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Loss is Gain

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 17, 2020
It was a beautiful, warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, so we went for a walk in the woods with my son Josh and his little family.
About halfway through, I noticed that one of my hearing aids was missing. Instantly I realized what had happened: I’d been carrying my smallest grandson on my shoulders, and when I lifted him off, the hearing aid was dislodged. It had fallen off at that point, or somewhat later.
My first reaction was natural, “Oh no!” for this was an expensive item. But the Holy Spirit immediately prompted me to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving: “Thank you, Lord, for allowing this. I pray that you’ll help me to find it, as you know where it is. And if I don’t find it, I’ll praise you anyway.” I then retraced the several hundred yards we’d covered, looking carefully among the leaves for the missing item, but to no avail.
As I was searching, the Spirit reminded me of how our car had been stolen shortly before we moved to Germany in 2009. I had looked for that, too, but again, to no avail. We’d hoped to sell it and buy a car in Germany, but, as you may remember, the Lord had something much greater in mind for us.
He not only supplied a car for free through our new friends, Dr. Chris and Melanie, but they also paid for the insurance, taxes, repairs and all our fuel for the whole 3.5 years we were there!
But much more importantly, the Lord gave opportunity to share the gospel with Dr. Chris, answering all his questions, so that near the end of our time there, he came to Christ. That was certainly worth losing my 15-year-old rusty car for!
So, what does God have in store through this loss? I don’t know yet, but we shall see!
I returned to join my family, again looking carefully as I retraced my steps and then we all looked again as we walked back home–but no hearing aid.
Each fruitless search was another chance to trust God in praise. He certainly knows where that hearing aid is, but, has chosen not to show me. I don’t know what He intends to do with this, but I can trust Him to know and to reveal it at the right time.
It is so good to relax in His love, to let go of what is temporal (it belonged to God anyway), to hold on to the truth of His goodness and grace, and to rise above the situation.
As it says in Hebrews 12:1-2, remembering that I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, I am told to lay aside every weight (sadness at the loss) and the sin that so easily entangles me (worry, fretting, anger) and run with patience and perseverance the race He has set before me, looking to Jesus (not to people, possessions or success), the Author and Finisher of my faith (He will carry me through).
Then, following His example, for the joy set before me (of being His child, of having Him as my Shepherd, of His protection and provision, of a certain future, of spending eternity with Him), I can endure whatever cross (loss) may come and despise whatever shame I may feel (for my failure to find it), knowing that I will be set down in heaven with Him.
What a freeing, empowering perspective! I encourage you to pray that passage for yourself every day for a month and see what God does! And I will wait to see His further purposes in this adventure of loss.
[Epilogue: I never did find the hearing aid, but the Lord provided money to pay for a new one in an interesting way. A friend was unable to sell his pickup truck, so I bought it to help him out, then was able to resell it with enough profit to pay for both a new hearing aid, and a crown from my wife’s tooth! God has it all in hand, if we will only cooperate: “He who offers the sacrifice of praise, honors me, and opens the way that I may show him the salvation of the Lord.” Psalm 50:23]
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Lavish Love

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 17, 2020
 
 
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1
Because of your majestic and marvelous Character, Lord, your love is continuously poured out on us, we who are your lazy and willful sheep.
 
You are Love itself, you are faithful and forgiving, gracious and good, positive and pure. We do not deserve your love and protection, but you are insistent on having a warm and rich relationship with us, pouring your time, grace, care, protection and guidance into our lives 24/7.
I praise you, O my Lord of lavishness, my Rock of refuge, my Fortress of faithfulness, Defender of the defeated, my Shield of strength, my Tower of power, my Stronghold of safety.
 
As it says in Psalm 18:3 “I call to you, who are worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.” I praise you for your protection, glorify you for your deliverance, exalt you for your unbelievably wonderful grace at work in me each day.
You are Life, you are Light and you are Love. You are my King, my God, my Savior, my Deliverer and my Protector. You are worthy of praise, worthy of exaltation, worthy of obedience.
 
So, to you I bow down, to you I surrender, to you I give myself afresh. I lay down before you all my desires, my possessions, my plans, my preferences. I give you my will and take yours in its place.
May you be glorified in me today, may my responses flow, not from my puny natural thoughts and understanding, but from your great Heart, your wonderful Word and your immense Power.
 
May your Spirit overflow from my life onto all those around me so they, too, may taste of your goodness, and thereby may your Name be lifted up before all I meet this day. Amen.
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Amazing God!

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 15, 2020
Praise be to you, my marvelous Lord and Shepherd, my King. I awake in the night, and find you there, watching over me. I awake in the morning and find you again, waiting with a freshly prepared new day to share with me.
You are faithful in your love, passionate in your care, gracious in your provision and persistent in your protection. I am like a feeble vine clinging to you, my solid, unshakable Rock.
 
