This Thanksgiving, don’t just express gratitude over what you have but also what you don’t have. Often, we celebrate the providence and faithfulness of God during this time of year; however, are we acknowledging what God has saved us from and/or what He may be withholding to mature us in season?
Some thoughts to consider…
Supporting Bible verses:
Philippians 4:1 “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Jonah 2:9 “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’”
Psalm 103:2-5 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
2 Corinthians 9:10 “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.”
Isaiah 9:3 “You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as soldiers rejoice when dividing the plunder.“
Last Saturday, as I waited to board a flight to Seattle, a heartbreaking scene unfolded outside my gate entrance. Taking a last-minute call, my eyes beheld a young boy sobbing profusely as he clenched his father’s jacket. Processing the scene, it wasn’t long before the situation became clear.
The dad, slightly greasy and decorated with tattoos, emanated the type of vibe a father shows when lacking relational depth – his emotional aroma more melancholy than anguish, as if time and circumstances had numbed the grief. Watching tears stream down his son’s face, I couldn’t help but crack. The pure yet raw emotion of the instant captured a snapshot I will never forget.
Moments later, as I searched for a window seat, I saw the boy a few rows in front of me. I heard a flight attendant utter his name, “Sam” with a tender tone. Apparently, she was not only aware of his flying status but also the distress he was in.
Passing Sam by, he appeared stunned, glued to the back of his seat with eyes still bloodshot.
“God, I hate divorce. I hate it, I hate it, hate it,” was all I could internalize.
Overwhelmed by the visual, I pushed my seat back and began to drift.
An hour later, I woke up to find an astonishing sight. Cruising by the aisles was Sam, who had decided to assist one of the flight attendants in serving snacks to the rest of the passengers. Once subdued, Sam’s demeanor had completely transformed. Perhaps he was reminded of something positive or received an encouraging word. Whatever the case, Sam’s rapid conversion was nothing short of inspiring.
Sensing Jesus in the moment, my perspective started to change. While my disdain for divorce was still fresh in my periphery, I couldn’t help but voice gratitude for how God was using the love of strangers to multiply the sentiment. Often, we simmer when we emotionally attach to the victim of a tragic situation. We consider the sufferer and misappropriate our feet in their shoes assuming our anger is somehow a function of advocacy. But when an innocent child like Sam cheers up in the purest sense, you realize even a great tragedy like divorce pales in the face of what God can do to redeem the hurt of something He hates.
Deplaning the aircraft hours later, I kept a few paces behind Sam walking out of the tunnel. Unlike his boarding, I noted a skip in his step as he scampered to his mother. The real Sam had arrived.
Fast-forward 15 years later, and Sam occasionally pops into my mind, each time a prompt to pray for minors in the middle to become mighty men and women of God. How many little kids struggling with their parent’s divorce think they are the reason their mommy and daddy are no longer together? How many still bear shame because they weren’t taught how to deal with it? While only heaven knows, it’s that Kingdom I want to extend on earth as far as it be with me.
As for the rest of us, whether we’re mentors or bystanders in similar situations, we all have a part in sowing compassion to bridge divides in broken families. Regardless of our role, let’s pursue it with excellence.
In the sands of American history, there’s arguably no stretch more nerve-racking than the final weeks of October during an election year. Even if you’re not on edge, you can still sense the tensity in the air. With only one week left until Election Night, the curiosity across the country is palpable as anticipation builds and pique nears its peak.
Like many, I don’t fancy myself with deep political acumen or tempt egocentrism as the center of a finite worldview. If anything, I just want to keep up with the news to know how to pray for my county, city, state, and country. Apart from that, I’m not one to hitch my faith to narratives rooted in intimidation and fear.
Yet, as for the point of this post, I want to encourage us to anticipate trust in the coming days. Not anger, not disappointment, but vertical confidence ready to be humble. As a wise voice recently reminded me, the time is now not only to have faith in the present…but in advance. While human nature seeks certainty to offset discomfort, to calm the storm ahead of us, when we consider Jesus, we find the opposite. When He was distraught, when the storm was imminent, He counted it all joy to wait on the improbable and believe in the impossible respectively. By His example and the Comforter in tandem, we can receive the gift of faith, pursue the power of prayer, and believe with purity intact for the breakthroughs we crave.
Having said that, there’s hardly a solution that instantly quenches our anxieties this side of heaven; hence, the call we have to lean on God as we cast our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:6-7). Among my concerns is the tendency we have to leave the backdoor open for anger, doubt, and entitlement to manifest.
For instance, in my case, there are times I will declare confidence in prayer yet simultaneously cling to the thought of wrestling with God about our country’s future later on. The conviction here lies in what I’m making room for. While yielding to God is a wise move, if we’re preemptively giving our faith an out, is it really faith at all?
Regardless of where we stand, we must ask ourselves if there’s anything or anyone outside the divine to which we’re anchoring our trust. If our belief is confined to the moment, in the ways of man, then the holy perspective in which it’s designed to thrive will likely suffer. Far too often, we’re content to reference God as a cause-to-effect, as a reaction to the storm. Little do we know in doing this, we sustain the historic pattern of misappropriating Christ’s identity amid conflict desperate for a worldly king to set us free.
