Joy in Pain

        Some of us can’t consider ourselves to be broken vessels. We feel the pains of life: the loss of loved ones, an unforgivable illness, or even a word from someone whose intent is to hurt you. Too many people know what it’s like to have pain in life; I am no different. My brother Andrew had died from cancer in 2016, and his memory still makes me feel like I could have traded my life for his, but God had other plans. I am still here; he is in the ground waiting for his Maker. I live on with the hole in my heart that used to be him while living with the regret that I could have been there for him more in my life than I have, but I can’t think about that. I remember the good times: the practical jokes and the school nights watching Jay Leno in a tiny black and white television. I even remembered hanging out with him when he had his house in Holland, Michigan. He was a neat-freak like his grandma—I tried to respect that. He had a zest for life, and lived it to the full.

        I moved back to Michigan from Kentucky in 2014, and not too long after that he was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors tried their best to save him and use every experimental treatment available—including one that killed him. I had the honor of being his stem cell donor, and I gave 12 million stem cells when he only needed 7 million. God answered my prayers in that situation, but it was all in vain because the stem cells were not working well with his body and he died from complications. I have to live with the knowledge that all my effort to save him was in vain: his death was inevitable. No one can change how I feel about that because it’s something I have to live with. My family had to deal with the loss of him and my aunt Margie in the past few years, but we find ourselves finding joy in the pain. How can that be, right? How could such devastation and loss find joy? I’ll tell you the truth from my experience: God is my joy.

        That’s right: the joy of the LORD is my strength. God’s love for me and my family in the midst of our darkest hour is the revelation that we needed, and still need. God shows us the little things that only He could give. The joy of His plan for salvation, the joy of His creation, the joy that Jesus Christ died for me and for my family and for all mankind, the joy that we can still love again after a loss. God’s love is real, and we need it in this world more than ever. There are too many things that bring us pain, but there are just as many things that bring us joy. I tend to look at the joy in life: to turn my pain into joy. It’s not easy, and it’s difficult to find the joy in life when life seems to not feel good at this time, but it’s there—if you search with all your heart. God lives forever and time with Him is not in vain—even if your life feels like it’s vain. I can honestly tell you this from experience, and I hope you all, O my readers, will listen to this young sage.

        Even though my brother is in the ground waiting for his Maker, his memory will live on in our hearts and minds. He will always have a place in our hearts—especially in the heart of his daughter who is now 6 years old. I still laugh at his jokes and the fun he had—especially when Kentucky basketball was playing. Those will live on forever—even if he is in the ground. The truth is, O reader, life is too short to not see the joy in it: joy is everywhere and can be easily seen if you seek it. Joy can be found in you and in your relationship with God. Full joy can only be found in that relationship with God: Jesus Christ said that our joy will be full and he also said that he came to give us abundant life. I look for that every day of my life—even in the days of sorrow and pain. Even when my soul feels like it’s drowning in salt water as I’m sinking down during a storm walking to Jesus—thankfully He will grab my hand and bring me to the boat safely. I know; I know: I have little faith. I’m working on it. But, this I know: I can have joy in pain, and that’ll never be a regret.

Strive for Excellence

        Have you heard of the parable of the talents? Any bible reading Christian would—anyone who knows Jesus Christ would know this parable. It’s an example of God wanting excellence from his people: rewarding excellence with ruler ship. If you know the parable, the master goes on a journey to get a kingdom, and says: “Occupy until I come”. He gives money to his servants in hopes that they use them to the best of their abilities. One was given five talents, another two, and another one: each according to his ability. Well, the first person did the best that he could to get another five talents, the second did the same and got two more talents, but the third didn’t do anything with his master’s money. He buried it and didn’t do anything with it. According to the parable, the master returned with the kingdom and wanted an account of what his servants did, and rewarded them accordingly: the first, he said “Well done good and faithful servant, you were faithful in little things, have ruler ship over ten cities.” The second got a reward for his excellence as well, but the third didn’t get a good reward for doing anything; he was considered a lazy, wicked servant because he didn’t use it to the best of his abilities. He lost his talent, and it was given to the one with ten.

        Jesus told this parable because he knew that the kingdom of God wouldn’t come immediately in His days, but was going to be afar off. Its 2,000 years later since those words were written in the pages of your bible, and He still hasn’t returned. But the drive and strive for excellence still remains today as it did when Jesus told the parable, and the reward is still the same. Jesus wants His people to do the best that they can with the abilities that God has given to them. Solomon said: “whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with your might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Paul said in Colossians 3:23 concerning servants: ”Whatever you do work at it with all your heart, as working for the lord”. We are all servants working for the LORD who desires excellence from his followers. So, I would like to encourage you who are reading this today to strive for excellence in life; for God will reward you abundantly for what you do. It’s not about how much money you make, but the willingness to do the best work with meaning and purpose in the LORD Jesus.

