Randy Alcorn's Blog, page 76

See God’s Sovereignty in the Interruptions to Your Day

Note from Randy Alcorn: Scripture tells us that God is intimately involved in His children’s days: “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). “The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way” (Psalm 37:23). “Many plans are in a man's heart, But the counsel of the LORD will stand” (Proverbs 19:21).

It’s not always easy to see the interruptions in our days as God’s sovereign plan for us, but if we don’t view them that way, we’ll end up frustrated and annoyed instead of useful and grateful. We’ll resent people for interrupting us, rather than looking for divine appointments. Yet we neither created “our” time nor earned it. We cannot keep it, store it up, or take it with us when we exit Earth. The time God gives us on Earth is a gift to be used in service to Him and to others. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wisely wrote, “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans by sending us people with claims and petitions. We may pass them by preoccupied with our more important tasks, as the priest passed by the man who had fallen among thieves, perhaps—reading the Bible.”

In the following article, Scott Hubbard, editor for Desiring God, writes, “We want to move through our tasks without interruption; God wants us to trust him in every interruption.” May Scott’s words help you trust that the unexpected interruption, encounter, or conversation, sometimes appearing to be very inconvenient, is exactly where our sovereign God has called you.

Plan to Be Interrupted: Slow Love in a Busy World

By Scott Hubbard

At one time, I thought the best test for our faith in the sovereignty of God was our fidelity to the five points of Calvinism. But lately I’ve wondered if a different test might be more appropriate: how we respond to the interruptions, inefficiencies, and unforeseen delays strewn throughout our days.

Many of us cheer at the high sovereignty celebrated by Charles Spurgeon:

I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes — that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens — that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. (“God’s Providence”)

Yet where do our cheers go (or my cheers, at any rate) when God, in his providence, arranges the particles in his universe against our plans for the day? When our computer mutinies, or our toddler summons the attention of the entire grocery store, or our coworker knocks in the midst of our brilliant productivity? Too often, my internal response amounts to the following: “The dust motes may be subject to God’s rule, but this must have slipped past his sovereignty.”

But the God who is sovereign over our salvation is sovereign also over our schedules, including all the interruptions.

Faith, Not Efficiency

We cannot say that God has left us unprepared for such interruptions. Scripture’s story of redemption does not give the impression that efficiency is one of God’s chief values. If it were, the Bible’s plotline would be much straighter (and much less interesting). Over and again, God hands his people some important piece of work to do — work we might imagine is simply too important to be delayed — and then he bids his people to trust him through interruption.

He tells Nehemiah to build the wall around Jerusalem, and then he allows a host of enemies to halt the work for a time (Nehemiah 4:7–14). He calls Jeremiah to prophesy in Judah, and then ordains that he should be tossed into a cistern (Jeremiah 38:1–6). He commissions Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, and then lands him in a prison cell (Philippians 1:12–13). Time would fail to tell of Joseph’s wait in Egypt, of David’s flights from Saul, and of the multitudes who intercepted Jesus as he was heading somewhere else.

What do we make of such sovereign delays? Apparently, as Jon Bloom writes, “God is not nearly as interested in our efficiency as he is in our faith.” Regularly, even if subconsciously, we walk into our days with efficiency as our agenda: fold the laundry and write the paper and cook the meal and prepare the Bible study and get to bed with no task unchecked. Yet often, God’s agenda for us is not efficiency, but faith — for “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6).

We want to move through our tasks without interruption; he wants us to trust him in every interruption. And so, he will regularly, even daily, disrupt our plans.

Counterfeit Interruptions

So faith, not efficiency, is God’s main agenda for us each day. As we consider how we might prepare for the daily interruptions he sends our way, we would do well to keep one clarification in mind: we should not receive every interruption as a holy interruption — as a God-sent, sanctifying inefficiency. Not every interruption is created equal.

For many of us today, interruption is the air we breathe. We can scarcely go fifteen minutes without our phone buzzing, our email binging, our calendar reminding, our news app updating, our social media flagging. We have grown accustomed to a mind fragmented by technology. Indeed, many of us have grown more than accustomed — we enjoy the quarter-hour (or more) dopamine hit that our smartphones provide. If separated from our screens for an afternoon, we might fidget like someone in withdrawal.

Interruptions such as these rarely sanctify. In fact, they regularly do the opposite. Instead of propelling us into the lives of the neighbors around us at that moment (Matthew 22:39), they lure us to give our best attention elsewhere. Instead of slowing us down to listen (James 1:19), they train us in the sorry arts of swiping, skimming, and “multitasking.” Instead of inviting us to cast our burdens on God (1 Peter 5:6–7), they regularly feed low-level anxiety. Yet too often, I resent the interruption from my neighbor next door, yet relish the one from my news feed.

