smiles welch

This week my family is spending our time in Scottsdale, Arizona at my wonderful father-in-law’s house.  This is my first time coming out here in 4 1/2 years, although my wife and sons have been coming out at least annually during the time that I have chosen to stay at home.  I have been abundantly invited to come out each year, but I have chosen to stay home in Ohio on purpose.  But this year I knew it was time for me to come out, and I’d like to share a little bit of why I have chosen to stay home, and why I chose to come out this time.

(Before I go on, to any of you “bad guys” out there who might be thinking that this is your perfect opportunity to take advantage of us being gone from home… I will just say that you better think again, as our farm is being well taken care of and looked after by a dear loved one who just ain’t gonna let you or anyone else get away with anything that you might be thinking about, to put it very gently.  I will just leave it at that.  On with my blog…)

You see, I grew up in what many would call a poor household.  Places like food pantries, the Salvation Army and local second hand stores were the places I remember frequenting growing up.  In order to make ends meet, my mom had to raise me and my sisters in my grandparent’s home, work three jobs, and still spend hours of her “spare time” clipping coupons from the Sunday paper in order to be able to buy enough food to feed herself and us kids.  I was the kid who sometimes couldn’t play the sport that I wanted to play because we couldn’t afford the registration cost and basic equipment needed in order to participate on the team.  I didn’t see all of these things as amounting to the fact that we were very poor when I was a kid, but looking back, I can see it for what it was… poverty.  Certainly, it could have been a million times worse, but nevertheless we were poor.  It was our reality, and although I didn’t realize it at the time, I can look back and see how it greatly shaped me into who I would become as a man, speaking of both my strengths and weaknesses.

Now here I sit in Scottsdale, Arizona, in one of the most wealthy neighborhoods of a city that really doesn’t have any poor neighborhoods in it at all.  I’m in a 6 million dollar house with 20 foot high ceilings and every possible luxury that I can think of.  I’m in a gated community where every house seems to be pretty much exactly the same to me, and where a man greets you at the gate, making sure you are a legitimate guest before he lets you enter.  Everything here has the appearance of perfection, and in those tiny little areas where is doesn’t appear that way, you can see that millions of dollars are being spent to fix that “problem” as fast as possible.  That’s just how it is here.  It’s not how my wife grew up, thankfully, but it’s the current reality of where her dad has lived for the last decade or so.  This is one of those small little pockets in our Country where it seems that the American Dream is no longer a dream, but a reality.

So why would an Appalachian country boy like me, who is always having to work his butt off to try to just keep my family afloat, have such a hesitation in coming out here for just one week out of the year and just bask in all the luxury that a man can have lathered upon himself?  I mean, why would anyone hesitate to enjoy such luxury, especially when all of it is being provided at someone else’s expense?  Doesn’t it just seem stupid to reject such an offer, and not only once, but time and time again?!  Well, not when that person is me, with both the strengths and weaknesses that make up the fullness of who I am.  Let me explain…

You see, years ago when I would come out here with my family, I couldn’t help but find myself very uncomfortable, not because of Space’s family members who lived here, because they are absolutely wonderful people, but because of a lot of other things that I couldn’t escape that existed within myself.  Being in this atmosphere never failed to result in me being depressed and frustrated, and no matter how hard I tried to keep it to myself, I just couldn’t, which resulted in me bringing those around me down as well, and what was intended to be a very restful and enjoyable time, consistently resulted in being a difficult time for not only myself, but also for those around me.  So, I decided to start staying home, where I loved to be more than anywhere, and doing what I love to do, which is to go to work and come home, where there was always more work to be done.  Sounds crazy, I know, and maybe it is crazy, but it’s what I needed to do, not only for my own well-being, but also for my beloved family’s well-being.

But I came out here this year, knowing that I was ready, and knowing that I would have a good time, as well as be an enjoyment for others to be around.  And, thank God, it’s happening.  It has been a truly beautiful time so far, and I foresee the rest of our time here being just as delightful.  But still, what changed?  That’s what I want to know, and if you are reading this, that’s what you want to know.  What changed in me between the last time I was willing to come out here, and this time?  Well, a few things… all of which I am extremely thankful for.

One of the things is that I had to spend a lot of time seeking the Lord to help me not be judgmental of those who are so rich with earthly things.  I had to become okay with the fact that it’s totally okay to live in such extremely luxury, even in God’s own eyes, so long as you live a life in which you seek to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  I just had to become okay with that.  I had to stop looking around at all this luxury and thinking of it as material that is being wasted on pleasure, when so much of it could be going towards things like providing some very basic needs for the poor and needy.  I realize that this could still be the case (and oftentimes is), but I have also come to realize that sometimes it’s just God wanting to bless some of these people with the wealth that they have.  Basically, I’m learning to see these vacations as opportunities to remind myself that I am no one’s judge in any matter, and that whenever I act like I am in my heart and mind, I don’t accomplish anything other than hurt and harm.  If there has been any unrighteous attitude in me that I have realized, which was keeping me in that dreadful place every time I came out here, it was that… the fact that I only saw waste when I looked at the luxury, and not God’s blessing, which was leading me to judge others in my own sinful self-righteousness.  And thankfully God showed me this during the last handful of years as I have been seeking Him regarding my relationship with Scottsdale.  And not only was He gracious to reveal this to me, but He was also faithful to change me, and replace my judgement with His unconditional love.

The other thing, though, regarding my coming out here, is something that hasn’t changed in me.  It’s something beautiful.  It is something that was in me before I stopped coming out here, but that I couldn’t enjoy because of the sin that was in my heart, which kind of hid this joy from me.  Now, however, I am able to enjoy it.  It’s the ever-present realization that this extremely luxurious lifestyle is not in the least bit what I long for in my life.  This is not the dream that I am chasing after, and therefore none of this “stuff” matters to me much at all.

Tonight, after everyone had fallen asleep, I went outside in the neighborhood courtyard, and as I was looking around all I could see was stuff that I had no desire for.  I was surrounded by a circle of about 15 mansions, in the middle of a perfectly weed-free lawn with beautiful landscaping, and you name it… if it was part of the American Dream, I was smack dab in the middle of it… and none of it had any value to me whatsoever!  I was praying to the Lord about it, and He reminded me of Abraham, the so-called “father” of my Christian faith, and how he learned to see all earthy riches as holding no value in comparison to the heavenly reward that would be his if he simply lived his life for the glory and eternal riches of knowing God Himself.  I recalled what the writer of Hebrews said about him, when it was written that, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Heb. 11:9-10).  I was reminded that I, too, was not chasing after a wealth that could be taken away by anything, unlike what my eyes were seeing, but that I was chasing after an eternal inheritance… the inheritance which is promised to all of the saints, the children of Abraham’s faith in God.  And I can not tell you how blessed I felt to be looking around at all of these mansions, and to be able to honestly say to myself that the inheritance of Christ is of such worth to me, that all of the wealth of the world amounts to nothing in my eyes.  It was such a moment of deep abiding joy… the kind that no one or no circumstance can take away, and it inspired me to come write this blog post.  

So I have been changed a little more into who God wants me to be, namely one who loves more and leaves the judgment up to Him, and I have also been reminded of who He made me to be when He saved my soul, namely one who seeks the true treasure, Christ, instead of the countless fading pleasures that this world has to offer me, which are all insufficient in providing the Joy that my heart craves, which is only satisfied when I turn my eyes upon Jesus and look full into His wonderful face.  When I do so, the things of earth become strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

I am so thankful to be able to come back here as a changed man, so that I can not only enjoy this time and the people around me, but even be a means of joy for others while I’m out here.  I think I will be coming back next time with my family, and although I will probably still miss home and the people back there, I will be at rest in my soul out here in this beautiful desert.

Thank you, Lord.  Thank you so much for doing your faithful work of grace in me.  May I steward this amazing grace in such a way that it brings you joy and glory.  You are great beyond my imagination, and I can never be grateful enough for your steadfast love.  Amen.

Smiles Welch; 1-6-17; Scottsdale, AZ

(FAIR WARNING… THIS POST CONTAINS A FEW GRAPHIC STORIES THAT ARE NOT FOR SQUEAMISH STOMACHS OR IMMATURE MINDS.  JUST GIVING YOU A HEADS UP, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU.)

