Life Challenges – Gracefull-Living

There is an old song called “You are My Sunshine.” The basic lyric is this: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.” How many of you are feeling kinda gray lately? What with the pandemic and gray skies (at least in my area), and the browns of winter, it’s hard some days to stay positive and “up.”

I have SAD, Seasonal Affective Syndrome, the condition where one’s mood is affected by the amount of sunshine one experiences. Maybe some of you have this, too. So, for me, winter is a difficult season to begin with. When you add in the pandemic, the condition is amplified. As a retired pastor, I especially feel the social distancing. I spent 19 years of my life interacting with and caring for the people of the churches I served. I miss that (that is probably the main reason for this blog) and the pandemic hasn’t helped.

Well, back to the song… When I wake up in the morning and the sun is shining, I know it will be a good day and I sing praises to God. Yesterday was such a good day. The sun was shining and “You are My Sunshine” popped into my head. As I sang to myself I modified the words because I was so thankful for the sunshine. Now I sing it like this: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You know my heart, Lord. Fill it with your light (or love). And please don’t take your Sonshine away.”

Sunshine. Grace. Finding those things around us that God provides to nurture us. “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Lord, thank you for the light.

When did we ever see you…

Matthew 25:31-46 The Message The Sheep and the Goats ^31-33“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left. ^34-36“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why: I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’ ^37-40“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’

When did we ever see you….?

When was the last time you saw the Master? Did you see him in the face of a child? Did you see him in the face of a loved one, or in their struggles or brokenness? How about the people you don’t know? Did you see the Master there?

So many times the Master is waiting to see me there, helping the sick or homeless or hurting. And I walk or drive right on by. I have my excuses, just as you do. I can’t stop because….

Many of us don’t even carry cash anymore. That certainly makes it easy to say that we have nothing to give. Now that’s not to say that we can always help, or that we don’t sometimes help. Most of you reading this probably give to charitable causes and that’s great. So do I. It’s a lot easier to write a check than to place a McDonalds Happy Meal into someone’s hand. But does that make it that much easier to not “see” the person right there in front of us? Suffering people often make non-suffering people feel uncomfortable. Why is that?

And yet, when we “see” someone helping another person, or find ourselves personally helping someone, it’s an incredible moment of grace. God is working through the helper, extending grace to both the helper and the “helpee”. Then we truly see him.

Matthew quotes from Isaiah about “spiritual dullness”.

Matthew 13:13b-15 New International Version ¹³ “Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand. ¹⁴In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’^[a]

Just visually seeing is not enough. If it has no impact on you; if it does not result in some type of action or reaction, did you really see it? If you did, what will you do about it? To Jesus seeing is doing. When did we see him?

Category: Life Challenges

Sunshine

SEEING AND DOING