Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
The Lord Jesus is my loving leader and therefore every need I have in my life will be provided as a gift of grace. He puts me in places where I am fed and watered, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He restores my energy and my life daily. He directs me on the paths that lead to life and not death. Sometimes those paths lead into very dark places and my confidence is that the Lord is with me, protecting me as we go into the darkness. On the other side of the toughest times the Lord has prepared for me again a place of abundant provision and abundant refreshment in the midst of a dangerous world. The goodness and the mercy of the Lord Jesus pursues me and chases me down every day of my life and one day I will dwell in the heavenly temple with my loving Lord for all eternity. (Norm Wise Paraphrase)
This psalm was part of my early spiritual education. My mother read this psalm every morning before she went to work. It was her psalm. She gave it to me.
When I was a little boy I thought this was a strange psalm at first. I understood the first verse to mean that the Lord was a shepherd that I did not want in my life! I wondered; “Why was I telling God that I did not want Him?”
At times maybe there is more truth to that then I would want to admit. All we like sheep have gone astray. The shepherd keeps the sheep no t the sheep the shepherd.
Now of course the real meaning is the Lord is my Shepherd and He will provide for me. God will give me food, drink, and protection as I have need of them in this life. He will be with be during the hardest times and eventually lead me to be comforted and provided for in the midst of my enemies. The psalm never denies hardship and danger, it only assures me that the good shepherd will get me through and give me glory.
Now this is one of the best known psalms in our country. Most people would still recognize Psalm 23. However, part of this is because it is normally read at funerals. It is psalm of comfort where our focus is that we imagine our loved one sitting in heaven as God’s dinner guest. Or perhaps we see ourselves walking through the dark valley of grief assured that eventually God will comfort us. The Psalm is used by God to bring comfort in all of these circumstances.

In some ways this makes sense since Psalm 23 follows Psalm 22 which is an account of God’s suffering servant. Here we have a poetic prophecy of Messiah dying for our sins and being raised from the dead. Now the risen Lord will be the shepherd of His people and eventually bring them into His kingdom. They will overcome their enemies and see God provide for them salvation.
But the psalm does not have to be understood in this light. For African and Asian believers this psalm has become a call to reject tyrannical political rulers who want to “shepherd” them and their lives. These believers quote the psalm as a clear statement that THE LORD and not the government is my ultimate shepherd that I will trust to take care of my needs. It has become their “Jesus is Lord; not Caesar” psalm and has significant political meaning to them.
The enemies of the Christian are the unbelieving world culture we live in, the rebellious and wicked fallen angels and the remaining lack of faith within our own hearts. None of these have the power to keep the Shepherd’s purpose of providing and protecting us from being achieved. The plan of the Shepherd to provide for us will be accomplished and the enemies of our soul will fail. This is God’s promise and gift to us. The Lord is our shepherd we will not fail.
This psalm also speaks to us of the Lord’s Supper. The shepherd has prepared a table for us. This is what Jesus did with the cup and the bread. How will the shepherd provide for our needs? We are very needy. The Shepherd will have to die for the sheep. He will have to suffer so they can be provided for and protected. The Shepherd will have to die to defeat the purpose of the enemies of the sheep. The table is a provision and a protection. It shows His care and His comfort. As we take of the cup and the bread that Jesus the Messiah has given to us it tells us that one day we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever in fellowship with our KING.
The bottom line to this psalm is this. The Lord is watching over us and will win over the enemies of our soul. We do have enemies and face dark times. If we were left on our own then we would be devoured by the real dangers of this life. But we are not alone. The Lord is our Shepherd and He will provide for us care and comfort. This Shepherd is chasing us down when we stray to give to us His mercy and love. If we tell ourselves this story daily, as my mother did just before she went to work, how can we fail to not have our anxiety fall and our faith rise up in confident joy. May the Lord, grant that we will experience some of that reality this day.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts. ~Samuel Johnson

Every growing person is dominated predominately by positive thinking. When negative thinking grows in a person then the positive passion and power of that person fades and they begin to diminish. It is important therefore that we promote positive thinking in our own lives and resist the temptation to be negative. Only when there is more positive thinking than negative thinking will our lives be healthy and growing.

What is realistic positive thinking?

