Month: April 2025

It should have been a romantic dinner with my wife. The restaurant, the food, the service, everything was perfect. We exited the restaurant, hand in hand, and walked around the corner to where our car was parked. Was! It wasn’t there! Was it stolen? I frantically searched for clues when I looked at the sign above the parking meters. I was illegally parked in a restricted parking zone, and my car was towed. I called the posted number and discovered my car was impounded. We had to call a taxi to take us to the impound lot and pay a hefty fine to retrieve our car. We should have been home by 9 PM, but instead, it was after midnight when we returned. Frustrated, humiliated, and much poorer.

How often has a seemingly simple event ballooned into a convoluted hot mess? Who is to blame? Like this parking disaster, I am. The Bible is replete with examples of people embroiled in problems of their own doing. 

Normally it takes only eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh-barnea, going by way of Mount Seir. But forty years after the Israelites left Egypt, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses addressed the people of Israel, telling them everything the LORD had commanded him to say.

Deuteronomy 1:2-3 (NLT)

The Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. What should have been an eleven-day journey ballooned into forty years. Why? The Israelites doubted God’s providence and power to deliver them to the promised land. Even after witnessing the miraculous plagues He inflicted upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, they were unwilling to believe He could safely take them through the desert wilderness. God gave them up to their sinful disobedience and allowed them to wander the desert for forty years. 

When events go awry, are we quick to blame God or others? Do we believe our intuition and feelings, or do we accept the will of God who created you and the universe?

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

“Is it finally over?”

“Yup. They fled the country rather than face criminal charges of human trafficking.”

I was speaking to a close friend of mine. A cousin of hers had opened a local restaurant. After a year, it was embroiled in a massive lawsuit filed by several ex-workers, suing on charges of human trafficking and numerous labor law violations. The allegations ruptured their family, leading to a lawsuit against my friend and her husband, charging them with slander. 

“Are you happy?”

She shrugged. “I guess so. Could be happier.”

“How?”

“You have to unfollow them on social media.”

I nodded. I completely forgot that I was following them on a social media account. A year ago, my wife and I were introduced to the couple. We soon became friends, sharing many dinners. It was a natural progression to follow them on their social media accounts. I picked up my phone and unfollowed the couple. And just like that, our relationship ended. I have not had contact with this couple in over 10 years. The internet has enabled the rapid starting and ending of relationships. However, if a relationship could so quickly start and stop, perhaps there wasn’t much of a relationship in the first place?

What about our relationship with God? Is it so ephemeral and superficial as some relationships that evolve in life and on social media?

“For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

Isaiah 54:10 (NLT)

Even when we turn our backs on God, He never turns His back on us. If we unfollow Him, He does not unfollow us. He is relentless in pursuing us. However, God is patient and just. He will never force anyone to accept His grace, mercy, and love. If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you only have this lifetime to make this decision. Don’t delay. Follow Jesus now!

Amen!

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

People of determination.

Written in English and Arabic, this sign is displayed outside many public bathrooms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is testimony to the United Arab Emirates government’s desire to be sensitive to people with disabilities. Instead of labeling them disabled or handicapped, they chose the affirmative term, people of determination. I approve.

My son has Down syndrome and is on the autistic spectrum. I appreciate the effort to change the perception to affirmative potential rather than diminished function. Words are powerful. God created them and encourages us through the Bible. 

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Romans 15:4 (ESV)

We are all sinners and in a forlorn state, hopelessly lost and disabled without a Savior. God offers forgiveness of our sins and a pathway to eternal life and salvation. We can avail of His promises when we confess and repent our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

People of determination.

We are all created by God to be people of determination. The Bible is affirming. No matter where we are in life, God sees our potential and desires that all enter into a relationship with Him, to be transformed and conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.

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