MISERY LOVES COMPANY

It was bound to happen sooner or later because I travel so much for work. I got stuck in New York City due to a major winter storm at the end of February. Hundreds of flights were cancelled coming into and going out of the New York area airports. Thousands of people were stranded for two days. I was just one of them.

On day two of the storm, I was just one of hundreds in Terminal A, waiting 12 or so hours for a flight out with one airline. The experience was being repeated all over the New York area airports in every terminal.

We fought the weather and the weather won. We just had to wait it out.

You know the saying “misery loves company?” It is a mean kind of comment, implying that if you are miserable, you want others to suffer too. It can, unfortunately, be true of we faulted humans.

But sometimes it applies only because you already are suffering together and you want to acknowledge it – here is something we are sharing, a story we have in common. That is how it felt at La Guardia on that weather-bound day. All of us were tired. All of us were looking for electrical outlets so we can call, text and e-mail the outside world. We were trying to nap in uncomfortable chairs or standing in line for coffee to wake us up.

In the end, we went our separate ways, but for that day we were comrades in the fight to have a meaningful day in spite of it all. We talked to each other when under normal circumstances we would not. We gathered news of flights coming in or getting out and shared the hope and joy it brought.

Jesus came to the earth and took on the experience of being human – of getting hungry and tired, of sweating, bleeding, laughing and crying, of living in a body that decays and of being hurt by the ones you love. While here on earth, He prayed to the Father in solitude and worshipped with brethren. He worked with His hands six days and ceased His physical labor on the Sabbath. And He faced His own mortal death, as we all will, and experienced resurrection to eternal life, as we have to potential to do as well.

Because of that, He knows what we are going through. He has been through it. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the felling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

Although he now resides at the right hand of the Father, when life trials and troubles come – things like lost jobs, betrayal, terrible illness and the death of loved ones – we know that He is still with us, sharing our suffering, dwelling in us and helping us work through it, if we are Christians.

Misery needs company if we are to bear it, handle it properly, survive it and thrive in spite of it. God provided Jesus for that – our High Priest who shares in our sufferings.

He isn’t just sharing it theory. He has been there. He doesn’t just see our suffering. He shares it with us. If you are miserable and need company through it, you can find that in Jesus. What a fantastic plan. Jesus is our comrade in our daily fight -- even if we are just losing a battle with the weather.
Love,
Nancy

IDENTITY CRISIS

In the musical “Jesus Christ, Superstar” the character of Mary Magdalene asks Jesus, “Do you think you’re who they say you are?” You can’t find that anywhere in the scriptures. However, Jesus actually asked His disciples who the people said He was and who they thought He was. Although there were several theories out in the community, those closest to Jesus were able to identify Him as the Messiah, the Son of God.

Do you look the same up close as you do from a distance? Who are you, really?

With the 2010 Winter Olympics just beginning in Vancouver, I was reminded of an article I’d read in the New York Times several months ago that had me thinking about identity. The article was about a recent case of the South African runner, Caster Semenya, who competes as a woman but whose gender identity is somewhat blurred. The article explained that once drugs were ruled out (steroid-driven performance enhancements are often the culprit in these cases) the discovery process is very thorough and intimately invasive. It involves checking everything from organs to chromosomes.

How easy is it to tell who YOU really are? Is your Christian conviction apparent in everything you do and say?

In the movie “Alice in Wonderland,” the Cheshire Cat asks Alice repeatedly, “who are you?” I always assumed the cat was not getting the answer he expected, which is why he kept asking, “WHO are you?” “Who ARE you?” “Who are YOU?”

Although you might be many things and play many roles in this life - a parent to your child and a child to your parents, a sibling, an employee, an athlete or a couch potato, and more - the answer to who you are across all those roles should always be “a Christian.”

In every aspect of your life, all indicators should point to the fact that you are an ardent follower of Jesus. If there is any nook or cranny of your life or behavior not in sync with that, then people are going to wonder “is she/he really a Christian? Are you really who you say you are?”

The people whose lives you interact with on a daily basis should not have to undertake a difficult and thorough search to figure that out. It should be what enters the room before you and exits after you – like the Cheshire Cat’s smile.

Do you, does your life, reflect who you say you are?

HAPPY NEW YOU!

It’s a brand new year and a brand new decade. Doesn’t seem that long ago that we began a brand new century, nervously watching lest our world fall apart due to short-sighted programming code for dates. In the last 10 years we survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a major recession, presidential campaigns, war, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, and scores of personal tragedies, like broken marriages, the death of a loved one, loss of a job, that plague the human race every day.

It is a time when many who celebrate the calendar change make resolutions to be thinner or smarter, to get more organized, to be less stressed, to save money, to drink less, to give more, and so on. New Year’s resolutions fail more than they succeed. But people will try again next year. On 12/31/10 at 11:59 p.m., they’ll be firmly committed to fresh start with a brand new year.

Luckily, as a Christian, I know that I can have a fresh start every single day. Each morning when I wake up, it is a new chance to be better than I was the day before. I can be a bigger person today. I can reunite with a lost friend. I can reconcile with a brother. I can give more. I can worry less. And if at the end of the day I find that today has not turned out to be my best day yet -- if I have fallen on my face again – if I have broken my resolutions before my morning coffee got cold -- I can start again tomorrow.

If I sin today, forgiveness awaits. If I accept it, I start with a fresh slate. I don’t even have to wait for tomorrow. Because God’ forgiveness is always there for me, I can confess my sin, repent, and start fresh with God at any moment, completely untainted by the failure of the moment before.

Psalm 51, especially verses 7-13, show the path of a sinner, through repentance to restoration – renewed to snow white purity by the forgiveness of God and reconciliation by the blood of Jesus – right then and there. Because God renews us, WE are new every day. Praise God that each day is a new opportunity in Him.

With His forgiveness and the support of the Holy Spirit within us, let’s start each day with new resolve and celebrate it as a fresh, new start to a better tomorrow. Nah, don’t wait for the new day, start each moment new in Him.

With that thought in mind, I say, Happy New Minute AND Happy New You!

Love, Nancy