As thoughts of evil threats come in the night, I can easily reject them by meditating on your presence and power as presented in Psalm 18.
You are the protector of the weak and the provider for the poor in spirit, so I can trust you, as I am both. Your Word caringly calms my churning thoughts, sweetly soothes my anxious soul, provides positive, encouraging perspective and safely shields me from Satan’s subtle subterfuge.
“I love you, O Lord, my strength” (Ps 18:1)—you have drawn me graciously into a rich and strong relationship with you, making yourself my Lord, pouring into my life your strength, sharing with me your power–even though you know I will at times miss use it, rebel, disobey and disbelieve, wounding your heart—but you continue on in your unquenchable mercy.
 
You are so gracious! You are faithful in the face of our faithlessness. You are good in the face of our rebellion. You are constant in the face of our unbelief. You are utterly other from us and I praise you for making yourself known, for seeking us out, for adopting us into your family. May we live today so as to bring honor to you.
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More on Context

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 14, 2020
Further thoughts on living in the context of God’s greatness
 
What a difference this context makes! Wow! To live with you, to live for you, to be your child, your ambassador, your herald, your workman, your messenger, your servant, your partner in work, your fellow heir, your brother, and in the end, your bride—what great and marvelous privileges.
 
You are a wonder, O God, all these gifts you have given to me although I am by nature your enemy, the one who rebelled against you for so many years, who is stubborn in selfishness, slow to learn, who gives you pain every day in my willfulness, my self-dependence, my trusting myself instead of you, in my grieving and quenching your Spirit. How great is your love, how great is your forgiveness, how great is your grace.
 
You, as my Savior-Shepherd, have now allowed a new difficulty (challenge, adventure) into my life. Looking at it from my perspective it is unwanted, painful and negative. But looking at it from your perspective, it is good thing.
 
You will give me the grace, not to just cope with it, but to more than triumph over and through it, to give you honor and glory through praise in the midst of it.
 
No human being could ever think up a God like you; you are too good to be true! And yet you are more than true as you are Truth itself: pure, clean, shining, solid, sure, unchanging.
 
You are the only One to be trusted fully. So, we glorify you, we lift you up in praise, we rejoice in you and in your making us your beloved children. Great are you, Lord and wonderful is your name.
 
Prayer: “Today may you be lifted up in my life, glorified in my living, exalted in my being–you who are my Lord Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of the universe, and Shepherd of my soul. Amen.”
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A Chance to Nurture Your First Love for Jesus

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 14, 2020
“‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isaiah 40:25, 26
 
Last night, Lord, I thought about context, and how important it is in our walk with you. When we fall into troubles, if all we see is that trouble, we are disappointed, frustrated and discouraged.
 
But if we have the larger context of you and the fact that you have great and wide plans in the situation, then our response is couched in your perspective and can bring glory to you.
 
The larger context is this: You are the Great, Glorious, Gracious Creator of all, the Breather of stars, the Source of the solar system, the Spinner of the earth and Bringer of the Dawn. You are the Sovereign God: Almighty, All-knowing, All-loving.
 
When your creatures rebelled against your goodness, you, in your rich grace and fathomless love, entered this sinful world, suffered greatly, died painfully, rose powerfully and bought us decisively back from slavery to sin.
 
We deserved Hell, but instead you gave us Heaven. You chose us before the foundation of the world, in spite of the great cost to you.
 
You called us, you cleansed, forgave and transformed us. You equipped us and assigned us to special service wherein we are empowered to do what has eternal importance.
 
You gave us significance and security in yourself. You made us your beloved children. You delight in us, rejoice in us, cherish us.
 
Everything that comes to us is filtered through your love and power. You give us opportunities in our difficulties to glorify you by faith. You give us the opportunity to be weak so that your power may be seen in our lives.
 
As the world seems to be falling apart, we can trust you, for you are moving history to a conclusion and taking us with you. Keep our eyes on you today, Lord, that we may live in the supernatural joy and peace you offer us as we trust in you.
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Out into the world

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 12, 2020
My senior year at Gettysburg was a busy one. I added some courses outside my history major and Russian minor. One I enjoyed in the first semester was introduction to philosophy.
 
“Now,” said the professor, “we’ve looked at the philosophy of David Hume, and commented on its strengths. It’s time to look at its weaknesses.”
 
The professor had done this with every philosophy we’d studied; he showed how each one failed in serious ways. It was good to see the strengths and the weaknesses, but there was a growing sense that maybe there was no philosophy that was thoroughly trustable.
 
