Positive Perspectives on Christian Mental Health

BAD CLICHES

Who knows a classic cliché or two? All that glitters is Gold. Read between the Lines. Kiss and Make Up. Catchy one liners most of us would have heard at some time in our lives. Sometimes we share them as funny memes, Inspirational memes, and sometimes we share them as well meaning encouragements to cheer someone up when they’re feeling down. But … some of these Cliches actually aren’t all that helpful … or even remotely true. Anyone heard of “Boys Don’t Cry?” Pretty Bad, but for me as a Psychologist I think the worst offender is “Time Heals all Wounds”. It’s not remotely helpful because it’s not remotely true – that’s why we have PTSD … and Depression … every Anxiety disorder in the DSM-5 … along with just about the rest of the DSM-5 (that’s our big book of Mental Health problems for anyone whose unfamiliar with it). Psychotherapy like CBT, ACT, EMDR (and many others) and Counsellors, Psychologists (like me!) & Psychiatrists help heal these kinds of wounds. So here we have an example of a bad Cliché about Mental Health.

But you know as Christians we can have some pretty bad Clichés too. So buckle up cuz these are some doozy’s!

“Let Go and Let God” (What does that even mean??)
“God will never give you more than you can Handle” (which he won’t … except for all the times when he will).
“God Helps those who help themselves” (LITERALLY the exact opposite of the entire Gospel Message).

Or the absolute Worst Offenders: “Too Blessed too be Stressed” and a new awful one I stumbled across while travelling through the internet “Too Anointed to be Disappointed” (Yes it actually said that).

Now the problem with these particular Cliches (especially those last two), is they can reflect some negative and unhealthy attitudes towards emotional distress, Mental Health and suffering in general. These attitudes can also set up some unhealthy expectations about what we should experience during difficult times in our lives. Then when our reality inevitably fails to live up to these expectations this is when embarrassment and shame about Mental distress can set in; thinking we’re feeling a way we think we’re not supposed to. As a Psychologist (even a young one) I commonly seen people experience some kind of embarrassment or even shame about the emotional distress they experience – especially if that distress relates to thoughts of self-harm. So, one of the most important tasks Psych’s undertake early in someone’s counselling journey is to “Normalise” their emotional distress. Normalising is a process in Psychology where we help people understand how frequently different types of Mental Health distress occurs. This helps people understand how many others experience the emotional distress they’re experiencing, thus helping reduce some of the embarrassment and even shame that can exist when it comes to Mental Health issues.

And if we as a society can reduce negative stigmas about Mental Health, we can reduce embarrassment and shame about Mental Health. And if we can reduce this, we can help people talk about their Mental Health distress a lot more openly in our communities. And if we can talk more openly about Mental Health distress, we can help reduce the number of people hurting themselves in that distress. And as a Psychologist who is also a Christian, I believe that one of the best ways we as Christians can Normalise Mental Health in our Churches – and break down some negative stigmas we may have – is to look at the Bible. Here we can see the kinds of really deep distress and despair some of the Major heroes – faithful servants of God – experienced at times in their lives. So what I want to do now, is go through some events & stories in the Bible, and I want you to guess what these Characters said during some of the toughest times they experienced ….

THE REALITY LAID OUT IN THE BIBLE

Q1) In 1^st Kings 19, Elijah’s just kicked the butt of the ancient false god Baal and his prophets. And the Queen of the land – Jezebel – is pretty peeved about this. So, she’s basically ordered his head served up on a silver platter to her. So, while literally on the run for his Life, which of these statements did Elijah say?

A) You know what, I’m just too blessed to be stressed right now!

B) #Let Go and Let God!

C) God helps those who help themselves

D) “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

A: 1 Kings 19:3 – 4 (D)

Q2) David wrote a lot of things in his Psalms. Which of these statements isn’t in them?

A) How long must I … have sorrow in my Heart all day?

B) The Cords of Death encompassed me, the Torrents of destruction assailed me

C) How long oh Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

D) Do not be saddened my soul, for Time Healeth all thine Wounds

A: Both A and C are from Psalm 13, while B is from Psalm 18 (which we’ll look at a little later …).

Q3) Paul had some pretty tough times on one of his mission trips to ancient Asia (current day Turkey). We’re not sure exactly what happened but he sure made it known how he felt about it. How did he describe this experience?

A) God never once gave me more than I could Handle

B) I was just too blessed to be Stressed!

C) I was just too anointed to be Dissapointed! Or:

D) We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

A: See 2 Corinthians 1:8 (which we will in just a sec).

