There is just something about the ocean that is calming and peaceful, especially under a beautiful moonlit night sky. The quietness, the gentle breezes blowing through the sea grasses, the moon shining down upon the ocean’s water, the sound of the tides washing upon the beach.

But, if you have ever been to the ocean then you also know that it can be unpredictable, and often dangerous. The tide comes in and then it back goes out; it ebbs and flows. One minute the water is not even up to your knees and then all of a sudden it is over your head, you almost drown. One wave gently tosses you around and you are having fun. But the next wave, it is a really big one, and the force of the water flips you upside down, pounds you into the ocean floor and you come up wondering what just happened. You need to re-adjust your swimsuit; it is in places it shouldn’t be and not places it should be. That evening, as you shower, there is so much sand that you wonder if you have brought the beach with you. You’ve been there, right? I know I have.

Life is the same way. One minute things are calm and peaceful and then without notice a big wave or two or three or four comes and turns you upside down. You lose your breath and find yourself disoriented from all the pounding you are taking. You just hope that you can find your way back to the shore.

The Bible tells us that when, from our vantage point, things seem out of control that God has things under control, and He can calm the waves in our lives. Psalm 89:9 tells us this, “You rule over the surging sea; when the waves mount up, you still them.”

We see a similar message in Psalm 107:29, “He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.”

The gospels of Matthew and Mark both tell the story of Jesus calming the seas. Here is what we read in Matthew’s telling of the story, “Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm” (8:26b). Click on the links to read both versions, each with slightly different language – Matthew 8:23-27 and Mark 4:35-41.

In offering hopeful words about God rejoicing over his saved people, the prophet Zephaniah says this, “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (3:17). 

So, when you find yourself in turbulent waters, whether knee deep or in over your head, you can rest assured that sometimes God calms the waters while other times He calms you amid those dangerous waters. Either way, you can always trust that God is not far away.   

If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.

An old Chinese proverb goes like this – “To know the road ahead, ask those who are coming back.”

There are any number of roads we can take through life. We can follow in someone’s footsteps, going where they have gone. Maybe instead, watch where others have walked, learn from them where the landmines are, and take a slightly different path. There are times when we just wander, taking path after path, looking for the right road to take. I have a t-shirt that reads, “All who are wander are not lost.” 

Or, maybe, we see the masses going on the wrong path, so we go against the flow and take a completely different, sometimes lonely, path. Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken, begins with the words, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both,” and ends with this, “I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages hence and hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

Every day we stand at one crossroad or another. Sometimes the choice is nothing more than a fork in the road, and the decision is simply choosing between going left or going right. While other times, it might be a freeway junction, one with many connecting roadways, and the decision is not quite so simple.  

There is another option when choosing which path to take – “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand by the roads and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it and find rest for your souls’” (Jeremiah 6:16a).

The context is the Israelites were being judged for their straying from the ways of the patriarchs into the ways of idolatry, i.e., they “lost their way.” They stood at a crossroads; the moment called for a clear decision. The “ancient paths” literally means “the good way.” Sadly, the end of that verse says this- “But they said, ‘We will not walk in it'” (6:16b).

Read the rest of that passage (vv.17-21). The nation rejected the ancient paths, even as prophets were sent as watchmen to warn them of impending danger.

Now that you know the context, and remembering that no biblical text can mean more to us than it meant to the original readers, how can we apply the words of 6:16 to us today – in this time of so much unrest and uncertainty, in this time when rest for our souls seems like wishful thinking, in this time when for most of us, daily rhythms are anything but rhythmic, in this time when there are potentially so many roads we can take as the world around us spins faster and faster.

Here is my stab at an answer – Every day we stand at one crossroad or another. Will we take the way of obedience or the path of selfishness (disobedience)? In His grace and through His mercy, God warns us of pending doom, pending struggle, pending frustration, by taking the wrong path. This appeal to seek the ancient paths points us to the path commanded by God, known ever since He revealed himself and his ways in the covenant at Sinai (Exodus 19-24). The ancient path is the path of obedience. The path leading to life. In Deuteronomy 30:15-16, the Lord, through Moses, set a choice before his people, prosperity or disaster. That same appeal is given to us today.

Through this meditation, I hear God saying to me, I have a choice. I can choose the ancient paths, and in doing so, not only do I find life, but also peace and rest for my soul. Or I can choose any other path.

What might Jeremiah 6:16 be saying to you?

If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.

Life is full of things we don’t have and dreams unfulfilled. But life is also full of things we can be thankful for. How we look at life can often be summed up by “is it half-full or half-empty?”  