By all means, bolt the door against such interruptions. Turn off notifications for stretches of the day. Decide how often you’ll check your email. When you go to sleep (or better, well before you do), put your phone to sleep as well. Whatever it takes, cultivate the kind of calm and focused mind that is ready to receive real interruptions.

Enough Margin for Love

Beyond ridding ourselves of counterfeit interruptions, we might consider another practical step toward welcoming the interruptions God sends: leave enough margin in your schedule for love. Margin is the blank space on our calendars and our to-do lists — the empty, unplanned parts of the day that are available for the unexpected.

Perhaps interruptions frustrate some of us because we simply have no margin. I sometimes pack one appointment or task on top of another, leaving me to run between responsibilities with little room to breathe in between — and no room for interruptions. Such planning (at least for most of us, most of the time) reflects an almost laughable amount of hubris, as if I expect the minutes to march on according to my good pleasure.

Consider how Jesus lived. For as full as his schedule was, he was never so booked that he could not linger for a few minutes on the way. Have you ever noticed just how often he is interrupted? How regularly a disciple or stranger interjects (Luke 12:13)? How commonly someone on the roadside cries for help (Mark 10:46–48)? How frequently even his meals were invaded by the needs of a neighbor (Luke 7:36–38)? And have you ever noticed how Jesus was never flustered or rushed?

When the Son of God walked among us, he was perfect in patience. And not only because he was the Son of God, but also because he had the healthy, sane realism to expect interruptions and to leave enough room in his life to love his neighbor. How many times have we become irritated at interruptions because, unlike Jesus, we had no space in our schedule for them? In that case, repentance means more than pleading with God for patience; it also means planning more space in our schedules.

Those who trust deeply in the sovereignty of God learn to leave enough margin in their days for sovereign interruptions. Because faith not only relies on God when the interruptions come; it also plans for interruptions before they come. It leaves pockets of the day and week blank, and over the rest it writes, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).

Far Better Plans

Even still, a focused mind and a schedule with margin will not prepare us for every interruption. Many interruptions will come our way that feel inconvenient and unwelcome. And in such moments, we do well to step back, catch our breath, pray, and remember all the good that God sends through interruptions.

Think big for a moment. Where would we be if God hadn’t interrupted Abraham in Haran, Moses in Midian, David among the sheepfolds, Mary in her betrothed innocence, Peter in his fishing boat, Paul on the road to Damascus? And where would you be if he hadn’t interrupted your life — if Jesus hadn’t invaded your comfortable rebellion and beckoned you to repent and believe?

Once God turns our lives upside down, he doesn’t stop using interruptions (large or small) for our good. Through them, he chastens our pride, slows our pace, opens our eyes, bends us toward dependence, and teaches us to trust. He reminds us that he is not after our maximum efficiency, but instead our maximum conformity to Christ, who was never too busy, too preoccupied, or too impatient to be interrupted.

If we know all that God does through interruptions, we may do more than avoid them: after we’ve planned the best we can, we may even pray that he would be pleased to interrupt us with his better, perfect plans.

This article originally appeared on Desiring God and is used with permission of the author.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

What Does It Look Like to Be a Cross Bearer?

A friend asked me, "What would be some of the characteristics of the life of a person who is bearing their cross? (Matthew 16) What does this cross-bearer look like?"

It got me thinking. If you follow me on Facebook, I’d love to hear some of your thoughts in the comments. Here are some of mine:

Single-minded devotion to the Lord, focus on the calling to follow Him above all else.

Jesus first, others second, self last.

Lack of self-indulgence and self-pity; he does what he does gladly, following his Master by choice, not just as demanded by circumstance.

Because the church is to be a community of cross-bearers, there is interdependence, casting your burdens not only on the Lord, but on each other, supporting each other, helping each other carry the load which at times will be too heavy.

The cross-carrier is a servant. He doesn’t look for others to serve him or baby him; he goes out of his way to serve them.

When he sees the poor and the needy, he releases his grip on money and things, realizing they belong to his Master, and the way of the cross is cheerful giving of money and time and skills.

A parallel passage to Matthew 16 is Luke 9:23, which reads:

Then Jesus said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The “take up his cross daily” brings a new and very significant dimension.

It means carrying your cross is not just one big sacrifice that you make, then you’re done with, like giving one of your kidneys, or selling your house and giving to the poor, or that time you ran out in traffic and pulled the kid back from the bus.

This is something you do every day. So it’s a thousand or ten thousand daily sacrifices, a lifetime of little loving acts, which cumulatively become huge. It’s a man who loves his paralyzed wife for forty years by saying no to his sexual desires every day, and dumps her bag of urine three times a day, to the glory of Jesus.

