Author Archives: Bill Dalgetty

Toughening It Out

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How do you respond to persistent, long term challenges? 

The prophet Jerimiah complained to God about the godless prospering and living in contentment even though their hearts were far from him.  God had called Jerimiah early in life to speak for him.  From the beginning, Jerimiah encountered hostility and persecution to his prophetic words taking place over decades under several kings and the conquering armies of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.  Seldom did the people or their kings heed his warnings.  To compound his lament, he sees people prosper who have ignored both him and God.

God’s response is not entirely sympathetic.  He says, “If running against men worries you, how will you race against horses?” (Jer. 12:5)  This sounds similar to God’s response to Job after his many complaints resulting from his lengthy suffering.  “Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance?” (Job 38:2)

Like Jerimiah and Job, how often do we complain to God about the trials and challenges in our lives, or question his timing or justice?  It may be the suffering from a long term illness, seeing the life of a loved one snuffed out prematurely or protracted unemployment extending beyond our ability to cope.

I am reminded of the women who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years in Mark 5:26 or the man who had been an invalid for 38 years waiting to be healed by the stirring waters of the Pool of Bethesda in John 5:2-9.  Each had an enduring faith: the woman saying, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured;” the man waiting for someone to assist him to get into the pool while the healing waters are stirring.

For almost thirty years, I have been praying for the healing of a daughter with a speech disability that accompanied her birth with Down syndrome.   She understands fully all that we say to her, she reads at a rudimentary level, but she has difficulty articulating her feelings or thoughts that require more than a short sentence.

In spite of her disability, God has blessed her with a smile that melts your heart, an inclination to love and hug most everyone she meets and a purity of heart that teaches the rest of us about the ways of God.  While I must confess that I have given up on my prayer from time to time, I still persevere, knowing that anything is possible to God in spite of my mustard seed size faith. 

I stand in awe of people who suffer through a painful long term illness and yet retain the joy of the Lord.  I marvel at the spouse who cares for a disabled loved one day in and out, month after month and sometimes even year after year.

The apostle Paul who accepted the tough words of God to Jerimiah and Job for his own life, offers us great words of encouragement in the face of interminable suffering or challenges.  He says, “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus…Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Hebrews 12: 1-3)

Humility is a Choice

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How do we become humble?

Both Matthew and Luke report Jesus making the statement, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Mt. 23:12; Luke 14:11)  Jesus seems to imply that being humble or exalting oneself is an act of our will.  It is a choice we make.  Personal experience and history show that we are not naturally humble.

Jesus illustrates his statement with a parable about a guest invited to a wedding feast who picked a place of honor only to be told by the host to move to a lower place so another guest more distinguished than he may take his place.

One of the reasons being humble is a choice is that the instinct to survive which is part of our human nature and natural law inclines us to put self first.  Original sin involving pride and disobedience also predisposes us to put self first.  To overcome our nature and instead be humble, therefore, requires a choice.  To serve rather than be served necessitates a decision on our part.

Jesus praises such a decision both in the passage above and in the first Beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:3)  Jesus describes himself as “gentle and humble in heart.” (Mt. 11:29)  Peter, James and Paul all encourage us to be humble in their letters.

In David McCullough’s biography of Harry Truman, he tells the following story.  At a special reception Truman held for Stalin and Churchill at the Potsdam Peace Conference near the end of World War II, Sergeant Eugene List, an American concert pianist, played a Chopin waltz.  List asked if someone in the audience would be good enough to turn the pages.  Truman jumped to his feet, waived off another volunteer and did the job himself.   In a letter to his wife, List later wrote, “Imagine having the President of the United States turn the pages for you!  But that’s the kind of man the President is.”   

Personally, I have to work hard to maintain a humble spirit in all my interactions with others.  Too often, my pride overtakes my intentions.  We need God’s grace to help us make decisions to be humble.  Actions that help nurture God’s grace include daily prayer, the reading of scripture and regular participation in the sacraments.

“Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.” (James 4:10)

Grateful for God’s Inviters

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Is there someone in your life who has invited you to go deeper in your Christian faith and your relationship with Jesus Christ?  Are you grateful for the role that person has played?

