One of the principles of physics that school children learn is called the second law of thermodynamics.  Simply stated or applied, any object that is moving will eventually stop moving if no new energy is applied to it.  In other words, the whole universe is running down like a wind up watch that eventually stops running if no one comes along to rewind it.  An automobile needs a constant supply of energy source to keep on running.  One of the main issues in today’s political scene is the controversy of whether or not America should do off shore drilling.  Because of the depletion of world oil and the increase of the costs of oil, America has found herself in the midst of a major energy crisis.  She has allowed herself to become too dependent on foreign oil and now when she needs this energy source the most she has come up short.  She is painted into a corner.  Yes, we do need alternative energy sources but this may years off before these new discoveries are able to alleviate some of this present crisis.  Even the oil coming from drilling will take years before American’s will be able to be relieved from using foreign oil.  Having said this, most agree that we still need to drill and do it now.  Also, other sources for energy should be pursued. 

These same principles apply to our spiritual life as well.  If we are not renewing our heart in the energy that comes from intimacy with God, than we will eventually be depleted in strength.  We will not have what it takes to endure the trials and hardships in the days ahead.  We will not be able to withstand temptations, survive victoriously during times of depression or war, sickness and loss.  Many believers have fallen asleep and are not prepared for the coming crisis.  In Florida during hurricane season, Floridians are continually warned to get prepared for impending disaster in the face of a new hurricane.  They are told to put oil in their autos, store up water and food, put up their shelters, purchase batteries, etc.  However, after many false alarms many have become complacent and have become dull.  Many are unprepared for this hurricane season.  How do we get ready for the impending crisis in the U.S.?  First we need to obtain a renewable energy source.  This means that we have to be trained before the crisis in the knowledge and ability to obtain what we need.  Here are some very successful ways we can get ready.

We must learn how to drill by drilling.  The most powerful diamond drill bit in the spiritual world is praying in the Spirit (or pressing through to know God more deeply).   When we pray in the Spirit we are digging beyond our understanding, the seen, into the unseen.  It opens us up to receive revelation so that we will know right from wrong, and be able to move on a supernatural plane so we can release life to those whom God brings into our life (empowered with words of encouragement, gifts of healing, etc). Praying in the Spirit also strengthens the inner man.  We come into a greater understanding of the love of God as drilling releases the oil of the Spirit so we can feel the presence of God.  We become convinced that God loves us as we enjoy the fellowship that comes through the Spirit.

Worship and praise and thanksgiving opens the wells of the oil of God’s presence as well.  You come to know and rely upon the love of God that passes our understanding.  As times get harder and it feels like death is closing in on us…we feel like we are getting crushed through our circumstances…this is the time to have worship music playing continually in our homes.  The Lord inhabits the praises of his people and where his spirit is there is freedom!  This canopy of worship provides a secure fortress against even the fiercest of storms.

Let us lay hold of the all the ways God has for us to obtain supernatural energy to endure to the end!

The world is abuzz with the breathtaking phenomena of Michael Phelps.  Many claim that his accomplishments as an athlete surpasses even the greatest athletes from history for he has achieved the seeming impossible.  Eight gold medals and seven broken world records in one Olympic event has never before been realized.  What is the composition of this young man? He seems like a swimming machine that keeps on producing. 

 A few facts about his preparation struck a chord in me.  The coach highlighted an important principle about Michael’s training that changed him from being a good athlete into becoming a great athlete.   He related how he purposely drove Michael to the point of exhaustion where he felt like he had nothing left to give….and then asked him for more.  It is only when we are in that place of depletion that we really discover what we are made of.  What do we do when we are at that place in life?

Our spiritual walk with God can sometimes be compared to Michael’s training for the Olympics.  Can you imagine him just showing up at the swim meets without the intensive training beforehand?  What happened if he just rested on his accomplishments at the last Olympics and then tried to deliver this year?  One does not have to be a rocket scientist to answer these questions.  Of course…Michael would barely be able to make it off the starting platform.  In our daily life we are being trained for the day when we have to deliver in some great event.  For some it is just one event that we are being trained for all our life and for others there may be several.  What happens when we find our self in midst of a major crisis when we haven’t been trained in spiritual disciplines before hand?  I think we can all guess the outcome. 