Look at the best side of a situation while acknowledging problems
Believing that God can change me and others
Believe in God answering prayer in a positive way
Having hope in what God will do with in the future
Supporting positive comments and encouraging faith in others
Avoiding griping, complaining, and murmuring
Find true encouraging things to say about myself and others
Confess my sins with the confidence that God forgives me my sins in Christ Jesus
Pray for the pastor, leaders, and the other people in the church while praising God
Pray for the political leaders of my nation and the world while praising God for working for good in the midst of history.
As led by the Holy Spirit try new or challenging things hopeful that God will use them
Get better as I reflect about the past, identify mistakes, and gain wisdom from it
Encourage new, creative, and inventive ideas and see them as possible
Try to see new things from new perspectives. Seek to grow as a Christian and person.
Take prayerful and thoughtful risks
Be encouraged by those who are looking for the “up side” of a disaster
Believe that God is working all things together for good
Praise attempts to fix a dysfunctional situation
Be open to changing my point of view to see things more from God’s perspective
Believe I am realistic not optimistic
What is negative thinking?
I look at the worst side of a situation and make that the focus.
I lack the belief that I could change or others could change
I lose hope in the future being better
I take the opposing view in any positive conversation
I never make upbeat or uplifting comments about myself or others
I turn conversations into griping, complaining, or murmuring sessions
I spread rumors and gossip about leaders and suspect them of evil without proof
I complain about the pastor, the leaders, and other people in the church, and even God
I complain about political leaders, promote the idea of secret conspiracies, and offer no hope for society. I don’t bother to pray for leaders I know God will not hear.
I try nothing new or challenging because I feel that I will fail.
I get bitter over how people treat me.
I put down new, creative, and inventive ideas as impossible without being willing to brain storm.
I limit my vision of what God could be doing in my life.
I take no risks.
I am cynical towards those who are looking for an “up” side of a tragedy, failure, or disaster.
I ridicule those who say “all things are working together for good.”
I ridicule attempts to fix dysfunctional situations.
I tell people I am realistic not pessimistic.

No one is totally positive or negative. These tendencies will go up and down in each of us as individuals and as a society as a whole. Where the majority of the people and the weight of the emotional energy is positive then growth in a society will normally occur.

People are attracted to positive groups and repelled by negative ones. We should strive therefore to be realistically positive in all we do if we want our lives, our families, our communities, our culture, and the world to become more healthy. It is by promoting such an attitude that we will enjoy the life that God has given to us and attach other people to live such a life as well.

Human beings need a sense of purpose. In World War II the Japanese would break prisoners by first having them dig a ditch in the morning and then fill in the same ditch in the afternoon. Working without purpose drives us crazy.

We need to feel that our efforts will allow us to live. There must be a connection in our minds between our doing and our surviving.

We need to feel that our efforts will lead us to love. We want to know the love of God and other people. To be loved and to love are critical. Our efforts must give us hope that our relationships will deepen.

We need to believe we are learning. Our efforts must be leading us to better knowledge of life, the world, others, God, and our experiences. We do not want to believe we will not find answers.

We need to believe that we will find laughter in our doing. Life without the potential for fun is enough to drive us mad. The joy of life is part of what we seek.

Finally, we want to believe that what we do will leave a good legacy. We must believe that our striving, working, sweating, and struggling will leave a good mark upon the world. We want to believe that God is using our life for good.

Our purpose is to live, love, learn, laugh, and leave a good legacy to the next generation. Only as we have a sense of divine calling and significance in each of these areas are we sane, stable, and spiritual.

As we begin 2010 let us check our lives. Are we on course? Is our direction leading to what we want to accomplish in our lives? If not; then what needs to change? How would we change it? It is a good time to ask such questions.

You may be feeling very sad today. It is OK to feel sad on Christmas eve. God is OK with that.

He understands how living in a broken world can cause sadness. He came to live with you in the broken world. To share in it and to know it on an intimate level. He understands being abused, rejected, slandered, neglected, and hated. He has cried about all those realities and He has suffered all those realities.

One of the wonderful realities of Christmas is that in the person of Messiah Jesus, God is now with us. He is not watching us from a safe distance in heaven. He came to be with us in our pain, sorrow, confusion, loss, and hurt. He embraces us in our brokenness. He is not ashamed to be in a relationship with us even though everything is dark and polluted in our lives. He touches us where we are.

