Peace Through Accepting Truth

One way to help with feeling more at peace and not overwhelmed by the busyness of life is to practice and grow in the wisdom of being humble and honest about limitations. There are countless opportunities and possibilities in life, but it's wise to keep in mind that limitations exist for every person. Every one has limits in hours available, physical and emotional energy, and money, whether or not they're honest enough to admit it.

That's what the Bible means by humility. It's realizing and admitting the truth about ourselves in order to respond appropriately and well and to be healthy, because we then see what we need to make the right choices.

One example is how many people approach friendships. They try to be close friends with everyone and in the end feel like they aren't friends with anyone. The reason is that with the amount of hours that person has, they really can't invest deeply into 15 people. Both that person and each "friend" are affected by desiring a close friendship but feeling like something isn't connecting, wondering why the friendship isn't getting deeper or knowing that the friend just doesn't have enough time for them.

It'd be much wiser for the person to acknowledge the truth of the amount of time and energy available, and that most likely will mean that only a small amount or even one person can be invested with quality time, while still meeting the many other responsibilities they have in life.

Another example would just be a very long day's to-do list of activities or tasks. It may be too long and a person may feel too overwhelmed because they aren't able or are stressing out about finishing everything, but they haven't really practiced discernment in thinking through how much really can be accomplished.

It may be hard to be humble enough to discern this because many people act like (pretend) they have an endless amount of energy and time. Also, each person has different amounts of time and energy depending on their giftings and life situation. So if a person is comparing themselves with others and not keeping that in mind, it might cause them to feel discouraged or set unrealistic expectations for themselves.

Realistic Expectations in Ministry

Often the church needs to have a reality check about its goals. It is easy to hope for and dream of more from our work than what happens.

The church often looks to accomplish great things. While the dream of accomplishing great things is beautiful often the reality of what is possible to accomplish at times may be more mundane.

Often making small and steady progress is realistic. Often it is easy to feel as if small and steady progress is not enough.

Often small and steady progress accomplishes far more than dreams of grandeur. All progress brings glory to God.

It is often our sin which makes us feel that slow and steady progress is insufficient. Often authentic ministry brings glory to God, but does not stroke the pride of the minister by bringing praise and acclaim.

The goal of a minister should always be to bring glory to God. Ministry is successful or unsuccessful on this measure alone.

Expectations

One of the greatest discouragements in living out our faith can be unrealistic expectations. Unrealistic expectations about how Christianity will radically change our lives and how far we will get in sanctification.

Often the reality is that spiritually new Christians quickly find just how bad their life is. It is easy to judge our living as good or okay when we compare ourselves to the world.

Once we see the reality of the world as God sees it life is radically different. I often find Christians who seem to have no sense of sin troubling.

They may be truly sincere believers who fail to understand scripture. But without a sense of personal sin they truly lack a grasp of scripture.

It can be a failure of many churches to push those who seem spiritually "perfect" into leadership. Of course those people only seem perfect because when you speak with them they are oblivious to all the areas in which they sin and need to grow.

We all fail and all are in need of grace and growth. The awareness of sin and desire to improve is a gift from God. We cannot grow if we do not accept that we are in need of grace and that we have much need of growth.

God asks more of us than we can ever do. But he provides salvation not based on our limited efforts but freely based on the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to all who believe.

Setting Expectations for Marriage

By Michelle Dowell
Secondary Contributor

Long before the wedding bells ring, some engaged couples are being told to expect suffering and hard times. Priests, pastors, or other church staff sometimes warn that marriage isn't easy--in fact it's difficult, they say. Sometimes they remind the couple over and over again to not expect too much.

For these counseled couples, a delightful surprise comes when they're married and sense that it's a sense of joy, not suffering, that their marriage brings to their lives.

Some might argue that it won't always be that way, that over the years people change or love changes and the marriage will therefore cause suffering, but that's more likely rare for true Christian couples who have a Christ-like love for one another. A spouse may get sick, but even then, there's beauty in truly loving a spouse and being loved.

The Bible says that marriage is a blessing. That's why there is hope and joy for marriage. As much as a church may want to warn couples that marriage can be full of suffering, the wedding ceremony often is recognized as a celebration, a cause of joy.