It’s a mother who cares for a son who never gets out of bed, day after day, and does it without complaining. Not just the person who dies in the coliseum in one triumphant hour, torn apart by lions because he refused to deny Christ.

It’s saying no to sleep to get up and pray and read the Word day after day, saying no to living in a mansion and owning a nicer car even though that might be fun but not as fun as giving to keep a child alive, of living more simply so that you have more to give, day after day. It’s doing the humble job that nobody applauds, but needs to be done, and which is seen sometimes by no one but the Audience of One.

Really, carrying your cross daily is being humble, a servant, and God-centered and others-centered, not self-centered. Yet, ironically, to be a servant is ultimately in your eternal self-interests.

In my novel Safely Home Li Quan dies daily. This brilliant scholar, Harvard summa cum laude, serves as a locksmith’s assistant because in China an outspoken Christian can’t be a university professor and great writer, which was his dream. To Ben Fielding, Li Quan’s rich American businessman friend, he quotes Martin Luther King, who said, “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lives a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

In my book Heaven I tell of an old black bell man who died daily, but with good cheer. So what does it look like? Here, I’ll finish by sharing what I wrote:

“Should we be excited that God will reward us by making us rulers in his kingdom? Absolutely. Jesus said, “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12).

God will choose who reigns as kings, and I’m confident some great surprises are in store for us. Christ gives us clues in Scripture as to the type of person he will choose: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.…Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.…Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3, 5, 10). Also, “‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:5-6).

Look around you to see the meek and the humble. They may include street sweepers, locksmith’s assistants, bus drivers, and stay-at-home moms who spend their days changing diapers, doing laundry, packing lunches, drying tears, and driving carpools.

I once gave one of my books to a delightful hotel bellman in Atlanta. This man spends his days carrying people’s luggage and serving them in countless ways. I discovered he was a committed Christian. He said he’d been praying for our writers group, which was holding a conference at the hotel.

The next day I gave him a little gift. He seemed stunned, overwhelmed. With tears in his eyes he said, “You didn’t need to do that. I’m only a bellman.” The moment he said those words, it struck me that this brother had spent his life serving other people. It will likely be someone like him that I’ll have the privilege of serving under in God’s kingdom. He was “only a bellman” who spoke with warmth and love, who served, who quietly prayed in the background for the success of a Christian writers’ conference in his hotel, his appointed place of service. I saw Jesus in that bellman, and there was no “only” about him.

Who will be the kings of the New Earth? I think that bellman will be one of them. And I will consider it an honor to carry his bags.

Photo by Ivan Garcia on Unsplash

Isn’t It Cruel to Force a Woman to Keep a Child She Can’t Afford to Raise, or to Give up a Baby for Adoption?

Despite their emphasis on choice, the pro-choice movement leaves many women feeling that they have no choice but abortion. Abortion is constantly portrayed as the preferred choice. After all, a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy wonders, what’s the alternative? Raise a child she seemingly can’t afford, and who will disrupt her life choices like going to school and pursuing a career? Or experience the heartbreak of giving up a child for adoption?

But “abortion or misery” is a binary trap that keeps women from pursuing—and society from providing—positive alternatives. It’s a terrible thing to present pregnant women with inadequate choices, leaving them in an apparent no-win situation. We must reject this trap of presenting the choice between abortion and misery, as if there were no misery in abortion, and as if there were no alternatives.

Why does Planned Parenthood, with its over one billion dollars from tax reve­nues and foundations, not devote itself to a third alternative, such as adoption? Since it makes millions of dollars from abortions every year, giving it huge vested interests in abortion, how can Planned Parenthood be expected to offer real and objective choices to pregnant women in need?

Do they share the stories of women who kept their children, and are grateful they did? How about the stories of women who chose adoption, and though it was difficult, have been left with a sense of peace, knowing they have given someone the gift of life? Or how about the wonderful stories of women who have been reunited with their birth children years later?

Does Motherhood Mean Poverty and No Opportunities?

Many women attest that being a mother doesn’t ruin their lives, as is sometimes claimed, but expands and enriches them in beautiful ways, even when it’s challenging emotionally, physically, and financially. Unfortunately, that possibility is likely the farthest thing from the mind of a woman who finds herself pregnant and wishes she weren’t.

Maria Baer, a volunteer counselor at her local pregnancy resource center, writes:

Women facing an unplanned pregnancy often have reasonable, here-and-now fears. They may fear the loss of financial stability—or the loss of the ability to ever reach it. They may fear the loss of an already teetering status quo in which every available ounce of food is already consumed at home—perhaps by other children they’re already parenting. Pregnant women may lose a job, or they may not get the job they were hoping for. They may fear a violent boyfriend or father.

