2 Corinthians 4:7 We now have the light of Jesus shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
At the REVER Congress in Pereira, discussing the theme “Finding Joy in Chronic Suffering,” I shared several ways Karis drew strength from 2 Corinthians 4. The whole chapter was important to her. From verse 7, and from a story her mentor Claudia Limpic told her, she adopted for herself the nickname “Crackpot.”
Claudia’s story, as I heard it, is this:
A farmer carried water on his back in two clay pots to his garden each day. On one side of the path from the well to his garden, flowers sprung up. The other side remained barren.
The farmer puzzled over this until one day he noticed that one of the pots was cracked. Each day as he walked to his garden, water dripped out of the cracked pot, watering one side of the path.
Enchanted by this story, Karis prayed that from the “cracked pot” of her “broken” body, beauty would be created in other people’s lives. That through the cracks in her life, God’s light would shine.
Another “cracked pot” concept has been important enough in REVER to make it onto a T-shirt. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, making it stronger and more beautiful than it was originally. In REVER, this represents God’s healing work in our lives.
GAVS stands for “Support groups for victims and survivors,” for those who have suffered sexual abuse.
As Karis put it, “All I see is grace.” May you and I find that grace in our own cracked places.
Nehemiah 8:10 The joy of the Lord is your strength.
Two weeks ago, Dave and I were in Pereira, Colombia (coffee-growing country) speaking at the first Latin American REVER Congress (people came from fourteen countries!).
Dave and I are in there somewhere!
The theme was “Restoring Joy in Difficult Times.” For some reason, the organizers thought Dave and I might have something to say about that topic. They assigned us five 90-minute talks. I also had two two-hour workshops and Dave had two 90-minute sessions with pastors. All in two days!
Our five sessions were “Finding Jesus in the Storm,” based on John 6:16-21, “Restoring Joy in My Difficult Times” (Dave talked about what helped him through his five major depressions), “Finding Joy in Chronic Suffering” (using Karis’s experience as a case study), “Discovering Joy in Marriage and Ministry” (this one was the most challenging for Dave and me to do together—but our intense preparation paid off!), and “Celebrating Joy in the Church in Difficult Times” (Dave’s final address).
For the Chronic Suffering talk, I highlighted five Scriptures that anchored Karis and me through her thirty years. Here’s a story I told in connection with Nehemiah 8:10:
I often heard Karis humming a song, “The Joy of the Lord Is My Strength.” When she sang it, she often inverted the words as well, “The strength of the Lord is my joy.”
“It’s impossible for me to muster enough strength to cope with my situation,” Karis told me. “Admitting this allows me to rest in the strength of the Lord. It relieves me of a lot of stress, not having to be strong myself. I’ve given up trying harder. Instead, I relax into God’s power.”
Friends often visited Karis in the hospital or at home to encourage her. I noticed a pattern: within a minute or two, Karis would redirect the conversation to her visitor’s concerns and would end up praying for them.
One day a friend visiting Karis at home exclaimed, “Karis, explain to me how you manage to deal with your situation.”
“My situation?” asked Karis.
“Yes, all of this.” The friend made a sweeping gesture that encompassed Karis’s TPN pump and IV pole and oxygen that tethered her, the hospital bed, commode, dressings, ostomy supplies, rows of meds, etc. “How can you smile and avoid bitterness when you suffer so much?
“We are the same, you and me,” Karis told her. “You just told me about the problems you face in your life. Your problems are too big for you, and mine are too big for me. We’re both forced to depend on God’s strength and wisdom.”
“True, but… your problems seem much more serious than mine,” the friend replied.
“Well, since both your problems and my problems are greater than our strength, there’s no point in comparing them. What matters is our dependence on the Lord.”
“For example…”
“For example, today when I woke up, before I opened my eyes, I said to God, ‘Ah, Lord, how I wanted to wake up today in Heaven with you. But here I am … You know, Lord, that I do not have the strength to endure this day. So, for whatever reason you still want me here, you have to live this day for me. I absolutely depend on your grace covering my weakness.’ And here we are, you and I, sharing those precious moments together, celebrating the strength and joy of the Lord.”
I witnessed conversations like this many, many times. The joy of the Lord was Karis’s strength. And the strength of the Lord was her deepest joy.
After her death, this friend told me, “Each time I want to complain about what I have on my plate, I think of Karis. God’s strength was big enough for her. It is surely big enough for me, too.”
Isaiah 35:1-2The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
This is what we found when we came home from Colombia. More about that next time!
Longing for restoration has been a theme for me as I waited for two surgeries last year, after a long time of attempting to resolve my problems non-surgically, and as I tried to be patient though the recovery process. Ever since sin came into the world, we exist in a perpetual state of longing for things to be made right.
Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we can have hope that God cares about the pain in our world enough to enter it Himself and that He is powerful enough to put an end to death and sadness. He promises to come back again someday and mend all that is broken.
Isaiah 35 gives a glimpse of what God’s kingdom will look like when it is restored to its intended design. It will not just be improved, but perfected. Beyond meeting our basic needs, all of creation will flourish and be made beautiful.
This year I’ve taken comfort in the fact that God doesn’t ask or expect us to fix all our problems in our own strength, but that He invites us to participate with Him in His work of renewing what has decayed and creating new things that are good. When we think about the current wars, our deteriorating bodies, relational conflicts, or our selfish hearts we can feel overwhelmed. But help is coming. Justice is coming. Jesus is coming.
In the meantime, we don’t have to sit back and say, “Nothing matters, because it’s all going to fall apart anyway, and God will just fix it all.” Just as I give small tasks to my young children to help with a bigger job than they can do on their own, the Lord gives us our small part in his work. He uses us despite our past or ongoing faults, with whatever limited resources we have.
As we humbly engage in God’s redemptive work, our values become more fully aligned with God’s values. We become invested in the people and things we’re responsible for and we grow in desiring their good.
For me, working for good means homeschooling our kids, teaching classes on our homeschool community days, helping out in Kids Church, taking meals to people, and hosting people for dinner. I also enjoy weekly time for creative projects like drawing and songwriting.
What’s going on in your corner of the world? Where do you long for restoration? What areas of growth or healing have encouraged you? How are you working to bring about goodness and beauty? I would love to learn from you!
Hebrews 13:9 Your strength comes from God’s grace.
Psalm 23:4 Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.
The image I chose for “Ordinary Time” is a father holding his child’s hand. It speaks to me of security, love, and strength.
Shutterstock: Vyestekimages
This day in “Ordinary Time” is a crunch day for Dave and me as we prepare to fly to Colombia early Wednesday for the first Latin American REVER Congress. (REVER stands for “to take another look,” a fitting acronym for emotional restoration ministry.) The theme of the congress is “Finding Joy in Difficult Times.”
This special event is drawing participants from across Latin America. Dave and I, as the “grandparents” of REVER, which we started in Brazil in 1996, will be speaking for 15 hours Friday and Saturday. Luciene, international director of REVER, has the opening plenary Thursday evening. (For those who prayed Lu through her terrible accident almost a year ago: I learned yesterday that she’s walking short distances now without a cane!)
I don’t expect to post this Thursday. By the time we get home next week, I hope my Inbox will be full of your “But God” stories—a feast of rejoicing in God’s work in your lives! I promise: YOU will be the one who benefits most, as you remember and tell and find yourself encouraged by what God has done for you, your hand in His.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.
Genesis 1:31 God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!
I find nothing so refreshing as a walk in the woods. The rhododendron blooming all over Pittsburgh right now remind me of a walk I made when I was trying to complete—in sections—all 70 miles of the Laurel Highlands Walking Trail. On a previous hike, Dave and I noticed the buds covering the rhododendron plants along the trail. This time, they were in full bloom, stretching as far as we could see through the trees in every direction. Breathtaking.
As gorgeous as our world is now, something even more beautiful awaits us—a new creation, unspoiled by the events of millennia and the impact of billions of people. I can’t wait! CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory and The Great Divorce imagines our need to grow our souls to be able to coexist with such intense beauty. One way to do that must be to open ourselves to the beauty we already have available to us.
God also does beautiful work in our lives. I would love to see and share this beauty! With Pentecost this Sunday, we will enter what the church calendar calls “Ordinary Time.” It’s in our day to day “ordinary” living that God enters and does extraordinary things. I would love to “see” and share the beauty of what he’s done for you! When have you seen God intervene and make something beautiful from a difficult situation? Don’t keep this loveliness to yourself! Honor God’s power and love by sharing your “But God” story.
Here’s how: write your story in one page and send it to me: debrakornfield@gmail.com. I post twice a week and will let you know when I post your story. If you like, you’ll be able to share the link with others.
If writing isn’t your thing, you can text me to schedule a time for you to tell me your story (by phone or by Zoom), and I’ll write it for you. Don’t worry—I’ll send it (or read it to you) before I post to be sure I have the details right. You’ll have a written record of an important moment in your life. And you’ll encourage other people who need to see evidence that God is still alive and well and active in our world today.
Will you accept the challenge to remember and tell how God turned crisis into beauty in your “ordinary” life?
2 Peter 3:13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth God has promised, a world filled with his righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
The most memorable statement in the sermon about Jesus’ ascension yesterday, I think, was “Jesus decided to work from home.”
