Sooner or later, some (if not all) of our dreams won’t come true.
Take, for example, the ambitious yuppie out to make a big name for himself in the corporate world, only to toil in obscurity. Or the mid-life person who looks back at his life choices with bitter regret. Or a person entering retirement, wondering what he will do for the rest of his life.
When our cherished dreams go unfulfilled or suppressed, in one sense they have died. It is seasons like this that we need to reconnect with Easter.
The wonderful news is that death does not have the final word. Christians worldwide celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe that He died, was buried and rose from the dead. In this way, He validated His claims to be the Son of God, Lord and Savior of the world.
Let us embrace the world as it really is, not as how we want it to be. It is great to dream big and set goals. But goals that hinge on the behavior of other people or on favorable circumstances can be recipes for frustration.
It sounds like a big gamble, but sometimes we have to let go of cherished goals before we can discover loftier ones.
I know of a mid-life person kept complaining about his less-than-stellar career. After a while, he realized that he was crippling himself of the ability to improve his situation. He finally let go of his unrealized dreams.
He was at peace. He no longer sees his office as a dungeon, but as a divine appointment. “I am here because God put me here,” he told me, “Now I will be faithful to the task.”
Such is the power of Easter. Dreams have died, but new meaning sprouted to life.
Dr. Gordon Smith offers this sage advice: God will lead us every step of the way, but He leads us one step at a time. God knows the end from the beginning, but we in our finiteness can’t even see what lies around the corner.
We cook up great dreams for ourselves, but God has far more wonderful dreams for us. Since He is in full control of people and circumstances, we can be sure His goals for us will come true. We must believe this even if, for the meantime, the path is dark and difficult.
Remember, one cannot have Easter without the Cross. Even if our present life is the product of poor choices, God can use even that for our blessing.
As long as we entrust ourselves to Him, no failure is final or fatal. In due time, He will redeem even our heartaches and disappointments.
Death could have barred Jesus from being with us in our triumphs and tragedies. But the good news of Easter is that He overcame death so that indeed He can be by our side. Not only in this world, but with God for all eternity.
May God open doors of blessing for you, just as He opened the door of a tomb that fateful Sunday.
Thomas is us: we with a wounded soul, desperate to believe, but dreading to be hurt again. He loved Jesus so much that when he saw his beloved Master hanging naked and bleeding on the cross, his world collapsed.
When he heard the rumors that Jesus had risen again, it was more out of anguish than scorn when he spat, “Unless I put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
If we long to be healed, what is it that we want Jesus to reveal to us? His presence? His compassion? His meekness?
The wonderful thing was that it was not Thomas who sought Jesus; Jesus was the one who sought Thomas.
All the remaining Apostles were in a locked room and Jesus came. There is no locked room in our hearts that Jesus cannot enter, if we are willing – but unable – to open that door.
Jesus does not barge in or kick the door open. But He does make His presence known when we least expect it, even when we are stewing in our own neurosis.
I find comfort that Jesus greeted everyone in the room, “Peace be with you!” and then He turned to Thomas. We may be in a crowd, we may be in a congregation, but the Good Shepherd intimately knows each of us.
In the story, He has singled out a sheep wandering in doubt. So, too, His eyes are always upon each of us.
Jesus did not scold or deride Thomas for his doubt. “After all these three years, how dare you?!” No, in tender grace, He offered Thomas to see and touch His hands and side.
We are never told if Thomas actually touched the hands and side. I get the impression that just one look at the Risen Savior was enough for him to fall on his knees and worship. Perhaps the antidote to anxiety and despair is not information, but incarnation.
Have you noticed that although Jesus had a resurrected body, He chose to keep the marks on His hands and sides? That is perhaps the most amazing lesson of all.
When we are tempted to worry about our finances, health, career or relationships, perhaps what we need is another hard look at those marks. In Jesus’ wounds, we find healing for our own.
Thomas lived on to be a staunch follower of the Risen Lord, forsaking all, even his own life. Tradition says that he has brought the Gospel all the way to India and was eventually martyred.
It won’t be long that we will be “back to reality”. We will once more slog through the valley, the forest, the wilderness. I wish we can carry the consolation of Holy Week every day.
But in one sense, we can. When we are tempted anew to despair, when we find ourselves again in a locked room, our magnificent Lord finds us and shows us His marks: “See? This is how much I love you. Do you think after what I have gone through, I will abandon you?”
Thank you, Thomas.
Jesus was betrayed by one of his “direct reports.”
He was hauled to a kangaroo court and sentenced to what is arguably the most monstrous means of execution even devised by man.
He was rejected, beaten up, flogged, stripped, spat at and mocked at.
Finally, brutal Roman soldiers hammered spikes through his wrists and feet, then raised Him up, stark naked, on a rough wooden cross like a piece of raw meat.
We all know that Jesus went through a horrible, excruciating crucifixion. What we don’t usually think about is where He is now. Anticipating Easter, God raised Him up not only from the dead, but to kingly dominion – the crown.
The “no cross, no crown” principle is universal. The warrior’s motto is “no guts, no glory.” Health buffs chant “no pain, no gain.” No Olympic athlete can expect winning a gold medal without the rigors and sacrifices of training.
