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Blind Dates
I love playing cupid, but to “date,” (no pun intended!) I’ve had no success…It is still fun to try though.
I’ve found that “Beauty really IS in the eye of the beholder”…In the blind date scenario, we truly see our candidate as a wonderfully handsome or beautiful person. Most likely, we know them very well and think they are great…or else we wouldn’t be setting them up with someone!! The reality is, they may not be all that handsome or beautiful to everyone else. They are to us because we see MORE than just the outside. Most likely we have a history with them. We have experiences and moments that we have shared that endear them to us.
I’ve heard someone say, “Oh how it improves someone when I begin to love them.” Isn’t that true? Love is blind. We see a person’s character and their personality and their sense of humor. Over time, that whole package has become quite lovable to us. We see way past the exterior. And, naturally, we want someone else to see to what we see…But when they arrive at the door, and all you have is first “sight”…well…the response may not be the love we had hoped for.
Let me personalize it for you… Way back in the late 80’s a friend set me up on a blind date. Oh, she had built this guy up and talked about how handsome he was and how funny and yada, yada, yada… And, in her defense, she must have said some of those exact same things about me to him. I will never forget when this fella arrived at my front door. He was a little shorter and a lot chunkier than she had described. I’ve never been one to hide my feelings and evidently this was before I had discovered how to hide behind the “shades.” So, I know what was going through my mind had to be written all over my face. Inside I was thinking, “Hmm, you’re not what I expected.” And well, evidently, I was not exactly what he was expecting either because the first words out his mouth was, “Hmf…Dianne said you were much prettier than you are.” Talk about some honest feedback! We both burst out laughing!!! Fortunately, we both had a sense of humor or that date could have been a complete disaster.
My point is this… That’s exactly how God sees us…He sees us through the eyes of Jesus. He sees us as perfectly beautiful…He sees us as flawless. Wow!!! Stop for a minute and soak that in. Thank goodness we aren’t approaching God on our own merits or our own beauty. Instead, we have a Savior, oh what a Savior, whose eyes we are viewed perfectly through. I’m so thankful that God will never look at us and say, “Hmf, you’re not at all what I expected.”
(for you BFG’ers…yep that is Dianne Raper that orchestrated the “set up”…)
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One Shot
Recently Nicholas sliced his finger (to the bone!) doing something that only a little boy could do. The “particulars” are still a bit sketchy! That’s another little boy thing. They don’t get all wadded up in details…especially any specific details that might incriminate them once all the drama is over and the full scale investigation is underway. They’re clever that way, you know?
Details, Schme-tails…We know the drill… Turn off the stove (of course this would be a night I cooked!), call Dad, who is always on his way home from work when crisis strikes, pile in the car and take the all too familiar trip to immediately-urgent-instant care where we have an account set up and know the staff by name.
“Hello…how are your children? Good to see you again!”
After a few minutes of catching up with everyone, we were shuffled back to an examination room where they assessed the damage. Nicholas was hysterical and talking about random things that made no sense at all…Trying to be the consoling parent, I just kept saying, “yes, yes, it’s okay…You’re going to be fine.” I had no clue what he was murmuring about but tried to appear like I did…I think at one point I promised him an Xbox 360 if he survived and had use of his opposable thumbs. As I’ve said before I need more substance for the “Parent of the Year” application. I had to offset the fact that I let him nearly cut his finger off…I knew that was not going to bode well with the review committee. Points were going to be deducted for that. The icing on the cake was when he told me that he cut his finger I didn’t even look up from what I was doing. I just assumed it was one of his many practical jokes that can be set up by using a red sharpie marker to create the “blood affect” and dipping your fingers in water and rub across your cheeks to create the illusion of tears. I’ve seen this so many times. After a decade of “Nichol-drama” the shock-factor is gone. In retrospect, I should have stood up and paid attention because this time, the blood that was pooled in his hand was real. Oops…more points deducted from the application!
