Published columns from the pastors
“Look Up to Jesus”
Pastor Scott Barber
The Globe, July 2022
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set out before us” (Hebrews 12:1)
I am currently training for my first marathon, a 26.2 mile race. This coming Saturday I will run 16 miles. However, several weeks back I went out to run 4 miles on a hot summer evening and my body and brain were not going to have it. My legs felt like concrete and my lungs felt like they were half their normal size. I was half a mile into the run and all I could think about was quitting. My brain and body were pounding “Its too hard. Just give up. You can’t do it. Why am I doing this!?” I had just run 13.1 miles a week earlier. This was the hardest run in my entire training, but I completed it.
As a reader, you might be wondering, “Why would you even put yourself through this?”
Sometimes, I wonder that too. Lol. Joking aside, I like to put myself through challenges, because in these events I learn about myself, life in general and ultimately about God. This way I am also better equipped for the unexpected and unwanted challenges that come with living in a broken world.
One experience common to running long distances is called “hitting the wall.” Hitting the wall is this psychological barrier where the grind of running builds and you face a barrier where everything in you says, “Why am I doing this?!” “Stop running!” “You can’t make it any further!” “Just give up!”
People can hit the wall at different lengths and stages of running. For some people its 3 miles or 7 miles or 17 miles. Some of you are thinking, “I hit the wall getting off the couch or just thinking about running.”
When you hit the wall, your energy and thoughts are drawn inward. There is this tractor beam, this gravitational pull, this compelling force to look inward and trust your emotions and experience, “I can’t… I can’t… give up…abort!”
You don’t have to be a runner to hit the wall. This happens to us in life; in our jobs, in marriage, with our kids or parents, with our own mental health. We face times when we hit this invisible barrier and we just don’t feel like we can keep going, or we’ve “lost that loving feeling,” or we can’t see any light the end of the grind or our troubles and trials. This internal voice emerges, “This is just too hard! Why do I even try? How am I going to get through this?” Have you had that experience where something inside you says, “you can’t do this anymore, just give up, quit trying”? On the one hand, you know it’s not true, you know that you are capable of more than what your mind is telling you. On the other hand, that voice seems so emotionally compelling and convincing. Your experience and emotions want to define you and your perception of reality.
It’s precisely at this moment that the author of Hebrews is shouting encouragement to us like a coach cheering on his runner, “Let us run the race with endurance.” Persevere through the wall! You are capable of so much more than what you think or feel! We can’t let our experience or emotions determine our behavior or define reality
The author of Hebrews writes this message about running the race of life with perseverance because followers of Jesus 2000 years ago were hitting the wall. It was increasingly difficult to follow Jesus due to persecution and discrimination in a world hostile to the gospel truth of our sinfulness and salvation through King Jesus alone. Their external stressors stirred up the internal experience and emotions of escape. They were struggling to endure through the persecution and discrimination. They couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. They didn’t feel like they had what it took to keep going.
The author doesn’t merely cheer them on with empty inspiration. He coaches them on the source of power for their perseverance.
“Fix your eyes on Jesus…” (Heb 12:2)
Where is your focus… to what are you looking for inspiration, for direction, for truth? The author of Hebrews is saying, “Don’t look in… look up!” “look to Jesus the founder and completer of your faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross….” Jesus started your faith and he wants to strengthen it so you can finish running your race. Jesus doesn’t merely cheer you on as an unexperienced observer. He set the example by pushing through the wall by enduring Hell on the cross for you. Not only is his example compelling, but so is his motivation. It was for joy that He went to suffer on the cross for you. He delights in you. Even in your worst, He loves you and He died for you. He was compelled by love not by his emotions or experience.
Wherever you are in your race, don’t look in, look up. Look to Jesus. Like a gentle father who sees his child frustrated and discouraged with a task and wants to give up. Jesus gently takes your face in His hands and lovingly instructs you to look at Him, look in His eyes. “I love you, I’m here with you, let’s do this together.” As you run this race of life look to Jesus. He is not only the role model but He is the powerful means for running with endurance through every wall we hit in this life. Friends, when you hit the wall, remember: don’t look in, look up! Look to Jesus!
“Is Life Meaningful or Meaningless?”
Pastor Scott Barber
The Globe, June 2022
“I am going to die!”
At some point, all of us will say this or come to grips with this inevitable truth. It’s called an existential crisis when we are confronted by the reality that we will all die and we are faced with the questions, “Is there any meaning in life if all we are left with is death? How are we to live in the face death and chaos?”
Thousands of years ago the philosopher King Solomon faced this question and initially concluded, “I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14)
William Shakespeare in the tale of Macbeth poetically penned:
“Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
The apostle Paul followed the meaninglessness of life under death without life after death to its logical conclusion. “If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32) If death is the final punctuation on this life then live however you want to, however you feel, you’re the king or queen of your life. You only live once!
We are either part of a greater story with meaning and purpose or you are part of an empty void responsible for staring death in the face and making your own meaning from your experience. An increasing prevalent philosophy today claims that your personal experience is the ultimate authority for truth. There is no absolute truth only “your truth.” Therefore, we are responsible for making our own meaning in this finite life. We are each the final authority for creating and determining our meaning, purpose, and value.
Take a moment to process this line of thinking. This thought process is increasingly prevalent today and growing in acceptance and enforcement. It is based upon the faulty premise that we human beings are ultimately good and psychologically, spiritually, relationally, or morally healthy.
However, given our human behavior over the last year or last 100 years, consider how dangerous and destructive it is to leave us to ourselves to determine truth, meaning, and our value based on our feelings or experience. If I feel or believe my life or someone else’s life is less valuable, that is my truth. Consequently, you can imagine the courses of action that consequently follow. If applied logically and consistently this philosophy (your experience is truth) will only perpetuate the polarization, corruption, hate, oppression, chaos, and death already prevalent in this world.
Fortunately, we are not left to our own devices to make sense of a life punctuated by death. Whether you are a Christian or not we can all agree that there is something inside us convinced there is meaning in this life, there is hope to rise up, live and love in the face of our finitude. However, we may not know why.
King Solomon saw that from human experience alone, this life is ultimately meaningless. He looked beyond human wisdom to see there is more to this life than the death, decay, and chaos we see. “God has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Even within our fallible experience, we can discern The Infinite, we know there is more to this life. Jesus Christ’s historical life, death and resurrection changes everything! EVERYTHING! In fact, Jesus stated his purpose for living was to die, to face death in our place, and to make everything beautiful for all time.
In light of Jesus’ resurrection, the apostle Peter explains that we have hope for this life in the midst of suffering, injustice, and human atrocities. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
“Living Hope!” This means we have God-given eternal meaning, purpose, and value. We don’t have to create our meaning and value, it was always there from our Creator and Savior. With living hope we can face death and live with resilience. We can stare death down and not succumb to survival, self-centeredness, fighting for control, or being crippled by anxiety. We can love our enemies, we can sacrifice ourselves to benefit others, we can forgive, we can love others who are not like us. We can live in this world with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Living hope is not just a philosophy or an ideal, it is God who became human. His name is Jesus. He conquered death so you could live for eternity with Him. He wants to live in you now so that though you die in this life you may truly live both in this life and in the next.
So, in the end the questions isn’t what do you do with death, but what will you do with Jesus?