Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 39

A Brief Interruption in Our Relationship: Our Daughter Angela’s Reflections about Her Mom

Note from Randy: My youngest daughter Angela wrote the following about her mom on September 28, the six-month anniversary of Nanci’s homegoing. I love what she wrote here.

March 28 marked the one-year anniversary since Nanci relocated to Heaven. This week our family has been all together—both our daughters Karina and Angela and their husbands, and all five of our grandsons. We have all been looking forward to gathering and remembering and celebrating Nanci.

I’ve been reading through texts and emails and social media comments in relation to the first anniversary of Nanci’s homegoing. It’s struck me how many people say it’s been six months, a year, or 18 months since their loved ones went to Jesus. This is a club none of us wants to join but nearly all of us will one day be part of. Hence, it’s best to go deep in God’s Word, and draw close to Jesus now as Nanci did, so we are ready when the time comes. I read to my whole family this week from Nanci’s journals, sitting between two of my grandsons. So heart-touching to see her “boys,” as she always called them, instructed and inspired by her profound words. (Same for our daughters and sons-in-law and me.)

A Brief Interruption in Our Relationship:
Our Daughter Angela’s Reflections about Her Mom

Today marks six months since my mom died. This loss has affected me in profound ways, and in ways I know I still have yet to discover. But today I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about my mom.

I don’t have a great memory, but the first memory I can recall vividly was from when I was very young. I was sitting on my mom’s lap with my head resting on her chest. As I listened to the rhythm of her heartbeat and the sounds of her breathing, I felt totally peaceful and content. I was just about to drift to sleep when suddenly, Mom starts screaming and yelling. I was instantly terrified and started to cry. Quickly, she pulled me close and said, “Oh honey, it’s OK, mommy’s OK, mommy’s just really excited about this football game!”

And that, in a nutshell, was my mom.

She had this way of making everyone feel comfortable and at ease around her, and at the same time, everyone knew not to stand in the way of her passion for life and the things she loved!

She was the fun mom, the one that all my friends loved and wanted to be around. She was a teacher assistant one day a week at our school from kindergarten to 8th grade, and all my classmates thought she was the best. Any weeks she wasn’t able to come, I’d hear moaning about how much everyone would miss her, and how no TA was more fun at recess than Mrs. Alcorn.

She made our house a place we all wanted to be. She may have thought it was the pizza rolls and Nutter Butter’s that kept our friends wanting to come over, but I know that it was because my mom created a home where everyone knew there would be both a lot of love and a lot of laughter.

There was SO much laughter! I remember laughing until my sides ached the first time I read some old Reader’s Digest magazines to my mom at the family beach house in Manzanita (which quickly became a tradition). You may be thinking I’m talking about the sections that included family friendly jokes and clever anecdotes. Now, I did read those, and we’d chuckle a bit. But the real belly laughs were reserved for the times I read her Drama in Real Life. I’d put on my best dramatic voice and read such things as people who crawled miles to safety after a grizzly bear mauling, or the harrowing tale of a shipwreck turned shark attack. It sounds so awful that we would laugh at these things, but all of these were survival stories, so we weren’t laughing at people actually dying, just NEAR death experiences that were written using the most intensely dramatic words possible. The tales that seemingly couldn’t possibly get worse, but ALWAYS did. There was the “lost in the rainforest” story where this guy was starving and needing to eat bugs, then there was a flash flood but finally he barely pulled himself out of the water, climbing up on a tree branch. But wait, there’s more…we were snorting by the time the fire ants arrived. Dad and Karina would be over in the corner discussing philosophy and theology, and we were rolling on the floor laughing at the detailed description of what in real life would be a terrible thing, but in the overly dramatic telling of the story, somehow became humorous to us.

The beach house also reminds me of birthday trips. For many years in a row, my mom would let me pick a few friends and she (and sometimes one of her friends) would drive us to Manzanita for a birthday weekend. We’d roast hot dogs and s’mores on the beach and watch movies and go to Seaside. My mom was always a part of the fun, even during my potentially angsty middle school and high school years, and I always wanted her to be.

Not only was my mom the fun mom, I also remember serious conversations that were packed with godly wisdom. I remember many of them taking place either in the car, or walking around the middle school track. But sometimes, the best conversations would just happen randomly. I’d just plop down on the couch with her after school, or come in the kitchen and help her make dinner. She taught me so many things without me even knowing it.

I really never remember a time that I felt like my mom wasn’t there. Even in my adult years. We weren’t the mother-daughter pair that talked daily on the phone after I left the house…in fact, I joke with people that we lived less than a mile apart for the last 14 years, and sometimes we’d go for weeks without saying a word to each other! But that was because I knew without a doubt that she was there whenever I needed her. It was both spoken and unspoken that I could always count on her to be present in my life.

My mom and I were different in some ways, but similar in more. We both wanted to be easygoing and never a burden to those around us. We didn’t want to be needy; we wanted to be strong and capable, and we don’t like to cry in front of others (though that’s out the window for me these days). We would often exchange looks and instantly know what the other was thinking. We understood each other in a very special way, and that made me feel like I could tell her anything at any time without any caveats. I miss that more than I can describe.  

In the last few years, as often happens with parents and children, our roles slowly started to reverse. I had a lot of medical problems as a teenager, and had to have several surgeries. Stopping to write these things down, it’s pretty remarkable to look back: my mom went to countless doctor appointments with me, sat in the ER with me several times, and even after I was married, got a few phone calls from me that held difficult news about my health. She helped me get out of bed after surgeries and brought me my favorite things without me even asking.

