Life is not always easily explained. There are times we find ourselves in situations and circumstances that make perfect sense to us. It is 10:02 in the morning and it looks and feels like that time of day. But there are also moments when it seems like the wrong place and the wrong time. The hands of time are once again at 10:02 in the morning but it sure does look and feel like a few minutes after ten o’clock at night. It makes no sense. Did my watch battery die?

Sometimes the reason for where we find ourselves is evident in that moment. Other times, in the moment, that reason eludes us, and we scratch our heads wondering, “Why?” Time is often revelatory, and the reason might not be made evident until miles down the road, as we look in the rearview mirror – “Oh yes, now I understand.”

We also find ourselves in situations and circumstances in which God has us there for a very specific purpose. Sometimes, at least in my life, from my limited perspective, those moments just make no sense. While we can only see to the horizon, God sees past the horizon. He sees all the way around the planet. God knows the whole story. His plans and timing are always perfect.

In the Bible we see the story of Esther and Mordecai. In the Old Testament book of Esther, we read that King Xerxes had a falling out with Queen Vashti. The king then handpicks Esther to become the new queen of Persia (2:17). And in an ongoing feud, Esther’s adoptive father, Mordecai (2:7), refuses to bow down to Haman, who is a high official of the king. Haman becomes angry and plots to destroy all the Jews in the kingdom (3:1-6). Mordecai hears of this plot and reports it to Esther, but she does not want to tell the king of Haman’s plan because nobody, not even the queen, was allowed to approach the king without his invitation to do so (4:1-13).  

Mordecai persuades Esther to help, and we read these words in 4:14 – “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?”  

Esther agrees to talk to the king (4:15-17). She begs for protection of her Jewish people from Haman’s wicked plan. The king believes her story (7:1-6) and he eventually impales Haman on a pole that was intended to kill Mordecai (7:7-10). Fast forward to the end of the story and we see that Esther’s faith and courage saves her people.

So, I ask – Are you trusting that whatever situation that you find yourself in, it is because God has allowed it “for such a time as this?” Hmm, there might just be a reason you are where you are!

I encourage you to read the entire book of Esther. It is a short book, only ten chapters. And did you know that Esther is one of only two books in the Bible that do not specifically mention God by name? However, the second, Song of Solomon, has one verse (8:6) that can be interpreted different ways, thus leading to some translations inserting LORD into the text, while others do not.  

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If you’ve ever watched Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network you know how each episode begins… “Hey everybody, I’m Guy Fieri and we are rolling out looking for America’s greatest diners, drive-ins and dives.”

And if you are familiar with that show, you also know that it begins with Fieri in his red ’67 Camaro convertible as he travels across North America visiting small independent restaurants. If you are not hungry when the show begins, you surely are by the time it ends thirty minutes later.      

Maybe you are not a “Triple D” fan, but instead, you are a big fan of grandma’s home cooked chicken and dumplings. You might be strictly a meat and potatoes person, and you don’t venture too far from your tried and tested classics. Instead, maybe you enjoy experimenting in the kitchen, trying out new recipes and ingredients. Or after a long and exhausting day at work or school you regularly dine on take-out meals, or better yet, you ask “do you deliver?” Often on New Year’s Eve we like to put together a spread of some of our favorite finger foods. The photo below is from one such New Year’s Eve, when our daughters visited us in North Carolina.

We all have different “tastes” when it comes to what we like to eat, and regardless of your food preferences, eating is a big part of life. The Bible uses a number of “taste” references in describing God’s goodness. Let’s look at one of those verses.   

“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.” Psalm 34:8

You might be familiar with that passage of scripture, or at least the first half of it. Without getting bogged down in too much detail, I want to unpack the verse. The Hebrew word used here for “taste” is ta’am, which means to perceive, to evaluate, or the testing of what is good by the means of our sense of taste. The word “good” (Hebrew: towb) is defining God as kind, merciful, gracious. The word “blessed” (esher) simply means happy while “refuge” (chasah) can be understood as meaning to trust in and to put hope in.

What does all this mean? When you order a meal at a fine restaurant it often comes out beautifully presented. But you can only know if it truly tastes good by actually eating it and tasting its goodness. What this verse says to you today is give God a chance, try Him out, and put all your trust in Him. And in return, God promises to be merciful, kind, and gracious. He promises to be good. 

To keep v.8 in context we must also look at verses 9 and 10, which answer the “what” and “why” questions of v.8. Psalm 34:9 begins like this, answering the “what” – “Fear the Lord, you his holy people.” Fear here is a healthy fear, not a fear that comes from being terrified. It is a fear that comes out of respect and reverence of God and not wanting to offend Him. The reminder of v.9 and all of v.10 answers the “why” question – “For those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

So, today, taste and see that the Lord is good! And you can always go back for seconds!