Now is the time to dig our wells and stop depending on “foreign oil.”  We need to have a history of knowing how to draw upon the grace of God to sustain us in the midst of hard times.  Sometimes we are called upon to keep believing in a good God when circumstances shout against this truth.  Abraham was given a promise of a son and waited for years before it was fulfilled.  His body was as good as dead and Sarah’s womb was way past the age of fruit bearing.  But, against all hope in hope he believed and became the father of many.  What separates the good from the great in the sphere of saints?  I believe it is what one does at this point of hope or faith-energy depletion.  In Lamentations the writer laments how his heart has been pierced and how he has become the laughing stock of all his friends.  He moans over his many afflictions, his wonderings, his loss of prosperity and splendor and his soul becomes downcast.  Surely he can say that God has forgotten him and that there is no hope.  But, he digs deep within his self and recalls to mind the Lord’s great love and therefore has hope.  He declares that because of God’s great love he is not consumed and that his love is new every morning.  The Lord is his portion; therefore he will wait in hope for his deliverance. He is fully convinced that God is good to those who put their hope in him.  At the point of hope depletion, against all hope in the natural, he hopes in God’s love and turns his cheek in loving trust to the one who would strike him.  He is confident that God is the one that brings both calamities and good things so why should he complain.  Only God can speak and have it come about.

The swimmers competing against Michael Phelps still swam as if they could win.  They did not stop believing and gave it all they got.  In these last days let us lay hold of this hope that believes in the love and goodness of God and our ultimate victory over sin, suffering and death in Yeshua.  Many of us will be at that point of hope depletion and will be called on to keep “swimming,” to press on to take hold of prize that awaits us.  We cannot look to the right or the left in comparing our “lot” with others.  Therefore, we hope in the glory of God.  Not only so, we rejoice in our suffering for we know and are confident that our suffering strengthens us in faith, enlarges our heart and expands our ability to give and receive love.  We can win this race if we do not give up but persevere, being fully persuaded that God is able to bring us and keep us to the end.  Against all hope, we continue in hope.   

Why is there longing for and enjoyment of beauty in me that moves my soul so deeply? Why do I crave it to the point where I cannot live without it?  I think it is because of all the trauma I have been through and also because of the lifestyle my husband and I live.  In trauma one faces situations he or she cannot control, fix or change.  The outcome of trauma often opens heart’s door to a fog of fear that the world really is chaotic and that there are no internal walls thick enough to protect oneself from that chaos which threatens to wreck havoc.  In other words, one comes face to face with his or her own powerlessness.

My husband and I travel extensively and our job in ministry is “putting things in order.”  After all, isn’t this the function of government?  As parents, as pastors or as governmental officials our job involves changing conflict into peace, error into truth, pain into comfort, or injustice into justice.  And these change efforts are often resisted and much suffering is involved.  Again I am faced with my own great weakness or inability to affect change.

Beauty represents those things which do not need to be fixed or changed.  The perfection of beauty pierces my heart and brings healing to my anxious soul.  Finally, my eyes behold that which is “good” just the way it is and I do not have to do a thing.  It is safe, orderly and at peace with itself and I can breathe it in without fear.  It does not make me feel powerless but strengthens me and renews my faith in life.  Thank you, Lord, for the gift of beauty that dwells in unsuspecting places and in things seen and unseen.  You have created us in hope that one day we will declare, “You have made all things beautiful!”

There is much debate about why God has allowed such evil to exist.  Many great thinkers have sought to search out the answer to the problem of pain and suffering.  I have found no significant satisfaction to this issue apart from believing in a good and loving God who is ultimately sovereign over all that happens here.  All other words leave me in despair.

