|
Presenter: Dick Stetler – September
2021 Most people have realized that the only aspect of
life that remains a constant in the physical world is change.
Change communicates that nothing can absolutely be counted on to
remain the same. Every
generation has had to cope with change since the dawn of
civilization. One of the purposes of entering our world is to
learn how to let go of our experiences gracefully and peacefully
regardless of how filled they are with joy or sorrow.
Most people have failed to
assist others by teaching how to accomplish that developmental task. Marriages that were gloriously celebrated often do
not last more than a handful of years.
Children grow up and depart the security of their families as
each one leaves the nest to find their way in the world.
Our perfect jobs become boring.
Too many business trips can make us strangers to our
families. Our cute, darling
children can become disobedient and rude teenagers as they search for
their own identities. We
quickly learn that happiness and fulfillment are not entitlements.
A major question for us is, “How do we cope with
change?” Our Creator has
baked the ingredient of change into our cake.
What was this powerful entity of
loving energy pointing to by doing so?
A timeless answer came from Jesus who had figured out a solution
for the infinite changes that everyone experiences.
He said: Do not save riches for yourselves here on earth
where moths and rust destroy, and where robbers can break in and steal.
Instead, save up riches for yourselves in Heaven where
nothing can ever bother them.
These treasures will remain yours forever.
Your heart will always be where your riches are.
(Matthew 6:19f) What frequently hides Jesus’ words from countless
people is that they associate Jesus with Christianity.
That belief is misguided.
Jesus remained a Jew until he died. He knew nothing about
Christianity. The truth of his teachings is universal.
For Jesus, Heaven was not a destination when people die.
Heaven was an adjective that described matters of the
heart, i.e., our responses to change coming from circumstances during
our lifetime over which we have no control.
Think of how many families would be spared from
shattering if the spirit of forgiveness was introduced.
A woman in my past confided that her husband had an appetite for
seducing women. She said: During our marriage, he has managed to become
intimate with 23 women so far.
He tells me all about his affairs.
Of course, having sex with him has long since died between us
once he started doing this. I thought of him as a dangerous carrier of
possible STDs and gave a lot of thought of leaving him.
Yet, in many other ways, he is an ideal husband.
He comes home every night. He is a top government
official in his agency and earns a wonderful salary that he generously
shares with us. He has been a wonderful, loving husband to me and a
loving dad to our daughter.
I have stopped thinking about his one defect in character and feel
grateful that I have him as a husband.
I could have done a lot worse in my choice of men.
Forgiveness has been a simple solution. How did Beverly acquire the skill of forgiving
seventy times seven as Jesus taught?
She confided that what her husband was doing was sexually
stimulating himself. He was using women for pleasure. She indicated that
her main problem was dealing with hurt and she questioned herself as to
why she was not enough for him.
Overcoming her hurt feelings and her thinking that his straying
might be her fault, she tried forgiveness. By repeatedly forgiving him,
she grew stronger. She
said: There is great power for living by developing
forgiveness as a skill. I
never thought of it that way.
My husband has helped me to find and use this skill that has
become useful in every area of life.
No one will ever know the power of forgiveness until they begin
loving people just as they find them.
Doing this did get easier when I realized that I was allowing
other people to grow up at their own pace.
If I can cope with my husband
who has strayed many times, there isn’t much in life that can hurt me. What has Beverly accomplished?
Many would say that she has become a doormat, or a woman who
cannot stand up for herself.
They would be correct according to their values. However,
she has done something far more profound.
She has learned to understand her husband as a personal
trainer, one who has helped her to learn a skill that very few
people have mastered. Not
only could she cope with her husband’s straying but she learned how
not to be offended by his actions.
She merely took steps to keep her health safe. Think about this!
What emotional price are we willing to pay in order to cope with
everything that life will place in our path like successes, failures,
and losses. Several years ago, she died. She loved her husband in spite
of his neediness to act out his fantasies.
Think of Solomon, the King of the Jews who
collected wisdom from every corner of the civilized cultures.
He enjoyed 700 wives and 300 mistresses, yet happiness
escaped him. Sex was not
the answer. Wealth was not
the answer. Having a military, that was superior to all other known
nations, was not the answer.
Being respected by countless kings and queens was not the answer.
A careful read of the Old Testament book of
Ecclesiastes, thought to be a personal diary of Solomon, will
communicate what tormented him.
He never found the skill of coping with life.
He was living in the material world and never learned about
another world that Jesus would introduce some fourteen centuries later.
He was using countless skills within himself without realizing that all
of them were coming from his inner world.
He needed to connect the dots. The loving-energy of being able to instantly let go
of emotional attachments to everything in the material world, e.g.,
success, failure, and deep sorrows, will remain a coping skill that many
will never find. (Matthew
7:13f) Our Creator would never have allowed us to come
into our limited forms without also giving us every tool that we need to
succeed spiritually in the material world.
The only responsibility we have is to seek until we find then
repeatedly use those tools. Truly Beverly had found the pearl of great price and the hidden treasure buried in the field. Jesus gave voice to this treasure after being crucified and was dying nailed to a cross. (Luke 23:34) Indeed, he had conquered the world by just being who he was. He knew how to forgive seventy times seven. So can we when our spirits are firmly anchored in skills that we can use when we leave this world. |