Nicholas continued to mutter and talk out of his head, I nodded as if I understood. In the midst of the trauma, my phone vibrated with a text message notification. I looked over at the phone to see who it was from and he said, “Do you have to take that right now?” (That comment was not murmured or muttered under hi s breath, it was stated loudly and clearly and I completely understood what he was saying.) I thought to myself, well, we’re just sitting here, what would it would hurt for me to respond to this text? Good grief, we have six people focusing their full attention on you and your laceration. Let’s be honest, odds are that I was going to pass out in the next few minutes anyway. What would it hurt if I responded to one last text before hitting the floor? That’s usually how I pass time in immediately-urgent-instant care anyway. I’m awoken to the pungent aroma of ammonia released from the smelling salts waved under my nose just in time to produce the insurance card and chauffeur the patient and the patient’s entourage home.
This is our fourth trip to get him stitched up and over time I’ve learned my place…I did not miss my calling to be a doctor or a nurse. The whole blood-thing freaks me out. I can’t look at it. I have learned to stand “near” the wound but I can’t afford to make eye contact. If I lose focus and get a glimpse of the wound, then I’m passed out on the floor and become another patient in their queue to care for. Let’s be honest, that really does no one any good. (For you Twilight fans, sadly I would have made a poor excuse for a vampire…They’re too pale anyway….but I digress…)
Even though I really didn’t see the big deal with responding to the text, I put the phone away and joined the other six folks focused on Nicholas.
I’m joking about this but there’s a message in here. We have so many things vying for our attention. We have so many distractions. I guess most of the time the ability to multitask is a good thing. In fact, those dingbats that can’t multitask really get on my nerves (but that’s a whole other blog). They get on my nerves, but they just might be better parents. There is a time and a place to multitask. There is also a time and a place to give your undivided attention to what or more importantly, WHO is right in front of you.
As each day passes and my children add another candle to the cake, I am smacked in the face with the reality that we’ve got one shot folks…just one! At best we have eighteen years with our children living under our roof and our authority. The harsh reality is that our influence on their lives expires long before that eighteenth birthday. For the time we have, we must be intentional about influencing their lives while we have their attention. Sometimes that means putting a moratorium on texting and IPODs when you’re with them. A friend of mine recently pointed out how precious that time riding in the car can be. You have them trapped. They can’t escape. Don’t waste that time. Talk to them. Another friend said that he noticed his children talked more when they went to certain restaurants. If you know that, then for pete’s sake go to that restaurant. The time is priceless and fleeting. I’ve heard many people say that you will never get to the end of your life and wish you’d spent more time at work and less time with your family. It just won’t happen. So while you can, make the most of the time you have.
“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” (Psalms 127:3-5 ESV)
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That Girl
Does anyone remember the 1960’s sitcom “That Girl” with Marlo Thomas? I loved that show! Each episode would begin with a teaser where an odd incident would occur or a discussion would foreshadow the episode’s story. The scene would always end with someone exclaiming, “That girl!” as Marlo Thomas would come into view.
In my own life there have been many times when I didn’t want to be “That Girl” or “That Friend.” One of the more memorable and traumatic times was just a few years after our son died when some of our good friends were experiencing their own personal crisis. Their four year old son, who ironically was named Zack just like my son, became very sick. He was shuffled from one hospital to another trying to diagnose his illness. Finally, it was determined that he had contracted e-coli. If you know anything about e-coli you know that it is very serious and for the most part is a waiting game as there is very little treatment for this sickness.
All through that experience I kept praying, “Lord, I don’t want to be “That friend.” I don’t want to be the friend that you’ve sent into their lives to help them through losing their son. I didn’t want their Zack to be like our Zack. I wanted their prayers to be answered and their son to be healed. I was sure that was why God had put us in their life. I thought to myself, no God. Don’t make me be THAT friend. I even started to wonder if that was how it was going to be from now on. Is every friend I have going to be someone who has a tragedy that I can be there for? Is that my new role in life? Who would want to be “That” friend?
Thankfully, I was wrong, as I so often am. As you might expect, God’s plan was completely different from what I had suspected. Thankfully, their prayers were answered! Their Zack was healed! It was a long, hard road and there were some days when the outcome was uncertain, but ultimately all of our prayers were answered. Today he is happy and healthy and more than fine!