        I have been reading about John F Kennedy lately, and a quote from him fills me with joy, and he said: “The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.” The Greeks whom he was talking about was Aristotle, and the philosopher said: “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives—choice not chance, determines your destiny”. This is true especially in the days of Moses when he gave the children of Israel a choice of life and death. Although there are many roads and choices out there that could lead to excellence, the basic choices lead to death or life. Aristotle didn’t choose a lot of things that were right especially in regards to abortions and population control—which was against God’s command. But, the philosopher has some wisdom that the scriptures agree with in regards to excellence.

        I find myself in drear need of that happiness that John F Kennedy had while president of the United States. He was happy to have a job that he can do his best in and do something with excellence. I have been through high school and several colleges, and still haven’t found something that I could do my best in and strive for excellence, but I am in good company because Colonel Sanders didn’t start Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was an old man. Walt Disney struggled as an animator before he made it big with Mickey Mouse. Booker T Washington was a slave who was freed during the Civil war before he helped with the civil rights movement in the early days and started the Tuskegee Institute. George Washington Carver didn’t excel in being an administrator at Tuskegee, but he knew a lot about peanuts. George Washington lost most of the battles he fought in the American Revolution, but because of his abilities, he became the first president of the United States. There are many more examples of men and women who strived for excellence: look at Emily Dickenson, Amelia Earhart who flew across the Atlantic and across the continental United States, and Elizabeth the First who became the virgin Queen of England. I could go on, but you get the point.

        Right now, I want to do something that I can do my best in, and strive for excellence in Christ, and wherever Christ leads me to do, I’ll do with all my might.

The Fingerprints of God

        I know that history is the last thing that comes to mind as something that’s important to your life. You are running to and fro with vacations and trips to distant lands and their cultures and lives. Some may find the places glorious with history like Paris, France, Rome, Italy, Athens, Greece, or even Jerusalem, Israel. History is everywhere; you can’t escape from it. But, is it useful for life? What’s the purpose of diving into the pass for nuggets of the human experience? What’s the point of learning about dead men and women or how a cathedral like Notre Dame took 100 years to build in the 13^th century? Why learn about the great wars of the past and the effects of them that led fathers and mothers to fight or flee with courage? Why learn about the French and Indian War or the American Revolution or the War of 1812, the Mexican-American war, or even the Civil War that changed American life until the 1960s? Wars just one nugget of history: what about the peace?

        Why does the past matter? Isaiah 44:21 says this: “Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare us things to come.” Former things show us the cause of something: the cause and effect of something from the past. How Ahab never truly returned to God after he humbled himself before Elijah. He had prophets all around him that told him to go out to Ramoth-Gilead, but only one of those prophets told him the truth. Ahab didn’t believe the one prophet from God, and was killed in battle because he didn’t learn from his own history of having prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth all around him telling him what he wanted to hear. History tells us the cause and effect of something. Like how a small assassination of the archduke of Ferdinand could cause the war to end all wars, or the invasion of Poland in 1939 could spark the start of World War II and the final solution against the Jews in Europe. George Washington never thought that he going to fort necessity would spark a seven year war in America and Europe, but it did.

        History shows us the character of men and women, and how they lived their lives. David was the greatest king of Israel facing down Goliath and other Philistine warriors as well as getting two hundred foreskins to get Saul’s daughter’s hand in marriage. History showed us his bravery and his heart of God, and it also showed his sins by sleeping with Beersheba and killing her husband. Alexander the Great became the best military commander in the history of the world never losing a battle and raised the Greeks to glory with a vast empire, but died in the prime of his life leaving the land to his four generals as prophesied in Daniel. The Roman Empire became a power to be reckoned with during the reign of Julius Caesar, but he was betrayed by the senator Brutus which started a civil war to make Octavian to be Emperor Augustus at about the born of Christ. In 325 A.D. when Christianity was well known across the Roman world, the bishop of Rome and Constantine the Emperor decided to make Christianity the state religion, and sponsored the counsel of Nicaea to change the Sabbath to Sunday and the Passover to Easter and made God out to be a trinity. These were only a few examples of people’s characters over the years, and they’re written down for our admonition as Paul said in I Corthinians 10.