In this life it is difficult to see the real answer.  If this life is all that we have then we are indeed to be most pitied.  On this side of eternity there is no balm that can competely heal the broken hearted…the scars always remain.  Is there real justice for the one who has been raped, or the parent whose child was murdered or killed by a drunk driver?  How about the injustice of so many children dying in poverty around the world…is there any words of comfort?  What do you say to a parent whose child has committed suicide or has run away from home?  How about the people who lost homes and everything they owned in natural disasters of flood and fire…is there some hope offered them of a better future?  And then there are all the issues raised by such an unspeakable horrors as the holocaust and other stories of ethnic cleansing.  Can any of us answer give a satsifying answer without taking into account eternity?

The only explanation in which I have found comfort is that this life is not all that there is.  I believe that this life prepares and equips us for what we will be doing for eternity.   What is a mere 70 to 90 years compared to forever?  In this life we learn to trust because we are tested in this almost every day.  In the natural, trust is gained when we see and experience tangible proof that someone is trustworthy.  Usually all it takes for some people, especially if they have unresolved wounds from past relationships, is one act of disloyalty on the part of another person to cause a permanent breach in relationship.  But, we are called upon to trust in an invisible God that appears to be disloyal almost every day.  After all, what kind of father allows his kid to suffer when he has the power to prevent it?  What kind of father would a man be if he did not “beat up” the young man who defiled his daughter?  Innate in normal parents is the all pervasive drive to protect and provide for their child.  I know that when my son had to go through surgery on his leg I plead with God that he would take me instead!  Gladly parents would take on the suffering of their child.  So, isn’t it a miracle that billions through the ages have remained faithful to the end, putting their trust in God even though at times it seems that God does not protect and does not provide and does not work justice?

Therfore, it stands to reason that we cannot judge the character of God by what happens in this life.  We can see that indeed God loves us so much that he gave His son to suffer for us.  He experienced death (the ultimate suffering which in real terms is separation from God) and bore in his body the pain and suffering through the ages and in his soul the consequences of all of our sins.  So, here is proof of a loving father who is willing to suffer in place of his child.  However, we still suffer.  And, God does not always protect us from bad things…natural disasters, sickness, war, famine, rape or murder, etc.  Also, how many criminals go unpunished while the victims are never compensated for their pain and loss?  Then, even when a murderer is sentenced to death for his crime, the loved one whose life was so cruelly taken can never be restored.  Where is justice?

Hence I am convinced that this life is preparation for something that comes after when we pass from this life into our next life.  In the heavenly kingdom there will be recompense for what we have suffered in this life and rewards for our persevering faith.  The other day we stayed at a Hilton Hotel which cost about $200 a night.  Thankfully, we were not the ones paying the bill.  However, because of the cost of this hotel was at the high end for hotels in the area, we expected greater service.  Needless to say, the maid did not clean the room until after five each day, she did not refill our in-room coffee supplies, the laundry service did not pick up and deliver at the promised time, the bell boy did not come in time to take our luggage so we had to do it ourselves, and the dinner tray was not removed for many hours.  At check out I dutifully registered a strong complaint and the desk clerk, apologizing profusely, asked me, “What can I do to compensate you for our failure so that you will feel like we made it up to you?”  So my question to God is, “What are you going to do to compensate us for all the sacrifice and suffering we have endured in this life?”I already know his answer.  Through persevering in the midst of trials and hardships, somehow we gain hope, learn love and our faith is refined.  God considers this of such great importance that all that happens to mankind in this life cannot be compared with the glory that will be revealed in the last days.  This is the glory of a bride that has learned to love and to trust contrary to what her senses dictate.  She has persevered knowing that one day the guilty will be punished, the faithful rewarded, the mourners comforted and intimacy will be restored…and God says this is good!  I know that one day we will agree and declare that all his ways are good and that indeed his loving kindness endures forever!

When a parent loses a child certain days unleash new waves of grief.  For the first few years birthdays are especially difficult, but often it gets easier as the years go by.  This poem was written about three years after our son died when the grief was still raw.  It reveals the broken heart of a mother. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAM

Happy Birthday, my son,

Of what age are you now?