My charge to us is as we contend for God’s will to be realized in this nation is two-fold:
1) Let’s recognize the Messiahship of Jesus by anticipating the experience of God out of the present into the future. In doing this, we can create room for our emotions, thoughts, and beliefs to find rest, even if our surface goals and expectations aren’t realized.
2) Let’s surrender our contingency plans to grapple with God if we don’t see the immediate fruit of our hope. As many social media posts have highlighted, the same God who sent His one and only Son, is still on the throne regardless of the election outcome; however, we must understand this isn’t a call to passivity, but to lift our faith and sow gratitude into our hope for a better tomorrow.
At the end of the day, God is faithful to establish His purposes through the authorities He appoints and the decisions we make. At the very least, knowing God’s desire to partner with us is not subject to the color of democracy, is enough for me to stiff-arm simmering apprehensions.
I don’t have much to say today. Based on this post’s time stamp, you can deduce how sleep…just isn’t easy on September 18. Perhaps rightfully so.
That said, I want to set a friendly reminder to all who believe and profess the name of Jesus to stay intentional in making room for Him. As recent Mercy devos have reminded me, there’s a sweetness in meeting Christ in the incarnation, delighting in His Immanuel presence, and declaring His Hosanna. All day, every day, He’s in the business of being with us, His arm never too short to save and settle what we’re meant to cast upon Him.
For me and the fam, we will be visiting a couple places today to remember Juju in a way that allows lamentation to become celebration. For those wrestling with grief, we must understand both realities have their place and must be entered into with expectancy. When we lament in the Biblical sense, we’re not only emptying ourselves before God in vulnerability but surrendering to His Lordship in confidence.
Applied to the road, think of lamentation as the slow-down before the yield. To drive defensively in this situation, one must prepare the car’s direction by first adjusting the speed necessary for it to align to the proper course. In many ways, this is how we should view the heart when we’re asking God for help, relief, even salvation. When in doubt, slow down, anticipate the yield, and invite God into your space.
Once your inner man is at the right speed, sound out your gratitude and heartache in praise knowing there will be glory after this. To me, this is the beauty of lamentation given it’s almost always the first or second leg in our immediate journey to refreshment and release. Although it’s never a straight line, you can count on it as a bee-line to the Father’s heart of love.
In due time, some media will emerge as snapshots on the wall of a day done well; however, if you’re reading this, you now know the framework, the ‘why’ if you will. Wherever you’re at, whatever you’re going through, understand lamentation is more than the expression of sorrow meets honesty, but a key way we say ‘yes’ to God as we make room for Him. Be encouraged to go and do likewise.
Question: Why did Jesus curse the fig tree post-triumphal entry in Mark 11?
A few nuggets for thought…
Observations: Like other instances in the Gospels, the account of Jesus scolding the fig tree appears random at first until we consider the context. Let’s break the chapter’s first segment into three layers:
Layer 1: v. 2-6 – Jesus enters Jerusalem on a virgin colt a week ahead of His death and resurrection.
Layer 2: v. 7-10, Jesus hears ‘Hosannas’ from the crowd, many of who misappropriate His identity.
Layer 3: v. 11, Jesus travels to the temple for His first of two cameos.
All layers applied, we can see how Christ metaphorically entered the future home of His bride to love and purify her with holy intent.
Yet, as the scene changes in v. 12, so does the tone. On route to Bethany, Jesus notices a fig tree in leaf and after searching for fruit to no avail, He curses the tree: “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
Again, this seems harsh, albeit justified considering His rumblings. Still, the ‘outburst’ is necessary. Here’s why…
Jesus, being the Master of big picture symbolism, rebukes the tree, not so much for the lack of fruit, but because His created failed to recognize His identity in the construct of its original design. Although the season isn’t conducive for figs (v. 13), the tree should have produced sustenance for Him prior to His temple return. No wonder Jesus responds in hangry fashion!
After cleansing the temple (v. 15-19), Jesus and the disciples return to the fig tree where Peter observes the tree has withered to the root. Factoring in the temple’s distance from the tree and the likely duration of their temple stint, one can deduce a 24-hour decay, not as swift as Matthew’s account (21:19b), but impressive nonetheless.
This miraculous transformation highlights three tactics of Jesus in the moment:
He empowered the disciples to believe in greater measure, to have faith in anything being possible in His name (v. 23 – “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”)
He encouraged the disciples to know the authority they carried within on account of such faith.
He associated the power of prayer and forgiveness to knowing Him with expectant hope (v. 25 – “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”)
Application: Zooming out, we find some powerful connections. Within the passage, the adamant tree represents the people of Israel, specifically those who cried out “Hosanna” yet failed to recognize His Messiahship; however, closer to home, the fig tree emphasizes the value of staying connected to Jesus as branches to the vine. Without Him, there is no original design or ability to yield fruit. Thus, it does not make sense to live as if Jesus doesn’t exist when the universe’s pulse is to the contrary.
The cautionary tale of Mark 11 is simple: If we live a life cut off from the root of faith, the cornerstone Himself, we will deprive ourselves of bearing fruit and witness alike. May we be a body who not only discovers and references God in all seasons, but stays in position to give what He asks us so the world may be blessed by the fullness of life we carry.
