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Satan can disturb us, but he cannot defeat us. The head of the serpent is crushed.

I saw a literal picture of this in a prairie ditch. A petroleum company was hiring strong backs and weak minds to lay a pipeline. Since I qualified, much of a high school summer was spent shoveling in a shoulder-high West Texas trough. One afternoon the digging machine dislodged more than dirt. “Snake!” shouted the foreman. We popped out of that hole faster than a jack-in-the-box. One worker launched his shovel and beheaded the rattler.

That scene is a parable of where we are in life. In Revelation 20 verse 2 (NCV), John calls Satan, “that old snake who is the devil.” Has he not been decapitated? Not with a shovel, but with a cross.

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A diving accident left Joni Eareckson paralyzed. Her handicap didn’t keep her from marrying Ken Tada, but it almost kept her from the joy of the wedding. While waiting to go down the aisle, she discovered across her beautiful wedding dress a big, black grease mark courtesy of her chair. The bouquet of daisies on her lap slid off center, her paralyzed hands unable to rearrange them. She felt far from a picture-perfect bride.

But as she looked down the aisle, she saw her groom. She says, “Grease stains? Flowers out of place? Who cares! The love in Ken’s eyes washed it all away. That’s what changed me.” She forgot about herself. Everything changes when you look at your groom!

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You don’t have to be weird to follow Jesus. You don’t have to stop liking your friends to follow him – just the opposite!

Sometime ago I was part of a foursome for golf that included two preachers, a church leader, and a guy who wasn’t a Christ follower. The thought of four hours with all of us didn’t appeal to him. His best friend, a Christ follower—and his boss—insisted, so he agreed. I’m happy to report that on the ninth hole he said, “I’m so glad you guys are normal.” I think he meant this: “I’m glad you didn’t get in my face or club me with a King James driver. Thanks for laughing at my jokes and telling a few yourself.”

We didn’t lower standards, but neither did we saddle a high horse. Discipleship is sometimes defined by being normal.

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Several years ago, I joined thousands who ran through the streets of San Antonio, raising money for breast cancer research. Most of us ran out of kindness, happy to log three miles and donate a few dollars to the cause. A few ran in memory of a loved one, others in honor of a cancer survivor. We ran for different reasons.

But no runner was more passionate than one I spotted. A bandanna covered her bald head, dark circles shadowed her eyes. She had cancer. While we ran out of kindness, she ran out of conviction. She knows how cancer victims feel. She’s been there.

So has Jesus. Whatever you’re facing, he knows how you feel. So go to him! He is able.

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Isaiah 53:2 describes Jesus as having “no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.” Heads didn’t turn when Jesus passed.

Are your looks run-of-the-mill and are your ways simple? So were his. Questionable pedigree, simple home, an ordinary laborer with ordinary looks. Are you poor? Jesus knows how you feel. Ever feel taken advantage of? He understands the meaning of obscurity. Whatever you’re facing, he knows how you feel.

And he’s not ashamed of you. Hebrews 2:11 says, “Jesus, who makes people holy, and those who are made holy are from the same family. So he is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.” So go to him. After all, you’re part of the family!

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Most families keep their family secrets a secret. Some stories remain unmentioned at the family reunion and unrecorded in the family Bible. That is, unless you’re Jesus. He displayed the bad apples of his family tree in the first chapter of the New Testament. Rahab was a Jericho harlot. David was one day writing psalms, another day seducing his captain’s wife. But did Jesus erase their names from the list? Not at all!

If your family tree has bruised fruit, Jesus wants you to know, “I’ve been there.” The phrase “I’ve been there” is in the chorus of Christ’s theme song. To the lonely, he whispers “I’ve been there. To the discouraged, Christ nods his head and sighs, “I’ve been there.” When you turn to him for help, he runs to you to help. He’s been there!

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Most of us had a hard time learning to tie our shoes. Tightening shoes by wrapping strings together? Nothing easy about that. Who came up with the idea of shoes anyway?

My friend Roy used to sit on a park bench watching kids gather and play at the bus stop.  One day a little fellow struggled to board the bus, frantically trying to disentangle a knotted shoestring. He grew more anxious by the moment. All of a sudden it was too late. The bus door closed. With tear-filled eyes he looked at Roy on the bench and asked, “Do you untie knots?”

We never outgrow the urge to look up and say, “Help!” And when we do, who shows up? Jesus, our next-door Savior. Go ahead, ask him: “Do you untie knots?” “Yes,” he will say.

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2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness…” As we behold him, we become like him.