At twelve you were taken,

Almost three years ago

That makes you ‘bout fifteen

Or has God made you old?

 ***

How do you look,

His glory clothes now you wear,

Are there whiskers on your face,

Do you sniffle and sneeze?

Have you grown many inches

In stature do you stand tall?  

*** 

Do you remember your mom,

Her loving embrace to feel?

Does He tell you of my tears,

Or does His joy blinding you

Now forget all earthly woes?

*** 

When I get there, will glory

Cover the great loss I bear,

Or does pain of memory

Cling to eternities robe

Some spot time cannot remove?

*** 

How can I send gifts to you,

My son, how shall I wrap it. 

Now that you have everything,

Need you still tokens of love?

Who will blow out your candles,

May I make your birthday wish?

*** 

Do angels wrestle with you,

Faking weak to show you strong

You once loved to pin me down

Counting to ten, marking air

So the world would then know,

For one brief moment, your strength

Has now overcome your mom

Right now I am at my dear friend’s house sitting in one of those stuffed recliners with my feet up.  Some of you might know my friend as www.Bonya.wordpress.com…she is the one who inspired me to blog.  Of course, I am not a very good student of hers as I am not as prolific in my writing as she is.  Bonnie manages to write every day and has done so well that she has been asked to write professionally now!

We are in the middle of our most intense two week travel stint where we will have traveled to five cities, boarded nine planes and slept in six different places, not counting the little cat naps on the plane.  At the beginning of this trip I fumed over having to leave my grandchildren so soon after returning from Israel.  We were not on very good speaking terms…that is, God and I.  When this happens I know that it can’t last for long or else I might as well go home and go back to bed.  After all, what fruit is there if I try to minister to people God’s love when I am having a pity party.  Every time the way out is the same…I yield my will and surrender to drinking the cup he has given me drink.  My weakness is only turned to strength when I give up my right to comfort, pleasure, etc. in this life and opt for those unseen treasures that are being deposited in some far off bank.  In return I receive strength and even joy…a more than fair exchange for my weakness and despair!  After all, wasn’t it I who has cried out on numerous occasions that I would bare much fruit?  And bearing the kind of fruit that will last requires me to stay connected to God’s plans and purposes for me.  Yes, it is indeed a privilege to serve God and to know that I am not in control.  A surrendered life enables a person to carry such awesome glory in such weak earthen vessels.   So, once again I declare, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

For years I hadn’t put on rubber gloves when I would use strong household detergents to do my cleaning.  Nice hands just wasn’t something I was concerned about.  Who would have believed that all those strong chemicals could be absorbed into the skin and cause problems.  Now I wear gloves!

Recently I have succumbed to taking bio-identical hormones, and guess what, some of them get absorbed through the skin!  Who would have dreamed that this was possible….at least fifty plus years ago it was furthest from my thoughts that stuff can be absorbed through the skin.  Now, I am not writing this to push hormones but to give an analogy to help understand the bonding that takes place in relationships. 

The most intimate relationship is probably the one between a mother and her child.  I bet you thought I was going to say husband and wife!  However, as I have contemplated this many times and have gone through the heart wrenching experience of losing a son, I have come to the conclusion that a mother/child relationship trumps the husband/wife relationship (at least, this is my conclusion today but tomorrow I might argue the opposite view).  Why do I say this?  A mother carries the child within her womb for nine months.  You can’t get more intimate than this.  And then, as many mothers do, I nursed my babies and imparted my life to them even after they were born.  If you have been following my blogs you will understand that I am hammering this issue again and again…that of intimacy!  And how do we attain to intimacy?  By sharing our lives with one another…”you in me and me in you.”  So, it stands to reason that there is great closeness between a mother and child as that child was in her.

