Month: August 2024

Rich Mullins was a Contemporary Christian artist. He was very talented as a songwriter and recording artist. He even wrote music for Amy Grant. You might recall one of his songs: Awesome God. It was a very popular song when it came out. But as talented as Rich was, he had some very deep conflicts. Internal and external. They stemmed way back to his childhood. He didn’t get along very well with his father. And his demons lead to issues like alcoholism and anger. Things he battled a long time. There was a line of the movie that stuck out to me: “God loves us for who we are. Not for who we want to become.” And that’s perfect for someone struggling. 

I have been reading a lot on conflict these past few days. How it can bring us down. How it can affect our relationships with others. It is amazing how even though we try to not let it impact us, it can do so. We can try to act like it doesn’t. But I imagine most of us know what I’m talking about. We go about our daily activities with the conflict in the back of our minds. It doesn’t go away. Especially if it’s conflicts with someone externally. And then someone, not knowing so, brings their name up. Or maybe you see them someplace. Internal conflict. External conflict. Either way. It’s still there. 

Unfortunately, we are all going to experience some type of conflict at some point in our life. The good news is no matter what we’re going through, God can show us his grace. God‘s love is greater than any conflict we ever go through. And since we have his love and grace on our side, conflict can be temporary. And if it’s temporary for us, then it is a season. Seasons come and go. And that’s the good news. The hard part is that it could be difficult for us to find the root of what’s causing the issues. Sometimes they are obvious. Other times not. But no matter what we’re going through, let’s not lose sight on the fact that our faith can get us through. Let’s not lose sight on God. Not loose sight of his grace. Just remember he loves us for who we are. And just as the song proclaims, “Our God is an awesome God.”

Barbara and I have been blessed to have three amazing children. And we have five incredible grandkids. Our family gives us amazing joy. So much joy. We smile when we think about them. We have a group text going. And when our phone dings because one of them has put a message out, we don’t waste time opening it. Because most often, one of them is sending us a photo or a funny meme. FaceTime has been an amazing tool to keep touch with our daughter and son-in-law stationed at Gulfport, Mississippi. It’s helped us keep up with our grandsons. Liam loves telling us about his monster trucks. The point here is, we love our family.

As much as family can provide us with great joy, we can also find sorrow. Deep sorrow. Tension within family or friends can be heartbreaking. Sometimes it seems like no matter what you do, it doesn’t go away. You can’t seem to get it to end. It’s always there. It can be immediate family or friends. Or maybe it’s outside the house or outside your close circle. It can be something that they are the root of. Or maybe it’s something that you caused. Doesn’t matter. Tension like this is heartbreaking. And for some reason, we seem to let our pride get in the way of healing it. I find that confusing and interesting.

I think we all want peace and harmony. Especially within family and friends. I think that Satan realizes that if he can divide families and friends, he can keep us from doing God’s work. He knows that he can preoccupy us with the divide. He knows that our hearts will be tied up with what’s going on. He knows that as times like this happen, we must still live. We have daily lives. Work must be done. Bills must be paid. Etc. We must remember that he is sneaky. This is all part of the spiritual warfare we’ve been talking about recently. He attacks our hearts. Gets us pointing fingers at each other. Letting our pride get in the way of our healing. Makes us think that it’s up to the other person to take the first step. That’s pretty clever on his part. So today, let’s do what we can to heal our hearts. Let’s let Jesus take control. If we can do that, then we can heal the tension. Just think how strong our relationships will be with Jesus at the center.