Since then, I’ve reflected on that experience many times. I thought about how God’s plan was not the plan that I had imagined. What is interesting is that I think I had it all wrong. I think THEY were put in our life (instead of vice versa) to show us that God sometimes says yes…sometimes our prayers are actually answered. I think for a while after Zack died, I had started to wonder if He ever said yes. I thought about how through that experience God deliberately and gently reminded me that sometimes our prayers are answered with a resounding “yes.” I had temporarily forgotten that. I had started to question if the answer was ever going to be “yes” to anything I asked ever again. You know, that will happen sometimes if you have a series of things go wrong in your life. You’ll start to ask, “Where are you God? Do you hear me anymore? Are you ever going to answer Yes?” All I could think about was the “NO” that I had received when I offered my prayers up on behalf of my own “Zack” just a few years before.
If you ever get distressed about your situation or “That” role you think God has called you to play in someone else’s life, remember Isaiah 55:9 which reminds us that “God’s ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.” You may be pleasantly surprised to learn you are not always “That Girl.”
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Fall Back
This weekend we fall back. Thank goodness for the “spring forward, fall back” phrase or I’d never get it right. Other than having to turn each one of our fifty clocks 23 hours ahead I actually don’t mind falling back. Truthfully, that’s probably what I’ll spend my extra hour doing. I’ll use it to adjust all the clocks in our house and cars….Oh my, the cars. We have three cars, all the same make, yet mysteriously none of the clocks can be adjusted the same way. I’m tempted to just let it go and do the math in my head. It will only be wrong for half the year. By spring, it will catch back up. What’s six months of doing simple math in my head to subtract one hour if I need to know the real time?
Other than the painful setting of the clocks, who wouldn’t love an extra hour added to their day? It is like a gift! Now, springing forward….that’s another story. Sometimes it takes me weeks to recover from the loss of that one small hour.
Isn’t our life a lot like “falling back?” We are given a certain amount of time. In fact, the bible says that our life is like a “vapor.” In the whole scheme of things, it is not so different than that hour we are given each fall. It doesn’t seem like very much, does it? It is just one hour, just sixty minutes. What will you do with your hour? Some people will use it for good? Some will be productive? Others will waste it? Or maybe even worse, others won’t even be aware they had an extra hour added to their day.
Those same questions can be asked about our life. God has given us a certain number of hours…like sands through the hour glass…so are the days of our lives. (only a handful of soap fans will even understand the previous statement…that one’s for you!) We have a “wisp of vapor” to do what God has purposed us to do. He placed us in this time, in this place, around these people. He gave us these children, these friends, these co-workers.
Will we use our time for His glory to accomplish His plans? Will we be productive with the gift we have so graciously been given or will we waste it? Or maybe even worse, will we even realize what we have been given before its too late?
Take a moment and thank Him for the gift. Don’t look back. Instead, set your sights on what’s in front of you. Then ask Him, no, beg Him, to show you how to use the hours you have left to make the most of every breath before that last grain of sand slips through the hour glass.
James 4:14(AMP) “Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air].”
Psalm 144:4 NASB “Man is like a mere breath; His days are like a passing shadow.”
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No Bite
Heb 11:25 “He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.”
I’ve been a life long nail biter. Unfortunately, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Oh my goodness, I’ve tried! Nothing ever works…Sure it will work for a day or two and sometimes I’ll even have the willpower to stretch it to a couple of weeks if the stars are aligned just perfectly. But I’ve decided there just isn’t any long term solution to my problem. There is no magical ointment or glaze or squirt bottle that can keep me from feasting on them on a right regular basis.
There was one time in my life when I felt desperate to grow nails. I made my mind up I was really going to try! You know how it is when you are newly engaged and everyone is looking at your diamond? I could just envision folks looking at my engagement ring all shiny and beautiful, ooohing and ahhhhing and then shifting their line of sight everso slightly a few inches down to the tip of my finger to catch a glimpse of the knawed-off nail stub dangling from the finger that housed the beautiful diamond. Disgusting! The nail stub was going to ruin the whole engagement experience. I needed really long, beautiful fingernails.
