He stinks!

    One of my favorite verses from the Bible is Mary speaking to Jesus about her brother Lazarus lying in the grave.   She tells Jesus, "Lord!  He's been in the tomb for 4 days now and he stinks!"  ( the KJV says , 'He stinketh!' )

    The story of Lazarus is a deeply emotional one.  There is so much there to unpack for one blog.  First we have Jesus waiting to go back to Bethany after he here's that Lazarus is sick.  By the time he does show up, Lazarus has been dead and buried 4 days.   Mary's first words to Jesus are, "Lord if you had been here Lazarus would not have died!".   Was that a proclamation of faith or was that an indictment of Jesus?   It's very hard to say.   I think it's a little bit of both.  Mary is being nice and venting at the same time it seems.    She had seen Jesus heal many people.  Maybe she even saw him raise Jairus' daughter who had just died.  Why didn't he hurry back in time to help a person who he was close to?   Jesus uses this as an opportunity to teach Mary about his mission and who he his.  He says to her,

 "I am the resurrection and the life!  He who believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live!"

   He then asks to see where they have laid him.   Jesus already knows where they have put him, but he wants Mary to show him.  When they arrive, Jesus first prays to the Father and then asks that the tombstone be rolled back.

   It is here, that Mary says those infamous words, "Lord, it's been 4 days and surely now he stinks!"
Mary thought that Lazarus was beyond the help of God.   His flesh was rotting and being eaten by maggots.   Death can be like watching a slowly dying fire.  When a person has just died,  nothing changes.  Like the fire, we may still feel the warmth of the flame.  There is still hope the fire could be re-ignited.   But like a fire that has not only been out for a long time but has had water put on it as well we eventually give up all hope in them coming back to life.  Mary was in that place too.  She had lost all hope in Lazarus coming back any time soon.   Jesus then calls out in a loud voice, "Lazarus!  Come out!"  and Mark records that immediately the dead man came out. 

   Who do we think stinks?   Who do we think is beyond the help of God?   Maybe it's a family member?  Or a co-worker?  Or a neighbor?  Maybe it's a politician we don''t like or a famous person who mocks Christianity?   We might case them off as un-save-able and too far gone.   But Jesus stands at the doorway of their tombs and calls them out of their dark dungeons of despair.    He calls US out of OUR tombs.   Places were our flesh is rotting and we have no life in us and all seems to be lost.   He beckons us to come out and be with him.

    Jesus prayer to the Father is also important to look at as well.  First, it shows that Jesus does nothing on his own accord, but only with the Father's blessing.   Second, it shows that both the Father and the Son are in the life giving business.  Too often Christians make the mistake of thinking the Father is against us, and that because his son Jesus is for us, then God the Father kind of goes along with him on saving the world (A sort of cosmic puppy Jesus brings to the Father to bring home with him... "Can we keep him Father?").   But that is so far from the truth.  The Father and the Son work together to bring Lazarus back from the dead.   They are both in the life giving business.  They both love us.  (Jesus said, 'I and the Father are ONE!')

     Later in the book of Acts, Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the missionary.  Shortly after Jesus confronts him on the road to Damascus, Saul is sent to Damascus and Jesus sends Ananias to go and give him sight back (Saul had been blinded).   Ananias says to Jesus, 'Lord, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm has has done to your holy people in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call upon your name!'.    Does Jesus need Ananias report on Saul to remind him who he is dealing with??   No.  Of course not!   Jesus knows fully who he's dealing with.   He knows Saul even better than Ananias thinks he does.   Ananias is basically saying, "God, this man Saul is too far gone! You can't be serious!"

    How many people do we say are too far gone?   How about Obama?  How about Hillary?  How about Bill Clinton?  How about Trump?    Who is too much for God to change?   Do we pray for them?

   Maybe it's you?   Do you think you are too far gone.  Do you feel un-save-able?  The Bible is chuck-full of stories like yours.   From Abraham, (a liar, an adulterer and a idol-worshiper) to Jacob (who tricks his father, extorts his brother to give him the inheritance) to Moses (a murderer) to Jonah (who runs from responsibility and from God) to David (an adulterer and a murderer) to Peter (a blasphemer who abandons Jesus) to Saul who later becomes Paul (a blasphemer, murderer, violent man).   All are forgiven and shown abundant mercy.   Do you think you stink more than them? 

Listen to Jesus call out your name!  He calls you out of the tomb of your despair and hopelessness!! You will stink no more!

When lost: Up is better than down

   When I became a hunter in California I had to take a Hunter Safety Class.   The class didn't just deal with "gun safety" but also safety in the woods.   Most hunting in California is up in the Sierra Mountains which is mile upon mile of untouched forest far away from human inhabitants.  It's very easy when you start going after a deer in the woods to get lost and disorientated.  Being lost can be a very scary feeling.  Your heart begins to pump fast. You begin to move a bit faster than normal.   Noises become more acute all around.  Panic sets in.   You feel you must get to safety as fast as possible. Adrenaline pumps through your veins which clouds your mental processes.  In some cases people who are lost even begin to leave behind critical equipment they might need because they feel weighed down by those items and they are not thinking straight.

    What most people do when they get lost in the woods is they go DOWN HILL.  They think downhill will lead to homes, roads, cities.   But out in the woods, mostly it leads to canyons and dangerous rivers.  I always say, "Gravity can be a bitch!".   Gravity pulls you down hill.   It's easier and less effort on your part.   One time a friend of my son that was hunting with us (his first time ever) he got separated and he kept walking down hill.   He even walked right past a very well marked hiking trail because he was panicking.  We eventually found him by firing our guns to let him know where we were and were able to rescue him.

