"And the winner is . . . "

     
            
                Despite my criticisms of today’s celebrity culture, I must confess that I enjoy watching an occasional award show, like the recent Oscars program.  I find it refreshing to see people as they discover that they have been chosen and recognized for excellence in their artistic endeavors.  Now I realize that many of the winners are actors, but I like to think that some of the expressions of surprise and appreciation are actually genuine.

                The Oscar awards are usually for individuals but curiously, making a movie is definitely a group effort.  Various creative people come together—filming, editing, directing, acting—with the common purpose of artfully bringing a story to life for others to eventually see.  Even the most gifted individual could never produce what a group of talented people can do.

                The last Oscar award of the evening goes to the best picture.  As expected, “Argo,” the true story of the rescue of six Americans from Iran, was the lucky winner.  Ben Affleck had double duty as director and actor in this suspenseful flick, and he shared more than a simple thank you with his audience.  He referred to winning an Oscar fifteen years ago when he was “just a kid.”  Since that early success, he has had ups and downs in his life and in his career.  Then he talked about what he has learned.   

                He said he has learned  to work hard, really hard, in his personal and professional life.

                He spoke of the people sitting right there in the audience who had helped him even though they had nothing to gain by doing so.

                He described the importance of not holding on to grudges even when it’s “really hard” to let them go.

                And finally he spoke of persevering and “getting up” when hard times knock you down.  

                As I listened to these words, it seemed to me that love had carried him through—his love for his work, his love for his wife and kids, and the gracious love shown to him by others.  Persistent, prevailing love can be so very powerful in all of our lives, especially if its source is in God and His never failing strength, mercy and kindness.  In the midst of the glamour and glitz of Hollywood, I was reminded of qualities far more durable than silver and gold, fame or fortune.

 

The Best Gift Ever

               While listening to the message in church this past Sunday, I was struck by two words, “wages” and “gift,” contained in a familiar Bible passage:  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23 NKJV).  It seemed to me that the sharp contrast between these terms revealed much about sin, God and eternal life.

                A wage is something earned,  something required for labor or services rendered.   Some synonyms for wage are salary, stipend, fee, and reward.   A gift, on the other hand, has the sense of being given voluntarily, freely, and transferred from one person to another.  Looking back at the Romans verse, the required payment for our sinful ways is death.  But God, in His great goodness and mercy, willingly offers us what we cannot earn:  eternal life.  And it is life no longer marred by suffering, sadness, loss or pain.   

                One of the first verses I learned in Sunday school was John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son . . . “  God freely gives us the embodiment of His love.  It is, indeed, a gift, not required as a payment but a glorious gift of grace and mercy.  

                            

                 

God's Grammar

I have been “out of the classroom” for a while now, but the old English teacher in me does make an appearance now and then in my thinking.  Recently, I have been thinking about the persisting power of God’s love, a love that is both a noun and a verb.

A noun is a person, place or thing, basically, and God’s love is an actual substance—a spiritual substance.  The scriptures even declare that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).  And then this love is put into action, thereby becoming more like a verb.  We are told and shown how this love behaves, how it acts.  “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Just as Jesus rescued the lady caught in adultery when she was about to be stoned to death, this persisting love of God rescues us, lifts us to a higher, better place in our hearts, in our thoughts and in our attitudes.  When our cup has run dry, and we are fresh out of love in trying circumstances, we can seek God, the giver of the living water, and be filled anew with God’s unfailing love.

In Sonnet 116, Shakespeare gives a description of an enduring quality about love:

" Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark . . . "

God’s love abides, remains unshaken, persists long after mere human emotion falls short.