Transitory Psychosis

This week I’ve posted about my definition of success: Success is doing God’s will, God’s way, in God’s timing. That definition, of course, raises the question: How do we know the will of God? That’s what the previous post began to address. (If you’ve missed those posts, you may want to go back and read them.)

We’ve looked at two means by which Christians can determine God’s will: His Word (the Bible), and His Spirit (the Holy Spirit). Let’s look at two more.

3. God sometimes reveals His will through His people. There are times when God has spoken through His people to reveal His will. In a sense, this is really the Holy Spirit speaking through people to reveal God’s will. Acts 21 provides one example when Agabus delivered to Paul the news of the imprisonment that awaited him at Jerusalem (verses 10-12). Because of human frailty and fallibility, I list this third among the means God uses to reveal His will. Human beings, even Christians, can be influenced by other factors and give us a bum steer at times. In Acts 21, if Paul had listened to his friends, he would’ve avoided imprisonment by not going to Jerusalem (verses 12-14). Had he done so, he would’ve missed the opportunity to take the gospel to the high-ranking officials in Rome and we would’ve been deprived of the rich epistles he wrote in prison. When seeking the will of God, we should listen to the counsel of good and godly brethren, but we must evaluate it based on the revelation found in the Word of God. (more…)

I’ve been thinking about some married couples I have known. The particular couples I have in mind are of a variety of ages, live in different parts of the country, and are of varied economic status. All, however, have one thing in common–one partner suffers from serious debilitating illness.

The illnesses vary: blindness, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, cancer, etc. In some cases, the illness has been determined to be terminal–the end is in sight. In other cases the illness is “merely” debilitating. The healthy spouse is forced to watch as his or her partner in life slowly spirals downward.
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I’m writing this on a plane, headed home from a 13-day vacation. The trip has been mostly about seeing family, celebrating my father’s 80th birthday, and eating—too much eating—but I’ll save the details for another time. I’ve been struck by something on this trip that often I hardly notice.

This is really only the second trip I’ve taken by air since my MS has worsened to the point that standing in long security lines and walking long distances from check-in to gates has become uncomfortable–enough so that I am willing to make use of the airline-provided wheelchairs and courtesy personnel. (Short walks and even stairs don’t bother me much, but long walks or standing for a long period of time quickly becomes uncomfortable.)
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With a title like this one you may be expecting a rant about how bad today’s teens are. If so, you’re going to be disappointed. This is a different story.

First, a little background. I have MS. I’m ambulatory (I walk without assistance most of the time), but my balance is poor and my stamina is definitely limited–especially in warm weather. As a result, the bushes and beds around our house look pretty shaggy, a lot of the time. Until recently, my wife has done all the yard work. Now we hire it done.

That’s why after returning home from a trip, we both nearly broke into tears. Our yard, beds, and bushes looked great! Freshly manicured, dead bushes removed, and a long bed was even covered with a fresh load of bark. It looked so good, our neighbors probably expected to see a for sale sign go up.

Who was responsible for this. Some energetic teens and a mom. She had organized this effort as a service project. This crew, including her, worked for several hours in the heat to do what we cannot do for ourselves. In doing so, they demonstrated the love of Christ to us–a testimony of teens that love God and others and parents who are passing along the baton of faith.