True Compassion: Love for an Enemy

Have you ever prayed for a terrorist? How about one of the numerous felons, murderers, rapist, or one of the other horrendous offenders that call our nations prisons their home? How about taking the question a step farther—have you ever purposefully spent time with a terrorist or any of the many malcontents who would wish you or your family harm? Maybe that’s an extreme example, let me ask you this, did you pray for that person who cut you off in traffic? How about that busy body at work that stays in everyone’s business? Better yet did you pray for that ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend who completely “did you wrong”? What about the deadbeat ex-husband or your adulteress ex-wife? In short, did you pray for your enemy this week?

It’s easy to pray for those we care about, those people who we see as important to our lives. Heck, it’s even easy to pray for the unknown faceless missionaries across the globe, people who we only know through a mass email, or even those people who we know only by a bumper sticker or roadside sign that says, “Pray for (you fill in the blank)”. What about the others, those people who are not faceless, nor nameless? In fact they are almost infamous, their names and faces burned deep into our psyche—truth be known we couldn’t forget them if we tried...your enemies. Maybe enemy is too harsh a word for you, how about adversaries, foes, opposition, or how about just those people that it’s easy to hate? 

As I was closing out my thoughts on the book of Jonah I began to really think about my own personal ministry to those who I would consider an “enemy”. Those people near and far who in some way have wronged me or my family, or even those countless individuals who would wish my family (or my country) harm for the sake of some misguided ideology. Jonah was commanded by God to take a message to the tyrants of his day, a people that history records as some of the most violent and cruel to have ever ruled. Eventually (after a small detour to the bottom of the ocean via a God created sea creature), Jonah makes his way to this great city and preaches the Word that God had given him, not so much out of compassion for his enemy, but out of obligation to his God. As it turns out, even the vilest of people can be touched by the Word of God and the entire city repents and humbles themselves before the God of Israel. What an awesome story of repentance and God’s mercy—unfortunately the story didn’t end there. We find Jonah on a mountain top, his preaching done, looking down waiting on God to destroy Nineveh. Jonah had missed one of the greatest examples of the mercy of God, a city of over 600,000 wailing and humbling themselves before God, in hopes that He would with-hold His righteous judgment, which He does. Jonah is furious with God—why hadn’t He punished such a horrible group of people? Now that He had spared them would they not just rise up again and destroy the people of Israel? Jonah figured he was better off dead than for God to forgive such a horrible people.

Before you are quick to judge Jonah, think about your own life. Are you quick to pray for those who hate you, those who have hurt you, or someone else that you love? Do you pray for God’s blessings in their lives, that He would reveal Himself to them in such a way that they would come to have a relationship with Him? Are you actively seeking them out, telling them of the love of God and His Son, what He has done in your life and what He wants to do in theirs? It’s easy to love those who treat us the way we want to be treated—loving your enemy…that’s a different story. Take time and earnestly pray for an enemy today.

“I’ll Take a Mulligan”

I am probably in the minority, but I am one of the very few pastors you will ever meet who does not play golf. It’s not that I don’t like the game; I’m just not very good. I first discovered golf when I was in college, a young Tiger Woods was just beginning to capture the imagination of America, and it seemed everyone was starting to play golf. I had almost unlimited access to the resources one needs to play the game. On our college campus we had a free (although you had to retrieve your own shots, but really wasn’t that what pledges were for?) driving range, and the resort I worked for while in college had one of the premiere golf courses in the area…which I could play for free! My step-dad was also an avid golfer and provided me with the clubs I would need to start my endeavor…I mean really who gets to start off with Ping irons? No, I’ve had every opportunity to play the game, just not the physical and mental gifts to do it even average. So although I “played” at least once a week with my friends, I never developed the overwhelming love for the game that seems to have hypnotized so many of my peers…probably because, stop me if you’ve heard this already, I wasn’t very good.

