It was a night of communicating with a number of people going through some serious trials. There was frustration over pain that just won’t go away, fear about what might be coming next, heartbreak over hurting loved ones and tough decisions that have to be made.

After hearing the stories and praying, I took my eyes off of the computer and phone and watched “The Voice” on TV. For the last song of the evening a young lady sang, “I Can Only Imagine.” It felt like God was providing just the right song I needed at that time. “I can only imagine what my eyes will see, when Your face is before me. … I can only imagine when that day comes, when I find myself standing in the Son. … Surrounded by Your glory what will my heart feel? Will I dance for Your glory or in awe of You be still? … Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine.”

In this world so full of pain it is great that we can look forward to a day beyond our imagination when pain and hurt and heartbreak will be no more. A day is coming when parents will no longer have to agonize over their children. Family members will no longer shed tears of sorrow over lost loved ones. “God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:3-4).

When I got the news that my second mom, Ruth, had passed away, that song “I Can Only Imagine” was playing in the background. It was comforting to imagine what Ruth was experiencing at that moment. Her trials and struggles were over. But the joy she had just begun to experience will never be over.

We see a lot of pain and hurt in this life. But the Bible promises: “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what its seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (II Corinthians 5:17-18).

We pray for eyes of faith to see what is unseen. We pray for the gift of a strength-encouraging, hope-sustaining imagination.

Leonard’s memorial service was last Saturday. He and his wife, Betty, had been members of our congregation for a number of years. Leonard was a hard-working guy who was part-owner of an auto garage, drove a log truck and faithfully served around the church. He didn’t serve by doing things upfront, but when something needed to be repaired Leonard was the one to call.

Some of the words that could be used to describe Leonard might be dependable, humble, quiet, faithful. He certainly wouldn’t be described as flashy or a guy who was clamoring to be the center of attention. He was the kind of man the world often doesn’t pay much attention to or notice. He was one of those guys who is like a hidden gem whose value the world overlooks.

Betty came down with a serious and rather mysterious illness a number of years ago. Leonard didn’t leave Betty’s side much after that and when I’d visit them it was now Leonard who fixed the coffee. He faithfully took care of Betty until she needed more medical care than he and the family could provide at home. She eventually had to go into a care center in a town a 45-minute drive one way from their home. Leonard made the trip each day until he couldn’t drive himself there any more. After that he got somebody to drive him to see Betty every day.

Leonard might not be the kind of guy they write romance novels about or make movies about. But he’s the kind of man who demonstrated what Christlike love looks like. It might not be flashy, but it’s faithful. Even though it can be hard and require sacrifice, Christlike love keeps serving day after day.

Proverbs 20:6 challenges us with the question: “Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find?” At first glance the world considers men like Leonard to be kind of ordinary. But the kind of faithful love he showed Betty isn’t found on an ordinary basis. When it is found it ought to be respected and admired.

God can enable ordinary people to love in extraordinary ways. That enabling happens as we focus on and get overwhelmed by God’s extraordinary unfailing love for us. “I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:3).

God keeps on faithfully serving us. God keeps on loving us, even though we’re needy and sometimes not easy to love. We strive to be faithful men and women, but we fall short. We give thanks that we can rely on the extraordinary faithfulness of God.

There are few sounds more enjoyable than the sound of a child laughing. I heard that special sound recently when I was on a plane, seated next to a young couple and their little girl who was maybe a little over a year old. We hadn’t been seated long when the sound of laughter came. It was one of those from-the-belly, body-shaking, take-control-of-you kind of laughs. It was so fun to hear and to see the expression on her face.

Little kids laugh with a sense of freedom. They don’t worry about whether somebody might think they’re silly. If something strikes them as funny they laugh.

Adults can get overly serious about non-serious matters. I was criticized once for quoting from a comic strip in a magazine editorial I wrote. The issue wasn’t with what was quoted but that it came from a comic strip. It would have been good for the critic to read the comics himself. It might have helped him to laugh more and not be so serious all the time. Too often adults lose that simple, beautiful childlike joy.

Jesus said we are to “change and become like little children” (Matthew 18:3). We are first of all to become like little children in humble dependency on God. It’s good to become like little children also in feeling a freedom to laugh and cry.

“When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. … The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126:1-3). We’re not going to laugh much if we spend all our time thinking about what we have failed to do and what we ought to do. We’re invited, however, to fill our thoughts with the great things the Lord has done. That fills our mouths with laughter and joy.

The song “Blown Away” encourages joy by asking: “When did we get so serious? … I want to be blown away by your extraordinary grace every ordinary day.”

The little girl seated next to me on the flight didn’t laugh the whole time. At one point great sadness came upon her and she let that be known.