They may even fear pregnancy itself, which is often full of terrifying sickness, physical pain, loss of emotional control, and embarrassing bodily problems. …That means one of our first steps in ministering to a woman facing a crisis pregnancy is to acknowledge her fear. Don’t judge it, don’t shrug it off, but take her seriously. It is scary. Don’t offhandedly offer adoption as a quick solution. Don’t immediately start in on the logical fallacies of pro-abortion apologetics. Let her be afraid, and tell her she’s not alone. (Better yet: Mean it.)

Once we acknowledge her fear—and, if she’ll allow it, pray for her—we can start to talk through potential solutions to her various worries.

These fears are all understandable. But because the life of another human being is involved, financial distress does not justify abortion. It does mean that women who choose to keep and raise their children instead of choosing adoption need support and help. There are pro-life organizations in the U.S., including pregnancy resource centers (which outnumber abortion clinics), Young Lives (a branch of Young Life), Students for Life, and Feminists for Life, that offer support for pregnant and parenting students. LifeNews reports, “College pro-life groups also have been working to make campuses more friendly, welcoming environments for student-parents by advocating for diaper changing tables in restrooms, offering free babysitting, and encouraging the school to adopt policies to accommodate pregnant/parenting students.”

Feminists for Life addresses the situation of a pregnant woman who is poor and lacks support:

A woman who is pregnant needs to know that there are perfect strangers who will care for her even if the people she counts on the most have let her down. She needs information about child support laws that prohibit coercion by the father either by physical force or by threats to withhold child support.

…We do not eliminate poverty by eliminating poor women’s children. It is degrading to poor women to expect or imply that their children aren’t welcome. We believe that poor women deserve the same support and life-affirming alternatives as wealthy women.

…Abortion is not an enriching experience. An abortion won’t get a woman a better job or get her out of a bad (for example, abusive) situation.

Completing school and working are desirable things in many cases, and perhaps even necessary financially. Pregnancy can make them difficult. But a woman normally can continue school and work during pregnancy. If she places her child for adoption, she need not give up school or work. If she chooses to raise the child herself, there are childcare options available if she must work outside the home. Help is available in many forms.

I am not suggesting this is ideal, nor do I say it callously. I have worked with and helped single mothers and know their difficulties. I am simply pointing out there are alternatives, any one of which is preferable to an innocent child’s death and the undesirable consequences to her mother. Regardless of the challenges, one person’s right to a preferred lifestyle is not greater than another person’s right to a life.

Furthermore, when the only choice presented is abortion, a woman is frequently kept in a negative cycle which can result in multiple abortions. Having and raising a child or choosing adoption can be an enriching and growing experience in taking responsibility, thereby possibly resulting in better choices in the future.

Is Adoption: a “Regrettable Punishment”?

I am amazed at the negative light in which adoption is often portrayed in abortion rights literature. Pro-choice advocates Carole Anderson and Lee Campbell say of adoption, “The unnecessary separation of mothers and children is a cruel, but regrettably usual, punishment that can last a lifetime.”

Adoption is hardly a punishment to a woman carrying a child. It is a heaven-sent alternative to raising a child she is unprepared to raise, or to killing that same child. Adoption is a fine alternative that saves a life and makes another family happy; it’s tragic that adoption is so infrequently chosen as an alternative to abortion. (There are two million families waiting to adopt, and newborns are especially desired by adoptive families.)

Maria Baer writes,

Women may fear…adoption. Though morally clear, the thought is often experientially vague: It seems, or feels, much less repugnant to have a hidden medical procedure in the first weeks of pregnancy than to consciously hand over a smiling, babbling baby to a woman whose body never knew him or her. It’s cognitive dissonance, sure, but it’s a real—and understandable—fear.

One way of addressing a woman’s fear is to demonstrate the beauty and courage of allowing another family to adopt. Because a woman has not yet bonded with her child, the abortion might seem like an easy solution, while parting with her child after birth might be emotionally difficult. But the child’s life is just as real before bonding as after.

I’ve talked with several women considering abortions who had identical reactions to the suggestion of adoption: “What kind of mother would I be to give up a child for adoption?” The better question, which we need to gently help her ask, is, “What kind of mother would I be to kill my baby by abortion?”

The reason the former question is asked more often than the latter is our capacity to deny reality. Pregnant women who think “I don’t want to be a mother” tell themselves, under the influence of pro-choice rhetoric, that they still have a choice about becoming a mother. There are certainly choices open to them, including whether or not to raise their child themselves or place their child for adoption. Both choices require sacrificial love, for sure. But the fact is, they have no choice about whether or not they are mothers.  That ship sailed the moment they became pregnant—the moment the baby was conceived.