        These were some reasons to learn about history, but the most important thing to learn about history is the providence and character of God. Providence to the reader that doesn’t know the writing of the Declaration of Independence is the divine guidance and direction of God. Esther and Mordecai were guided and directed by God behind the scenes to save the Jews from their enemies, and start the celebration of Purim. God guided Alexander the Great to destroy the Medes and Persians, and a High Priest told him about the prophesy in Daniel that he would do this when the king went to Jerusalem. That was according to Josephus. When Alexander died, it fulfilled the prophesy in Ezekiel when he laid on his side for Israel for 365 days (a day for a year). That prophesy ended at the death of Alexander the Great, and the children of Israel rose to power again in the form of the Parthian Empire in what’s now called Iran. This same Parthian Empire sent magi to Jerusalem to see the baby Jesus. This same empire fell by the Persians after a mass war with Rome around the beginning of the 3^rd century A.D. Israelites traveled to Europe and eventually to the British Isles creating the greatest empire in the world that had about 25 percent of the world’s land mass at once time in its history, and I am talking about the British Empire. All this by the fingerprint of God. Even the founding fathers of America believed that the Constitution of America was a product of the finger of God.

        The purpose of history is to show these three great things to man. There are other reasons for history, but to me, these are the fingerprints of God because He is the author of all history. History matters and I don’t care what the historians that don’t believe in God have to say about these three things. You cannot deny the truth of God’s existence just because you wish it. God is everywhere, and it’s about time we search and find Him. History helps in that search.

Honest Labor

        I was reading about the founding fathers of America. Men like Roger Sherman and Samuel Huntington and Stephen Hopkins were all self-taught men who labored industriously. Stephen Hopkins was known for his honest, industrious labor, and the rewards from that labor. He was a farmer and a mercantilist, and even came into the governorship of the colony of Rhode Island. He learned mathematics, astronomy, Roman and Greek history as well as literature from Milton and other English writers. All this he did from books without a formal education. He was also a signer of the declaration of Independence. He enjoyed the fruit of his honest labor, and even helped free slaves he had as well as stopped the slave trade in Rhode Island. We Americans don’t know very much about this imperfect Christian because it’s not being taught in schools. We are taught that we are entitled to jobs and retirement and cars and big houses because we’re Americans, and labor not for it.

        Americans aren’t entitled to anything in this world. Americans have always proven themselves to be honest laborers and Industrious. Look at Walt Disney and George Washington Carver and even John F. Kennedy: these men in their respective fields did well and prospered with honest, diligent labor. Walt Disney was an Animator that started the classic Mickey Mouse. George Washington Carver was the man who worked diligently, with the help of God, to find out how many ways people can use the peanut as a crop instead of cotton. He was a black man in the south at the time of reconstruction, and went before congress because of his accomplishments. John F Kennedy was a representative and a senator before he became president of the United States in 1961. He had problems with Addison’s disease, but still managed after a near death situation to write a book called Profiles in Courage. Kennedy was a Harvard graduate and a student of history as well as economics. But, he still managed to accomplish a lot for his honest labor. What have you done with your life? Do you feel like your labor is in vain? Other people don’t work as much and they get all the benefits, right?

        Well, I am struggling with the fact that an honest, industrious labor gets rewarded. I work hard to get where I am, and it feels like I’m going nowhere. But, God doesn’t want us to feel that way. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13: “I know that there is nothing better for men than to rejoice and do good while they live, 13and also that every man should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his labor— this is the gift of God.” Men in America have the satisfaction of enjoying the good of their labor because of the freedoms and the system that we have in this country. Not everyone in the world can say that. They try their best to imitate our system like in China after Mao died. God has blessed this nation with industrious, honest laborers. That’s how we had the technology to go to the moon, or the engineering skills to build the Hoover Dam, or the construction abilities to make buildings like the Empire State Building in New York or the tower in Seattle, Washington.

        There should be a reward for an honest day’s work. But, there are those in congress that don’t want Americans to enjoy the fruits of their labor. This Green New Deal takes away the joy of working with honesty and industry to go from rags to riches with diligence. America was founded on rags to riches stories, and I hope that will never change. Abraham Lincoln was a self-taught lawyer who became one of the best presidents of the United States. Not enough people are willing to step up with a work ethic, and embrace responsibility with joy. John F Kennedy said that he didn’t shiver from responsibility, but welcomed it. He also said in the same speech: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”. There are too many people today who ask what the country can do for them and not enough people to serve the country with diligence. We are shrinking from our responsibilities as the sole provider of liberty and freedom in the world—mostly because we have forgotten God who gave us that liberty.

        The truth is: there is a reward for your honest, industrious labor—even when you don’t see it immediately. I have to see this for myself, and hope to God that He’ll reward me according to my honest, good works as will He do for you.