Jason's Blog

Daniel was everything that a five year old can be—courageous, timid, confident, and shy. But most of all—trusting. Daniel’s mom had left him with her sister Milicia on a fateful day in 1957.

The family lived in war torn Croatia. Seeing soldiers with machine guns was an everyday occurance. Daniel was out in the street playing in a red toy wagon with these nineteen year olds. The boys were pulling the wagon in the street near his home, when the unthinkable happened. They pulled the wagon through a gate and little Daniel’s head was forced between two posts. He was dead in seconds.

Where was Milicia? She was supposed to be watching, but something had happened. She was distracted and now Daniel was dead.

Daniel’s mother faced all the anger, sorrow, and pain that goes with losing a child. But through it all, she never blamed Milicia. As Mirslov Volf tells this story, he always looked at his Aunt Milicia as his guardian angel. Mirslov’s mother never blamed her sister and never passed that blame on. This allowed her son to grow up free from anger, free from labeling and hurting Milicia.

I believe one key power tool that can help you with your anger in all its forms is the spiritual discipline of extending mercy. It is the wellspring of forgiveness and the source of love. If we are merciful, we can be slow in anger, free from rage, coercion, and depression. Our life will be full of peace.

How are you doing with developing the spiritual discipline of mercy?  Is mercy vibrant in your life?  If so, you’ll have a few scars to show for it.

Let me share two quotations that you might find helpful.  Joshua Grave’s The Feast (Leafwood, 2009) has a fine chapter on Suffering:

A deep spirituality molded in the image of Jesus takes root when we realize that God manages to use suffering to transform darkness, disillusionment, suffering, pain, and ugliness into everlasting beauty. . . The Apostle Paul proclaimed, ‘I want to know Christ  and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings,’ because he understood that suffering is a means by which God changes the world from its insistence on violence, revenge, corruption and domination” (p. 94).

Do you believe that God can take our brokenness and transform it into glory?  That is what He does through the cross. If you believe in the power of suffering, then you might be able to pray this prayer:

Let my trust be in Your mercy, not in myself. Let my hope be in Your love, not in health, or strength, or ability or human resources.

If I trust You, everything else will become, for me, strength, health, and support. Everything will bring me to heaven. If I do not trust You, everything will be my destruction. [Merton, Thomas. Thoughts in Solitude. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. p 29-30].

This happens to me all the time.  I’ll be behind the wheel, and one of my kids will say, “Did you see that?”

“See what?”  I call back.

“That cloud it looks like an elephant.”

It is easy to miss the picture when you’re a growup– with no sense of imagination and eyes trained on the traffic.

Do you see them?  They are are the overlooked:

• Behind a cash register
• Under an overpass
• In a restaurant
• At a gas station
• Holding a leaf blower in the street

All the people that you might never see if you are in a hurry and a prisoner to your schedule.

Even worse, you can be so driven that you don’t even see your own family.  Your child is trying to tell you something, and you are glued to a book, or the internet, or a television show.

Thomas Merton once wrote, “it might be a good thing to open our eyes and see.”

Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air . . . ” (Matthew 6:26).

Carefully take your eyes off the traffic and worries.

Slow down.

Give yourself permission to see the world around you.

See all of it– even those who are overlooked.

Consider the details of life.

Realize again that God is present.

How can He use you in this moment?

In my small group yesterday, a friend told me the parable of hedgehogs and foxes.  It is an old story dating back to at least 600 years before Jesus and is attributed to Archilochus (and you could read more about him from Wikipedia).   This story, though, has gained new currency as it has been reintroduced by the nationally acclaimed business author Jim Collins.  The story goes like this –

The fox is a cunning creature.  Day in and day out he tries to way to capture the hedgehog in his den.  He waits quietly by the road, and one day the hedgehog wanders out to him.

“I’ve got you now!” shouts the fox with glee.  The hedgehog simply sighs and rolls up into a spiny ball.  The fox is defeated again.  Though the fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one great thing.

Collins goes on to comment that business can succeed if they excel at one thing and concentrate their energies.  Christians reading this story have to ask, “What is that one great thing?”

In our group we considered the one great thing to be humility.  This is the greatest thing that we can do.  The Bible really bears this out:

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”  (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)

“Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:4)

Let me add a couple of quotes on humility from Christian authors through the ages:

“The gateway to salvation does not live open unless we have laid aside all pride and taken upon ourselves perfect humility. . . this humility is an unfeigned submission of our heart, struck down in earnest with an awareness of our own misery and want.”  — John Calvin, Institutes Book 3, Chapter 12.6

“Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of man.  It is the root of every virtue.” — Andrew Murray, Humility (Whitaker House Press): 16.

This really seems to fit well with idea of making 2010 and year of discipleship.  Let me encourage you to be a Hedgehog when it comes to humility.  Curl up tightly and be resolute in your desire to be humble before God.  It doesn’t matter if we are great at many things if we miss this first essential.

If your life seems locked so very tightly, might I recommend you try one of the great master keys– thankfulness.

Last week a friend of mine reminded me of this great insight.  A spirit of gratitude unlocks so many doors and dark places.  We all know how hard it is to remain bitter, angry, sullen, and depressed when we lead our mind into thankfulness.

So keep turning your thoughts toward thanksgiving.  Beyond the turkeys and meals, football games, national pride, and parades, be settled in your spirit about the things for which you are truly thankful.

I suppose I could stop right there, but I know how silly and empty this post might sound to someone who is truly miserable.  It’s easy to say “thankfulness is my master key” when life is on an upswing.  It’s another matter when your health is at risk, your family life is a constant battle, and you have been treated unfairly (perhaps even unjustly).

Have you ever been the innocent party who is simply exhausted by the tumbles of life?  Maybe there was an unexpected and tragic death in your family.  Or a marriage that fell apart.  Or a relationship with a child.  The list could go on and on.

Does this master key work  when life is full of challenges?

I think it does, and it is when life doesn’t seem to make sense that we find out about our faith.  Do we believe in the goodness of God and that He is our hope and strength?  Do we believe that we can be thankful even when joy has been stripped out of our hands?  What are we to do when our soul has been wounded and we know a scar is forming?

The scriptures are clear:

• No matter what happens, always be thankful (1 Thess. 5:18)
• Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. (Col. 3:15)
• Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his . . . Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name (Psalm 100:3-4).

Don’t underestimate the master key and the grace of God.  Let his goodness chart Your steps today.