EVEN THE GREATEST EXPERIENCED GREAT DISTRESS

So what we can clearly see from these passages is that even the greatest heroes in the Bible – Faithful Men of God – experienced times of severe emotional distress. The distress they experienced was some serious stuff; more than a mere bad day or two (particularly in the case of David). And the kinds of feelings they experienced in these moments are the kinds of feelings we can have during Mental Health issues – even faithful Christians. This then is how I believe we best reduce negative attitudes, hurtful stigmas, and shame that Christians can experience about Mental Health in our Church communities. By looking at what even the greatest men of God in the Bible experienced, we can know that in our own lives, it’s most definitely okay if we’re not doing okay…because there were times in their lives when they most certainly weren’t. And of course there is no one in the Bible greater than Jesus Christ himself (Equal only to the Father and Holy Spirit…but the Trinity’s complicated … so ask Shelley for help lol). And yet here is just a little bit of what Jesus experienced on Earth:

Jesus wept by the Tomb of Lazarus (John 11:30 – 35)
In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus said to his disciples that his soul was “distressed and sorrowful to the point of death”, and felt so much distress he literally started sweating blood (Read the whole account of this story, Jesus experiences some really serious distress here! See: Matt 26:36 – 46, Luke 22: 39 – 46, Mark 14: 32 – 52).
And of course let us not forget the words of Jesus on the Cross itself “Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani – My God My God why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:45 – 46; Mark 15:33 – 34, which is actually even a quote from one of the Psalms).

And so, after seeing just a little bit of what Jesus experienced we can read the following words from Hebrews 4:15 – 16 with great confidence “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

For all the things Jesus experienced and suffered “yet he was without sin”. This means Jesus is the perfect example for us to follow, to learn how we can faithfully navigate our own seasons of dark distress. In the depths of his darkest hour Jesus never lost Hope or Trust in the Father “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done. An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.” (Luke 22:42 – 43). And while Jess is the perfect example, we also see some great faith from Paul and David, even in the depths of their own anguish. And even though Elijah may have given up, God certainly hadn’t; He came right to his aid when all looked lost. So earlier we looked at some really heavy, distressed parts of the lives of these men. But now let’s complete those passages and find the light of hope that prevails even in the Darkest of Nights.

CLINGING TO HOPE IN THE HARDEST HOURS

Paul’s Hope: 2 Corinthians 1: 8 – 10

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

David’s Hope: Psalm 18: 1 – 6

“I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.”

And as for Elijah… crying out in the depths of his Distress, he encountered an Angle of the Lord that personally fed him (1Ki 19: 5 – 8) and later encountered God himself (1Ki 19: 9 – 18).

So here we can learn some key principles for our own darkest hours. We can:

Fix our Focus on God; because we know we can trust Him to hear us
Find our Strength in God; for his is far greater than our own, and He is always willing to share it generously with those who seek it (see also Isaiah 40:29 – 31).
Find our Hope in the ultimate Future the Father has for us, just as Jesus did.

And when I say ultimate Future, I say this to encourage us to look beyond hoping for a good day or two, or even a good year on earth – as nice as these can be, times on Earth can change quite quickly. My 2019 personally sucked, big time. It had a few good moments but overall I could not wait for 2020…aaaaaaaaaand we all know how that played out. From there a lot of us then said good riddance to 2020 and couldn’t wait for 2021…and we all know how that’s been going. But See in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus looked beyond the bad times on earth that were ahead of him; his focus was on the ultimate Future of the Kingdom of Heaven.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1 – 2.

And so for us, particularly still in the middle of a Global Pandemic, still in the middle of so much uncertainty, it’s so important for us to set our hope beyond a few good days, weeks, months or two that come and go. We, like Jesus, set our eyes on the Future of the Kingdom of God – and that gives us the strength and the joy needed to endure the hardest days of this life. So no matter what emotions we experience, no matter how dark they may be, we can always, always rely on God and the future of His Kingdom. And in the days of waiting for His Kingdom to come in full, he is always waiting, ready and willing to hear the cries of our Heart.