So, in an effort to have nails for at least this one time in my life I tried “No-Bite”. Oh my goodness that stuff tastes horrible—as you might expect something like this might taste that is trying keep your fingers out of your mouth. It was so bitter. Even the slightest touch of my finger nail anywhere near my lips and the bitter taste would overwhelm me. The bitterness would linger. It would take hours for it to go away. I would try brushing my teeth, chewing gum, anything to get that nasty taste out of my mouth. I couldn’t even eat KFC finger lickin’ fried chicken…it was too risky. I didn’t want those fingernails with that toxic glaze anywhere near my lips.
The war of wills between me and “No Bite” went on for a few days. I finally reached my breaking point and decided that it was worth biting my nails with that disgusting spread, just to be able to bite my nails!
Then something happened….it wasn’t so bad anymore. “Bitter” wasn’t so bitter any longer. Over time, a taste here, a taste there…and now it was becoming almost tolerable. In fact, it was not only becoming tolerable, it was starting to taste pretty good. I considered using it as a dry-rub on my food. (:
Wow! Isn’t that scary? It should be. Don’t you think sin is exactly like that? A little here, a little there…then we start justifying. We rationalize. We weigh the options. We determine in our own minds that you know what, it’s worth feeling miserable for that momentary pleasure we experience afterwards.
I wonder if sometimes we are ever in a situation and initially we know it is wrong. It feels wrong. We may even be convicted about it. We feel uneasy about it way down in our spirit…But we dismiss all the signals and continue down our own path of self-destruction. After a while, what once tasted bitter and seemed horrible just doesn’t seem so bad anymore. Perhaps after even more time, we develop a taste for it. Not only does it not taste bitter anymore, it actually starts to taste good! That’s when you know you’re in trouble. We should never be more terrified than when we are no longer under conviction for doing something that we are 100% positive is wrong. Because at that point, we’re in so deep we can’t even see what a mess we’re in. Often times, we’ll drop anchor because at that moment it feels good and that’s all we’re interested in— that temporal feeling of being happy. We’re not interested in joy today…happiness will do just fine. So, we mar up, neck deep in something that we know we have no business being involved in, but our flesh is weak and we give in and go in the complete opposite direction from the one God has so carefully charted out for us. Satan has us just where he wants us… Sin is enjoyable. Then one day we come to ourselves…as so many of us have done before. We look around and realize what a mess we’ve made. Bitter may not be tasting bitter yet, but we know that bitter IS bitter. That’s the first step. We stop. We spinaround. We ask for forgiveness. We turn from what we’re doing and slowly begin to make our way back to God. He stands…never having moved away from us. He’s right there where we left Him. Waiting. He forgives. He forgets. Grace! Joy makes a home where mere happiness once was.
P.S. Someone, who farmed all their life, suggested I spread “something else” on my fingers to help me stop biting them….hmmm…I’m guessing “that” would never start tasting good. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s all that sanitary and I have to think that over time it would discolor my nails, ya know? I ain’t that desperate yet…Me and my stubs are fine.
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Equipment
Do you ever feel like you’re not equipped? I would expect you have times in your life when you don’t feel like you’re able to do the task that is set before you. I know I have. King David had it figured out when he was about to fight Goliath. He had been clothed with all sorts of heavy armor in prep for his battle with the giant. No doubt he was being outfitted for success. He had all the equipment a warrior would have needed to fight an enemy in that day, but he realized very quickly that it wasn’t about the outfit or the tools. It was about what was on the inside. The “man after God’s own heart” knew He had more than He needed with God on his side.
My son is like that sometimes. He feels like he needs all the best equipment to excel at a sport. Once when he was playing baseball, he was in the middle of a hitting slump. He was convinced that he needed a new “DeMarini Voodoo Composite Singlewall barrel design, ion endcap something something something bat.” I hated to break the news to him, but it wasn’t the bat. I am convinced that if you’re a good ball player, it’s not the equipment that makes you great. It is more about the one who is holding the equipment. It is inside you…some innate ability…some inborn talent…it is either something that you inherently possess or have developed over time with hours and hours of practice. It is something that’s on the inside, not the outside. Either way, it has very little to do with your outfit or accessories, although that is exactly what the world promotes. My contention is this…if you’re a good ballplayer, you can hit a paper ball with a tobacco stick standing barefoot wearing a ripped pair of umbros and a holey (I don’t mean sanctified) tee shirt across the neighbor’s fence with the wind blowing in your face!