In Psalm 126 it speaks of mouths filled with laughter but it also talks about sowing in tears and going out weeping. Our journey through life has its times of sorrow. We can be hesitant, however, to express our sadness because we don’t want to appear weak and vulnerable. Christians worry sometimes that people will question the strength of our faith if we’re honest when we’re feeling down and discouraged.

At times we behave as if we are actors on a stage, afraid to reveal our true selves, looking to other people to give us cues as to what we are to do and whether it is time to laugh or to cry. Jesus sets us free to be real. He knows what we’re really like and still He loves us and died for us. We can be honest about our weakness, admitting it is Christ who gives us strength. We are set free to laugh and rejoice because we are loved by Jesus and our place in His family is secure by His grace. We sing the songs of joy, knowing they will never end.

What do you do with people who are not afraid to die? That was the dilemma facing the ones who tried to persecute the early Christians, and those who still attempt in vain to intimidate Christians today. Those early Christians had spent time with the resurrected Lord. They knew He had died but was raised to life again. A threat to kill them didn’t scare them. They were confident Jesus would either protect them from death or give them life after death. Either option was fine. The authorities were bewildered and asked, “‘What are we going to do with these men?’ … They could not decide how to punish them” (Acts 4:16, 21).

The resurrection of Jesus really happened. The early Christians were convinced of it, and it caused them to have what could be described as a “so what” attitude. The trials of life didn’t concern them as much as they had before. When they got arrested, so what. They knew from experience if the Lord wanted them out of jail He’d send an angel to escort them out. It didn’t matter much to them if they lost wealth or property. They knew the real value in life was the good news of Jesus. “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Because of the resurrection of Jesus we can have that same kind of attitude. We may not get noticed by others or be their first choice. So what. We are chosen by God to belong to Him. So what if we’re not liked by the world. We’re so loved by Christ that He gave His life on the cross for our sins. Maybe you don’t own much of anything and money always seems tight. So what. Think of what we have when our faith is in Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (Ephesians 1:7-8).

Jesus said God’s kingdom “is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44). The man was glad to give up everything he had in order to get the treasure. Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that we can have the treasure of the kingdom. So what if it costs everything to get it.  It is most definitely worth it.

The other day I was thinking about what to do regarding some difficulty and then my thoughts moved on to thinking about Easter coming up ahead. Thinking about Easter reminded me: Jesus rose from the dead. The challenge didn’t seem to be such a big deal any more. Thinking about it in light of the resurrection caused me to say, “So what?” What is truly a big deal is Jesus died on the cross and is now alive forever. If the Lord can defeat death He can certainly overcome the challenges we face. The problems that come our way seem small compared to the great and wonderful truth that Jesus lives.

A guy on TV said he never went to a theater alone to watch a movie because he was afraid people would see him there by himself and think he was a loser who had no friends. He lived in a city and it was most likely nobody in the theater would know who he was and he’d probably never see them again. And yet he was concerned what these strangers might think of him. The fear of their opinion was determining his actions.

Why does it matter what some strangers think? They might be too busy eating their popcorn and not even notice him. And even if they did – what difference does it make?

Worrying about what others might think can become a cruel dictator that controls our actions, robs us of joy and fills our hearts with fear.

The apostle Paul wasn’t enslaved by fear of what people might think. In the book of Galatians he tells about meeting some of the leaders of the church. He appreciated the encouragement they gave him, but he didn’t have to have their approval. He was even willing to confront Peter when Peter was doing things that weren’t in accord with God’s Word. “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong” (Galatians 2:11). Peter was leading people to believe they had to keep certain Jewish traditions in order to be right with God. Paul let him know that was contrary to Scripture. He wanted to make it clear that we get right with God by faith in Christ and not by following rituals. He did it even though there was a chance it might upset Peter and cause people to think Paul was a little brash. He was more concerned with what was true and right than what people thought.

Jesus most definitely was not worried about what people might think. He was willing to become one who “was despised and rejected by men” (Isaiah 53:3). The religious crowd made accusations against Him because of what He ate and drank and who He hung out with. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). They meant it as an insult but we ought to see it as a cause for thanksgiving that Jesus was called “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34).

Jesus can set us free from the fear of what people think. We don’t worry about how many likes our Facebook post gets, because we’re loved by God. So what if nobody chooses to go with us to the movie? God has chosen us to be His child. The crowd won’t approve of all of our actions, but when we have faith in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, He approves us to be in His family.

Our calling isn’t to get people to like us. It’s to love them and introduce them to the incredible love of Jesus. Sometimes the crowd may like us and sometimes they won’t. But God’s great love for us endures forever.