IF YOU NEED HELP …

But you know God designed us to do this life with other humans as well as with him. And particularly in our Country God has blessed us with so many great humans working in various counselling services that we can also have a chat to. So what I want to land on is providing you with the numbers for some great services I provide to my own clients (I’ve also added the number for the LightCare Line as a specific Christian service). Because we have gotten really real in this message, and sometimes that brings up some really real stuff for people. So if this message has brought up any really strong emotions for you, or any particularly dark ones, please do not hesitate to pick up the phone and have a chat with one of these great services:

To Talk with Someone Urgently:	For some longer term Help…
Kidshelpline (Ages 5 – 25) 1800 55 1800 (24/7) https://kidshelpline.com.au/	Headspace (Ages 5 – 25) 03 9027 0100 https://headspace.org.au/
Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7) https://www.lifeline.org.au/	For Someone to Pray With You…
Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467 (24/7) https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/	TheLight Careline 9583 2273 (9am – 11pm)

Hope in the Darkness of Easter Saturday

Around 2,000 years ago, the followers of Jesus experienced a day unlike any they had ever experienced. The perfect King and Saviour that their people had been promised for thousands of years hung dead on a Cross. Betrayed by one of their own, Jesus’s disciples watched helplessly as he was arrested, beaten and hung on a cross to die. It was a day of terrible calamity. But the day after all those terrible events (which we call Easter Saturday) must have also been terribly difficult for Jesus’s Disciples. All the promises Jesus had made them; the promise that Jesus would save their people, the promise that his own Kingdom was at hand (Matthew 3:2) and the promise that His Kingdom would last forever, looked to be lost forever; buried in a cold dark tomb with the very man who made them. Their whole world, the lives they had built over three years of following Jesus had been thrown into Chaos.

For many many people across the world, that’s a pretty accurate description of where their lives are at on this year’s Easter Saturday. Many people are right now in their own dark Easter Saturday. A calamity has happened; a deadly virus got loose and has gone global, infecting millions of people. And now we are in the middle of the story, stuck between it’s beginning and it’s unknown ending. Many people have recovered from Coronavirus, but many have not been so fortunate. How many more will share that fate? Because of the efforts taken to try and stop the virus, Economies across the globe have been thrown into chaos, with a bleak unknown future. Millions of people have lost their jobs. How many more millions will lose their own jobs? No one knows what happens next. No one knows how or when this will all end. And no one knows what the world will look like on the other side of this. It’s a dark and scary time for the world to be in; stuck between the start of the story, and a very uncertain future.

But 2,000 years ago, in another dark and scary time for Jesus’s followers, even Death itself could not thwart the Plans and Promises of God. Jesus rose to life on (what we call) Easter Sunday and left the tomb he had been buried in just two days earlier. The Disciples that had forsaken Jesus at the hour of his arrest and death, later went on to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2) and built his Church; a body of believers that endured the worst tyranny that ancient Rome could throw at it, and lives across the world to this day. God promised his people he would do all of these things, and the apparent calamity of the Crucifixion on Good Friday could not stop Him. For us today, there are many things God has promised for us, and the calamity of Coronavirus will not stop him delivering them. And the great thing about these promises of God is that they go beyond simple materialistic things; a big fancy house, an expensive car, simple things like that. God promises those who trust and believe in him far more profound things than that. Here are some of my personal reflections on just a few promises that I think are particularly relevant to the times we are currently in.

God is Always in Control: Romans 8:28 reads “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This might be a bit hard to comprehend in a time like this. “Really?” We can easily think. “God’s gonna use Coronavirus for good? How??” Truly, we don’t know how; and it would be wrong of us to pretend that we could know. But what we can know is that no matter what happens, even though we may never understand why it happens, God always remains in control. 2,000 years ago, Jesus’s Betrayal and execution on a Cross were terrible things to happen. Jesus’s enemies thought they had won; the guy that had loathed for the last three years was now dead. But alas, God was in control at every point in the story. Jesus’s Blood was ultimately shed so that we could be washed clean of our sins and made right with God (Isaiah 1:18), so “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God was in full control at every point of the Easter story. God was in full control back then, and he is in full control right now.

God is Always with Us: King David went through quite a lot in his own life. Before he become King he was hunted down by King Saul, who wanted him dead. In his own terrible and dark times, David may not have fully understood why God had allowed this to happen to him, but he did know that God was always there to help him through it. “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2 – 3). It’s important for us today to know the same thing. Even though we don’t understand why things happen, we can know who is there to shelter us through the storm. “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” (Psalm 18:6).

God is Preparing a World without Disease or Death: For a lot of people, the world we live in right now is a bit of a dark and scary place. Looking through the History books, we can see that there have been plenty of terrible times like this, and far worse, before Coronavirus came along (eg. the Black Death, Spanish Flu, World War I & II). And we can only speculate what disasters may lie ahead in the future. Is that it, then? Is that the fate of this world? To simply go from one disaster to the next? The answer from the Bible is a firm No.

