The borrower is slave to the lender.

Proverbs 22:7, NIV

 

For many of us there was simply nothing like the freedom of leaving the nest and starting out on your own. It's not that we did not love our parents, but we all know that there comes a time when we are no longer children who require the care of mom and dad. So we go out and get that first real job and then our first apartment (preferably in that order). Do you remember the feeling? Walking into your home for the first time, taking off your jacket, hanging it up in your closet and sitting down in your chair to read your book or look at your tv.

 

The new-found freedom was indescribable! And you savored it for a while, but then something strange happened. Your perfectly good car was no longer perfect or good. Your friends at work had better ones, so you were delighted when you found that you could afford one too. Now life really was good for you had a new place of your own and a nice car to impress your friends with. But while the newness was wearing off of the car, you found the monthly payment to be just as fresh this month as it was the first month you received it.

 

Things started "tightening up" after that and there were months that you just couldn't do all the things you wanted without a little help from a big friend. For most of us, that big friend came in the form of a little plastic card with Visa or Mastercard printed right on the front. Now, we thought, we really were free for we always had that piece of plastic to help us make ends meet a little neater. 

 

But when the bills started coming due, the freedom ended and we now found ourselves in so deep that we thought we would drown. It was at this point we learned the 3,000 year old truth stated above: "The borrower is slave to the lender". 

 

Most of us have been there and most of us survived, but it wasn't fun. It certainly was no longer freedom. Still, once we found ourselves under that crushing mountain of debt, the only thing to do was to begin the long and arduous process of digging out from under it. Some of us are still doing so, and all of us wonder if there wasn't a better way. Of course there is a better way. We could have learned of it before we got in too deep if we had only read our Bibles and learned the lesson the easy way instead of the hard way.

 

It's the same way with sin, only magnified. The Word of God warns us against things like telling lies, getting drunk,  losing our temper, or getting involved with sexual immorality, but way too many people always seem to have to learn the hard way. Just look around and you will see the consequences of sin. And you don't have to look far. Sometimes you just have to look in the mirror. The insidious nature of sin is to promise us the freedom to do whatever we want, but we learn too late that sin is not freedom, it is slavery!

 

The good news, for those who will accept it, is that Jesus came into this world to set us free from sin! But we have to accept His terms if we are to escape the terrible consequences that always come hand in hand with sinful behavior.

 

And, just like the debt-slave wishes that he had learned the danger of debt before it was too late, so too will the slave to sin. This is why God warns us against such things. He knows that sin will enslave just as surely as debt enslaves, so He warns us in advance to avoid these things. The wise man will learn from His instruction before hand. The less wise comes to the knowledge later, but can still avoid permanent enslavement if he will only do something about that knowledge now. The foolish man just keeps on going.

 

Which man are we?

 

 

Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on."

Mark 12:43-44, NIV

 

 I met her shortly after moving to Happy, Texas to preach for the church of Christ in 1995. She had worshipped with the church here for a number of years, but had not attended for a while. So when I learned she wanted to visit, I really didn't know much of anything about her other than she wanted to talk to me. When I got to the house, a black woman in her late fifties met me at the door and introduced herself as Alice Malone. 

 

She was a bit hesitant at first, but after we visited for a while she got to the point: She was wanting to come back to the church, but wasn't sure how to go about it. Would it be alright, she wondered, if she did come back. Would people accept her?

 

Now, don't get me wrong. Alice was not asking these questions because she was black and the congregation was mostly white. I don't remember ever having any sort of conversation with Alice in which she even hinted at racial matters. Nor was Alice asking the question because I was some sort of religious authority from whom permission must be granted in order for her to come back. Alice had likely discerned very quickly from our brief conversation that I was just a fledgling preacher who didn't know all that much anyway, so she knew that she didn't need my say so on the matter.

 

But what Alice was very concerned about was doing this in the right way. She had been "out of service" for a long while and she needed to know if it was appropriate for her to come back. I assured her that it was. She wondered how she should go about it. I suggested that she just come on back. So she did. And her church family could not have been more delighted.

 

I got to know Alice pretty well over the years and we established a friendship that I will always value. She had lost her husband several years earlier, and I asked her if we could put her on the list for the teen mowing during the summer. The year I moved to Happy, the teens began mowing the lawns for our widow ladies so that they would not have the trouble or expense, and we asked if she would like us to mow hers as well. 

 

Now Alice's lawn was immaculate and she had taken care of it herself for years. But she was delighted to let the kids mow her lawn and thus began a series of regular conversations either before or after the worship services. Quite often our novice mowers would make a mistake or two in the cutting of her grass. She had a patch of grass in the front yard that she had planted herself and it looked like a picture from a magazine. So when we cut it too short one night and nearly killed it, she brought me over personally and showed me how it should be done. She also had flowers and a vegetable garden, and these plants would all too often be mistaken for weeds by one of our eager mowers. We usually only made each mistake once or twice, but the kids did make a mistake or two.

 

Anyway, Alice and I always had a fresh topic to discuss whenever the church met, and we both enjoyed our visits. By the time the Covid madness swept through the land Alice was approaching eighty, so she had to be particularly careful. For a number of months I had the privilege of taking communion to her house since it wasn't wise for her to get around too many germs. Still, she was back at the worship as soon as it seemed safe to come, and everyone was glad to see her and she was glad to see them.

 

When Alice passed, things just didn't seem the same. She had always sat on the same end seat on a pew just a row or two back from the center. She was there every Sunday morning and every Sunday night, and then one Sunday she just wasn't there anymore. And while Alice was never one of the "movers and shakers" of the congregation, she was a fixture all the same. She never knew how much she was admired and she would have been surprised to hear all of the comments of those who miss her so much now that she is gone. She was just a simple and dignified woman who loved the Lord. And while she might not have stood out amongst the ones who have a reputation for doing great things, I have an idea that she was just the type of great lady that Jesus was referring to when He said that she put in more than all the others.  

