I Ain't As Crazy As You Think

 I hit the "publish" button Wednesday night, talked to Jesus a little, and then went to sleep. When I woke up Thursday morning, I was afraid to look at my phone. I had no idea what kind of response I was going to face to my post exposing my "worst self." I said a little prayer and prepared my heart and picked it up. To my surprise, I had an overwhelming amount of positive text messages and inbox messages of "thank you's" and encouragements. Some said they could never be so brave as so share that much. Others said my words echo their own. Others told me they thought they were the only ones who ever felt that way.

 

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I read each message. I wanted to have a "group" meeting so we could lift each and every burden up to Heaven. But can I tell you what pained my heart even more?  It was the couple of negative (out of I'd say 150 or so positive) comments that I heard through the grapevine. None of these were said directly to me, of course. Comments to the nature of, "Why would she say such things? Those things are to be kept private." Or, my favorite, "Doesn't she know how that makes her look? What must her family think?"  Naturally, I have an answer to those questions or I would have never put it out there in the first place.

 

Three years ago I was ministry leader for Celebrate Recovery here in Brookhaven. CR is a Christ-centered twelve step program that covers a wide range of problems. During that time I came across a Scripture in training one night that opened a new world for me. You see so many times we wonder "why is this happening to me?" I cried out that question so many times to God. And out of the blue, in a meeting, His words jumped off the page and into my heart.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. "  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

 There it is right there! There's my answer to "why me?" It is so that I will learn from God how to make it through the trouble and learn to depend on Him through that struggle. Then I can pass what I learned and how I was comforted along to a person struggling with the same thing. Example: mother loses child to ATV accident. Who knows best her pain than another mother who lost a child to an ATV accident. See my point? So, this Scripture gives me the full go-ahead to share my struggles with depression, suicide, my children, my marriage, my everything, WITHOUT SHAME. I am not doing anybody any favors my keeping God's comfort for myself, and if I keep quiet, He most certainly will not get the glory He so rightfully deserves.

 

And as for keeping quiet, well, there is another answer I have for that, too. My older two girls can testify for me that I have preached to them to never, ever, tried to hide anything from me because eventually it will be found out. Shelli has lived long enough to see that play out through some friends' lives and understands what I've been saying all this time...there are NO SECRETS in this world.

"For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.  Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops." Luke 12: 2-3

 

And FYI, those are Jesus' words, not mine! They are in red. So, if what He speaks is truth, and I believe it is, then there is nothing that is hidden. It will all come out in the wash as they say. He goes on to tell the disciples who not to fear man but they should really fear Him, the one who has the power over their eternity. And that's right. I am not afraid of what people think, though I do care because I don't want to deter them so much that they don't want to hear what good I might have to say. Let me be clear, though, I am not afraid of gossip or untrue opinions as long as I know that I am ministering the way God wants me. Believe me, I would much prefer the easier life of travel speaking and writing books. Instead, he has me sharing my heart, after the babies are long in LaLa Land, through a blog that may reach a few thousand people.

 

I may be crazy, but I ain't crazy for sharing my heart in order for God to get his glory! If I don't share my struggles, then what it is there purpose? To make my faith stronger. Ok. So make it stronger to sit and do nothing with it? I could ask you many questions and I will always come back to the same answer. I must share my stories and my struggles in order to share my God and how active and living He is in my life. I know this God and this Jesus and this Holy Spirit very intimately. I have spent hours alone with them. They are too good to be kept on a hard pew on Sunday morning. They want to ride with you to your doctor's appointment jammin' out to some LeCrae or Mandissa. Yeah, they can jam.

 

Think what you want to think. But know that what I wrote is not current thoughts. Yes, our life is over-whelming and difficult right now, and it even seems pretty desperate. But this too shall pass and become yet another chapter in the Days of the Lives of the Pedens so we comfort others the way we have been comforted. Hang on my friends, hang on! 

 

 



You know what they say about assume...

I would like to share a story with you if you don't mind. I promise it is a short one. It goes like this...

 

There was once two guys who had been friends since grade school. They spent countless hours together on ball fields and got into more trouble than two friends ever should. They graduated high school together, roomed together in college, and were even room mates after college for a little while.

 

Eventually, each of the guys moved on with his life only catching up a "big life events". One of the friends married his college sweet heart. They moved back home, got into church, and started their family. He became the definition of a godly man and father. His wife and children adored him, and he had much respect in the community.

 

The other friend, well, he lived life in the fast lane. He had a high-dollar career, went to every a-list party there was, and could have any woman he wanted. He, however, was lonely and empty. He had no friends of value and his family had little contact with him. His life had no meaning.