In the last class for the semester the professor made an announcement, “For your final exam, I will ask you to write your own philosophy of life. Think about all the philosophies we have studied, their strengths, but more importantly their weaknesses. I want you to try and design a philosophy for yourself which will avoid the pitfalls we’ve seen.”
 
“Now that’s an exam I’ll enjoy,” I thought. “It will force me to do just what I need to do, establishing a basis for how to live my life.”
 
When the exam day came I wrote the first line of my philosophy, “My purpose for being on the earth is to help other people.” The rest of my exam paper I filled with reasons explaining why this was the best philosophy I could come up with.
 
“This is something I can get excited about,” I thought. What I didn’t realize, and what my professor didn’t tell me, is that helping other people is not a philosophy, it is a goal, and even then only a valid one if I were actually successful in helping others.
In the second semester of my senior year I was looking ahead to life after graduation. However, I could see no clear path to take me forward, only a tightrope of theory stretching to the horizon. All the comfortable, safe walls of childhood and school would soon be gone, and I would have to try to somehow keep my balance on this narrow span in an uncertain world.
 
I comforted myself with the thought that at least now I had a philosophy: helping people. I began to look for ways to implement this.
 
At a job fair on campus I was drawn to the Peace Corps booth. Being a farm boy, I thought about going to India to help the farmers there be more productive. I even went so far as to apply and a representative from the Peace Corps soon called me.
 
“I see on your application that you’ve had asthma since your childhood,” he said. “This is a problem. We’ll train you, send you over to India and in six months the dust will disable you. No, you are too big a risk. Sorry.”
 
Disappointed, but relieved at the same time—what knowledge or expertise did I really have to share with Indian farmers anyway—I cast about for some other avenue of helping people. And God was about to help me.
“Here, have some more potatoes,” Diane said while her two children watched me with wide eyes. Diane’s husband, Rip, a friend from my home church, was working on his doctorate in history in Washington D.C. and had invited me down from Gettysburg for a visit.
 
He paused in his eating. “So what did the Peace Corps do with your application?” He asked.
 
“They turned me down because I had asthma. They said that I wouldn’t make it in India.” I answered before taking another bite.
 
“Do you have any other plans?” asked Rip
 
“No, but I want to find some work where I can help people,” I replied.
 
Rip wiped his mouth with his napkin before speaking. “I was talking with a friend of mine recently who works for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. You know, the part of the government that takes care of Native Americans. He said that they are short of teachers this year and would even take applicants without a teaching degree…as long as they could pass the National Teachers’ Exam.”
 
“Really?” My voice betrayed my interest, my growing excitement. The BIA worked in Alaska. I’d always wanted to go there, maybe this was my chance!
 
“And how could I apply?” I asked.
 
“I’ll give you my friend’s phone number. He can get you the application and tell you how to get an appointment to take the exam,” replied Rip.
 
“Have some more ham,” said Diane.
 
It was late June when I drove to the University of Connecticut to take the National Teachers’ Exam. I found the proper building and was directed into a classroom where about 50 others were waiting in line to be registered. Then, we were seated and the exam papers were distributed.
 
I began working my way through it. “Boy, this is not hard at all!” I thought. “It’s just common sense.” A bit further on in the test my eyebrows went up in surprise. I read the question again about why putting a jar over a candle would make the flame go out. The only answer that was somewhat correct said it didn’t have enough air.
 
“Look at that,” I thought, “they don’t even mention the need for oxygen!”
Then I came to the section on philosophies and theories of education. The names and descriptions meant nothing to me, so I decided to leave all those questions blank.
 
The test took about 2 hours and I left unsure of how I had done. Other than the philosophy section, I was reasonably confident that I’d been pretty successful, but what the overall score might be, well, I’d have to wait and see.
 
“In the meantime,” I thought, “I’ll get ready and make my way to Alaska so I’ll be in place when the BIA offers me a job.”
Picture: on the BSA 25 I’d bought from Dad.
 
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Moon struck

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 11, 2020
It was a full June moon night. The air was clear and cool, silvered twice by the two shining orbs, one in the sky, one reflected in the perfectly still water of the pond.
In the near daylight brightness all was quiet–even the frogs seemed awed into stillness by the beauty around them as the cattails and bushes at the edge of the pond put a black frame on the silver scene.
This evening was the height of light, the shortest night of the year, the official tipping point of Spring spilling into Summer. And God did it beautifully, magnificently, powerfully, displaying His wonderful wisdom in setting that lovely moon in the sky, using it to give us beauty, the rhythm of months and light we can reflect on.
As David wrote, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psa. 8:3,4)
God is far beyond us, totally other, powerful and mighty. As He said to Job, “Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place…What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings?” (Job 38:12,19,20). God can.
The glory of His creation reveals to us His goodness and grace, His power and presence. He alone is worthy of worship, of surrender and of obedience.
Looking to Him, the Creator of beauty, of wisdom and of rest is the way to walk in the light. As a famous person said:
“If you look around you, you will be distressed.
If you look within you, you will be depressed.
If you look to Jesus, you will find rest.” –Corrie Ten Boom
 