Despair.  We all experience it.  Everyone of us.  Sometimes we can make sense of it, and sometimes we just can’t, but either way, it’s a reoccurring reality of life for all of us.

I could give you some shallow answers for despair that never really bring healing to our wounded souls, and I could even use (or should I say “misuse”) the word of God to accomplish such a vain comfort, but the truth is that although it is indeed the case that the true source of actual soul-deep healing is only able to be found in the sure foundation of who our Maker is, at the same time, it is far more complex than simply knowing our God.  Well, it’s not that it’s so much more complex, but rather just more deeply involved.

I have heard well-intended Christians say to people who are struggling with depression and despair things like this: “The Bible says that if we know God, then although we can be totally perplexed by the way things are, we won’t be in despair, because we know who our God is.” (This is a slightly but dangerously twisted interpretation of 2Cor. 4:8.)  And you know, this all sounds good and all, but is it really true to our human experience in this world, whether we believe in God or not, so as to trust in Him?  I will tell you that having been a pastor who has heard unimaginable griefs flow out of many broken hearts of the people of God, I have some real issues with this kind of shallow thinking and untrue counsel… council that has sometimes literally motivated hope-seeking people to commit suicide.  And I don’t know about you, but in these days where suicide and all sorts of destructive addictions (which are so frequently sourced in the despair that has taken residence in one’s own soul) are not only common, but even trendy, I think it’s vital that we offer people a much better gospel than a “gospel” that tells us that if we know Jesus, then we won’t know despair anymore.   We need the gospel of a God who will be right there with us, because of His ever-present love and compassion toward the brokenhearted and weary, in the MIDST of our despair, for as long as we must suffer through it… not a hopeless “gospel” of a God who is always standing by, ready for you to let Him take away all of your sorrows.  No!  Our hearts, our very souls, cry out for a far greater foundation to stand on!

Yes, we need to know Jesus, who provides the kind of Joy that provokes us to give thanks and praise in the midst of life’s storms, but we also need to know Jesus, the “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” (Is. 53).  We need to know a God who will weep with us, who will sit with us and simply give the priceless gift of His presence, right there in our place of despair.  And we need to know and offer others the hope of a God that we can fearlessly be totally honest with about all of the junk that has us in such a deep, dark place in life.  We need a God who will BE our light, not show us a light.

These things might sound silly to you if you haven’t been walking with Christ, or maybe they don’t sound silly to you, but one thing for sure is that everyone’s conscience and soul, in it’s most despairing of seasons, would agree that the false gospel of a God that somehow just suddenly makes everything all better when we come to Him, is a “gospel” that doesn’t resonate with the deepest cries of our broken souls.  Not everyone knows of any sure salvation that is out there to be found, but everyone does know that this false gospel of a “Genie Jesus” just doesn’t cut it, when push comes to shove.  I often wonder if my friends who love me, but hate Christianity, hate it because they have never really heard the real message of Christ at all, but rather have been lied to, having been told by so many people over the years that Jesus is merely an escape FROM suffering, rather than One who comes to us with great compassion, that He might comfort us IN all of our afflictions.  I seriously wonder if it is this false Jesus that people are actually rejecting, and not the actual Biblical Jesus, who daily bears our every burden.

Today I sat and listened to a friend tell me his detailed experience with his stepdad’s suicide.  My friend, thinking that it was going to be used to put a dying horse out of it’s misery, handed his stepdad the deer slug that he shot through his own head later that night.  That was some years ago, and my friend was finally ready to talk to someone about it after all this time, so he called me today… in despair and in need of comfort.

Also today I took a phone call from a friend who is in his 40’s, who needed someone to listen to him about his fear, because for the last 5 months, every time he sits down on the toilet he bleeds like a woman who is on her period.  He’s not scared of dying, but he is scared of the journey that he may have to walk on his way towards death.  He is scared for a certain person that he would be leaving behind if he dies, because he is the one who takes care of her on a daily basis.  He is scared that he can’t get in to see the doctor that he needs for another month.  And, until we spent time talking together, he was scared that there was something wrong with him being scared about all of these things.  So he called me… in despair and in need of hope.

Today again, I had a friend talk to me, recounting an experience from the war in Vietnam, that has been haunting him every day of his life for almost half of a century.  I won’t burden you with any details of this tragic horror story, but I will tell you that what this friend shared with me is a burden that he will bear for the rest of his precious life, no matter how faithful he is to cast himself and his burden upon the Lord… and he knows this, and he is ok with it.  This dear brother just needed to be reminded once again that his God is indeed almighty and full of compassion, and that His truth will one day prove itself to prevail over all evil and wicked schemes and deeds.  He just needed reminded of the same truth that has comforted him in his affliction all of these years.  He just wanted to hear the gospel yet again, because for all of these years, after seeking counsel from countless people (even many “professionals”), the only abiding hope that he has found, has been found only in the words and deeds of Jesus.  So he called me… in despair and in need of having his mind renewed unto the truth that he holds fast to, for peace of mind and rest of soul.

Not to mention the countless stories of despair that I have listened to this past week, as a result of the most recent presidential election.  It seems that my whole town doesn’t know what to do with how they feel about the results.  Right now, my town is deeply despairing.  Whether or not you (the reader) or I are pleased with the results of the election, what matters is that we “mourn with those who are mourning” (Rom. 12:15), for this is what love looks like, and it is a love that I have been needing to exercise a lot this week.  It’s not always easy, but it’s necessary, for the despair that these people are feeling is very real and very deep.

Three times David (the ancient king of Israel and writer of many of the Psalms), being vitally honest with himself and with his Savior, asked himself the question that gave me the title for this post.  “Why are you in despair, O my soul?”  Three times he asked this, in two separate Psalms?!  This is David, the man who is described in the Scripture as being a man after God’s own heart, a man that God was pleased with even!  But wait a minute… I thought that isn’t any room for despair in the soul of a person who is walking with God?  I thought that this is the cry of an unbeliever, who simply needs  to take the “Jesus pill.”  This doesn’t make any sense, does it?!  Well, not if what you believe about God is the lie of the watered down, feel-good, warm and fuzzy “Christianity” that most of us have been led to believe.  No, but it does make sense if you believe that Jesus is the God who came to actually dwell with us and lead us to His heart and to His truth, regardless of what season of life we are in.  It makes sense if you believe in a Jesus that says to His followers, “I will never leave you or forsake you,” regardless of how dark and dismal our day, week, month, year, decade or even our entire life may be due to your afflictions.  David’s question to his own soul does make sense if you are at peace with the God who dwells with us now, even though we must still wait for the fullness of the promises of heaven to be revealed and granted.

David not only offers his own soul this raw, honest question, but he also answers his soul with the only cistern that will hold water in such a time as this.  He answers by way of commanding his soul, as if he is telling himself that he must drink this water if he has any chance of maintaining any life in his spirit whatsoever.  He emphatically says, “Hope in God!”  He commands his soul to, in the Apostle Paul’s words, “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen, because the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2Cor. 4).  He tells his soul to fix his gaze on the God that is with him in his sorrow, and who will lead him in His light and in His truth, through the dark valley of the shadow of death.  He commands this of his soul, because despair unchecked will lead to the slavery and burden of countless fears, and David himself knows (for he penned the words in the great Psalm 23) that the soul that hopes in God can say honestly to itself, “I will fear no evil, for You are with me.”  This is awesome, awesome stuff, and there is no hope like it.  There is no God, other than the true and living Creator and Sustainer of the universe, who both dwells with us in the midst of our despair AND leads us to a place of deep inner soul-peace, even while we are still in that dark and scary season of life.  He is not a Disneyland God.  He is the “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief,” (Is. 53) who “comforts us in all of our afflictions, so that we will be able to comfort others who are in any affliction, with the same comfort that we have been comforted by Christ.” (2Cor. 1).