It was one of those times when I was reminded of how blessed I am to get to do what I do. I was visiting with a lady whose health was failing. It didn’t look like her time on this earth was going to be much longer and she knew it. She also knew where she was going and what was coming next. She had faith in Jesus who died on the cross for her sins and rose again from the dead. She had received His gift of life eternal.

I read from the Bible some of God’s promises about heaven. “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4). Even though she had some pain and difficulty breathing, her eyes lit up as she looked forward to what God had promised.

We prayed and she asked me to read some more. I read some of what Jesus said before He went to the cross: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms … I am going there to prepare a place for you … I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3). The thought of being with Jesus and having her long-held hopes realized gave her a spark that her suffering couldn’t extinguish.

We prayed again and then sat together in silence for a bit. She repeated the word eternal. I felt like a privileged spectator who was getting to watch God at work giving comfort and assurance. I was given a front-row seat and a chance to watch God walk with one of His children through the valley of the shadow of death. I got another opportunity to see how God can calm fears and give peace.

This all happened on the anniversary of the day that my mom went home to be with the Lord 21 years earlier. When I got to the car the first song on the radio was “Home” by Chris Tomlin. “All this pain, all this suffering; there’s a better place waiting for me in heaven. Every tear will be wiped away. Every sorrow and sin erased. We’ll dance on seas of amazing grace – in heaven. I’m going home.”

One day the tears will be wiped away. One day the pain and sorrow will be no more. One day we’ll be home.

One Christmas season I was in a coffee shop preparing a sermon. A lady I didn’t know came up to me, got my attention and said, “Have a merry Christmas.” She said it like a command, making me wonder if she thought I was somebody who needed some cheering up. I wasn’t feeling depressed. I was just lost in my thoughts. The lady maybe felt her calling was to put a smile on my face.

Our culture can get uncomfortable with sadness and sorrow. We ask, “How’s it going?” but we hope people will just smile and say, “Good.” Some of the best acting that goes on isn’t in a movie or on a stage. It’s in relationships where people are acting like everything is fine, while inside they’re wrestling with much fear and pain. Often people don’t want to say and they don’t want to hear what is really going on.

A culture that wants a constant smile isn’t a big fan of the Lenten season. Lent is the time in the church year when we remember what Jesus did on the cross for us. It is often a time for sorrow as we are confronted with the reality of our sin, the damage it caused and the price that had to be paid.

Sometimes we shouldn’t be smiling. This life can have a lot of pain and heartache and sometimes weeping is more appropriate than smiling. You’re not a weak Christian who lacks faith if sometimes you’re sad and struggling. When Jesus “approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). He was sorrowful because He knew many would reject Him and miss out on the peace He wanted to give them. When He saw His friends weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, “Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’” (John 11:35-36).

When we love deeply, it opens us up to being hurt deeply. Because we love we hurt over the one who strays. We miss the one who is gone. Our culture would often prefer us to stay in “the mellow middle,” giving up great blessings to avoid deep hurts. Doing that avoids truly living. A heart that is alive gets hurt, but we trust in the promise that “weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). We look through the tears and see the signs that morning is about to dawn.

“I did all that I could to undo me, but You loved me enough to pursue me.” It seems I’ve been hearing the song with those lyrics a lot on the radio lately – and I’m thankful I have. I need constant reminders that God loved me enough to pursue me.

A lot of people think God pursues them like a police officer pursuing someone to give him a ticket or like a coach pursuing a player to tell him he ran the play wrong. God does not want us to see His pursuit of us in that way. He pursues us out of love. He pursues as one who keeps on even though he has been told, “No, I’m not interested in you.” He still loves and He still wants a relationship with us.

The story in the Bible of the prophet Hosea is one of the most unusual and shocking love stories you’ll ever find. The Lord tells His prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute. “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Some try to make the story understandable by saying it is just a parable. But it is clear: it really happened.

In a book about Hosea called Pursued Jud Wilhite writes, “As irrational, unexpected, and painful as it may seem to us, God is so passionate about us that He commanded Hosea to engage in a marriage that would crush his heart, just as God’s heart had been crushed.” It’s difficult for us to imagine God telling a prophet to do this, but Wilhite says God did it because “God clearly has a divine obsession with us, His children. And measures we would consider outrageous, to say the least, are not beyond His limit to get His point across.”

Hosea marries the prostitute Gomer. He is a faithful, loving husband, but his wife, Gomer, continues to be an adulteress. But the Lord doesn’t give up. He calls Hosea to pursue Gomer. “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1).

Hosea’s love for Gomer doesn’t make sense. And neither does God’s love for us. As Wilhite says, “… what we see in Hosea is … a love that defies all logic and beats all odds.”

You are loved today with a love that defies all logic. God loves you so much He chooses to pursue you, even if that pursuit seems foolish. His crazy, full-of-love-for-you pursuit led Jesus to go all the way to the cross to give His life for you.

