Our community is walking through a valley of grief. Car accidents, cancer, murder, illness, tragedy – the whole church family is affected, directly or indirectly. Sometimes, we may wonder if things will ever look up … if the sun will ever shine again on our sadness. Friends, Jesus knows our hurt. He experienced it first-hand when his friend, Lazarus, died unexpectedly.

Here is a snippet of a conversation that Jesus shared with one of Lazarus’ sisters, Martha, as told in John 11. Martha had just accused Jesus (in that guilt-trip kind of way that we are so adept at doing) that if he had been around, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus responded back that Lazarus would rise again, and Martha countered that of course he would rise again at the end of time. She didn’t get it, did she? Jesus was talking about RIGHT NOW. Here’s what he replied:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (John 11:25-26, TNIV).

If you are familiar with the story, you know that Jesus went to Lazarus’ grave and called him out of it. Lazarus rose from the dead right before everyone’s astonished eyes. Jesus performed an amazing miracle, which foreshadowed his own death and resurrection not too long afterward.

When it feels like the grief is overwhelming, remember what Jesus said about himself in the conversation with Martha. Hold fast to what Martha called him, as well. She said that he was the Messiah, the Son of God. Consider what that means. What are some other names of God that we can find in the Bible? Let’s focus on a few during our prayer time this week.

Let’s turn Mark 12:29-31 into a prayer: “Lord, I love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. Help me love my neighbor as myself.”

Let’s turn the Golden Rule into a prayer: “Lord, open my eyes & show me today how I can do to others what I would like them to do for me.”

Like a toddler learning to walk, we are going to stumble. Just don’t stay down! Humbly ask God for his power to love as he loves.

Don’t wait for the ideal circumstance to demonstrate a spirit of love. Start today, in the reality of life. Give your imperfect life to God.

A couple of months ago, I started writing a weekly devotional for my church. We post it on the website and cross-list it on our Facebook group page. I also started posting it here on the blog, because I hoped that it would be helpful to other readers. The feedback has been uplifting, and I hope that you continue getting something out of the posts. As he often does, God surprised me this morning with his timing.

You see, I write the prayer prompts the week prior so that we have time to distribute/post them the following Sunday morning. Invariably, God still nudges me to re-read and apply that day’s post to my own life. Today, for instance, is about asking his forgiveness for harboring vengeance against our enemies. I often have to remind myself that the true enemy is in the spiritual realm, but you could say that I have an “enemy” in the human sense. This person is a thorn in my side, to say the very least. The less I have to deal with this person and the longer stretches of time between having to talk to her = the less stressed I feel.

Last night, I had a dream that she pulled a gun on me. No kidding – it was crazy scary. I’ve had dreams before of getting held up at a bank, etc., then Dream Me turns into a black belt and kicks some serious booty. This dream was different. She was pretty far off, in a parking lot, and two of the boys started running toward her to say hi. I could tell by her swagger and the glazed look on her face that she was not in her right mind. I hollered toward the boys to stop and come back, and they both stopped, looked at me, looked back at her, and looked at me again. She hollered at them to come to her, and I shouted, “No, stop!” One of them started walking back to me, but the other just stood there, torn about who to obey. I hollered again, “It’s not safe! Come back and get in the car now!” and he finally turned and came back to me.

That’s when she started running (well, tripping over herself, seeing as she was totally stoned) and pulled a gun out of her pocket. I waved my hand in front of me (I imagined that I was painting a force field … hey, it was a dream – bear with me) and started quoting Scripture. I claimed aloud that the Lord is a shield around me, and I traced my foot in an arc across the ground (again, with the force field thing). I demanded that the devil flee in the name of Jesus, and she stopped running and started screaming nonsense and waving the gun in the air. It was as if she was immobilized! By this time, of course, on-lookers were hiding behind cars and calling 911. The boys were all safely back in the car, so I walked backwards to the car and got in and drove off.

So, this is the crazy dream that I woke up remembering this morning, then I read the prayer prompt about our enemies. I don’t know what to make of it; perhaps God is trying to remind me that he’s in control. Perhaps it’s a reminder that our war is not with people, but with the real enemy. Perhaps I was just working out my anxiety in my sleep. Whatever the reason, I was relieved to wake up.

In other bizarre dream news, I reconciled the federal deficit and held a press conference last night. Just thought you’d want to know.

Will you join me in this prayer today? “Lord, please forgive the spirit of vengeance and bitterness that I harbor toward [my enemy].”

Was yesterday’s assignment hard? Jesus knows. Take the first step, and ask him to give you the strength to take another. Try again today.

Ask God to help you live out the Golden Rule today. Prayerfully consider ways in which you can put others’ needs before yours.

If we randomly picked a child from the worship service this morning and asked her/him about the Golden Rule, s/he could probably recite it by heart. Variations of the Golden Rule exist in most major religions; even the unchurched know it:

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Come to think of it, did you know that many of our everyday sayings came from the Bible? Here are a few:

• “The writing on the wall” (If you’ve never read this amazing story in Daniel 5, it’s awe-inspiring.)
• “The apple of my eye” (from Proverbs 7:2 and elsewhere)
• “Out of the mouths of babes” (This one is often taken out of context, but it comes from Psalm 8:2.)
• “Pride goes before a fall” (Proverbs 16:19, among many other references to pride)
• “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10 – Notice that it says the love of money, not money alone.)
• “Eat, drink, and be merry” (It’s a sarcastic remark about the futility of life, but it does come from Ecclesiastes 8:15.)

Like these and many other biblical proverbs, the Golden Rule has gone mainstream. If it’s such a commonplace saying, then why is it so difficult to put into practice?

It seems easy enough, but just because it is familiar does not mean that we’ve learned all we can know about it. Let’s spend our prayer time this week focusing on bringing the Golden Rule from our heads down into our hearts.