Words from WW Blog

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:3-4)

Jesus attracted a crowd. Granted, the gospel of Matthew tells us that He was traveling around the area known as Galilee, healing people who were sick, demon-possessed, or prone to seizures. The miraculous has a way of drawing the masses. He was also proclaiming the coming of the Kingdom of God, a message with a sense of renewal and revival.

The Sermon on the Mount has Him sitting on a hillside and telling the gathered crowd what they were in the midst of.

Blessings.

It was a curious message, considering it was a time of oppression, poverty, and unrest. Jesus was saying that they were blessed even as they were being persecuted, blessed even as they mourned, blessed even as they sought to be peacemakers amongst troubling times. The inference of the word “blessed” was that they were in the midst of blessing, not looking to some time in the future when they would be blessed. Israel’s belief was focused on a future hope, a messiah who had not yet come, a restoration of the golden days of King David.

That disconnect between what is and what will someday be has settled into a mindset for us today. We think of “being blessed” as a time we hope for, a point we are heading toward, not a time we are experiencing. It’s like we’re farsighted in our vision, instead of nearsighted about the moment we are looking at.

It speaks to our cynicism about the present and optimism about the future. Would it change things if we viewed today as a God-moment ripe with His presence and smothered with His blessings? Would our mindset have a transformation, if we saw the present as a time of blessing? Would it change our perspective on the conversations we engage in, the way we treat people, and our opportunities for showing love and concern?

Would we welcome a new personal designation as present-day optimists?

When I mow my lawn in the late evening as the sun makes it difficult to see the next strip of grass that needs to be cut, I look back to see the missed blades when I turn the mower around. Sometimes our paths are punctuated with opportunities that we fail to see until we turn around and investigate, those blessed moments in time when we miss what could have been.

Today you are in the midst of His blessings.

This coming week is going to be weird. My opening act in a sixth-grade classroom has come to an end. The new teacher, who I know and is awesome, arrives on Tuesday. I’ll be occupying my stool at Starbucks when the bundles of energy and hyperness arrive at school.

Energy defines these kids. My classroom was set up to create it. From “The Side Question” on the side whiteboard, changed daily, that entertained their comments and interests, to “The Far Side” cartoons that spelled “SMILE” on the other side of the classroom, to the Daily Dad Joke, to Wolfe Wisdom, each class was like a power plant of eleven-year-old excitement.

It occurred to me that I’ve had several experiences in my life that resemble what I just experienced. They were church youth groups. Four of them come to mind: 1) My youth group as I was growing up at First Baptist Church in Ironton, Ohio. Lifelong friendships were created in that group, including two of the guys who were a part of my wedding party. 2) The first youth group I led at First Baptist Church in Marseilles, Illinois. It was a great group of kids in a small town who took me under their wings and taught me as much, or more, as I taught them. 3) The youth of First Presbyterian Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Wow! I’ll always remember the trip to Young Life Camp in Colorado. 4) The youth of First Baptist Church in Lansing, Michigan. Chuck Landon mentored me as a pastor and also entrusted his kids to me. That group was awesome, funny, and kept me on my toes as we met in “the upper room.”

Now, I’m leading, mentoring, and encouraging the leaders of the youth at First Baptist Church in Colorado Springs. I can sense the energy building as we take these adolescents on a journey of discovery and faith.

Kids need groups such as these. I can see how they have shaped me in my growing-up days, and have firmed-up my faith as I have assumed the role of leader. We’ve had movies like “The Goonies” and “The Sandlot”. Someone should make a movie called “The Youth Group” and show the lives that get transformed in the midst of it.

“Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 131:3)

“I don’t trust you.”

Those words have been said in a variety of situations: Parents to their teenager who has a tendency to scheme, the government towards the pharmaceutical industry, citizens toward law enforcement, and teachers toward their students.

Trust is in short supply these days. The news we receive often weaves a path grounded in mistrust. Granted, wise consideration of the circumstances can usually lead to intelligent mistrust, like when one of the multitude of roofing company salesmen shows up on your doorstep or when the timeshare salesperson makes you think you are an imbecile for not forking up the dollars for that week at a condo on an overcrowded beach in Florida.

However, mistrust is as rampant today as coughing and sneezing kids in school. How did we get to this point of unbelievability anyway?

In my opinion, it has become easier to believe in words of mistrust than words that require trust. Mistrust doesn’t need a leap of faith, while blind trust might lead someone to fall off a cliff. And quite frankly, our culture, like a palm tree during a tropical storm, leans heavily to mistrust. Perhaps it’s the scammers that are proliferating like springtime dandelions. We hear too many stories of people who have been drawn into their web of deceit and lost massive amounts of money. As people have wised up in specific ways, the scammers have become more sophisticated and creative in their crimes.

This past week, a postcard attached to our front door informed us that we had a package that couldn’t be delivered and told us to call a specific number. There was no indication who had sent the card. My wife, wise beyond words, asked me if I had ordered something. I hadn’t, and she correctly judged it to be a scam. It brought back memories of the old days when a man selling Filter Queen vacuum cleaners almost convinced us, newlyweds at the time, to buy one at a hefty price after leaving a postcard on our apartment door.

In essence, we’ve evolved into being skeptical. The tragedy is that if mistrust develops in someone as their “go-to,” he will never develop the capacity to hope. Hope is one of the destinations of trust. It requires loosening the grip that has tightened with our fears. Hope is attached to the hand of God. It is a deep belief that God has me in His grasp. Psalm 131:2 gives us the picture: “Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.” (The Message)

In a mistrusting world, I am firm in my belief that I can trust the Lord. It’s the anchor that holds firm, even as our culture’s behavior erodes. It’s the blanket that warms me as the bitterness of the world chills people’s attitudes.

I am content in the arms of God, secure in His embrace.