If you’ve ever wondered why I am a Christian, and not anything else (spiritually speaking), I could answer that question in a million ways, but one of the ways that I would answer that question is by saying that it is because Jesus is the only God who has ever done anything to either bear my afflictions or lead me out of them… and every day He keeps reminding me and showing me that He is always doing both of those things!  There is no god that can be found in any other teaching, any other culture, any other tradition, in any other historical or mythological context, who provides it’s followers with the priceless gift of living a life that is, at this honest, soul-deep level, a life of being simultaneously “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” (2Cor. 6:10).  Both of these things are vital ingredients of an honest spiritual journey, and no one to this day has been able to show me a God that provides both of these gifts.  But I have found this treasure in Christ and in Christ alone, and therefore I have been convinced the He and He alone is the only God who is worthy of my worship, gratitude and adoration.  I’m always up for hearing better news than this gospel of Christ, but no matter how much I invite others to show me a greater love, not only has no one been able, but even more telling, no one has ever tried to give me better news, even when I beg for it.

My friends, God is right there with you, right where you are.  And His love and sympathies for you, regardless of how great or numerous your afflictions may be, are unexplainably real, not because YOU are so great, but because HE is so great, and because He is God, which means (in part) that He can do whatever He wants, whether we like it or not.  How incredible is it that what He wants to do is to love you and dwell with you, even in your deepest despair?!

“Why are you in despair, O my soul?  Hope in God, for I shall yet again praise Him.” (Psalm 42).  This, my friends, is living life to it’s fullest.   Heaven can wait, so long as God is with us now.  Good thing He is!  May we trust Him and praise Him.  Praises which resound from the valleys reach more ears, touch more hearts, and change more lives than praises from atop the mountains.

Smiles Welch; Pomeroy, Ohio; 11-14-16

I just had the thought that in our culture (including in my own heart all too often, for sure) we have absorbed into ourselves a seriously backwards desire in our attitude towards God, in that it has become more important to us that God is our friend, than that He reigns supremely as God in our hearts, minds bodies and souls, and over all that He has made.

I could write chapters about this, as this realization is bringing more thoughts to my mind than my little fingers can type, but I will spare you the grief, and just leave you with this to ponder as you go about your day, or maybe to ponder from time to time throughout your whole life.  Seriously, this reality… this misplaced desire… namely that it has become more important to us that God is our friend, than that He reigns supremely as God in our hearts, minds, bodies and souls, and over all that He has made… well, it has some major, world-altering,  implications and repercussions.  Think about this.  Think about the repercussions of it in your own life, and in the lives of those around you and far away.  I hope it sparks a change in you, as it has in me yet again, and I hope that the spark grows into a raging fire within us, so as to actually produce a real change in how we live our lives.  What is more important to you… God being your friend, or God reigning as God in your life?  Think about it, and make it matter.

Smiles Welch; 10-8-16; Athens, Ohio

PS- Please don’t read this and assume that I am devaluing the importance of having a friendship with God, because I am not by any means suggesting that friendship with our Creator is a trivial or insignificant matter.  I’m just encouraging you, as I have been encouraged, to think about this matter deeply, so that we can make sure that these things are given their proper place in our lives.

Alrighty, before I head off to the Pawpaw festival, I want to tell the world that yesterday marked 15 awesome years that Space and I have been married!  I just have to say that Space has been the most incredible woman to be married to!  When we got married, we never thought it was possible that we could ever be more in love with each other, but oh how wrong we both were!  We are so much more in love today than ever before, not only after having experienced countless enjoyable times, but especially after choosing to cling to God’s grace for help in persevering through many blessings that most of us call “trials.”

It is my joy to proclaim to the world that both of us have full confidence that we will love each other more and more as the days and years progress, and that if we have the opportunity to grow old, we will most certainly, by the grace of God, grow old together… happily ever after.  Yeah, I know it’s like a fairy tale, isn’t it?  But it’s real!  I almost can’t believe it myself.  Again, I find myself thinking, “I think it’s actually possible that I might just be the most blessed man in the world!”  Space makes me feel this way a lot!

To those of you who are asking, “How do they do it?  I wish I could have that with my spouse!”… Let me give you the two most practical pieces of advice that has literally carried our marriage over many peaks and through many valleys over the years.  Whenever Space and I have offered premarital counseling to people, we have always given this advice…

(1) “Remember the triangle.”  We say this to couples all the time.  Picture a triangle.  At the bottom two points there is each spouse.  At the top there is God Almighty, who created each individual, and brought the two together.  (This is hard to explain without drawing it!  I’ve never done this before!)  Ok, we are all always moving in a direction in life, right?  Well, most people enter into marriage having one another as their highest treasure that they are “moving toward.”  What inevitably happens over time in this situation is that the individuals end up “missing the mark” time and time again, and end up finding themselves in a world of hurt, at a great distance from one another… together, but worlds apart… and lonely.  Tragically, over 50% of these marriages, which started off so happy and fun, end up in divorce within 5 years.  This is a tragedy of tragedies, and it is literally killing the very backbone of all societies… the family.

So, what can we do about this?  Well, go back to the triangle.  What happens if each of the spouses actually hold each other as their “second love” in their hearts, and their first love, their highest treasure, their greatest pursuit in life, is to draw near unto their Creator, the Lord?  As each one moves closer to that top point on the triangle, closer to the Lord, what automatically happens?  They move closer to one another, don’t they?  Each individual pursues the love of God FIRST and FOREMOST, and because God is so much wiser and loving that any of us are, He has designed it so that the natural effect is that the marriage grows closer and stronger, and more and more filled with the kind of love that Space and I are learning more about each day.

So, remember the triangle.  In good times and in bad, remember the triangle!

(2) The second piece of advice that I give all couples is to consider every moment that you have together as “being on a date.”  We oftentimes think of being on a date as being this “special event” that we have carved out an entire evening for, and set aside money for, to create a memory that will stick out in our minds as one of those most special times.  Now, this certainly has its place in a marriage, don’t get me wrong, but Space and I have found a much better way to enjoy our marriage to the fullest, not aside from the mundane, daily grind of life, but in the MIDST of it, every day.

Sometimes life is such that you just don’t have the time, money or just the child care to “go out on a date.”  It’s no different for us, so what do we do in response to this?  We receive each little moment together as a truly being a date that God has blessed us with, and we try to soak it all in for all that it’s worth.  When the boys were… well… boys (when they were small, I’ll say)… sometimes a date would look like all of us going down the road, heading to town, and we would literally tell the boys that we were on a date.  That’s right!  We were in the front seat, and they were in the back, and they knew that when we said that, it meant that there was like an invisible wall between us and them, and that it could only be broken through if there was a real need.  Other than that, it was time for Space and I to build our marriage, and for them to build their friendships with each other.  It was very effective, and the boys always LOVED to see how much we prioritized our marriage over our relationships with them even.  We’ve always said to people that the best thing that a couple can give their children is a strong marriage.  And our sons, who are pretty much all grown up now, and are all phenomenal young men, would whole-heartedly agree with that statement.  We’ve noticed over the years that when our marriage is in a fragile season, our kid’s our very fragile, but when our marriage is in a strong, healthy season, so it is with our sons.  This parallel has ALWAYS proved true, no matter what their ages.

Sometimes a date for us is to simply intentionally pause when I get home from work (or at any random time of the day, really), and instead of giving each other a quick passing hug and smooch before we move onto the next thing, we stop and act as if nothing else in the world even exists… just for a moment… long enough to make sure that it is thoroughly communicated afresh and anew how much we love and appreciate one another.  That might only take 30 seconds sometimes, but having gone on many thousands of those kinds of dates with Space over the years, I can tell you that it is 30 seconds that all the wealth in the world can’t buy.  I am reminded of looking up so many times after these little dates, and seeing Eli (our middle son) standing across the room, holding his arms out with his hands in the shape of a heart.  He would be looking at us through the heart, and what we got to see through the heart was his beautiful, one-eye-opened face, shining an ear-to-ear smile that always showed us that mine and Space’s love for one another made him feel more confident, secure and happy than anything else in the universe.  We were blessed to see him doing this many times, for many years… all because we chose to stop all of life for just a few seconds and enjoy the date that we had been given.