One of the greatest privileges of my life is that I was able to take care of my mom in her last few years, the last month of her life especially. It was my turn to take her to doctor appointments. I was the one on the receiving end of several difficult phone calls. I sat by her bedside while she was on the ER stretcher. I came to visit her while she was admitted to the hospital. I went to the grocery store to get her what she needed, and also splurged on her favorites. At the end, I was able to do for her for three weeks what she did for me my whole childhood. 

I have realized that many moments—both big and small—in my life led me to become the person my mom needed me to be in those last moments we shared. For that, I will forever be grateful to God. As a nurse, I helped interpret the words of the doctors, and as a daughter who resonated with her personality, I was able to express them in a way that she understood. Having been a patient, I knew firsthand her reluctance to ask for help, especially from those closest to her. My training as a nurse and my experience working in critical care prepared me for such a time as this.

Right before I made the decision to call 911, 3 ½ weeks before she died, I knelt down next to her and said I knew she didn’t want for me to have to take care of her at the end of her life. But then I told her that not only was I willing to do that, it would be an honor and a privilege. She looked at me and said, “Are you sure?” and I said, “Absolutely.” And then she took a slow breath and said, “OK. Thank you.” And I knew she knew the end was closer than any of the rest of us realized.

I am so grateful that in all my years of experience as a nurse, with all of the different tasks I’ve done for each of the patients I have taken care of, God was preparing me to be able to give the most important patient of my life the very best care I could give. And every day as I was taking care of her, I also made her laugh, which was important to us both. Her allowing me to care for her until the very end was her greatest gift to me, and I am so, so, so thankful.   

I miss so many things about my mom. I miss her laugh, and the twinkle in her eye that she had until the very end. Her facial expressions that ensured she’d never be a good poker player. Her whistle I could hear from blocks away that told me it was time to come home for dinner—the same whistle used years later to cheer on my boys at their sporting events. The silly songs she’d make up and sing about her dogs. Her wise words in quiet moments. The pictures of her toes in the sand that she’d send me from Maui. The weeks that would go by without even a phone call, but the knowledge that I could stop by and see her at a moment’s notice anytime I wanted. 

I am so very grateful it’s not the end of our relationship, but only a brief interruption. And I can’t wait for an eternity of laughter reminiscing about both others’ and our own Dramas in Real Life, and being able to lay close to my mama again, listening to the comforting sound of her fully healed lungs breathing in the purest air on the New Earth. 

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21: 3-6)

Until that day, this stone with my mom’s handwriting on it (a precious gift from Dan’s co-workers) reminds me that God is my strength. He will be faithful to guide me through these deep valleys of grief and remind me of the joy that awaits me someday soon. The fullness of joy that my mom is experiencing right now.

I love you, Mama, and I can’t wait to share forever with you. I can almost hear you whistling me home.

We Could Never Earn God’s Grace

Through a set of divinely arranged circumstances, years ago I drove home a university professor I’d just met from a theatre parking lot. When we met again several months later, two hours before he came to Christ, he said, “I can’t get past the idea that someone could live a selfish, no-good life, then repent on his death bed and go to Heaven. It just sounds too easy, too cheap.”

I challenged his underlying assumption, that we can earn Heaven. We discussed the hardest part about grace—swallowing our pride and saying, “I don’t deserve this any more than that criminal does.”

Grace was enormously expensive for God. Yet there’s just nothing we can offer to pay for it.

A thief on the cross asked Jesus to save him. Though every spoken word was agony, Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

This thief would never be baptized, make restitution, attend church, take communion, sing a hymn, or give an offering. He had nothing to offer Christ, no way to pay him back.

Neither do we.

Imagine a King who invites you to come live in his house and be his heir, even though you rebelled against him, and murdered his son. Suppose you worked hard, saved up money, then came to the King and said, “Here. I’m paying you back.”

Imagine the King’s response. You can’t begin to pay him back. The very attempt is an insult. It cheapens his son’s death.

On the other hand, some people take advantage of grace, reducing it to an excuse for sin. Jude writes: “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4).

Any concept of grace that makes us feel more comfortable about sinning is not biblical grace. God’s grace never encourages us to live in sin; on the contrary, it empowers us to say no to sin and yes to truth. It’s the polar opposite of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.”

God has seen us at our worst and still loved us. No skeletons will fall out of our closets in eternity. God won’t say, “Well, if I’d known that I never would’ve let Randy into Heaven!” God knows all my sins. Jesus died for them all. No exceptions.

For more on this topic, see Randy’s book  The Grace and Truth Paradox , and his devotional  Beautiful and Scandalous . 

Photo by Luis Quintero

 

The Great Reunion Awaits: Reflections a Year After Nanci Entered Heaven

A year ago tomorrow, on March 28, 2022, I said goodbye—for now—to my wife, Nanci, who was also my partner, soulmate, and best friend. The pilgrimage of grief, though full of learning and enrichment, is one I would gladly exchange to have my wife with me again. And yet…not really, because I recognize God’s sovereignty and love, and His perfect plan, and the fact that my wife is now happier than she has ever been.

Nanci experienced firsthand the closeness of Jesus in her suffering. She wrote in her journal, “My relationship with God has deepened more than I ever could have imagined during this cancer. I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good! [Psalm 34:8] I trust and cling to Him more. I worship Him more. I love Him more! The Bible speaks to me more. The Holy Spirit’s ministry feels more real to me.”

Alive in Christ’s Presence

I often picture Nanci’s entry into Jesus’ presence a year ago. I imagine that while Jesus was Nanci’s center of attention, she also loved seeing relatives who had died—her mother and father and my parents, and our grandchild she’d not yet met, taken into Heaven before birth.