So even as you feel sad this holiday. Understand that God is with you in your sorrow and understands your sadness. He is embracing you with unconditional love and is fully committed to never leaving you. Live in that reality.

Merry Christmas

How does one deal with the Holiday blues? To be depressed and disappointed when the rest of the world seems filled with joy and excitement is one of the most difficult experiences to have in our lives. Yet, every holiday there are tens of millions of people that find the holidays a difficult struggle and rejoice when they are over because they know that inwardly they are not filling happiness but instead sadness.

There are many reasons for the holiday blues. The holidays can force us to face the fact that we are in real financial trouble and cannot give the gifts we would like unless we want to add to our already over burdened credit card debt. For others this season is mixed with the loss of a loved one. Perhaps this Christmas will be the first one where that person is not around the table. Their loss is felt deeply and their contribution to the dynamics of the family is experienced. Sometimes the holidays force us to face the fact our family is split, divided, and alienated. We are alone not because of death but because of conflict. The New Year might just remind us that we enter it without any hope of our dreams being reached and the sense that our visions have died. We do not enter the new year with goals but with fear of losing what little we have left. All of these factors and many others can make the holidays a crisis of soul.

How do we fight the holiday blue? First to remember that the real message of the holidays is about God’s undonditional love for us in the middle of our struggles. God did not come to seek the happy but the helpless in the Messiah Jesus. Therefore, if we are feeling hopeless and helpless we are the very ones for whom Messiah Jesus came. He said only the sick need Him. If we confess that our soul is sick then we are qualified to have Messiah Jesus give us some of His joy freely. Maybe we need to allow ourselves to really listen to the message of the Chirstmas carols. They are not about how life is great, they are about how God loves us in our difficult and struggling lives. How God has decided to forgive our failures and give us paridise as a gift paid for by the death of His Messiah Son Jesus. The Holidays are Holy Days because they remind us of good news intended for those who feel poor in spirit. Maybe those who are not confessing their spiritual poverty are really the ones out of touch with the spirit of the season. Maybe in our struggle and pain we are the ones most ready to hear the wonder of God’s love and be touched by His grace.

Second, just decide to not be rushed or pressurred into doing more than your soul can take. Seek to have a meditative and quiet time. Seek fellowship with people who are safe. If you are emotionally fed by being alone then give yourself some thoughtful walks and take time to journal. If being around people helps you then most churches will be having events that allows you to have a spiritual family even if your physical family is not able to be with you.

Third this may be the time to find a counselor, coach, or spiritual director. Out of the ashes of the past you can decide to reframe and renew a search for answers. Out of the hope of the holidays you can decide to respond with new hope. If you need comfort for a loss, now is the time to begin a journey of healing and if despair had dominated your life, now is the time to seek hope. The holidays are a problem but they are also a potential.

I hope that you will feel the presence of the God who loves you more than your wildest dreams of God’s love. Even if you are angry with God, He is loving you. God loves His enemies. He understands your pain better than anyone else. He understands you better than anyone else. He is inside your mind and heart. Your soul is naked before God. He embraces you in Christ. In that embrace is healing. Open your heart to that comforting embrace this holiday season.

On the one hand life is very unpredictable. On the other hand we know the book ends well. We were born and we will die. When we die we cannot take with us the power, fame, or success we gained.

We know that before death we will have days of joy and days of sadness. We will have days of health and days of sickness. For some of us we may face daily physical pain. For others we will have to be the friends and family of those who suffer. Life is tough. No one is ever beyond having their world rocked. As I hear and pray for Tiger Wood who would have predicted that his world was so fragile. Yet,all of our worlds are fragile.

This week a good friend died. He was a man of faith in Christ and left a legacy of eternal hope to his friends and family. He was a man who shared with me his wisdom, his love, and his support. I have rarely seen a man of such consistent character. He was a real inspiration to me.

Several years back he suddenly was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This would cause a huge change in his life and abilities. A man who had hardly ever been sick was now handicapped. His life which had reflected such success on every level was now shaken. Yet, his faith remained firm. He had peace in his hard journey. That was also an inspiration to me.

It is important that we have realistic expectations about life. It will be hard. it is always fragile. For Christians who believe in the life to come this reality is balanced with a promise that eternity will be greater than our best expectations. Faith in the God of grace allows us to rest in the idea that all the pain has purpose and will end in eternity, replaced by perfect pleasure forever. What we can do is take time to look for and find the positive realities that are also in life and know that our responses to difficult circumstances is the only legacy that will really last. Like my friend, his faithfulness under struggles, has left me more than any other gift he could have given me.