I could give a hundred examples of tiny little intentional dates that we enjoy together together as life goes on, but let me tell you what Space and I look forward to literally every night before we go to bed…  We go outside under the stars, and we just ask each other about how our day was.  We ask each other how the other is doing.  It always starts simple like this, and man, I can’t tell you how awesome every one of those nightly conversations end up being!  I can’t recommend this particular date enough.  Maybe for you it will be over the morning cup of coffee or over lunch or whatever… but do it.  Whatever it takes, make this time happen, every day if you can help it, and make it become part of the rhythm of your life together.  It may only last 5 or ten minutes… or maybe it will end up lasting for hours… but again, it’s time that nothing else in all of creation could purchase or replace.  If you and your spouse aren’t that close, these dates may start out awkward and even difficult or downright painful and scary, but make it happen.  Persevere.  Ask each other questions that really matter… heart questions, mind questions… and above all, listen, listen, listen!  Over time, these dates, along with all the other tiny little unscheduled dates, will change your marriage and life together… as you walk together toward the top of the triangle!

So, folks, those are our most precious little secrets behind why we are so much in love with each other, in case you were wondering how it happened.  It’s not hard, but it has to be intentional, because that’s part of what true love is… it’s intentional.  Let the feelings and the emotions follow after the intentional acts of love.  You can’t expect it to work the other way around.

I pray for all of you who are either married or pursuing a marriage… that you would learn to hold each other as your second love.  Not first, in the place of God, and not third, behind your children, your jobs or anything else… but only second… always and forever, so that the end of your marriage will truly bring to life the fairy tale ending, “happily ever after.”

And I pray for all of the broken marriages out there… that you would find the true, deep healing that you need, and that (where possible) even the broken marriage will one day become the most beautiful mosaic that has been pieced back together by the Master Artist who knows and loves each of you more than either of you have ever imagined.

Finally, I pray for all of the lonely people in the world, who wish so bad that they had someone to spend their lives with.  I pray that you would find the presence of your all-loving Creator as being such a treasure in your heart, that even though the very real trial of not having a human partner to share life with may remain with you, the grace of His ever-present love for you will find a place of sufficiency in your heart… that no matter where you go or what you do, you will be able to say confidently and joyously with the Psalmist, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.  Your rod and Your staff they comfort me.”

Space… what can I say?!  When I think of you… you know this… I just can’t find the words.  I love you so, so, so much, my lady!  You are my best friend on earth, and you always will be.  These last 15 years have only been the start of my best years in life, and I pray so much that we get to spend all of our remaining days falling more and more in love with each other.  You have no idea what an incredible woman you are.  Every man on earth would be a million times more blessed if they had a woman to love who is as righteous, honorable and delightful as you are.  I honestly can’t believe that, of the millions of men in the world, I was the one chosen to receive the blessing and honor of being your husband.  I better stop.  I could go on and on!  But let me just say, above all, thank you, Space.  Thank you for all that you have been, and for all that you still are, not only to me and our sons, but to literally countless people all across this globe.  Sweetheart, your reward in heaven will be great, and because of your enduring light in the Lord, I am confident that, over time, many people who are in your life, who now see no glory at all in our Savior, will one day finally see His glory through you, and find themselves falling in love with Him themselves.  They will see that you didn’t just “have it all together,” but that you are a true testimony of the power and love of the true and living God, who sought you out when you were all but dead, and in His fervent love He spent the rest of your years on earth “putting you together,” and making the most beautiful work of art out of a life that once had no life at all.  This is happening, Space, and people that are watching your life will most certainly find themselves not being able to avoid the question anymore of who God really is, and if the God that you know, love and worship is indeed the Creator and Savior of the world, or not.  We all have to face this question at some point in time, and sweetheart, your life, your story, is one of the trillions of other things in the universe that give the rest of us absolutely no honest excuse to believe that your God is anything less than the Almighty Creator of all that is, who alone has a heart to seek the lost and restore those who have been broken.  You have no idea, Space, how you are eternally impacting the world around you.  You have no idea!  So, thank you.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to love such a woman as you are.  I will love you forever and ever.  These 15 years have only been a taste of the good things that are yet to come!  May God bless you, sweetheart, with every blessing under and beyond the sun!

Happy anniversary-and-a-day, my lady!  I love you like crazy!!!

Smiles; 9/16/16; Athens, Ohio

Ok, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the writing of this post brings me to tears at some point.  This is awesome… I just gotta tell the world about Forest right now.  (In case you don’t know me, Forest is our firstborn son that we just dropped off at college for the first time.  That was just over a week ago.)

Do you  know what he has been doing since he’s been there, besides having an excellent college experience in general?  He’s been serving a brother who has cerebral palsy and is wheelchair bound by doing things like bathing him, changing his diapers, getting him dressed… and God only knows what else!!!  Holy crap! (That pun was not intended, but it’s awesome.)  Seriously, think of how incredible this is!

And not only does the blessing end there, because listen to what Forest is receiving out of this…  Not only was Jason blessed with a weak body, he was also extremely blessed with an INCREDIBLE mind.  He is at Wheaton getting his Master’s in, I believe, Hebrew Studies, and he wants to write commentaries on the Old Testament after he gets his degree.  Couple that thought with the fact that Forest is majoring in Biblical and Theological Studies.  I wonder how this experience is going to show itself to be one of the most educational experiences he could ever have in college or anywhere.  What incredible gifts that Forest and Jason are to each other, and to the world around them!

Space and I actually met Jason before Forest did, in the big Wheaton dining hall, with his mom.  Immediately I loved these people a LOT.  And regarding Jason’s mind, I seriously thought, “This guy reminds me of R.C. Sproul!” as soon as I started talking to him.  (If you don’t know who Sproul is, just look for him on youtube, and listen to him talk.)  Jason is teaching Forest Hebrew and Greek, and giving him deep, deep insights into the Word, and is just being an amazing friend to Forest the whole time Forest is doing whatever it takes to meet his brother’s most basic needs… blessings that most of you and I can’t help but take for granted in our own lives, even if we try to always be grateful.  Isn’t this just simply amazing?!  I can picture a lot of beautiful acts of pure love, but picturing this (especially since it’s my son, but even if it was just anybody) is one of the most beautiful things I can imagine… and what blows me away is the fact that this is the real life that my son has been living since we last saw each other’s eyes.  Wow!  Just, wow!

Now here is another awesome blessing that Forest didn’t have a clue about until after he committed to loving his brother in this way… he is getting paid for it!  Yeah, what a nice reward, huh… especially as a college student!

Man, I just honestly am sitting here thinking about this being the path that my son has (and was) chosen to say “yes” to, and I am finding myself at a loss for words.  I’ve oftentimes said that I wish I was the kind of man that my sons are, and in this moment, as far as it regards Forest, I truly believe that I’ve never felt like that any more than I do now… that I wish I was the kind of guy that Forest is.  Guys, if you want to know what it looks like to be a real man?  Look at this picture.  Ladies, if you ever wonder about what kind of guy you want to marry?  You, too, can look to this picture.  For in this picture is pure love that is not sourced in mankind, but in mankind’s Maker and Redeemer, who has always loved His people just like Forest and Jason are loving each other.

Well, since I am at a loss for words because of the beauty that this picture of pure love strikes me with, I will just leave you with the picture itself in your mind.  Let it change you.  Let it soak in.  Wow, what an incredible picture of God’s love this is… and that’s my son Forest Elmer Robert Welch.  Wow.  I am so, so grateful, humbled and overjoyed with the story that God has always been telling the world through our sons.

Ok, now let his picture of love burn into your minds for a while.  Let it soak in and change you from the inside out.

Smiles Welch; 8/30/16; @home in Athens, Ohio

Ps- If you are someone who goes to the Lord in prayer, please pray for Jason, that God would provide him some people to be scribes for him.  He has tons of papers to write, and he can’t write them.  So, he is looking for and praying for scribes.  Please join him in that prayer, would you?  Thanks.