One of the truths I so love is that while Nanci went ahead of me to the present pre-resurrection Heaven, which is “better by far” than this earth under the curse, one day we will all be raised to life on the New Earth. There, John says of our Lord, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” (Revelation 21:4-5).

On that day, Nanci and I—and all of God’s risen people—will behold “the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face…” (Revelation 22:1-4).

Can you imagine what it will be like for us all together—people of every tribe, nation, and language—to behold and experience at last the place that the Carpenter from Nazareth, infinitely creative and powerful, has prepared for us? Wow!

She Still Speaks

My friend Steve Silver speaks of his wife Sandy, now with Jesus, as his silent partner. He has the memories how she “would weigh in on decisions, encourage me in plans, guide me in right actions, and be an advocate for everything done for the Lord.”

I so relate. Nanci is my silent partner every day. And yet in another way, she is not silent. Hebrews 11:4 says, “And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.” Nanci still speaks to everyone who knew her here. And she speaks to those she’s been reunited with and has met for the first time. And she will forever speak, and one day I will hear not just memories of her voice, but her real present tense voice, more delightful than ever.

In the meantime, grief has become my friend and God’s anvil to work on me. I didn’t ask grief to come into my life because grief only comes with loss, and who asks for loss? But loss will come uninvited, and I’ve learned good grief can help us move forward through our losses, becoming more like Jesus in the process…if we let it.

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Corinthians 4:17). My deep pain in having to face this fallen world without Nanci isn’t just suffering for me to get beyond; it is suffering that is purposeful, achieving what’s of eternal value. Because that’s true, the next verse says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

The Legacy of an Eternal Perspective

I am so grateful that Nanci and I talked about Heaven openly and often over decades, and I would encourage you to do the same. Believing her death was coming soon, Nanci asked me if I would bring together our family of eleven—our two daughters and their husbands, and our five grandchildren. She wanted to speak into all our lives, and we gathered two days later. She spoke to her grandchildren especially, with tenderness and humor, and encouraged them never to resent God for taking her, because God always knows best and works even hard things for our eternal good. When she could speak no longer because of exhaustion, I read to the family from her journals. All of us were deeply touched. There were many tears, but also laughter, and it was Nanci’s laughter that gave permission and blessing to ours.

One of our 17-year-old grandsons said, “Grams, if you can trust God like this when facing such hard things, I know I can trust him too in the tough times I face.” Another said, “I will never forget what you said to us today.”  We placed our hands on her and prayed over my wife, and our daughters’ mother, and our grandsons’ Gramma. It was a sacred time in which we caught glimpses of a far better world that she already had one foot in. What we experienced that day made me realize that none of us needs to wait until we think we’re dying to gather and talk to our family as Nanci did. I’ve since encouraged others to consider doing this sooner rather than later.

I’d thought a great deal about Heaven before Nanci died, having written seven books about it. But while what I learned during those hundreds (come to think of it, thousands) of hours spent on research and writing was a great encouragement, it didn’t make saying goodbye to Nanci easy. All that study, however, bolstered my wholehearted belief that Nanci’s death was not the end of our relationship, only a temporary interruption. The great reunion awaits us, and I anticipate it and delight in imagining it with everything in me.

Jesus kindly delivered Nanci from her suffering. To know my sweetheart will never suffer another moment for all eternity brings tears of joy as I write these words.

She Is Home

When Nanci left for Heaven, part of me left with her. Other than Jesus, the greatest treasure I’ve ever had on Earth is Nanci. And Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Because Jesus is in Heaven, and He is my greatest treasure, my heart has long been there. But with Nanci there, as much as I love all my family and friends and church, my heart and mind are often in that other place. I’m encouraged by the command, “Set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2).

I’m grateful God still has a place for me as long as I’m here. Yet I deeply miss Nanci’s daily presence. I find myself instinctively wanting to do things I would’ve done when Nanci was still here. One day somebody texted me a photo of their dog, and I immediately thought, I need to forward this to Nanci. Suddenly, the truth dawned on me: Nanci had been with Jesus 10 months, yet my default inclination was still to send her that dog photo!

I miss the thousands of little moments Nanci touched my life. Most of all I miss her laugh, which was frequent, loud, and contagious. She infused our home with happiness. I am still happy, but in Nanci’s absence I find I need to be more deliberate in recounting all the reasons in Jesus that make me happy.

The time came, as it has for many others, when Nanci and I changed our prayers from “Lord, please heal Nanci” to  “Lord, if you are not going to heal Nanci, please take her home soon.”

With tears of joy and a love radiating from her eyes that I still see, she said to me, “Randy, thank you for my life!” Eyes full of tears, I said, “Nanci, thank you for my life!” Later, in her final days here in our earthly home, she said to me, “Randy, please take me Home.” I said, “If I could, I would take you Home right now, and I would never come back to this world the way it is.”

Home for me was always wherever Nanci was. It didn’t matter where I was as long as she was there. That means my house is less my home without Nanci, but Heaven is more my home.

Paul said that “we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). My true home is where Jesus is. It warms my heart that Jesus and Nanci are in the same home. He is the One who makes Heaven such a wonderful place, all because He is such a wonderful person. Nanci is with Jesus forever, and therefore, when the time comes for me to be with Jesus, it will mean being with Nanci. The two best friends I’ve ever had.

God’s Got This

Nanci’s final journal entry was, “I told the doctor today that I don’t want to fight the cancer in order to just give me more time. I am going off chemo. I am so relieved and honestly excited! I will see Jesus pretty soon!!!” Exactly one month later, she did.

