Heart of a Friend
The Heart of a Friend podcast was born out of a desire to share some of the most important things learned from a lifetime of experience. It is hosted by Andy Wiegand. Andy retired in 2017 after 40 years of pastoral ministry. He and his wife now reside in Columbus, Ohio. They have raised six children and are now very happy to be grandparents.
Andy grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and received his education at Harvard University (B.A. ’73) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div. ’78). In his retirement Andy devotes time to charitable work, visits with friends and family, exercises and continues to do a lot of reading and thinking about life.
Heart of a Friend
Ep. 55 | How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short - Psalm 90 - Part 1
Highlights: How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short
Psalm 90 (Part 1) : Finding God in the Psalms
Two responses to the brevity of life:
Resignation: Learn to accept the brutal reality of a life that’s too short. Admit defeat.
Resistance - Affirm that there IS something wrong with the way things are. Death is a tyrant. An enemy to be defeated.
Our hope (is) finally to emerge from the tyranny (of time), the poverty of time, to ride it not to be ridden by it. We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. “How he’s grown!” We exclaim, “How time flies!” As though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It’s as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless, of course, the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal. (Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis)
Is God really angry?
There is both love and anger, both mercy and judgment throughout the whole Bible.
When we love someone - a parent, spouse, child, friend - and they’re being harmed by someone else, isn’t it normal and healthy for us to feel anger? Why would we apply a different standard to God?
Though I used to complain about the indecency of the idea of God’s wrath, I came to think that I would have to rebel against a God who wasn’t wrathful at the sight of the world’s evil. God isn’t wrathful in spite of being love. God is wrathful because God is love. (Miroslav Wolf)
God’s anger is not the same as our anger. it’s always at the right thing, at the right time and to the right extent. It’s judicial anger. It’s measured. It’s appropriate. In fact, it’s necessary for the well-being of the world.
But the death sentence we are under is not simply a punishment. It’s actually a mercy. A severe mercy, but a mercy, nonetheless.
1. Death is a natural consequence of sin.
2. Death limits the damage that can be done by human sin.
3. Death sends us a message: Something is horribly wrong.
He whispers to us in our pleasures, he speaks to us through our conscience, but he shouts to us in our pain
4. Death means we can only procrastinate for so long.
5. Death is the door to our eternal home.
6. The cross of Christ is proof of God’s loving purpose.
Whatever game God may be playing with the world...He’s playing by the same rules. (The Problem of Pain, C.S.Lewis)
Life in this world is the mere cover and title page of the great story, which none of us on earth has ever read, which goes on forever and ever and in which every chapter will be better than the one before? (Narnia Chronicles - The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis)