The Power of Choice

With Valentine’s Day's fast approach many book, magazine and newspaper articles as well as radio, television and internet stories will be about the romantic bliss we call love. And that’s wonderful. I love those stories when they are genuine and portray the reality of the human condition. (The “human condition” is not only about the bad. It can also be about the good and there is much good in human behavior if we only look for it.) In light of this, let’s think today about the power of choice—to love or not to love.

We have the amazing ability to choose good, transform life and in so doing, change the future. Years ago as a much younger pastor I left the hospital after visiting a parishioner and noticed I was in a particularly foul mood. I analyzed myself and my feelings. Why was I feeling that way? The visit with the parishioner had not been the cause. It had been pleasant and seemed to be productive. I had given encouragement and assurance of the love of God and the church, as well as me personally, what I shared had been well received.

As I walked to my car under heavily overcast skies, with a cold, biting, moisture-laden wind blowing off the partially frozen St Joseph River, I realized I had allowed weather conditions to dictate my attitude and emotions. I realized if this had been a warm Spring day with green grass, leafy trees, blooming flowers and a pleasant breeze blowing over sunlit, sparkling waters of the beautiful St Joseph River, I would have been whistling and in a joyful mood. So I chose to be happy! I discarded my sour mood and started to do the things I normally do when I feel good—whistling as I walked, smiling to myself, and thanking God for the beautiful world in which I lived. When I did, I noticed I felt so much better. The wind did not feel as cold and could even be described as refreshing. The clouds, that had been gloomy and cold, now gave texture to the wintery scene. Life was good! Just because I had chosen to be joyful!

I was amazed at how much my choice to embrace joy changed me and changed my attitude. That life-transforming experience taught me I could choose joy even when I didn’t feel it. I could choose love even when I didn’t receive it. I could choose happiness, even when I had not received what I wanted and what I thought would make me happy.

So as this Valentine Day approaches, if your romantic life is not all you would like it to be, I urge you to choose joy. If you’re single and would rather not be, embrace what is and rejoice anyway! If you don’t love your spouse as much as you did in years past and have the urge to stray, choose to love your spouse and give unconditional love—show it in whatever way you deem appropriate.

If you don’t think you can do that, if your situation is too discouraging and seems impossible, I urge you to seek God’s help. He can be an amazing help if we just ask, and He really does want to help you. God can help you change your attitude and love your spouse whether or not he or she deserves it. And being loved may help them deserve it. God can give wisdom to make good decisions about the future of all your relationships.

We have the power of choice! My prayer for you, me, and the entire world in this valentine season, is that we choose unconditional love for every person on this wonderful planet.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.
 
(Note: This article is a re-print from a Herald-Palladium newspaper "Insights" Column dated February 11, 2012.)

Self-Ish-Ness is a Three-Letter Word

Have you ever noticed that if you take the first letter of each syllable of the English word Self-Ish-Ness, it spells sin? Is this a mere coincidence of language? Of course, but it sure makes a good sermon outline. In another place, I wrote…

I Believe in the Selfishness of Sin. Every sin is basically some form of selfishness and every instance of selfishness is sin—the very opposite of righteousness. Selfishness, by its very nature, alienates people from God and from each other, hindering and ultimately destroying the Divine‑human oneness that is the essence of abundant living.

Self-Ish-Ness puts self first and that makes God at least second and possibly much lower on our appreciation list. Self-Ish-Ness destroys person-to-person relationships that should be the greatest treasures of earth and degenerates them instead into all sorts of love perversions. A parent-child relationship that should be the joy of life is destroyed by molestation. A marriage meant to last a lifetime and bring joy to home, church, community and the world, as well as to the Kingdom of God, is instead destroyed by the Self-Ish-Ness of one or both. Examples are endless if we wanted to continue, but there is no need—you get the point.

In I Corinthians 13 the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, helped us to see that Self-Ish-Ness and love are opposites. He tells us what love is: “Love is patient, love is kind.” and what love is not: “It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” (I Cor. 13:4-5^(NIV))

Years ago, a sociology professor gave our class this one sentence description of love: “Love is an unselfish concern for another.” Not romantic, but practical and it shows that for love to flourish we have to get the Self-Ish-Ness out.

