Making Waves

Over the last few weeks we have had a heat wave here in Stockholm. This is something that I have experienced a time or two in Sweden, but not that often. I live in a townhouse right beside lake Mälaren and have a beautiful view of the lake and sunsets. over the last two weeks I have taken the opportunity to sit on a dock in the morning or sometimes in the afternoon and just enjoy the beauty of the lake.

Now this might sound really relaxing and wonderful but there is something that I have noticed that has really amazed me. I have noticed the "ripple effect"!... Thats right! It seems like everybody and their friend has a boat in Stockholm. Their are large ones and small ones, fast ones and slow ones, fiberglass ones and wooden ones, white ones and blue ones... (If I continue to describe them I will sound like the old childrens book by Dr. Suess called, "One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish", so I will stop here). They all seem to be in hurry going somewhere and as they drive by the dock that I sit on they make waves or ripples. These waves come in all different sizes depending on the size of the boat or the motor on the boat. The waves make their way to the shore that I am sitting beside and splash up on the rocks etc... and make quite a noise.

I guess what I am trying to say is this, with all the boats going by and the waves or ripples they make as they sail, I find it at times actually stressful instead of relaxing. In fact, I think I could say that at times it is down right stressfull to sit there. Sometimes it seems like one wave after another just comes crashing to shore and making all kinds of noise and spraying water everywhere. I go down to the lake to sit and think, and instead of this, I find myself dodging waves and water splashing everywhere.

Then I began to realize that the waves or ripples of water that are stressing me out by the shore of lake Mälaren are very simular to the waves and ripples that come from our lives as we live and breath here on earth. No man is an island, and the way that we live, and the things that we say, do effect other people around us. In other words, all that we do and say produces waves that ripple out and goes spashing on someones shore.

If this is true then I begin to think about my life and wonder what kinds of waves I am making and what kind of an effect they are having on others. Have you thought about this? What kind of waves are you making today? Are they positive or negative? Are they just making alot of noise or are they benifiting others and encouraging them.

When I think about the waves of my life I think about the book that I believe speaks to this issue the most and that is the Bible. In Hebrews12:14, the author says, "make every effort to live in peace with all men..." Can you imagine what the world would look like today if everyone praticed that! Jesus goes on to say in John 15:12,12, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." The Bible speaks a lot about loving others and even loving our enemies. This is easier to read then it is to do. In fact when I think about it, it is impossible to do it all the time. For me to live like this( which I believe will make the kind of waves in our world today that will encourage and inspire) is impossible in my own strength but God says that He is here in order to help us live the kind of lives that are pleasing to Him. He wants to help us do what is otherwise impossible.

What about your life today? Are you making the waves or sending the ripple effect that you want to send today?

Contentment

When I first met you Forrest, I thought that you seemed to be very content with life. That’s what a friend of mine said to me the other night while we were sitting up on Mosebacke over looking Stockholm city. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t often think of myself as being content. I have my ups and downs like many other people. There are things I desire in life and things I simply can’t have. But when my friend made the statement I couldn’t help but think back fourteen years ago to a very difficult time in my life and at the same time a very defining time in my life. You see, fourteen years ago I went though a “Major Clinical Depression”. It sounds terrible when you use the word “Major” and “Clinical” in front of the word depression, but that is what they called it back then.

When I found out that I was in a depression I started... taking anti-depressant medication and after about 6 to 8 weeks I started feeling back to normal. That is how an anti-depressant medication is supposed to help you. It gets you back to work and enjoying life. They say that the best way to deal with a depression is to get medical help, but also to begin meeting with someone who you can talk with that might be able to help you see things in your life that might be affecting you or influencing you in your depression.

Now for me, I got right on the medication, but not until about three years later did I meet a counselor that really helped me think things through. His name was Dr. Henry Brandt. Henry has helped many people just like me that struggled with depression and many other issues. What amazed me about Henry was his ability to see some of the things that were affecting me that I never thought about. Henry, after talking with me for about 20 minutes, told me I was a very angry man. At first I didn’t believe him but the more I thought about it the more I realized he was right. I was not only angry but I was also a person that held grudges and was very slow to forgive others.

Henry pointed me in the direction of the Bible. I believed that the Bible was the word of God, and that it has the answers to the needs of man. But I realized that I knew a lot about the Book, but I was not putting what I knew into practice. The Bible has a lot to say about anger, forgiveness and how to let go of grudges. Over the next couple of years Henry had me reading the Bible in a way that I had never done before. He had me putting what it says into action in my life. The Lord said in Isaiah 48:18 “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river…” Jesus also said in John 15:14, “you are my friends if you do what I command.” Notice the difference here from just reading them and doing them.

To make a long story short I want to say that within a year or so I felt better and better. It has been 11 years since that day I met Henry and he nailed me to the wall with my problem of anger. It has also been 11 years since I last took antidepressant medication. I learned many things then. I learned about myself and others when I began studying and putting into practice what the Bible said about the problems I had in my life. I really think that this is why my friend spoke to me about contentment in my life. Perhaps one of the major things I learned during those years and still put into practice today is this. “The circumstances of life, the events of life, and the people around me in life do not make me the way I am but reveal the way I am.” (Quoted from Dr. Sam L. Peeples Jr.)

RELATIONSHIPS

Today I am thinking about relationships. That’s right, good old fashion relationships. I am not just thinking about boyfriend, girlfriend, lover etc… I am thinking about friends, family and that kind of stuff. Now before you tell me that anything less than a sexual relationship is boring, listen up a minute. You see, I have a suspicion that we need to have good friendships in this world we live in or it becomes more of a job to survive then a joy. And aren’t most of us looking for joy instead of another job?

I read an article the other day from a news agency that said Americans are becoming lonelier. Now some of you internationals reading this might agree with it and you might go on to say that if America keeps up its wars etc… we will even be lonelier. But hold on a minute. I am not just talking about politics and government decisions; I am saying that in the world we live in today there is a general tendency to loneliness. People just don’t seem to connect like they use too.

As an American living in Stockholm I am constantly trying to understand Swedish thinking and being. I enjoy studying Nordic culture in every way I can. There are a lot of differences between the way a Swede thinks and acts compared to an American. But one thing that I am finding is a similarity between our two cultures and probably most cultures in the world today is the problem of loneliness. We all seen to have a desire for relationships but lack at times the will power and the energy and sometimes the knowledge of how to go about getting them.

The Bible makes it very clear that man was not created to be alone. In Genesis 1:27 is say, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” In other words God did not create man to be alone. It was simply not meant to be that way. And in Genesis 2:18 is says, “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” God created man for relationships. He created us to connect with others.

Last summer in Denmark, I was with a group of American young people and we were talking with Danes on the main shopping street in downtown Copenhagen. People in the Nordic countries seem to be very interested in Spiritual things but are not quite sure of how to go about connecting with the spiritual world. The question I liked to ask was this, “If you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you could have a personal relationship with God, would you be interested?” The answer to this question was very often yes. People desire relationships and especially a relationship with God. They realize in this world that they are missing something but they are not quite sure of what that something is.

I think that God put in each of us the desire to have relationships. And maybe more than anything else God put in us the desire to have a relationship with Him. Is this actually possible? I think it is!

Let me ask you right now, if you knew that you could have a personal relationship with God, would you be interested?