I heard an unknown voice say, “Now I will take the load from your shoulders; I will free your hands from their heavy tasks. You cried to me in trouble, and I saved you.” [Psalm 81:5b-7a (NLT)]
“He’d always looked at religion as a crutch for people who were too scared to do life by themselves,” is the way author Chris Fabry described a character in his book June Bug. That description made me think of Karl Marx’s frequently paraphrased statement: “Religion is the opium of the people.” Sigmund Freud had an equally low opinion of religion and described it as a form of wish fulfillment. Thinking of religion as little more than a man-made coping mechanism for dealing with the harsh realities of life, Fabray’s character, Marx, and Freud disparaged it along with things like crutches and pain relievers.
As the body’s early warning system, physical pain is what tells us there’s something wrong with our body. But, when excessive pain interferes with our quality of life, it needs to be dealt with. Pain relievers work with our body’s cells, nerve endings, nervous system, and brain to mitigate the pain we feel. While I’ve never taken opium, between assorted broken bones, sprains, torn ligaments, compressed nerves, and surgeries, I’ve used a variety of prescription pain medications to ease my pain and promote the healing process.
As for God being my opiate—while prescription medications help me through my physical pain, it is God who leads me through the dark valleys of grief, fear, loss, betrayal, doubt, pain, and depression that assault us in this earthly life. Like pain meds, God can be habit-forming, but the similarities end there. Unlike pain meds, His long-term use is highly recommended, no prescription is necessary, and He has no dangerous side effects. While I was thrilled to say good-by to pain meds, I never want God out of my life! He has lessened the anguish, sorrow, loneliness, and heartache of my life better than any drug ever could. He is the only prescription for the sin sick soul!
Moreover, many of those ailments and surgeries I’ve experienced required me to use crutches, a knee scooter, or a cane in order to make up for my loss of strength, range of motion, stability, coordination, and endurance. When I’ve been left with only one leg on which to stand, those devices helped me balance and stand steady by broadening my support base.
Just as crutches reduce the weight load on a weak or injured leg, a relationship with God certainly reduces the burdens of life. Like crutches, my faith in God supports me; it gives me strength and stability and keeps me from falling. God holds me steady when I’m unsure, keeps me in balance when I’m over-whelmed, and enables me to walk through the rough patches without stumbling! When I step away from Him and fall, He lifts me up again! God is even better than a crutch because, when I can go no further, He’s been known to pick me up and carry me! I will happily live in God dependence, using God as a crutch rather than live in independence only to trip and fall.
While Marx and Fabry’s character look at pain meds and walking aids with disdain, I look to them with gratitude! I don’t take offense at someone thinking of my faith in God as a crutch or drug. When properly prescribed and used, painkillers and crutches help us cope with the challenges of living with broken bodies. While they are man-made and imperfect, God isn’t! It is His hand that touches me and brings healing to my heart and soul as well as my body! I’m more than willing to admit that I’m too scared to do life by myself. It is because of God that I can cope with the challenges of living in a broken world!
As for Freud’s wish fulfillment—God has given me more than I possibly could have wished for in even my wildest dreams. He’s done more than merely fill my cup with enough; because of God, my cup “runneth over” with peace, purpose, love, and joy!
Mornings, I read a short devotional from Streams in the Desert, a devotional by L.B. Cowman. Compiled between 1918 and 1924 and first published in 1925, it consists of portions of inspirational sermons, tracts, church bulletins, hymns, devotions, and poetry Mrs. Cowman collected through the years. Each day’s reading begins with a portion of Scripture and a recent devotion began with Psalm 4:1: “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” Because the devotional uses the King James Translation and I usually read the NLT, I didn’t recognize this verse; nevertheless, I had a good idea what it meant.
When writing about giving God the glory and how we are but instruments of God’s grace in the world, I recalled a quote by Mother Teresa having to do with being God’s pencil. Wanting to quote it correctly, I Googled it. Along with the quote, I came across several versions of a parable about a pencil. Of unknown origin, it has been around for more than twenty years. Nevertheless, the parable was new to me and this is my version of “The Parable of the Pencil.”
The Israelites had been away from Israel for less than two months when they arrived at Rephidim. With no water to drink, the people complained, questioned whether the Lord was with them, criticized Moses, and then threatened him. Fearing for his life, Moses asked God what to do. Instructing him to strike a rock with his staff, God promised that water would come gushing out and, as promised, it did. The miracle was memorialized by the name given to this location, Massah (meaning testing) and Meribah (meaning quarreling.) Unfortunately, that was not the last time the Israelites tested the Lord and quarreled with Moses.
At first, it seems that the “Parable of the Unforgiving Servant” should be called the “Parable of the Forgiven Servant.” After all, the king forgave his servant’s debt of 10,000 talents—the equivalent of billions of dollars. While the first part of the parable illustrates the value and extravagance of God’s forgiveness, it takes a dark turn in the second part when illustrating the reciprocal nature of His forgiveness—something the servant learned the hard way!
Jesus told several parables about the Kingdom of Heaven and, in Matthew 18, He compared it to a king who wanted to bring his accounts up to date with the servants who owed him money. The parable is pretty straight-forward; the king symbolizes God, the servant each one of us, and the debt our sins. One servant owed the king ten thousand talents but was unable to pay. There were serious consequences for not paying debts so the king ordered that the servant’s home and possessions be sold off and that the man and his family be sold into slavery until the debt was paid.
Devotions of the Heart 