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We are all identified in a number of ways. Every US citizen has a social security number assigned to them. Not only is each number a unique configuration, the nine digits also help identify you even more. The first three digits are an area number, most commonly the state in which the card was issued. The next two digits are a group number; these are not related to geography but instead to the order in which the numbers are assigned in each area. And the last four digits are the serial number which are assigned chronologically within each area and each group.

Not only are you identified by your social security number, you most likely have a driver’s license with a photograph, a passport, and maybe even an id badge issued by your employer. Military personnel have a military card, formally called a United States Uniformed Services Privilege and Identification Card.

In college, I had a picture id that granted me certain rights and privileges as well as a food services card which gained me access to my college’s dining halls. Times have sure changed, back then, both those id cards had my social security number printed on them. These days, with the explosion of identity theft and security breaches, identification numbers are most often encrypted on a magnetic strip on the card rather than printed on its face.  

If you are a follower of Jesus, you might be identified as such in a number of ways. First, you probably professed your faith publicly in some fashion or another. Other things that could indicate your faith in Jesus are also things like church attendance, good works, kindness, daily Bible reading, and praying regularly. However, those things are also done by people who have not committed their lives to Jesus, so they really are not fail-safe identifiers.

Jesus gives us one marker that He says will identify Christ-followers to the world. On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus was enjoying a meal and some private time with His guys The tension was a little high because had just dropped a bombshell – that one of them would soon betray him. After Judas had left the gathering, Jesus, just before giving the remaining eleven their marching orders (John chapters 14-17), offered them a “new” commandment, one that would identify them. Here is what we read in John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So, today, in a world so filled with hatred, division, and false identifications, I ask you – what properly identifies you?

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Red roses are found in both Greek and Roman mythology. In the Greek tale, the story goes like this – Chloris, the goddess of flowers, was in the forest one day when she tripped over the lifeless body of a beautiful nymph. Deeply saddened, she transformed the body into a beautiful flower. When Aphrodite, the goddess of love, saw this lovely flower, it is said that she named it “rose” in honor of her son, Eros, also known as Cupid. The tale also says that Dionysus, the god of wine, gave this flower nectar for fragrance. Other gods are said to have given charm and splendor.           

Today, in Western culture, there might not be any more enduring symbol of love and beauty than red roses. And there likely is no bigger day for red roses than Valentine’s Day. They are a way to express your deepest affection, longing, desire. Giving a bouquet of red roses is a message of genuine love. And doing so on Valentine’s Day will cost you lots of moolah. Florists hear nothing but cha-ching all day today.  

Among other things, one thing genuine love does is forgive (read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7). We live in a world that often does not easily forgive. We tend to hold grudges and look for ways to get even with the person who we think wronged us. We might not say it out loud, but we think to ourselves those words spoken by the Wicked Witch of the West to Dorothy, “I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!” (The Wizard of Oz).

Most often the person we fail to forgive is ourselves. We have asked the person we wronged for forgiveness, they have granted it, but we look in the mirror with remorse and regret, never allowing ourselves to climb out from under the weight of guilt. If you are a Christ follower, once you ask God to forgive your sin, He does, never to hold it against you. Do you believe that? Read Micah 7:19 (in context, Micah 7:18-20) and Psalm 103:12 (in context, all of Psalm 103).

The problem is when we fail to forgive ourselves, even after God and others have, we begin to feel unlovable and we spiral down a dark path from which there is often no escaping. The Bible’s overarching theme is that God loves you and is pursuing you! You were made in His image (Genesis 1:27) and He allowed His only Son, Jesus, to be crucified and die (Romans 5:8), then resurrected Him, in order to restore a personal relationship with you (John 3:16-18), one that was broken due to sin (Romans 4:25).

If the truth be told, we are more convinced of God’s love and forgiveness for others than for ourselves. Many times, we hear that internal whisper, “Yes, but…” after every declaration of God’s goodness and kindness to us. We see ourselves as unlovable and unforgiveable.       

You probably know the first few words of the most recognized verse in the Bible (John 3:16) – “For God so loved the world…” The world, that excludes no one! Sensing God’s love – grabbing hold of it, letting it fill your lungs, swimming in it – is foundational to God’s Kingdom. The truest expression of God’s character is His love. The gospel message at its core is a message of love.

In 1 John 3:1 we read this, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

So, right now, no matter how you feel, no matter what your past looks like, open your heart and accept God’s extravagant and lavish love; a love greater than that expressed by a dozen long stemmed red roses. His love is truly the greatest love ever known.

