Faith, Hope and Charity

This week we break from our theme of Interruptible for an insight from Terry Sheldon...

As a child growing up I romanticized the Cascade mountains. Oregon's volcanic peaks were different than the Rockies’ smooth and sparkly granite, and they weren't clustered together en-masse. Each Cascade peak was a craggy sentinel, and although formed with ancient violence, now stood sleeping. And beckoning.

I looked to them for inspiration and dreamed of climbing their dizzying heights. I was most captivated by the ones closest to Eugene, the Three Sisters. Also known by our settlers as Faith, Hope, and Charity.

We believers know these three descriptors as signs of strong emotional and spiritual health, wonderfully described in the Bible’s love chapter, Corinthians 13. It all seemed to fit together for me as I took up backpacking and mountain climbing in my youth, and as I attempted to learn the lessons of faith, hope and charity in my Christian walk. Both parallel journeys have been rocky and challenging, but rewarding in their own ways.

Awhile back it occurred to me that Corinthians’ lovely three sisters were chronological in our spiritual lives. Faith (North Sister) is a formidable peak. I can compare it to my first realization of the magnitude of my sin. Accepting the Lord requires us to stand up to fear and take a giant leap (of faith). Although I never did attempt North, my spiritual climb has been arduous. A start yes, but with a Doubting Thomas heart. I really hoped for more - the perfecting of my faith.

I grew up admiring my father’s mountain climbing exploits and waited to go with him one day. My chance finally came as a teen, on Hope (Middle Sister). The climb was rough. We were on the wrong side of a ridge and got lost. We triggered a small rock slide, resulting in a smashed finger. Then clouds shrouded the mountain by mid-afternoon and we were forced to turn back. My summit hopes were unfulfilled, but they would remain.

I would eventually reach the summit of Hope in my early twenties. It was glorious, but not without hard lessons along the way. My climbing buddy and I overcame poor planning, running out of water, sunburns and having to navigate the forest by moonlight after our flashlights died. In life, our day-to-day hope is always out there in front of us, as it should be. Without it we would lack motivation for what’s ahead. And without going forth, we would not grow and learn. But hope is not the endgame.

The faith, hope and charity progression seems tougher as it goes along. Learning to love and to be loved WELL is an inevitable struggle, and one of life’s hardest lessons. A few years later, my Charity (South Sister) experience was equal in its struggle, and its payoff. What started out to be a misty and cold hike through Charity’s lower reaches became a wickedly windy and wet slog up its southern ridge. Four of our seven-person team had turned around earlier, my father included. He was not happy, but trusted my judgement. The three of us who remained continued on, not at all sure how it would end.

But a glimmer in my imagination urged me on, as I sensed a unique mountain-top experience ahead. My fellow climbers had a similar expectation. We were a band of brothers, and we bonded in our struggle. Then it happened. Blue sky finally peeked out between the swirling curtain of clouds. As we reached Charity’s top under clear cobalt blue skies, we gazed out in astonishment across a flat cloud floor below us. It was almost 360 degrees of brilliant white, with all the Cascade peaks jutting up and out, North to South. I was on top of the world, and it was a sight and experience I will never forget.

Learning to love God and people is similar. It starts with youthful naiveté, then comes struggles with people that challenge our self-esteem, and hard events that can shake us to the core. But if we hang together and press ahead, and stay open and committed and humble, our love is purified and enhanced. True love (God's love) is indeed breathtaking. Personally, I believe I've just scratched the surface.

Let’s continue the climb, with courageous faith, with constant hope and with relentless love.

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About the Author

Terry is a man in constant motion to explore new horizons. He has a thirst for new places and faces, and a deep love for the natural world - with a weakness for waterfalls and sunsets. All of this venturing out helps to both ground and inspire him, because it opens him up to people, with their vast, collective array of experiences, outlooks and responses.

He finds all of this fascinating and sees that it has encouraged the growth of something crucial in his Christian development: empathy and compassion toward his brothers and sisters on this planet.

