NOTHING IS POWERFUL

NOTHING IS POWERFUL

How much do know about nothing? Usually not much is said about nothing, but today I am going to say a lot about nothing. After all, we are all acquainted with nothing. In fact, nothing is largely responsible for most of the good in this world. 

‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is You who have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You.’
Jeremiah 32:17

NOTHING LIKE WINTER GARDENING 

 As Autumn fast draws to a close, Kim and I are considering what winter vegetables we should plant. Winter is a strange time for gardening. In winter, most flowering plants are flowerless; all deciduous trees are leafless; and pruned roses look like thorny sticks. In winter, what looks for months like nothing — just bare soil or even, simply, grass — may actually be a hive of daffodil activity. Spring reminds me that what often what appears to be “nothing happening” in winter was not the case at all. In fact, this is one of the most valuable lessons we can learn from nothing: what we can see (nothing happening) is not always the true picture.

NOTHING LIKE RECUPERATING

My son recently had surgery. Kim went down to Hobart to collect him so that he could recuperate with us in Legana. He was in a lot of pain after his operation and was unusually tired. He spent a lot time resting which he found frustrating. For five of the seven days that he was with us, he did nothing. But if we asked his surgeon if Tyrone was doing nothing while he recuperated, the surgeon might respond with a medical lecture about how, after surgery, the human body is very busy rebuilding muscle tissue, reestablishing blood flow, repairing skin cells, and producing sufficient T-cells as part of it auto-immune system to prepare for any resulting early-stage infection. “Nothing?!” he might retort, “A person recuperating from surgery is hardly doing nothing!” This then, is our second lesson about nothing: inactivity is not the same as doing nothing.

NOTHING LIKE A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

A couple of years ago I was referred to a specialist pain clinic. The pain specialist examined me and gave me some not-so-good-news. But, he said, one of the best ways to reduce your pain levels is to get more sleep. Obviously he didn’t know how busy I was and just how impractical it would be for me to waste what little time I had in my day by napping and sleeping. Perhaps perceiving my unspoken reply to his suggestion, he went on to explain how therapeutic sleep was. While we are asleep, our body’s get to work repairing what it can, sometimes even rebuilding what it can, and helping stressed muscles trying to do what the spine is no longer able to do, he said. When you are always tired, he informed me, your body is having to divert its maintenance systems into sustaining you. This then results in further injury and pain. Despite my unwillingness to comply with this specialist’s directives, I soon found that my body was involuntarily complying (which is why my weekly Pastor’s Desk is now much later than it used to be). Since then, I have learned that despite sleep appearing like I was doing nothing it was actually an important part in my body’s recovery — not to mention that it was an invaluable occasional spiritual encounter (have you ever noticed how often God came to people in their dreams?). Thus, the third lesson we can learn about nothing is: sleep might appear as if we are doing nothing and that nothing is being achieved, when in fact, it is while we are asleep that we can sometimes see things more clearly and that some of our bio-systems are at their busiest.

It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for He gives to His beloved sleep.Psalm 127:2

NOTHING LIKE WAITING

 I have mixed feelings about waiting. There are times when I don’t mind waiting. I especially feel this way at the moment about supermarkets. With the current social-distancing restrictions in place, waiting in the checkout queue is now even longer. But I’m OK with this as I consider that there are parts of the world where they either don’t have supermarkets, or their supermarkets are nearly bare. (But there are times when nothing bugs me more than waiting on hold to business or government agency. A week ago I think I was on hold for two hours before I eventually hung up.)  It might surprise many though, who get to know me, to discover that I generally don’t mind waiting. This is especially the case when what I am waiting for has great value. I waited to get married. I waited for us to be able to have children. I waited seven years to complete my doctoral studies. Today I went into Koorong to find a book I need for some research I am doing. Laura told me that her store didn’t have it, but she could it from another Koorong store and sent directly to me. “How long would that take?” I asked. “About two weeks” she replied as her face resigned to the fact that I would baulk at such a wait. “Fine” I replied, “I’d like to order it then.”

