Lent '09 - Day 32: Stories of man's need for healing

Throughout my day yesterday, I get hit with a few stories of people's lives that were reminders of how badly we are in need of healing.

1. One man told me about his infidelity to his wife. He said he had read/heard some psychology study that a man's strength wears down every 3-5 years and is thus more tempted to seek another lover. He said that this was his experience too. I didn't get to finish the conversation, but I had so many questions to ask: You're honest and open with me about this. Are you honest and open with your wife? When you got married, did you not realize that you were committing to someone for life? Did you forget that people change with time, so the person you married 15 years ago is certainly not the same one today, especially after having birthed three of your kids? What are you doing to invest in your marriage, or are you expecting your wife to do 100% of the work and conform to your desires?
2. Another shared with me his war experience with front-line content. He's been involved with shooting others and watching his fellow soldiers die. He's had the horror of being with a wounded friend as he breathed his last. He had to be questioned by the dying friend, "Where is God? Why did he let this happen? What's going to happen to me?" He was young at the time, and was doing what we was ordered to do. In listening to him talk, it's clear that he has understandably lost some of his humanity. Feeling and intellect have been thwarted. Life has become about survival and minimizing pain.
3. I read about the African truck-driver experience and mindset. Everything is transported by truck in Africa. The trucker life is dangerous and stressful. The sex and the truck stops is the one reprieve for many of them, so they take it with gusto. Being away from family a month or more is not easy they say, especially when the offering are so plentiful. There is not much fear of AIDS because they already see life as short, so what's one more little virus in the mix? Some men feel entitled to the regular sexual experiences, and questions what would happen to their bodies if they weren't having sex every night.

It's fitting to be dumped on with these stories just before Easter week. It makes it clear to me that we're in need of help. Both for ourselves and the stories above, life transformation, new life, is needed. The one who has life without limits, the one one who died on the cross, is our best option for finding this life.

Lent '08 - Day 9: What do with Jesus and the demons?

Why have I become so conditioned at overlooking Jesus' interaction with demons? I know it occurs frequently. Can I really ponder and study the Kingdom insight from Jesus and neglect his dealings with the demons? Spiritual warfare stuff makes me nervous as I usually see two extremes. For some, everything is spoke of in terms of battle with the enemy. Others, never speak or think about it. They would say that what the gospel writers were calling demons were really just mental diseases.

The problem with the first extreme is that it isn't comprehensive of Jesus' life. He wasn't just about driving out demons, and he didn't talk as though everything was a repercussion of something happening in the spiritual realm. But Jesus definitely did deal with demons. Mentally ill people, to my knowledge, don't shout out and say "What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come to torture us before the apointed time?" (Matthew 8:28-34). They certainly don't cause hundreds of pigs to drown from a a mountainside. And Jsesus did teach his followers to pray: "deliver us from the evil one" (Matthew 6:13). As a result, I don't see how the second extreme is valid either.

I have predominantly been around people and churches that don't pay too much attention to the spiritual domain, If I were Satan, I would be ok with this. Having people oblivious to me, enables me to go about my business without interference. I suspect that those of us who don't really see any sign of the demons or spiritual evil have probably spent too much time with fellow well-to-do middle class citizens. My very limited exposure to such evil has usually come when I get off the beaten track, hearing stories of those stricken to the street, deemed unsightly, or living in poverty abroad.

There is so much more to look at and answer concerning this subject. I first want to do more of a Biblical study of Satan and demons in the Old Testament. The biggest incidences coming to mind are: Adam and Eve, Job, and Saul. I also need to review Jesus again. I don't have internet to look these things up, so I'll plan on writing more about this in the future. In the meantime, I want God to make my heart appropriately aware to the spiritual evil in the world. I don't want it to be my sole focus or to be ignorant.