Author: Colleen Craig

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Good Gifts

Dearest Sister,

The week between Christmas and New Year’s usually boasts of talking heads heralding the highlights of the year. I actually enjoy getting their particular bents as it lends me to reminisce about forgotten headlines both global and personal. For instance, I heard there were twelve natural disasters in America that cost over a billion dollars each. Who could forget the congressional fights over debt, loved ones who were forced to foreclose, or those still without jobs? Then there were the deaths of Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong Il, Steve Jobs, and Andy Rooney. There were earthquakes in Virginia to Japan and flooding in Thailand and the Philippines. And the war in Iraq officially came to an end with a quiet prayer one day and bursting bombs the next. Sadly, the pains of life are more noteworthy than the smiles.
Closer to home I experienced a move to a new country seven months pregnant and without a job for the first time in my life…my new role being the spouse of a Navy officer. My husband now had his first full time job since he began his quest to Chaplaincy eight years ago which immediately sent him on his first deployment a month after we stepped off the plane in Okinawa, Japan. We then were blessed with the birth of our first baby girl who came after a 24 hour labor filled with lost medical records, being turned away because there was no room in the ward, a broken labor bed which lowered my head with a jolt, and an earthquake that shook the hospital from the bottom up. There were two other deployments that sent Barrett away for months at a time, a tsunami warning, typhoons, and the tsunami that actually hit mainland Japan. My parents were both admitted to the hospital after trips to the ER with abdominal pain and they moved from my childhood home in RI to VA. The hardships in my year seem to have topped my own highlight reel as well.
Each of you have similar pains, sorrows, and joys of your own from this past year. It reminds us that there is evil in this world and bad things do happen. We still are seeing the effects of a choice to sin in a beautiful garden so many years ago. But we also can experience the same hope and joy that was offered after Adam ate that delectable but deadly bite. Yes, the penalty of the sin I do every day is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ his Son. The Word of God says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9). This is good news! It gives us hope in a messy world filled with fights, heartaches, bad decisions, and death. It gives meaning to sorrows and highlights the Savior who understands them all and answers them with hope.
Israel consistently left stone markers/alters in their lives to remind them of the faithfulness of the Lord and His promise of a Redeemer. Their celebrations of battles won, big and small, reminded them of their promised Savior. As I see a sunset on the seawall while holding my little Annabelle close, I am reminded of this gift from our Lord. When I see Barrett wave from the bow of the USS Germantown I am reminded of the kindness of the Lord in bringing him home. As I see Annabelle’s pudgy arms reach for Barrett with a wide grin my heart is thankful to the Lord for this good gift. All good gifts come from the Lord.

This year may I be more aware and thankful for these good gifts, may I pray and serve all who are near and far, may I lean into my Comforter in hard times knowing he sacrificed his all for me, may I trust my Redeemer when I feel all is lost knowing He died and rose again so I have Christ for eternity, and may I be thankful for my Savior who is the ultimate example and servant of all.

From your sister,
Colleen

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A Hope to Encourage

My Dear Sister,

I have been pondering lately and I wanted to share these thoughts with you in order to encourage you.  There are two ways to view life: with or without hope.  Looking back over time we can see the pain of wars, death, destruction of cities, prostitution, murder, betrayal, lies, homosexuality, death of marriage and the family, government failures, and even stealing the innocence of children.  We see the masses dismiss God through evolution, feminism, existentialism, and the “freedom” of religion.  The support and comfort of the family has turned to the power of individualism.  Hope has been deferred.

Or…has it?

Paul tells us in Romans 15:4 “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.”

What hope comes through the encouragement of the Scriptures?  Don’t we see a thread of hopelessness through the kings, judges, and even the prophets?  Are not the psalms filled with cries to the Lord to defeat persecuting rulers and painful situations?  Yes.  But you also can see a thread throughout the scriptures screaming of hope.  This hope contrasts the darkness of each pain and cry of our hearts.  This hope is the ANSWER to each pain and cry of our hearts.  This hope is never deferred.  This hope never disappoints.  This hope is never a wish; it is a sure thing.

This thread of hope is the gospel.  The gospel reveals the hopelessness of sin so that the sweetness of the Savior shines sure.  With every pain written in scripture, the hope of a Savior is promised.  With every cry of the heart the hope of our savior is preached. This Savior’s birth is what is celebrated this Christmas.  This Savior humbled himself to come to earth as a man to live a perfect life so that he could die to pay for the hopelessness of our sin.  He rose again so that this hope is SURE forever. Our hope is a forward hope.  A hope that we have eternity with our Savior and Lord in the new Eden where there is no pain or tears.