I often think of Nanci’s reassurance to herself and to me: “God’s got this! God’s got me!” She wrote, “I will be ready to die when my time comes because my Shepherd will give me His joy, peace, and readiness. It will not be me working up enough faith and trust; my God will fight the battle for me! It will be His perfect ministering Spirit who will carry me peacefully—jubilantly—into God’s arms.”

I was a witness to the “peacefully” part as I watched her fall asleep, and then suddenly, I realized she’d stopped breathing, and tears running down my face, I kissed her goodbye. Meanwhile, God, the angels, and likely some of Heaven’s inhabitants witnessed the “jubilantly” as they opened wide their arms and kissed her hello.

I have no doubt Nanci heard those words that should stir our hearts: “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into your Master’s happiness.” She was a recipient of God’s promise: “you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). May each of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, our Redeemer, experience the same.

Why the Year After Her Cancer Diagnosis Was the Best Year of Nanci’s Life

Next Tuesday, March 28, marks a year since my wife Nanci relocated to Heaven. She finished so well—she flourished and leaned into the finish line. Her family and friends all saw God’s work in her, and I had the front row seat to watch 2 Corinthians 4:17 be lived out in her life: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” And I’ll never be the same because of it.

I never saw a hint of resentment in Nanci. The question was never Why Me, Lord? She had no sense of entitlement. God was God. Yes, she had moments when she greatly struggled with anxiety and fear. But she knew her job wasn’t to question Jesus, but to honor Him and embrace His plans and purposes. She was determined not to waste her life, including her cancer.

On December 29, 2018, Nanci wrote in her journal, reflecting on the year since her diagnosis in early 2018:

Last year at this time, I was impressed in my heart that 2018 might be the best year of my life. I had few tangible reasons why I felt this way. The biggest reason, I thought, was because I had stepped down from a major responsibility in my life. I was freed up for new things. Randy and I had ministry trips planned. My abdominal pain was still there, but I had the feeling that it might be resolved in 2018. I had no plans other than the travel and perhaps finally getting the office organized. I was looking at a year of open opportunity—flexibility like never before! Yes, 2018 might be the best year of my life!

And it was.

God, in His wisdom and mercy, used cancer to change my life.

I know and feel His love for me more deeply.

I love God more deeply.

I trust God at a level I never knew before. Completely.

My patience has grown immensely.

My love and respect for Randy has grown.

My priorities, worries, and concerns have shifted (for the most part).

I have been humbled.

I am learning about God’s use of waiting.

I am no longer afraid to die.

I am less selfish.

I have learned that faith in God is believing and trusting His character—His attributes.

I believe God is in control, and that He only wants the best for me.

Though we certainly asked Jesus to heal her if it was His will, Nanci and I both knew that immediate short-term healing is never a certainty. But ultimate long-term healing is woven into the Gospel itself. It is the blood-bought promise of Jesus! Jesus said of us, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). For the resurrection and eternal life on the New Earth the risen Jesus promises: “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

Later, after the return of her cancer, Nanci wrote: “Victory in my battle against cancer is defined as: God’s sovereign, all-loving will to be accomplished. Victory might bring healing with it, but healing is not the end-goal. God’s unfailing plan for my life is the goal. And my life’s plan intersects so many other people’s paths. All interwoven. All with eternity in view. God’s plan is never short sighted. It is multi-faceted and eternal.”

Worse things can happen to us than dying of a terrible disease. We could live in health and wealth, but if we die without Christ and go to Hell—or if we know Christ but fail to draw close to Him—this is immeasurably worse than the disease that gets our attention and prompts us to look to Him.

C. S. Lewis called pain God’s “megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Rather than taking us out of the game, suffering can put us into it. If we grasp this, we can see our suffering as the training required to win not an Olympic medal, but an eternal reward. As the training gets more demanding, we must keep our eyes on the prize (see 1 Corinthians 9:24–27).

Everything that comes into each of our lives—yes, even evil and suffering—is Father-filtered. Whether suffering brings us to Christlikeness depends, to some degree, upon our willingness to submit to God and trust Him and draw our strength from Him. Suffering will come whether we allow it to make us Christlike or not—but if we don’t our suffering is wasted.

Nanci didn’t waste her suffering. I am, by God’s grace and empowerment, seeking to follow her example.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Does Having a Savings Account Mean I Don’t Trust God?

Someone sent me this question:

I was asked a question about saving money. Can you help me answer it?

“And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God”” (Luke 12:16-21, ESV).

This was the question: “This passage makes me view savings in a negative light. I don’t know where I land on it but how is this passage true, yet saving money not against it? Is saving money not trusting that God will provide in the future?”

Here are the thoughts I shared in response:

In His parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), Jesus warns against excessive savings, not against all savings. He also warns against loving money and placing our faith in money, and the presumption that our self-care and self-provision is worthy of our trust.

In the parable in Luke 12, the rich man foolishly failed to consider his mortality (God calls him not “you evil man,” but “you fool”). He didn’t understand that his earthly treasures would either be taken from him, or he would be taken from them. He’s guilty of presumption, and of not recognizing God’s complete power over his life, or his own powerlessness to preserve or extend his life.

Jesus says, “so is the one who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Clearly this parable calls for the followers of Jesus to obey Him by storing up treasures in Heaven, not on Earth.

But that doesn’t mean God forbids us to have anything of value on Earth. Indeed, in order for the rich man to own and tend a farm and herds, and have a roof over his head, or, in the case of Joseph and Jesus, to have wood and tools with which to do carpentry, keeping SOME treasures on Earth is necessary!

