Every summer my family would travel back to western Kentucky to see our relatives.  My aunt and uncle lived on a large farm off the main highway which was only accessible from a long gravel drive shrouded by giant oaks and waving fields of corn.  The trees blotted out the sun and always gave me an eerie sensation.  I can still remember my anticipation as we would turn onto that dark, shadowed drive.  It made me nervous, but I knew that all the joys of fishing ponds, go-carts, and a summer of youthful bliss awaited me at the end of the short, winding road. 

This world can be foreboding, and filled with every sort of heartache and danger.  Just like that shadowy drive, the psalmist (Psalm 23) refers to life as traveling through the “valley of the shadow of death.”  But we have nothing to fear, because the Lord is right there with us every step of the way.  He has promised us that we have a great reward awaiting us, if we will simply finish the journey.

Anticipation is what causes us to brave the winding road of life with its turns and shadows.  As we look forward to the good things that await us at the end of the road, it causes us to take our eyes off of the dangers and focus on the goal.  This is why John can close his Revelation with these words, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20, NIV).

Won’t Heaven Be Grand???

Kerry

Nehemiah chapter one tells us of Nehemiah’s great call to go and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that had been left desolate.  It was his great destiny – the life calling that defined him.  Although I had always assumed that God had TOLD Nehemiah about this purpose for his life, a close reading of the text never indicates that.  Nehemiah’s call was simply due to the burden on his heart.  He heard of a great need, and his godly conscience demanded that he take action.

Here in America we have seen similar stories in the wake of the terrible disasters.   Violence, natural disasters, and all manner of tragedies abound.  Christians are constantly “stepping up to the plate” by sacrificing time and resources to help their neighbors.  These actions are not the result of instructions from the “voice of God.”  Such instructions were not needed.  Like Nehemiah, we have been called by the burden of our hearts.

Whenever your conscience, trained by faith and the Word of God, demands that you take action, do it!  Such are the times when our world’s often ill-advised instruction is actually true… “Listen to your heart!”  In doing so, you might the very purpose that God intends for your life.

Our society has become obsessed with its ability to categorize and label every behavior.  We use words like, “abnormal,” “dysfunctional,” and “eccentric,” with much greater frequency that we did in the past, as we are so bent upon identifying every problem and grouping people into easily manageable divisions.  Now, if a person acts or thinks in any way that is different than their social group, the label they inherit defines them as less than normal- as being inferior to the rank and file all around them.

There can be no doubt that some people indeed suffer from severe emotional or mental struggles for which they need support and treatment.  What I question is the labeling of masses of people as abnormal because of slight personality differences.  In fact, how can we even identify what is normal, when a large population is labeled abnormal… doesn’t the abnormal then become the norm?

Perhaps we should simply use the word, “unique.”  In many ways, there is no such thing as a “norm” in human behavior.  We are all gloriously different.  Some of us are more emotional than others, some of us are more keenly analytical, and some are more relationship oriented.  Does this diversity make us weaker?  I don’t think so.  It seems that it would make us stronger!  Because you are different than others doesn’t make you imperfect, it simply makes you magnificently “one of a kind.”

Kerry