 

Choosing Hope in the Face of Failure

I laugh about it now, but I stressed over the error for weeks. My beautiful new refrigerator was installed and the delivery men gone, when I realized that it was two inches deeper than my measurements. This fact was not a deal breaker because the fridge fit the width between the two adjacent cabinets. Unfortunately those extra inches of depth caused this appliance to block the utility drawer that opened across the front of the fridge. I used this drawer every day.

Since the front door has beveled edges it was not as deep at the sides as in the middle. I could open the drawer about 6 inches and touch the front compartments of the small organizer tray inside. Other important items in the back were frustratingly beyond my reach.

I thought almost obsessively about how I could rescue my spare keys, tape measure, and the winding key for my antique clock. My first solution was to find someone to help me temporarily disconnect the water line from the freezer unit and roll the 250 pound refrigerator out of the way so I could fully open and empty the kitchen drawer. I put off taking action, and time went by. The sight of the drawer taunted me with feelings of hopelessness in the situation.

One day I heard God tell me to push the plastic organizer tray to the back of the drawer and tilt the front of the tray up. Startled by this simple solution, I followed the instructions and the tray slid out easily with all the items I thought were so important. I felt such joy and laughed at myself for feeling so discouraged over something God fixed so easily. This experience reminded me that I am free from the lie of hopelessness. And I have an infinite resource and refuge in Christ who is not repulsed by my failures.

Psalm 94:19 (NIV) When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

Psalm 9:10 (NIV) Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

The Eve of Redemption

In 1964, a man named PF Sloan wrote a song called The Eve of Destruction. Barry McGuire and his gravelly baritone turned it into a hit song in 1965.

The eastern world, it is explodin',
Violence flarin', bullets loadin',
You're old enough to kill but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin',
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
You don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
No, no, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction

Is it remarkable that lyrics written more than fifty years ago may even ring truer today? The eve of destruction. For those of you not old enough to remember, the 60’s were tumultuous days and this song was definitely in tune with the undercurrent of the times. These days feel equally tumultuous to me with the current political situation in this country. There is much unrest, just like in the sixties… except more complicated somehow. Sometimes it can feel like we are careening down a long tunnel toward a horrific, violent demise as a culture… or even as a species.

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?
And can't you feel the fears I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Admittedly, fifty-three years is a long “eve” for any event (or is it?). A lot has happened in the last five decades but the world is still turning and we are still bopping around on it. If we dwell on all the darkness in this world, it can be difficult to believe that virtue and goodness will ever triumph. I must admit to wondering if there is hope for God’s promise of redemption but I refuse to believe that our only option is to simply live out meaningless days in a pointless life.

What I missed (hey, it’s been said that if you remember the sixties, then you weren’t really there… so I must plead the fifth on any further explanation) in the song at the time was in the chorus: No, no, you DON’T believe we're on the eve of destruction. The song is written as if a plea to those that do NOT believe we are destroying ourselves. I did not realize it at the time, but those words were written for me. Despite so much overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I am compelled to believe in the inherent goodness of all human beings. Therefore, I have found reason to stand upon God’s promise of redemption as written in Isaiah:

The world will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:9

Redemption is not some future event that we are awaiting, but it is available to anyone at any time. In fact, I believe that redemption is at hand. To fulfill God’s promise of redemption, we must understand that a divine spark resides within each and every one of us. We must then use this spark to help illuminate the darkness that fills this world… feed our souls. We cannot illuminate the world, of course, without first illuminating our own lives so that we can rise above our self-centeredness and surrender to God’s will.  We Christians honor the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the instrument of our redemption and there are people all over the world, who believe in God’s promise of redemption, living lives of honor and integrity.  

“Redemption is God telling us that the reason for which He created the universe will be realized: that goodness will prevail.”
Simon Jacobsen

Something is happening in the spiritual realm. God is fulfilling this promise of redemption in individuals all over this planet every day and the spirit of the redeemed heart cannot help but draw others toward that spark… as we are drawn toward the miracle of redemption.

