There is a story about how birds got their wings. It's only a legend, of course, but it does serve to show us an important truth to remember when it seems that life is falling in.
The story is that birds were first made without wings. Then God made the wings, put them in front of the wingless birds, and said to them, "Come, take up these burdens and bear them." The birds hesitated at first, but soon obeyed and picked up the wings in their beaks.
But because the wings were too heavy, the birds soon laid them on their shoulders. To their amazement, the wings began to grow and attach themselves to their bodies. They discovered how to use their new wings, and were soon soaring through the air. What had once been a heavy burden now became an instrument that enabled the birds to soar and go where they could never go before.
We are like wingless birds. Sometimes the very things that seem like burdens and trials to us, often become the very means God uses to lift us up and build godliness in us. When life falls in, we can turn to Him and realize that He knows exactly what is happening, and that He has allowed it for a very specific purpose.
Remember the words of James: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" (James 1:2-4).
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com
"Prepare your minds for action." (1 Peter 1:13) The late President John Kennedy liked to tell a story about his grandfather, Fitzgerald. As a small boy in Ireland, Fitzgerald would walk home from school with a group of boys. The others in the group would climb over the jagged, high cobblestone walls near the path home, since that route was shorter. Some of the fences were 10-12 feet high, and were difficult to climb. The other, older boys all were able to do it, but Fitzgerald always had to go around. But one day, he took his cap off and threw it over the wall. Going home without his cap meant that he would be punished, so he knew that he would have to climb over to retrieve it. And he did. Each of us occasionally needs to create a challenge for ourselves, which forces us to reach out farther than normal, to do something we would not normally do. Isn't that what faith is about? What walls are crowding your life, perhaps blocking your way? They loom over you, intimidating you and draining your enthusiasm. In the New Year ahead, think about those areas of your life with God that are blocked by a lack of commitment, laziness, or just simply because you don't really desire to be close to Him. You know those things are necessary for your growth as a believer, but so far you just haven't achieved the impetus to get things moving. Perhaps it's time to throw your cap over a wall. Set a challenge for yourself that will cause you to stretch beyond where you have settled down in your Christian life. Reach out to someone. Volunteer. Make a difference. Pray. Give. Read your Bible. Attend Sunday School and Worship regularly. Maybe even come to an evening service from time to time. Whatever it is, give yourself to it. Commit your heart to Him, so that this time next year you can look back and be thankful for a year in which you drew closer to your Savior. --Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com
Ah, Sovereign Lord…nothing is too hard for you." Jeremiah 32:17
I was her family's pastor from 1990-1994. She was a young teenager then; now she is grown with a family of her own. Her name is Rana Ragland Bryant, and she has written of an experience she had one night with Joe, her son. Joe had written a note to a fellow fourth-grade friend and then slipped it inside his book bag to take to school the next day.
When they had finished saying prayers, Rana asked little Joe, "What was the note about?"
Joe said, "He's gotta go to the doctor tomorrow, and I wanted him to know I would be praying for him." Rana asked Joe if she could read the note and, with his permission, she went downstairs and opened the note to see these words: "Don't worry, God's got this."
Rana commented that she needed to remind herself every day of those three little words: "God’s got this."
I think we all need to remind ourselves of those three little words, don't we? Life is not always what we had in mind. It hasn't always played out according to script. Well, not our script anyway. The truth is, we don't always know what we need anyway. Life sometimes is too confusing, too busy, too loud, too--real. When we try to take matters into our own hands, we soon discover that we can't handle it.
But God can! He is quite capable of handling anything that comes, every day that comes. Arriving at the place where we can honestly believe that God can handle whatever comes requires that we pull a few things into perspective. Seeing things the way God sees them makes a big difference in our approach to life--even if it doesn't turn out the way we thought it would.
Then, with a new focus, we make fresh discoveries about God, ourselves, and the world He made. So whatever we face, let's remember the wisdom of a little fourth-grader named Joe, compressed into three little words:
"God's got this."
--Rocky Henriques
In the tenth chapter of Joshua, the Israelites had gone to battle against a confederacy of Amorite kings to defend the Gibeonites. Joshua realized at one point in the battle that the day was going to end before the victory was complete, so he simply asked God to make the sun stand still. And the Bible tells us at the end of verse thirteen that “The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.”
Many have attempted to explain what happened that day. Some have said that Joshua was just confused, or that this was mere poetic expression, or even that what actually happened was that the sky was cloudy, so it wasn’t as hot. It’s kind of baffling the lengths people will go to sometimes to explain away the miracles of the Bible.
We need to be careful, in our attempts to understand this event, that we don’t say something that the Bible doesn’t say. So understanding that, let me tell you that my faith is a pretty simple faith, and if the Bible says that the sun stood still so the Israelites could complete the victory, then I believe it. My curiosity leads me to read about it and wonder if it happened this way or that way, but in the end, I believe it happened exactly the way the Bible says it did.
Now before you scoff, let me point out to you that perhaps you already believe other things that are just as fantastic: God creating the universe by speaking it into existence; God speaking to Moses from a bush that burned and yet was not consumed; the Red Sea parting so the Israelites could cross over on dry ground; Naaman, healed of leprosy; Mary, giving birth, though she was a virgin; Lazarus, raised from the dead; the blind, seeing; the deaf, hearing; the lame, walking. And if you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead after three days, and if you believe that our sins can be washed away and we can be made clean and whole, you already believe something far more incredible than what we read about in Joshua 10.
And here’s why: God is certainly able to do what He wants with the universe He spoke into existence. Our own knowledge is too limited for us to say with certainty that He could not make the earth stop in its rotation. Both day and night belong to Him, as we read in Psalm 74:16-17, “The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.” So why could He not command them? We read in Genesis that God commanded the sun and moon to shine, and even when—if we truly believe that, why would we be tripped up when we read in Joshua 10 that God commanded them not to move?
--Rocky Henriques
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