Rejoicing and mourning…at the same time?

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. (Romans 12:15)

A simple instruction, one that even makes sense. We probably would know it was a good thing even it it weren't in the Bible. In context, Paul is describing what it's like to have you mind renewed. To think like God thinks.

And so we see that God does this. When you're happy, God is happy with you. He is having a party in heaven about your promotion...your son's wedding…that awesome date you had last night. When you're sad, God is right there with you. He feels the pain when you lose a loved one…when you get chewed out by your boss…when that girl breaks your heart.

At any given moment, millions of people are rejoicing and millions others are mourning. And God feels it all. At the same time.

How can that be? How can he be happy and sad at the same time?

This is just one of the things about God that we can't fathom. He is infinite and incomprehensible. The only way we can know anything about him is that he has chosen to reveal himself. But that doesn't mean we can understand it all.

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 29:29) 

You know, if we can't even understand how God can be happy for you and sad for me at the same time, is it any wonder that we can't understand creation? Or how the infinite God can be clothed in human form? Or how the death and resurrection of Jesus can atone for our sins and bring us into a right relationship with him?

No, we can't understand it all. Not even close. But we can look at Jesus and see what God is like. He has chosen to reveal himself and I am grateful.


 Have you experienced the joy of God coming along side you in your joy? Have you experienced his presence in your grief? 

Do you feel like you have to understand everything you believe? How can that be, if your mind is finite?

Pleasing the Boss

"Yet all this does not satisfy me every time I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate." - Haman, in Esther 5:13, NASB

I looked in to a mirror Sunday morning. Yes, I'm sure I looked at a literal mirror while getting ready for church. But it was later  - at church - where I really saw myself in a mirror. The mirror was from the book of Esther.

I was visiting my friend Steve in Tallahassee and worshiped at Element 3 Church. The teaching was from Esther as they were walking through the book in a series. As Pastor Mark was teaching from chapter 5, I saw something that I recognized.

Go back and read the chapter. Here's the short version: The devious and evil right hand man of the king was plotting to have the entire Jewish race exterminated. In particular, there was a Jew named Mordecai who really got under his skin. Mordecai's cousin Esther was the queen and (no one knowing she was a Jew) she was working on a way to persuade the king to spare her kin. In order to make her petition, she invited the king and Haman to a banquet. Haman got the big head about his invitation and began to brag, not knowing Esther's true intent. And that's where we come to the key moment, quoted in the verse at the top of this post.

In all his boasting, Haman said that he couldn't enjoy it because of this one dude Mordecai, whose presence mocked him. Mordecai didn't show him the respect he thought he deserved, and so he could not enjoy any of the blessings of his life.

How could this be?? You mean to tell me that one person's opinion - a person who he considered to be unworthy of even his contempt, could ruin everything?

Apparently so. Haman was a people-pleaser.

And there's my mirror.

I look at myself and I see someone that wants everyone to be happy. All the time. If there is a way to please everyone, that is the decision I gravitate toward. And if it just isn't possible, my natural tendency is to stress over it.

There are some people who don't give a rip what anyone thinks. They just do what pleases them and everyone else can just go....jump in the lake. Sometimes, I envy them. Because like Haman, I pay way too much attention to that one person who doesn't like what I do.

How unlike our King Jesus. The one who said that his only goal was to please his Father. The one who told us not to fear man who could destroy the body but to fear "him who can destroy the body and soul in hell." At every step, his focus was never on the applause of the crowd, but on the on the single handclap of his Father in heaven.

And so I pray. I pray for forgiveness when I get distracted from the only audience that really matters. And I pray that he will give me the wisdom to look only to him for my affirmation.

Someone once said that the goal of any job is to find out who your boss is and please him. I know who my Boss is...and so I pray that I will remember that he is the one I need to please.

A lot of people

Ok, in the category of "duh"...there are A LOT of people in the world.

Yeah, sometimes things you "know" just kind of hit you out of the blue. That happened to me as I was descending toward a landing in NYC Friday. I looked down at the rows and rows and rows and rows of house and thought, "Wow, that's a ton of people!"

Then of course, when I found myself walking down the streets of Manhattan it was even more obvious. You could fill stadiums just with the folks in the general vicinity of Times Square on a Saturday night.

It hit me one more time as I was sitting in a theatre seat waiting for a show. I thought about the fact that the show is performed 7-8 times per week and the place is packed every night. And this happens at dozens of theatre venues all over town. And in London. And in touring shows all over the world.

Yes, there are alot of people on this planet...

And God loves every one of them. He has a plan for our universe crafted from his infinite wisdom with perfect love, and executed by his unlimited power. When I think of how is able to work his purpose for each person in the world, considering all the permutations of how my actions affect you, and your actions affect him, and his actions affect her...and on and on...the mathematician in me blows a fuse. And yet that is exactly what he is able to do. In perfect wisdom with perfect love for every...single...one.

No wonder Paul wrote:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33, NIV)

Beyond tracing out indeed! Especially when you see how many people there are.

Wow...just wow.