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Are you a person who lives by the adage, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” or do you flip that around and say, “Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow”?

We live in a world of procrastinators. Cats never seem to be in any hurry to do anything. The same can sometimes be said of us. We push so much off until tomorrow. But so often, the proverbial “tomorrow” never comes. Have you ever waited until the day before an assignment is due to begin working on it? You need to get bloodwork done, but you keep putting it off. I am sure that today card stores will be full of men, many with panicked looks on their faces, scrambling to find a Valentine’s Day card. You keep finding better things to do than go through the boxes in the basement and get rid of years’ worth of accumulated junk. You put off calling a loved one until one day it is too late.

Pablo Picasso once said, “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” We live in a world of procrastinators. The word procrastinate comes from the Latin verb “procrastinare” which means deferred until tomorrow. Most of us eventually do the things we need to do; we just seem to usually put them off or wait until the last minute.

When our daughters were growing up, my wife and I would regularly ask them to do certain things. “Please clean your room.” That meant clean your room right now. Other times, it might have sounded like this: “On Saturday, please clean you room.” When God gives a command without any specific day or time, I believe he is desiring whatever it is he commanded to be done immediately. Instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is. Delayed obedience is really nothing more than disobedience.

And when our daughters pushed back on something we asked of them, we tried not to simply say, “Do it because I say so.” We gave them an explanation, to hopefully help them understand our reasoning. There were times, however, when we felt they would not at that moment understand, so “do it because I say so” meant something like this: “Trust me on this, it is for your own good.” And sometimes what God asks us to do simply makes no sense. But we can always rest assured that it is for our own good and the good of others.       

When Jesus visited Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew as they were fishing, He invited them to become his disciples. In Matthew 4:19 we see Jesus say, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people.” Did the two men ask to go home and think about it for a few days before giving Jesus an answer? You be the judge; here is what we read in v.20 – “At once they left their nets and followed him.” In the very next verse, we again see Jesus extend an invitation, this time to James and John, to join Him. They too “immediately left the boat and their father and followed him.”

We find these words in Psalm 119:60 – “As soon as you command, I do what you say (CEV).”

It might be okay to procrastinate on doing certain things, but when it comes to responding to God, the only way to be obedient is to obey Him, completely and without delay.

What is God calling you to do that you keep putting off?

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Do you consider yourself moody? Are you someone who fluctuates like the choppy ocean, rising and falling as the tides change? Or instead, are you unchanging like a calm sea, flat with hardly any movement? While it is true that some of us are choppy oceans and others of us are calm seas, it is also true that we all have some degree of mood swings. Our mood swings are primarily driven by our circumstances.

Our contentment also fluctuates with our mood. Contentment is different than happiness. Happiness is simply a momentary experience whereas contentment is a long-lasting feeling accompanied by peacefulness and satisfaction. When our circumstances are favorable, we tend to be content, but as soon as life does not go our way, contentment often turns to discomfort, that feeling of being unsettled and restless. Our mood drops.

Contentment that comes from people or things only lasts as long those people or things are good to us and for us. Those ever-changing mood swings seem unavoidable. But one of the many benefits of having a real relationship with Jesus is that we do not have to live that way. No matter how crazy that sounds, it is possible. We can learn to be content in all things.

The apostle Paul wrote that he had a thorn in his flesh. I do not think that Paul literally meant a sharp-pointed part of a plant had penetrated his skin, causing pain. Instead, I believe Paul was saying that he had some sort of affliction, one he does not describe in any detail other than to say it was a thorn. He pleaded with God three times for this affliction to be removed, but God failed to remove it and said this to Paul – “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9a).

Not the answer Paul probably wanted to hear. Not the answer we want either when we take our afflictions, our struggles, our crappy life circumstances, our discontent, to God. But look how Paul responds – “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10).

I believe Paul was saying to himself, and to you and me, to rely on God’s wisdom and strength in our times of discontent, dark moods, sufferings, thorns. It comes down to submitting our circumstances to God and trusting that He is working out his plan in and through them.

In Romans, Paul also tells us this – “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

Rejoice in my sufferings, you have got to be kidding me. The Greek word used here for rejoice is not our modern understanding of the word, to show great joy or delight. Instead, it is pointing to a confidence that we can have, knowing that God is able to use our unfavorable circumstances to help us mature in our faith, making us more like Jesus.

So, when you find yourself with unfavorable circumstances, submit it to the Lord and trust that He is helping you grow in the contentment that only comes from Him. It would sure be nice if it was voilà, and just like that, perfect holy contentment forever. But I have not experienced it like that. It is a journey. The more I submit and trust, the more lasting contentment I find, even in this discontented world in which we live.   

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