It’s a principle I experienced first-hand when an opera singer visited our church. He sat right behind me. He tried to contain himself, but how can a tuba hide in a room of piccolos? I was startled. Inspired. Emboldened by his volume. I lifted mine. Did I sing better? No. But did I try harder? No doubt. His power brought the best of me.

Could your world use a little music? If so, invite heaven’s baritone—Jesus Christ—to cut loose. Who knows? A few songs with him might change the way you sing!

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Do you visit the Grand Canyon for the T-shirt or the snow globe? No. The reward of the Grand Canyon is the Grand Canyon. The wide-eyed realization you’re part of something ancient, splendid, powerful and greater than you.

The cache of Christianity is Christ. Not money in the bank or a car in the garage or a better self-image. The Fort Knox of faith is Christ. Fellowship with him. Walking with him. Pondering him. The heart-stopping realization that in him you’re part of something endless, unstoppable, unfathomable! And that he, who can dig the Grand Canyon with his pinkie, thinks you’re worth his death on Roman timber. Christ is the reward of Christianity.

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A national election is upon us. Friends, family and neighbors are at odds.

Results may be challenged. What a time we are in. Between the bombast and the ballots, it’s hard to see our way through to a time of hope, of peace.

Wonder what happens after November 5th? For the person of faith, it looks a lot like November 4th. Pray. Love. Trust.

Pray. Perhaps you find yourself unsure of how to pray. Everything seems so confusing, so angry, so exhausting. Here are two topics you might consider for your conversations with God.

Let’s lift up our nation. We are a family with so much shared history and an important future. Ask God to humble us, hear us and heal us. It may seem futile but remember – the power is not in the one who prays, it’s in the God who hears.

And let’s ask God to help our neighbors, and let that help start with us. Pray for the compassion to reach out to the single mom across the hall at work and the shut-in at the nursing home. Pray for hope for those still recovering from storms – whether those tempests go by the name of Helene or Milton, or divorce or chronic illness. May God bring his healing balm of hope. And pray for those neighbors with whom you disagree. Yes, even those who make you mad. The quickest way to douse the fire of anger is with a bucket of prayers. Rather than blame, pray. Jesus did this. While hanging on the cross he interceded for his enemies: “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they’re doing” (Luke 23:34 MSG).

We are never more like Jesus than when we pray for others – those with whom you agree and those you don’t. Pray for this hurting world. God cares about it all.

Love. Now, love is not exactly the byword of the day. Contentiousness, yes. Anxiety, for sure. Fear, our constant companion. But love seems to be in short supply. Let’s check our source. This worried world is not the place to look to for steadfast love. Let’s instead turn our gaze to a gracious God whose love will never fail. Governments will fail, but God’s love will last. Crowns are temporary, but love is eternal. Your money will run out, but his love never will. Let God love you. And let him help you share that love with others. Pause for a moment, right now, and make a list of three people you can show love to today – quietly, simply and unconditionally. I promise you, that offering of love will return to you in unexpected ways, and the hope-o-meter of your
heart will rise like the morning sun.

And finally, trust. It’s hard, I know. So many unknowns and the things we do know are worrisome. These are troubling times with challenges both at home and abroad. Leadership matters. But whether your preferred candidate occupies the White House or not, we can know that God’s in charge of who’s in charge. Proverbs states that a king’s heart is like a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he directs it wherever he pleases (Proverbs 21:1).

Might I suggest we lift our eyes and shift our thoughts? We can face the problems of this world by focusing on the promises of the next. The future is not as frightening if you know the future. And you can know the future when you know who controls it.

One of my favorite sermon illustration books contains a story of a missionary and his son. They moved from England to Central Africa in the company of four other adults. Three of them died. The health of the father began to fail, so he resolved to return to England. He and his boy bounced for days across Africa in an old, broken-down wagon. Upon reaching the coast, they embarked for England by sea. Within a few hours they encountered a brutal storm. The waves and wind combined to make the sound of cannon blasts and shake the ship from stem to stern. During a lull in the tempest, the father held and warmed his son.

Then the boy asked, “Father, when shall we have a home that will not shake?”

I can’t vouch for the story. The book provides no source. But I can most certainly vouch for the question. I’ve asked it. You’ve asked it. Each and every person has felt this world with its troubles and tremors and asked, “God, when shall we have a home that will not shake?”

His answer? “Soon, dear child. Very soon.”

This world, so upside down, will be right side up. People who were rejected in this life will be respected in the next. In this age they were enslaved and sold; in the next they will rule and reign. In this age they were handicapped and sick; in the next they will serve with perfected, glorified bodies.

This sounds like heaven. This sounds like the perfect ending. This sounds like the grand conclusion to the story of God.

We can pray, we can love, and we can trust, my friend. What God says will happen, will happen.

© Max Lucado 2024

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