Author Archives: Bill Sweeney
What would you do if…?
One night, about a year before I was diagnosed with ALS, Mary and I were up late watching “Nightline.” Ted Koppel was doing three nights of interviews with a retired college professor named Morrie Schwartz. Morrie had ALS and was sharing his life-lessons with Ted Koppel just as he had done previously with one of his former students named Mitch Albom. Mitch later compiled these life-lessons and wrote a best-selling book titled “Tuesdays with Morrie.”
I hate to admit this, but even after seeing the three nights of interviews and reading the book, I cannot remember most of the life-lessons that Morrie taught. But, I do have one vivid memory from watching those interviews; it occurred while listening to Morrie describe his daily routine – having to rely on his wife and caregivers for virtually all of his needs. After hearing how helpless he was, I turned to Mary and told her I would rather just go to heaven than live trapped in my own body like him.
About a year after making that statement, I was diagnosed with that same “trapped-in-your-own-body” disease. While I believe words are powerful and can even be self-fulfilling (“Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” Proverbs 18:21), I don’t believe my statement had anything to do with my being diagnosed with the same disease the following year, but…
That hastily-made statement began to haunt and even taunt me when I began needing help from Mary with things I once did with little effort. The statement kept playing over and over in my head, challenging me to either disavow my words or live up to them. In this case, living up to my words meant throwing in the towel and going to heaven.
Obviously I chose to change my view and began trying to do my best to live one day at a time. But it wasn’t really me that decided to carry on; it was the grace of God in me, urging me to keep going. Not like a coach on the sidelines shouting, but more like the team captain competing alongside of me. It was then I knew the full meaning of verses like, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Hastily-made statements (like the one I made about Morrie) that are carelessly uttered by healthy people (like I was) are spoken out of pride. Pride is something we usually don’t know we’re guilty of before being humbled by a severe trial. Pride cannot comprehend the grace of God because pride is self-reliant, self-righteous and just plain selfish. God’s grace (to carry us through a trial) is one of the things people usually don’t factor in before making such statements.
Another thing people (who make statements like that) don’t consider or even understand, is how strong our God-given survival instinct is. Not merely for our physical survival, but also for our emotional and spiritual survival. This is an ironic thing because it would seem that a Christian (who believes in heaven) would be the first to cash in his chips, but the opposite is true. It is usually those that don’t believe in an after-life that judge the quality of their lives by physical, financial and other temporal pursuits and who cannot imagine a life worth living without these things. But the believer can know joy, peace, hope and have a sense of purpose without the worldly blessings. Of course, it’s always best to have both spiritual and earthly blessings, but, to the Christian, the former are essential and the latter are viewed merely as “bonuses.”
Trials cause us to reexamine the hastily-made statements we’ve made before the trial, when we so carelessly said what we’d do if this thing or that thing happened to us. As I discovered, no one really knows what they would do until faced with that situation. This is why the Bible tells us to “be slow to speak” (James 1:19).
This is the only advantage I’ve discovered from losing the ability to speak; I no longer say things that I regret!
Why are you afraid?
“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” (Matt 8:24-:26)
I suppose that even the most faith-filled Christian would experience some level of fear if they found themselves in a situation like the above. But I know that a doctor delivering news of a life-threatening diagnosis, a loss of a job and insensitive debt-collectors calling day-after-day, can instill that same kind of “Save us, Lord; we are perishing” fear.
Unfortunately, we don’t really know if we have genuine faith until that faith is tested. I believe this is the reason that Jesus allowed His disciples, and us, to go through so many of these nail-biting situations. Trials force us off of the proverbial fence. Tested faith is enduring and overcoming faith; it’s faith that can empathize with and encourage others who find themselves in the midst of a raging storm – those who are feeling as if Jesus is asleep in the boat.
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” (James 1:2-3)
Faith (in Christ) is the opposite of and the antidote to fear. But like all antidotes it takes time to work and the quicker we start building faith, the more effective it will be. We build faith (overcome fear) by reading the Bible, through prayer and by surrounding ourselves with faith-filled people.
