Welcome to the November 14th edition of Faith & Life Lessons.
You will see this email full of tidbits from my week. My goal is simple. I hope that from how I live my life, you can find a thing or two that helps you as you try to live a life that matters. I am always trying to do one thing - make Christ-focused decisions in love, work, and life. And this was my week.
The Story of My Week
My church did something different on Sunday.
The person who came up to preach said he was going to share the prophetic scriptures from the book of Isaiah that focused on Jesus and the scriptures in the new testament that spoke their fulfillment.
As he read each prophetic verse, he read the corresponding fulfillment verse.
And that was the end of the sermon.
A few months back, we had a service that we just read through the whole book of Hebrews.
By the way, before the sermon today, instead of the usual practice during our prayer time, we read the prayers together in a psalm instead.
I appreciate what the Church is doing.
One of the things I believe we need to focus more on letting scripture answer the questions they raise.
We need to raise the supremacy of God's Word by making it the central focus of our times of service.
Sometimes instead of preaching from the scriptures, we just have to preach the scripture and let the scriptures minister as they are.
The scriptures have power in themselves to minister.
Sometimes hearing them as they are is all we need.
Things I Learnt
1-Therapy of Life: As part of the promotion for the release of his biography, Will Smith did a mini-documentary called "Best Shape of My Life". The 6-part series is available on youtube for free.
The documentary turned out to be a cathartic one for Will Smith.
He had put on weight for his role in the movie "King Richard", just before the pandemic and he aimed to lose 20 pounds in 20 weeks.
He missed some deadlines for delivering his book.
But as it turned out the whole process of writing the book, trying to lose 20 pounds, working out his issues turned out to be a therapy process.
He was able to deal with some of the long-standing emotional issues which have driven him all his life.
I smiled as I watched.
Some of the issues that Will described from his past were not unusual. The only problem is that it took him a while to get to deal with them.
I was fortunate that early in my Christian faith, the pursuit of intimacy with God allowed me to bring most of my issues to God and find therapy from Him.
I bet most people don't know that God can do that.
And that's why God provides us with therapists.
Doing my life therapy early has made it easier for me to face life better.
It's something I recommend.
One other thing I liked that Will did in writing his biography is that he brought the people he wrote about to read the draft versions with him. Any part of the draft they didn't like would be taken out.
The reading session gave everyone to see the world through Will's eyes.
It also means there would be no shocks from the people that matter to Will when the book is released.
A collaborative way to write a biography.
2 - Compassion to People in Public Life: During a sermon, I listened to, the pastor shared a story that happened a couple of years back.
A pastor friend of his had been invited to an event to preach. He was also at the event.
Late to the event, the pastor friend told the organizers that due to a personal matter, he would not be able to fly to the event. Instead, he would join via video link.
This was well before the pandemic days.
Unlike now, when video link-up is acceptable, it was not at that time.
A particular pastor at the event made a point to express his annoyance at what the pastor did. He said, "he doesn't think we are important enough for him to fly over." He went on the offensive against him.
The pastor who shared the story called up his pastor friend and found out the issue. But he could not tell the fighting pastor.
Years later, the son of the invited pastor committed suicide. It turns out that he had mental issues and the father would cancel speaking events whenever the son was having an episode.
He could not bear the thought of being away from the house and finding out later that the son had injured himself. It was one of the episodes that caused him to do the video link.
The pastor who shared the story called up the fighting pastor to ask him what he thought about the invited pastor now. He said the invited pastor should have told them the full story. To which he responded, "just because he is a public figure does not mean he has to make all his matters public". And the public annunciation would have been more stressful for the son with mental issues.
He asked if the fighting pastor would apologize to the invited pastor. He said he would send him a private message.
To which he said, "you publicly attacked him, now you are going to apologize privately to him."
Stories like this remind us why we need to have compassion for people in public life.
They can't always come out to tell-it-all.
Let's always give them grace and give them space.
Postscript
May God's shield keep you safe in every place you go. May you find peace in every situation that you find yourself. Amen
Tata,
Tola - The Everyday Disciple
I help Christians like you who want to live intentional lives incorporate their faith into everyday life so they can make Christ focused decisions in all areas of life and truly live to make an impact and make God happy.
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