“Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” —John 16:22

“Grief is messy, Annie.”

That’s one of my favorite lines from the film We Are Marshall. It’s the story about the 1970 tragic plane crash that took 75 lives—most of the Marshall University football team, the coaching staff, and many community leaders of Huntington, West Virginia. There were 64 children who lost one or both parents on that fateful flight. The path forward was long, painful… and often messy.

All of us will grieve at one time or another. And the longer we live in this broken and fallen world, the more sorrowful moments we will encounter. But for the believer, there is something that transcends the tears, the hurt, and the loss. There is the kind of hope that isn’t just wishful thinking, but the kind of hope that is sustained by a REAL empty grave—HOPE that is built on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the promise of our own future resurrection when we pass from this side of glory to the next.

That’s why Paul could look death boldly in the face and declare, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” Because Jesus had defeated death once and for all (1 Corinthians 15:35-58).

Writing to a church family who had seen loved ones taken in death, Paul acknowledged the reality of sorrow. But he challenged these believers not to “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Loss and death are part of life, but believers can face them with distinct confidence, knowing that Christians never say goodbye for the last time. We can encourage and comfort one another (v18) with the hope of the resurrection and a future reunion.

Our grief, no matter how messy it might get, can become something beautiful as we cling to Jesus and allow Him to meet us in our most painful moments. God wants to meet us in our grief, even giving us a deeper intimacy with Him than we’ve ever known. As Elizabeth Elliot attested from her losses, “The deepest things that I have learned in my own life have come from the deepest suffering. And out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things that I know about God.”

We can suffer well when we believe that God will never waste our pain. He will use it to draw us closer to his heart and birth redemptive stirrings in others as they see us clinging to the promises of Jesus and treasuring His companionship in times of sorrow. We do well to remember that our suffering is never just for us; God intends to use it for His glory, the encouragement—even liberation—of others, and a consequent new channel for the advancement of the Gospel. Think about that as you seek to abide in Him this week.

PRAYER

Lord, blessed be your name, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. May our hope in you remain unshaken as we lean into the promises of a resurrected life, the redemption of our pain, and the future renewal of all things. We rejoice in this hope, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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The post Grief Can Be Messy… and Beautiful appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” —1 Corinthians 11:1

Monday night this past week we were sitting in our associate pastor’s living room praying with him for his mission trip to the Ukraine. In less than forty-eight hours, we got news that he had suffered a fatal heart attack on the shuttle bus enroute to the Atlanta airport. Pastor Tim’s shocking departure at the age of forty-two has left a tragic hole in our lives and a huge loss for our entire community. Please pray for his wife and eight children he leaves behind.

Oftentimes the script doesn’t make sense to us in the moment, yet we must still trust that the story God is writing is so much bigger and far more glorious than our hearts can grasp in times of suffering.

There are so many things I could write about Tim Maslov. His relentless passion for Jesus. His love for people. His magnetic leadership. The invaluable way that he mentored my own son in the corporate sector while Zach was starting his film and video production business this past year. But the one thing that stands out for me the most about Tim, was how he made people feel.

Maya Angelou once said,

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Though his primary agenda was always God’s truth over feelings, he epitomized what it meant to speak the truth in love. Tim was a rare leader who could see into the heart of a person and recognize their intrinsic worth and value, not for what they could do for him, but simply because they were made in the very image of God and had something redemptive to offer this world. He had a selfless way of making all of us believe that our lives were very precious to God, that our gifts and talents mattered to the community, and that our place in God’s family was equally as important as anybody else’s. He restored dignity in people the same way that Jesus did it throughout his earthly ministry.

Jesus never restored dignity by glossing over sin, but we cannot refute the way that he valued those who had been marginalized by society or deemed “less important” to God by those religious elites in the party of the Pharisees. Think about how Jesus empowered a Samaritan woman, one that had a “shady” past and whose ethnicity was presumed to be inferior to the Jews (John 4). Think about how Jesus restored dignity to a woman caught in adultery and was on the verge of being condemned to death by a legalist mob (John 8). Think about how Jesus showed value to a tax collector named Zacchaeus (Luke 19), whose political affiliation would’ve made him a first-century “deplorable,” or how the Son of God told a guilty criminal hanging on the cross next to him, “Today, you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23).

