LET ME LOOK BEYOND

Let me look beyond unfeeling words
Into the heart of pain
Into the deep, unspoken dreams
And tears they’ve shed in vain

Let me look beyond the empty eyes
And see the love inside
Let me see the broken spirit
That’s covered by the pride

Let me look beyond and see the truth
That’s clouded by the lies
Let me see them as you see them, Lord
And not with my own eyes
© 1998 Rachel Whelan

SOME PEOPLE ARE SO RUDE

Some people are so rude, have you ever noticed? For instance, recently I ran into this woman I barely knew in the grocery store. Of course, I wanted to be polite, my mother had raised me well, so I asked her, just in passing mind you, how she was doing. I was somewhat stunned as she actually proceeded to tell me.

She told me about the trouble her son had gotten into and how it had put a strain on her already shaky relationship with her husband. They were always arguing, she said, mostly about money and on top of that her youngest had gotten sick and now they had doctor bills to pay and with their finances already stretched to the limit, she didn’t know how they were going to make it. She went on about how she was at her wit’s end. How she didn’t know where to turn and how she just didn’t know what she was going to do if things didn’t get better soon.

I kept looking off, checking my watch, edging a little further away, hoping she would get the hint that I was in a hurry and didn’t have time for her entire life story, but she just went on and on. Finally, just when I was sure she would never get the hint, she said, “Listen, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have bothered you with my troubles. I just had to tell somebody.”

I mumbled something about it ‘being alright’ and how I 'understood' that sometimes you just had to 'let those things out’, all the while thinking to myself it must be my ‘lucky’ day. Anyway, I grabbed the opportunity to excuse myself and took off as fast as I could to finish my shopping, glancing up each aisle as I went to make sure she wasn’t around the next corner.

Really, of all the nerve, didn’t this woman know I had problems of my own, not the least of which was trying to make up for the time I’d lost listening to her? What ever happened to the age-old tradition of suffering in silence? Didn’t she have any manners at all? What made her think it mattered to me anyway? What did she expect me to do about it? Didn’t she have family or friends she could unload on? Why me? When I got back to the car, I breathed a sigh of relief, all the while making a mental note to keep an eye out for her car the next time I pulled into the parking lot.

The following Sunday our pastor’s sermon was on bearing one another's burdens. I felt a prick at my conscience as the memory of the woman in the grocery store flashed into my mind, then I thought better of it. Surely, that’s not what the Lord meant. He knew I had been in a hurry that day, surely He understood. Anyway the woman had all the classic signs of becoming a nuisance and my life was complicated enough as it was. Besides, I reasoned, when I told the Lord I was willing to be His hands and feet, I meant things like going to church or writing an occasional check. Perhaps even donating food and clothes to the missions, sending a sympathy card, or inviting someone to church. Saying things like, ‘I’m sorry,’ or ‘I’ll be praying for you.’ Anything beyond that would take a level of commitment I wasn’t sure I wanted to make and surely God didn’t expect more than that.

It would make such demands on my time, if I took the time to listen, I might actually be called on to get involved in other peoples daily lives. Surely when the Lord called me, He didn’t expect that of me. I have schedules to meet, things I ‘have’ to do, things I ‘want’ to do. I have my own family to take care for. I don’t have time to get involved in other peoples lives. I’ve got my own set of problems.

Sometimes it takes a while for the Lord to drive a point home with me, but I think I have finally gotten the message on this one. Jesus never turned a deaf ear to those who cried out to Him. Yet here was this person who had cried out to me for help and I hadn’t felt the least bit of compassion for her. All I could think of was myself. I hadn’t witnessed to her about the love of God. I hadn’t offer to pray with her, or for her. Instead, I was angered that she had dared to make demands on my time, forgetting that the Lord had placed her there for just such a reason and I had blown it. The Lord calls us to be a friend to the friendless, but I had not been her friend, or even her neighbor. I had been nowhere close to being a good Samaritan.