A friend of mine was hired as a church secretary. Now you may think that working in a church is like a preview of Heaven, blissful harmony with co-workers who are candidates for sainthood.
A shock awaited her. Her predecessor gave her such a hard time during the turn-over period that she felt humiliated and overworked.
My friend told the senior pastor that she wanted to quit just a few days after being hired. The pastor sympathetically listened. After she poured out her grief, he wisely said, “You are free to resign, but you will be missing out on the glory had you stayed.”
Encouraged, she put up with her predecessor’s attitude until it was the latter’s time to leave. Now with free hand, she re-organized the systems and files of the church office until it was the model of efficiency. She stayed on for three years, capping each year with an excellent rating in her performance appraisals.
When it was her time to leave, she made sure that her replacement would not go through a hurtful and frustrating turnover she had before. In fact, she was so organized, the turn-over to the new secretary took less than a day. My friend left in glory.
When you will bear your own cross – being overworked and underpaid, being shouted at or exploited, being in obscurity or despair – I encourage you to consider Him who endured His cross until the time He was raised to a position of indisputable, glorious authority.
Perhaps your cross is being jobless in the first place.
But as long as we entrust ourselves to the Father, He will make everything right in the end.
It was true during the first Holy Week. It remains true this week.
Sometimes leadership means doing the opposite of a status quo.
Consider this simple example. I run two factories. I was manager of the first for about three years. Then the manager of the second factory retired and I was given his operations as well. Both factories are within the same compound.
Soon afterwards, I checked the office of the retired manager. There on his desk was a gleaming service bell, the kind you see in hotel reception desks.
Curious, I pressed the bell. TING!
One staff rose from a nearby cubicle and dutifully went to me. It was soon evident that my predecessor used the bell to summon someone to his office so he can issue instructions or hand over some documents.
“What am I? A king?” I thought.
So I told that staff to remove the bell. That was the first and last time I ever used it. I like to think that this simple act spoke volumes more than if I were to give a flowery inaugural speech.
I have the habit of going to people, not telling them to go to me. I am a big believer of servant leadership and it is more of deeds, not words.
For example, HR would leave a document on my desk for my signature. After I signed it, I would hand-carry the document to the HR office. This also allowed me some walking exercise and small talk with the troops.
Later, I learned one angle of how I got the second factory. Its operations head noticed my practice and when his boss (the manager of that second factory) was retiring, he lobbied that I take over.
Leadership goes like that: many times you have to go against the flow. Jesus modeled reversals too:
Instead of telling people to go to Him, He went to people.
Instead of demanding to be served, He is servant of all.
Instead of having someone wash His feet, He washed His disciples’ feet.
And the biggest reversal of all:
Instead of us striving for a good life to earn our way to heaven, Jesus died a horrible death at the Cross so that we, by grace through faith, receive eternal life.
Yes, leadership means that we do the reverse of an accepted paradigm or protocol.
So the next time you see a service bell, try not to fall in love with it. Love people instead and the rest will follow.
A friend told me, “Nelson, I am worried about Russia invading Ukraine. What if it leads to World War III?”
I can imagine him having apocalyptic visions of massive armies drenched in bloodbath, the global economy in shambles, perhaps even nuclear winter.
I understand. These nightmare scenarios crossed my imagination, too.
But there is one perspective we need to keep in mind.
Jesus said in two separate occasions “You will hear wars and rumors of wars… I have said these things to you, that in me, you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world” (Matthew 24:6, John 16:32b-33).
These are realistic words. War exists. We cannot be spiritual ostriches hiding our heads in the sand. We cannot flippantly say of the Ukraine crisis as “oh, don’t worry, God is in control.”
But rather than sinking into dismay, Jesus invites us to take heart. The secret is to take heart in WHO.
We fret, even panic, because we think our fate lies in the hands of global leaders. “If only Putin were not that greedy.” “If only Biden would show more guts.”
But these avail us naught. In declaring that He had overcome the world, Jesus is inviting us to put our trust in Him. To show for it, He has died on the Cross and risen from the dead. If He has conquered death, He can conquer anything.
So why is this still happening? After all, didn’t Jesus use the past perfect tense? “I HAVE overcome the world,” He claimed. So why didn’t He put a tight lease on Putin? Or usher world peace, for that matter?
The writer of Hebrews answered it well. Paraphrasing 2:5-9, we do not see the world as it should be: where justice flows like a mighty river, where swords will be beaten into plowshares, where nobody will cry out in pain ever again. But we see Jesus, Who one day will make everything right.
Have you placed your heart in the hands of the Prince of Peace? Only then we can take heart. Only then we can watch the world plunge into tribulation… and still be unshaken.
Debra had a sinking feeling when the executive vice-president summoned her to his office.
Barely out of journalism school, she was hired to manage a major direct mail campaign for a publishing company. This involved supervising the copy writing, production and distribution. It did not reassure her that the executive somberly asked her to take a seat.
The executive told Debra that the printed envelopes she ordered were too small for the brochures to fit inside them. In short, the envelopes were useless. Debra instantly realized the impact: additional costs to rectify the problem, lower profits, and delayed distribution.
