“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – Corrie Ten Boom

I remember the day well. We were at my parent’s house in Gainesville, Georgia, swimming at our boat dock with our youth group from church. We had a new youth pastor whose name was Dane Burk. I had really liked our previous youth pastor and was trying, in my fifteen-year-old sort of way, to prove loyalty to him by rejecting Dane. That day, my heart softened a bit towards Dane and accepted him as my new youth pastor….or at least that is the way it went, according to Dane’s journal, which he read to me months later after we were close friends.

What he read to me from his journal went something like this, “Today Laura, Jonathan, and Kristin threw me into the lake. I think they have finally accepted me!” From that point on, me and my closest girl friends (and, of course, all the guys too – but who cared about them, right?? 🙂  spent a lot of time with Dane.  We went hiking on the Appalachian Trail for days at a time, ate uncooked S’mores Poptarts and made up silly trail songs, and had vibrant faith discussions. We went spelunking and did ropes courses (did I mention Dane loved to do extreme sport/crazy competitive type stuff? I don’t remember him “letting” us win, which I think was/is a great trait of his!). When me and my friends decided we wanted to go deeper in our Bible study times, he created “Silvermine,” an in depth bible study on Saturday mornings over lots of coffee (this is when I started drinking it – 15 years old!) and danishes.

We also went on missions trips at home and abroad. Dane saw me through several boyfriends, tons of faith-oriented questions, and even some pretty devastating failures. His rock-solid faith in God helped me to trust Him, too, and the more I learned about God myself, the more I saw that I could indeed put my trust in this man called Christ. So much of my faith journey during those crucial, formative, sensitive, and impacting years (it is really   hard to over-state the impact of those adults who choose to reach out to teenagers with God’s love, imho) included Dane at my right hand as a spiritual friend and guide as I passed through the (sometimes) treacherous waters of adolescence.

Fast-forward almost two decades. While I have kept up with Dane here and there through emails primarily, we haven’t really stayed in touch the way I am sure we both would have liked to ideally – its all part of that understanding that comes with maturity that some people are meant to be in our lives primarily for a “season.” But this week, I got an email from someone in my youth group growing up. Dane had been diagnosed with a serious brain tumor. He would be going through surgery today (Friday, September 6th, 8am).

While some people hang in with youth for awhile in a pastoral role (and I don’t blame those people – its challenging, for sure!), Dane has made pastoring youth a life-long career and journey. I don’t know those kids who he is working with now, but I do know that he is having a wonderful impact in their lives. Why? Because I know Dane.

This week, I got some emails from Dane with updates on his surgery and how he is doing. I also kept up with him on Facebook and was able to see where he was at with the idea of having brain surgery.

From one of his emails: “Our faith is strong. We trust in God completely. We have no regrets. We feel that God will be glorified in this and can think of no better place to be….I have full confidence in my God. No doubts. Full trust. It is a wonderful place to be.”

He has also mentioned how he has been carried through this trial by the prayers of all those who have surrounded him and stood with him in this in a personal interview he did.

On Facebook, just 11 hours before surgery, Dane shared, “up, ready, praying, resting in The Lord. Knowing I’ve got more prayer backing me than anyone in the world. Isn’t God good, no matter what?”

Its often been said that its easy to trust God when everything is going well in your life. But, when life throws you a curveball, when a very hard test comes your way, it shows, or proves, rather, what you really believe….

As 1 Peter 1:6-7 states, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Or as The Message version translates so beautifully, “Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine.”

My friend Dane Burk reminds me today that faith is not about an outcome or a prognosis. Faith isn’t about circumstances going our way. Faith is about trusting in the goodness and character of an unseen but known God. For Dane, Jesus Christ is his best friend. He has walked with Him through ups and downs and highs and lows of life. And now, at a moment of great trial, when his faith is being held over a “hot fire” for all to watch, all I see is gold. And I give thanks, and remind myself and my kids,”this is what real faith looks like,” and give glory to God.

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. ~ 1 Corinthians 10:12-14

For the last three weeks, my daughters and I have started our mornings memorizing a verse or two every week. We repeat it every day together and then individually. When they are able to recite it from memory (usually by Friday morning) they are rewarded with a “treat” from a jar of candy I have in our kitchen. I decided to start our Scripture memory with the Lord’s Prayer.

Each week as we recite the verses, new questions come up. “What does hallowed mean?,” Grace asked me the first week. Then this week, our verse is Matthew 6:13, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one….” “What is temptation?” Grace asked. I would like to say I immediately began to pontificate from memory what exactly temptation means, but alas, my brain was mushy that morning and so I googled “tempt” in dictionary.com to ensure a proper answer. To tempt means, “to entice someone to do wrong, especially by a promise of reward.”

We then began to discuss how Grace and Chesed will “tempt” each other at different times (more often it is Grace getting Chesed to do something she knows is wrong, something I have told them not to do, hoping that Chesed will be punished instead). We talked about how as sisters, they  should help each other obey God (and Mommy and Daddy), not tempt each other to disobey. This was very easy for Grace to understand. Now, to put into practice will certainly be more difficult, but the first step is simply to have an awareness of when we are tempted.