 

Ironically, the two friends were home for a mutual friend's funeral and they went out for dinner afterwards to catch up on life together. On the way home, they were in a car accident and they were both killed instantly. The first friend, the one with the family, had accepted Jesus as his Savior and he went to Heaven. The second, sadly, had not and he went to hell. Just before the first friend entered the gates of Heaven, he looked down and saw into the pits of hell. He saw the horror, the flames, and he heard the screaming and tormented souls. But above all the screaming he heard a familiar voice, his friend's voice. His friend was crying to him saying, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me about Jesus? Please, if you ever cared about me, please go make sure my family knows! I don't want them to ever see this place. It's the most horrific place you could ever imagine! The sound is deafening! I'm so thirsty. So thirsty. Please go tell them. Hurry!" The first friend was devastated when he realized what he had done, or more so what he had not done. He crumbled at the gates and sobbed.

 

You see, not once in their entire friendship did they ever discuss Jesus. The first friend just assumed the other knew. I mean, they grew up in the same town, right? They went to the same church, the same vacation Bible school, church camps, Bible. Why didn't Friend #2 know? Was he not listening? He was paying attention to Satan and his attempts to distract him. He chose not to listen. We can never, NEVER, assume that our best friends, our family, knows the Gospel. Never assume anyone knows about Jesus. If you share with them and they are a believer, or if they have heard, then consider it practice for the next person you share with. Just share!

 

"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fated sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus full of sores, who was laid at his gate desiring to be with crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flam. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'

Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.; And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded through one rise from the dead.'  



Guilty as Charged!

Sundays are refreshing to me, well, once we finally get to church after the chaos of getting dressed, deliver the kiddos to their Sunday school classes, and hike it up to the Sunday school room and pick out chair to sit down and breathe!  In our Sunday school we are going through Corinthians, so you normally know what the lesson is going to be about but it is always fresh and we always have an enjoyable time. And I'm always anxious to hear what Bro. Greg is going to preach on and what little snip-it he is going to get in about his Georgia Bulldogs. But today, our regular teacher was out and Stan filled in (great job, by the way) and we had a lesson about sharing the Gospel. Bro. Greg's sermon was also about the Gospel as well.

 

In Sunday school, Stan had us break up into paired groups and gave us instructions to sum up our testimony into one minute. The purpose being in mind that we need to be prepared for that brief interaction with a stranger to share Jesus and the Gospel with them. We may only have a minute or two and then that moment or person may disappear from our life forever.

 

Anyway, after a few laughs here and there, we paired off and got on our daunting tasks of summing up God in one minute. Do you know how difficult that is? One minute passes like molasses while you are waiting on the stop light to turn to green, but when you are trying to share the Gospel in less that one minute it passes like a flash of lightning! Stan started the timer and stopped it when it got to sixty seconds. I was almost finished when he said stop. Rats! I so wanted to get 'er done!

 

We then had an open discussion on what is the best way to share the Gospel? Some of the answers included: "live a good life"..."live it out"..."know Scripture"..."share your miracle"... All great answers. But how do you live out a good life to a stranger that is in your life for just that one brief moment? Another point brought up, so many religions make a point that "living a good life" is the way to the after life. And anybody can quote Scripture, right? The Jehovah Witnesses do, and better than we (Baptists and evangelical Christians) do might I add.

 

So, exactly what is "the" Gospel? Most are taught John 3:16 at a very early age in these parts. You know it by heart. I can just hear my younger VBS self reciting that to get a sticker on my memory verse completion chart. John 3:16 is great. I mean, Jesus said it himself. This memory verse that we most often learn tells us the benefits of believing the Gospel.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

The Gospel is a set of facts that MUST believed in order to gain that everlasting life. You cannot believe just one of them. You must believe ALL them. You must believe that God sent his son, Jesus to earth. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. Jesus was sent to pay the debt for all mankind's sin. And to pay that debt, He (Jesus) was crucified on a cross, buried in a borrowed grave, and yes, rose from the dead three days later.

"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.  After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.  After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. The last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time." 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Now, if you are a believer, I ask you, "how many times have you shared this story?" In the South, we are taught to "you preach your funeral everyday" and "people are watching." Are we using this as a cop-out for not actually sharing the Gospel? If God sent a jury down, what would your verdict be? Mine? Guilty as charged! I am not a confrontational person. I do NOT like to jump into a person's business as much as I like knowing it. I prefer to build a relationship, and then ask the question about her eternal destination. But you know what, I don't always have days, months or years to do that. I think Keith said it best when he said, "You don't need a seminary degree to share your testimony. This should be the easiest thing you ever say because it's the greatest thing that ever happened to you."

 

I praise God for my gift of salvation. I praise God for my testimony (though, honestly, between you and me, I would have picked out an easier story to play out on my life...lol).