Today's passage is Acts 15:1-11.
Because some of the Jews from Judea were insisting that the Gentiles be circumcised for salvation, the church of Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to get a definitive answer. Peter spoke against circumcision because he said there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles who accept Jesus, whose hearts are purified by faith and it is through grace that people are saved, not the law of Moses which none of them had been able to keep for centuries.
Life is hard.
I used to think it was hard because other people and circumstances made it hard.
And I've got lots of examples.
My alcoholic first wife made life hard for me,
my brother in law makes life hard for me,
my wife's health makes life hard for me,
my own health makes life hard for me,
the Korean Ministry of Education makes life hard for me as a school principal,
the war in Iraq makes life hard for me because I get students from that country who can't speak any English.
There is no end of examples of hardships big and small.
Life is hard.
On the other side of the fence there is me making life hard for lots of people, for my wife, my brother in law, my teachers, my students, my mother, my children, my neighbors, my bus drivers because my Korean is so bad they have a hard time understanding what I say.
In today's passage, the Pharisee party of the new Christians is making life hard for the new Christians by trying turn them into Jews who have to obey hundreds of rules beginning with circumcision.
Even though God has accepted them, many of the Jewish Christians don't want to.
The two biggest voices in the ancient church--Peter and Paul--are hard pressed to convince the church to accept Gentiles as they are, to accept God's grace, to accept the faith of those who haven't endured the rites of passage and lifestyle of the typical Jew.
Up until I was 55, I struggled with God and with my circumstances.
I believed in Jesus, in his life-giving death and resurrection.
But I didn't like most of my circumstances most of the time and I wanted them changed.
My view of things was this: If my circumstances would only change, then I'd be different, I'd be better.
I didn't accept that I was the problem, not my circumstances.
I didn't accept I was a white, English speaking male with a middling intellect, born into a low middle class family in a globally insignicant country.
And because I didn't accept that reality about myself,
I didn't accept other people for who they were.
I didn't accept the world for what it was either.
I was a rejector.
It took me a long, long time to accept that my life at any given moment was the result of my life to that point.
I'm still struggling with it, but I believe the major battle in that regard has been won.
I always have a choice regarding my circumstances.
I can accept them and praise God or I can reject them and, in effect, curse God.
Changing my circumstances won't change me a bit.
I've been through enough in my life to see that.
When I had nothing and was living at the YMCA, I was still the same non-accepting, rejecting man that I was when I was at the top of my academic world.
My circumstances changed but I didn't. That was a huge lesson for me.
My circumstances don't change me .
The only possible change rests with me.
And the only thing I can change is whether I accept my circumstances and praise God or keep on rejecting things the way they are.
I didn't have a good first marriage because I didn't accept my wife as an alcoholic and didn't focus on God.
I didn't have a good teaching career because I didn't accept that teaching high school was my circumstance. The list goes on.
I have a pretty good marriage now because I accept my wife for who and how she is.
I can only do this by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have a pretty good job because I accept the circumstances of me being a principal of a small school with limited options and lots of challenges beyond my ability.
Circumstances always change.
If I don't accept them sincerely, then I will continue to complain that they are bad and I will continue to suffer.
My choice remains the same every day, just like Job's.
Accept my circumstances and praise God.
Or don't accept them and deepen the suffering.
Lord, please continue to give me your grace to accept the circumstances I'm in with a song of praise to you, just like David did.
