How Happiness Happens by Max Lucado

Author:Max Lucado
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2019-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

9

Speak Up

Admonish one another.

—COLOSSIANS 3:16 NIV

Your coworker leaves this voice mail: “My father just passed away. I’m on my way to the hospital. I don’t know if I can handle this.”

Your next-door neighbor explains the appearance of the moving van that sits in front of her house. “My husband is moving out. Says he’s done with our marriage.”

Your sibling calls with the news that her teenager is in rehab, again.

Your phone beeps, and this text appears: “The doctor called. The cancer is back. Can we meet?”

From one moment to the next, you are invited into someone’s hurt. You didn’t volunteer; you were drafted. You didn’t plan to discuss the death, divorce, or disease. But sometimes you have no choice.

I didn’t. The woman just looked at me and said, “I’m getting older and sicker by the moment. I think God is done with me.”

She and I shared a ride in a funeral limousine of all things. She was related to the deceased. I was a friend of the deceased. We’d both attended the memorial and were heading to the cemetery.

Trips to the cemetery have a way of reminding us of our own mortality. Maybe that’s why she went unexpectedly verbal with her woes. “Ever since I turned eighty, I’ve been so sick. I’ve prayed so much. I don’t think I’m going to get better.”

And then staring out the window at the winter sky, she repeated her conclusion. “I think God is done with me.”

It wasn’t a happy conversation. She wasn’t a happy person. What do you say to someone who thinks God is MIA? Agree? Disagree? Say little? Say a lot?

The New Testament story of Lazarus reveals what Jesus would say. The story begins simply: “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany” (John 11:1).

I guess we all have to be known for something. Martha was bossy. Judas was greedy. Matthew had rowdy friends. And Lazarus? Well, Lazarus was sick.

Unfortunate but not unusual. Everyone gets sick. Lazarus’s situation wasn’t uncommon except for one detail. He had a pal named Jesus. He is described as Jesus’ “dear friend” (v. 3 NLT).

This is a rare descriptor. Scripture describes people as Jesus’ student, follower, family, antagonist, critic, but friend? A “dear friend”?

Lazarus, apparently, genuinely liked Jesus. He liked his stories, his jokes. Others liked to be seen with Jesus or to be taught by Jesus. Not Lazarus. He just liked Jesus.

And Jesus liked Lazarus. It’s wonderful to imagine Jesus spotting Lazarus at a busy luncheon, motioning for him to come over, and asking, “Want to hang out this week?” Friends spend time together. They share life. Jesus and Lazarus did this.

And now the friend of Jesus was sick. Very sick. So sick that his sisters, Mary and Martha, “sent a message to Jesus telling him, ‘Lord, your dear friend is very sick’” (v. 3 NLT).

They surely assumed Jesus would come quickly. After all, they weren’t unknown faces in the crowd. Their Bethany house was for all practical purposes his house. They kept his favorite tea in the cupboard.

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