Fragrance or Stench?

. . . if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chron. 7:14).

I had never thought about this Scripture in the way that Shirley—a fellow church member—expressed it last night in prayer meeting. She said that when we share the gospel with someone or stand against corruption in our community, but have ungodly attitudes or behavior in ourselves, we hinder our listeners from accepting what we say and what we stand for. Of course! Why would a person take seriously our message that they need to change if there are obvious ways in which we haven’t allowed the Lord to change us?

Shirley further pointed out that this verse lists several things that God requires of us if we want him to heal our land: 1) humbling ourselves, 2) praying, 3) seeking God’s face, and 4) turning from our wicked ways. We tend to concentrate on #2, she said, and ignore the others. No wonder we don’t see more answers to our prayers!

As I have considered these four mandates, it becomes clearer and clearer to me why all four are essential. If we are not seeking God’s face—really getting to know him, learning how he sees things, and letting his attitudes rub off on us—we won’t even pray the right prayers. For example, we might very well be praying for God to destroy “those wicked people” who are perverting our community. But the Lord is not willing that any should perish. He wants us to pray that they will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Or we might pray the right thing out of a wrong motive. For example, have you ever prayed for someone to be saved so that they will not be so hard to get along with? If so, do you really love them in a way that will draw them to the Lord?

Also, when praying about the wickedness of others, what about the humility to recognize that we ourselves are not perfect? Is that not critical? Have you or I ever lied to smooth a situation over instead of solving it? Have we ever looked out for our own interests and ignored those of others? Have we ever struggled with moral issues? Then are we so different from lying politicians, self-serving bosses, and immoral people? If we do not remember that we too are captive to sinfulness without the grace of God—if we are not willing to confess and leave behind every bad habit and wrong motive of our own, we will not give off the sweet aroma of the nature of Jesus. Instead, we will give off the stench of hypocrisy.

Shirley’s final insight was this: If all we see in 2 Chron. 7:14 is that WE SHOULD PRAY for revival in our land, then we are thinking that OUR efforts (our prayers) are the most important factor in bringing change. But this verse says that GOD will heal our land. What is our part in this? Well, we don’t really have a part unless we recognize that we too need to turn from our wicked ways, to be forgiven and healed! When we humbly remember what God has had to redeem us from in the past and admit that we still fall far short of what honors him, then he can forgive us and continue the transformation into his likeness. Then we will know how he wants us to pray, and we will be a help, instead of a hindrance, in changing the world around us. In short, it’s not about our herculean efforts to help God save the world. It’s not even about realizing our own sins and trying to be better. It’s all about looking to his great grace*—to transform us, and then to change the world.
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*The best definition of grace, in this instance, is:

“Grace is the divine influence upon the heart, enabling us to do the will of God.”

As the hymn title “Grace Greater Than Our Sin” implies, God’s influence on our hearts is more powerful than the stranglehold of our sinful habits and attitudes. Let's quit hanging on to them. Let's quit struggling to improve ourselves. Let's put ourselves into his hands, trust and cooperate with him, and let him complete the work he started when we first believed in him.

Some things never change

This quaint but effective message in verse was discovered by my 88-year-old father in one of his favorite volumes—The Best Loved Poems of the American People.

THE MODERN BABY

“The hand that rocks the cradle”—but there is no such hand;
It is bad to rock the baby, they would have us understand;
So the cradle’s but a relic of the former foolish days
When mothers reared their children in unscientific ways—
When they jounced them and they bounced them, these poor dwarfs of long ago—
The Washingtons and Jeffersons and Adamses, you know.

They warn us that the baby will possess a muddled brain
If we dandle him or rock him—we must carefully refrain;
He must lie in one position, never swayed and never swung,
Or his chance to grow to greatness will be blasted while he’s young.
Ah! To think how they were ruined by their mothers long ago—
The Franklins and the Putnams and the Hamiltons, you know.

Then we must feed the baby by the schedule that is made,
And the food that he is given must be measured out or weighed.
He may bellow to inform us that he isn’t satisfied,
But he couldn’t grow to greatness if his wants were all supplied.
Think how foolish nursing stunted those poor weaklings, long ago—
The Shakespeares and the Luthers and the Buonapartes, you know.

We are given a great mission, we are here today on earth
To bring forth a race of giants, and to guard them from their birth,
To insist upon their freedom the rocking that was bad
For our parents and their parents, scrambling all the brains they had.
Ah! If they’d been fed by schedule would they have been stunted so?
The Websters and the Lincolns, and the Roosevelts, you know.*
—William Croswell Doane (1832-1913)

What is your reaction to this poem?

At first, all I saw was the somewhat delightful, somewhat amusing poetic style of “yesteryear”—rollicking, carefully rhyming, almost preachy. Then some more “profound” observations began to stir inside. I realized: SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE.
· Health care professionals will continue to search for better ways to safeguard children’s health and development, and parents will continue to have trust their own common sense in the presence of those who are supposed to be experts.
· What is regarded as “modern” today will soon be “old-fashioned.” As far as this poem is concerned, that includes our science and our artistic expression.
· Truth still shines forth, even when someone’s style of expressing it is no longer considered cutting-edge or clever.

These reflections reminded me of a biblical injunction I had not fully appreciated before: “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought” (Rom. 12:3a NIV) but “[b]e honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us” (Rom. 12:3b NLT).

I have decided that I will feel good about what the Lord enables me to do, and leave the results (long- or short-term) up to him. I am not timeless, but he is. What I do on this earth will have the stamp of my limitations, but—if I make room for it—my contributions will be endued with the breath of his eternal genius.

. . . I’m still curious to know your reactions to this poem.
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*From The Best Loved Poems of the American People, selected by Hazel Felleman, (New York: Garden City Publishing Co, 1936).