Tonight, as I went up into my oldest son’s room with my wife to put him to sleep for the last time before he leaves home to go off to college, I was struck by an intensely beautiful pain… As Forest stretched out his big man-sized arms for me to lay down in, I realized that not that long ago it was me holding my crumbling little son in my arms, and now it was the other way around.  In the words of John Cougar Mellencamp, “It hurts so good,”  and both the hurt and the good are far more than I could have ever expected either to be.  That moment, which lasted about a half an hour, was only a few minutes ago, and I never wanted it to end.

Afterward Space and I went outside under the stars, as we do for some moments every night, to absorb the moment and maybe even decompress from the intensity of it.  While we were out there I told Space that all of the fathers out there who abandon their children or just don’t choose to enjoy fatherhood have no idea what they are missing.  That’s when I knew who I was hoping this blog post would be read by… those fathers out there who are throwing away one of the biggest joys and rewards that anyone has ever been given, namely the gift of a child.

Fatherhood is a scary thing.  In fact, sometimes it is very scary, and sadly, so many men, when they find out that they are going to be fathers, encounter that fear (in all of it’s intensity and immensity), and then run the other way, instead of embracing it and running headlong into fatherhood, welcoming the challenge with great joy.  I say “sadly,” but maybe I should use the word “tragically” instead, because when a man abandons his post as father, it is one of the greatest tragedies that this world could ever experience, whether he abandons his child while still in the womb or some years after the child has been born.

I was talking to a woman earlier today about the broken condition of the society that we live in.  The words came out of my mouth, “I really believe that the biggest problems in the world are a direct result of men growing up to be big, but never really growing up to be men.”  Now when I said this I was curious of her response, because (1) this woman is a lesbian, but hasn’t always been, and (2) she is currently struggling a lot with trying to help her wife raise their two young grandsons.  It was kind of a risky statement to make, simply because I haven’t known this woman for very long, and also because I don’t know if she knows me enough to be aware of the fact that such a statement was deeply rooted in an extremely compassionate love for all of the hurting and broken people in the world.  Her response was interesting to me.  She kind of looked up towards the sky for a second, with a look in her eye that was obviously recalling some memories that I’m unaware of, and then she said, “Yeah, I’ve always thought it was just bad people in general, but now that you say that, I guess you’re right.  Men, yeah.”  It was really an intense moment.  After that was said, she just looked me in the eyes and smiled a smile of gratitude, as if it was a healing moment that she wanted to ponder, and then, after I smiled back at her for a second, we just kind of went back to our own business.  That was the end of our short little conversation.

I mention that story simply because I think it stands as a strong testimony to give evidence that so many people are hurting as a result of so many of us men abandoning our high call of duty to lead and protect the people around us.  As a result of this nonsense of a tragedy, millions (if not billions) of softhearted, tender, beautiful, precious women and children have felt the need to toughen themselves up and callous themselves in this world, so that they can just survive as they have been left with no choice but to bear the burdens of leadership that we men should be bearing for them.  This is totally understandable to me, and therefore it is no slight against these women and children, by any means or to any measure.  It is, however, a call to all of the men out there who have walked away from their role and responsibility to lead and protect those who have been placed in their care.  It’s a call to wake up.  It’s a call to change your ways, so that you can change the world for the better, instead of for the worse.

There are a lot of men out there in the world who, on the surface, seem to be incredibly respectful and worthy of our imitation, but come to find out, hidden behind all of the good deeds that they are doing in the world for people, there is a child or children, or a woman or women, who’s lives have been forever ruined, all because this “great” guy abandoned them once upon a time to go pursue something that they thought was so much greater than being a faithful family man.

There have been literally millions and millions of men like this, but the most famous one that always sticks out in my mind is a guy named Siddhartha Gautama.  Many of you might think you’ve never heard of him, but you have.  He was a guy who lived in Nepal about 2,500 years ago (give or take some years).  One day, when he was 29 years old (if I remember correctly), he left his wife and young son at home, and went and meditated under a tree.  Having become “enlightened” to much more important things than being a good husband and father, he stayed gone from home, and spent the rest of his life teaching others about these “higher” principles and values in life.  You’ve heard of this guy, but you probably know him as Buddha.  Yes, that is how Buddha’s spiritual journey began… by leaving his wife and kid.  (Yes, I have heard the arguments before that (1) they were left in good care of other servants who cared for their needs, and (2) it was a different culture in that time and place than what we are used to, and (3) he did come back after seven years to teach them what he had learned, but even Buddha, after his wife asked him if he could have found his “enlightenment” without leaving his family, admitted that he most certainly could have.  I’m not addressing these arguments in this post.  Sorry.  Maybe at a later date.)  Siddhartha chose, however, to go seek the way of happiness apart from his responsibilities at home, which left his wife depressed, and his son without the needed daily example of his father, for seven whole years.  (There is much, much more I could say about this decision of his, but I will refrain myself, to keep with the intent of this blog post.)

My point in saying this is not to single out Buddha as being worse than any worse than the other guys who have abandoned their families.  My point is just to say that here is someone who had obtained hundreds of followers who had thought that this guy was the most incredible person who had ever walked the earth, and all along he had a wife and son at home, miserable because he had left them behind, and I have to wonder if his followers had any clue that this was the case.  Today there are millions of guys like this… they are out doing all these things in the world that may possibly be excellent things in and of themselves, but they’re being accomplished by someone who, somewhere in the world, has a child elsewhere, who is hurt, angry and possibly even suicidal because they haven’t known they are loved by the one person the need to know they are loved by… their father.  This is a regular occurrence in the world, and it always has been, and I am convinced that this frequent abandonment lies at the root of almost all of the world’s problems.  It’s not the politicians. It’s not the public school system.  It’s not the corporations.  It’s not those who have been forced to step up and wear the shoes of the missing leaders in their lives who are responsible for the world’s atrocities.  It’s the men who have walked away from their families, to let them fend for themselves, as they go on in search of a greater happiness… and not only do these men have no clue as to how much harm they are causing (even as they go on doing other good things in the world), but THEY DON”T KNOW WHAT JOY THEY ARE MISSING OUT ON!!!!

One of my favorite quotes from Mother Theresa goes like this: “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”  I LOVE this quote so much!  It’s not because of the culture I live in either.  It’s because from the beginning of time, as recognized and celebrated in every culture of every generation, there has been this most sacred relationship ordained between husband, wife and children, that has produced more good than any other social construct in the world when it has been cherished and nurtured, and likewise, has produced more destruction and misery than any other social construct in history when it has been neglected or walked away from and wasted.  The family has always been the most fertile environment for the world’s many beauties and disasters, and so often, the determination for which fruit has sprung forth into the next generation lies in the lap of the men who have been called to lead their families in love and humble grace.  If I were to spring off of Mother Theresa’s quote, and take the freedom to expound on it a bit, I would say, “Men, if you want to change the world for the better, go home and love your family, and if you want to change it for the worse, leave home and try to find a greater happiness.”  The first would be a sure path to success and a rewarding life.  The latter would be just yet another sad story to be told, leaving the world just a little bit further down the road in the direction that we are all watching it go, which would be tragic, to say the least.  So again, my call to you men who have either left your families or are considering doing so, for any reason at all, is that you would wake up and turn from such folly and misery and deceit.  Yes, stepping up to love your family day in and day out for years sure has it’s burdens any hardships.  I’m not going to deny that, but I’m telling you from experience that there is no greater joy and richer reward than to do all that you can to love your family.

You can trust me in this.  I’ve been far, far from perfect at loving my wife and three teenage sons, but I can say with a clean conscience that I have tried my darn hardest to faithfully love them throughout the years.  And what I have receive in return is nothing but reward after reward after reward.  I may be poor, as raising a family (even frugally) is very expensive, but I sure feel like the richest man that has ever lived on this earth every time I look at these amazing human beings, knowing that one of the reasons that they are so happy and loving is because their husband/dad as endured whatever he has had to endure to love them through the years.