And I tell you over and over and over again my friend,
I do believe we're on the eve of redemption.
Yes, yes, I do believe we're on the eve of redemption.

"In God's Hands" by Sara Gore

I found my wallet yesterday. What a tremendous relief after searching for over a week!

Misplacing my wallet was nothing new to me, but I worried this time because 10 days had passed. I delayed creating new bank and credit card accounts with the hope it would turn up soon. I ran out of cash and groceries and was left with peanut butter sandwiches. Raised in a partially pessimistic environment, my default pattern was panic, hopelessness, paralysis, and isolation. I worked hard to avoid those traps and learned a far more valuable lesson that I treasure. 

After praying for God’s help to find it, I felt a receipt of joy and calm. This reminded me my burden was now in God’s hands and all would be well, no matter the outcome. I resisted the many urges to panic and stay stuck in a hopeless funk. Persistent patience was my doorway to the path of trusting God and enjoying His plans for me. I chose to not give up on myself because God says He will never give up on me.

Life experience has taught me an attitude of hopeful and joyful expectancy in God’s faithful provision is crucial! My choice of hope and joy is a vital piece of armor in the battle over my mind’s attitude and my faith in God’s salvation. A member of a previous church I attended once said the helmet of salvation is living with the belief that we can each look forward to good things from our Lord every day! This protects our mind from the lie of hopelessness.

When I finally found my wallet, it was in one of the first places I looked. It had fallen behind a bag of office supplies and was hidden. My subsequent searches had jostled it loose and made it visible. I’m so thankful I did not give up. And I believe my choice of trusting God and resisting hopelessness gave me eyes to see what was waiting for me to claim. My renewed goal is to spend more time in joy and thanksgiving for God’s gift of life and salvation, regardless of my circumstances! And most importantly I feel a bit more aware of God’s loving presence that is always with me. Thank you Lord Jesus!

“O Lord you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, planned long ago.” Isaiah 25:1 NIV

"Frankl Insights" by John Rice

“Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as a by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.” -Viktor E. Frankl

I came across the quote while rereading one of my favorite books, one of those books you reread every couple of years until it falls apart at the seam. This book, Man’s Search for Meaning, was written by an Austrian psychiatrist who survived both Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps, whose only crime was being Jewish in a Nazi world.

Half of the book talks about what it was like living under the most horrendous, inhumane conditions imaginable, living in a place where just showing a hint of weakness could brand you as “useless” and could mean you were sent to your death in a “shower” of poisonous gases and then burned to ashes. Dr. Frankl determined that as long as he lived in this hellish place, he would make a study of the way people, including himself, reacted to these extremely abnormal circumstances. He hoped that his insights would be of use to people even long after his death. And they most certainly have been.

It seems to me that one of the greatest insights Frankl discovered during that time, and that is relevant to every human being living everywhere, no matter what the circumstances, is this:

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, the freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you feel and do about what happens to you.

In the camps, on the very first day, one was stripped of everything they had ever had: their families, their friends, their money, their importance, their careers, their responsibilities, their control, their clothes, their shoes, their jewelry, their hair (they were shaved head to toe)….and even their names. They were tattooed with numbers which became their only identity within the camp from then on. Literally stripped naked of everything that had previously formed their identity, they were left with only one thing still under their control: how they would respond. No one can take this freedom away from us, ever. While many people in such circumstances succumb to the temptation to crawl their way over everyone else to save their own life (and certainly this is understandable), there were those who kept forever focused on a higher purpose, a cause for hope, a refusal to become just like the animals who were torturing them. As Frankl believed, having a WHY to live enables people to bear the HOW to live, even in the worst of circumstances.

All of this makes me so very aware of how fortunate we are as children of the living God. The answer to WHY we live starts with being created in His image. We have a purpose in seeing His Kingdom established on earth as it is in heaven. We are called to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength. And we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. Knowing these things as the WHY of life, we are enabled to deal with the HOW of life. When Frankl says, as in the quote at the beginning of this devotional, that success and happiness are the unintended side-effects of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as a by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself, we can see that we, as Believers, are poised for the greatest success and joy just by giving our lives to God, letting Him live within us,  and by following His ways, no matter what our surroundings.