Some may feel like the only time they get pursued is when somebody wants them to do something for them. It’s different with the Lord. He doesn’t pursue us simply because He wants more workers. He pursues us because He loves us and wants to be in a relationship of love with us.

Charlie Brown would look in his mailbox, wishing somebody would send him a Valentine. Instead of looking in the mailbox with wishful longing, look in the Bible and find the logic-defying, never-give-up, keep-on-pursuing love that Jesus has for you.

“How can I get them to love me?” That’s a question we often wrestle with. It seems a little wild and crazy to think that the Almighty Lord of the universe would ask that kind of question. What adds to the craziness is the fact that the ones He longs to have love Him are undeserving, rebellious sinners like us. We might get a little uncomfortable with the idea that God is like a guy who is totally in love and longing for his beloved to take an interest in him. And yet in the Old Testament book of Hosea the Lord tells the prophet, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods” (Hosea 3:1).

The Lord’s love for us is like a man sending flowers and jewelry and expensive chocolates to a woman who left him, embarrassed him and is living with another man. People tell a guy like that, “You’re a fool for loving her. You’re too good for her. Forget her.” But God’s ways aren’t our ways. He keeps pursuing us. He keeps trying to draw us back. He keeps longing for us to love Him.

When we love something else more than we love God we become an adulteress. But amazingly God still wants us and calls us to repent and turn to Him. It would be gracious of God to love ones like us after we spent much time begging Him to do so. What is mind-blowing about His grace is that He loved us first, before we had any interest in loving Him. “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).

The way people often try to get someone to love them is by impressing them. They let the person know of their great accomplishments and abilities. They try to show off their looks and their talents.

God, of course, could put on the most impressive show of all. If He wanted to He could intimidate and scare people into following Him. But the Lord graciously says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3).

God draws us into a loving relationship with Him by showering kindness and faithful love upon us. His plan for how to get us to love Him and follow Him is not by impressing or intimidating us, but by being kind and sacrificially loving us. His loving-kindness is seen most of all in God demonstrating “his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

In speech and actions, posts and tweets, the world seems to be showing less and less kindness. The world thinks being bold and brash, assertive and fighting back is the way to go. The world’s methods may seem sensible to human reason and impress for a moment, but they don’t draw people into a relationship with Christ. “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance” (Romans 2:4).

Being a kind, humble, gentle servant doesn’t sound like the way to get attention and applause. It may not impress the crowd but it will draw the humble and repentant to the love of Christ. And that is the mission of the church: not to show off to the world what we have done and can do, but to draw them to God’s grace and love. We draw them with kindness that is undeserved and love that is unfailing. We seek to draw them to the gracious loving-kindness of Jesus.

“Do they suffer well?” That is probably not one of the first questions people ask when they consider whether or not somebody might make a good future spouse. But in a recent blog  Kevin Thompson suggests it is a question people should ask. He writes about “The Most Overlooked Characteristic of Who You Want to Marry.” Suffering is an unavoidable part of life in this fallen world. You can tell a lot about a person by how they deal with suffering. “Not everyone suffers well. Some live in denial. … Some live in despair. … Find someone who suffers well.”

That doesn’t sound very romantic. It’s not the kind of thing the world looks for. The world is asking questions like: Are they fun? What do they look like? Are they successful?

It’s not so hard to find someone who will laugh with you and want to be with you when you’re doing well and times are good. It’s a little more complicated to find someone who will cry with you when times are tough, who will stick by you and support you when you’re not so much fun to be around, who will believe in your future when you don’t believe in it yourself, who will lift you up and carry you along when you’re too weary to make it on your own.

Finding someone who suffers well is something to look for not just in who you want to marry but also in who you want as a friend you can count on. We all face trials and suffering in this life. God doesn’t want any of us to struggle through those tough times alone. We need friends who will patiently listen, share an encouraging word, remind us of the love of Jesus, let us know they care and let us know that by God’s grace better days are going to come.

God’s vision for a local congregation is that it would be a group of people that suffer well together. “But God has combined the members of the body … so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (I Corinthians 12:24-26). When one part of our physical body is hurting, the rest of the body gets involved. It’s the same in the body of Christ. When our brother or sister in Christ is hurting, we hurt with them. We have seen that happen in our congregation. In the midst of trials it has been great to see and experience people suffering well together.

We find in Jesus the best friend who suffers well. He is “a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3). He keeps on loving us even when we’re not so loveable. He is willing to be with us and go through the hard times right beside us. He suffers with us and for us. And through His suffering on the cross for our sin, He gives us hope that one day the suffering will end. “What a Friend we have in Jesus.”