Ouch!  I woke up in the night with a hurting jaw.  I knew it was the tooth speaking to me. 

The book of James opens with great encouragement to the 12 scattered tribes living outside of Israel. To these first Disciples, in thick of persecution, James offers a bold perspective on their trials. He asks them to consider them pure joy.  Does that include a bad tooth?  Can you imagine living in the 1^st century with a toothache?

                            How can I be joyful when my tooth is hurting?

When James, half-brother of Jesus, wrote this epistle, which was one of the earliest New Testament letters, Christians were being driven into poverty and hunger. While they’re grappling to survive, James adjusts their focus to what faith can produce. He knew that going through pain or hardship can forge compassion for others, humility, and the realization that earthly experiences are temporary.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Chronic pain is just one of many trials that can test our faith. We wonder: when there’s pain of any kind, is God really our Savior, our healer, our strength? Which is why the trial at hand is ultimately for our good. It builds in us a tenacity to keep pursuing God’s plan for us. To stay in prayer with Him about the direction of our lives, and to essentially “see what we’re made of.”

God did design our bodies to heal itself.  Ultimately our bodies provide our own healing.   But thankfully we have Doctors, and Dentists who provide us with their care. 

Pain tends to push us toward, rather than away from God. Pain tells us that our earthly bodies are only temporary, but we are to treat them wisely with care…..realizing they don’t last forever and that our lives here are but a vapor. 

When our bodies fail us, we still have the Great Healer who gives us courage to face whatever He allows for us. 

Our pains (tooth aches) remind us of how fortunate we are living today  with the many wonderful caregivers who are there to help us.

However, remember the Great Physician.  He is the Master Healer who gives us both strength and courage to face our own “tooth aches!!”    

Laughter just might be one of the best all-around medicines. Laughter is a great way to lift your mood, oxygenate your body, and move your muscles. It’s free, fun, and intended by God for you to enjoy.

In fact, the popular adage, “laughter is the best medicine,” is biblically based. Proverbs 17:22 proclaims—“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Multiple university studies have scientifically proven that laughter reduces stress and lowers blood pressure. When we’re able to laugh at our circumstances or ourselves and not taking our lives too seriously our lives change and we can see things more objectively. 

Laughter offers the potential to heal relationships, soften disappointment, and melt tension. Perhaps that’s why God designed us to laugh when we’re thrilled, overjoyed, or relieved.

Our lives are only too often filled with disappointments, sorrow and fear.   God knew we would need laughter to get through hardships, which makes it a truly divine gift. It’s evidence that the “joy of the Lord is your strength.”

That’s why I propose that we consider laughter not just a luxury, but a priority. Watch a comedian who takes serious issues in life and makes us laugh at the circumstances. 

We used to enjoy shows such as: I Love Lucy; Barney Fife; Richard Pryor; Jerry Seinfeld; Robin Williams. Jerry Lewis.  Situation comedies.  Full House; The Brady Bunch; Father Knows Best; Ozzy and Harriet; Cheers.  These are the old ones.   You can name a few.

There is always joy somewhere.   Laughter can bubble up into expressions of gratitude, opening pathways for shared affection and appreciation.

Are you having an off day? Feeling low or stressed lately? Maybe you need a good laugh. Do you have a friend or sibling you can call to laugh about memories? How about a new hobby you’ve never tried? Playing games with a friend is joyful and our mistakes make us laugh. 

Maybe there’s a movie that brings you joy, or an activity that thrills you. Keep laughter a priority in your life.

                            God called His Creation good!  He created us to enjoy it and laugh! 

                                                                                Why Not Laugh? 

Each of us has our own stories to tell.  We have the freedom to remember and to share our stories.  Some of our stories are sad and make us wish we could redo what we said or did.  Other stories make us happy.  Good times shared with family and friends.

The Bible is God’s word, full of stories.  In it we find the writers sharing their stories of God’s hand in this world.   Jesus told stories.  He related spiritual truths to how to live our life in response to His teachings. The stories He told are what gives us our own story to write.  These make our lives meaningful and bearing witness to being His disciples. 

The parables, as we call them, are teaching stories.  They relate not only to those 1^st century hearers but teach us today well. 

Today the world confronts us with rising acts of violence and hatred.  There is ongoing religious persecution, attacks on freedom of conscience, and effort to rewrite or suppress history.  Remembering and telling is more than an academic exercise.  It is a responsibility that you and I must share. 

What allows ordinary people to preserve their humanity when powerful forces seek to erase it?

The answer is seldom found in grand political speeches or from famous leaders. More often, it is found in ordinary people, like us, who refuse to surrender who we are.  We teach traditions to our children. We must be unafraid to speak the truth.

Quiet acts of telling our stories become acts of courage.  We must be unafraid of what the world thinks of us.

Freedom is not only our right to worship as we please but allowing us to tell stories of our faith.  That’s what our discipleship means! 

                                            We each have our own stories to tell! 