Have you ever watched the interaction between parents and children at an amusement park?  How willingly parents embarrass themselves as they fuss over the antics or their young child on an amusement ride.  Honestly, I do not see what warrants such ado but hey, I have been known to do the same thing.  In a crowded room my child’s cry stands out above all other cries and moves me to action.  I just can’t help myself…I must comfort my child.  There can be a hundred babies crying and I might feel a little tug to want to hold them, but there is nothing like the drawing power of my own babies cry!  Why?  Because we are attached. 

Science cannot measure this as this bonding between human beings as it is a mystery or materially explain why it happens.  However, I think I know…absorption like the hormones!  Our being becomes part of another when we share a common life of feelings, thoughts, time and space.  Who I am as a person develops and grows as more and more people get absorbed into my being.  This is why I like the food analogy.  When I eat something the nutrients from the food penetrate to every cell of my body.  When I absorb someone elses essence into my soul it becomes a part of me.  The more I openly share my life with another and the more the other person shares his/her life with me determines how attached we will be.  In other words, different relationships have different absorption rates and abilities.  We are created to bond with others as this supplies life and these relationship are meant to move us to action when the other is in need.

Now you can see why the break up of relationships is so painful!  It is like ripping duct tape off your arm…ouch!  This is especially true with husband and wife as they have an intimacy of oneness where it is said of them that they have become one flesh!  If we “stick” to this analogy of the duct tape, and see that our souls were created with the ability to “stick” to others, what do you think happens when our souls are wounded again and again through rejection or abandonment?  You are right, our soul loses its ability to stick or to bond.  No wonder having multiple partners destroys intimacy as we were not created to bond and break-up…bond and break-up.  Have you ever tried to re-use duct tape again and again and again?  Forget it, it just doesn’t work.

Also, we can see how our personal moodiness and times of withdrawal, or closing of our heart, can wound another as they may experience it as the ripping away as duct tape being ripped off!  In other words, the supply line of life between two people is cut.  How it takes courage to trust again and again after we have had others pull away.  Wouldn’t it be easier and safer to just not get attached?  We would think this to be true but just like we cannot live without food, our souls cannot thrive without connectedness to other human beings.  You know the old saying, “It is better to have loved and lost than to have not loved at all.”  Our lives are enriched as we absorb others and it is worth the pain.

Last night we once again had a full table for our Erev Shabbat (Friday night) meal.  How I love it when the young people come over to our house and decorate our house with their presence.  I just sit there most of the meal and watch and listen as so much laughter and chatter fills the air.  Dan sits at one end and I at the other…then there are five sitting on each side of the table…twelve in all!  Dan becomes animated as he unpacks the latest current events or banters around the answers to some of the difficult theological issues that the young people raise.  Usually the guys sit near Dan and the gals near me as often the conversations at either end is different.  However, sometimes there are a few crossovers amongst the gals who love the stimulating conversations at the other end of the table so by the end of the evening they have maneuvered their chairs amongst the men.

I love Shabbat.  There is nothing like celebrating this feast in Israel as the whole country revolves around this day…both the secular and the religious!  On Friday our household (as well as every other household) is busy cleaning while I am out braving the crowds of last minute shoppers.  There seems to be always something that has been overlooked in my earlier shopping sprees. During the winter months the stores close early on Friday afternoon and they remain closed until after dark on Saturday.   That is why the malls are such mad houses.

Upon returning I am met at the door with shouts of, “I just washed the floor…take off your shoes!”  Now I have the job of messing up the kitchen after the girls (we have three living with us…and then there are always a few extra) have just cleaned.  This is the night of our biggest and most special meal.  It is the one night where Dan and I go off our diet and enjoy some delectable dessert.  Often we make homemade challah (special bread for the Sabbath which is usually sweater than our daily bread) and prepare special meat and vegetable dishes.  The meal is not a success unless the kitchen is full of dirty dishes and the floor is sprinkled with some of the dinner scraps.  So why do we bother cleaning…tradition, what else.

