Author name: Tom Stuart

Keeping an ideal from becoming an ordeal

Overcoming /

The joke is told of the young couple who entered into their marriage looking for the ideal, discovered it was an ordeal and ended up wanting a new deal. Unfortunately whether it is a relationship, a job, a home, a purchase or some project, all too often our pursuit of the ideal can end up just like this marriage – becoming an ordeal in search of a new deal. It is this common pattern of regression, from ideal to ordeal, that produces so many unfulfilled expectations in our lives.

Sadly, unfulfilled expectations are toxic to faith and idealism. They tempt us to give up on our ideals and to stop dreaming. In the process they discourage us from hope and perseverance, in making a better life for ourselves and for those we love.

Here are three ways to keep your pursuit of the ideal from becoming an ordeal. They are based on biblical principles from the teachings of Jesus.

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The view from my enemy’s shoes

Relationships /

I was shocked the night my father casually revealed to the family that he had purchased a pair of shoes for the likes of Genie Arneson, my mortal enemy. He dropped the bomb when all of us were sitting around the kitchen table, enjoying our evening meal and engaged in casual conversation. When I heard it I was flabbergasted. Could it be the same Genie Arneson who was in my fourth grade class at school? How did Dad even know him? Where did he meet up with him? And why for heavens sake did he take the kid shopping?

I was raised in a small rural town where the term “gang” referred to a group of elementary school kids who played together after school. There were good gangs and bad gangs. The bad gangs were typically the ones that bullied the good gangs. Genie Arneson led a bad gang and he was the biggest bully of them all.

Just weeks before my father’s disheartening news, I had gotten into the one and only fist fight of my life. It was with Genie. After school he and some of his toughs were picking on my friend Jimmy Smith. Now any gang member worth his salt is loyal to his mates. So I didn’t hesitate to come to Jimmy’s defense and jumped into the fray. Genie was a bigger, stronger, seasoned fighter and got the best of me. It is a fight I am proud to this day that I fought even though I lost. Jimmy and I ended up high tailing it to my house with Genie’s gang in hot pursuit.

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Stressed? Where to look for help.

2 Comments / Growth & Development, Overcoming /

“My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1 NIV)

I have been battling some stress lately, feeling deluged with last minute details for an upcoming event in which I have some major responsibilities. It dawned on me this morning that the stress was having a cumulative effect upon me. I had to acknowledge that I had been trying to carry things in my own strength rather looking with eyes of faith to God who is the burden bearer. Consequently fear and anxiety were robbing me of my peace during the day and my sleep at night. Perhaps you can identify with me.

Basically what I realized was that I had been looking in the wrong places for answers and help. It reminded me of the man in Psalm 121 who had a similar revelation in his journey through a trying time. As I read this psalm it helped me get back into a place of faith as I focused on where real help comes from.

Psalm 121 is the second one in a series of 15 psalms called the Psalms of Ascent or the Pilgrim Psalms. These psalms, from 120 through 134, were written describing the pilgrimage each Israelite was required to make annually to Jerusalem to worship at the great feasts. They were songs the pilgrims sung, journeying from their respective towns and villages, climbing steadily through the Judean hills and valleys, battling adversity both from within and from without, ever looking for a glimpse of Mount Zion where they would eventually enter God’s presence in the temple courts.

These psalms are also descriptive of the spiritual journey that each of us must make in order to grow in our faith relationship with God. Spiritual growth can only begin when we acknowledge the mess our souls are in, our need for change and the necessity of looking to God as the change agent.

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3 bits of political and religious advice

2 Comments / News & Reflections, Overcoming /

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 NIV)

Are you looking for some very practical advice on how to keep from getting embroiled in political and religious controversy? Perhaps you just want to keep a level head and control your blood pressure. Look no further than the book of Ecclesiastes.

Both the political and religious news have an uncanny way of hooking a person’s interest and heating up debate. Depending on the topic, the talk shows hosts, late night comedians, pundits and bloggers know how to stoke those fires and raise their ratings. This week’s firestorm has been about Donald Trump and the “birthers” pressuring for the release of President Obama’s birth certificate.

In recent weeks it was about excerpts from Rob Bell’s controversial book questioning the purpose and reality of hell. The week of May 21st it will be the countdown to Jesus’ Return predicted by Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping. In the weeks that follow it will be something else. Thankfully the royal wedding is giving us some reprieve from all this today.

Ecclesiastes tells us “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (1:9) And so what better source of political and religious advice from a man who has done it all, had it all, seen it all and consequently knows it all? It is a retrospective written by an old man who could have been a high governmental leader, if not King Solomon himself, and at the same time may have also been an influential religious leader and teacher.

Here are Ecclesiastes prescriptions for avoiding controversy and lowering blood pressure when it comes to politics and religion.

1. Do not say “why were the old days better than these?” for it is not wise to ask such questions. (7:10)

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Discovering a sense of Divine Purpose

3 Comments / Growth & Development, Relationship with God /

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:16 NIV)

It is my belief that God has a unique purpose and calling for everyone whom He creates. Both the Old and New Testament repeatedly refer to the fact that God in a very real sense calls us to be His from our mother’s womb. Psalm 139 written by King David and quoted above is one of the most poignant portions of scripture in describing God’s hand upon our lives even before our birth. It is to this truth that Apostle Paul is referring when he pens a thousand years later “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Discovering this sense of divine purpose can have a dramatic and motivating effect upon a person’s life. Jeremiah’s entire life was shaped by the realization that God’s plan for him was set in motion while he was yet in his mother’s womb. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5 NIV) Isaiah had a similar experience being called by God even before his birth to an amazing prophetic ministry. (Isaiah 49:1) And even Paul discloses in one of his epistles that “God set me apart from birth and called me by his grace.” (Galatians 1:15 NIV) That understanding gives us a sense of what propelled him in his life of unceasing travel and writing for the cause of the furtherance of the Gospel.

Have you come to recognize God’s purposeful involvement in your life? Have you begun to realize His unique calling upon you? Do not be too quick to dismiss the likes of Jeremiah and Paul as people with whom you cannot identify. Albeit, few callings are as lofty as theirs, but nonetheless each of us is similar to them in that we are meant to know God’s purpose for our lives.

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