Most catchphrases or sayings we use have stories behind them. We use them in everyday life but rarely know their origin. Here is the story behind one saying that near and dear to my heart. During one pre-season football camp at Millersville State College back in the 1970s as the team left the campus in the wee hours of the morning on the way to the Marine Corps Base at Quantico to “toughen the boys up,” the bus drove past a large cemetery, and as the head coach pointed to the rows and rows of tombstones that looked somewhat eerie though the early morning haze, he looked back at a bus full of “happy campers” and said, “Men, it really is a great day to be alive.” The response, somewhat sarcastically, “Okay, whatever you say Coach.”

Every season after that year during the hot and tiring days of pre-season football camp, Coach Carp as we affectionately called him, would walk through the dorms at five o’clock in the morning blowing his whistle and yelling to us, “Men, it’s a great day to be alive.” With sore and tired muscles, and the thought of another full day of practice during the dog days of August, it really didn’t seem like a morning to be thankful. “Okay, whatever you say Coach.”

Let’s look at Psalm 100.   

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”

No matter what you are experiencing in today: whether it be the dread of another day of practicing in full football pads in 90 degree weather or the joy of being on a sunny beach with nothing to do except sit under your umbrella and read your favorite book, whether you face another day at a job you do not like or you begin a new job, your dream job, whether you face more chemo treatments or you just got a clean bill of health from your doctor, I want to encourage you to take time be thankful and to praise God, even if you are not in a thankful or praising mood.

Knowing that some of you reading this are facing real life challenges, and I am not minimizing those issues, I pray for a touch from God, a word from God, the presence of God, so you can say “It’s a great day to be alive!” And remember this, even if your glass if half-empty, it is also half-full! It is a matter of perspective.

If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.

Are you sometimes confused by sayings that seem to contradict themselves? As a figure of speech, this combination of contradictory words is called an oxymoron (compressed paradox). The word oxymoron comes from two Greek words – “oxys” (sharp/keen) and “moros” (foolish). These contrasting words can be a powerful part of speech by making each one stand out more, just as contrasting colors side by side often do the same thing.  

Sometimes, however, they are just downright confusing. Have you ever been asked to send an “original copy?” These days everyone seems to have an “unbiased opinion.” Maybe after having a disagreement with someone, you have said this: I was “clearly misunderstood.” A “deafening silence” fell over the room as she announced her resignation. A friend cuts a muffin in half so you both can enjoy a piece, only to have you say: I am watching my weight, so you take the “larger half.” Literature is not exempt from these seemingly contradictory statements. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, as she stands on the balcony, Juliet says to Romeo, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”     

We see one of those seemingly contradictory statements in the Bible as well. In 2 Corinthians 12:10 we read these words – “For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

How can that be? Either you are weak or you are strong, but surely not both at the same time. Let’s look at that verse again in context. Back up a few verses and in v.5 the apostle Paul tells us that he has some weakness, some affliction. The precise nature of his affliction is not known, but in v.7 Paul says this – “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.”

Whatever this thorn was, Paul wanted it gone. Beginning in v.8 – “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

So, just what is sufficient grace in this context? God provides His divine grace, saving us from eternal death. That unmerited favor affords us joy and delight. God’s divine influence is at work daily, transforming our weaknesses from within, so that our faith grows. That divine influence is also at work in our external weakness, so that those circumstances improve. God provides grace and influence that is enough (sufficient) to meet all that is needed when it is needed.       

We see from these verses that while the “thorn” remained, God promised that His grace is all that Paul needed, and that the best solution to removing the thorn is God’s power showing up in the midst of Paul’s weakness. What Paul is saying is that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness, and the more we acknowledge our weakness, the more evident and enabling is God’s strength in us and through us. In Ephesians 3:16 Paul prays – “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”

So, while you might find it hard to boast about your weakness, your thorn, you can rest assured that in your weakness God’s power is at its strongest. And right now, if you are “clearly confused” by being simultaneously weak and strong, ask God to demonstrate His strength amid your weakness.

“For when I am weak, then I am strong!”

If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.

When life crumbles around us and we are left to pick up the pieces, it is often hard to find any glimmer of hope in the pile of bricks. While living in coastal North Carolina, we witnessed the utter devastation caused by hurricanes. Houses destroyed. Businesses gone. Watching people pile what is left of their personal possessions at the curb to be hauled away, gut wrenching for me. Imagine what the feeling must be if it is you seeing all you own in a heap at the curb. Horrible. Just horrible. 