 

 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set out before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfector of our faith... Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Hebrews 12:1-3, RSV

 

How do we keep going when things are the toughest?

 

This is one of the questions that the 11th chapter of Hebrews answers when looking at the lives of faithful men and women of all ages, from Abel to Noah, and from Abraham to Moses. The men and women heroes that we read of in the Bible had one thing in common: Faith! It was by faith that they were able to endure hardships that would have ruined most people. They were able to endure all things because they realized that this world was not their permanent home, any more than their bodies were the permanent housing for their souls. In short, they were looking for something that was eternal.

 

There are times of tragedy in this life when it is most important to remember this hope of our faith. As I write this article there are thousands of people in the Panhandle of Texas who are trying to figure out where to live, because fire has destroyed their homes. There are thousands more who are in the path of this massive fire who are wondering if they are not about to lose their own homes.

 

Also happening in the past week was the news of one of our dear friends. One of her closest friends lost her baby just days before it was due. Now she and her husband are experiencing a grief that few of us will ever know. 

 

Things like this take our breath away, and sometimes we wonder how we will keep on going. Many do not and they simply give up and retreat into a world in which they can barely function anymore. At this point some will turn to alcohol and drugs to numb the pain. Some will look for someone to blame and lash out at them. Others will simply give up and end their lives thinking that there is nothing left to live for.

 

But we cannot do this. The way to get through these difficult times is to let God handle the things that we cannot. These are the times when Paul reminds us to look to the author and perfector of our faith: Jesus Christ our Lord. We know that He did not give up because He loved us so. Even when tired and betrayed, even when beaten and nailed to the cross and mocked, Jesus endured the suffering and the shame because He loved us so.

 

And He knew that we could not make it through this life without His forgiving blood being shed. So He kept going, enduring the shame of the cross, so that we might have a chance to live. God and Christ knew that there would be hard times in our lives, but they also knew of the reward that they had planned for the faithful. And they have promised us that we would be given any help that we need to get us through the most difficult times, if we will only accept it.

 

I am grateful to God that I have been spared much of the hardship that some have had to endure, and I am thankful that He has always been there to carry me through when the times did get tough for me and those I love. The key is to keep focus on the fact that our greatest joy still awaits us and our loved ones in Heaven someday. This world is not our home, and if we can keep in focus the reason for our existence, then we will always keep within our hearts the main source of our joy.

 

We are brokenhearted for those we love when we see them go through life's most difficult struggles, and all of us have had our own moments of struggle as well. These struggles will always be present, but for those who will keep going by faith, there is reserved the greatest joy imaginable.

 

If we can keep this great joy in mind and never give up on its hope, then by God's grace we can keep on going through the most difficult of times. And, having accomplished this, then we can reach out to others and help them during their moments of great trial. We must never make light of or minimize in our minds the depth of pain that some are having to endure, but we can be there for them when they need us most. And we can pray! And we can help them to remember the joy that is still before them when the pain of these terrible trials begins to diminish. 

 

In short, the way to get through the toughest of times is to keep the faith that we have in God. This will allow us to do our part. He will always do the rest.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ...

each one will have to bear his own load

Galatians 6:2 & 5, ESV

 

This passage used to seem contradictory to me. Why does it say in one moment that we are to carry one another's burdens, and then in the next that we are to bear our own loads. Was this some sort of mistranslation, or possibly even a mistake within the Scriptures? Of course the answer is a definite "No to both questions, because there is a difference between the word "burden" and the word "load". One, the word burden, implies a much larger load that is too heavy for anyone to reasonably bear on their own. The other word gives us the understanding that there are some responsibilities that we can be reasonably expected to handle without pulling somebody else away from the work that is more important for them to be involved with.

 

Understanding this important principle - that we can handle some things on our own but need help with others - will allow us to be a lot more efficient in life. There are simply times when we shouldn't ask for help because we really don't need it, while there are other times that we just can't handle things on our own.

 

One of the things I absolutely love about the region I live in is that people seem to know the difference.

 

Take the massive fires of the Panhandle of Texas that have been in the news for the past week. There have been hundreds of properties burned and thousands of people temporarily left without the most basic needs such as food and shelter. While there are numerous agencies that have stepped in and offered a great deal of assistance, it has been the everyday ordinary neighbor that has been the most help. Among the most critically needed of these have been our volunteer firefighters! They just always seem to be there when we need them most.

 

While the fires are still burning there have been people gathering food, water, and clothing, and sending it directly to the people who needed the help. We have seen semi-loads of hay being taken up to the area for the livestock. Neighbors have offered shelter not only for their neighbors, but also for their neighbor's animals. You cannot go anywhere in the town I live without hearing people asking if we have heard how our neighbors 100 miles to the north are doing. They want to know what they can do to help, and when they find out they do help. 

 

And they pray!

 

But, why would they do that? For the simple reason that they love them and recognize the fact that these folks - at least temporarily - have a burden that they need help with. And they would do the same for us if our positions were reversed. I know this is true because it hasn't been that many years ago that our small town was hit by a tornado and many of them (most of whom we did not even know) helped us.

 

And they prayed!

 

There are times of tragedy in this life that have a way of knocking us off of our feet for a while. It's nice to know that, for the most part, people mind their own business and let us tend to our own loads. But, when we need it most, it is wonderful to know that when the times of trial do come that there will always be some that are willing to rush in and lend a hand to help us with the burdens that we cannot bear on our own.

 

And it is especially nice to know that God will take care of everything else.