When the quests arrive there is another Jewish tradition.  No one is to come empty handed.  I usually end up with several bouquets of flowers and several bottles of wine.  You can’t have a Shabbat without flowers or wine…both bring joy!  We celebrate not just the  remembrance of what God did so long ago in creating the heavens and earth in six days and resting on the seventh, but we celebrate the future hope of one day entering the Kingdom where there will be no more tears or sorrow or death.  We get to practice on the Sabbath what we are to live the rest of the week…walking in Shalom, the rest of God.

We have been celebrating this feast for almost thirty-five years.  Our children grew up with this tradition and are now passing it on to their children.  When the children were little Dan used to put each child on his lap and bless them on this night.  After dinner was our special family time where we would read special books to them like the Narnia Chronicles or play games or watch a family movie.  Our children knew that attendance at our Erev Shabbat meal and family time was not optional.  In a world with so many choices of sports, friends, clubs, and school activities it becomes increasingly more difficult to eat together as a family.  We found we had to get determined to maintain family life.  Mealtimes provide the venue for heart to heart sharing.  We do not just eat food as we sit at the table but we “eat” of each other’s spirit in blessed fellowship.  As food strengthens our body so this time of family intimacy strengthens our soul.  And now, in Israel, our hearts swell with joy and are radiant as our “children” come from afar and grace our table.  We feast on more than just food and together we are refreshed and strengthened for the coming week.

One of the big challenges a grieving parent faces involves keeping hope alive.  I have tasted the difference between grieving with hope and grieving without hope.  How true the Word is that says that we are not like those who grieve without hope as if we grieve without the knowledge of the hope of resurrection.  Without the hope of an afterlife we enter into a bottomless pit of despair.  I do not think I would survive without hope.  Truly it keeps me afloat.  On a couple of different occasions I let hopelessness in and my grieving took on a downward spiral that was violent and destructive.  It was as if I was swallowed up by fear and dread.

Suffering can press us into God as a matter of survival.  And, if it is the suffering of the loss of a loved one, we are talking about months or years of weakness.  And when we press into God for strength over a long period of time we take on the nature of God and are filled once again with hope.  I often illustrate this by showing people what happens when you grab hold of a rough object in your hand and squeeze it over a period of a few minutes.  When you release your hold there is an imprint of the object remaining in the palm of your hand.  The longer the embrace, the deeper and more lasting the impression.  So, our soul gets imprinted by eternity through perseverence.   God’s hope, faith and love becomes infused inside of us.

The following poem was written a couple of years after our son died.

HOPE BORN

Oh hope, not yet born

Does your heart still beat

Your strength ‘bout forlorn

Do I feel your feet?

A Sono does tell

You’re not yet dead

But vitals not well

Hope has gone to bed

“Wake up,” the bells ring

“Stay there, you’ll turn cold.

Try, make your self sing,

You can do it, be bold.”

New food will restore

Take, eat, new life brings

Then when done, eat s’more

It’s nosh fit for kings

Now drink cool water

Revives the waned will

Courage won’t falter

You’ll have “nuff” to fill

In pain, hope is birthed

Hold not back, it’s time

With joy round me girthed

Push, I hear the chime

Angels have waited

New glory behold

God’s Son, joy sated

Faith has come forth gold

Have you ever heard of the ministry of giving hugs?  I believe that there is such a gift, and it seems like little children are the ones that practice it the best.  At least, those who have not yet learned that the world is a fearful place.  Children can hug with abandonment in their simple child-like trust.  How much we as parents want to protect that.  My husband and I remark often how we wish that our grandchildren would remain between the ages of one and six as this is the age when they run with such glee and freedom into our arms.  Something usually happens when they get older, but there are some exceptions.  We are thankful that our children have retained their hugging expertise even into their adult years!  When our two boys were in their teens they never went through a stage where they no longer felt it cool to hug mom and dad.  So, it is possible to retain this gift even into adulthood.  I think that there would be a lot less mental and physical illness around if each of us adults would have a few young children around (or those who are still child-like at heart) that could minister a few of their extravagant hugs and kisses each day.  Then our love tanks would be filled up and our endomorphisms would be in full operation. 

