Helpless But Not Hopeless

There are times we feel helpless, and rightfully so, in that the circumstances in life are beyond our control. As I write these words, it is -25 degrees outside. I can do nothing about the cold, and must respond to it appropriately, or face dire consequences. 

As I write these words, the family of a dear friend of mine is preparing for his memorial service. He was a loving family man who was serving our Lord in a foreign country. He was a man who valued relationships, exercised regularly, and focused on bringing the Word of God to a people who never had the Word of God. One day, after a run, he, unexpectedly, had a heart attack and died. 

The extreme cold and the unexpected heart attack indeed demonstrate our helplessness. This helplessness is not without hope. For those who live in a northern climate, the reality of cold temperatures is something for which we prepare. I spent much time during mild weather cutting wood, maintaining natural gas lines and equipment, making sure our chimneys were clean, and keeping up our cars charging systems. I made sure our portable generators were gassed up and ready, and stockpiled gasoline for the generator, snowblowers, and vehicles. 

My preparation did not make me feel less helpless. It made me feel prepared and hopeful. As I sit here today, sipping a hot cup of coffee and looking at a blazing fire in the fireplace, my home is warm and cozy.

Likewise, my friends’ family, in many ways, may, for a good reason, feel helpless today. There is nothing they can do to change a difficult situation. They did not control the day my friend was born, or the day he died. As helpless as they are, they are not hopeless, for they have clearly understood and prepared for such a day as this.  They know that their loved one is in the presence of God as he had accepted His offer of salvation. 

Every human is helpless, but no human being needs to be hopeless. 

It is a real disaster when one is both helpless and hopeless, and those who have no relationship with God continually live in such a state. Those who are without God live unprepared lives. They are unprepared for the eventual certainties of life.

To compensate, they do their best to control what they think they can control. Mostly they control their image, their public persona. In reality, though, they are frightened, alone, and afraid of being found out. They surround themselves with people who will reinforce what they think about themselves, while at the same time discrediting them, in their minds, because they know they have believed a lie. 

Their power gives them satisfaction, and they use their money, status, and position to satisfy their need to feel they're in control, not realizing that in the end, their money, status, and position will disappear, and they will be hopeless as well as helpless. 

Those who are in God’s family have hope in their Father, for He is the one who controls all the situations in life that render us helpless. The fact that we admit our helplessness and turn to Him, our Helper, allows us to be empowered, and delivers the hope of which the Godless world can only dream. 

We know that winter comes and we know that it is appointed for every person to die, and after death to face judgment. Those who prepare for such things may never “enjoy” the extreme cold or the separation of loved ones, but they will enjoy a peace that passes understanding in that they had made the necessary preparations and entrusted the only One worthy of trust. 

For now, the choice is ours.  

Conviction Contradiction

 I watched an ad for saving helpless animals, I hear a human voice talk of being the voice for those who have no voice.We are a nation that humanizes animals and  dehumanizes babies/children. Since they cannot speak up for themselves, they are being killed. 

New York passed legislation that legalizes murdering children. The voice I heard was that of the legislative body cheering because they legalized the murdering of voiceless children.

All humanity suffers from sin.  Those who claim that all are good must redefine the word good. Those who have redefined good have redefined what it is to be human, so they can eliminate, without ill conscience, the inconveniences of life and call what was once deplorable, good.

It is one thing for individuals to have no conscience, while it is quite another for institutions, that are entrusted to be our conscience, to care more about what is popular than what is right. 

Politicians speak of holding personal convictions that would not affect their political decisions, and somehow, we have found this insane idea acceptable. 

For the most part, the church was silent in Hitler’s Germany. Hitler redefined what it was to be human, and those designated less than human were expendable. 

Definitions may change how I feel about evil, but how I feel does not change the reality of sin. 

Populism is the opiate of the people.  Authority is the enemy of populism. We have normalized populism, made those who challenge popular opinions evil, and will now pay the price for our errant thought process. 

Churches, schools, elders, and politicians who remain silent to please a self-serving population fuel the fires of individualism that will eventually divide our nation in a way that is irreconcilable. 

The United State of America is a republic, and a republic demands leaders who know and love God and the people they have been entrusted to lead.  If populism becomes their driving force, the nation will splinter, as decency, morals, and life itself take on new definitions. 

Populist leaders, like Hitler, begin to care more about how they obtain and keep power than about what is right and wrong. In a strange turn, they think that whatever they need to do to gain the popular vote, or to garner popular opinion, is right for them to do.

Populist leaders use people and situations for their personal agendas. The same politicians who decry the treatment of innocent children at the border are willing to kill innocent children who are unwanted by their parents. It does not make sense, because it cannot make sense. 

In the process, we lose our soul, our stability, and our hope. 

There is a God. I am not Him.  One day I will die and remain “dead” far longer than I ever lived, and I will give an account of my life to God. 

Right and wrong, as defined by God, will be the criterion by which I am judged. 

The majority opinion is just that--the majority. It has nothing to do with right and wrong. Instead, the majority has to do with what most people think. 

Until we have evidence that a majority opinion is a criterion for absolute truth, we need to be cautious.

The cheering of the New York legislative body after the vote to legalize the killing of children is barbaric. Those who believe this is right are wrong, and no amount of cheering will ever change that fact. 

I am saddened and disappointed and am publicly stating that the decision made by the legislative body in New York is barbaric and unacceptable. No matter what the law reads, the murdering of children is unacceptable.