The death of a loved one. A broken relationship. A job lost. Surveying the ruins of any loss, big or small, there is simply no easy and pain-free path to get to the other side. If truth be told, depending upon the extent of the loss, you or I might not even see any path forward, let alone an easy path. All hope for a brighter tomorrow as been lost behind the clouds. But, even when we think we have lost everything, we do still have one thing left – the very presence of God.

Let’s look at a story in the Old Testament. This particular story takes place approximately seventy years after Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. Nehemiah, a Jew who was a high official in the Persian court, wanted permission to rebuild the City’s walls. Ezra and Nehemiah were contemporaries. Ezra wrote about the rebuilding of the temple by Zerubbabel while Nehemiah wrote about rebuilding the city’s wall. At that time in history, cities in the Middle East were surrounded by a wall as protection for the inhabitants. Business was regularly conducted at the wall’s gates.

Nehemiah asked King Artaxerxes for permission to return to Jerusalem with the intent to rebuild its wall (Nehemiah 2:1-8). Prior to this, in Chapter 1, Nehemiah prayed, and God granted his request to be allowed to return to the City. As Nehemiah viewed the devastation, his heart must have been broken, seeing the city he loved in ruins. But even as Nehemiah viewed the piles of bricks (2:11-16), because he knew God was with him, he looked towards what could be and not simply at what was. Remember, Nehemiah had prayed for God to guide the rebuilding. God’s blessing means God’s presence.

As he assessed of what remained, Nehemiah likely saw beauty rising out of the ashes (2:17-18). Hope began to replace hopelessness. Delight overtook despair. Even as he was jeered and mocked by Arab men, Nehemiah knew rebuilding the wall would not be thwarted by those who opposed him. We find these words in Nehemiah 2:19-20: “But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?’ Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.’”

Nehemiah and his team of wall rebuilders continued to face opposition, but God continued to be with them as they rebuilt Jerusalem’s wall, just as it had been prophesied by Daniel (Daniel 9:25). In a previous post, I wrote about some of that opposition. To read that post, click here.

Upon completion of the wall, we are told that all of Nehemiah’s enemies knew that the work had been accomplished with the help of God (6:15-16).

So, the next time ruin is all you see, ask God to increase your faith, helping you look past your pile of bricks toward the hope and joy of restoration!

If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.

Have you ever felt abandoned? Abandoned by your family. Abandoned by your friends. Abandoned by the world. Maybe even abandoned by El Shaddai, Almighty God himself. Left without protection, care, or support. No longer thought of. You wonder if anyone knows or cares that you exist. That feeling of isolation, aloneness, is not a place any of us ever want to be. But, if you are like me, you have felt that isolation, that aloneness, at some point in your life. Maybe you feel it right now.

While it is true that people do at times abandon us, and we to them, it is also true that God will never abandon those who are His. In a world that seems to look for reasons to kick people to the curb, a comforting promise is that God never kicks us to the curb. The writer of Hebrews says this, referring back to Deuteronomy 31:1-6 – ^“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he (God) has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (13:5).

Jesus Himself made this promise when He commissioned his eleven remaining disciples to continue the work He began – “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).”

You might be saying, those verses sound comforting, but right now, as I sit here all alone, is God really close to me? Let me share a story from the Old Testament. A time when the Israelites likely wondered if God had forgotten about them.

Jerusalem had been destroyed and most of its inhabitants were in Babylonian captivity. If God was truly with them, they must have said, then this would not have happened. They, often like us today, equate pain and suffering with God seemingly abandoning them. In the story, found in Isaiah 49, we find this cry – “But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me” (v.14). You ask, who is Zion? Zion is a placename in the Hebrew Bible, often a synonym for Jerusalem, the city of God, as well as the land of Israel in its entirety. So, here we see the people were filing an objection against all of the promises that Yahweh had made with them. They allowed their current circumstances to cloud what they knew to be true. Have you ever been in that situation?

God countered their objection by asserting that He is as near to them as a mother is to her nursing baby. Here is what God said to them – “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you” (v.15). To further the point, this – “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (v.16).

This engraving alludes to an ancient custom of tattooing one’s hand with impressions of the Temple, as a way to remember the Temple of God simply by looking at the indigo ink tattooed in their palms. Centuries later, Jesus engraved us in His palms as the nails were hammered through His hands on the cross.

So, the next time we are tempted to wonder if God has abandoned us, we only need to look at our palms and envision the indelible marks on His hands for us.   

If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.