Tomorrow Space and I will be driving Forest, our firstborn, 8 hours away, to Wheaton College, just outside of Chicago.  As I sit here awake writing this, he is fast asleep, enjoying his last night with my home being his home.  His wings are all grown and feathered out, and tomorrow he flies the nest.  These are certainly the most painful words that I have ever written, but they are also the most joyful, as I can confidently look back on these last eighteen years and say, “I was the best dad that I knew how to be, faltering as I was, and I have no regrets, for I know that I have fully enjoyed my son, and he has been able to fully enjoy and learn from his father.”  I can’t explain the tension of this moment.  (Those parents who have already been through this are the only ones who know how I feel.)  But what I can confidently say to all of you men out there who are running away from father hood, for any reason at all, is that you are throwing away the greatest gift that you could ever give yourself, and the greatest gift that you could ever give this world.  If that is you, I can not plead with you enough to go home and love your family, because before you know it, there will be no more family at home to love.  The time to start, if you haven’t already, is now.  If there is one thing that this world needs, it’s more good fathers and husbands.  If more of those come along, then the other good things will be sure to follow our lead.

Space, Forest, Eli and Simon… I can’t thank you all enough for teaching me these most valuable truths.  Apart from our Lord, who gave you guys to me to love, you are by far my greatest and most treasured gifts in life.  I don’t know how to put it into words or even actions, but please know that I love you all so, so, so much!  Thank you for all that each of you are to me.  You are truly God’s greatest gift to this man who wouldn’t be a fraction of the man that I am now, if you weren’t in my life for all of these years.  I can’t thank you enough for your love.

Forest, I can’t even comprehend, much less express how much I am going to miss you.  I am so incredibly proud of you.  I wish I were half the man that you are already, and I look into the future with much excitement to see what God does through you in this world of His that He is sending you out into.  You are going to do so well, just as you have done for all of these years.  May God bless you, keep you, and make His face to shine upon you for all the days and years of your life.  I love you my son.  I could have never even dreamed to ask for a greater firstborn son than you.  I am so, so proud of you.  I love you so much, and I will miss you like crazy while we are apart.  God bless you, my dear son. – Love, Daddy

 

“Let my heart be a temple.

Let that temple have a throne.

Let the one who sits upon it

be You and You alone.”

– Phil Wickham;  opening lyrics to “As it is in Heaven”

 

Once again I have been called to teach the Scripture/preach the gospel to a room of people who have come from a vast array of persuasions and walks of life… the people of Oasis Church in Athens, Ohio.  I don’t preach very often, but when I am called to do so, I find myself extremely torn between being very excited and simultaneously trembling with a righteous fear in the depths of my innermost being.  It is the word of the living God that I am handling here, and I do not want to trifle with it, as if it is a light or insignificant matter.

The opening words of this song capture the heart of all of my fervent plea’s to the Lord whenever I find myself charged with the task of teaching the Bible to people.  It’s a real plea from the depths of my heart, and it’s a desperate plea, for I am very much aware of my inability to reveal the glory of the grace of God, apart from Him accomplishing that work both in and through me.  (I heard this song for the first time last night, thanks to Herb Fogler posting it on his facebook page. Mr. Herb is my childhood friend’s father who has always loved me with a love that I never earned or deserved.  His example of passionately pursuing God is one that I wish everyone in the world could see.  I could never thank and honor Mr. Herb enough for all that he has been to me in life.  May God reward him forever for his enduring love.)

I am especially challenged in my preparation this time around, as I am preaching on an extremely long and convoluted passage that is forcing me to take a teaching approach such as I have never done before.  At Oasis Church we are currently working our way through the book of Hebrews, which is a letter that was written to a group of Christians who, for generations, have been steeped and simmered in the practices and teachings of ancient Judaism, which basically amount to the teachings of what Christians refer to today as “The Old Testament.”

This book that’s in the New Testament, the letter to the Hebrews, serves as a reminder to these Hebrew Christians that the whole purpose of their beloved Mosaic Law was not that they would find salvation from their sins through keeping the Law, but on the contrary, it was purposed to lead all the Jews (whom God has always deeply loved more than we can imagine) to an understanding that this holy and righteous standard of God, the Law of Moses, leaves them hopelessly unable to save themselves through even the greatest amount of religious and spiritual devotion.  The purpose of the Law was never that we would be saved through our keeping it, but rather that we would see our desperate need for a sufficient Savior, whom this precious letter so clearly explains to us is (and always has been) Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb of God, who alone takes away the sins of the world.  All of Judaism has always existed to point us to Christ, the Messiah who has come, and who has fulfilled every requirement and prophesy of the holy Hebrew Scriptures.

The Law doesn’t make anyone clean, but rather, it so graciously and beautifully reveals our uncleanliness to us.  As it says in Job, the oldest book of the Bible, “Who can make the clean out of the unclean?  No one!”  This is why we, no matter how hard we may try through religious devotion (of any kind), spiritual ascent (to any degree) or through the means of us doing any amount of any good deeds, are completely unable to make ourselves ready to stand justified in the presence of the holy Creator God, who’s ultimate authority the Jews have always historically acknowledged.  We can’t make ourselves clean, simply because we are unclean as a result of our sins against God and our fellow brothers and sisters, and unclean things simply have no ability to wash themselves and make themselves clean.  (That is just practical logic.)  That is why all of the Scriptures teach us, both the Old and the New Testaments, that we must be washed by another… and the only one who is able to accomplish such a miracle of grace is the Messiah.  This has always been the message of the Jewish teachings, and it has always been the message of the Christian Scriptures as well.  I know that so many people have perverted the messages of both Judaism and Christianity, and therefore have left us all confused to some measure, but let me make it clear that the message, from Genesis to Revelation, in Judaism and Christianity, has always been that God ALONE can and will save his people from their sins.  This is what King David meant when he said, “Salvation belongs to the Lord,” and it is what Jesus meant when He said, “I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

But this message, and even the long passage that I am preparing to preach on, is far from what makes this sermon preparation so challenging for me at this point in my journey.  The challenge for me this time around is trying to figure out how I am going to explain how this message is as important and vitally applicable to even a people who have never seen any value in following the Mosaic Law.  In fact, the majority of my audience will likely be made up of people who couldn’t care less about being a good Jew, for it just isn’t one of their values… or is it, and has it always been, and they just have never realized or acknowledged it?  Are the Jews and their religious pursuits really any different at their core than the rest of us who have pursued some kind of salvation through some other means?  I ask this because if this letter only applies to the ancient Jewish people, and to the Jews who had recently converted to Christianity (who, by the way, were being violently pressured by the political and social powers of their day to recant their new professions), and it isn’t just as vital for all of us today, no matter what culture or tribe we come from or connect with, then we would just be wasting our time even studying the book in the first place.  But I am convinced, more confidently than ever before, that this ancient letter is as vital for you and I as it was for those who had the letter written directly to them a couple thousand years ago.

And that is where I am going to leave you in suspense.  I am extremely excited to share the rest on Sunday morning at Oasis Church in Athens, Ohio.  I invite you all to come and hear the word of God at 10am in the Athens Middle School auditorium.  And if you can’t make it, i’m sure it will eventually be posted on the Oasis Church Athens facebook page.  May God grant me the grace to teach His word clearly, and may He accomplish the miracle of allowing our prideful, stubborn hearts to receive the grace and truth of His word.  I need that miracle as much as you do.  Come and hear, and receive and believe, and be changed by the power and love of the Messiah who has come.

Smiles Welch; 8/6/16; Athens, Ohio

It’s been preached and believed upon many times that “the Christian life is the good life,” meaning basically that it’s the surest means to better health, more wealth, and all sort of prosperity.  I don’t know when or where this teaching began, but although these things are all part of the American Dream (as we call it), and are all natural desires of the human heart, this teaching is a repugnant perversion of the true teachings of Christianity, and it is also very inconsistent with history as we know it, as far as it relates to those who have endeavored to follow Christ themselves during these last thousands of years.

The history books, both oral and written, are abundantly filled with true stories of literally millions of people who have chosen to value and treasure Jesus above all people, places and things… including their own lives.  And what has been the result of so many of these millions of people?  Or maybe I should ask:  What have their lives looked like as a result of them being devoted to Christ?  Ultimately, hardship.  For some, the hardship seems so small and even unnoticeable, but for others, their trials are painfully undeniable, but for ALL true Christians it is true that as soon as they begin to follow Christ, trial and hardship begins to increase, not decrease… which is totally contrary to what so many popular teachers in our culture tell us about what the Christian life is like.