Yes, the Lord drove home a message in my heart that day. Did I learn from it? Yes. Have I always lived up to what I learned that day? No. I still have a long way to go. What did I learn? I learned that it’s one thing to talk about the love of God and quite another to show it. I learned that it’s one thing to talk about His compassion and quite another to offer compassion and comfort and assurance to someone when they are hurting. I learned what it meant to offer a “cup of cold water, in my Name.”

I look at the world around me and see so many hurting people in the world now. Lonely people who desperately need someone they can call a friend. People who feel they have to be strong for their family’s sake, but who sometimes need someone be strong for them, even if just for a few minutes. People who feel they have no one they can turn to and just need to borrow a shoulder. Most of the time it only takes a minute to give them what they need. Sometimes it takes longer. Sometimes they just need a hug or an encouraging word. Occasionally there are those who need more than just emotional support. They need real physical or financial help. Still others need spiritual assistance. There are people who don’t know the Lord and need to. People in all stages of their walk with Him who need encouragement, for one to come along side and get up under the burden with them. To give them a moment of rest.

What had I been thinking that day? Of course we’re called to share one another’s burdens. Isn’t that what we’re here for? To be the Lord’s eyes, to see the hurting world around us? To be the Lord’s hands, to hold the hand of one who is hurting or needs someone to lift them up? To be the arm He puts around the shoulder of one who is suffering. Isn’t that one of the major ways He shows His love to the world, through us.

Jesus fed those who were hungry, spiritually and physically. He healed those who were sick, spiritually and physically. He didn’t just preach the Good News, He lived it. He didn’t just say a few nice words and offer to pray for people and then walk away. He rolled up His shirt sleeves and got involved. He didn’t just talk about loving one another, He did it. He loved them all, even his enemies.

People aren’t won to Christ merely by words, they are won by those who live out the Gospel in a hurting world, by those who take the time to get personally involved. They are won to Christ by those who take the time out of their busy schedules to say, “yes, I am busy, I do have problems of my own, but people are more important than agendas. The dishes will wait, supper can be a few minutes late, if you’re hurting, let’s talk. If your lonesome, come over. If I don’t have time, I’ll make time." Believe me, I know there are some things in our lives that can’t wait. I know there are things that we must attend to at any given moment in time. I’m not unrealistic.

Look though, if you will, at the life of Mother Theresa. How many lives must that dear woman have touched for the Lord’s sake? Not because she talked about ‘feeling their pain’, but because she cared enough to get personally involved in their lives. She lived among them. She shared in their sufferings, as well as their joys. She knew she could not save the world, but she did her best to save her part of it.

It may mean forgoing that night on the town, it may mean passing up that day to lunch with the girls, you may have to take that twenty dollars you were going to spend on a new shirt or pair of pants to help pay someone’s water bill. You may even be called on to help hang a picture, or mow a lawn. Instead of standing back and shaking your head in disgust because the guy next door is a ‘lazy bum’. I firmly believe that the Lord places people like that in our path in order to see what we will do and one day He will ask us to answer for our response. We need to open our eyes and look for ways to care for those around us. Not just because it’s a nice thing to do. But for His sake, for His glory and for His Name's sake.

We are called to reach out for the lost. We are called to share one another’s burdens. We are called to be our brother’s keeper and those things take time. Much more than just a casual, ‘hi, how you doing', or 'God speed'. Allowing people into your life and your heart is risky and time consuming, but isn’t that what Jesus would have done? Isn’t that what we are here for, to help others establish a relationship with the God who loves us, the God we have not seen, by establishing a relationship with those we have seen.

I don’t mean to point fingers, if I did I most of them would be pointing back at me. I don’t dare think for a minute that I’ve got this thing licked, I haven’t, but that weekend changed me. I just want to share with you what I have learned and like so many others, I learn best from my mistakes. May God forgive me where I’ve failed.

