“Land for sale - 120 acres”
The sign just went up on the other side of the road where we are currently staying in south-western Michigan.
To the urban eye, it’s just a bunch of flat open fields you’d drive past without even thinking about it. But to the shrewd farmer (and I’ve rarely met a farmer was wasn’t shrewd) it’s a potential goldmine - depending, of course, on the commodity prices. You’d be amazed at how much money people will pay for 120 acres of land.
Opportunity knocks. Or does it?
We had a lot of sickness in our house this week. There’s nothing much you can do except press on, and hope you don’t come down with it yourself!
People say life throws a lot of curveballs at us. And curveballs do come our way, no doubt about it. As Christians, we believe two things. First, God is sovereign and merciful. He is all-powerful, and he loves us. Second, we are in an invisible battle with the forces of a supernatural enemy, who is out to destroy us. He too is powerful, though not as powerful as God, and he hates us.
We had an interesting drive home from Michigan the other night. The weather had been terrible, but the radar predicted an improvement later in the day. We decided to make a run for it while we could, as another storm was in the forecast. The first 230 or so miles were fine, but the last 50 were a hard slog. The wind was blowing, there was still a bit of snow in the air, and the ploughs just could not keep up. But I knew we’d get home fine. I had faith! Enough, at least, to tide both of us over our anxiety till we got in our front door.
I have written a year-long devotional on the Psalms. As I’ve been editing the daily segments, it occurred to me that every day is significant to God, including the date each of us was born.
And that is because our mindset is, or should be, fundamentally different from the people around us. I’ll explain what I mean. The ancient Greeks believed our lives were controlled by fate. Supernatural beings policed the lines of fate to make sure no one stepped outside of what was predetermined for them. And in practice, many people believe the same kind of things today. That’s why they say things like “touch wood,” have “lucky” pieces of clothing or other items, or are superstitious in various ways.
The mentality of the Greeks is on display every day in horoscopes. Everyone born under a certain sign of the Zodiac has all the aspects of their life predetermined. There are plenty of people around who can’t bring themselves to believe that the God who created the universe could raise his Son from the dead, but they have no trouble at all believing that their daily horoscope tells them how the inanimate stars are controlling what is going to happen to them today.
A lady was sharing her woes with my wife in the changing room at the gym. Her problem was simple. She had to keep dying her hair every couple of weeks, or the roots would start to show.
And this is a pretty decent description of how people handle more serious problems in their lives too. We coat our issues with something that makes them disappear, but before too long they all come back. The reason, of course, is that the roots of our problems have never been dealt with.
A frequent mistake in pastoral care is to treat the symptoms rather than the cause. An over-the-counter painkiller will deal with an ordinary headache, but it won’t do anything much for a brain tumour.