One day, we’ll share his Home (Revelation 21). Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit, first poured out to the believers on the day we celebrate next Sunday, Pentecost, joins us in the trenches as we stay the course, faithfully pursuing “long obedience in the same direction,” as Eugene Peterson so famously put it.
Like perennials, Jesus will come back!
Jesus warned us there would be bumps and bruises along the way. “Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33). Why are we surprised and resentful when this proves to be true? Could it be that we’re seduced by the idea that this is all there is, that life ends with death?
I had the interesting experience Saturday of attending a memorial service immediately followed by a birthday party. Funerals, of course, always make me think of Karis. Perhaps that’s why I found myself telling someone at the birthday party that Karis longed to go Home. In her last year of journaling, she wrote repeatedly, “Father, I can’t do this anymore. Please take me Home. Please.”
So in our sorrow and missing her, we know Karis is exactly where she wanted to be, living her best life. Glimpsing ahead of time the “new heavens” promised to us.
The writer of Hebrews tells us the heroes of faith “agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. … they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland” (11:13, 16).
I think the promise of a new heaven and new earth, where there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4) gives us perspective on our trials and motivation to make the most of our time here, doing with the energy the Spirit gives us whatever God has asked us to do. Peter and other New Testament writers liked the phrase “make every effort,” or “work hard” as some versions translate the phrase:
Make every effort to respond to God’s promises (2 Peter 1:5—see also 1:10, 1:15).
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14).
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).
Make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification (Romans 14:19). … Never pay back evil with more evil … If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:17-18).
Some versions use the word “harmony” instead of peace. Peace, of course, begins in our own hearts. Worth thinking about, for as long as we’re on this side of the story.
Ephesians 4:21-24 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
Colossians 3:10 [see 3:1-17] Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
I’ve enjoyed watching a bed of ferns at my daughter Valerie’shouse this spring, and wish I had taken pictures of each stage. After frost killed lastyear’s growth and the dry stems were cut away, the patch looked dry and dead, not at all pretty.Before we traveled in March, tiny green shoots appeared. In April, the ferns looked like balls, with a few beginning to uncurl. Now, the ferns look like this, fresh and lovely in their new life.An analogy for me of renewal and transformation.
Our pastor in Brazil, invited to speak in another church one Sunday, asked his adolescent son to tell him about the sermon Vini had heard at home. Having spent the sermon time messing around with his friends in the balcony, Vini scrambled for an answer and finally responded, “It was about sin!”
“What did the preacher say about sin?” asked Vini’s father.
“He was against it!” replied his resourceful son.
God is too. Because sin harms his beloved children and it harms those around us. Colossians 3 lists the kinds of attitudes and actions God opposes: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, idolatry, anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language, lying …. (v. 5-9).
In stark contrast, the new nature Christ offers looks like this: tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, harmony, peace, thankfulness, wisdom (v. 12-17).
Which of these takes more strength and courage? Destroying something beautiful is always easier than creating it. Anyone can blow something up, including someone else’s reputation.
Still, God forgives our sin, when we name it, confess, and turn away from it. Jesus gave his life to make this possible.
God doesn’t, however, rationalize, gloss over, condone, excuse, or justify sin, any more than a loving parent would laugh and pat the head of a child getting into trouble, or an oncologist would ignore a cancer in order to not cause pain and distress to his patient. Nor does God say, “It’s OK to do wrong as long as you achieve good ends.” He says, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” (See the rest of that passage too, Galatians 6:7-10.)
Forgiveness isn’t the same as excusing. It’s costly. It says, “This is wrong, and deserves punishment. I accept the punishment in your place, to free you from sin’s power over you.” That freedom often comes, though, with discipline, through experiencing the consequences of what we’ve done.
During our long trek through the world of transplant, I saw a patient recovering from lung transplant outside the hospital, smoking.
In those years, people waited two to three years for a lung transplant. While waiting, around 20% of them died. (See the statistics here.)
So you can imagine my feelings when I saw this patient. I felt it as a punch in the gut, as a slap in the face of each person still waiting for a lung, or for two lungs, as well as to the family of her donor. As total disregard for the preciousness of the gift she had been given.
Is God unkind and unreasonable when he asks us to honor and nurture our new nature, the new abundant life his Son died to offer us?
P.S. This article prompted some of the thoughts in this post.I have no idea how true the author’s premise is, but the question he addresses is oneI hear often from puzzled observers.
Titus 3:4-5 But when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love … he gave us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 5:1-2 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.
Our extended family keeps growing! With Gavin’s birth a month ago (see photo), if I counted right, on my side we now number 84 living descendants of Ray and Helen Elliott, plus the two, Karis and Gordon, who are with Mom and Dad in Heaven. (This doesn’t include our Michael and others who were miscarried before they were viable on earth, though perhaps we should include them.) On Dave’s side, descendants of Bill and Gloria Kornfield add 17 (not re-counting our family).