As adults, we may recognize we are being tempted to do something we know is wrong, but feel powerless at times to choose what is right. Perhaps it is a bad habit that we have given in to so many times, we feel frustrated and defeated before we even choose right or wrong. Perhaps our emotions such as anger or fear seek to hold us captive, enticing us toward poor thoughts and choices.

I want to encourage you today with the Scripture I have placed at the top of this post. No temptation has seized you that is uncommon to man. That is pretty comforting, I think. My temptations are not some “special case” unique to others temptations. That means that we as Christians can encourage one another when we are tempted to make the right choice. We can help others recognize when they are being tempted to sin because we ourselves have likely been subjected to the same or similar temptations.

Which brings us to the second part of the verse: “God is faithful.” isn’t it encouraging to know that God is always faithful?  Paul is drawing us to this aspect of God’s character (God’s faithfulness) because he wants us to highlight how God is faithful specifically  in the midst of our temptations. How, you may ask, is He faithful? Well, firstly, He won’t let us be tempted beyond our ability, which is comforting. He’s not going to allow my two year old to face the same temptations He allows me to face, for example. And secondly, He is faithful to  provide us a way of escape. The word “escape” in this passage in the Greek means, “exit, egress, way out.”

When I am tempted I want to pause long enough to look for God’s bright red “EXIT” sign – how might He be providing a way out of this tempting situation for me? Will I take it? Often, if I make a poor choice it is because I do not look for His divine “escape strategy.”

Today I was tempted to be angry with someone that treated me and my children unfairly. I came home from this encounter, venting to my husband about how this man had behaved and how wrong it was. I was tempted to stew in my anger rather than lovingly confront this individual. Graciously, my husband directed me to a “way of escape” for my anger. He encouraged me to call this man and explain how his actions had impacted me and the kids.  When I called and shared with him how his actions made me feel, he was very remorseful and apologized. He even thanked me for calling and letting him know and assured me that this wouldn’t happen again. I hung up from that call feeling good – good that I had talked directly to the individual who had hurt me (which was the way of escape, in my situation) rather than harbor a grudge against him and stew in my “justified anger” for being treated unfairly. I also felt peace flood my heart where unrest and anxiety had been only moments prior.

How have you been tempted lately, my friend? Have you seen the way of escape to that situation that God has provided for you? If you can’t seem to see the way out, get into God’s Word and seek Him for a strategy. Perhaps ask a friend whom you trust for some wise counsel and pray to God for eyes to see that “EXIT” sign. Let’s give thanks for our faithful God who is actively involved in every detail of our lives, providing us with direction at every moment to do what is right in His sight by the power of His Holy Spirit.

“Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly” – John 7:25 NLT

“We are His workmanship” – Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

The first blog post I wrote about judging by appearances had to do with how we view others based on their appearance, race, gender, background, economic status, etc. This time I would like to focus on how we can falsely judge ourselves by our appearances. The first definition of “appearance” the Merriam-Websters dictionary is “an external show.”

We may think that we “have it all together,” because we have a good job, a wonderful spouse, great kids, lots of money, or simply because our lives are going the way that we want them to go – the direction and plan that we have always wanted. We may equate outward or material success with God’s favor. We may think that we are “good with God” because we have the approval of others or because we do good things for other people. However, our inner spiritual lives may be crumbling. We may also have the wrong idea about other people we encounter. “Wow, they always look perfect and their kids always seem to behave,” we may think. However, their marriage could be on the rocks or they could be suffering from depression.

You just can’t judge a book by its cover, can you?

On the other side, we may fall into deception about ourselves in a different way. Perhaps you love God and seek to serve others humbly with your life, but in spite of what you know God says about you in His Word, you are never happy with yourself – in fact, you may very well loathe yourself if you fail to meet your own standards or other’s standards whom you want to please.  Perhaps this bothers you more than you would like to admit and you realize that you value what others think of you more than what God thinks of you.

This is an area I must personally revisit often – because I must confess that far too many times I have judged myself not through God’s eyes but through my own harsh and critical eyes. Our human tendency is to look at ourselves wrongly – to either puff ourselves up with praise and pride or condemn ourselves with critical words, reducing our worth to rubble.

But God. God brings us into balance when we will look to Him to define our worth. Yes, we are sinners. Yes, we fail and fall daily. But God has made us new creations, and daily we have the opportunity to believe that His Holy Spirit can and is renewing us from the inside out. We can stand up again. We can confess our sins and find healing. We can humble ourselves and ask God for help. And we can look at ourselves through God’s eyes – the eyes that lift us from the ash heaps of our unworthiness, calling us to ‘sit with Him in heavenly places’. The eyes that humble us and call us lower, to find greatness in serving and loving, rather than in the praise of men or the successes of this life.

How about you, friend? Do you think you’re okay spiritually because you are enjoying outward blessings such as a good job, financial success, or a happy family?  Do you judge yourself too harshly, setting standards for yourself that you can never meet? Do you hunger for praise from God or man?  Where does your worth and estimation of yourself come from? Take a few moments today to ask The Lord how He views you – and pray for the grace to see yourself in the light of His face alone.