Scripture clearly calls us to give generously (see 1 Timothy 6:18-21), a call that few Christians seem to take to heart. Only in isolated cases does Jesus ask someone to give away everything. Yet, He didn't tell Lazarus, Martha and Mary to give away all they owned. And in fact, He stayed at their estate which had enough room to house, feed, and take care of His whole band of disciples.

When Zacchaeus told Jesus he was going to sell what he had and give half to the poor (see Luke 19), Jesus did not say you shouldn't give away half, you should give it all. He instead recognized that salvation had come to Zacchaeus’ heart and house, as demonstrated by his willingness to give away so much. We see no condemnation of Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and the women who had sufficient wealth to fund Jesus and the disciples.

I think it's fair to assume that they had savings from which they drew for their giving as well as their living. Indeed, anyone who owns more than they need, which most people do, has assets they can liquidate in times of financial downturn. This is the equivalent of savings. If someone didn't have a dime in the bank, but owned land, house, barn, plough, furniture, and farm animals, they could sell any of those assets to meet a need.

Certainly, however, the temptation for us as believers is not to keep too little, but to keep too much. The real danger is idolatry, where the heart puts money above God, trusts money more than God, and depends on money more than God. To make money into a god violates the essence of the first and second Commandments. This temptation affects both rich and poor.

Was Joseph wrong when he advised Pharaoh in Genesis 41, to stockpile grain for the coming famine? True, we normally don’t have inside information on specific lengths of coming hard times, but we do know that hard times come to families; health problems, job loss, and other unforeseen challenges abound in this world of uncertainty.

Proverbs 13:11 warns, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.” This refers to having the foresight to set aside some savings. Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” While hastiness normally relates to spending money, not saving it, and very rarely giving it, “the plans of the diligent” seem to include saving.

Having reasonable savings can be an attempt to avoid having too little, but as with the rich man in Luke 12, putting too much into savings will make it into our god. The nature of the body of Christ should be to care for those in legitimate need, not at all as a justification of people spending irresponsibly, and then, depending on fellow Christians to bail them out. This is where wisdom and discernment comes in, which is why Paul speaks of the “true widow” who is really in need and deserves the church’s support, as opposed to those who have other sources of income, such as relatives who should be helping them, or who have persistently lived irresponsibly, e.g.  “if a man will not work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).

My own belief, not only based upon Jesus’ call to some to give away everything, but His commendation of the poor widow, who gave away “all she had to live on,” is that God sees very differently people who have no savings because they have spent all they have, and those who have little to live on because they have given away so much. My understanding is that He will provide for the giver in ways that He may not provide for the spender.

Second Corinthians 8:2 says the Macedonian Christians, who were in severe affliction, out of an abundance of joy and their “extreme poverty overflowed in a rich generosity.” That’s an example of people who gave radically, even though it appeared they couldn’t afford to give at all. And God clearly approves.

I believe Scripture teaches that a reasonable amount of savings is appropriate, taking into account the ebb and flow of life where we are likely to have more financial needs later than we may have right now. However, our tendency is to act like the rich fool, where savings becomes the object of our trust and the source of our contentment and sense of safety. When saving becomes our god, then we become idolaters.

A final passage that comes to mind is 2 Corinthians 8:14-15: “At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written, ‘the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.’” This proves that it is not wrong in and of itself to have “plenty,” but our assumption should be that plenty is available to give to others who are in need.

God’s design is neither for us to have “too much” or “too little.” Generous giving solves both problems, the problem of us having too much, lest we trust in it instead of in God, and having too little, which God also considers a problem.

The prayer of Proverbs 30:8–9 has bearing on the commendable desire to avoid poverty, with its temptations, and the great danger of accumulating too much wealth, with its temptations: “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.”

At the heart of this question is the matter of our hearts. Rich or poor, God wants our undivided worship and attention. We should immediately jettison anything that diverts our attention away from the Giver.

See more resources on money and giving, as well as Randy's related books, including  Managing God's Money  and  Giving Is the Good Life .

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

Might Those with Disabilities on Earth One Day Be Our Teachers in Heaven?

Over the years, the most popular character in my novel Deadline has been a boy with Down syndrome named Little Finn. He also appears in my novel Dominion. In Deadline, I also portray another child with Down syndrome teaching people in Heaven, with a startling depth of insight. (And certainly, those with disabilities can teach us many things in this present life, too.) Here’s that scene from the novel, when the character Finney encounters this remarkable young teacher:

The angel Zyor led Finney into a great hall that opened into an expansive meadow. It was disorienting, because the hall, gigantic as it had appeared on the outside, was only a fraction the size of the meadow within. And before he had entered, behind the hall he’d seen a landscape much different than what he saw now. Like many of Heaven’s doors, it seemed to lead to a world of its own, a world within a world.

Thousands were gathering here, looking toward someone who was speaking. Whenever he paused in his speech, as if for a translation, little discussions broke out everywhere. Those of Michael’s race answered the questions of Heaven’s students, Finney among them. Finney noticed many in the crowd were Heaven’s young chil­dren, like himself. Once explanations were made, attention went back to the one up front like iron filings drawn to a magnet, and he resumed speaking as if there had been no interruption.

There was no rudeness to these midcourse discussions. On the contrary, it was the intense interest in every word of the speaker that prompted them. Finney remembered the two distinctly different kinds of whispers in school classes. One kind was born of boredom and disinterest, where students sought escape from what the instructor was saying. But the other was born of profound interest, which compelled a student to comment to his fellow students or to ask clarifying questions.

Here no one asked the dutiful question, “Will this be on the quiz?” Everyone listened because he wanted to learn. What flowed from the speaker was fresh water to a thirsty mind. Finney was again exhilarated by his vastly improved ability to retain, yet challenged that every new thing in this lecture seemed eminently significant and worthy of retaining.

