How Do You Handle Life’s Minuses? by Dave Brueckner
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Believe me, I don't say this, because our son wrote this article... But this is one of the best that we've ever posted! I say that because, I think it will be a great encouragement for many of you. Dave is not presenting a theoretical message, but something from the pains of real life. When I first published it in our quarterly "Call to Commitment" in the Summer of 2008, people wrote us about the help they received from it.
We dare not be idealists; life does deal us minuses and we have to live with them. It will really be helpful to us, if we can see God behind it all with His wisdom and love, intimately involved, moving everything for our good. This will be a blessing for anyone...
How Do You Handle Life’s Minuses?
Dave Brueckner
We enter this planet with
nothing in our hands. As time goes on, we accumulate possessions, relationships
and knowledge. We are not to hold these with a tight grip, but loosely, as a
loan from God, because when we exit this earth, our hands will be empty again.
The death shroud has no pockets.
Sometimes we are separated
from earthly possessions before death. If we hold on unrelentingly, we will
grumble and complain, because we feel we were cheated from what was rightly
ours. After Job lost everything, he blessed God and said, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.” How do I handle life’s
minuses?
Jeremiah, the weeping
prophet, lived in a critical time in Israel’s history. There was not “one
person who deals honestly and seeks the truth” (Jer. 5:1). Israel had become
worse than the nations who had lived before in the land of Canaan. They had
false hopes, because they worshipped in God’s temple (Jer. 7:10), but judgment
and discipline were lying at the door.
There was also a New
Testament weeping Prophet (Lk. 13:33), who wept over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41).
Things were hard for the Israelites in Jesus’ day with the Roman yoke upon
them. They looked for the Messiah, but when He came, He was not what they
expected. The temple, the house of prayer, no longer represented God’s
interests. Jesus said, “Your house is
left to you desolate” (Luke 13:35).
Here is how Israel’s leaders
treated the situation in Jeremiah’s day. “They
dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’
they say, when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). Sin is serious, but they
didn’t treat it seriously. They thought that nothing could change, even if the
Babylonians came. God protected the city many times and it still existed, but
now they had gone too far.
God intends good by His discipline
Our faults are obvious to
others, but not to us. In the Catholic mass, the priest says, “The Lord be with
you” and the people answer, “And also with you.” One Sunday, the priest was
having trouble with his microphone and the faithful couldn’t hear well, when he
muttered, “There’s something wrong with this thing.” They responded, “And also
with you.” We do well to take God’s side against ourselves, when his finger is
pointed in our direction.
Is God’s discipline good for
us? Jeremiah tells the story of the potter. The good news is that He can make
something beautiful out of the same clay that didn’t turn out right at first.
It is in God’s heart to do something about Israel. He will not leave them as
they are.
However, not all those taken
to Babylon were doing wrong. It wasn’t Shadrac, Meshak and Abednego’s fault
that they were there. What did Joseph do wrong, to be sold as a slave and taken
to Egypt? Away from home, friends and all that was familiar, the goals and
plans of these young men were demolished. What happens when you are getting a
raw deal, because of someone else's sin? Maybe you know no reason for a
situation that you detest, but you just find yourself there. Things have gotten
out of your control.
Stand at the crossroads
How do you react, when you
have to reach up to touch bottom? Some give up. Some complain and become
bitter. If I can get you to lift your eyes momentarily, I want you to see that
God has something to say. Thank God, He spoke to those in Babylon! The loss and
despondency of these suffering people is the context of the oft-quoted Old
Testament verse, “I know the plans that
I have for you… plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you
hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11). God hasn’t forsaken even those who are in
bondage because of disobedience.
Your reaction will make you
or break you. In the U. S., there is a mountain chain called “The Great
Divide”. Water that falls upon it, can either eventually empty into the Pacific
in the far west or into the Atlantic far to the east. Depending on your
reaction, your destiny can be miles apart. God brought Israel to a crisis and
this was His counsel: ““Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient
paths” (6:16). Choose God’s old way. Many in today's chrome-plated society live
for self and refuse the way of the old rugged cross and the kingship of the
Ancient of Days. People say that the Bible is oldfashioned. An old preacher,
Vance Havner, said, “Air is old-fashioned; water is old-fashioned.” We can’t
live long without them. The path that has stood the test of time works in the
Christian’s life. It is the one that God has cleared. The people said, “We will
not walk in it.” Jesus longed to gather Jerusalem’s children as a hen her
chicks, but “You would not!” (Luke 13:34).
Grow where you are
Don't get caught permanently
longing for what is presently impossible to obtain. Let’s begin to work with
our situation where we are right now, not where we wish we could be. After all,
Israel became a nation, while living in slavery. In Babylon, they could well
have been saying, “Here in this hell-hole I can’t do anything. If I were in my
homeland, things would be different.” However, God says to them “increase and do not decrease” (Jer.
29:6). God tells them to build houses (ver. 5). Grow! Your situation may not be
ideal, but make the most of it.
Use what you have
God works with us with what
we have, not with what we think we need. Don't dote on what you once had. God
will work with what you have now. Miracles start with little things. David
defeated a giant with his sling. He didn’t have a chance to learn to use Saul’s
armor. Sampson grabbed the first thing he could find, a donkey’s jawbone, and
killed 1,000 Philistines. He didn’t have time for a course in self-defense. God
asked Moses what he had in his hand. He did not send him to take a course in
leadership and public speaking. The disciples had no clue as to what to do with
the 5,000 men before them, but the account tells us that Jesus knew what He
would do. He asked them, “What do you have?” In God’s economy, five loaves and
two fishes were enough.
If life has dealt you
minuses, first examine your heart to see where you stand before God. Are you
suffering for your sin? Then don’t deceive yourself, but deal seriously with it
and God, in His time, will restore you. If your heart is clean before God and
you cannot find a cause for your situation, then make a decision to react
properly and take the right course in the matter. Choose God’s ancient paths.
Don’t wait for the situation to change, but make the most of it and grow. Let
God bless what you have now in hand and above all remember this: God has plans
to give you hope and a future.
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