Princess...

To any princess,

     Valentine's Day has arrived again. Maybe you have a date or maybe you are stuck celebrating what has so unfortunately been named "Singles Awareness Day." Maybe there is someone who is planning out an incredible date for you, or maybe there's not. Maybe you're caught up in the romance and love, and maybe you're totally over the commercialism.
     But this is not really about Valentine's Day. This is simply an open letter to any woman, of any age, from a simple guy. Maybe it will mean something to you, and maybe it won't. But the point is the same. You are beautiful. You are lovable. You are strong and you are worth more than anyone could ever explain.
     They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They are wrong. Because no matter what anybody may say when they see you, they cannot take your beauty away. No magazine, no commercial, no supermodel, no man, no woman. You see, in your eyes there is a light that can only shine from you, and there is a hope that only you can share. In your smile is a joy that no magazine can capture and in your heart there is a fire whose warmth is unparallelled. In who you are there is a preciousness unmatched in all the world, because in you is a life and a passion that is yours and yours alone and there is not another one like it.
    You are the only you, and in that, you are unique, beautiful in a way that only you can be. Your life is precious, because there isn't anyone like you. You are not a stereotype, not a group, not an interchangeable part. You cannot be replaced. You are valuable, special in your differences. You were made without blemish or flaw, knit together with the most careful of hands. There is no mistake in you. You're not too big, too skinny, too blonde, too brunette, too dumb, too smart, too shallow, too deep, too pale, too dark, too this or too that. The make-up you use to cover those spots may hide them from the world, but they also hide the beauty that lies in who you are.
   Who you are is a treasure worth all the gold and silver in the world. We want the you with the fifteen pounds you are desperately trying to lose, the you with the blemishes make-up desperately tries to cover, the you who carries the scars of past relationships, the you that you truly are, the you only you can be.
    But there's also no one that can convince you of any of this either. Not these words, nor the words of any loved one or friend. I could write these words 1000 times over, and they would never fully resonate. Not until YOU believe them. Not until you can see that the you that God made in God's own image, the you that was made without flaw or imperfection, is enough and is beautiful and is strong and is worthy of the greatest affections and love. My words, and the words of any acquaintance or loved one, will fall on a smiling face but deaf ears until you can accept the scariest truth of all: that you actually ARE beloved and that there is light in you that shines in the world around you, not because of what I or anybody else may say, but simply BECAUSE YOU ARE!
    If you have been hurt or find yourself trapped by the demons of broken relationships, I am truly sorry. Please do not allow the selfishness or sin of another to diminish the light inside of you. I wish I could say that I was perfect, or that there is a perfect someone out there. There's not. We will neglect your joy and your love. We will fall and fail you. We'll be selfish and inconsiderate. But that does not mean you do not deserve a love that is marked by patience, respect, kindness, and selflessness. If you find yourself with somebody who makes you feel like you aren't good enough, like you aren't the wonder that you are, like you don't have any light to offer the world, I want you to know that that is not love.
   Our actions are the fruit of the seeds in our heart. If someone tells you he or she loves you and cheats, lies, abuses your body, your soul or your emotions, they are lying. That is not love. And you must hear this: there is an infinitely more beautiful story being written for your life than the one in which you find yourself.
    They say mirrors tell us who we really are. Your mirror must be amazed every day that it shares your glance. It must be overwhelmed by the light and life it reflects. Let that light shine, the light that only you can share with the world, because it was created uniquely, just for you. It is a beautiful light. It brightens the lives of those around you. You see, you had it right when you were young imagining you were a princess in a castle. Nothing has changed in who that little girl was created to be. The god of the universe who put each star in the sky and counted the hairs on your head didn't make any mistakes in you. That God created a princess. And each day God is writing a love story with your name in it.

Love,
A Simple Guy

Cancer...

"Where is God in all this?" "Oh, He's up there. Somewhere... shouting down that He loves us, wondering why we can't hear him. You think?" -What Dreams May Come

"But I tell you, in this you are not right, for God is greater than man. Why do you complain to him that he answers none of man's words? For God does speak--now one way, now another--though man may not perceive it." -Job 33:12-14

2,000 years ago, a man with leprosy approached Jesus and falling on his knees cried out, "If you are willing, you can make me clean!" Keep this story in mind...

Merriam-Webster offers many definitions for the word "cancer," but one has begun to really stick with me: "n. something evil or malignant that spreads destructively." I think that covers the totality of what cancer is. It's more than just a clump of deadly cells. So much more. A little over a month ago, my Uncle John got some bad news: during surgery the doctors noticed something out of place. A week later the news was confirmed: an advanced tumor on his pancreas. All of a sudden, all of my family was shaken, left asking how this could happen to such an amazing man.

I love my uncle! He can sing and play a piano like nobody I know. He is one of the most brilliant minds I've ever met, which is probably why he is an engineer. And then this happened. Something evil and malignant is spreading destructively in his life.

One of the questions we ask so often sounds something like, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" I don't have the answer to this question. I don't know why God allows sadness and evil to exist in this world. I don't know if God put this cancer in my uncle. I don't know if God created Hurricane Katrina. I don't know! But there is something I do know. I know that God is bigger than my mind can possibly fathom, and thank God for the fact that he has a bigger plan in store than just making me happy. I know that somewhere in the midst of all of this God is working for good.

Years ago there lived a man named Job. Job was upright and righteous, and God allowed Satan to tear his life apart. Every sorrow and suffering imaginable, Job suffered. And at the end of the story, God finally speaks. As Job is at the end of his rope and ANGRY, God responds, "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?" In one moment, God changes the whole conversation. He takes Job's, "How could you do this God?" and tells him, "Where were you when I made the world? Don't you think if I can set the universe in motion I have a plan for this?"

Let's return to the man who begged Jesus to heal him (Mark 1:40.) He didn't run to Jesus and say, "Heal me!" No, he says, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." It's so much deeper! This man KNOWS Jesus can heal him. That's not what he's concerned with. He sees that God is painting a bigger picture than just his life. It's as if he says, "Jesus, if healing me is in your bigger plans, you can do it. But if it's not going to bring you glory, don't."

I believe that we were created by a God who still performs miracles and heals. But it's hard for me when I hear people say, "By the grace of God my child was healed." For every premature baby that survives to live a healthy life that isn't supposed to make it through the first night, there are others who never see their second day. We don't say, "By the grace of God he allowed this child to pass." But I have to believe that there are no mistakes. I have to believe that in everything God is faithful to his promise, "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." I just think his plans are bigger than mine. I think his point of view is way more beautiful than mine. After all this is the God, who placed each star in the sky and yet has numbered the hairs of my head.

A dear friend of mine has a sister who is going through a terrible ordeal. It has hurt this friend of mine. Hurt, in fact, is perhaps the most incomplete and insufficient word I can use. Not being able to do anything has torn her up. But in the midst of all this, I got a message from her the other day. "I just wish there was more I could do. But I'm just trusting right now. We all are. We have nothing else. But Jesus is using them in ways that I will never understand. And I'm trusting in that." That is the faith of the man who cried out to Jesus, for "we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28)

I don't know why bad things happen. I don't know why people suffer. But I do know that God is at work in the midst of all things. He DOES NOT fail! So my prayer for my Uncle John has changed. Now, I pray like the man who met Jesus. "God, you CAN heal John. And if that will bring you glory, then you know I desire to see him healed. But I pray you give me the faith to know you story is bigger than mine and that your plans are more perfect than ANYTHING I can fathom." I believe in a god who is bigger than any tumor or any storm. But I also believe in a god who is bigger than just satisfying me.

forever unfinished...