To say that I wasn’t good may very well be the understatement of the century. Every golfer has that great hole, or round they played. That perfect shot that no matter how long ago it was taken, is remembered like it was yesterday. My greatest golf memory, a twenty foot putt to save par on a par 3 island shot at Sapphire Valley Golf Club…par, my greatest memory is a shot for par! It is safe to say that my greatest friend on the golf course was a “mulligan”. Without getting to deep into the etymology of the word (there are several different theories on where the term came from, each involving some dude named Mulligan) let me put it as simple as possible—a mulligan is simply a “do-over”, a second chance. Most people (and courses) allow one mulligan per round, maybe as much as two—one on the front nine and one on the back. My friends, the gracious men that they were, allowed me as many as I needed. You may think this would slow the match down, but not as much as me hiking all over the course and foraging in every water hole for a lost ball (remember I had access to resources for golf…but not unlimited ones, golf balls can get expensive!) So my golf game was one of continual “second chances”.

As many a writer has noted sports can be a great analogy for life. So it is with my life and my golf game. My life has been full of second chances. I have had so many that I don’t believe it’s really accurate to call them “second” chances anymore…let’s just call them “mulligans”. The biggest difference is that my second…I mean my mulligans in life have not necessarily come from the benevolence of some good friends, but from the loving and forgiving heart of a merciful God. Too many times in my life I have found myself in situations, of my own doing, that were less than ideal, and too many times in my life God has brought me through the consequences of my poor decisions. The Bible tells us that God is long suffering and patient  with us—wanting that none of us should suffer (2 Peter 3:9b). That He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love (Psalm 103:8). No matter how many times I “hook” a ball into the Rough of Life, or “shank” a drive into the Woods of Poor Choices, God is there beside me. He puts His hand on my shoulder and says, “Take a mulligan on that one…try it again.” 

So here I am today. There is nothing that I have accomplished on my own because of my worthiness or my own righteousness. Everything I am today is because God had mercy on me and gave me a “mulligan”.

Rock Bottom

Have you ever been to “rock bottom”? It’s not a bar or a city (although it might be a cool name for either); you’ll never find it on a map or locate it on the GPS. Rock bottom is not a specific location, but more a state of mind. The idea of “rock bottom” is can be difficult, although other people can recognize that you are on your way, no one can tell you when you’ve arrived. The only person who truly knows when you arrive is you—and that can, on occasion, take some time.

As I was putting the finishing touches on this week’s sermon, “A Prayer in the Darkness”, I thought about Jonah and his journey that found him in the belly of a sea creature at the bottom of the sea. As I stated earlier, one of the biggest problems about rock bottom is that you don’t know you are there until you get there—I got to think that if you find yourself in the belly of anything at the bottom of the sea, you have pretty much hit “rock bottom”.

I believe, as I read through Jonah’s own account of his time in the belly of the “fish” (see Jonah 2), that he recognized his situation as being, pretty much the worst case scenario. I don’t think that Jonah ever planned on ending up in his precarious situation when he elected to ignore (or rather run in the complete opposite direction) God’s instruction. No doubt if anyone would have told him this would be the end result of his decision he would have thought long and hard (after realizing of course that they were serious) about his choices and their consequences.  

I think a lot of us find ourselves at rock bottom, not all at once (although it can happen that way—just ask Jonah), but in a gradual, slowly progressing decline. We wake up one morning in the town of “Rock Bottom”, population: you. What then? If we are like most people our normal reaction is shock and dismay. We ask, “How did this happen?” “What went wrong?” The truth is we had been heading down the path to rock bottom for a long time, and although we thought the path was unmarked when we view our journey from the bottom back up we recognize the warning signs that were plastered along the way. We think back to that conversation with a concerned loved one or friend. We were positive that they were wrong. That they simply didn’t understand our particular situation—or they were simply busy bodies medalling in your business. Whatever excuse we came up with, we chose to ignore the signs…and here we are.

What now? What is our reaction when we hit rock bottom? Hopefully it will be like that of Jonah, who realizing his own faults and helplessness, cried out to God. Sometimes it takes going to “rock bottom” before we realize how much God truly cares for us and more importantly how much we truly need Him. Salvation is near, even for those of us who are at rock bottom. You see God is always near—no situation or circumstance is too far out of His reach, and salvation as Jonah reminds us is from the Lord!