So sweet sister, how are you viewing your life today? Is your focus on the hopelessness of this world or the hope of our Savior? Be encouraged today of the hope that is yours through Jesus Christ!

Your sister,

Colleen

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Great is His Mercy

“The Lord is merciful and gracious; slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love (mercy) toward those who fear him” (Psalm 103:8-11).
My Dear Sister,
Wow. Those verses are packed full of theology. I want to take a moment with you to savor just a morsel of these words as they pertain to mercy. I want us to see just how remarkable this eternal attribute of the Lord has been displayed to us and to all of creation.
The Psalmist reminds us from the start that the Lord is merciful. He was, is, and always will be characterized as merciful. Why is that important? Our plumb line for mercy should not come from the example of our moms or sisters in Christ, but from the Lord. He is the perfect example of mercy. He is the one that has not only been showing mercy to all of creation since the fall of Adam, but for eternity past and future. When his creation deserved death, he promised a Redeemer to come to pay that debt. As the verses above remind us, he delayed his anger and judgment for our iniquities so those who fear him may receive life and His steadfast love.
Digging deeper my sister, we can deem that His mercy is shown best when there is sin. If there is no sin, then there is no need for mercy. This does not mean that the Lord’s character of mercy changes when sin is present, as his character is eternally unchanging. But sin does allow us to see this attribute of God more clearly.
Arthur Pink writes that “(i)t is pure sovereign grace which alone determines the exercise of Divine mercy.” So the Lord’s grace determines where mercy is given to sinners who deserve judgment. As we have seen, mercy has been best shown to all of God’s creation since the curse. Flowers grow despite weeds, we have a delicious variety of food despite the cursed land, and we can have cats and not just lions. More than just the land and animals, God’s mercy has been given to the entire human race, good and evil. Whether elect or not, some people are healed of sickness, contacts are found, and babies are born. Yet more than even that, there is also a sovereign mercy that is given to his elect. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saved us” (Titus 3:5). Those chosen by grace to receive this mercy have a hope of eternal life through Christ’s accomplished work on the cross.
So what? Why bother looking at this mercy? If the Lord is our plumb line, then I exhort you to know your responsibility with his mercy. You and I live in a world that is cursed and where cursed people live. Yet, our Father has given us an example of how to show mercy to both. Even though our co-workers, husbands, children, sisters, family, friends, or pets may deserve judgment or a retort, perhaps mercy is needed. Maybe our mercy given to a saint can remind them of the sweetness of Christ’s work on the cross for them, which can then compel them to give mercy to others. Maybe our mercy given to a lost soul can be the conduit the Lord uses to open their eyes to his sovereign mercy. “For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). Sweet sister, we have been shown so much mercy, let us go and do likewise.
Blessings from you sister in Christ,
Colleen

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Self Control

Dear Sister,

I want to share three different scenarios that I have recently experienced. First Scenario:  There it was, fit for a king…edible artwork!  Surrounding a sculpture of ice lay scrumptious samplings causing my glands to salivate.   My husband was deployed, it was my 35th birthday (but nobody knew it), and I had been asked to brunch with friends to welcome a new chaplain on island.  My unsatisfied cereal fed belly begged for this wealth of art and calories.

Second Scenario:  I was showered, made up, and ready to go to church.  I picked up a just-cleaned Annabelle only to be greeted with projectile chunky milk (and a smile).  Then as I changed her, she promptly released her day old clogged intestine.  Now we were late, stinky and my patience was thin.

Third Scenario:  My blistered and dry fingertips ached all day, my bunion was acting up again, and then I found gum attached to my freshly cleaned clothes due to its well placed hiding spot in a pocket.  My husband comes home late, Annabelle is fussy, I’m hungry, and complaints are brimming and boiling black as a witch’s cauldron.

Self-control,  Huh?  I really think that is a misnomer.  There is no way that I can control myself in any of the above situations or the ones that jump in your mind as you read this.  On our own, we can never control ourselves.  I can eat till I burst, complain until those around me melt, and yell at an unknowing child as easy as taking a breath.  It comes natural enough, doesn’t it?  The thing is, my actions need to be controlled by the Spirit, not by myself.  Without the Spirit, sister, I have found that it is impossible for me to ever control myself.