We, the church, need to be actively looking for those around us who need help and think of it as an opportunity to serve Christ. An opportunity to win people to God. Isn’t that what Jesus did? Isn’t that what He calls us to? I can’t remember who said it first, but there is an old saying that goes something like this, ‘Preach the gospel at all times, use words if you must.’ © 1998 Rachel Whelan

SUCCESS

I once knew a man who sought success. He wanted it all — the nice home, the fine clothes, all the trappings of those we consider to be rich and powerful. He never achieved the success he wanted, only the pretense of having achieved it. He seemed content instead to merely associate with those who had ‘made it’, hoping that some of their success would rub off on him.

Whether or not he was capable of creating his own success, or whether he was simply not willing to put forth the necessary effort, I cannot say. Still, I feel certain that when he went home at night, leaving behind those people who gave him a sense of importance, there must have been a great emptiness that engulfed him. While it may have been easy to fool others with his show of success, it couldn’t have been so easy to fool himself. I feel certain when he looked in the mirror and was confronted with the truth of what he saw, that he was not a happy man.

I took a good look at myself a while back, but the mirror I looked into was in the eyes of a friend. As we spoke, I felt a sudden prick at my heart. He didn’t look at me coldly, or harshly. I saw no judgment in his eyes. I did, however, see a great deal of sadness. The same kind of sadness I’m sure many saw in Jesus’ eyes, when they spoke with Him face to face. When their words or actions betrayed the poor, half-hearted way they really loved God.

For a while I had felt something lacking in my walk with the Lord. With that one look, I was forced to search my soul to a new depth and I didn’t much like what I saw. Like the man who sought success, I wanted the peace, the contentment, the joy that comes from a close, meaningful relationship with the Lord, but I had been unwilling to really work at it. Unwilling to spend enough time with Him in prayer, maybe more importantly, in just being quiet before Him, allowing Him to speak to me as He wanted.

It’s not that I wasn’t capable, though I used to excuse myself by saying things like, ‘Lord, you see, I had this really bad childhood. My family life was so messed up that it’s difficult for me to establish a relationship with anyone, even with You.' But, suddenly, He refused to let me blame my past anymore. He made it clear that He wants a relationship with me - one on one. No matter how broken all of my past relationships have been. In other words ‘no excuses’.

He suddenly refused to allow me any longer to be content with just riding the spiritual coattails of others, or to be satisfied by filling my life with experiences or activities, even Godly ones, in place of that relationship with Him. While I might have fooled others, I could not fool myself. When I was alone I could not run away from the emptiness, the aloneness and the discontent I felt for who I was, and in many ways, who I still am.

I am learning that the Lord, in His mercy, will not allow me to be content in that place. He will not allow me to love Him anymore only at my convenience. To be content to pray only when things have gotten so bad that I feel I have no where else to turn. He will no longer accept a half-hearted relationship with Him. It must be all or nothing.

Quite frankly, in some ways, I find the thought of allowing anyone too close to me, even God himself, somewhat frightening. I’ve spent too many years building these walls to protect myself. I’ve spent too many years learning to be self-sufficient. The thought of giving anyone, including the Lord, control of my life, is a scary thing, but somehow, lately, I find it all the more frightening not to.

In His mercy, there have been those times when He has allowed me to feel very close to Him, to taste of His sweetness enough to know that I will never be satisfied with anything less, and, in His mercy, at times He has just as graciously removed His presence from me, to remind me perhaps of what I would be missing, for all of time and eternity, without Him. -- ©1999 Rachel Whelan

***

I'VE ASKED THE LORD

I’ve asked the Lord to hear my prayer
To change these things I face
And though the answer may seem slow in coming
I know He hears me by His grace

And I know that if He chooses
There’s nothing He can’t do
He can take this veil of sorrow
And He can bring me gently through

But if He chooses not to answer
In quite the way I hoped He would
If He chooses something else for me
I know it all works for my good

If not the answer I was seeking
Then the one that’s best for me
If not the door I hoped would open
Then the one He knows I need

If not the words that I would hear Him speak
Then the ones I need to hear
For if He holds me in His hands
I know I’ve nothing more to fear

I know He watches over me
And He’ll lead me through the pain
And when all is finally said and done
It will not have been in vain

©1998 Rachel Whelan

THE PEACE CHILD

There is a wonderful story told of a couple, Don and Carol Richardson, who, along with their seven-month-old baby, risked their lives to share the Gospel with a tribe of cannibalistic headhunters in New Guinea known as the Sawi.