Many years ago we took a pregnant teenage girl into our home. Though she’d had two abortions, she chose to carry this baby and, with our help and support, placed him for adoption. It was not easy, but this wonderful woman (one husband and three more children later) told me: “I look back at the three babies I no longer have, but with very different feelings. The two I aborted fill me with grief and regret. But when I think of the one I gave up for adoption, I’m filled with joy, because I know he’s being raised by a wonderful family that wanted him.” Several years ago she was able to meet her grown biological son, in a gathering arranged by his adopted mother. My wife, Nanci, and I were invited to attend this reunion. It was one of the most unforgettable and truly wonderful experiences of our lives. We witnessed the beautiful result of a painful but courageous decision made 33 years earlier. Everyone present at this reunion, without exception, had great reason to celebrate!

A woman facing an unplanned pregnancy has no easy options. She has three choices—have her child and raise him, have her child and allow another family to raise him, or kill her child through abortion. Two of these options are reasonable and constructive. One is not. I believe it’s a moral imperative that we clearly tell pregnant women, “You can choose life and goodness and a future for your child without raising him or her yourself.”

Tragically, too often “pro-choice” ends up meaning “no choice but abortion.” Let’s do all we can to show women the real choices besides abortion—which are far superior, with outcomes involving life, not death.

This article is excerpted from Randy’s book Pro-Choice or Pro-Life: Examining 15 Pro-Choice Claims—What Do Facts & Common Sense Tell Us? 

In this thoroughly researched and easy-to-read book, author Randy Alcorn examines fifteen major claims of the pro-choice position and shares fact-based, rational responses. If you have mixed feelings about abortion, as many people do, this book can be part of your quest for truth. If you’re pro-choice or pro-life, it can help you think through your position.

You can download the PDF for free, and print copies can be purchased from our ministry for just $1.00, plus shipping. Quantity discounts area available (90 cents per copy on orders of 72 or more; 80 cents per copy on orders of 1,000 or more, plus shipping) for churches that would like to make the book available to their members. At this price, one person could provide a copy to be distributed free to everyone in his church. 

Photo: Unsplash

God Is Preparing a Place for His Children—and Eagerly Awaits Their Arrival Home

Years ago, knowing our children were coming, Nanci and I prepared a place for them. We chose the room, picked out the right wallpaper, decorated and set up the crib just so, selected the perfect blankets. The quality of the place we prepared for our daughters was limited only by our skills and resources and imaginations.

Since our Lord isn’t limited in any of those categories, and since He loves us even more than we love our children, what kind of a place can we expect Him to have prepared for us? It will simply be the best place ever made by anyone and for anyone. 

God Himself prepared mankind’s first home on Earth. “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:8-9). The phrase “planted a garden” shows God’s personal touch, His intimate interest in the creative details of mankind’s home.

In the same way that God paid attention to the details of the home He prepared for Adam and Eve in Eden, Christ is paying attention to the details as He prepares for us an eternal home in Heaven: “My Father’s house has many rooms . . . I am going there to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2, NIV). If He prepared Eden so carefully and lavishly for mankind in the six days of creation, what has He fashioned in the place He’s been preparing for us in the two thousand years since He left this world?

Our home is being built for us by the Carpenter from Nazareth. Building is His trade. A good carpenter envisions what he wants to build. He plans and designs. Then he does his work, carefully and skillfully fashioning it to exact specifications. He takes pride in the work he’s done and delights to show it to others. And when it’s his own children or his bride he’s made it for, he takes special delight!

A. W. Tozer wrote, “Did you ever stop to think that God is going to be as pleased to have you with Him in heaven as you are to be there?”

Incredible as it seems, Jesus desires our company. Your new home, liberated from sin, curse, and suffering, is nearly ready for you (and one day will be located on the New Earth, our ultimate and eternal home).

Moving day is coming.

God preparing a place for each of His children is the theme of a poem titled “Preparations,” sent to me by reader Kelsey Dillon. She says, “I read your book Heaven last year and was inspired by it to create a poem.”

Thank you, Kelsey:

I went into my nursery earlier and couldn’t help but smile
At the already constructed wooden crib wrapped in a fitted sage sheet
A horizontal frame for the yellow newborn gown spread smoothly atop
Complete with a tiny white stretchy cap nestled a few inches above
Unfilled at present, but ready for an impending resident
I’ve been waiting for you for a very long time, you see
Waiting for the day when I could get this room ready
It’s almost there, but not quite
So as much as I long for you to be here, to rock you in this chair,
To nuzzle your nose while you kick and squirm on the changing table
And coo and giggle, or maybe just hiccup all night long
You can’t come
Not yet
It’s not quite ready
Not fully prepared
Give me a month or two and I’ll be ready to get you
And bring you home to a place you’ve never known
But I hope will feel familiar
And you’ll open your eyes and see the joy in the faces
You won’t recognize, but by the clearer tones
Of mumbled speech you only heard in part from the inside
You’ll start to make sense
Of a world you could have never imagined
But that has been waiting in great anticipation of you
And of watching you become
And nothing you could have done
Would make us more thrilled to welcome you in
I can’t wait for you to be home