“Then I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

(Revelation 21:1, 3-4).

Because of sin, death entered the world (Romans 5), and because of this we experience terrible suffering like we are seeing with the Coronavirus. But because of Easter, the suffering we see in this world won’t last. God will replace this Earth, broken by sin, with a New Earth. An Earth that will be without any Disasters or Death of any sort. One that will be a place of everlasting peace and harmony between God and his People.

With so much uncertainty in our world at the moment, these then are three things we can be sure of: God is in control, God himself is our help and refugee during these frightening and uncertain times, and God is preparing a world free of any disasters, and a world free of even death itself.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Christmas Analogy

By the end of the 2016 Star Wars Movie, Rouge One, the Rebels have acquired themselves what is essentially a little floppy disc, that they pinched from the Empire.

Now at first glance this little thing looks pretty insignificant. I mean it’s just this small disc, surely it can’t be that important?

Well in this case looks are quite deceiving. Because not only are the Rebels willing to sacrifice everything to acquire this disc, but it seems that the Empire is willing to throw quite a lot at the Rebels in order to try and get their floppy disc back. In fact Darth Vader himself leads the hunt for this little floppy disc when it gets stolen, chasing down Rebel ships and tearing them apart, in order to get the floppy disc back.

Now there’s an obvious question here: Why? What’s the Big Deal? I mean it’s basically just a little floppy disc after all isn’t it?

Actually, it’s not.

Because on this floppy disc … are the plans to destroy the Empire’s planet killing Death Star. Now THAT’S a pretty huge deal! With those plans, the Rebels could launch an attack to destroy the Death Star and change the entire course of their war against the Empire …

Now in the real world, two thousand years ago Planet Earth kind of …… got it’s own Death Star busting plans (I know that’s stretching the analogy juuuust a LITTLE bit ….. but bear with me 😛)

(Roughly) 2,000 years ago we had a little kid called Baby Jesus, born in a little farmstead in a backwater town called Bethlehem. Now on the face of it, that sounds pretty insignificant. You’d think it’s the kind of thing that would be lucky to even get mentioned in the footnotes of the History books. But in actual fact 2,000 years later this is one of the most celebrated events in all of History. Today we have heaps of songs, decorations, and even movies about the birth of Baby Jesus.

And there were people who made a big deal about Baby Jesus’s birth 2,000 ago too. Three wise men embarked on a months long journey to present gifts to Baby Jesus. There were some Shepherds who came to visit too, and they ended running around town telling everyone about Jesus’s Birth. But perhaps the biggest reaction to the birth of Baby Jesus came from King Herod – the boss of the region that Jesus was born in. Upon hearing of the birth of Baby Jesus, King Herod orders for him to be killed! (See Matthew Chapter 2)

Now there’s an obvious question here: Why all the fuss over this one Baby? What’s the big deal? The answer to this question was provided by some Angels.

Many months earlier, an Angel had popped by to visit Joseph in a dream, to explain how his virgin Fiancee Mary had become pregnant, and who she had become pregnant with ..

Matthew 1:20-23 (ESV) “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”).”

Months later when Jesus is Born, some Angels say G’Day to a couple of Shepherds and also share with them the Significance of the birth of Jesus.

Luke 2:8 – 10 “8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David [Bethlehem] a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

There are two key pieces of information here that help understand why the birth of Baby Jesus is so significant:

Who Baby Jesus is. “they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”).”, “he is the Messiah, the Lord.” Baby Jesus … is actually God himself come to live amongst us as a Human. Think about that! The God who created the whole Universe, the God who hung every star in the sky, created every mountain on Earth and created every single Human being … has now come to Live on Earth as one of us. That’s the first reason why baby Jesus is so significant – because He is actually God almighty, living amongst us in Human flesh. This begs an important question, why?

Why Baby Jesus came. “a Savior has been born to you”, “he will save his people from their sins”. This here is the second significant thing about Baby Jesus. God hasn’t popped down for a quick chat. God’s not bored and wants to try something different to shake things up a bit. He has come to save us from our sins – and this herein are the Death Star busting plans, so to speak. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in Genesis 3. The consequence of Sin is that this broke the relationship between God and Humans. We were supposed to live in Eternal harmony with God. But Sin broke that harmony, separated us from God and as a result the world has been cursed with Death and Suffering ever since (see Romans 5:12 – 21). So Baby Jesus is God in Human flesh who has come down to us. He is part of God’s plan to rescue us from the consequences of Sin, save us from a world cursed with Death and suffering, ultimately make a way for us all to repair our relationship with God and live with him in harmony (the Bible calls this “Reconciliation”)

So there you have it; the significance of Christmas in a slightly oversimplified nutshell! As with the Rebels from Star Wars, something that seems insignificant – in our case a baby born in a manger – is actually a huge game-changer.