Most of us, hopefully, will never experience anything like a concentration camp. We do, however, face trials and hardships, sickness and limitations, injustices and offenses, losses and grief in many different ways throughout our lives. How will we respond to those? It may be easy and understandable to become bitter, negative, vengeful or even despairing in the face of the trials, but if we can just step back a bit and remember the bigger picture, remember Who has given us life and purpose and hope, we might walk through life in a better way, with head lifted high.

Frankl says, “We have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however he is also that being that entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.”


Scriptures

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.   Phil 1:21

The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.    Gal 2:20

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for My sake will find it.   Mt 16:25

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Mt 16:26

 

"Out of this World" by Shelby Tucker


John 15:19 (KJV) reads: "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

I have often in life felt hated by the world. Like the rules and the systems were only in place for my dismay. Like it was wrong to love and live freely and as though I truly could not belong. Before finding the love of Christ, this was a very scary thought to me. For when the world is all we know, and it seems to hate us with a vigorous agenda that we can't understand, what else do we have? Where is our hope???

My hope was found in Jesus! Jesus tells me that when the world is especially nasty to me, it means I have been chosen. That my name has been written in the book of life. That my place is in the Kingdom, not in the world. THAT LOVE AND TRUTH ARE WINNING! I remind myself that it's not me alone that the world is out to get, it's Jesus. For Jesus is the truest truth, and upon His return He will shed light on the world's lies, on its indecency.

The world isn't mad at me, it's mad that Christ has one more follower. It's upset because it knows it will be caught in its web of lies, that it's reign will not last forever. It's simply lashing out like a child not getting his way. So when I feel especially outcast from societal points of view, especially angry at the corruption of the system, and especially unable to exist within either of these, I keep my faith in Christ. Knowing full well that it is, in fact, in my favor to be "out of this world".
 

"Expect the Frogs" by Lauren Watson

One of my favorite places is the Oregon Garden, it’s where I go to have a date with Jesus. I walk through Creation, enjoy the beauty of the flora, listen to the birds and to the Holy Spirit. Recently as I was wandering, I found myself getting excited as I approached a certain location and realized it was a spot where I had a treat a few years ago. My friend and I had been photographing a stand of dahlias, and noticed some adorable little tree frogs hiding inside the very large blossoms; it was such a surprise and gave me some of my favorite photos. Since then, I have found them only occasionally in that same area but each time I expect to see something special there. I have also seen them in other types of flowers in other areas, but I know to look and HOPE to be delighted.

As I walked towards the dahlias and felt my excitement grow, I heard the Lord say it was just like prayer. We go to a lovely place to invest time with the Lord, knowing the time itself is an amazing experience. However, since I have had a supernatural healing, I believe and expect there to be the extraordinary replies, like the charming little critters.

I often go to this place physically and spiritually and each time it’s different, but what I heard on my stroll is to not overlook the garden and its beauty while searching for the revelations. I have--right now--a huge Gift of faith and am enjoying His Presence and it is enough to be with Him and know that the heart of our loving heavenly Father is to give beyond what we need, to delight us.

Why are some prayers answered and others not? How do we believe when some people are healed and others suffer and even die? How can we trust when we ask according to the Scriptures but don’t see the expected results? These are big stumbling blocks for so many Christians and since I’ve experienced my own miracle, a topic of discussion that comes up often in my hearing, I’ve pondered and asked how to represent why I got a Gift of healing and my friends still hurt, and I got frogs. 

We don’t know what the answers to our prayers will be but when we take time with God and expect the best, sometimes we get to experience the miraculous. I am convinced that when we have the ability to look back on our lives and truly see the trail we’re on we will see how many frogs we missed along the way. They might be hiding in the pretty flowers of blessings or may be in the murky waters of suffering, but they are there and the Creator knows where each is and how it benefits our path.

So keep your eyes open for those frogs.