Tag Archives: focus on what remains

The last toenail

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Strange title, I know. But this week I am celebrating the last toenail to fall off. This is the third time since cancer that I’ve lost all twenty fingernails and toenails. Each time it takes about six months to shed them all and additional months to grow them back. It’s not a big deal compared to the other atrocities of cancer, but being without nails is a frustration, especially when they catch on something and rip off suddenly and painfully.

Actually, it’s not the last nail falling away that I celebrate. It’s the new beginning. New growth brings hope. All pain, even if it is for a lifetime, is temporary for the one who accepts Jesus’ teachings and believes his promises. Whatever is “falling away” in your life is not your whole life. What is gone cannot strip away what remains without our choosing. And whatever is lost cannot compare to what remains: the contentment of rising above circumstances, the peace in spending time with your living God, the hope and joy of his faithful promises that his grace IS sufficient for our needs and he will NEVER abandon his child.

Yes, your suffering and disappointment and pain is real. But it is not forever. And it doesn’t have to define who you are.

“Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of his glory and grace. ”

Be thankful for the new beginning that rises before you.

 

Unshakable

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Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:28-29

What do you see when you look in the mirror? An athlete, a thinker, an artist, a writer, a provider? Mother, father, son, daughter? You have been created with certain attributes that make you unique. But they aren’t all that you are. What do you see when your strength is gone, when your creative thinking is impaired or memory lost?  When relationships are severed by hurts or by death?

 

When we lived in Australia years ago, we became friends with a lady who lived down the street from us. I forget the reason but we stayed a night at her father’s house which offered a peaceful retreat for us. Margaret’s dad was known for his intellectual acuity.  As I recall, he had taught in the university and spoke five languages fluently. . . until he had a stroke. Now he was left without speech and physically impaired. Whether he still comprehended all those languages in his mind and just couldn’t express them, I don’t know. But he was obviously a changed man with a new identity. But despite the losses, there was something about him that was not stirred. His calm, peaceful, and welcoming nature remained unshaken. Imagine losing so much and retaining what really mattered.

 

The reality is that you and I live in a world that is easily shaken. Natural disasters, financial calamities, physical and mental illnesses, and relationships all strike quickly and unexpectedly ravish our minds and hearts, our bodies and possessions. Our very identities are shaken too. But we don’t have to be left without hope. If you have sincerely and whole heartedly taken on the identity of a devoted follower of Christ, something remains that circumstances cannot shake. Hope, love, compassion, mercy, faith.

 

A personal relationship with Jesus brings a kingdom and identity that cannot be shaken. Our peace of mind can be threatened but not overcome if our identity is truly in Jesus, and not the other things we typically see in the mirror.  No matter how frightening the storm around you bellows, no matter how devastating the disaster falls upon you, no matter what has been stripped away or is consumed in your life, focus on what remains: Faith, Hope, Love.

 

You belong to an unshakable kingdom. Put your whole trust in this one unshakable truth and find peace in the middle of whatever storms come your way.