Whatever our relationship with God may be, there is likely someone who was instrumental in leading us to our current level of faith.  It may be a parent, a priest or pastor, a teacher or Christian friend.

This past week I was blessed to have reconnected with some dear friends, Anne and her husband, Tony, who were instrumental in leading my wife and me to meet Jesus Christ in a new and personal way thirty-nine years ago.  We were living in New York at the time.  Anne and I were serving as religious education teachers for high school students in our church.  I remember Anne always having such a beautiful, joyful smile and encouraging the rest of us.

She started to invite me to various spiritual related events, but I would decline.  So then she started inviting my wife, who accepted an invitation to a “Week of Renewal in the Holy Spirit.”  It was a program conducted over five consecutive nights by some nuns at a nearby parish.  Each night my wife would invite me to join her, but I declined, claiming to have a brief case full of work.  At that time in my life I was more focused on my career as an attorney than I was on the Lord.

On the fourth night, my wife came home absolutely radiant.  She said she had been prayed with for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  I decided that I had to go to the final night to see what this was all about.  On that evening I met Jesus Christ in a new and personal way.  I, too, was subsequently prayed with for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and God started the process of changing my life.  My outlook and priorities all began to change as God became the center of every aspect of our lives, impacting our marriage, family, career, ministry, friendships, etc.

After almost 40 years, we have experienced countless blessings as a result of this invitation from Anne to go deeper in our faith.  We have been blessed in our marriage, in the raising of our five children and seeing them now raise Christian families of their own.  I became involved in a ministry to encourage people to live out their faith in their work, and we have been surrounded and supported by  many Christian friends in our church and community.

Today, we live in Virginia, and Anne and Tony live in Pennsylvania.   We had lost contact with them for a few years after they left New York, but it was such a blessing to have visited them this past week, reminiscing and catching up on our respective families.

How grateful we are for Anne and her invitation for us to go deeper with Christ!  “A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance [her] worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy.”  (Sirach 6:15-16)  How urgent it is for us to invite others to come to know Jesus through our word and example!  Our world is in desperate need of him.

Have you invited anyone lately to get to know Jesus more, to check out your church or just to encourage them in their journey with the Lord?   

Are You a Peer Minister?

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God personally ordained peer ministry when he decided to become one of us, his created, in the person of Jesus.  He experienced all of the trials, pain, sorrows and joys of our human condition, and showed us how to understand and live our lives.  He set both the precedent and the model for us to follow.

St. Paul affirms this model when he says, “Praise be to the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves received from God.” (2 Co. 1”3-4)  Paul is suggesting that whatever comfort we have received from God relative to troubles we have experienced, we should offer that same comfort to others who are experiencing similar troubles. 

This is what peer ministry is all about.  We all have the opportunity to be peer ministers.

There are of course many examples of peer ministries.  Alcoholics Anonymous is probably one of the most recognizable – recovering alcoholics helping those struggling with alcohol and other addictions.   There are numerous Christian peer ministries to high school and college students such as Teen Encounter, Young Life, Campus Crusade, and Fellowship of Catholic University Students.

For many years, I have been involved with Christians in Commerce, a ministry to encourage and equip Christians to meet the challenges of living out their faith in the workplace.  We share both our failures and successes in order to impact our work environments for good.

Then there is personal peer ministry arising out of the personal challenges we have experienced that we can share with others who are experiencing the same kind of challenge.  For example, our fifth child, Emily, was born with Down syndrome and serious heart complications.  The first few years were very challenging, but we also began to experience the blessings of Emily’s big beautiful smile, her unconditional love, and purity of heart.  It has been 30 years since Emily’s birth and we have been able to offer our experience dealing with both the challenges and the blessings to numerous couples who have given birth to children with Down syndrome.

Someone who is struggling with a particular problem doesn’t want to hear from another who does not understand what they are going through.  If we have experienced the same problem, then we have credibility.  We have walked in their shoes.  We can speak from our own experience with authority.  We can be real.

Add God’s love to that experience and you have a peer ministry, which offers comfort to another with the comfort we have received from God for the same kind of problem.

What kind of trial in your life have you experienced that enables you now to support a friend or acquaintance going through a similar trial?    