The Scriptures teach us that God’s people are like silver that’s being refined (purified) in a furnace, so that all of the dross (the impurities) becomes burned out of our lives.  And it teaches that this phenomenon is something that God does in us and for us, and not something that we have to accomplish ourselves, and in our own wisdom and strength.  (Every other world religion puts the burden of our own purification upon our own shoulders, basically leaving us with the impossible task of trying to clean something with something that’s unclean.  This is why I gave up on religion so many years ago.)

Now, if walking with Jesus is like living life in a fire that is continuously burning away certain aspects of my life, some of which I might not even want to let go of, then why in the world would someone like me or anyone else remain walking with Jesus year after year after year, regardless of how hot the fire may be?  Now, I gotta be honest and say that I don’t feel like I personally have had to walk through many long seasons of extreme furnace-like heat in my 19 years of living for Christ, but that’s just not so for literally millions of Christians throughout history.  I mean, the stories of people who have suffered immeasurable and unimaginable losses, and who have endured SO MUCH pain and sorrow and anguish, simply and solely as a result of their resolve to love and honor the God of the Bible, are too numerous to count and too grievous to recall, and it begs that we ask questions like, “What is it that has these people convinced that following Jesus is worth all this hardship,” and, “Could there ever be anything that would make it not worth it to follow Jesus anymore?”  Lot’s of other questions can and should be asked, but these are just a couple important ones to consider.

For me it’s almost always easy to say that Christ is worth the purifying furnace.  I mean, I still have my health.  I have a great job.  I have an incredible wife, and three awesome sons.  I eat good everyday.  I have 30 acres of land to call home with a house at the top of the hill that I can relax in whenever I choose to.  I have countless social freedoms that the majority of the world has never known.  (I could go on and on with statements like these).  This type of reality, however, is not the reality of billions of people living in the world today… people from all different backgrounds and beliefs.  Countless men, women and children from every generation have never known these sorts of blessings that I can’t help but take for granted… and yet so many of those people have said (not only with their words, but with the testimony of their actions and character), “As much as all those things are worth, they’re worth nothing compared to the surpassing value of knowing and loving Christ, and walking with Him from day to day.”  For me to say this merely sounds nice, and it probably doesn’t have much of an impact on those who might hear me, but for those who have had their health beaten out of them, and who have had their families brutally tortured right before their eyes, and who have had all of their earthly freedoms robbed from them for years on end, a statement like this just sounds crazy… like seriously insane, whacked-out crazy, doesn’t it?!

Well, it’s not crazy.  It’s only crazy if you haven’t experienced the miracle of having seen the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6), as I have been so blessed to see thousands of times over.  It’s not insane if you have given up on all your vain efforts to purify yourself, because you have finally accepted the humbling truth that you can only be purified by the One who is pure in every respect.  It’s not whacked-out when you have considered and received the fact that the love of Christ is so valuable to you that it is the one and only thing that you would never, ever be willing for Him to take away from you.  The mentality of the Christian is to be this: “God, You’ve given me all that I have, and You can take it all away, but please Lord, don’t ever remove Your lovingkindness from me!”

Now, why is this not an absolutely insane way to think and live?  I mean, I’m obviously not saying that such amazing gifts, such as my health and my family, are worthless.  Not at all!  It’s just that the truth is that my life is not founded on those things.  My family (for example) is not what gave me life.  They don’t sustain my very being.  They do not have what it takes to make me whole where I am broken.  They cannot give me love when I can’t find any residing in my heart for my fellow brother or sister.  They cannot change my heart or renew my mind.  They cannot satisfy any of my soul’s deepest desires.  Etc… etc… etc.  The only one that can accomplish those things and BE all of those things in my life is the One who is the source and sustainer of my very life, and who knows every thread of my being, and who holds my fragile heart and my wandering mind always in His mighty, outstretched hands of unconditional love.  That is Christ… the one and only gift that I have that no one could ever take away from me!  Unfortunate circumstances or even evil men can do such things as take away my health, my land, my possessions, my freedom, and even my loved ones, but no one has the ability to take away the unfathomable grace that my Savior has given to me, and has promised to never revoke, namely His own unfailing love towards me, regardless of who or how I am.

So, why would it ever be worth it to stop living life with Jesus being my highest treasure?  If I was living to gain all that I could ever want which this world has to offer me, well, then Jesus wouldn’t be worth it at all.  But all that stuff that this world has to offer me and the rest of us, when put before the God who created all such blessings, amounts to nothing but dross.  And where there is dross, there is impurity… and to desire more dross is to have our priorities in life completely backwards.  As a Christian, I am not living with the unattainable “hope” that this world will ever be able to satisfy my soul with it’s good (but small) things.  No, I am living with a strong grip on the sure hope that has been given to me as my most secure possession… I am living with the hope that one day, after this life on earth has had the fullness of it’s time, I will receive the reward of those who have drank the cup of perseverance, in faith and in love for the One who loved me enough to never stop purifying me until He could see His own reflection in the silver that He has so loved from before the beginning of time.

So, when is it not worth it to follow Christ anymore?  The answer is, “never,” and I find my unwavering hope in the security of such a truth when I read glorious promises such as these:  “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I (Jesus) have overcome the world.” (Jn. 16:33).  “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to revealed to us.”  (Rom. 8:18).  And in these time-proven promises I find myself able to ever-increasingly walk according to James 1:2-4, which says, “Consider it ALL joy when encountering various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  And let endurance have it’s perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  It’s THIS gospel, and ONLY this gospel which moves me to walk through the trials of this life not counting the things that I have lost, but rather gazing with awe at the eternal riches that I keep seeing increase in me as time goes on, and as God continues to do His kind and miraculous work of grace in my stubborn heart, mind, body and soul.

Words like these only scratch the surface of the glorious hope that I have found in the gospel that Jesus proclaimed.  Can any of you… seriously, ANY of you… tell me of a love that is greater than this, or of a hope that is more certain and secure than this, or of a God who purifies with such skill and diligent wisdom as this.  If any of you know ANY news that is greater than the gospel (which simply means “good news”), than please tell me, for I just can’t imagine there being a love that makes the love of Jesus look small or less than worthy of our very adoration and, yes, our worship.  Indeed, the Christian life IS the good life… but it’s SO MUCH better than all the good things that this world has ever had to offer anyone apart from Christ.  My challenge to you is to convince me that there is a greater love than this.  If there is, than I will bow before the source of that love, but until I can be convinced of a greater love than Christ, than I will continue to find myself in awe, here at the mercy seat of Jesus, my Lord and my God… and I will continue to invite you to live here with me, so that we can enjoy His life together, forever.

Smiles Welch; 6/24/16; Athens, Ohio

Last night is one of those nights where I laid in bed awake for more hours than I slept.  And while doing so I had a thought that I hope impacts me beyond the writing of these words.

The gardens where I work, which is at an awesome guitar camp called Fur Peace Ranch (which you should look up if you aren’t already familiar with it), are beautiful.  I know this is true because I can’t tell you how many times visitors and guests come up to me week after week raving about how beautiful they are, and how much they improve between each of their visits to the ranch.  They come up and tell this to me simply because I am the gardener there.  But that very fact is exactly what troubles me in those very moments of having my work complimented by these kind people.  It’s the weirdest thing.

Whenever someone comes up and says something like, “Wow, Smiles, everything looks so beautiful around here,” I struggle to just say thank you, knowing that they are complimenting me, and not the gardens themselves.  I struggle because my mind immediately goes to the weeds over that way that I wasn’t able to get pulled before the campers showed up for the weekend… and it goes to others things like that… all of the yet-to-be-done things which, in my mind, are keeping the gardens from looking truly beautiful.  When someone comments on the beauty they see, I sometimes am shocked that they are totally blind to the weeds that my mind can’t help but to be fixated upon and annoyed by.  And if I ever say anything about it, they always seem shocked that I have a hard time seeing the beauty that they can’t help but be captivated by.