Finney was engrossed in the speaker’s words, which seemed a direct extension of his life. This one had the wisdom of a thousand mentors. Finney was inexplicably drawn to him and kept asking himself who he was. His face seemed almost a hybrid of child’s face and angel’s face. Why was this face so familiar? Finney gasped.

He knew this face! It was the face of Little Finn, his son! But Finn was still back on earth. And yet...

Of course, Finney thought. It was his face, the pure delighted face of what was called on earth the child with Down syndrome. This professor around whom gathered the students of Heaven, some of them once professors on earth, was a child with Down's, rather a man with the enduring qualities of a child. How had he obtained such wis­dom and eloquence? Was it from his long residence here in Elyon’s world? From an intimate acquaintance with Elyon that preceded his entrance to this world? Finney theorized he might even be part of a unique order of being, a special strain of Adam’s race. Not a genetic accident, inferior to the norm, but one challenged in some conventional senses yet in profound and invisible ways superior to the norm.

He listened as the man, this eternally young man, spoke. Even the texture of his voice reminded him of Little Finn, and Finney marveled at his words:

“When our Lord Christ walked in the dark world, we are told ‘People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’

“Again, Christ said, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.’

“On another occasion, we are told, ‘He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest.’

“To those who wanted to silence the praise of children, Jesus responded, ‘Have you never read, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise”?’ Again, Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.’”

The young man surveyed the audience and seemed to achieve the impossible by establishing eye contact with all the thousands at once.

“I who stand before you today, and all those of my kind, are testimonies to the truth written in still another place: ‘But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.’”

Finney found himself wondering if Little Finn would someday occupy this role of teacher in the new world, and if he would have the privilege of sitting at his son’s feet. The thought caused his spine to tingle, and even as he wondered it, he knew the answer would be yes. Finney listened in rapt attention as the young man moved on to develop the favorite theme of Heaven:

“Elyon’s Son is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. As he was at the beginning, so he is now, and at what men call the end, so he will yet be. He sees that coming end as one more beginning, the beginning of a new world. It will be built on the foundation of his character, defined by the cornerstone of his grace. It has been conceived by the master Architect, drawn out with the meticulous pen of the great Engineer, and will be constructed with the skilled hands of the Builder. The hands, pure and strong, the hands scarred for eternity, the hands of the Carpenter.”

The child’s voice became more powerful with every sentence, his angelic face racked with synchronous joy and pain, the latter at the reference to the scarred hands.

“The Carpenter of Nazareth, building the house of faith, joining with the mortar of heaven apostles and prophets, fishermen and seamstresses, farmers and shepherds, bricklayers and teachers, businessmen, homemakers, and nurses.”

Finney felt he was beholding the beauty of a great river, watching the current and its white caps highlighting rocks and fallen trees buried beneath. But now there was a change, for he had fallen in the river, was caught up in the current, surrounded by the rushing sounds of moving water, dragging him pell-mell down the rapids. Thrown into the currents of a divine and awful momentum, he felt one part of what he once knew as consuming fear—the exhilaration of being lost in something far greater than himself, the feeling at the top of the roller coaster, about to fall into the abyss. Yet he did not feel the other part of consuming fear, the loathing of the horrors of destruction. Only after adjusting to the flow of the current, Finney could again evaluate what he was not simply watching, but was now a full-fledged participant in.

This child had been “handicapped” in the other world. Handicapped and unable to deal with life in conventional ways. He could never make much money, never hope to be Time magazine’s Man of the Year. The majority, on knowing what he was, would elect to take his life before he was born, or let him die of neglect afterwards. But here in Elyon’s realm his value was so obvious it showed such thoughts to be unspeakably evil, unthinkable to the sane mind.

On earth he would not qualify for a seat on the orchestra. But here and now, he was the conductor, surrounded by rapt and attentive musicians, ready to do his bidding. Finney could see the coat and tails, the flying hands and baton. He felt the line between audience and orchestra blur until there was no audience now, only orchestra, conductor, music. Melodies and harmonies. And yet, there was an audi­ence. An audience so great and all-encompassing that Finney had been no more aware of it a moment before than a fish is aware of water. But the conductor was intensely aware of the audience and bent upon finding approval in its eyes.

Feverishly, Finney played his instrument. What it was he could not say, though it seemed as much like him as his ear-to-ear smile. He could hear it now, its sounds blending into the whole. One member would solo, and then another, and then the power of the whole dominated again. The attention of the orchestra was always on the piece, at once carefully composed and directed with discipline, yet wonderfully free and spontaneous. He sensed this piece of music had been played countless thousands or millions of times, yet never like this, and therefore never before. Finney soloed now, the orchestra creating a splendid and dazzling back­ground to the focused and inspired rendition of his singular part.

There was an audience. It was the Audience of One. And the sense of his approval swept through the orchestra and its delighted childlike conductor in a profound sense of joy and completion. The orchestra played on. The Master was pleased. And for the moment, and for ever, that was all that mattered.

Photo credit

God’s Gift of Gracie

Two years ago, the arrival of our Double Doodle puppy, Gracie, brought new energy and joy into our home, during a very difficult season of our lives. Together, Nanci and I thanked God for His goodness and how He reveals Himself in His creation. Every time Gracie made us laugh, which was many times a day, together we saw the delightfulness of her Creator and ours.

Here’s Gracie coming home for the first time. You will notice Nanci’s personalized welcome!

Gracie’s first weekend with us:

Gracie loving (to death) her stuffed unicorn given to her by Sue Keels!