God’s Kingdom – Promise or Reality

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When will the kingdom of God come?  

The Pharisees asked Jesus this same question and his response was, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘there it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

There is a common notion among many Christians that the kingdom of God is only to be experienced after death.  Yes, if we abide in God and seek to do his will, there is a heaven that awaits us upon our passing from this life, a resurrection that follows, and an eternal life with the Father in a new creation.

But so much of what Jesus said to his disciples and the people of his day exhorted them to do something with this life in order to advance the creation that God had inaugurated and Jesus had redeemed.  

Jesus gave us a model prayer that has as its first petition a request for the kingdom of God to come on this earth here and now, as it is in heaven – “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mt. 6:10)

Jesus says when we are “born again” (accept Jesus as the Son of God)…and “born of water and spirit” (baptized), we enter the kingdom of God. (John 3:3, 5)  Most of Jesus’ parables illustrating the kingdom of God instruct us how to live now, not after we get to heaven.

  • The kingdom is like a mustard seed that grows from the smallest seed into the largest of plants.
  • The Kingdom is like the leaven of yeast, a small amount impacts the larger dough of the world.
  • The kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field, leading us to give all to buy the field.

Jesus says if we love him and obey his teaching, the Father will love us and both the Father and Jesus will make their home with us. (John 14:23) Through their residence in us, we have the opportunity to experience the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23), and share that fruit with others.

Not long ago I learned that a particular friend had lost his wife to cancer.  While speaking to someone who has just lost a loved one can be awkward, I felt like the Holy Spirit was nudging me to go see him.  When he came to the door, I said, “I came to give you a hug.”  He appeared to be all alone and invited me in.  For the next hour, I listened to him talk about the last few months of his wife’s suffering, the last few hours of her life, and of all the support he had received from friends, his pastor and medical personnel.  I listened as he reminisced about their life together.

My time with him, as well as the subsequent funeral celebrating her life, was an example of the reality of the kingdom of God here and now.   

A Fool’s Eulogy

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Have you ever heard a eulogy at a funeral commemorating the deceased for his or her wealth?  

Eulogies are usually about how someone who has been a good father or mother, a loving husband or wife, or a faithful friend.  We hear about attributes such as being kind, gentle, patient, diligent and loving.  We listen to stories about how they have served others instead of themselves, how they have been generous with their time and resources, and how they have volunteered for this or that cause.

What we hear in eulogies seems to confirm Jesus’ warning about greed.  He said, “Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” He then goes on to tell the Parable of the Rich Fool, whose land produced an abundant crop, so he decided to tear down his barns and build larger ones to store all his grain.  He then said to himself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.  But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.’” (Luke 12:13-21)

Throughout recorded history people have been consumed with accumulating money and possessions in order to maintain their lives and achieve some level of security.  When we start out in life with little or nothing, money is of course necessary to take care of ourselves and to be self-sufficient.

As a young attorney for a large international oil company, I was very career focused early on in my life.  Marriage and children started to temper that focus.  Then I experienced an encounter with Jesus Christ, and a renewal in my faith that led to some challenging choices between career and family, and later between work and ministry.

Being blessed with resources is not sinful in itself, but the blessing can become a curse because of the temptations that accompany additional resources – feelings of independence, entitlement, and increasing comfort; growing self-focus, and isolation from people with needs.  These are not the kind of characteristics that usually end up in eulogies.  No doubt that is why Jesus urges us to “Watch out! Be on our guard for all kinds of greed.” 

When a reporter asked John D. Rockefeller, who at the time was considered the richest man in the world, how much money is enough, he responded, “Just a little bit more.”  Although Rockefeller used a good part of his surplus wealth to build hospitals, support education and other causes, his response demonstrates how insidious accumulating wealth can be.

As eulogies bear out, a kind word, a joyful heart, a loving act of service and sacrifice have lasting effect.  They are indeed eternal and, as Jesus says, “treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal.”  (Mt. 6:19-20)

What will be your eulogy?

 

Jars of Clay

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St. Paul says we have this treasure in jars of clay. (2 Co. 4:7)  What is the treasure and what are the jars of clay?  