Faith is also preventive medicine. When faced with a life-altering situation, the person of great faith will experience little fear and the person of little faith will experience great fear. So, if you’re not going through a trial now, start building your faith because the Bible tells us we’ll all face trials.
“Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NLT)
It seems that Jesus attempted to strengthen the faith of His disciples before getting in that boat. That day, the disciples saw Jesus heal a leper, a paralyzed man, Peter’s sick mother-in-law and then, for a grand finale, just before stepping in the boat and sailing into the storm, “…they brought to (Jesus) many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill.” (Matthew 8:16)
Obviously Jesus knew that His disciples would face this test of faith just as He knows when our trials are coming. It might seem like He’s asleep, but if we rely on Him to deliver us from the trial, we won’t wonder, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” like the men in that storm-tossed boat; we’ll be able to answer that question emphatically as those same men were able to do soon after this incident; “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)
As I said above, everyone will eventually face something that they are powerless to handle in their own physical and/or emotional strength. This is the place where we discover how weak and fragile we are and how big and powerful God is.
“…we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction…that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead…” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
My Hope of Heaven
Until I began reading the Bible at the age of 21, I had no idea of what heaven was truly like. My childish view of heaven had been mostly formed by popular culture; from cartoons, television shows and movies like “Heaven Can Wait.” In my mind heaven was a really boring place where disembodied spirits wandered aimlessly through a mysterious London-like fog. The picture I had built-up in my limited imagination was just slightly better than the first level of Dante’s portrayal of hell; far from the beautiful paradise that I now believe it to be.
When I began reading the Bible’s descriptions of this place called heaven, I was shocked by how different it was from my naive view. I am now convinced that it’s vital to have an accurate view of heaven in order to maintain a genuine (joy and peace-giving) hope for this life and the next.
I know this will sound strange, but it’s true; while I’m not in any hurry to die, since forming a proper Biblical view of heaven in my mind, I’m really looking forward to the day I see heaven! Maybe you’ll better understand what I’m looking forward to after reading the following description of the real heaven.
- We will not be disembodied spirits. We will have bodies like Jesus had after He was resurrected (1 John 3:2). Bodies that defy the laws of physics, as we now understand them. A body that can walk through walls (John 20:19), but also has flesh (Luke 24:39). A body that is able to eat (Luke 24:42-43) and drink (Luke 22:30); we’ll even drink wine in heaven (Matthew 26:29).
- Heaven is a place of perfect peace, but not the R.I.P. kind of peace (I always associated that with lying undisturbed in a coffin, which is not only morbid, but also really boring). I’m talking about inner and outer peace forever; no more crime or war (Isaiah 2:4). A place where now ferocious animals like lions, wolves and bears will graze on grass next to sheep and cows (Isaiah 11:7-8). There will be no more death, mourning, crying or any kind of physical or emotional pain (Revelation 21:4).
- The location of the permanent heaven was the biggest surprise to me; heaven and earth will one day become one and the same (Isaiah 65:17 & 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1).
- The government of the permanent heaven will be a perfect monarchy because Jesus is perfect (just and merciful) and He’ll be the King (John 18:36).
- There will be many cities in the permanent heaven and Jesus will appoint good rulers over these cities (John 19:17-19 & Isaiah 32:1). No more campaign ads!
- There will be many, many building and homes, some of which will make the Taj Mahal look like a starter home (John 14:2).
- There are even gold-paved streets (Revelation 21:21).
- There will be no sun or moon in the sky (Revelation 21:23) because there’s no need of them. God created them to mark time and separate night from day (Genesis 1:14), but there is no night in heaven (Revelation 21:25) and by definition eternity is timeless.
- There will be no more oceans and seas (undrinkable water) (Revelation 21:1).
- There will be no more wilderness (uninhabitable places), no deserts, wastelands or ice-covered areas (Isaiah 32:15, 35:1-7, 41:18-19).
- There will be no more deep valleys or high mountains (Isaiah 40:4, Psalm 46:2, Luke 3:5).
I don’t know how many beings will live on this new earth, but the usable portion of this current earth accommodates 7 billion people (right now); the new earth could easily accommodate 3 or 4 times that number.