The Richardsons became proficient in the Sawi language, but Don struggled to find a way to help the villagers understand the Gospel. The cultural barriers made it seem impossible. As historian Ruth Tucker wrote, "In their eyes, Judas, was the hero, and Jesus was just a dupe to be laughed at." Until one day, God gave them the key to help the Sawi to understand the subtitutionary atonement of Christ through a their own mythology.

Three tribal villages were in constant battle at this time. The Richardsons considered leaving the area, to keep them there, the Sawi people came together and decided that they would make peace with their enemies.

Ceremonies were held in which a young child, known as the ‘Peace Child’ was exchanged between opposing villages. One man ran toward his enemy's camp and literally gave his son to his hated foe. From this, Richardson was able to present the analogy of God's sacrifice of his own Son and the Sawi began to understand the teaching of the incarnation of Christ. Many were converted to Christianity.

Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, we have found ourselves at odds with and alienated from God. We have made ourselves enemies of God. We joined the enemy camp. God did not declare ‘war’ on us, we, in essence, declared war on Him.

But God did not hate us, even then, He hated sin, in part, because of the separation it causes. So, rather than allow us to, as John Howe states, ‘suffer the dreadful consequences of so desperate and unequal a war against the Almighty’, God in a divine act of grace began to reveal the ground work for a reconciliation between man and Himself. Rather than allow us to ‘suffer the consequences of our own ruin and eternal death, He chose Himself to die for us’.

When the angel appeared to the shepherds in the field, saying, ‘there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord,’ and the multitude of angels chimed in with, ‘Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men.’ they were presenting to the world the ‘Peace Child’ that had been promised by Isaiah when he said ‘For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.’ (Isaiah 9:6)

On Christmas Day, over 2000 years ago, He who was and is eternal God was born. God became man and took upon Himself true humanity. It was the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s peace treaty, as it were, with men, a treaty that was signed in His own blood at the cross. In that atonement, the Scriptures say he ‘destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility . . . thus making peace . . . to reconcile them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near." (Eph. 2:14-17.)

At the cross, the enmity on the part of God was removed and all that remains is for each of us to accept that offer of peace. – Rachel Whelan © Dec 2009

POLITICS AND RELIGION

People are quick to say you should never discuss politics and religion. What they don’t tell you is that if you don’t discuss religion a lot of people are going to Hell and if you don’t discuss politics the country will. -- © 1999 Rachel Whelan

SMALL MIRACLES

This past year, just before Christmas, a young woman I know received a most unexpected gift. She was expecting her first child to be born in the spring, however, because of medical complications, neither she or her doctor had foreseen, the child was born three months early.

Since the child weighed only slight over one pound, there was much reason for everyone’s concern about the child’s chances for survival.

To everyone’s amazement, the child, up to this time, is doing well and, as a note of interest, when anyone in the room makes a clicking noise with their tongue, the child repeats the sound.

At a time when there is much discussion over when life begins, I find it amazing to watch a life so small, surviving against the odds, more than surviving, flourishing.

As we begin a new year, may we be reminded by the small miracles such as this that occur around us everyday. How precious the gift of life really is at any age, from the youngest to the oldest. May we each learn to cherish all life, never take it for granted, not for ourselves or for others. Life truly is a gift, one with no promise of tomorrow. May we strive to love and care for one another while we are here. --- © 1999 Rachel Whelan