Saturday, February 27, 2010

When giants fall.


Tiger Woods was a giant. His status as an athlete towered high above other golfers. His professional demeanor, his obvious love for the game he played with little flaw, his humanitarian efforts and his love for his family, displayed without hesitation, made Tiger Woods someone we wanted to know, someone we wanted to be like. But like other giants who would one day fall, Tiger has followed their descent.

This Herculean hero recently admitted to an addiction to sex. In the past few days he added to his list of addictions the drugs Vicodin and Ambien.

Today we can find out so much about the personal lives of not only our hero's but of our next door neighbors simply by googling, tweeting or reading a facebook entry. If one googles "Tiger Woods" and "addiction", thousands of pages will offer their perspective, their thoughts...made up or true...you must decide. But within those thousands and thousands of web pages you will also find those that actually elevated Tiger's status as a giant to one of a demigod. "Whats wrong with being a sex addict?" one blogger cried. Others accepted Tiger's behavior as a matter of course, it is acceptable to come with fame...it is expected to come with fame.

Whether there is any truth in these thoughts I can not tell you. I hope that we have hero's and role models that do not succumb to this behavior, justified by the fame alone. What I can tell you is you don't have to be famous to fall. Addictions are not reserved for the rich and famous, the Beast that is addiction is an equal opportunity spoiler.

I wrote once that every where I looked I saw those that suffered from the consequences of addiction; in my family, at work, at church and in the mirror. I now wonder how many of those may have addictions to multiple behaviors or substances. I wonder, as in the case of Tiger Woods, which came first. Did his addiction to sex and the eventual public revealing of this addiction drive him to seek relief with drugs? Did then his dominate addictive behavior take over again and convince him that he would not survive without the numbing effect the drugs would provide?

I wonder if we all are addicts. Are we all hiding behind a false front, carefully built with a daily routine that conceals what we do at night, what we do in the darkest recesses of our mind? Is this what God had in mind we He gifted us with free-will?

No.

Stopping will not be easy, for Tiger Woods or any of the thousands of other who fight a daily battle. Regardless of their belief, Buddhism, Zoroastrian, agnostic or Christian, without faith they will not stop, they will not change. And one day they will fall.

I believe that only with faith in Jesus Christ will we change. This change, this re-generation, this new birth begins the moment we accept Christ as our Savior. I cannot tell you what in us changes, only that a change begins. Your addiction will still be there, the fight to stop will be fought on even tougher battle fields.The desire to go numb again will be real. The consequences of addiction that have damaged relationships, developed physical pains and ended careers will not miraculously heal. But there is change.

First, you are not alone...Christ is by your side.
Second, you may fail, but you will never fall. Your life is held in the hand of Christ.

John 10:28-"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand."

I hope you will pray and ask for forgiveness, ask Him to be your Father, accept His gift of forgiveness and eternal life, take His hand. That is what I hope for, what I do is pray.

Jim

Thursday, February 18, 2010

22 Minutes without God


I began today as I do everyday, time with God. First is time spent in scripture then a time of prayer. I pray each day that I will realize God in my midst each and every moment. This morning at 7:49 I received a phone call from my sister. Her call was to tell me of an accident that a family member had been involved in. Her voice alone told me that it was not good. Tragedy was the result of a terrible accident. Three people were dead. Her husband, the driver was home with minor injuries. He was sleeping, having succumbed to the emotional toll, late night hours in a small town hospital and question after question asked by the State Troopers.
I struggled to find words that would offer encouragement, offer hope, words that would soothe. She asked only for prayer. I told her I would.
Within minutes of receiving the news of this terrible accident my phone once again rang. More news, unrelated to the accident, came to me. Bad news. News that could be life altering.
I had not yet stopped to pray for my sister and her family when the second call delivered it's punch. The second call was ended abruptly by the caller.
I sat at my desk stunned. In a matter of minutes overwhelming information had been delivered. My mind had little time to react to the first call, much less to respond to the second.
Question after question raced through my mind. How did the accident happen? Who were the people killed? Would charges be filed against the driver? Why? Would my sister be okay?
Questions prompted by the second call were grounded in doubt about the candor of the caller. She accused me of causing her newest situation. Was I the agency of her problem? Was there any truth in the words she spat with such venom? What would our future bring? Would my marriage survive another blow? Would I be okay?

Where is God now?

It was 8:11 AM before the questions ended their ricochet. The staggering effect of the calls began to subside. For twenty-two minutes I did not realize God in my life. I had told my sister that I would pray, I had not. Until the final question, "Where is God now?", I hadn't even thought of God.
The sudden news and sorrowful nature of both calls had lead my mind away from God, away from my source of comfort and towards life circumstances instead. For twenty-two minutes I chose life without God.

The choice was not a conscious one, but one that is rooted in the very nature of man. My choice, our choice, to face life's problems without first facing God is wrong, always. It is lonely, always. It hurts, always.
It is avoidable...always.

In the 69th Psalm, the psalmist begins-"Save me, oh God;for the waters are come into my soul." He goes onto write verse after verse, words that depict a depressed soul. He describes his life as being sunk in a deep mire. He declares that he is tired of crying, his throat is dry. Hatred has polluted the life of King David, his enemy looks to kill him. Yet even with all that is wrong and hurting in his life David ends his psalm with these words-"I will praise the name of God with song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving."
What the psalmist understood that I failed to for twenty-two minutes is that there is life and there is God. I can choose one or I can choose both.
Life will always have it's tragedies, it's sadness, it's dark hours. Time will pass and the shock of this morning will wear off. Life will return to normal until the next event. As with today's the next will have pain to deliver, and questions will arise out of the mire. But next time, I pray, I will remember to first "...praise the name of God and magnify him with thanks" before I spend another minute without Him. I lost twenty-two this morning, I can not afford to loose anymore.

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