I’m trying to teach Ruby how to wait. We bought her something for her birthday (at her request) which arrived a few weeks ago. When it was delivered she excited unwrapped the package and was interrupted by Kim who told her, “You’d better ring Dad first.” When she rang me she asked if she could start using it now as an “early birthday present” (her birthday was not for another two and half months). As any dad would who wants his children to develop sound character traits, I said, “No, you can’t have it until your birthday.” To which she replied, “But Dad!…” (you don’t need to know the … was). Because waiting for something is a measure of its true value, I know that when her birthday arrives she will appreciate it even more. This is the fourth lesson that we can learn from nothing is: it may appear that waiting is achieving nothing, but waiting fosters the virtue of patience and magnifies something’s value.

but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31

NOTHING LIKE GOD’S PLAN

There are times when it seems like God is doing nothing. The Psalmist expressed this frustration in Psalm 10 –      

¶ Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Psalm 10:1

Even in the Law, it seemed like God was commanding His people to have sacred moments of nothingness –

Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
Exodus 31:15

But the sabbath was never about doing nothing. The sabbath was about recuperating, resting, waiting, and worship. It is in the times when it seems that we can do nothing that the God who never sleeps or slumbers (Psalm 121:4) is often at work on our behalf even though we cannot immediately detect His activity –         

The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
Exodus 14:14

And perhaps when we tie all of these lessons about nothing together, we begin to realise that our very salvation is based on nothing –

• Nothing but the work and sacrifice of Jesus can save us (Hebrews 9:26)

• Nothing can we add, contribute to, or bring to, the salvation that Christ offers us (2Tim 1:9)

• Nothing did we do to merit, earn, or achieve this salvation that God offers us through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2:8)

• Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:39)

• Nothing can be achieved unless the believer remains connected to Christ (John 15:5)

Nothing more needs to be said except to make a correction to the title of this post. Rather than Nothing Is Powerful, I should correct it to read, Nothing Is As Powerful As God, but now I think about it, both titles are equally apt for these few thoughts about nothing.

 Pastor Andrew

Why You Need Seasoning

WHY YOU NEED SEASONING

I pity those who do not have the privilege of living in Tasmania. Unlike other parts of Australia (and many other parts of the world), here in Tasmania we enjoy four distinct, and relatively mild, seasons. Of course, if you had been to our island haven paradise in the last couple of years you may not have thought so. Venturing here just six months ago, you would have thought our Island State to be a parched dry unforgiving land. Our water reserves had got well below the critical reserve levels of 21% (falling to as low as 6%) and our normally lush green pastures were colourless. At one point, bushfires ringed and threatened our central city of Launceston and filled our air with an ugly haze. Yet, if you had been here just six weeks ago, you would have seen our flood levies tested to their limits! Many people tell me that they love my state, but alas, I feel they are not qualified to make such a statement until they have experienced this exotic island haven paradise in all its seasonal extremes.   And I think this applies in other claims of love as well – unless you’ve been with, or observed, someone in the various ‘seasons’ of life, you are not qualified to claim that you love someone. For any relationship to be strong, it must go through seasons.

Nearly each year, for the past twenty-five years or so, our family has spent at least some time of the year on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Before I met Kim, she and her family had long made the same Gold Coast their annual getaway of choice. Perhaps this is why Kim’s father purchased an apartment there overlooking Surfers Paradise, which Kim’s widowed mother now permanently resides. And while it may be an exaggeration to claim that the Gold Coast is like a second home to us, outside of Tasmania, it is probably the place we know next best. While we do enjoy our occasional stays there, it does lack the distinct advantage that Tasmania has. And because any loving relationship requires this advantage, we feel qualified to say: we love Tasmania.