I considered this last night as I laid in bed, and then I thought, “Is this how I think about the people who are in my life… anyone, but particularly those who have been placed in my care?  Do I overlook the massive amount of beauty that everyone is so impacted by, simply because there are a few weeds in that area over there?”

We all do this sometimes don’t we?  It’s not a compliment to us, but rather convicting, if we are to be honest with ourselves, and a reminder that we are in desperate need of God’s mercy and grace, knowing that the people who we’ve been given to love are people that belong to (and are loved by) Him.

“Love your neighbor,” may (in part) mean that we need to remember that we are not our neighbor’s Gardener, but rather, just their brother or sister… just another garden bed in the Gardener’s world that has it’s own beautiful flowers, and some not-so-beautiful weeds as well, which will get pulled eventually.  And we need to entrust not only ourselves, but also every one of our neighbors to the great Gardener’s all-wise and all-loving care.

My decision today is to intentionally look at the people in my own life the way all those Fur Peace Ranch campers look at the gardens that I tend to… they simply see them as being beautiful, regardless of the weeds that may still be there, whether the campers notice them or not.  I know this won’t always be an easy task today, or any day, but I have been reminded once again that that is how I must live, especially if I am to set an example for those who have been entrusted to my care.  Again, all this comes back to me recognizing my immense need for the Lord’s mercy and grace today, in order that I may live up to this high calling of love.  May it be granted, and may I respond in such a way that honors the One who has granted it.

On that note, I’m heading off to the Fur Peace Ranch.  I’ve got some plants to plant, and yes, I have some weeds to pull.

Smiles Welch; 5/10/16; @ home in Athens, Ohio

I had a moment today with someone that God has brought into my life, who has been in a long, trying season of life for the last… well… at least ever since I met him about 4 or 5 years ago.  I’m sure that some of his suffering is self-inflicted, and that some of it is not, but nevertheless, this is someone who is suffering, and God has really given me a deep love for him.

Well, today, in a short little conversation about his suffering, he told me something that he knew he needed to do (which was a good thing, and he was right), and I proceeded to tell him that although that was good, what was more important than anything is, “that you draw close to your Maker.”  This man, knowing that I worship Jesus, replied by saying, “Yeah.  I have a different perspective than you do on that whole thing, but yeah, you’re right.”

Unfortunately it was one of those moments where I was either lacking in sufficient wisdom or courage (or maybe even a measure of both) to respond to him with anything of real value that he could think about and consider, which happens way too often in my life, and I was left thinking about what he said hours later, and thinking about what I wish my answer would have been.  So, this blog post is a result of that thinking, namely regarding the idea that he and I both live our lives staring at the same God, but we believe different things about He/She/It/Whatever, simply because we are each looking from a different perspective.  Let me give you a couple of illustrations that might help me share about this whole “perspective” thing.

Let’s use the illustration of two guys facing each other.  In between them is a coin somehow floating, but staying still in mid air, so that no part of it is hidden… and the two guys are talking about the coin.

As one says, “I like the guy’s head,” the other replies, “What guy’s head?  It has a big building on it!”  Not wanting to argue, the first guy says, “I love that it says the words, ‘In God We Trust.'”  Confused, the second guy says, “I don’t see that anywhere.  All I see is a tiny number and the words, ‘United States of America.'”

This conversation goes on forever, with these same kinds of exchanges, and they just can’t agree on hardly anything, but they know for a fact that they are both seeing what they are perceiving.  Finally, in a moment of desperation, the first guy grabs the coin and turns it around so that his buddy can see the head and the “In God We Trust,” and to the first guy’s surprise, all of a sudden he was seeing a big building on the coin that he was holding.  You get where I’m going with this… they were both looking at the same coin, and they were both 100% correct about the things they were saying they saw.  It’s just that they were looking at opposite sides of the coin, therefore they had a different PERSPECTIVE of the same object.  All it took was an ongoing conversation about the coin, and in the right time, each man was able to start seeing what the other was seeing.

This illustration is in perfect keeping with what my buddy today said when he told me that he has a different perspective on God than I have.  This illustrates exactly what perspective is… a certain same subject being observed from various points of view.  The object never changes, but the view certainly does, as the onlooker moves around the object and looks at it.  This is what perspective IS.  But let me give you an illustration that shows what I think many people mistake for perspective, especially when it comes to the whole God thing.

You have three guys talking, each of them holding and looking at a ball that is in each of their hands.  The first guy says, “The ball is too big to hold with one hand.”  The other guys think he’s nuts, and they say, “No it’s not.  I can hold it with one hand easily!  You must have tiny hands!”  The second guy says, “I like the fact that it’s yellow and fuzzy all over.”  Guys one and three are like, “What?!  It’s not yellow and fuzzy anywhere!  It’s made of leather!”  Then guy three says, “I like the hand-sewn stitching on the ball.”  The other two guys reply in confusion, “I don’t see any hand-sewn stitching anywhere.  All I see is rubbery lines going around the different sections on it.”

These three guys, the more they talked about the ball they were holding, the more confusing it got, because although there were similarities in all of them, there were numerous irreconcilable differences in the claims that each of them were making.  Suddenly, after this went on and on, all of a sudden it all made sense when one of the guys looked up at the balls that the other ones were holding, and he realized that he had been describing a basketball the whole time, while the other guys had been describing a tennis ball and a baseball!  No wonder they couldn’t come to a place of unity and true peace about what the ball was really like!  These guys didn’t have a different PERSPECTIVE on the same ball.  They were looking at completely different balls, and no matter how they each viewed the balls in their hands, they could only find themselves in disagreement and disunity, no matter how hard they would strive for the opposite.  Again, this illustration does NOT define perspective.  I don’t really know what it DOES define, having only taken this illustration so far, but perspective is NOT what it is.  This is very, very important to understand.

Now, let’s transition back to my buddy telling me today, “I have a different perspective than you (on the whole God thing).”  I am forced to ask myself, “Does this guy really live his life gazing at and studying the same God that I do, like the coin picture, or am I living my life gazing at one God, while he is gazing at one that is completely different than my God, like the ball picture?  This is an incredibly important question for ALL of us to spend plenty of time considering, for if one of those “balls” is indeed the Maker and greatest Lover of all creation, and the others are merely created objects that we have given our hearts and lives for, than what that means is that some of us have no true knowledge of and relationship with their Maker and true, eternal Lover, although we are convinced that we indeed do.  And what sadder thought is there than for someone to think they know and love God, when really they have only given their lives over to idols, false gods, who cannot save and heal, because they do not have any life or life-giving power in them?  That is the saddest, saddest thought!  And if this is not an important matter to give our attention to, then I don’t know what is?!  It is a matter of knowing God or not knowing God, really.

Now, I’m not going to go into whether or not this particular friend of mine said what he said about perspective correctly or not.  I have my thoughts about it, but those thoughts don’t have a place in this blog, because the purpose of writing this is to help you see that there really is a such thing as people looking at the same God from different perspectives, and therefore seeing different things about God… and there also really is such a thing as people thinking that they behold the real God, as many of their neighbors do as well, when in reality they may not know the true God at all, because they are living their lives investing in an impostor god who has no life or life-giving power in it at all.  We need to bear this wisdom in mind as we go about our lives, and we need to love one another enough to be willing to have constructive, disagreeing conversation with each other about these things, because like I said, what is at stake here is the most serious matter of being in relationship with the One who really made you, and who loves us with an everlasting love, or not.

I hope that you will consider these things, and when you do encounter a conversation with others about this matter, about which you may disagree, I hope that you will have the courage to express your disagreement (in love), so that both of you will be given a great ability to learn more about the true God, so that you can know what it looks like for you to draw closer to Him.

When it comes to the truth about spiritual matters, it’s infinitely important to know the difference between perspective and idolatry, for the former exists to help you draw near to your Maker, while the other exists to lead you astray from Him, which is dangerous and deadly to the utmost degree.

Thanks for reading my thoughts about this.  I hope they will help you for the next time that someone else tells you that they see the same God that you do, only from a different perspective.  Take care, now, and may the true and living God reveal Himself and His great grace to you more and more as the days and nights go by.

Smiles Welch; 4/9/16; @ Fur Peace Ranch; Pomeroy, Ohio