What legacy will you leave?

Everyone knows that positive thinking is better for us mentally, emotionally, and physically than being negative. There is real power in positive thinking. No one really doubts this.

The problem is how can one be positive when the facts of life seem so negative? How can one have a positive attitude when so many painful and disappointing events occur? Without losing touch with reality, how exactly can we keep a positive attitude?

To do this we must come to a deep conviction and insight about three ideas.

1. God has given meaning to our lives under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.

2. There is purpose in all pain. Not one moment of suffering is unnecessary to fulfill our God given meaning and destiny. There was no way for us to achieve our end without suffering. Life is like pregnancy, it is a painful process but the end result is worth the discomfort.

3. We have the responsibility to interpret life from the perspective of faith that seeks to comprehend God’s meaning and purpose for our lives in every event.

To have a positive attitude is not to deny the pain of our lives. It is to seek the silver lining in the storm clouds. It is to look for the half of the glass that is full while not denying the half that is empty. It is believing that even our failures and mistakes are ultimately not powerful enough to keep us from reaching God’s original plan for our lives. It is trusting in God’s purpose and plan and seeking to accept it by faith.

We must believe that God exists and that God rewards those who seek for HIM.

So can we develop a positive attitude in a painful world without denying the reality of pain and suffering. But it depends on us viewing the pain and suffering in a different light.

Rom 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

The other day I was thinking about depression. As one who has struggled with depression and one who has helped people struggle with the feelings of depression, the issue is one of interest and concern for me. Depression is a serious problem.

Now there is biological depression and psychological depression. These two can interact and impact each other. There are times when we need to seek medical help to overcome biological depression. What I am focused on today is psychological depression. It can create and increase biological depression in some people. So to overcome psychological depression can be a great help.

As I was thinking about depression it came to me that it reflects a total lack of motivation. I was reading some articles on motivation and one of the key things that motivates us is the belief that our competence and character will matter in what we achieve in life. When people or cultures come to believe that their competence and character do not matter and that their destiny are governed by “chance” or “luck” then their motivation to have great competence or praise worthy character declines. Helpless people lack motivation and are depressed.

The depressed person feels that their character and competence will not save them. They feel destined to defeat in what matter to them. So why get out of bed? Why put in the energy? Where does one find energy when one feels that the effort is hopeless? Depression is for many people the logical emotion for the prophecy they have set over their lives. When we are depressed we say to ourselves ” I will lose” and therefore our motivation to run the race of life comes to an end. We stop running. Why try?

It is interesting in a race and especially a marathon that most of the runners know early on that they will not be the first one across the finish line. If the only definition of success was to finish first then all but two or three of the runners could just stop running at about the second mile. In fact most of the runners know that the odds of them winning the race by being “number one” are slight if not zero. Then why do they run? They have defined “success” as the act of running and this gives them an internal reward when they do their best. These runners run not to be the first across the finish line or to have their names in the paper. These people run because they see the value of running.

I think that to defeat depression we need to have a personal awakening in which we change the rules we live by and see the value of the journey of life. We need to see that being a person who has maximized their personal competence and character has its own intrinsic value regardless of what it produces in outward change of our circumstances. To strive for this goal to be our personal best is an on going process day by day. Winning it to try.

It does in fact matter to God that we reflect the character of Christ Jesus. He just wants us to try to follow the Messiah. God the Father will forgive us our failures and strengthen our hearts. We really are actors before an audience of one. Due to God’s great grace in dying for our sins in the death of Messiah Jesus we are not accepted and adopted by God the Father. We receive a standing ovation from the heavenly Father when we strive to walk the life of faith. Regardless of the circumstances or the criticisms of other people, our striving to maximize our competence and character to give glory to Messiah Jesus for dying for our sins is appreciated by God and gives the heavenly Father joy. We are winning when as we strive to live sane, stable, and spiritual lives.

So t0 overcome depression we have to find a new source of motivation. The story we have been telling ourselves in which we define ourselves as losers has to be silenced. We have to find a new life story. A story that makes sense of our struggles. I would recommend the story of God’s love in Jesus the Messiah. This true story above all others can heal the soul and help us in our fight against depression.