Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church

And He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (Acts 17:26b)

Why Should I Care If Life Just Happens?

A promising young co-ed was struck down one night as she walked her bike near the U campus. The driver of the car was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

What is devastating about such news is the sense of unfairness of this death. This co-ed was an honors student, the kind of person who helped others, the kind of person people loved to know and be with.

In every major newspaper, stories like this are told almost daily. A prominent community leader and respected father is killed by a stray bullet falling from the sky where it was carelessly shot-in-the-air during New Year's Eve celebrating. The odds against his being hit are enormous, but a good man is dead just the same. It doesn't make sense. One small town sees six children die mysteriously of cancer. It doesn't seem right.

Nor are such tragedies anything new. To the good and seemingly innocent come crippling injury, house fires and leukemia. In even the strongest families the questions are raised: "What's the use? What sense is there in trying so hard? Life just seems to happen anyway."

The choice we seem to face is between a life of diligent effort and virtue, with the attendant risk of greater disillusionments and disappointments, or of giving up because life seems to hold the same good or ill, for all people regardless of what we do.

Jesus Christ presents a better alternative! By choice he entered our life with its real dangers and unfairness. He faced human disappointments and tragedy. And by his life he added purpose and direction to our living. Christians believe that when Jesus died on the cross, he was following God's plan to redeem a world lost in a purposelessness of its own choosing. He restored to us a sense of belonging to God. That belonging gives life purpose. We don't live our our lives alone. What we do, in success or failure, even in tragedy, is lived in relationship with God who loves us.

Isn't life more than a random sequence of things which just happen? Jesus makes real living happen.

Why Does Life Matter If Life Is Just Matter?

The news is grim. Four teenagers suffocate after locking their garage door while continuing to run their car engine.

What was shocking even beyond the tragedy was that theirs was not a story of lifelong deprivation and want. No, they lived in an affluent suburb seemingly with every advantage at their fingertips.

Across America the same kind of puzzle plays out everyday. For one family the dream house, acquired after years of saving and planning, just doesn't seem like home. Something is missing. For another a month old "new" car sits in the drive and isn't washed this Saturday. Though the payments remain, the magic is gone.

This dilemma is nothing new. Over the years the contemplation of affluence has sent some to communes and others to encounter groups. And today, even among the most successful, the question is raised, "Is this all there is? Isn't there more to life?"

The choice we seem to face is between a luxury-filled life with the price tag of haunting emptiness or a life of embarrassment and guilt over the acquired necessities which we despise.

Jesus Christ presents the better alternative. By choice he entered our world of things. He took on a need for the material of daily human life. And what he did here among things and with his few possessions fills the emptiness of our living.

Christians believe that when Jesus gave up all things again in his death, he restored to humankind a right relationship with God. He also showed us the right relationship to have with things. We use them. Things help us serve others and reflect our renewed relationship with God.

Isn't life more that just things? Jesus made a bond between things and purpose. Jesus makes life matter. He alone can make things matter too.

If I Am Like God Why Don't I Like Myself?

A Well known song writer and singer dies from anorexia nervosa.

What is puzzling to many is how such a successful and attractive entertainer could be troubled by a disorder marked by starvation diets and low self-esteem.

Almost every community is discovering more and more the wide-ranging and debilitating effects of anxieties resulting from feelings of low self-worth. A professional athlete at the peak of his career begins the spiraling self-destruction of drug abuse. Among the popular teens are those contemplating or even attempting suicide. Ours is a crisis of the inner self. We don't always value what we are.

This problem is nothing new. In ancient times many turned to secret mystery religions attempting to escape an unhappy personal reality. Today the lure of positive personal programming provides an equally illusory solution. Even the suggestion that we are like God, made in his image, often misses the point. We often don't feel that way and usually have the evidence to prove it isn't true.

The choice we seem to face is between a life of shallow pretense, projecting a sense of worthiness which is not felt or becoming resigned to feeling that self-accecptance and confidence are permanently beyond grasp.