The treasure is Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit in us.  The jars of clay are we who have accepted Christ, who have been baptized into his church, who have opened the door of our hearts to experience his presence and the release of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But this treasure is not just for us, but also for the people and circumstances in our lives.  To release the treasure, the jars of clay need to be broken.  We need to be broken of our pride, our agendas and of doing things “my way.”  “A broken and contrite heart you will not despise.” (Ps. 51:17)

My self-focused nature is often the greatest obstacle to my sharing the treasure of God’s love with my family, friends and strangers that enter into my daily life.  It is amazing how easily I can forget that Christ lives in me when responding to an unsolicited phone caller, a store clerk who doesn’t seem to meet my expectations or the interruption of my plans for the day by a loved one.

It is interesting that Paul used the word-picture of a jar of clay rather than one of iron.  From his own self-described experience, he knows that we are weak vessels when it comes to holding God’s presence, love and willingness to sacrifice.

Yet as we share this treasure, the light of Christ, his love, truth and sacrifice will shine in the darkness of the world surrounding us even if the darkness does not understand it.  We must remember that one of Jesus’ harshest responses in all of scripture was directed at the servant who buried the talent given to him instead of investing and risking it for God’s kingdom.  Jesus concluded the parable by saying, “And throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt. 25:30)

There are of course countless ways to share this treasure.  Let me offer one example.  One day I was having lunch with one of the executives of the company where I worked and he started to share with me how his wife of more than 40 years had left him due to some actions on his part.  I could tell that he was very distraught over both his actions and her response.  After listening to him for more than an hour as he described their life and the recent developments, I asked him if I could pray with him.   He said yes, I reached across the table, took hold his arm and prayed that God would give him courage to say he was sorry and ask his wife to forgive him; that she would be open to receive his request and the grace to forgive.  He was not necessarily a religious person, but by God’s grace they reconciled.  He subsequently retired and died of cancer a couple of years later in her love and care.

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

Speaking Truth to Today’s Issues

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Does political correctness and conventional wisdom deter you from speaking up for the truth of the Gospel on issues of life and morals?   

In recent years we have seen increasing cultural acceptance of governmental actions that erode the sanctity of life, God’s institution of marriage, and sexual identity.  Our health care laws require Catholic institutions to provide medical insurance for abortions.  Public accommodation laws require Christian business people to provide services for same sex marriage in contravention of their personal conscience.

More recently, the Fairfax County, Virginia School Board voted to include gender identity in their nondiscrimination polices.  Critics are concerned that it will lead to allowing students to choose bathrooms, locker rooms and even sports teams based upon their perceived sexual identity instead of their biological sex.  The school board’s excuse is that they are being mandated by the U. S. Department of Education to do this under the threat of the loss of federal funds of more than $41 million.

All of these proposals present a dilemma to Christians since they run counter to God’s Word found in the Holy Bible, natural law and even basic common sense.  How should we respond in the face of the so-called conventional wisdom and political correctness that seem to accompany these issues?

When God called Ezekiel to be a prophet to the Israelites in the sixth century, B. C., he said, “Do not be afraid of them or their words.  Do not be afraid, though briars and thorns are all around you and you are living among scorpions.  You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious.” (Ez. 2:6, 7) The Lord went on to tell Ezekiel that he would hold him accountable if he did not speak up.

How often does fear of what others will think cause us to withhold our comments on proposed government actions that erode our First Amendment rights to live out our faith in our daily lives?    

Fear is a powerful human emotion.  Perhaps that is why God was preparing Ezekiel to deal with the resistance he would encounter when he began to speak God’s word.  That is why God told Isaac, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” (Genesis 26:24)  He encouraged Joshua to be “strong and courageous.”  (Joshua 1:6)   The first thing the angels told Zachariah, father of John the Baptist, Mary, and Joseph was not to be afraid.  The first words of St. John Paul II to the people in St. Peter’s Square upon his election as Pope were, “Be not afraid.”

The more a culture moves away from God, the more it moves away from truth.  When Jesus, the embodiment of all truth, stood before Pilate and told him that he had come to testify to the truth, Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)

Fear is the favorite tool of the enemies of truth, but Jesus said, “Don’t be afraid.  I am with you always.”  (Luke 5:10; Mt. 28:20)

Complacency

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Are you complacent in living out your Christian faith day-to-day? 

