Friday, May 8, 2009

Perspective

Psalm 103 (you can look it up at BibleGateway.com) details the blessings in life, the ones that really matter, the ones that are constant and are offered to everyone. I am blessed because God loves me, because He saves me, because He rescues me. So are you. It doesn't matter where we come from, what we do or what mistakes we make along our pathway. What matters is that at some point we look up and say "Wow! You did that for me? Thank you." To take the gift that He is offering and to run with it, clinging to it because our very lives depend on it.

I was talking with a friend today who is struggling greatly, and yesterday I was sharing with another friend and both conversations reminded me that we have to keep our lives in perspective. The things that I have gone through in life are nothing compared to what others have gone through and sometimes what I have gone through are more than others can imagine. Yet, we each have suffered. We each have gone through things that are devastating and disastrous to us. Just because I have suffered greatly does not diminish what you have suffered and what you have suffered does not diminish what I have suffered. Each of us is affected differently by our own life experiences. We each respond in varying ways to the stimuli and stresses surrounding us. What drives one person to drugs or alcohol, another to success, another to suicide, another to isolation and fear, it can be the same trigger. But for the grace of God....

What's my point? God has it all under control. There is a purpose and a reason to everything. Sometimes we get to chose the battle we are to undergo, sometimes we are thrown into it by another persons actions. It doesn't matter how we get there, what matters is that when we are in the thick of it we are not alone. As a Christian family, we are to stand when our members are fighting. Truthfully, there is never a moment when a member is not fighting. If I am to be able to stand and fight beside you when you feel like you are sinking, I need to know that you are in the midst of a battle. If you are to fight for me, I must let you know that I am in the midst of a battle. Yet, even if we fail each other by not sharing the battle or not being willing or able to step up and fight beside each other, God promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will always be beside us to fight with us or for us. When I fall on my face in the mud, too weak to stand, then He is not hesitant (if I desire it) to cover me and fight for me, helping me rise when I have caught my breath.

5 ... for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper,
and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Hebrews 13:5, 6

How about you? Are you willing to stand by your friends, the people in your community to go to battle with and for them when they are in the midst of a trial? Will you remember to pray diligently for each other? I am recommitted today to fight battles for those whom God has set on my heart to fight for, to reach out to others in my community without judgment or criticism. I pray there are others willing to do the same for me.

God bless you. Thanks for reading.

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