God has created us to do great things! Things beyond our imagination. Things we can’t imagine ever accomplishing. We’re standing in front of a mirror looking at ourselves in the physical realm and all we see is bare feet, tattered clothes and shaddy equipment. But God sees us through the lens of possibility. He sees all that He has created us to do.
Some of you feel like you’re not equipped to perform the daunting task God has set before you. My suggestion is this…Take what you have. Start where you are. Pick up your tobacco stick and your paper ball and grab your old tattered running shoes and take the first step… God will meet you on your path. He’ll take you right where you are with exactly what you have and he’ll help you hit one out of the park!
Phil 4:13 “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”
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Contagious
We’re smack dab in the middle of flu season. I can’t help but think about what I’m catching from the folks I’m around on a daily basis. I wonder what I’m being exposed to. Are they contagious? Will I catch what they have? Is hand sanitizer strong enough? These are the things that fill my thoughts…
Recently, my daughter started singing in the choir at our church. The first Sunday she was up there, I felt like she was in kindergarten in a play. We waved and smiled at her. She waved and smiled back! We were beaming with pride. Then we realized that it was being videoed and that we probably looked ridiculous, so we stopped…At the suggestion of some friends I am, however, planning to make a poster like they do on American Idol that says, “Blakely ROCKS.” It’s just one tiny poster, so what if it’s on the video. (:
I was watching my daughter and her friend sing this past Sunday morning…I thought about how their passion for Christ shines through every line in their faces. Their worship is REAL! You can see it in them. It oozes from every inch of their tiny frames.
I thought to myself…I want what they have. And I wondered if others looked at their zeal and their excitement and shared my desire. Their joy is contagious! It is pure praise. It is uninhibited worship. And it is rare!
I’m not sure I do anything that is uninhibited… Too often I am held captive by inhibitions. I am a slave to what others will think about what I’m doing. I’m too concerned with pleasing others and not worried enough about pleasing God. I was raised that you sat in church and did not speak. You were very quiet. Quiet meant reverent. The music was restricted to hymns and hymns could be found in the hymnal on the back of the pew. I think someone tried to strum a guitar once on stage and I don’t recall ever seeing him make that mistake again.
I don’t ever recall taking notes. I remember writing notes…love notes. I remember doodling. I remember being called out for doing those things. Sermon notes and journals to record notes have been a fairly recent phenomenon. So, to worship without inhibition is quite a stretch for me. There is hope though. I look at my daughter and think to myself…I want what she’s having. I want to catch what she has. That’s one thing that I hope is contagious! One thing that I hope makes it past the hand sanitizer barrier.
As I watched their unashamed praise, a smile came over my face. This is how it is supposed to be. It is supposed to be all about Him! We are supposed to lose ourselves as we completely praise Him.
If you’re looking for a biblical point of reference, take a pause when you get to David. He certainly worshipped without inhibitions…The bible says that he “danced before the LORD with all his might.” (2 Samuel 6:14)
David provided us with a good example of unashamed worship and praise before God. He did exactly what God wants us to do. He desires honest praise. He wants us to put off pretense and worldly concerns. He wants worship in “spirit and truth.” He wants the focus to be on Him and only Him.
This life is practice for eternity folks. We’re going to be praising Him and only Him. It will once and for all be about Him. Some of us need to stop looking back at things we were taught and start looking forward to where we are going and what we’ll be doing! Brace yourself, it is going to be a wild ride…and regardless of whether it is your nature or not…or whether or not we were brought up “that way”….You can be sure that one day we will praise without inhibition. You will experience pure praise and worship! My prayer is that it is not the first time.
May we be like David and keep our eyes on Jesus as we worship and not on those around us. May we catch the enthusiasm of a new generation of believers. May we allow our Youth to reteach us things we didn’t even know we needed to learn. May we raise the roof with praise before our mighty God and lose ourselves in praise to Him.
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The Chair Diet
This is not one of my favorite topics and honestly, I’m only blogging about it because this story cracks me up!