Honestly, for me one of the great blessings since Nanci went to be with Jesus has been Gracie. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” Animals are the second most important part of God’s creation, after people. We should see God’s nature in His creation. Gracie is of course not God; she is secondary, part of His creation, but she points me to the primary, who is God alone.

When I come home, I don’t enter an empty house. I come home to Gracie, who actually fills a house more than I think any human being could. She is everywhere—bouncing off the couches and sometimes even the walls in her excitement and enthusiasm about whatever is to come next.

Here’s Gracie at the beach last year:

Her utter fascination and delight with the world reminds me to enjoy, with childlike wonder, God’s creation which reveals His beauty, creativity, and power. At times I need to trim around her eyes so she can see God’s glory even more!

Whether she’s being fed or we’re taking a walk or playing together, Gracie always has ideas about how we should occupy our time. When she wants to play, I play. She guides me into joy. And finally, she lies down next to me, and relaxes and every once in a while, licks my hand to remind me of how much she loves me. This is therapy. It is beautiful; it is from the hand of God. Gracie leads me to Jesus—and reminds me of God’s happiness, His creativity, and His love for me.

Investments That Will Last Forever: A Message about The Treasure Principle

Early in February, I visited First Baptist Church in Leesburg, Florida, where I spoke on the subject of my book The Treasure Principle. As I mentioned when I shared the Q&A I also did there, I absolutely loved being there at this church. I spent a lot of time with Pastor Cliff and his wife Suzy—such wonderful people, as are so many others I met.

Years ago, I often spoke about giving and making eternal investments, but it’s been a while since I shared a message on this subject. I do remember speaking at Saddleback Church the year The Treasure Principle came out, in 2001, which was 22 years ago. I looked a little different then!

But the message is as true now as it was then: Anything we try to hang on to here will be lost. But anything we put into God’s hands will be ours for eternity.

In Matthew 6, Jesus says there is only one safe place to invest, and that is in the Kingdom of God. He says, in essence, “You can't take it with you,” but he adds a life-changing corollary: “but you can send it on ahead.”

The currency of this world—its money, possessions, values, fashions, and whims—will be worthless at our death or at Christ's return, both of which are imminent. This “insider’s tip” should radically affect our investment strategy. To accumulate vast earthly treasures in the face of this knowledge is equivalent to stockpiling Confederate money in a Union economy.

Financial planners have a hard time convincing people to look down the road instead of just focusing on today, this week, or this year. “Don't think one year,” they'll tell you, “think thirty years from now.” Then they'll share ways to prepare for thirty years from now by budgeting, saving so much a month, contributing to an IRA, investing in this mutual fund or that real estate partnership.

But it's only slightly less short-sighted to think thirty years down the road than to think thirty days. The wise man does indeed think thirty years ahead, but far more—he thinks an eternity ahead. He thinks not just to his retirement years, not merely to the end of his earthly life, but far beyond. He plans for the day that he will stand before the Lord, and he prepares for the eternity that will follow.

The unbeliever’s vision is restricted to the horizons of this world. But we have the big picture. We know this life is the preface to the book, the tune-up to the concert. If we are wise investors, we will spend our lives buying up shares in the world to come.

Hope you enjoy this message:

Photo by Bjorn Pierre on Unsplash

We Are Thirsty for News of Heaven

In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (Psalm 16:11, ESV).

In writing my book Heaven, I collected and read 150 books on the subject, and I’ve read many more since—nearly every book about Heaven I have ever been able to locate. I underlined particularly significant portions of many of these, but only a small amount of the most interesting material made it into that or my other books on the subject, including In Light of Eternity, 50 Days of Heaven, TouchPoints: Heaven, Heaven for Kids, and We Shall See God. I’ve often regretted that great words of insight into Heaven and the New Earth have been left to sit unseen in my computer!

Over the years I’ve received thousands of letters and had hun­dreds of conversations with people about the Heaven books. I find many people thirsty for more insight.

Whether our hearts are heavy or light, whether recent days have brought us joy or sorrow or both, there is something soul stirring about contemplating what God has promised us and what Christ shed His blood and rose to guarantee us—eternal life with Him and His people in a land of never-ending wonder.

As W. H. Griffith Thomas wrote, “The consideration of heaven is no mere spiritual luxury, no mere intellectual dissipation, no imaginative revelry, but is really and definitely practical and suitable . . . and has a real bearing on our daily life.”

Scripture provides us with a substantial amount of information, direct and indirect, about the world to come, with enough detail to help us envision it, but not so much as to make us think we can completely wrap our minds around it. I believe that God expects us to use our imagination, even as we recognize its limitations and flaws. If God didn’t want us to imagine what Heaven will be like, he wouldn’t have told us as much about it as He has (or, conversely, He would have told us everything there was to know).

Rather than ignore our imaginations, I believe we should fuel them with Scripture, allowing them to step through the doors that Scripture opens.

Sometimes when we look at this world’s breathtaking beauty—standing in a gorgeous place where the trees and flowers and rivers and mountains are wondrous—we feel a twinge of disappointment. Why? Because we know we’re going to leave this behind. In consolation or self-rebuke, we might say, “This world is not my home.” If we were honest, however, we might add, “But part of me sure wishes it were.”

People sometimes tell me that they dread the thought of endless days after death. But when I press them, what they truly dread is endless monotony and boredom and repetition of the same dull things over and over. Their human heart longs for freshness and newness and adventure, yet also longs for the familiar, the sense of being home. Heaven will fulfill not one longing, but both.