And this thought caused my thinking to shift from thoughts of you to thoughts of You
I started to wonder what Your nursery might look like
With no scarcity of resources and no fear of spoiling the loved one
What would you have done?
How over-the-top have you already gone?
Do you wander around the empty halls
Of heaven’s city imagining what it will be like to hear
The laughter of Your children echoing throughout the walls?
Do you smile at the decorations you’ve picked out or I suppose concocted brand new?
And grin at the thought of holding us close each night?
Do you stand back and think “That’s not quite right, perhaps just a little to the left…ah, now that’s perfect! Very good.”
Have you lined the shelves with toys and treats and adventures that will captivate our imaginations?
Does your heart skip a beat when you look into our rooms?
Do you crave the joy of seeing our wonder as we discover all the preparations you’ve made
That will not be exhausted for trillions of years?
‘Streets paved with gold’ I suspect is a bit modest
A vast understatement of the splendor
Put together
By a tickled Father with no limitations, waiting to at last bring His babies home
And when I come, will I blink slowly, overwhelmed by colors I’ve never seen before and whose brilliance will take such getting used to, I can’t even keep my eyes open for more than a second or two
Seeing your face for the first time, will my heart beat slower, finally at rest
Snuggled on your bosom? Will there be skin-to-skin in heaven?
Where I not only hear your heart beating, but am wrapped up by the tangible warmth of your very Presence that regulates my breathing?
At last able to see in full what I only felt in part
Beholding a home I’d never known, but that would undoubtedly be familiar to my heart
The vague murmurings of such I could recall from my time in darkness
A place I’ve known all along
And never known at all
And even then, after opening my eyes,
Could I imagine all the all-satiating delights
That await?
Has Your patient waiting made our impending meeting that much sweeter in anticipation?

I hear you saying, “Just hang on a little bit longer. I can’t wait to bring you home, but it’s not quite ready for you and you’re not quite ready for it. Stay there, my little love. I know it’s dark and the more you grow, the more stuck you feel, but you’re yet premature. Another month or two and I’ll come get you. When you’re ready and so am I, then the preparations will be complete. And I will stand eagerly at the bedside while you arrive through the agony of the darkest night.

I can’t wait for you to be home.”

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants” (Psalm 116:15).

Browse more resources on the topic of Heaven, and see Randy’s related books, including Heaven.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

Why “Happy New Year” Wishes Can Be Realistic or Unrealistic

I’ve been reflecting on leaving the year 2020 and entering a 2021 where there is a lot of hope (and I’m glad for that!) but no guarantee that many of our challenging circumstances will improve. I’ve seen much enthusiasm about getting past 2020, but I’m afraid not all of it is realistic.

We cannot base our hope in the fact that the calendar year has been moved by one digit. The COVID vaccination will not be a cure-all. The financial losses and failed businesses that began in 2020 will inevitably continue at least to a degree here in America, and certainly around the developing world, which doesn’t have the reserves we do. Even in prosperous nations, in 2021 as in all other years, individuals will still experience unanticipated disease, death, divorce, unemployment, and losses of every sort. That is not pessimism; that is simply realism in a fallen world stuck for now in that tough (though temporary) period between Eden and the New Earth.

So if by “Happy New Year!” we mean that all our problems are about to end with 2020, we’re being unrealistic. But if by “Happy New Year!” we mean that we can choose to be centered on Jesus and happy in Him no matter what this new year brings, that is not blind optimism; it is biblical realism. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, CSB).

True, reality-based optimism is centered on who God is and what His promises are. (And when it comes to eternity, Christians have every reason for optimism—we know how the story will end, or rather how it will culminate in a happiness that never ends!)

Here’s what I say in my book Happiness related to hope, optimism, and adjusting our expectations:

Our expectations profoundly affect our life experiences.

Frederick Langbridge (1849–1922) put it this way: “Two men look out through the same bars: One sees the mud, and one the stars.”

We simultaneously expect too much and too little. We need to discover what we should expect less of and what merits higher expectations.

Positive people experience adversity, just as negative people do. Their expectations don’t control circumstances, but they do give perspective. Optimists see more goodness and find redemptive elements even in the bad times. Scripture says, “The hopes of the godly result in happiness, but the expectations of the wicked come to nothing” (Proverbs 10:28, NLT). Likewise, Proverbs 11:23 states, “The desire of the righteous ends only in good; the expectation of the wicked in wrath.”

The novel Pollyanna portrays a cheerful orphan girl whose minister father died. Pollyanna played “the glad game,” finding something to be glad about no matter how difficult her circumstances.