Let’s turn Paul’s description of love around to show what Self-Ish-Ness really is.

Self-Ish-Ness (or self-seeking behavior) produces envy, boastfulness, selfish pride, rudeness, is easily angered and never forgets a wrong.

On the other hand, the opposite of selfishness is unselfish behavior, attitude and outlook. So here we see both the cause and correction for the sin that so easily besets us. The cause of most, if not all our earthly problems is that we care too much for self and too little for others.

The solution to our earthly problems is that we learn to love both ourselves and others, thus producing an atmosphere where love can flourish, where joy is the rule and where happiness the natural condition of life.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.

Dr. Wonder’s Workshop and Unanswered Prayers

My friend Marshall Lawrence is a song writer, businessman, minister, husband, father (like all of us, he wears many hats). His big responsibility right now is being Executive Director of “Silent Blessings Deaf Ministries” and creator and executive producer of Dr. Wonder’s Workshop, a ministry to the deaf community and those who love them.

Dr. Wonder’s Workshop is an educational/inspirational/greatly entertaining television program for deaf children. It is a place they can just have the joy of watching a TV program written by and for persons in the deaf community. Many of those viewers learn for the first time that they are not alone, but there is a whole world of people out there just like them! There is a community to which they belong!

Among other things, on Dr. Wonder’s Workshop they learn that God loves them just the way they are. The all deaf cast teaches children they don’t have to become something they are not and they are not second class citizens or God’s step-children. Instead, they are beloved by God and by the larger world, as well as by a loving community of deaf people who love them just the way they are. This television program is seen by thousands of people and there is nothing else like it for those families with deaf or hard of hearing children. And it is all because of unanswered prayer.

When Marshall and Terry Lawrence had their second baby girl we all rejoiced. They were in our congregation at Midtown Church of God in Elkhart, Indiana, where Marshall was a disc jockey and Program Director at radio station WFRN, a contemporary Christian music station. The same week our grandson Joshua and their daughter Rachel were born and both families rejoiced along with the entire congregation and our extended families.

Unanswered prayer warning

Several months later, however, it became apparent that something was going on with Rachel that Marshall and Terry didn’t understand. After consulting with doctors they discovered she was profoundly deaf. They, their family, our church, and everyone who knew them prayed for a miracle of healing for Rachel’s ears, but it didn’t happen. God didn’t answer that prayer as we fervently asked. Why? Didn’t he love Rachel? Or Carol, her sister? or her parents? Did the church people who were praying not have enough faith? Why didn’t God answer those heart-felt prayers by this huge inter-state community of people of faith?

Can you believe it was because he loved Rachel too much to say “Yes”? And because he knew her deafness would be a blessing not only to her, but to her family and to multiplied thousands of people she would never meet?

When God says “No” it is usually because he knows that “No” is better than “Yes” in that situation.

Because Rachel was helped to embrace her deafness and her talented family had the ability to not only love her and learn to communicate with her in American Sign Language, they also used their incredible talents to minister to the larger world of deaf people, especially children, who were too often being ignored by the hearing world around them.

Below is a link to a video with Marshall singing a song he wrote about their journey that really kind of goes along with the theme of my blog.  It's called "Every Gift From Your Hand" and the heart of the message is in the line:

"Lord, I thank you for prayers you never answered just the way that I thought you should,

Finally, I understand, in each thing that you planned,

Every Gift From Your Hand was for my good."

If you would like to see Rachel sign the song as her Dad sings it, follow this private YouTube url http://youtu.be/lQYBQRH7ohE and if you want to know more about Silent Blessings and Dr. Wonder’s Workshop, go to www.fordeaf.org.

So now, because God said “No” we have Dr. Wonder’s Workshop, and a ministry called “Silent Blessings” that ministers to a huge community of people from the inside, by persons from that community, who know and love them as they are.

We can’t always see the reason God says “No” as quickly as we have in this situation. Often we never see the answers this side of heaven. It is easy to thank God for answered prayer when he says “Yes”. But if we are genuine people of faith we need to thank God just as much when he says “No”. Either answer is just as much an indication of the unconditional love of God.

I'm Rick Blumenberg . . . and that's My View from Tanner Creek.