If you want to know more about God’s “Death Star busting plans” ie how He actually planned to save us from our sins through Jesus, how he achieved this, and why it needed to happen in the first place ….. stay tuned for the Epic Analogy I’m preparing for Easter!

If by chance you don’t want to wait that long, then I highly recommend a resource from John Piper called “Fifty Reasons why Jesus had to Die”.

Easter Sunday: The Greatest Ending to the Biggest Cliffhanger

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a good cliffhanger. That moment when everything is at stake for your favourite characters, and then the Season Finale hits, or the Credits at the Movies start rolling,and you have to wait for aaaages to find out how everything is resolved! One of the biggest cliffhanger’s I’ve ever seen came at the end of Avengers Infinity War, where the bad guy Thanos … actually won, and our Heroes suffered a most terrible defeat. Thanos sits down at the end of the movie with a nice smile and the Heroes fall to their knees in despair – the literal ashes of their friends left scattered across their battlefield.

On Good Friday, we Christians commemorated a similar situation; our own Cliffhanger of sorts. On Good Friday, roughly 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ, God himself dwelling amongst us in Human flesh; the Messiah that God promised for thousands of years (as Early as Genesis 3); the Saviour and King who promised to deliver his people from slavery to Sin and give them Eternal Life; the one who promised that the Kingdom of Heaven was now at hand and that even the Gates of Hell itself could not prevail …. Hung Dead on a Cross. Betrayed by one of his own Disciples (Judas of Iscariot), abandoned by the Rest. His Mother wept at His Feet, a Crown of Thorns pierced his head. And with His final breath surrendered, a Roman spear was driven through his side to make sure the Job was truly done.

What a Dark and Hopeless moment that must have been for the followers of Christ. So much Promised, yet in the moment, so much more seemed to be lost. If I can draw a rough analogy, For Jesus’s followers, I imagine they must have felt a similar way as the Avengers did at the end of Infinity War: Awww Snap! Did … Did we just … Loose?? Did the Bad Guys … just Win??

But despite how Dark and Hopeless the situation Looked, the Story of this moment, now called Easter … was not over yet. You see this wasn’t the season finale, the roll of the credits, but it was the cliffhanger between the start of the story and the ending that was just three days away; the time between the Promises Made, and the Fulfilment of those Promises. For the Story of Easter did not end with a Bloodied Cross, a crown of Thorns, or Jesus’s Dead body wrapped up in a Cold tomb. No, the story of Easter ended with Death itself Defeated, the Grave barren and empty, and Jesus Risen and Alive.

And this Victory that Jesus won 2,000 years ago gives us great hope for our own Stories. Because sometimes, there are moments in Life that are like our own Good Friday. All our hopes and dreams lie broken before us, and have we have no idea, no hope, for what comes next. Maybe a Career fell through, and now you have no idea where the next pay check will come from. Maybe someone hurt you so Badly, that now only God himself could truly empathise and understand. Maybe you prayed for Healing for a dear friend, but then Death came instead. Whatever it is, or was, that happened, it feels like a Good Friday moment: everything promised and hoped for seems completely lost.

But if we stand with Christ, no matter how hopeless the situation looks, our stories are actually not yet completed. For if we stand with Christ, then no matter how devastating they may be, our Stories do not end in the ashes of our Suffering, nor in the scattered pieces of our Shattered Hope. They do not end on this Earth, but in Eternity, where God promises that:

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, ESV)

And so, if we place our trust in Christ, the time between the Pain of the Good Friday moments we Experience in this life, and the Eternal Joy we will experience with God in Heaven, becomes like the time between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. Not a season finale, but a cliff hanger (of sorts); a time between the beginning of the story and it’s end. And so no matter what we suffer in this Life, because of the Victory that Christ won on this Day 2,000 years ago, if we place our faith and our trust in Christ, then no matter how dark things get, there is a Great Joy on the Horizon; the dawn of our own Resurrection Sunday.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, ESV).