If you think that idolatry is the worship of sticks or Asherah poles, or something unique to those folks living in the Old Testament, then you might we surprised that we all might have our own idols.  Likewise, if you think idolatry is reserved for things like sex, drugs, and always seeking happiness, you and I will be blinded to the hidden idols within our own heart. 

What is idolatry? 

I enjoyed reading articles from the late Dr Tim Keller, who wrote in “Counterfeit Gods” .  He has given one of the better definitions of idolatry. Here is how Keller defines it: 

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give … An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.’ There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship.”

Using Keller’s definition helps us to see that really anything can become an idol.

I love my clothes catalogues.  I spend more time looking at them than reading the scripture.  I have come to realize that perhaps loving clothes and looking through those catalogues is taking me away from what truly matters.

I also know that God isn’t an old spoil sport!  He wants us to have good things in our life.  We enjoy our homes; our kids; our friends; good food: etc. But we must be aware that none of these lovelies can take the place of gratitude. 

Your heart and mine can easily be drawn away from the Lord. Idolatry is real.  It is also very subtle.  We want to be good disciples but being part of this world it’s so easy to be drawn into the beguiling charms that take our focus away from what truly matters in life.   

  Search your own heart. Do you have an idol lurking somewhere? 

When you think about biblical history, do you give any thought to food?

Not many of us do. It’s easy to study Jesus’ first miracle or the Last Supper without actually wondering why these important events took place at meals. And it’s hard to picture the Last Supper in your mind as anything but the seated feast depicted in Leonardo’s masterpiece.

It’s no coincidence that pivotal events and conversations in the life of Jesus and his earliest followers take place over the dinner table. Throughout the Greco-Roman world, meals were a means of creating and solidifying social bonds.

Greco-Roman meals were never taken sitting up—unless you were a respectable woman, in which case you’d rarely be invited to the meal anyway—but rather reclining, as all of the biblical and archaeological evidence proves that most meals were taken Roman style.        Reclining.

 Many descriptions of the dining rooms, the arrangement of couches, the arrangement of diners and the importance of conversation we can gain a new, more intimate image of Jesus, reclining with a favored disciple who is also reclining, literally at Jesus’ breast. 

How much more intimate and focused these meals seem when you read about them with such images in mind!

 The textual evidence from the 1st century C.E. and later, it becomes clear how Paul’s work in establishing the new assemblies was made smoother by dining customs of the day.

                                  Invite a friend for lunch.  Its good theology

I was going through some books I had saved, to read to the grandkids and came across Alice in Wonderland.  I picked up the book and randomly read through a few pages and was struck with the character of Alice herself.  Are we like Alice?

The Mad Hatter told her, “You’ve lost your muchness”.  Throughout the book there is a play on words which could refer to her size, which changes.  Entering Wonderland, being small not only makes her vulnerable but also reveals something about her character. She has been hemmed in by others’ expectations in life and is now further constrained by the belief that she is the wrong Alice.

Only by embracing a grandness of spirit, or muchness, is she able to courageously cut her own path. She embraces her identity as Alice, not as others expect, but as she really is. And that changes things not only for the strange world she landed in, but her own world as well. She finally has the courage to embrace her identity and live by it, including doing the seemingly impossible.

Like Alice, we may feel boxed in due to the circumstances beyond our own control.  Yet grandness of soul, or muchness, comes when we develop eyes to notice the abundance that God has given each of us.  This is not because we have material riches or everything works in our favor. Rather, we can be content by recognizing that our muchness actually are gifts from our Creator. We are strengthened to face our circumstances.

Of course, we all have often misused the promise in Scripture that we can do everything in Christ, tacking it onto whatever goal or act we desire. and win the game.: “I can do all things through Christ,” and watch the monster fall dead at your feet. But that is not how the Apostle Paul used this promise, as if it were a magical mantra.

As Believers, we all have needs and wants but we also trust that our Lord will provide strength for what we face in life.  That does not mean we are invincible or immune to pain. Instead, we have courage in the knowledge God always loves us. 
                                        Therefore, like Alice, we  each have our own Muchness!

Kindness is part of human nature. Scientists have found that children as young as 18 months are willing to help others.

I found this article so interesting I wanted to share it with you.  I have edited parts of the article and included some of my own thoughts.

 When we feel compassion for the suffering of others, our brain’s “empathy circuit” lights up.

Real kindness goes beyond the desire to free people from suffering but also includes an intention to improve their well-being without expecting anything in return.

Yet when you and I give with purpose, something in our helpfulness engenders beauty in our own inner world.  Nothing we do for ourselves can compete with the warm afterglow we experienced through engaging in acts of kindness.

Naturally, kindness cultivates happiness.  An article published in The Journal of Social Psychology, researchers found that people who performed kind acts every day for seven days experienced a significant increase in happiness. Interestingly, whether people were kind to their family or to strangers, the kinder deeds they did or observed, the happier they were.

Furthermore, kindness affects more than emotions—it influences one’s DNA—shaping how the immune system works.

Good Deeds Change Your DNA

A group of scientists from the University of California set out to discover whether being kind to others changes our bodies at the genetic level.

