Of Love and Lust

Of Love and Lust

Love can sneak up and take us by surprise at any encounter with another person. It is basic human nature when hormones start surging. If both individuals are adult, single, and willing you can let passion can take control. The same feelings are true for lust and the two are closely related. There are a great many people who sadly can not tell the difference.

Those who are married, in a committed relationship or under vows of celibacy need to be able to tell the difference and have the self discipline to control both. With lust you can let the moment pass and as soon as the object of lust is out of sight the energy is gone. Love on the other hand is much more difficult to deal with and takes more awareness. Love lingers in the heart and mind for a long long time.

Love is a good emotion and can be very healthy if dealt with appropriately. You can love a great many people with good boundaries for the expression of that love. The love of a good friend does not need to lead to sex nor interfere with a comment. Awareness, self-discipline, and honesty about your feelings will make the difference. 

Remembering Sermons

Pastors like to think that people remember and cherish every word of those carefully crafted sermons we work hard on each week. A good preacher spends an hour in preparation for each minute he or she preaches. A little secret is that most pastors do not remember last week’s sermon either.

Memory is a fuzzy thing. Try to remember what you had for lunch a week ago Wednesday? Most of us can’t do it. How ever though the memory of what we ate is gone but the nourishment from what we ate is now part of us.

So too with the sermons we hear our memory of titles may fade as we walk out the church door but the spiritual nurture remains to feed us.

I am sometimes pleasantly surprised when years later some one tells me about a sermon I delivered and don’t remember myself.  I stand up to preach and it is an act of faith that God will use my words to touch someone.

What was the last sermon you remember?

Criticism is Hard!

Criticism is hard! Most of us don’t like to be criticized and we feel bad when it happens. We have to admit that sometimes we deserve it and sometimes we don’t and I am not sure which hurts the most. My personal problem is that I tend to respond much too quickly when I should take the time to cool down and evaluate my part of it.

There are some differences between Criticism, Critique, and Evaluation. Criticism is usually sharp and says, “I don’t like what you did or said.” It is an expression of displeasure from one person to the other. It is most often received badly and does little good. In fact it is often counter productive.

A Critique is a step up from criticism though the two words stem from the same root. A critique can be either positive or negative and often both. It too can say something went wrong so let’s discuss the possibilities for correction. This is an approach that is often lost in our society.

As a Toastmaster I am very much into evaluation as a tool to help one another improve our lives, work and progress. It usually starts with here is what went well and is followed with here is one way to improve on this. Always it is followed up with appreciation for the effort.

As a mayor of a small city I am in a position of no matter what I do some people will be happy and some will be very unhappy by the same action. Some of those who are unhappy will remember for a long time but that is just the way it is. What I have to constantly work on myself about is how do I respond? Sometimes even when I try to have a cool down period the other party is impatient and demands an immediate response. When I fall for that I am usually not going to give a good well thought out answer. We are still a work in progress. Lord help me!

Spiritual Workouts

In Philippians 2:12 Paul tells us to “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

This verse has often puzzled me since he also says that salvation if a free gift God though grace.  What does it mean for me to work out my own salvation?

Here is the rub; I carry around within me a lot of baggage that hinders my acceptance of this free gift of grace. Things like anger, fear, selfishness, and hatred of those different than me. So working though my salvation means letting go of my anger toward someone and forgiving them even if they do not ask for it. It means letting go of those things that I covet.  It means relinquishing control of situations that make me anxious.

God invites me to work out my salvation by letting go of things I want to control and allowing God to do some cleaning in this earthly tent that I call my life. Once I claim the gift of salvation my workout is like a personal attitude adjustment so that from then on my living represents Jesus my savior to the rest of the world. My spiritual workout has always been a struggle and still is. Like physical exercise it never stops.

How is your spiritual workout going?

Spiritual Carnage

I have often heard people say that only Jesus walked on water. How ever according to Matthew 14:29 “Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus.”

At that moment Peter completely trusted in Jesus and walked on the water. That was faith at work but then Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and noticed the storm around him and lost his faith. When ever we give ourselves to God and really trust then we can also do amazing things.

Keeping our faith focused seems to be a common human failing. We start out like Peter full of confidence in the power of God in our lives and then allow the storms of life to distract us. Living by faith successfully is a lot like driving a car you have to stay focused on the road ahead. Taking your eyes off of Jesus is like texting while driving and can lead to spiritual carnage.

Remember the lesson of Peter getting out of the boat. Peter proved that he could walk on water just like Jesus. We today often prove that we can live by faith and do powerful things. So keep your eyes of Jesus and keep the faith.

Not For Sissies!

Over forty years ago I was pastor of a church in a small Texas town. A retired minister in his eighties lived there. I often visited with him and he served as an informal mentor. One of his often stated sayings was, “Getting old is not for sissies.”

Over the years I have used that quote many times. These days the cold hard truth of it is becoming clearer. It seems that every time I go to the doctor she tells me that I must stop doing something I like, stop eating things I love and start doing things I hate to do.

Gone are the days when I can follow an impulse and eat what ever is set before me. Any thing with sugar is poison. I need to check the carb count and look for seeds that might later create havoc. Calories I have consumed are no longer burned off so quickly as before, they now require extra exercise.

I now know for real that the old pastor was right, growing old is not for sissies.

Generational Guilt

There is a guilt that seems to transcend generations in such a way that one people blames another for sins committed by their ancestors. Sometimes that guilt is accepted and we pay penance for something we did not do. There are Germans who feel the guilt of Hitler’s sin even though they personally had nothing to do with it.

Another past sin is that of slavery where one color of people holds another responsible for it. While the sin was real for the time of commitment it is not real for generations later. Yet the power of these generational guilt trips is still gripping people’s souls. There is no forgiveness and no release. How do we heal the pain that is passed down through the years?

I was amazed when South Africa suddenly changed governments and an unexpected thing happened. Largely due to Nelson Mandela’s leadership the whole country worked through the hate and distrust on both sides. The past was past and they needed to overcome centuries of conflict. Truth and Reconciliation commissions faced the truth head on, admitted it and forgave it.  What a concept! It sounds a lot like the message that which Jesus preached.

Some how we all need to take this message to heart.