GOD AND HIS ENDGAME AT EASTER

In just over 7 days … 3 hours and 20 minutes (not that anyone’s counting…) I will have the (hopefully) great joy of watching Avenger’s: Endgame; the thrilling conclusion to last Year’s Avenger’s Infinity War (which if you haven’t seen yet !!Spoiler Alert!! – I will be talking about it in this article!!)

I don’t think there has ever been a movie more hotly anticipated than Endgame – I was walking through Melbourne Central the other day and all I’ll say is that I wasn’t the only one gawking at the giant poster hung up for the movie!

The Hype is very real, and understandably so. The stakes have been set very high: Our Heroes have been brutally Vanquished, half of them have been turned into literal dust, and The Villain Thanos is proud and boastful of the victory he has achieved; in one of the trailers, he even says “The Work is done, I won.”

Yet Fans (the polite word for Nerds like me :P) know that something else is up. Thanos only has this victory because Dr Strange gave him the Time Stone (the essential thing he needed for Victory) to save Tony Stark’s Life. Why? Why did he do this?

When Stark asked this question of Dr Strange, his response was “We’re in the Endgame now…there was no other way”.

What he is saying is that there was no other way to Defeat Thanos, except to give him the Time Stone – effectively sacrificing it – and let Thanos have the temporary Victory, in order to ensure his full and final Defeat.

And I love that this movie comes out just after Easter. Because in a way, Easter is kind of like God’s own Endgame.

When Jesus came to Earth as the Messiah that God had promised his people for thousands of years, the one that was going to save his People and establish his Eternal Kingdom, you can imagine his disciples surprise when this happened:

“From then on Jesus, began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but on the third day he would be raised from the dead.” (Matthew 16:21, NLT)

Jesus’s disciple Peter did not take this news too well:

But Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. “Heaven forbid, Lord,” he said. “This will never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22, NLT)

If I may draw a rough Analogy here, this is like the moment in Avengers Infinity War when Tony Stark asks why on Earth Dr Strange would give Thanos the time stone? Isn’t giving Thanos the time stone a bad thing? Don’t they loose?

In the Bible, Peter is also confused over what he is told must happen. Why must Jesus Die? For what purpose must he be handed over to the religious leaders and killed? Isn’t that a bad thing?

It’s not just a question that Peter asks: Every year I hear objections to Good Friday along the lines of “Why’s it called Good Friday if Jesus died? What’s so good about that?”

Essentially, the “Goodness” of Good Friday is this: even though the entirety of Humanity had sinned and turned their backs on God (Romans 3:9-12), and Sin had broken and condemned us all (Romans 5:12+15), God was not content to leave us this way.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV)

Even though we became his enemies by sinning against Him, God made us his friends, and even adopted us as his own children (Romans 8:15-17) by sending Christ to die for our sins and raising Him back to life on the Third day. Even though we turned our backs on Him, and our Sin had broken the once wonderful relationship between Us and God, through the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God repaired the broken relationship – reconciling us to him – and redeeming us from our Sinful way of life to make us something completely new:

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-19, NLT)

So, while we wait to find out why Dr Strange gave up the Time Stone to Thanos, we can celebrate Good Friday and God’s own Endgame: giving up his own Son to die on the cross (and then raise him back to life!) in order to repair the broken relationship between us and God, to draw us into a relationship with Him and redeem us from the broken state our Sin has left us in.

This is a very brief article, designed to be easy to Read. To go more in depth into the reasons why Jesus died on the Cross at Easter, I highly recommend reading John Piper’s Book “50 Reasons why Jesus came to die”.

The SkyLightz Journey Begins

This is something that has been on my Heart for a VERY long time! I love writing, and I love the Lord, so I have long wanted to share my Love for the Lord through my Writing. So here we go!

So, let’s start with the name – SkyLightz. What’s up with that? Well a Sky Light is basically a window in someone’s roof through which natural light can come through. It means even if your curtains are completely drawn, and all the Lights in your House are Turned off, Light can still break through and light up the Dark.

This is the way I believe all Christians are to live. We are called to be the Light of the world (Matthew 5:14) So I chose the name SkyLightz because I want my life to be like a Sky Light. Even if someone has closed them self off to all religion, going to church, even opening up a Bible – that is to say even if they have drawn all the curtains in their house and turned off all the lights – I want to be that Sky Light through God’s Love and Life can shine through into their world.

I pray that whatever I post to this website – for however long I post – it would all be to God’s Glory, and to the building of His Kingdom.

Whatever you Do, Do it All for the Glory of God – Colossians 3:31 (NLT)

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