That's Heavy Man!

What’s the heaviest thing you have ever experienced? Moving our stuff from state to state and from house to house usually makes me grumble as I am trying to squeeze a sofa through a narrow doorway up the stairs. “Why do I buy such heavy stuff? A nice light futon bed would work out just fine, or a bean bag chair for everyone instead of these monstrous couches would be fun, and couldn’t we just put our clothes in neatly arranged card board storage boxes in place of the dressers that could also be used to anchor the Queen Mary.”

For those of you who are from the Groovy generation (or if you just like to watch the Muppet Show) you may have exclaimed “That’s heavy man”, as you responded to something said that was deep, poignant or insightful. But it could also be said in observation of a sorrowful or painful experience. Heaviness can be both physical and emotional and when you experience a heavy heart it is both. Before cardiologist and psychologists defined the physical and psychological effects of anxiety, stress and worry upon our health, an ancient proverb describes it succinctly:

An anxious heart weighs a man down,
but a kind word cheers him up. – Proverbs 12:25 (NIV)

The KJV says it this way, “Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop…” We have all gone through those times when life feels like a heavy weight upon our heart. Where we don’t feel like we have the strength to move, we feel we are suffocating, tightness in our chest where the shadow of our whole being is stooped in heaviness. That’s heavy man. As believers in Christ we are offered his strength to lift those burdens, worries and cares from our shoulders to his. He proved his strength when he carried the heavy burden of the cross to his death. Jesus felt the physical heaviness of the cross, the pain, the gasping for his last breath. The heart of Jesus carried the emotional heaviness of the cross with great sorrow and grieving by taking on the repulsive sins of humanity. Now that’s heavy man.

As the Proverb describes we have the opportunity to lighten the burden of a friend, family member, neighbor or even the young Burger King cashier with a kind word. Your kindness expressed with a tender glance, an attentive ear, a compassionate heart with a kind word of encouragement or empathy is a gift. Christ’s love and strength is offered through you as your kind word lightens the heavy burden they carry.

Kindness is Like Snow

“Kindness is like snow – it beautifies everything it covers.” – Anonymous.

I love snow. Not necessarily the cold, the wind, shoveling or driving around that comes along with it, but there is nothing more peaceful than a heavy snowfall. I have lived in some wonderful places where I breathed in the beauty and quiet of falling snow. I remember waking up on a school day in the shadows of the Wasatch Range in Utah, and looking out my window hoping my school bus wouldn’t be able to plow through the snow filled streets. As a teen I experienced the fierce wind and swirling dry snow through a North Dakota blizzard while sitting by the warmth of the fire playing a game of Risk or Chess. In Northern, CA the heavy wet snow was like piled-on frosting plopped on a gingerbread house in the magical Lake Alamanor community. The number one memory I have is while skiing in Breckenridge, CO on the massive mountain. Early in the morning I hit the slopes and skied my way over to a set of runs that I enjoyed. To my surprise I was the first, THE FIRST, skier of the day to go down the run. I stopped at the crest of the run and took a moment to absorb the stillness…no noise, the beauty…the snow on the trees looking out across the horizon the mountain range aglow with the rising sun and the anticipation of this being an epic run. As I effortlessly skied down the run (which was not normal for me), I made the serpentine trail through the knee-high powder. At the bottom, all alone, no other skier in sight, I looked back up the run, and soaked in what was the most spectacular 15 minutes of skiing I will ever experience.

I can picture this anonymous quote that “kindness is like snow – it beautifies everything it covers”. A blanket of fresh heavy snow can even make a dirty city street lined with cars serene and beautiful. Kindness is like that. A simple act of kindness through a smile, word or deed can cover the ugliness of a bad day. Kindness lifts both the recipient and the giver. Kindness is a Godly trait, and is listed as one of the Fruits of the Spirit. God is kind and his expression of love is in Jesus, His son.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. – Ephesians 2:6-7

God’s kindness is like the falling snow that beautifies everything it covers. Out of His mercy, grace and patience with me, my sins, my ugliness is covered by the purity of His loving kindness. The next time we have a heavy snow storm in Damascus (which I hope we have this winter), I will look out our front windows and see the snow pile up on the branches of the evergreens, blanket our lawn and turn our neighborhood into a puffy marshmallow land, and I will remember God’s kindness to me.

Do you Remember?

Do you remember where you were on September 11th, 2001? As the horrific details of the day unfolded, as most Americans you were likely glued to the TV in disbelief and shock. I was in a classroom filled with 7th and 8th graders whose main questions were who would do this and why? That’s what we all wanted to know. Who, with cold and calculated ideology, could plan and follow through with mass murder of innocent lives? What purpose, message, statement or motivation could fuel this atrocious act? To me only one word expresses a strong enough answer…evil.

The word “evil” by Encarta Dictionary is the quality of being profoundly immoral or wrong, deliberately causing great harm, pain or upset. Our contemporary definition of this word leads us to some foundational follow up questions: If evil exist than can we not name it? If we name it, there must be a decisive judgment between what is moral or immoral? Who gets to judge what is moral or immoral and by what criteria? These are tough questions that can lead many sincere and thoughtful individuals down separate paths. Try tackling that topic in a Jr. High classroom on the fly?

We believe God is good and His goodness is pure and complete. He is Holy. In God’s character and being there is the complete absence of even a shadow of evil. Jesus makes the statement, “No one is good–except God alone”.-Mark 10:18 (NIV) Can someone or something tainted with evil be a judge or set the moral standard? No, there is only one who has the moral purity to define and judge what is good or evil, moral or immoral. God alone, and He has given us the framework of understanding good and evil. From the mention of the Tree of Good and Evil in Genesis, acts of disobedience and rebellion of humanity against God and His will, to evil’s rise in the end of days with Christ’s ultimate victory at His return as written in Revelations, evil describes physical and moral attitudes and actions with its frightening consequences.

As we enter into a national time of remembrance of the ten year anniversary of this attack on our nation, we grieve in the perverse evil that impacted each and every one of us and the innocence lost. Today we can say, “Yes, evil undoubtedly exists”, but our hope in the face of unadulterated evil is the power of the goodness of God. Darkness flees from the Light. Jesus has defeated sin and death in the Cross and resurrection, and God our Father will judge and cast away evil for eternity. Our response as Believers in Christ is to live daily in obedience and alignment of His standard of goodness, mercy and grace.

Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God. – 3 John 11 (NIV)