If tears were indelible ink instead of clear fluid, all of us would be stained for life. The heartbreaking circumstances, the painful encounters with calamities, the brutal verbal blows we receive from the surgeon or an angry mate, the sudden loss of someone we simply adored, riding out the consequences of a stupid decision—ah! Such is the groan and grind of life.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Death
Writing with Thorns
In pain, grief, affliction, and loss, it often helps to write our feelings . . . not just feel them. Putting words on paper seems to free our feelings from the lonely prison of our souls. It was C. S. Lewis who wrote: Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything . . . . No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. I am not afraid, but the sensation is like being afraid.
Read MoreHow Do We Handle Troubles?
The third question about troubles flows from James’s answer to the first two. We can’t avoid the various troubles in life, but we can accept that God has purposed them for our good. We’re to view them as opportunities for rejoicing in the work He’s doing in our lives—challenging us so He can change us. But how do we keep the trials designed for our good from crushing us?
Read MoreWhat Is the Purpose of Troubles?
When the inevitable troubles of various kinds come, remember the second truth about them—they have a purpose. We’re not just tossed into the crowd and left to fend for ourselves as God runs the world from a distance. The various troubles that occur are all part of His plan. When we accept this, we can view them as opportunities for growth.
Read MoreWho Will Face Troubles?
As James begins his discussion of troubles, notice his word choice: “when troubles . . . come your way” (James 1:2, emphasis added). His use of “when” here tells us troubles are inevitable for all of us. James doesn’t say “if troubles come” or “when troubles come to somebody else” or “in the unlikely event that a trouble or two crosses your path.” It’s when, not if.
Read MoreThe Bible’s Realistic Portrayal
The Bible doesn’t varnish over the rough realities of life with a thick coat of empty clichés. God’s Word meets the truth of unbudging troubles head-on. Scripture speaks often of the bruises of adversity. In the Psalms, King David reminds all the faithful through the ages that “the afflictions of the righteous are many” (Psalm 34:19, NASB).
Read MoreMy Dad
I’ll never forget the night my dad died. He left like he had lived. Quietly. Graciously. With dignity. Without demands or harsh words or even a frown, he surrendered himself—a tired, frail, humble gentleman—into the waiting arms of his Savior. Death, selfish and cursed enemy of man, won another battle. As I stroked the hair from his forehead and kissed him goodbye, a hundred boyhood memories played around in my head.
Read MoreIs Trauma Terminal?
The definition reflects devastation. Trauma: An injury (as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent . . . a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from mental or emotional stress. Like potatoes in a pressure cooker, we twenty-first century creatures understand the meaning of stress. A week doesn’t pass without a few skirmishes with those “extrinsic agents” that beat upon our fragile frames.
Read MoreUltimate Rejection
A number of years ago, on Valentine’s Day, a couple was enjoying a romantic drive along a wooded section near Belle Chasse, Louisiana. Something white, shimmering in the trees, caught their eyes. Their investigation led them to a dead teenager hanging from a limb, a white bedsheet knotted tightly around his neck. A farewell note, laced with despair, was near the trunk of the tree. It was addressed simply to “Mom and Dad.”
Read MoreAfter the Avalanche, Part One
Job could write about wounds. His words were more than patronizing platitudes and armchair proverbs. He’d been there and back again. He could describe intense inner suffering in the first person because of his own sea of pain. Step into the time tunnel with me and let’s travel together back to Uz (not like the wizard of ___, but like the land of __).
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