{"id":9663,"date":"2016-08-29T00:05:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T05:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?p=9663"},"modified":"2016-08-29T10:10:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T15:10:14","slug":"when-the-world-does-a-number-on-your-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/when-the-world-does-a-number-on-your-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"When the World Does a Number on Your Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"What<\/a>After you have suffered for a little while, <\/em>
\nthe God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, <\/em>
\nwill Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.<\/em>
\n1 Peter 5:10\u201311<\/em><\/p>\n

At her last visit to the dentist my 87-year-old mother learned that the aging process is doing a number on her teeth. After her hygienist suggested a deep cleaning was in order, Mom\u2019s response was less than enthusiastic. \u201cIt was a terrible appointment,\u201d Mom said when we met in the waiting room. \u201cI could have gone my whole life without news like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

I made suitable, empathetic noises while we scheduled the extra cleaning. I practiced active listening techniques during lunch and tried to cheer her up. \u201cLook at the bright side, Mom. You\u2019re almost 88. You have all your teeth. You have dental insurance that makes the procedure affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was inconsolable. \u201cI just wasn\u2019t expecting this kind of news,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s awful.\u201d
\n\u201cMom,\u201d I said as my supportive, loving daughter veneer peeled away, \u201cyou\u2019re acting as if you\u2019ve got cancer instead of early stage periodontal disease. Try to put this in perspective.\u201d But she couldn\u2019t. At least not until her son visited her and managed to coax her out of her funk by mentioning that he’d had the same procedure done a few years back.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on Mom\u2019s situation, I see some similarities between how she responded and how many followers of Christ respond when national and international current events do a number on our faith. First, our reaction focuses on what\u2019s wrong and views past and present blessings as our right. We rarely express gratitude for God\u2019s blessings while we have them, but complain loudly when they cease. Can you think of an election year when Christians expressed gratitude for two qualified presidential candidates with the fervor that this year\u2019s lack of the same is continually bemoaned?<\/p>\n

Second, Christians often respond to current events from a purely temporal and earthly perspective. Instead of standing firm on the rock of God\u2019s sovereignty over human history, we grow despondent and fearful when events unfold differently than expected. When the candidate we support isn\u2019t elected, when our cultural shifts away from a Christian worldview, or when terrorism and gun violence rear their ugly heads, we act as though the world is ending\u2013we who claim to stand on the promise of eternal life with Christ when this world ends.<\/p>\n

Christians have little to offer the lost when we respond to earthly events with ingratitude, hopelessness, and fear. But how can we avoid those faithless responses in an increasingly dark and painful world? A clue to that question\u2019s answer can be found in Mom\u2019s recovery from her funk. It ended when a visit with her son changed her perspective.<\/p>\n

Similarly our perspective and our future responses change when we spend time with God\u2019s Son in His Word. When we consider how Christ\u2019s absolute confidence in God\u2019s sovereignty and an eternal perspective influenced His responses to ungodly rulers in a non-Christian culture where He suffered violence beyond imagining. When we cling to the promise of Jesus to never leave or forsake us. When we gaze upon the risen Christ and anticipate His future resurrection. When our feet are firmly planted on those realities, we can trust Jesus and respond with hope and confidence. Because we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that what He promises is absolutely certain. God\u2019s eternal and unchanging best is yet to come.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10\u201311 At her last visit to the dentist my 87-year-old mother learned that the aging process is doing a number on her teeth. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3266,3267,3268],"class_list":["post-9663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-newsletter-column","tag-1-peter-510-11","tag-christian-witness","tag-strength"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen the World Does a Number on Your Faith - Jolene Philo Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When the World Does a Number on Your Faith - Jolene Philo Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 1 Peter 5:10\u201311 At her last visit to the dentist my 87-year-old mother learned that the aging process is doing a number on her teeth. 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