   We were told by our instructors you must fight this desire to go down and instead walk UP HILL!   By going up hill we do three things for ourselves.  First going uphill burns off that energy our bodies generate from all the fear and panic we have.   It slows us down.   We have to stop periodically to catch our breath.  This keeps us from making rash decisions.   Second, it gets us to higher ground where we can get perspective of where we are at and where we can go to get help.   Maybe we see a house, or a road in the distance.   Maybe we see a familiar landmark.   This gives us HOPE which is a powerful feeling when one gets lost.  Hope that you have a direction and you are in control of your situation.   Finally, it provides a way for others to FIND you.  A search helicopter can easily spot you on the top of a treeless hill rather than down in a brush filled canyon.

   This doesn't only apply to hunting and hiking but also to our world.   We live in a world where we can easily get lost as a society.    The world is a big scary place and we panic in our searching for solutions.  It's always easier to go DOWN in society than it is to go UP.

   Take for example: abortion.   I agree that our world is not fair when it comes to women and childbirth.  Men can walk away from a baby and women cannot.   We must realize that when a woman gets pregnant their hormones are generated to bond the mother to the unborn child.  Hormones are very emotionally powerful chemicals in our bodies (I learned this when I became extremely low Testosterone at a very early age of 40 and I felt like crap).   So we have 2 bars set a different levels for men and women when it comes to babies.   Men are not only less emotionally attached to children, they physically don't have to carry the baby for 9 months and can move on.  Women, on the other hand, cannot simply leave the child.    So hear we have the classic "lost in the woods" situation.  How do we level the bars between the sexes?   What do we do?   We have 2 choices here.

    First we could go down hill and lower the bar for women and allow them an easy way to leave the child and emotionally divorce themselves from the situation.   Simple...right?   But going down you lose something.   You lose a part of you that you were given.   To become more like MEN you must LOSE that which makes you a WOMAN.  Your emotional strength and emotional connection to the world and to children.   An abortion robs you of something God gave you to make you unique.  Our world and society loses when we require women to act more like men.  Our world needs both woman and men.  It has also been found that women who have abortions are much more likely to suffer from chronic depression.   The downhill path leads to more downhill paths.

   The second choice is to RAISE the bar on men and hold them accountable for their actions.  Especially in today's world of DNA testing we can 100% prove who is the father and make them financially supportive.   But that is a harder path.  It's UP HILL.   It requires the courts to step in and to enforce the laws we already have in place.   It requires society to stop giving men a pass on these pressing issues (here's an idea! Let's fine men $10,000 per child to pay for the mothers maternity doctor visits and delivery).  Why should they get a free ride and force the women in our world to pay the price?

    This uphill path also gives women opportunity to slow down and reassess their choices in life and make better choices.  It can give them HOPE as well.  Hope that they have done the right thing and given someone a chance at life (even if they put the child up for adoption) and they took a lemon and made lemonade.   Pregnancy can also be away for others to know you need help.   Like the lost hunter standing up on a hill waiting for a helicopter to fly over, pregnancy is often hard to hide and society often instinctively wants to step in an help where it can and give aid.   But like the hunter that goes down into the steep canyon and cannot be "found", so also the woman who chooses abortion hides her pain in secret, never able to let others know she's lost and in need of help.

   We must be like the lost person in the woods and fight the urge to take the easier route in our choices because those choices can leave us more lost than we started as a society.

Universal Constants

    From the very creation of Physics, certain things were thought to be unchangeable.  When Newton first developed the laws of physics he said that mass, time and space never change.  It seemed reasonable that these aspects of the universe were unalterable.  The mass of an object should not change and everyone who measures the mass should measure the same amount (note: he never defined what "mass" was).  Time also, should be unchangeable and it too should always be measured the same by everyone everywhere.   It makes sense!  Why would your watch run different from mine?  Space as well should not change.  If my ruler is the same length as yours, why shouldn't we both measure the same distance?  It all makes sense!

   250 years later Einstein showed that mass,space and time are not constants at all, but the speed of light ("c") is a constant and is measured the same by all observers despite what speed or direction they are going.   For 250 years the scientists were wrong, they just didn't know it yet.   At first Einstein was lambasted for his ideas.   Did he think he was greater than Newton??    Yet, eventually he was proven right anyway.

   Sometimes we are like that to God.  What makes sense to us is not what makes sense to God.   What we think matters to God, really doesn't matter to God at all.  In mathematics we refer to a variable that has no effect on another variable as being an "independent variable".   The function "y" is not altered by this variable.   Take for example,

    y = 5x + w

    The function below has two variables: x and w.  If I asked you what effect does "s" have on the function you would have to say that y is independent of s as it doesn't even factor into the equation.

    In the Psalms, David often writes about the "steadfastness" of God's love.  It is steady and strong no matter what we do.  It is "independent" of our actions or lack of love.  It doesn't change.  It's constant like the speed of light.   What we think changes God's love of us, doesn't really change it at all.   We think God should be like us.  Makes sense right?   But like Newton, what makes sense isn't always reality.

   I remember when I had to fly down to Southern California because my son had crashed his car into a tree.  It was the 3 am phone call you don't want to get as a father.  Our son was always a handful and a challenge at times to raise (he would even agree to that).  I remember vividly walking into that hospital room and seeing him laying there with his head all stitched up and his arm in a sling.  I remember feeling nothing but love for him at that moment.  Not disappointment.  Not despair.  Not anger.    Just love.   His actions had no bearing on my feelings for him.  I would always love him no matter what.

   God loves you too.... no matter what!