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"I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shook their heads." (Psalms 109:25)

 There are some things that just need to be accepted whether they are believable or not, we just need to trust God's word and make that our standard for believing. You know that saying, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it!" Well that is the point to this lesson for today! Not that I am trying to teach anyone here, this is for myself; if God speaks to someone else, then that is between you and God; I really don't need to know about it. What we have before us today is a very famous verse, a verse that I shared on several days ago, and one that matches the depiction of Jesus as He hung on the cross. It is not easy to live in that moment, as you are looked upon as a catastrophe or calamity. I get that kind of experience quit often, as people look upon my situation and shake their heads. The word 'reproach' is a word that means an object, like the reproach of widowhood. It would be much like the attitude of Naomi, as she comes back to town; those that saw her said, "Is this Naomi?" and she answered, "Call me not Naomi, call me Mara." Naomi means, "my joy," "my bliss," or "pleasantness of Jehovah." Mara is a name that means, "bitter," or "bitterness," and "sadness." It's like when you say, "Oh, what a shame," or "How tragic, it's hard to imagine." Oddly enough, these are the depictions of what the contrast was as Jesus hung upon that cross. On the one hand you have the "pleasantness of Jehovah," and on the other you have total "sadness." For me, there is a bitter-sweet reality that I live, day in and day out. On the one hand there is no greater joy that I can experience than caring for my wife; and on the other, there are times when I can feel no greater sadness. So I get the looks; I understand the shaking of the heads. Reproach is something more than just a label, it is something that you become in the eyes of those that do not know any better, and of them which do not understand. Taking God at His word, means that we must set aside our failure to comprehend the reasons why, and we must rest upon the answers that He gives us. Much like Paul had to do, as he heard God say, "My grace is sufficient for you." We might not get to choose everything that happens to us in life, but we do get to choose how we respond to it, and I choose joy...

"We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn't live to please himself. As the Scriptures say, "The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me." Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled."
(Romans 15:1-4) NLT