What all of these sinners had in common was the grace that Jesus offered them—a gift that could only be afforded because Jesus took the wages of their sin upon himself when He was crucified. He paid in full the punishment for their sins. And not theirs only, but yours and mine also.

If we want to restore dignity in the lives of those who have been battered by shame, guilt, condemnation, betrayal, abandonment, or simply those who are products of a loveless society, we do well to follow the way of Jesus. Or as Tim liked to reference, “Follow me as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). God’s truth must be proclaimed in order to liberate hostages of dignity-thieving terrorists, but the manner in which it is spoken is also important (see 1 Peter 3:15). We must see people as those who are truly created in the image of God, with intrinsic value and preciousness of soul, and not just people to be preached at. And that value can, and surely must, be “seen” or reflected in our words.

Think about that as you seek to abide in Him by empowering others through the message of the cross.

PRAYER

God, our hearts are heavy over the devastating loss of our dear brother in Christ. We know that today he is more alive than he has ever been in the company of Jesus. Yet we ask you to comfort our community in this time of loss. And may we all follow Pastor Tim’s enduring example of seeing people the way that Jesus sees people, and having that value reflected in our words. Holy Spirit, help us to do this. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Questions for personal reflection, small group discussion, or dinner table conversations:

1. Why did Jesus sit down by Jacob’s well? (John 4:6)
2. What did Jesus say would be the result of drinking the water He offered? (vv13-14)
3. How did Jesus say people would worship God? (vv21-23) What kind of worshipers does God seek? (v23) Who did Jesus say He was? (vv25-26)
4. How is the world’s need for salvation and eternal life like thirst? In what ways did Jesus restore dignity in this woman’s life? What was the result of her being empowered by this encounter with Jesus? What did she do?
5. What can you do this week to follow Jesus in the way he loved the loveless, engaged the marginalized, restored dignity, and proclaimed salvation to the lost?

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The post How Jesus Restored Dignity appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.” —James 1:12

“Resilience is accepting your new reality,” said Elizabeth Edwards. “Even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.”

I thought much about the spirit of resilience as we ministered to folks in our community who were affected by tornadoes that struck down in Cleveland on Easter Sunday, shredding dozens of homes. As our team served those in an area thrashed by the storm, we saw many faces of resilience, including a man who survived with a broken pelvis, though his mobile home was ripped apart, and a woman in her nineties who came out unscathed despite having her roof impaled.

My heart was touched when an elderly woman picked two bright red flowers from a bush in her debris-riddled yard, to give to my wife and daughter. It was as if she had nothing else in this world to offer, but a few blossoming spring flowers that had survived the storm, and just wanted to bless someone. This is the face of resilience—looking around at what is left, and being determined to bless someone with what remains, no matter how little it may seem.

Resilience is in our DNA as created beings. We are built to weather storms. The virtue of being able to adapt to stressful life changes and “bounce back” from hardship is essential to our growth and progress. The Bible gives us many admonitions about pressing on in adversity (Philippians 3:13–15), overcoming hardship and temptation (Romans 12:21), and persevering in the face of trials (James 1:12). It also gives us countless examples of people who suffered greatly yet continued to pursue God’s plan for their lives. Proverbs 24:16 could be considered a motto for the resilient: “Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”

In the ancient story of Job (held by scholars to be the oldest book in the Bible), we see a man who demonstrated great resilience in the face of tragedy, inexplicable loss, and incredible agony of soul and body. After losing everything, Job refused to curse the Lord or give up: “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing” (Job 1:22). Later, when his suffering intensified, Job’s wife counseled him to “curse God and die!” (Job 2:9), but Job never folded. I can imagine him picking some of those budding spring flowers in East Cleveland, holding them upward and declaring, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand in this place.” This man has become the poster child for perseverance throughout the ages.

Perhaps you find yourself in the center of a new reality right now, needing to adapt and adjust to what has pummeled your life. Resiliency is in your DNA. Embrace it. Let the words of Psalm 37:23–24 be your encouragement today: “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.”

Resilience is ours because of the Hand that upholds us. Think about that as you seek to abide in Him this week.