“I’m sorry, Deb,” the executive said, “Now you have to go…”
Fighting back her tears, she rose from her chair and mumbled, “I’ll clean up my desk.”
The executive smiled, “No, you didn’t get me. Go call the printer and see how quickly he can print the new envelopes. Just make sure you tell them the right size. Then come back and let’s figure this out.”
Debra left his office in a daze, unsure whether it was due to her mistake or her boss’s reaction. She made the call, got the information, and hesitantly reported to the executive. Schedules were quickly revised, but Debra lingered on.
“Sir, is that it?” she asked, “You’re not going to fire me? Or tell me how this is all my fault? Or how could I have been so stupid?”
“Deb,” the executive replied, “these things happen. Trying to figure out whose fault it is won’t do anything to solve the problem. We all make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning.”
While mistakes are inevitable, what counts is how we benefit from them. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning. This does not give us license to render sloppy work, uncaring on how our mistakes will affect the company. But neither should we fail to learn from honest mistakes. Just don’t commit the same blunder again and again.
So if you are haunted by that boo-boo last week, take heart. Mistakes and failure don’t define you. Now back to the task at hand…
My list of covid-positive friends to pray for is getting longer and longer. Just today I added seven more names. It’s getting so long that I have to write the list down instead of keeping it in my head.
Omicron has smothered our Christmas euphoria and New Year optimism. More and more people are locked in isolation or quarantine. I will not be surprised that we will have workplace paranoia: will I get covid at the office?
How are we to respond? We have but one: as the number of cases multiply, we have to multiply our hope.
Look, sometimes I wonder if we are in a pandemic Sisyphus. In ancient Greek myth, Sisyphus was punished by the gods in that he was to repeatedly roll a heavy rock up a hill in Hades. As soon as he reached the top, the rock rolled back down to the bottom.
In our case, heaven forbid that for every vaccine invented to kill one variant, a new strain takes its place. I dread an alternative history that will be forever divided into three chunks: B.C.E., A.D., and COVID. “Walang katapusan” is the apt Filipino worry.
But here’s something better than sinking into despair.
Do you know that we can expand the capacity of our emotions? We can embrace both joy and sorrow at the same time. We can douse fear with courage. We can temper anger with mercy. We can stretch patience and grit until the prize is won.
In the same way, when we hear of another person who has covid, we make room in our hearts for more hope. Hope that he or she will get well. Hope that there is indeed a time limit to the pandemic.
And yes, hope in a God different from what Sisyphus had. Those imaginary Greek deities took perverse glee in this man’s futility. But we have a real God who hates this pandemic far more than we do.
So why doesn’t God just wave His hand and make it all go away? You know, like a bad dream? Or are we just kidding ourselves with all those prayers? Does this mean we don’t need more faith; we just need more disinfectant?
I don’t know. But one thing I know:
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:5, 11; 46:5)
So when you know of yet another friend who has covid, choose again to hope in God, “for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”
Is this God your God? If so, multiply your hope. Look forward to praise.
Have a hope-full week ahead! Shalom.
“Unclean! Unclean!”
In Biblical times, lepers had to cry out this chilling refrain. Not only that, millennia before covid, Scripture already laid out health protocols of social distancing and quarantine. “As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:46).
What added to the lepers’ anguish was missing out on the joys of normal social interaction. Imagine being barred from attending a wedding celebration, holding a baby in your arms, or entering a place of worship.
Sounds familiar?
Okay, maybe there is a point where comparing leprosy and covid is like comparing apples and oranges. It’s not as if covid patients will get disfigured or lose their fingers. But it is debilitating and life-threatening in its own way.
And it disrupts relationships. It is Day 3 of my isolation and I soooo miss holding the Queen’s hands. Hands that are wearing out because she had to bear the brunt of housework, cooking and laundry, all by her lonesome.
But there is hope. The same Jesus Christ who was merciful to literal lepers is as merciful to us metaphoric lepers.
The Gospels famously narrate how Jesus healed lepers. Don’t think of this simply as healing stunts. In His time, if you touched a leper, you will be considered unclean, too. Yet that was what Jesus did! Luke 5:13 pointedly said that He “reached out his hand and touched the [leper].”
In compassion so utter that it can only be divine, we see an astonishing reversal. The Clean became unclean. The unclean became clean.
Yes, we covid patients have to be “cut off” from society, whether it is for 7, 14 or 21 days. In severe cases, there is the specter of death. We wonder when this pandemic will end. I’m speculating whether it will end at all. Don’t tell me the Greek alphabet will run out of letters before we can declare the virus has been vanquished.
I really cannot promise you that your covid will be healed. That is not mine to declare, let alone having the power to make it so.
But Jesus, the Clean for the Unclean, shares our travails. If He is truly the center of your life, then you are not really alone. Even if it’s just you and your mirror reflection in a 4 meter x 5 meter room.
Do you know this Jesus? More than hoping you get boosted, I do hope you have this peace that can only come by faith in Jesus Christ.
Shalom to you.
April 16, 2022
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