¶ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
First Corinthians 13:4

Surfers Paradise by night, shot taken from Southport

Life has its seasons. In one respect, life’s stages are like seasons. Childhood and youth is like Spring-time. Adulthood is like Summer. Senior years are like Autumn. Our final days are like Winter. But in another sense, life has seasons which ignores our stage of life. We can experience Life’s seasons of joy and happiness. We can experience Life’s seasons of heart-ache and disappointment. We can experience Life’s seasons of trial, struggle, and adversity. We can experience Life’s seasons of loneliness, misunderstanding, and betrayal. One of the biggest mistakes that I have seen two people make is to rush into a marriage before they have seen each other in Life’s various seasons. 

or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
First Corinthians 13:5

Cavell Avenue, Surfers Paradise by night

I have counselled too many people whose marriages have sadly come to an end when the one they married seemingly ‘changed’. In reality, they hadn’t really changed at all. It’s just that they had not been exposed to enough of a variety of Life’s seasons for their true colours to be made clear. But it’s not just marriages where observing people in Life’s seasons is critically important. 

• The same is true in business where a boss prematurely promotes a relatively new employee without seeing how their character handles Life’s seasons. 

• The same is true in politics when a nation only ever sees the carefully stage-managed public appearances before awaiting TV cameras of a candidate for political office, rather than seeing them in Life’s seasons where they have to negotiate a conflict with their spouse or children.

• The same is true in churches when people who make a good impression on a pastor are appointed to be elders without ever having gone through any of Life’s seasonal fires to see how they treat others when they themselves are under pressure 

Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, nor take part in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.
First Timothy 5:22

I enjoy Tasmania’s summers. This past summer, Kim, Ruby, and I took advantage of the world’s finest Gorge amenities each weekday and enjoyed an early morning walk and a swim. To give Kim a head-start in how many laps she did, I would take some time to sit on the overlooking concrete steps and read my Greek New Testament as I occasionally pulled my camera out and took a few snaps of the Gorge’s breathtaking scenery.

I marvel at what Autumn does to Tasmania. The colours of the leaves on the trees, the last of the apple harvests, the stunning sun rises over Mount Barrow and Ben Lomond, the birdlife that sings throughout the day.

Initially, I was no fan of Tasmania’s winters. But then I became increasingly aware of just how important they are. Orchardists must have winters to kill off certain unwelcome fruit-tree diseases and prune their near-dormant trees ready for the upcoming harvest season. Ben Lomond comes alive in the middle of winter. Tobogganing, cross-country skiing, snow-ball fights, and hot drinks by the lodge fire can only happen if there’s a winter in Tasmania. 

And then there’s Spring! New life! Flowers! Baby birds! Lambs! Green fields!

It’s worth remembering that when you’re going through a season of difficulty, it’s a season. It won’t last. And if you’re rushing into love, it’s also worth considering whether this love has been ‘seasoned’? 

Holidaying on the Gold Coast in summer is quite misleading. Tourists do things there and then they wouldn’t dream of doing back home. People are often more relaxed. People are often happier. People often eat out more. People spend more. If you only knew someone from experiencing them while holidaying on the Gold Coast, you would have a very distorted impression of them indeed. It would be better to see them back in suburbia rushing to work after dropping their kids off at school after negotiating the morning rush-hour traffic to get to a job they don’t enjoy before they come to a spouse they have an unresolved conflict with! 

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
Proverbs 20:4

CHURCHES HAVE SEASONS TOO

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
First Corinthians 13:7

As pastor of our church, where I have now been for nearly 21 years, I am so grateful to the many people who, despite having seen me often struggle in Life’s various seasons, have been patient with me and forgiven me for my many shortcomings. It is a privilege to be allowed each week to input God’s Word into people’s lives so that they too can navigate Life’s seasons. And it is my hope that over the next few years of seasons we will continue to navigate our seasons together and as a result our church will move into a season of Springtime and harvest.   

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

Amen.

Ps. Andrew

Misreading The Value Of Gap Years

THE GAP YEARS

The stories of other people's lives are told using their highlights. The biographies in the Bible are no different. We read the stories of great people in their highs and lows and swept along with the pace of their lives. That's how good story-telling works. But it's not how life works. 'Moments' shape our lives but the gaps between the moments determine how we will be shaped.

¶ So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.Gen. 12:4

What you do when you're doing nothing will have a large bearing on what you do when you have to do something. These 'life-gaps', those parts of our stories that are too uneventful to include in the telling of our stories, are perhaps the most important parts of our lives. These are the moments when we are in routine mode. They're not spectacular. They would bore our readers if we wrote their details down. And we often refer to them as "nothing" (Q: What did you do today? A: "Nothing"). Oh how wrong we are!

Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
¶ When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless"
Genesis 16:16; 17:1

It's easy to live for the big moments and feel that life is empty when "nothing" is happening. Moments are exciting. Even crisis moments provide a certain kind of attention that we occasionally revel in. But 'everyday', 'mundane', 'ordinary' and 'usual' are considered to be of little to no value in the overall story. Abram was seventy-five, then eighty-six, then he was ninety-nine. Three significant moments happened at each of those ages. But what happened in between?

What are your moments? Perhaps for Winston Churchill it was April 25th 1915? His disastrous handling of the Allied War effort in the First World War saw him demoted and devastated. He then reemerges in 1939. From the ending of World War I in 1918 to his appointment as Prime Minister at the commencement of World War II, is an 'Abrahamic' eleven year gap. When war with Germany breaks out though, those eleven 'gap' years have transformed the beleaguered former Minister Of War into the victorious Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces. 'Gap years' may look as if nothing is happening. As we descend into the depth of one of the coldest Winters Tasmania has ever experieced, we are again lulled into thinking that Winters are like Gap years. But we would be mistaken. What is necessary for a fruitful Spring and a lush Summer, happens in Winter. What is necessary for you to handle life's 'moments' happens in the gap years of your life.

¶ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.
Galatians 1:18

Leadership guru, John Maxwell, famously says that he could tell what a person will be like in a decade by just spending a day with them. He says that it's the little daily habits, decisions, priorities, use of time, which reveal where a person is going with their life, and ultimately where they will be in a decade. I'm not as adept as Mr Maxwell, but I have noticed that people who are in their gap years who are "Waiting for the time to..." rarely find such bonus time. Whereas I have noticed that people who understand that gap years are golden years, talk about "Making time for..." I have learned much from people who view gap-years as golden years.

¶ Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. 
Galatians 2:1

Have you ever considered the gaps in the story of Jesus' life? We are introduced to Him at birth. We see Him again briefly when He is twelve. Then we get to know Him from the age of thirty. There's two big gaps in the story of Christ's life. But those gap years must have been important because God doesn't waste anything. God ordained that His Son's thirty-three years of incarnation required thirty (gap) years to maximise His three years of ministry! Time spent alone is not wasted time. Time spent in prayer is not wasted time. Time spent reading God's Word is not wasted time. Serving others is not wasted time.

Gap years can be golden years. Time spent in these routine, mundane, everyday non-moments help to shape our character and resource us to deal with the big moments that are not always welcomed. Mike and Julie were interrupted a few months ago with a moment of bad news. I spoke recently with Mike about a course in Apologetics he had commenced with Biola just prior to receiving their news of Julie's cancer. We marvelled together how much of the course had intellectually and emotionally helped him to handle this most difficult moment. Last week I spoke briefly with Craig and Louise about their same news. Their gap years, where they sowed the Word of God into their lives, planted themselves in a church, and served others, is going to pay dividends at this difficult moment.

You might be dealing with a 'moment' now. However, you are probably in a 'gap' year. I guarantee you - what you do now in this season of uneventfulness will determine how well you deal with your 'moments'. Today, I dealt with someone who went to church for all their life without ever managing their 'gap' years at all well (they hadn't been discipled, they hadn't learned to seek God in prayer and Scripture). They were then rocked by a series of moments: his marriage failed; his parents' marriage failed and his father remarried some objectionable woman; his employee made him redundant - and he clenched his fist toward the sky and shook his fist at God for letting him down so severely. After hearing his story, I am again stirred that some people waste their gap years. This is why each Sunday I preach to improve people's gaps. It's why each week I write this pastoral gap-filler. It's why I use my gap time to produce teaching videos, and small-group Bible studies for download. I hope you recognise these days ofyour gap years and began to make time for what's important so that unwelcomed moments don't cause you to shake your empty fist at God. Rather, when horrible or joyous moments inevitably come your way, your open hand lifts in worship and thankfulness to God.

Andrew