At the beginning and end of this experiment participants gave blood samples. The scientists looked for changes in a set of genes linked to inflammation and stress. Genes that, when overactive, are associated with a higher risk for diseases such as heart problems, gastric upset etc.

But when the participants simply incorporated small acts of kindness toward others into daily routines it proved to be sufficient to alter leukocyte gene regulation!  That’s our DNA

Therefore, our acts of kindness not only benefit those we serve but gives our DNA an extra boost.

                        Kindness is indeed good for us!

As we celebrate the 250^th anniversary of our country we also celebrate the brave men and women who pledged themselves to the founding of a new nation and who demonstrated their faith, trust and courage.

  We too must have faith, trust and courage. Unfortunately, a few loud voices are hoping to make us believe that the principles of our founding fathers should be questioned.

We don’t take our faith or trust lightly.  We ourselves must be trustworthy and trust takes courage.  Are we willing to take a stand on our beliefs? On our faith?

Faith and trust demand courage. The basic tenets of our faith are being challenged on a baily basis.  Our churches are failing us. Not wanting to take a stand on moral issues that we face.   No wonder church attendance is down.  So, what’s new that we can’t get from social media? 

As Believers we base our faith on trust.  We accept the Bible as God’s word to us.  We believe in the death and resurrection of our Messiah.  We believe in our mission of making disciples.  We can’t guarantee the desired outcome but we have a slow and steady faith with God that says: “Keep walking.  You’re not alone.” 

We all search for meaning in our lives.  We often draw on those, we trust, to help and encourage us.  It takes courage to admit we have doubts, fears and uncertainties.  It’s OK to complain to God.  Just read the Psalms. Christians seem afraid to question.  It takes courage to say. “I don’t know!”

Fatih, trust and courage are one and the same.  It isn’t about knowing the ending; it’s about moving toward the One who Knows, even when our next step is still uncertain.

                                                 That’s Faith, Trust and Courage

A lesson from Noah!

After months of waiting in the ark, after the rain stopped and the waters receded, after the dove returned with an olive leaf, Noah finally stepped out and viewed the world around him..  Breathing fresh air and gazing out at the new landscape devoid of people!

Noah and his crew were in that large smelly zoo for 40 days and nights.  They must have questioned God in all of this.  Why destroy everything? Weren’t’ there others that He could have saved?  However, Noah obeyed.  He and his sons worked for many years on that boat.  Others saw and laughed.  But He obeyed.  He waited.

Who is this God that Noah worships? Why not build an idol instead of a boat?

We live in a culture that celebrates urgency. We are trained to move quickly, act decisively, and seize the moment. But Scripture consistently shows us a different rhythm. God’s timing is not slow. It is purposeful. And learning to wait well, to trust Him while His timing is still unfolding, is one of the most formative disciplines of faith. It’s not easy to wait.

 It means His timing includes preparation we can’t yet see.

Noah’s obedience came after a long season of trusting God. He built an ark when there was no rain. He gathered animals when there was no flood. He entered the ark and closed the door when God said to. He waited through the storm.

As I write this there are many friends who are waiting!  Waiting for Drs to help them heal; deaths of loved ones missing from their lives; sadness from natural disasters,

We want answers from God. We wait.  We question.  Noah waited and questioned. But he obeyed.  He was safe in the ark. He could not see a new world outside. He trusted God’s timing.   Just as we wait for our New Heavens and New Earth. We must trust God’s timing.

  It’s our waiting time.  He is coming!!  

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” appears not only in the Bible, but in cultures around the world. That adage, which has become something of a cliché, lies at the heart of all real etiquette. Once put into practice, it leads us into another realm—that of kindness.

In the scriptural story of the Good Samaritan, we find another example of the goodness that results from a combination of manners, friendliness, and generosity. The Samaritan comes across a stranger lying by the roadside, beaten half to death by robbers. Like the travelers preceding him, the Samaritan might have crossed the road and continued on his way, but instead he binds up the man’s wounds, takes him to an inn, and pays for his room and board until the man recovered.  This unnamed Samaritan received joy from helping this stranger.  When Jesus told this story he knew that the Samaritans and the Jews never got along.  They each resented the other.  Each claiming to be God’s chosen.

In “A Christmas Carol.” By Charles Dickins, a renewed Ebenezer Scrooge, now very much aware of his rude and mean-spirited treatment of others, delights in his spiritual makeover: “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy.”  He was expressing his joy at helping others.

 I just read of a woman who received great joy from her work.  In her words she said. “I view this job as a ministry to help people at one of their lowest points that we all will face. It’s a hard job and challenging, but there is joy that comes from knowing you helped someone as much as possible through a hard time.”  

 Respect for others, kindness, and service: These are components in that invisible force we call joy.

Anyone can test and confirm that service to others brings joy.  Although we are unable to change the circumstances of others, we receive joy for ourselves in knowing perhaps that we have shared a bit of ourselves in their life.
                                         That brings us joy!