The Bible charges us to be self-controlled.  In fact, it is one of the attributes of the fruit of the Spirit.  But here is the problem:  I fall short of this standard, we all do.  Yet the beauty of this failure is that it demonstrates once again that we desperately need a savior, someone that can save us from missing the mark of perfect self-control…again and again.

We must remember that Jesus was the only man ever to control himself perfectly.  He controlled his eating, drinking, anger, annoyance, and frustration perfectly!  Can you imagine that sweet sister?  Yeah, me neither.  The amazing thing is that Jesus, who is not only our perfect example of self-control, paid the price for our lack of self-control.  He died and rose again to forgive us of our failures of controlling ourselves.  Not only that, but he died and rose again to impute his perfect self-control in us.

Where does that leave us when we face a buffet, frustration at our children, a tongue that wants to unleash gossip or guile, and creeping anger at our husbands?  Our practical tools of counting, stepping away, or only filling our plate once are helpful for a moment, but they must be rooted in the gospel if true change is to happen.  Ultimate self-control is Spirit-controlled.  Spirit control is being so occupied with what God is doing that nothing else gets in the way. Like a runner being so focused on the finish line that she is unaware of the street lined with a clamoring crowd. True self-control, Spirit-controlled, is being so satisfied with all that we have in Christ and being so busy about living for his Kingdom that we become unaware of our clamoring selfish desires.  So let us strive for self-control, but let that control be genuinely led by His Spirit.

Blessings from Japan,

Colleen

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The Legacy of Compassion

Dear Sister,

I’ve been thinking about my mom a lot lately, maybe because I am now a mom for the first time. The other day I was pondering the legacies she has left me. My mom is a tomboy, she is tough as nails!  She gave me my love of watching football and playing every sport my skinny legs could handle. When I was growing up, she never would let me wimp out of anything and the only time we could stay home sick from school is if we had explosions out one end or the other.  But when we were sick, she was the most compassionate person I knew… or maybe it was empathetic…or maybe gracious person I knew.  Hmmm, which was it?

Certain words have different meanings but for some reason I have stored them in my mind as similes. For instance: yuck and eww, scared and afraid, even stinky and smelly.  I’m sure they have their nuisances but often I find myself using them to illustrate the same point.  I find that this same premise works with compassion, empathy, and even grace.  I could easily substitute one for the other and use them interchangeably.  However, there is a difference.

I found out recently that the Word of God uses the word compassion 48 times and most of the cases it is used in reference to God having compassion on Israel after they had sinned.  In the New Testament the word was used mostly before Jesus healed, fed, or taught someone. So was my mom really compassionate with me when I was sick? I think so.

After looking up all of those references I can tell you that, Biblically, compassion seems to imply empathy (sympathy or understanding) with action.  Dr. Tom Schreiner defines it as “expressing love and concern for those who are hurting and straying”.  It’s not just a feeling; it’s an action!  Compassion causes my mom not only to feel badly for my steaming temperature, but to wet a wash cloth and put it on my head to cool me down.  She didn’t just keep an eye on me, she fed me toast and soup and made sure I had a blanket and the remote.

Grace is yet a bit different, even though I tend to use it as a sister term with compassion.  Grace provides forgiveness and comes from the Lord.  We as believers can be conduits of this grace through the Lord Jesus, but God is the author of grace.  My mom gives me grace when I sin against her by forgiving me when I don’t deserve it and she can even give me compassion if the consequences of the sin so merits.  This is similar to the father of the prodigal son who in compassion ran to his estranged son, clothed him, put a ring on his finger and threw him a party…and in grace, forgave him for squandering his inheritance and sinning against his father’s name.

So where does that leave us sweet sister?  Christ is our example of compassion, he not only came to earth to understand and feel what we do as humans, but he died to pay the sin debt that each of us owes.  Since Christ has shown us this perfect compassion, we can now show this compassion to our families and friends!  By visiting an elderly widow and making her tea or by mowing the grass for a neighbor who is a single mom!  By listening and crying with a child who had a bad day or perhaps embracing a friend or family member that has harmed us in the past with an open heart. My mom left me more legacies than I can count, but compassion was definitely one of them.  What legacy of compassion will you leave your family?

Blessings from your sister,

Colleen