Saturdays at the lake afford many opportunities for colorful conversation on a wide variety of topics. The conversation runs the gamut from religion to politics to sports to well…almost anything. Trust me when I tell you that no topic has been left unexplored. As you can imagine, there is no shortage of opinions and those opinions are vocalized confidently and passionately.
One lake Saturday, the conversation turned toward diets of all things. Goodness gracious there are no shortages of fad diets out there: South Beach, Atkins, Cabbage Soup, 3-Day Diet, The Maker’s Diet and my personal favorite, The Lemonade Diet. I suppose my uncle was growing tired of everyone’s complicated theories on how to lose weight so he decided to simplify it for us….hence the Chair Diet was birthed. He began to explain a diet that he has developed over his 80 plus years of life… What is fascinating and interesting is that the Chair Diet is as effective as it is simple! Basically it can be summed up in one sentence. After you have completed a normal size portion of food, you back your chair away from the table. The Chair Diet is the four-legged friend of the world-renowned “Fork Diet’.” (put your fork down and quit eating!) I’m laughing out loud (LOL) right about now, but you know what? There is a lot of simple truth in that statement. Some things we make way more difficult than they should be. Some things we just need to back away from. They are just not good for us. And honestly, the least of which may be food!
Some things don’t need elaborate plans and analysis. Some things you just need to turn tail and run in the other direction.
Daniel 9:13 Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth.
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Hands on
You know what really irks me when I’m shopping??? Those crazy people who stalk you while you’re walking down the mall, minding your own business. You know the ones…They are constantly trying to spray something on you or tell you about their product that will miraculously transform your gnawed-to-the-knuckle fingernails into beautifully manicured appendages. I don’t think so. Trust me, there’s nothing that’s going to help my nail stubs. The mall-stalkers drive me nuts. I feel like I’m under attack. You can’t escape them. You can sense their presence. They encircle you like vultures. You quickly look away so as not to make even the slightest eye contact. Oh, but they persist. They are no stranger to rejection. They continue with their assault. They are a bold lot. They approach you, begging, pleading, please let me squirt you with my magic spray. But you promptly flee the area to a nearby store and hide behind a rack of clothes. They move on to prey upon the next unsuspecting passerby.
Sharing the gospel can feel like that sometime. During a recent mission trip to Costa Rica we did a tract ministry where we went to a big city and stood on a street corner and handed out tracts to passersby. The tracts outlined the gospel and provided information about a local church they were invited to attend. Then again, it was in Spanish and I don’t speak, much less read Spanish, so who knows what it really said. It could have been a coupon for a free chimichanga for all I knew. (:
For many reasons the tract-type of ministry was not my favorite way to share the gospel. It was somewhat impersonal. Basically, we would randomly hand someone a tract. Most of the time the person never broke stride. There was little opportunity for conversation, not that it would have mattered because, like I said, “no habla espanol.” The language barrier didn’t allow for much more than a smile between us. They would usually accept the tract and go on their way.
I think about Jesus’ ministry…He was very hands on. Literally, “hands on.” He often “laid hands on.” The gospel of Luke details several times that Jesus did just this. A paralytic’s friends lowered him down through the roof and placed him right in front of Jesus for him to be healed. (Wow, we should all pray for friends with that kind of persistence and faith!) In Luke 5:13, Jesus “reached out and touched the leper” and he was immediately healed. In Luke 4, Jesus went to Simon’s house and “bent over” and healed his mother-in-law who was suffering from a high fever. In Luke 8, Jesus took the little girl’s hand and raised her from the dead.” In Mark He made “mud pies” and touched the eyes of the blind man twice and restored his sight.
Jesus certainly could have healed from a distance. He didn’t need to be present. He proved that in John 4:50 when he healed the nobleman’s son without ever seeing him. Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The bible says that he was twenty miles from the boy. So, it is not of question of whether or not he could have healed from afar. He can and He did. But more times than not, He was there in person. I have to believe that he stooped down and looked them in the eye. The bible says that He literally touched them…physically and spiritually and He healed them. He was and is a “hands-on” Savior.
I’m with Jesus…I much prefer a more “relational” method to sharing the gospel. I had such a desire to say more than what they could read on the tract. I wanted to sit down with them and look them in the eye. I so wanted to tell them what God has done in my life…to personalize it…to make it real to them. I wanted to say to them that this is not just words on a page. This is real. I can prove that to you. I am living proof!