Those with a true understanding of what the real heaven is like, and KNOW that they’ll be living there forever, are people of hope; they’re also good and productive citizens in this life as they’ll be in the next. I like the way C.S Lewis said this in his book Mere Christianity:
“Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
My Need of a Caregiver
ALS is a horrible disease that leads to the body becoming totally paralyzed; the once-healthy and self-reliant victims of this killer eventually become forced to rely on a caregiver for all of their needs.
Coming to rely on my caregiver for help was very difficult and humbling. I had always been so independent and hard-working, and I suppose that I believed these qualities would keep me from ever having to rely on a caregiver. But the more familiar I became with my disease, the more I was forced to admit that my self-reliance and good work-ethic were not enough; I had to accept the fact that I couldn’t do it on my own; I needed a caregiver to help me.
One day, I admitted defeat and began accepting help from my caregiver. However, even after all these years my pride still makes it difficult to rely on someone else for assistance. But, day after day, my patient, selfless and devoted caregiver is always willing to help me. I’m so thankful for that!
Although everything I wrote above is true of my wife, Mary, and Sharlene (the woman that helps her care for me), I was not referring to either them. The process of coming to terms with accepting help for my physical needs was very similar to something that occurred in my life 13 years before being diagnosed with ALS. It was then I came to realize that I was spiritually helpless. And, like ALS, my efforts to conquer this eternally fatal disease through my own efforts were completely useless; I needed a full-time caregiver. After thoroughly reviewing the “résumés” of all the candidates for this most important position, I determined that only Jesus Christ was qualified to be my caregiver (my Lord and Savior).
Thankfully I didn’t have to become a theologian to conclude that the most significant difference between Christianity and every other belief-system can be summed-up by just one word – Grace! Every other belief-system is based on human efforts (“works”) to earn eternal life. They might phrase it differently, but the bottom line message is always the same – “Clean yourself up and God might accept you.” Christians are those that have come to realize they’re incapable of cleaning themselves up enough to stand before a Holy God. Like ALS rendering me physically helpless, all of humanity is spiritually helpless and in need of a spiritual caregiver.
Jesus didn’t wait for us to clean up our act before coming to die for us. In fact, He wouldn’t have had to come at all if we were capable of purifying ourselves. The Bible says it was “…while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
Unlike other belief-systems, Christians don’t perform good works hoping to obtain salvation; we do good works because we’ve already obtained salvation.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)
“Hope does not disappoint”
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint… ” (Romans 5:1-5 NASB)
Regardless of the outcome, I don’t believe that Christ-centered hope can ever be categorized as “false hope.” Even in our darkest trials; when we’re hoping (in Christ) for a miracle to bring us through the trial and the miracle doesn’t happen the way we envisioned, we can remain “in hope” if we are truly hoping (unconditionally) in Christ and not merely hoping for a miracle. Regardless of the trials we face, only hope in Christ is “the full assurance of hope until the end” (Hebrews 6:11 NASB)
The Apostle Paul (the man who wrote the opening passage) experienced many difficult trials, but was a living example that hope in Christ never disappoints. He wrote; (I have) “…been put in jail…whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled many weary miles. I have faced danger from flooded rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the stormy seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be Christians but are not. I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27 NLT)
Like many of us, Paul’s trials didn’t always turn out the way he envisioned and prayed that they would. A great example of this is Paul’s so-called “thorn in the flesh.” The Bible never says what Paul’s “thorn” was, but I believe this omission was intentional so we could read Paul’s words and be able to apply them to whatever “thorns in the flesh” we might be dealing with, whether they are physical, emotional, relational, financial or spiritual etc.
Paul wrote;” Concerning this (thorn in the flesh) I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NASB)
God telling Paul, “My grace is sufficient,” isn’t His nice way of saying “No,” but it is His way of saying “Not yet.” The Bible doesn’t tell us whether or not God ever removed Paul’s “thorn” at some later point in Paul’s life and I think this omission was also intentional so we would keep hoping for God to grant our miracle.
I believe that God wants us to get to the point where our joy, peace and hope are not dependent on our circumstances. Learning to love God unconditionally, as He loves us, is the greatest of all miracles.
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33 NASB)
His grace is sufficient!
Unshakable Hope 