Jesus Christ presents a better solution. He entered our world where self-image can be challenged. By his life he restored to us a proper sense of self-worth.

Christians believe that God long ago made mankind just like himself, but that our rebellion and disobedience disrupted the harmony which at first existed between man and God. Jesus valued our lives and loved us enough to give his own life to restore us to God.

How do we view ourselves? Are we like God? Not in the sense that we are ever completely free from offending God in this life. But because of Jesus, God himself sees us differently. God likes us. Should we do any less?

Why Search For God If God Is So Hard To Find?

A popular TV evangelist makes an appeal for millions of dollars to support a mission or ministry.

What shocked even the religious organizations long accustomed to such appeals was this leaders claim that God had threatened to end his life if the goal was not reached.

The strident call to serve or contribute is often heard from church leaders today. Ordinary offerings often don't seem to be enough. Gifts in large amounts are requested to keep "vital ministries" going. It seems like so much effort. The common dedication to God shown by prior generations pales in comparison to the kind of commitment which is called for today. Today's appeals seem too extraordinary.

Such appeals are not new. A rich man's son in the middle ages gave his wealth to the poor and became a saint to his many followers. In the 20th century the godly life is touted by a variety of advocates from the dark garbed in horse drawn carts to the orange-robed in sandals, but always with the implication that greater than usual dedication is required to find God. In the end even those inclined to draw closer to God begin to ask, "If this is what it takes, why try to find God?"

The choice we seem to face is between a life spent pursuing a distant God, with the exhaustion attendant on its ever-increasing demands, or giving up because the goal seems unattainable.

Jesus Christ presents a better alternative. By choice he entered our world of efforts. In his living he met every requirement of God. And in keeping each of them he made God easy for us to find.

Christians believe that by his perfect life in our place that Jesus found us and brought us to God. The requirements have been met. The efforts and giving required to find God were completed by him for all mankind.

As we come to know this, we discover a change in our outlook. Since the hard work of finding God has done for us by Jesus, we tend to work far harder for God than we ever could before.

Why try to find God? It is God who finds us through Jesus! And where once there was a burdensome pressure to do the extraordinary to come close to him, there now opens up a life of joyful service in which every action counts. Why try so hard? Because God tried so hard He found us.

Why Is Life So Bad If God Is So Good?

Authorities apprehended a man suspected in the serial slaying deaths of 21 children in a metropolitan area.

What a horrified nation soon discovered from the subsequent trial and conviction of this man was frightening. This man was a trusted friend of the victims. He was found guilty of crimes scarcely imaginable.

Crimes aren't always this vicious, but similar stories are reported in larger newspapers almost every day. It might be of the volunteer Santa beaten and robbed on his way to a Christmas party at a Children's Hospital. Or it could be about social security checks stolen by a lifelong neighbor. But even though crime is commonplace, we never become inured to such depravity.

Nor is this state of affairs the invention of our age. It has always been the weak and helpless who are most often and most severely abused. That such hideous things are done with seeming impunity, has led many to ask, "Does right prevail? How can we believe that God is really good?"

The choice we seem to face is between viewing God as a benign yet powerless observer of life or as an all-powerful being who lacks the essential moral fiber of goodness, because he won't stop the evils perpetrated even against his own followers.

Jesus presents us a better alternative. By choice he entered our world of inequities. Here he lived a life of goodness. He made it possible for us to believe in God's power and his goodness, in spite of our world's evils.

Christians believe that when Jesus died on a cross he endured God's just and powerful punishment for every wrong ever committed by mankind. In fact, Christians feel that in his Son Jesus, God championed goodness. He made his good reputation our own possession.

It's sadly true, some people will continue to push God's goodness away and in time bring a judgment from God upon themselves. But Christians are in no more of a hurry to see that happen than God is. We patiently wait remembering that each of us too would have been swept away had God in His mercy not delayed.