Dream again -

 

David Augsburg in his book “When Enough is Enough” wrote some sage advice…

“People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.    Love them anyway.   

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.  Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.   Do good anyway.

Honesty will make you vulnerable.   Be honest anyway.  

The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds.   Think big anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build anyway.

People really need help, but may attack you if you do help them.  Help them anyway.”

 

Life is “tough” – live it anyway (Doug Duty)

 

You have (you may have had) some impressive ideas, some daring dreams and powerful potential… It is my prayer that you never lose those – if you have I pray that you can rekindle them. You see if you do lose that, life takes on “mundaneness” – sort of just going through the motions.

I want to tell you today about a great example of living in the Old Testament, in fact it is one of (if not the #1) favorites of mine in the Bible.

But first -

Think back to the dreams and hopes and aspirations that you had… what kept you from them, what kept you from reaching them? Sure life is difficult, sure life has its twists and turns BUT life can be lived with an upward calling… life can be lived with those “dreams” finding reality. 

Let’s look at one man in the bible that made those “dreams” into reality… my friend Nehemiah. I love the life of Nehemiah; what he did, what drove him, how he went about his calling… in his life you can see several aspects of a person living upwards…

At the beginnings of what was driving Nehemiah – In Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 4 it reads – “Now it came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

You see, Nehemiah - Had heart – when he heard the suffering and demise of the people his heart was broken; he felt for them and that feeling lead him to do something.

I know that it is easy to get caught up in our own circle, our own limited world. In this day and age it is far too easy to become callous, jaded and removed. We are bombarded by television, newspapers and the internet until we are numb. And once that happens we pull inward – we no longer see possibilities – we only want to survive. That is when we lose heart and we lose the drive to strive for something bigger than ourselves. And then we lose our dreams and aspirations, our goals become only distant “has beens”.

What are we to do –

1. Don’t let today’s circumstance steal tomorrow’s hopes.

Nehemiah could have. While he was doing all right for himself as the king’s cupbearer he had dreams of going home, of being with his people and he saw more in his life than what was happening at the moment.

2. Don’t let today’s “stuff” harden your heart.

It is far, far too easy to get hardened by the world, to want to put a shield around your heart because you are tired of getting hurt. But when that happens you lose the ability to feel compassion and passion for something more.

3. Don’t let today’s activities keep you from going to God.

Nehemiah, heart moved, went straight to God, he talked with God and shared his concerns and his broken heart. We will find out later that Nehemiah did that a lot! When was the last time you took your dreams and hopes, you hearts desires to God and told Him how deeply you felt them?

 

Take a look – where is your heart, where are your dreams?

 Get real........ 

Doug

John 10:10 “…I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”

 

 

Who is the one actually “sick!”

 I want to share with you a sobering thought today, not to bring you down on a Monday but to get you to think all week long…

 In Mark chapter one beginning in verse 40 – Mark writes…

“And a leper came to Him, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean."  And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand, and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.”

 It is a great event in the life of Jesus because it shows us His tremendous compassion and willingness to help anyone, even those that society had deemed the absolute lost, the “untouchables” who weren’t worth anyone’s time.

Leprosy is a strange and sad disease. The leper does not feel physical pain. The disease renders the nerve endings dead and they are no longer alert to the damage they may be doing to their own bodies. The odd thing is that at no point does the leprosy patient “hurt”.

In a book by author Philip Yancey called “The Jesus I Never Knew.” He writes a story of a doctor in India…

“Dr. Brand told me of one bright young man he was treating in India. In the course of the examination Brand laid his hand on the patient’s shoulder and informed him through a translator of the treatment that lay ahead. To his surprise the man began to shake with muffled sobs. “Have I said something wrong?” Brand asked his translator. She quizzed the patient in a spurt of Tamil and reported, “No, doctor. He says he is crying because you put your hand around his shoulder. Until he came here no one had touched him for many years.”

 That is what Jesus had done 2000 years earlier to a man no one would touch. And while lepers don’t “hurt” don’t think that they don’t “suffer”. Almost all the pain that they endure, all the pain that they go through doesn’t come from the inside; it comes from the outside – the pain of rejection that people impose upon them. While they don’t hurt – they do “feel.” If you are like me that saddens you.

And it should… because it still happens today.

Mother Teresa in Calcutta ran a hospice and clinic for lepers. She said once,

“We have drugs for people with diseases like leprosy. But these drugs don’t treat the main problem, the disease of being unwanted.”

No we don’t see too many diseased lepers walking around the U.S. – but the human condition is an odd one.

A person will always, yes ALWAYS, find their own “leper.” That person that is “not like them” so they must be “diseased” (maybe so they can feel better about their own sickness).  Come on you know I am right – think of the modern day “lepers”…

Social status – someone being different (in any way) from you – those of “unlike feathers” – those who have been divorced – those with AIDS – someone with a drug or alcohol addiction – illegitimate babies (and God forbid, their mothers) – poverty – the homeless or jobless – the childless – the single – the “under dressed for church” – the list goes on and on…

If you talk to any of them you will find how they have been “untouched” – especially by modern Christians.  Think about it – you have your own personal “leper” don’t you; someone you have shunned, steered away from, gossiped about, pointed a finger at, ignored, felt disdain for, didn’t want to get near and God forbid you have to “touch” them.

Yet that is not what Jesus did – He didn’t see the disease He saw the need, He didn’t see the illness He saw the hurt, He didn’t see the sickness He saw the pain. And yet we say we are “followers of Christ”, that we are supposed to live to HIS example.

You know – the more I think about this – they may be “diseased” – but are we the ones who are sick?

See you “in the trenches” – Doug

John 10:10 “…I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.”