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All because of who you are.

You are put on watch lists.  For cancer.  For high blood pressure.  For diabetes.  For many more dis-eases that are hereditary.

Both my wife and I are on watch lists.  If we never had to attend funerals – if our close relatives never died, I suppose we would be watching our pensions funds more closely!  I’m not sure how much money you would need if you death was not imminent for centuries and not just decades!

I have had a brother who died of cancer, a sister who has battled cancer, a brother who had a stroke.  I have had double knee surgery, my sister is off for double hip surgery.  And the oldest of us just passed 60 a year or two ago. 

My wife has had various relatives die of cancer, and some still battling cancer.  Diabetes and high blood pressure seem to run (not just walk) in her family.

Recently both of us have gone through testings.  These are not simple multiple answer questions.  A new test for cancer through the use of stool samples has meant not have to have an colonoscopy.  And an examination in the doctor’s office looked at prostrate cancer possibilities.  My wife has been in for her doctor’s examinations and in for imaging tests. 

So far we both have a fairly clean bill of health.  Both of us need to watch our weight and exercise our hearts (we can tip too closely into bad health territories as we watch a movie lounging on a couch and eat a snack that is more fat than healthy nutrients). 

What do watch lists do?  On the one hand, they quickly allow you to prepare.  On the other hand they can provide tension as the examination approaches.  What could appear may have nothing to do with what you are doing.  The results may be purely based on your heredity.

Some things you have no control over their inception.  The best you may have is a lingering ability to manage your life.  I say with joy – the best place to be is in a place where you are willing to accept the future as people of hope.  I do not sorrow for my life as some do.  I enjoy this life and the next.  For in them I have one who rescues me by giving me both a past, a present and a future. 

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. 

A statement derived from a watch list that is mine to bear or to bless.

I remember the camp fire song – I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart to stay.

I am working on a sermon on Romans 14:17 which talks of three markers of a Christian.  One of those markers is joy. 

I’d like to say that joy stays all the time in my heart.  And maybe the song writer recognized that joy often times is way down in our hearts and has to be brought up from the depths.

I imagine this is your experience.  While you pursue being a good person, and long after righteousness and God, sometimes peace escapes you.  At those times joy seems to die out.

Often the joy escapes because of relational problems.  I suppose that is why we are told that our primary rule for life is to Love God and then to Love Others.  When that is done, peace and joy seem to follow.

Our fight is often to gaze on God enough that we don’t become biased against others, become bitter or even move to pure hatred of others.  Unfortunately, our approach is often to begin with others, to see their pettiness and hurt they have caused us.  Then we lose our joy. 

But if we begin with seeing God as one who absorbed our hatred, took our outbursts and even died for our sins, then we can begin to overlook wrongs, be persistent in grace towards another and even allow others to abuse us.

I would like to add all sorts of caveats – exceptions to the rule.  But I guess I first need to absorb the rule into my life more fully.  And hopefully the exceptions will become fewer than my selfish nature would like!

There is a constant in life that looms alongside other things that remain.

All is flux, is how one person describes this constant.

Of course, when I was younger, flux was used to solder metals together.  It was not the solder.  The flux went with the solder and made the weld strong by cleaning out and preparing the place where the joint would fit.

I suppose change is that flux.  You can put your foot in a stream and think you know all about the water.  But in a moment’s time, new water passes by, the stream may overflow and a new path be formed. 

A few years ago I put this poster on the side of a filing cabinet.

Blessed are the flexible for they will not be bent out of shape.

I suppose that was a reminder to me.  I am one who likes to have things in place.  As my mother used to say, “A place for everything and everything in its place.”

Following that advice is very helpful, but every once in a while things shift and your plans fall off the shelf.  And we are left to pick things up, perhaps rearrange them differently, and joyfully view a new sight.

Last night I was asked to rearrange a schedule that I thought was set in place.  The new schedule is helpful to others (and probably to myself) – while possible for me to accommodate.  And so, looking at the change, I can decide to be bent out of shape or be flexible. 

I’m going to chose to be flexible!!

The sermon I preached yesterday morning was on Psalm 126.  Crying out.

As the afternoon progressed into evening, I was seeking to understand a bit of what that means. 

I continue to hear people wonder about my grieving process after my first wife’s death almost two years ago.  I am crying out to God to help me understand.  I have a peace that I don’t understand.  At the same time I look at others who were friends and relatives of Jill.  Some are still stuck.

One relied heavily on Jill.  They still despair at times – I am crying out that they would find new friends.  Another has seemingly lost contact with me – I am crying out that our friendship would be rekindled.  Another is still working through my remarriage – I am crying out that a warmth of relationship would return.

And for myself – I spent part of the weekend in reminiscence.  I must admit that every day things remind me of my first wife.  The heaviness of those remembrances has almost disappeared.  Now there is more joy and desire to move into the future.  I cry out for understanding – in no small part so that I can comfort others.

Not how I had imagined applying my sermon a week ago!