (Psalm 51: 6 MSG).

Identity Theft

By Cynthia Ruchti –

It happened on an ordinary afternoon. I made a small purchase at a local specialty store and paid for it with a credit card. Or rather, I tried.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but the charge wouldn’t go through.”

“What do you mean? We can’t have reached our limit. We never have more than a small amount charged to our credit card, and we pay it off completely every month, on time.”

“Sorry. The machine says your card is denied.”

I had other means to pay that day, so I did. When I got home, I called the credit card company.

“Yes,” the customer service rep said, “there’s been suspicious activity on your card. We shut it down. Weren’t you notified?”

Suspicious activity? Someone was using our account number?

“It happens far too frequently,” the customer service rep explained. “We’ll get everything straightened out eventually, but it may take several monthly bills to work through which charges are legitimately yours and which were made fraudulently.”

I understood why people say they feel as if they’ve been violated when someone steals their identity. It was an affront on all counts—financially, a time waste, a headache producer, and what seemed a never ending pattern of confusion as it took many months to sort it all out.

The thieves caused so much grief unrelated to the money. As grateful as we were for a cooperative card company with which to work, I still mourned the time drain and inconvenience.

Identity theft happens every day. And sometimes we hand it over to the thieves.

We forget that we are daughters and sons of the King of kings, and act like paupers instead. We fail to show our “I belong to Him” cards when loneliness threatens. We cower as if we have no power bestowed on us from the Conqueror. We wander in confusion, as if it’s impossible to know where we stand with Christ, even though He’s told us we are His “workmanship,” His handiwork (Ephesians 2:10).

Is that how we act? Or do we allow voices other than the voice of God to steal the identity of who we really are in Him? It’s a mess when that happens…a violation against us. And it can cripple someone not just for a few months of paperwork-straightening, but a lifetime of unnecessary and unwarranted shame and regret.

PRAYER: Lord, help me implement Your plan to guard against spiritual identity theft. Make me wise to what weakens my defenses.

“The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16 – 17 NIV).

Sharing Knowledge with Love

By Rosemary Flaaten –

Envision two ordinary fish swimming side by side, fins gently brushing each other. Suddenly, one of them begins to enlarge, filling its abdominal cavity with water until it becomes four times its normal size. Then, it sprouts poisonous barbs which project into its swimming partner. This ‘puffer fish’ is now a lethal enemy to all it would contact.

Knowledge can have a ‘puffer fish-like’ effect on each of us. As we grow older, developing in our careers and gathering experience, we also grow in knowledge. But do we use this ability to push others away? In our circle of relationships do we flaunt our knowledge to look more important? Do we have a self-inflated importance, diminishing others in our eyes or even deflating them in their own? Our motivation for gaining knowledge and how we use it has the potential for harm. If we increase in knowledge so that we lord it over others, surging in self-importance, knowledge becomes a weapon rather than a helpful tool.

Love, on the other hand, cannot harm. Love is pure, never self-seeking or inflammatory. Love builds up others rather than puffing up ourselves.

Knowledge is not evil, rather it is an essential step towards wisdom. In our jobs, for example, it is necessary to increase our knowledge so that we can become better skilled and more efficient. However, do we combine that increased knowledge with love so that others may succeed as well? Do we use it to help others, building them up and providing a safe learning environment?

The question becomes what do we do with such knowledge? Do we hoard it or flaunt it, or do we share it with love? Being filled with love will never prove to be dangerous. The Apostle Paul summed it up this way: “…to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:19 NIV).

Be a fish that is safe to swim with–let your knowledge be puffed up with love.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to add love to my shared learning so that others can be built up.

“Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Corinthians 8:1, NIV).

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