Despite the size of our family, we’re as excited about Gavin and Hannah and Bennett (the three born in the last few months) as about each family member of their generation. Each new life is precious. We pray that each of them will grow up feeling dearly loved, by their family, their extended family, and by God.
I’m writing to you just home from southern Indiana, where we enjoyed a rare Kornfield reunion before Dave’s sister Kathy and Tom return to their home in Bolivia. Such a lovely time, including delight in our grandniece Bella and our two grandnephews, Andrew and baby Bennett (and their wonderful parents and other family members).
Dave’s brother Bill, whom you may have prayed for when his leg was shattered in a bike accident in December, and his wife Jennie, delighted us in another way. Yes! He’s WALKING! With just a cane. And swimming! He has accomplished all this in literally half the time expected, by enduring huge amounts of pain AND finding joy and strength in God.
In the verses quoted above, Titus wrote about new birth into God’s spiritual family, a miracle which makes us kin to millions of believers around the world and through time—a family we’ll have eternity to get to know. This family includes people on every side of the conflicts the world struggles with today. Every war is therefore a “civil war” in terms of God’s Kingdom, which doesn’t recognize this world’s political boundaries.
So, I cringe when I hear folks condemn people groups en masse. I’m sure this hurts God’s heart as well. We forget, sometimes, that this world is not our forever home. We’ll be living for eternity with people beloved by our Father against whom we’ve nurtured prejudices and desired injury.
1 John 2:7-8 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one–to love one another. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment.
John 15:9, 12, 26 [Jesus said] I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. … This is my commandment: Love each other just as I have loved you. … I will send you the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.
And they’re off on the thousand-mile drive to Oklahoma: Linda, my brother Dan, his wife Diane, and friend John, sharing the driving of the moving van and Linda’s car. The end of a chapter in Linda’s life, and the beginning of a whole new adventure.
Saturday I made pancakes for the crew. I doled out the first six pancakes on the griddle and placed toppings on the table while the pancakes cooked. They looked weird, though, flat and rubbery. I stared at them, puzzled, and suddenly realized I hadn’t put baking powder or soda in the batter.
Everything there except one essential ingredient.
The difference between the first batch and the second was notable enough to take a photo.
It occurred to me that my pancakes could be an analogy of trying to love in our own power vs. including the Holy Spirit to help us love like Jesus did. On my own, my love for others can be flat and flabby. When the Holy Spirit is in charge, though, everything changes: gentleness, beauty, and good humor take the place of tension, stress, and conflict. Have you noticed that?
So now I have another image to remind me of the Holy Spirit “essential ingredient”: pancakes WITH leavening. “Don’t try harder,” they remind me. “Try smarter. Invite the Spirit to work his magic. Then relax into Jesus’s gracious love; his understanding of what each of us needs.”
Romans 7:6, 8:26 Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. … And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us.
We got home at midnight last night from our mission retreat in Colorado, where we focused on the theme of aging faithfully. Since the age range of our mission team is from early 60s to mid-80s, this was appropriate! We studied the wonderful book Aging Faithfully by Alice Fryling as preparation for the retreat, which allowed us to go deeper under the leadership of our facilitators.
I have a lot to continue thinking about, but one highlight for me was realizing I’ve tried to do marketing of my books within a transactional framework (if I do this, I will get that result), rather than transformational, in which I depend on the Spirit’s leading and don’t get stressed over the kinds of results most marketing approaches work toward. As a start, I’m switching in my own mind from using the term “marketing,” to the word “sharing” of what God has given me. I feel hope about an area of my life that I’ve found extremely stressful. Hope for a new way of living guided by the Spirit.
This weekend our family will be saying goodbye to my older sister, who will be moving from a town an hour north of Pittsburgh to a retirement village in Oklahoma. So I’m thinking about the “new way of living” she will soon undertake. There are obvious benefits—like being able to simply open her door to be with people and participate in activities, in contrast with the increasing isolation she’s felt as her vision limits her ability to drive.
At the same time, she’s leaving behind so much that is dear to her, from possessions to people whom she loves. Starting over in a place where no one knows she was a college professor, published author, chaplain, ordained deacon in the Anglican tradition, and cared for 23 foster children over the years—along with her skills in so many areas, her creativity, her wisdom about surviving trauma, and so much more … Well, it’s daunting, to say the least.
A planter Linda built last spring–just one of so many things she’s leaving behind.
As I feel with her the stress of this move and grieve for myself the distance that will shortly exist between us, I am comforted by these words from Romans: the Holy Spirit, so attuned, so active, so perceptive of what God wants for us and what we need. I hope thinking about this will comfort you too, especially if you are in the throes of embracing any kind of “new way of living.”
Debra Kornfield 