I love hugs.  There is the “hi how are you…glad to see you” hug that is short and sweet.  This kind you can give to almost anyone.  I especially like watching two men hug while giving their traditional three slaps on the back.  It is as if they don’t want to appear too friendly.  Then there are the kind of hugs two people of the opposite sex give who are not married, dating, or interested in each other.  They maneuver their bodies so important parts do not touch.  And then, I have seen two women hugging where one of them has walls up and she kind of barely touches while arching her head back so as not to get too close.  I love watching two young children hugging each other after they haven’t seen each other in a long time.  They kind of jump up and down and squeal.  Now as for me, I need at least ten a day…not light hugs, but deep life-giving and receiving type hugs!  These are the kind where you linger…holding, squeezing tight and drinking each other in while savoring the flavor of intimacy coming from pure heartedness.

There is an art to giving and receiving the life-giving type of hugs.  In order for the hug to be beneficial to both parties certain conditions must be present.  Good hugs require faith.  If we do not believe that the other person loves us and that he/she is out for our good, then the hug is short and artificial.  We might even avoid hugging the person all together.  Fear so easily creeps in.  Sometimes it is based on truth as there really is something in the other person’s character that we do not want transmitted to us, but most of time we have believed a lie about the other person and suspicion has replaced faith. 

Often we read in the other that they are holding back because they are fearful so we hold back.  We seem to intuit personal boundaries that are set up by others.  We seem to know just who is able to receive a hug and who cannot before we even touch them.  It is almost like we can sense when our soul/spirit returns to us in our meeting of another in conversation.  When our children were little they loved to go up to strangers and charm them into receiving their person-hood.  Most would open up their hearts and smile back, but then there were some that were so hard hearted that no amount of effort on our child’s part could soften his or her face.  Unrequited love grieves the soul.  When life is extended it needs to find a home and it is painful when it returns to the sender.  When this happens enough times to us, we may respond in putting up walls of self-protection.  We crave intimacy, the giving and receiving of life, but we fear the pain of rejection.  So we enter into a push/pull way of living life.  We seek others out for comfort but then withdraw when life begins to flow.  Many walk around today with this dynamic of fear of intimacy.  How our hearts need to be healed!

How interesting to find the truth that we pass from life to death when we learn to love one another.  Love requires that our walls of defense be down.  God makes an appeal to his people to love one another, thereby making his love complete.  Perhaps it never crosses our mind that God is grieved when we do not allow the free flow of love.  As a parent, it brings me much joy to see our children enjoying each other’s presence.  In a family household, when one person gets into a mode of self-preservation and protection, it affects the lives of everyone.  It is amazing how this attitude, if allowed, can jump from one person to the next and contaminate everyone.  Truly, when we seek to save our hearts from further pain, we are actually setting up fertile soil for even greater pain….death.  The only real death is separation…from God and from each other, especially if there has already been bonds of intimacy established and it gets broken.

In days ahead we are going to need the life coming from our brothers and sisters.  Intimacy strengthens us to endure hard times.  The Apostle Paul appealed to the Corinthians to open wide their hearts in exchange for the suffering he bore for their sake.  And part of that suffering was keeping his heart open even when his love was rejected.  Those in ministry desperately need the hearts of their flock to respond with open hearts.  Parents need their child’s heart to reflect back the love that is extended to them.  In this way there is a giving and receiving of life that grows and overflows to many.  We are strengthened in our inner man and we are empowered to face adversity in the present and in days ahead.  Let us love one another deeply from the heart and seek grace from God to keep our hearts open.  His intention is that our gates will remain open day and night so that riches may be transferred.  Let us allow him to become the gatekeeper of our heart, giving him authority to regulate the dispensing of our life/love to others and vise versa.  God has not promised a pain-free life, but that he will be with us every step of the way.  However, we can live a life where perfect love casts out fear.  Let press in to God to receive healing so we may dwell in his presence and enjoy the fellowship of all of his family.