Today the story is often mischaracterized—people are derisively called “Pollyannas” if they seem foolishly optimistic. But Pollyanna’s optimism was learned from her father, who fought discouragement by counting the more than eight hundred “rejoicing texts” in the Bible. She states, “[Father] said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it.”

Pollyanna’s happiness didn’t involve denying reality but affirming realities invisible to pessimists. Hers was a childlike trust in God that modern cynics should learn from, not mock.

Disneyland claims to be the happiest place on Earth, but research indicates otherwise. According to Morley Safer on 60 Minutes, the happiest nation on Earth proves to be Denmark. The United States, despite its greater wealth, ranks twenty-third, and the United Kingdom, forty-first. Denmark’s remarkable secret to topping the happiness chart? Low expectations. The interviews on 60 Minutes demonstrate that Danes have more modest dreams than Americans and they’re less distressed when their hopes don’t materialize.

The general view of life in Denmark is compatible with the doctrine of the Fall: instead of being surprised when life doesn’t go their way, Danes are grateful that things aren’t worse, and they’re happily surprised by health and success. If they have food, clothing, shelter, friends, and family, life seems good.

There’s a biblical basis for both realistic and positive expectations. We certainly live in a world with suffering and death. But as believers, we understand that God is with us and won’t forsake us, and that one day we’ll live on a redeemed Earth far happier than Denmark or Disneyland on their best days!

When you expect less of a fallen world, you can be content with less—and happy when more than expected comes to you.

We should lower our expectations concerning all the advantages we think life should bring us while raising our expectations concerning Christ and what He is daily accomplishing in us.

I have two good friends: one a pessimist, the other an optimist. Sometimes the optimist fares better because he sees the positives he expects. But he can also be emotionally devastated when life takes bad turns he never anticipated.

When things go sideways, my pessimist friend is neither surprised nor distraught; he expected nothing more. Yet because of his mindset, he sometimes fails to see the magnificent, happy-making things God does every day.

The happy middle ground of biblical realism falls somewhere in between, allowing us to honestly face life’s difficulties while trusting God’s sovereignty and joyfully anticipating what lies ahead of us.

Our degree of happiness in life largely depends on:

the amount of happiness we believe should be rightfully ours
our ability to find delight in a fallen world God will redeem
our ability to see the little things—the ten thousand reasons for happiness that surround us that we easily ignore

C. S. Lewis said,

If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad.

Imagine a set of people all living in the same building. Half of them think it is a hotel, the other half think it is a prison. Those who think it a hotel might regard it as quite intolerable, and those who thought it was a prison might decide that it was really surprisingly comfortable. So that what seems the ugly doctrine is one that comforts and strengthens you in the end. The people who try to hold an optimistic view of this world would become pessimists: the people who hold a pretty stern view of it become optimistic.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

Alisa Childers on Doubt, Progressive Christianity, and Rediscovering the Solid Rock

It’s become increasingly popular for people to share their “de-conversion stories,” talking about how they moved from belief in Christ and the Bible to a design-it-yourself type of spirituality, or even out right atheism. Deconstructed faith stories are the new normal. We all know people who once seemed to be solid Christians but have walked away.

Alisa Childers’s story of her own reconstructed faith is a breath of fresh air. She shares her doubts and struggles and the journey God led her on to rediscover the solid Rock on which she stands. Her excellent book Another Gospel A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity is full of hope and sound reasons for faith in Jesus and God’s Word.

Watch Alisa share more about progressive Christianity and why she wrote her book:

Read an excerpt from Another Gospel, and listen to Alisa’s excellent interview with Collin Hansen, titled Why Progressive Christianity Can’t Bring Reformation.

Sending Hope to the Hopeless: Books for Prisoners

Our ministry received this note a few days ago from a prisoner we sent one of my books to. We’ve edited it lightly for readability:

Hi, Happy Holidays Eternal Perspective Ministries. I just want to thank you guys for the tremendous job you guys do “sending hope to the hopeless.” I was sitting in my cell and thinking about all the damage that I had done to my loved ones in order for them not even want to answer the phone when I call. They see the call is from the Detention Center, and there’s no answer. So by now you can imagine how big of mistakes I did to them. That has finally led me to read the Bible the right way and really start to understand its real meaning.

Don’t get me wrong, I always have tried to have a close relationship with our Creator. It’s just that this time I really got offline.

Again, thank you, and thank you for the book. It just got here on time as my birthday present. I am never going to forget how just when I was sitting in the jail cell thinking that the next day was going to be my birthday, I get a present that had a message that I was just waiting for.

Matthew 7:7 – “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you” – Forgiveness from my family.

In his letter, he mentioned his birth date, which is six months to the day after my youngest daughter Angela’s. It touched me to think of how different people’s lives turn out.  