During the middle of the eighth century before Christ, the prophet, Amos, said to the kingdom of Israel that was becoming increasingly rich and prosperous, “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion.”  He was decrying that those who were accumulating wealth were neglecting those who were poor.

Complacency is ruinous to almost any endeavor of life – athletics, parenting, doing your job well, and living out our Christian faith.  I am reading a book entitled Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis describing her experience of going on a mission trip to Uganda over Christmas break of her senior year in high school and how it led her into full time ministry to care for and educate the poorest children of Uganda.

The book describes multiple stories reflecting a special God-inspired love she acquired for children who live in houses of sticks, stones and mud, and sleep on hard dirt floors surrounded by filth and disease.  After returning to Uganda instead of going on to college as her parents desired, her reaction was:

“In my mind, these people had every reason to be despondent and downcast, but were the most joyful human beings I could imagine.  I learned so much from them as they made my frustrations seem small and petty and taught me just to rejoice in the simple pleasures God surrounded me with.  Once I could do this, I embraced extreme exhilaration; I felt closer to God, to myself and the people, and more alive than ever before.” 

Katy is the exact opposite of being complacent.  She is full of passion for the Lord Jesus Christ, and she is bringing his presence to hundreds of children in Uganda, thirteen of whom she has since adopted as a single mother.

Like Katie, all of us who have been baptized, have God dwelling within us.  Do we let his presence, love and compassion be manifested through us to the people and circumstances in our lives, or do we bury his presence through our complacency?   I wish I could say that I always embrace the same level of passion for the Lord’s call on my life as Katie’s, but I struggle with the distractions of my comfortable life.

We must remember the words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15)

Fortunately, through my affiliation with Christians in Commerce International, I have been able to support in an indirect way the people of Uganda to hear about Jesus Christ and to assist with their need for clean water, food and education.   But we don’t need to go to Africa, to bring God’s presence, and his love and mercy to the people in our lives including our families, work colleagues, friends and strangers.

Lord, may my lukewarmness be transformed to passion for the call you have on my life.

Exercising Faith on Another’s Behalf

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Is there someone in your life who needs you to exercise your faith on their behalf? 

The Gospel of Luke reports the story where some friends of a paralytic are trying to bring him to Jesus on a mat so that Jesus could heal him.  When they arrive at the house where Jesus is teaching, they could not get in because of the crowd.  So they take him up on the roof, remove the tiles and lower him down on his mat into the crowd, right in front of Jesus.  “When Jesus saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend your sins are forgiven.’”

When some Pharisees who were present began to think that Jesus was speaking blasphemy because no one but God can forgive sins, Jesus responded, “That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…he said to the paralyzed man, ‘I tell you get up, take your mat and go home.’  Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God. (Luke 5:24-25)

Luke’s account of this event indicates that Jesus healed the paralytic and forgave his sins, not because of the paralytic’s faith, but the faith of his friends and the extreme efforts they undertook to get him to Jesus. 

This is a good example of how we can exercise our faith on behalf of another to bring the Lord’s presence, healing and forgiveness.  Sometimes a person cannot act on his or her own faith or take the kind of action that may be necessary.  While we don’t know anything about whether the paralytic had faith in this story, it does not appear that he would have been able to act on this faith without the help of his friends.

A few years ago a close friend who had been battling cancer for more than four years had a massive brain hemorrhage.  He could not pray for himself or take other action, but his family and friends gathered around his hospital bed praying with him and for him, singing his favorite hymns, reading his favorite Bible verses and leading him into the arms of the Father who was waiting for him.  Instead of lying in a comatose state indefinitely after years of suffering, his family and friends escorted him to the Father.  What a glorious day it was for him AND us who were privileged to be present exercising our faith on his behalf.  

Jesus healed others on behalf of the request and faith of family and friends.  He healed the servant of a centurion who believed that Jesus could do this simply by saying the word without even coming to pray over the servant. (Mt. 5:5-13)  Others were healed based on the faith of a parent — Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:21-43); and the royal official’s son in Capernaum.  (John 4:43-54)

We should never underestimate the power of our faith to bring God’s presence to others.