May we, like the moon, reflect His beauty to all around us, shining the light of His goodness and grace into all the dark corners of the world, joining Him as He moves history to a conclusion and takes us with Him.
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Psalm 23:6b

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 10, 2020
 
Psalm 23:6b “and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
[This powerful statement of certainty turns my gaze ahead, beyond the end point of our journey here on earth to being with you forever, Lord Jesus, in a sinless, unending, glorious relationship.
We will live in your Light, revel in your Love and embrace your eternal Life, unfettered by any darkness, brokenness, negativeness or failure. We will live with you face to face!
There will be joy without sorrow, happiness without regret, celebration without interruption and relationship without pain. We will be able to live in perfect patience, selfless service and a surplus of self-control. There will be surpassing beauty, unending joy and incomprehensible glory.
Praise you, Lord Jesus, for this unspeakably marvelous future you have prepared for us through your terrible suffering, your becoming sin for us, your taking on yourself the punishment that our rebellion deserved.
When I look into this future, and see this certain coming reality revealed in these powerful promises, the pressures and problems of this world fade into the background. I still have to deal with them, but their importance shrinks, their significance lessens, their power to hold me drops away.
What is happening in the world politically, economically and socially is moved from being a source of fear and frustration to being a window into your wisdom, into your power and grace.
You use the evil of men and devils to strip away the illusion of self-sufficiency and bring all who are willing into your Kingdom of light.
You, Lord God, are Sovereign, Almighty and All Knowing–nothing escapes your attention as you inexorably move ahead with your mighty and marvelous plan of redemption, transformation and re-creation.
As we look back, we can see your love, mercy and goodness following us. As we look forward, we can see greatness, joy and glory awaiting us. You have done it all, prepared it all and will bring it all to pass. Therefore, you deserve now all obedience and submission, all praise, honor, glory and love.
And I praise you, Triune God–Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, and Holy Spirit–for your great work in bringing this all to pass. You are the only One worthy of eternal honor, exaltation and worship, and I begin giving you those right now!]
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Psalm 23:6

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 10, 2020
Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,” {part 2]
 
You are truly the God of goodness! I praise you, Lord, for the stability this Truth brings into my life: stability flowing from your consistent and warm love, your unchanging grace and your always pure motives.
 
I praise you that I am always with you because you promised to never leave or forsake me. No matter what I do, you are always there, as the perfect Father, ever waiting with open arms, gracious thoughts and a forgiving heart.
In you I am safe, on sure ground, fully protected, even though I may not see your goodness or mercy at the moment. In you alone I can find rest, protection, acceptance, approval, affirmation, worth and significance. In you alone there is shelter, a shadow for protection from the heat of the day. In you there is a sovereign grace to erase all my guilt.
I praise you, Lord God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit—for your wondrous, gracious and rich love: undeserved, unending and unquenchable.
Your thoughts are higher than ours and if we don’t seek your input, we certainly will not follow your greater ways.
 
Help me to be consistent in seeking your deeper thoughts and higher wisdom.
 
Help me, Lord, to partner with you each day, each moment, to be open to your direction, to come to you very frequently to ask for your perspective on the situation.
 
I thank you now for the goodness, mercy and love that will follow me in every event.
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Psalm 23:6

Published by S.M. Wibberley on September 8, 2020
Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life,”
[What a beautiful promise. Lord Jesus, my Great and Faithful Shepherd. Your goodness, love and mercy will be with me always, without fail. However, I will often not see them in the midst of a difficulty because they FOLLOW me; later I will look back and see how you used them in my life. Although I cannot see them now, yet I can know that they are there, supporting, protecting and finishing your work.
Therefore, I can trust you in any circumstance which is allowed through your wisdom and purpose. I think of what you did in one situation as we faced uncertainty and the threat of loss. In your mercy we did lose, but know now that you had a higher, greater purpose, so in your goodness, we won by losing.
Praise you for what you did in our local friends’ situation where they were assigned to work in a dangerous, difficult and downtrodden place. Looking back now, we can see your goodness, mercy and love at work in their lives, as you protected them from attacks by terrorists, as you brought new maturity and deepening, and provided for their needs. You helped them to live by faith, including giving them courage to share about you when it was dangerous.
To you be glory, Lord, to you be honor, for your goodness and mercy which are always at work amongst us, especially when we cannot see them. I give you praise now for the outcomes you will bring today as I face uncertain situations.
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