Thankful for all those who don’t have to live lives like this guy has, and haven’t broken their families like he has, and thankful also that the Holy Spirit appears to be working in him. Praying the transformation will continue and that he will become the kind of man his family might forgive. But thankful above all that God has and will forgive him.

I love the simplicity of his letter and am touched even by the childlike spelling which probably reflects his disadvantages growing up, and which you can see image at the top of this blog. (I did nothing—none of us did—to deserve a decent family and a good education.)

Many thanks to Amy Woodard at EPM who follows up with prisoners and oversees the sending of the books. Across the nation, God is at work in prisons, drawing men and women without hope to Himself. Continue to pray for them, as they face extra challenges in this era of COVID.

If you’d like to partner with us in reaching prisoners for Christ, we’d be honored if you’d prayerfully consider supporting Eternal Perspective Ministries with a year-end gift. Financial gifts to our General Fund support our operating expenses and staff, and allow us to continue giving away the royalties from my books. (On our donation page, you can also give to our Books for Prisoners Project to directly support that part of our ministry.)

Note that a tax-deductible  online gift  in 2020 must be received by 11:59 p.m. PT on December 31.

If you wish to mail a check, our new address is 39065 Pioneer Blvd., Suite 100, Sandy, OR 97055. All envelopes must be postmarked by 12/31/20. 

Because Jesus Offered Himself for Us, We Won’t Find No Vacancy Signs in Heaven

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2:7)

When you’re traveling late at night without reservations, nothing’s more discouraging than finding only “No Vacancy” signs.

Jesus knew what it was like to have no vacancy in the inn. Human logic says the King of kings should have been born in a palace, surrounded by luxury. Instead, the only door open to the humble Savior was a dirty stable. Amazingly, and revealingly, this was all by God’s design.

Why is this good news for us? Because the Savior offered Himself on our behalf, we won’t find “No Vacancy” signs in Heaven. If we’ve made our reservations by accepting God’s gift in Christ, then Heaven is wide open with plenty of room for all of us.

“By his own descent to the earth he has prepared our ascent to heaven.” —John Calvin

For more reflections on our Savior, see Randy's books Face to Face with Jesus and It's All About Jesus.

Photo by Samuel Holt on Unsplash

Contemplate the Goodness of God in Becoming One of Us

I’ve been reflecting on Hebrews 2 and 4 lately, and what they tell us about the goodness of God in becoming one of us.

Hebrews 2:17 says, “Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God.” Jesus lived under the curse and was subject to human sufferings. He sympathizes with our weaknesses and became subject to them—including the exhaustion, the weariness, the sadness. Jesus knows what it’s like to have loud cries and tears (Hebrews 5:7). This is a God we can fully trust! This is a God who understands our suffering not just because He’s omniscient, but because He’s come down and experienced it (and gone through a worse form of suffering than any of us will ever face).

Tim Keller writes in Hidden Christmas, “If God has really been born in a manger, then we have something that no other religion even claims to have. It’s a God who truly understands you, from the inside of your experience.”

When you’re tempted to doubt the God you believe in, think of the God who became one of us. If we contemplate that this Christmas, it will be a very rich Christmas, even as we face heartache, disappointment, and suffering.

I share more reflections on Hebrews and Jesus, the God-man, in this video:

For more on Jesus, see Randy’s books Face to Face with Jesus and It’s All About Jesus.

When You’re So Depressed You Don't Want to Be Around Others...and What to Do If You Have Suicidal Feelings

Studies show that depression and suicide rates are climbing due to COVID-19 and the disruption of normal life and social structures. More Americans are lonely than ever before, and even teens are at higher risk. Healthline reports, “Struggles with mental health issues or substance use were reported by nearly 41 percent of adults who responded to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey.” Even before 2020, overall suicide rates were on the rise, the CDC says.

Christians certainly aren’t immune to depression and suicidal thoughts. I have known depression first-hand at different times in my life. Several years ago, for no apparent reason, a cloud of depression descended on me. Day after day, it was my constant companion. God used it in my life, teaching me to trust Him, and giving me some intimate times with Him. But it gave me greater compassion for those who struggle with depression.

In this video, from an interview for my home church about the topic of happiness, I talk about being so depressed that you (or I) don’t want to be around others. Though I have never considered suicide, in my lowest moments I have wanted God to take me out of this world to be with Him. Many good and godly people have been plagued by suicidal thoughts. Here are some thoughts I shared in that interview that I hope might help you as you deal with depression, even if it’s so bad you are tempted toward suicide:

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out for help. You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

See also the video Walking with God Through Depression, and the articles Shedding Light on Depression and Thoughts of Suicide and Suicide, Heaven, and Jesus—the Final Answer to Our Sorrow. 

Photo by Valeriia Miller on Unsplash