I pray your heart will testify more and more that you are a citizen of another world, of a better country, with a glorious King. And I pray you will joyfully cling to His promises that He will return to restore and remake a ruined Earth. He will bring His throne and Heaven itself down to it to set up His eternal Kingdom, where He will reign as King of kings. In that world, joy will be the air we breathe.

May the following quotes help you inhale some of that joy here and now as you anticipate the world to come!

“Christian, meditate much on heaven, it will help thee to press on, and to forget the toil of the way. This vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country: this world of woe is but the stepping-stone to a world of bliss. And, after death, what cometh? What wonder-world will open upon our astonished sight?”

Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

 

A man on his deathbed turned to his physician and mumbled, “What is Heaven like, Doctor?” How could the physician describe Heaven in such brief moments? As his mind searched for an answer for his friend, the doctor heard his dog scratching at the door. “Can you hear my dog scratching at your door?” inquired the physician. The sick man assured him that he could. “Well,” the doctor said, “Heaven must be like that. My dog does not know what is in this room. He only knows he wants to be with me. So it is with Heaven! Our Master is there. That is all we need to know!”

James Jeremiah, The Place Called Heaven

 

When you speak of Heaven . . . let your face light up, let it be irradiated with a heavenly gleam, let your eyes shine with reflected glory. But when you speak of Hell—well, then your ordinary face will do.

Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations

 

Like Adam, we have all lost Paradise; and yet we carry Paradise around inside of us in the form of a longing for, almost a memory of, a blessedness that is no more, or the dream of blessedness that may someday be again.

Frederick Buechner, The Magnificent Defeat

 

God does not create a longing or a hope without having a fulfilling reality ready for them. But our longing is our pledge, and blessed are the homesick, for they shall come home.

Isak Dinesen, Babette’s Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny

 

If we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.

C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Photo by Sebastian Knoll on Unsplash

Jesus Revolution: A Movie Worth Seeing and Sharing

A few years ago, my friend Greg Laurie (senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship), along with Ellen Vaughn, wrote a book called Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today. Rarely have I read a book so entertaining, informative, and spiritually significant. I relived many formative historical events of the 60s and 70s—Jesus transformed my life when I was an unchurched fifteen year old about to start my sophomore year of high school.

Now the book has become the basis for a new movie by the same title. Many people have told me they have seen Jesus Revolution and were very moved by it. Greg shared a preview of the movie with me a while back, and I really appreciated it. I believe there are people whose eyes will be opened to Jesus through Jesus Revolution. (Find out where and when it’s playing on their website.)

Through reading the book and watching the movie, I learned new things about the Jesus Movement, which I believe was a powerful—though of course imperfect—movement of the Holy Spirit. In fact, many of us older people you know likely came to Jesus either in the center of or on the fringes of that Jesus Revolution. It makes me long for and pray for a New Jesus Revolution that would sweep over many people in our culture and in the world, people both young and old.

Here’s the movie trailer:

Over the years Greg Laurie has become a dear friend. He first contacted me after his son Christopher tragically died in 2008. Since then, he has invited me to speak several times at the churches in Riverside and Orange. Once when we were both speaking in Maui, we met up and had a glorious time together with his Cathe and my Nanci.

Greg has a great passion for evangelism and is also a student of the Scriptures whose ministry is Christ-centered. Since Christopher’s death, their suffering as a family has been great, and Nanci and I have seen in them a depth and dependence on Christ. Harvest felt like a second home for us, and we were glad any time we were able to visit.

Greg and I were recently texting about the movie’s effect on people. One of those people is actor Kelsey Grammer, who plays Pastor Chuck Smith. This interview with him is touching:

Also see this article in which Kelsey talks about his faith in Jesus. And on his blog, Greg talks about what was fact and what events of the film were condensed, altered, or rearranged for sake of storytelling.

One of the things that I most loved about the movie is not simply the transformation that happened in Greg Laurie, and the many young people who came to faith in Christ. It was also the transformation of Pastor Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer. That transformation was not from unbelief to belief, but from lack of love for those in the youth culture to heartfelt love for them. Chuck went from being a man full of truth to a man full of grace and truth. Jesus is full of both, and when we are, that will make all the difference in our churches. Not grace only and not truth only, but full of grace and truth. If young seekers can see in older Christians that the answers are not in how we talk and how we dress and in our politics, but in Jesus, it will make a radical difference in the church, and demonstrate our oneness and love in Jesus.

Some have and will criticize the movie because it does not tell the whole story about Lonnie Frisbee later backsliding and falling away from the faith and pursuing a life of drugs and immorality. However, Greg Laurie has said clearly that the movie showed Frisbee in a year and a half period where that was who he really was. Later his marriage dissolved, and the precursors to that were clear in the movie, and his spiritual life fell apart. Near the end of his life, he did repent and expressed that repentance to Greg and others. But even if he had not repented, the story would be true without having to revise it because things went bad for Lonnie later. See what Greg wrote in “The Long Strange Trip of Lonnie Frisbee.”

I loved the movie, and pray God would do such radical works of grace in our midst. Our culture is characterized by increasing depression and anxiety, particularly among the young. People today seem to be particularly thirsty for happiness. In the midst of such hopelessness, God offers the truly good news of His transforming grace, mercy, love, and eternal happiness: “Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge” (Revelation 22:17, NET).

The world Jesus entered desperately needed a Redeemer from sin and unhappiness. That is true today too. He came to Earth to deliver us from eternal sin and misery, and everyone we meet has exactly the same need—to know and follow Jesus Christ. May we daily ask the Lord to give us opportunities to share His “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Let’s prayerfully share that Good News, and trust God to be at work in powerful ways in our world now.