PRAYER

Father, change can be difficult, especially when it is accompanied by loss or defeat. You never promised us a life immune to hardship, but You have promised to uphold us that we will not stumble and fall when tornado-like trials come. Teach us the virtue of trusting Your heart. Holy Spirit, help us to live out our days with an anticipation of the redemption that is sure to come. We bless You with our worship and praise, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Questions for Reflection, Small Group or Family Discussion:

1. Why would you agree or disagree with the statement, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to what happens to you”?
2. What attitude did James tell people to exhibit when they are facing trials? (James 1:2)
3. What is produced when our faith is tested, and what is God’s response when we ask for wisdom? (James 1:3-5)
4. What good has ever come out of a difficult situation in your life? How does a person’s relationship with God change as he or she goes through trials and problems?
5. In what specific areas do you need to ask God for His wisdom or resilience this week?

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The post Resilience: Facing Your New Reality appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

My hero is my mom. As a teenager, she became a mother of two and had to drop out of high school. My father left her when I was 6-months-old, leaving my 17-year-old mother the strenuous burden of caring for two toddlers all on her own. Still being a child herself, Mom had incredible giants in front of her. But she clawed her way through life and boldly faced her giants one by one, day by day, and week by week.

My mother could’ve easily developed a victim-mentality early on, but she became a fighter instead. She went back and got her GED, worked a day job and continued attending night classes at the community college while my grandparents helped with raising the kids. She was determined not to sulk into a “Why me?” attitude in life. She continued her education over nearly twenty years and received her bachelors in business administration at 39-years-old and attained her CPA license at forty-four. Today, she is a successful executive and thriving professional who has been a CFO for major corporations. She has also championed causes for at-risk youth.

My mother has discovered that God never wastes our pain; our seasons of hardship can be redeemed. She can relate to that great “theologian” Rocky Balboa:

“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”

Life has its blows, but we never have to succumb to a victim-mentality.

I love to tell her story, as I did in my book 13-foot Coffins. This book will be a great tribute to mothers everywhere, but will also be extremely inspirational to any mother struggling with adversity right now—especially single mothers. It’s an amazing story of resilience and redemption.

Consider giving 13-foot Coffins as a Mother’s Day gift!

The post Mother’s Day Gift Ideas appeared first on Jimmy Larche.

It’s about a 12-year old boy who escapes a Communist concentration camp in Bulgaria sometime after WWII where he has spent his entire life. He sets out on a risky journey across Europe trying to reach Denmark in hopes of finding freedom, facing imminent danger and uncertain people along the way. Since he was locked in a camp all his life, he is calloused with no emotions and doesn’t trust anyone.
It becomes a spiritual voyage of discovery where David slowly loses his instinctual mistrust of humanity and begins to smile, share, trust and ultimately, love.

This film awakens so many emotions in me, eerily taking me back to the emotional prison I experienced in my childhood while subject to the abuse of a calloused father. The story is one of inspiring hope for anyone feeling ‘trapped’ in a psychological or emotional prison.

David depicts the resilient, unbreakable spirit of a youth who overcomes traumatic circumstances and insurmountable odds to experience restoration, redemption, and a stirring reunion with someone special in the end… (not to give anything away).

Perhaps the most touching scene in the movie is a conversation about trust David has with his new friend, Sophie.

David: Why do people do such terrible things?
Sophie: Like what?
David: Like beat people, and kill them, and make them prisoners.
Sophie: Most people don’t do that, David.
David: My friend Johannes always used to tell me, “Trust no one.”
Sophie: Oh, life wouldn’t be worth living if you did that, David.

The tragedy of this story is that so many people never experience David’s resiliency. Living in an emotional prison, they have been hurt by another person’s cruelty and spend an entire lifetime learning to reject trust, consequently returning the misfortunes of cruelty on others in the same manner it was inflicted upon them. They never learn to love.

Without love and trust, there is no resiliency to the harms done to us.

Ann Landers once said, “If you have love in your life it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you don’t have it, no matter what else there is, it’s not enough.”

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
I Corinthians 13:4-8

To experience life as a fully alive Christ follower, we must learn to love, trust, and rebound from the harms inflicted upon us.

If not, life really wouldn’t be worth living.

The post I Am David: The Resiliency of the Human Spirit appeared first on Jimmy Larche.