Later that night I was reflecting on the day’s events. I thought about the tract ministry. I realized that sometimes we’re not called to harvest. Sometimes our job is simply to plant seeds. Hopefully others will come behind us and water those seeds…and ultimately, our prayer is that still others are there for the harvest.
I heard someone say that the key to bringing others to Christ is relationships. I tend to agree. Someone described it something like this…When we build relationships or friendships with others they begin to see Jesus living in us. That friendship is sort of like a bridge that connects our life to theirs. Our friends eventually want what they see shining through us, hopefully very brightly! Sorta like that “city on a hill” that Jesus talks about in the Sermon on the Mount. Anyway, at that point, they walk across that bridge of friendship and on the other side of the bridge they find Jesus. That’s the kind of ministry I want.
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Running Bases
*Okay, I was starting to get the shakes because it has been far too many weeks without a blog on ball. I needed a fix…so, here you go…
Recently I heard someone compare their life to running the bases on a ball field…When you think about it, it is really a good metaphor for life. If I am average and have an average life expectancy, then I’ve probably just lifted my cleat off second base and am raising my head to catch my first glimpse of the third base coach…
I know a lot of folks who are much further around the bases than I am. They rounded third a while back and have a clear view of home plate. It is a sobering thought. I think about what my life will be like when I’m rounding third and heading home. I wonder if I’ll be running. I hope I am.
Hebrews 12:1 says that we should “run the race that is marked out for us.”
I have never been a fan of sliding. When I played ball I would do most anything to try to avoid that situation. I much preferred to stay on my feet! Oh my, for so many reasons…not the least of which was the strawberry on my upper thigh that I was sure to get if I even attempted to slide…One of my least favorite memories of playing ball is when I tried to slide into second base and sprang my ankle. It is so much easier to just run faster, reach the base well in advance of the ball and avoid the whole “sliding” scenario.
My all-time favorite offensive scenario was when I was reaching full speed as I rounded second base only to look up and see the third base coach waving me in, then accelerating into another gait as I rounded third. The icing on the cake was when the catcher was straddling the baseline waiting for a throw from the cut-off…The absolute best feeling in the world was being able to blow by the catcher, in overdrive, and shove them out of the way as I crossed home plate STANDING UP! SCORE! There’s nothing as thrilling as that feeling. (not to mention, no strawberries!!!…for you non-athletic types I’m not talking about fruit…)
I want to live my life that way…especially the last half. I have to! I know more now than I ever have. I’ve seen God work in my life more than ever before. I have forty plus years of a history of His unwavering faithfulness to me and others around me. For that alone, I should love Him more than I ever have before. Because of all those things, I feel like I have a responsibility, more than ever before, to be running. In fact, I should be racing. I want to race to the end. I want to run with unbridled passion and enthusiasm…like I’ve never experienced in my life, ever before…. I want to run until I drag my foot across home plate and maybe, just maybe there will be a catcher who will be so bold as to stand in the baseline and try to block my path…yes, that path that Hebrews says is “marked out for us.” And maybe just one last time I’ll get to experience the thrill of knocking them out of my way as I cross home plate at warp speed…STANDING UP! SCORE!
I don’t know where you are in your walk with the Lord. And honestly, you don’t know either. The truth is that none of us really know if we’re rounding first or a just a few steps from home plate. That uncertainty alone should motivate us to do all we can while we can.
So, maybe there are butterflies in your stomach because you’re lacing up your cleats for your first at bat or maybe you have rounded third a while ago and you are heading home. Regardless of where you are on the base path, dig in your cleats and run like you never have before. Trust Him like you never have before. Love Him like you never have before. And maybe, just maybe you’ll get lucky at the end of your run and the catcher will be standing in the baseline…
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Transplants
2 Samuel 6:6 (NIV) “When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.”
This one is for Jennifer…Thank you for your friendship, your wonderful sense of humor and above all your unwavering faith. We love you!
I have a friend who, God willing, will very soon undergo a kidney transplant. The journey to actually having the transplant surgery has been long and not without its obstacles. Recently, one more obstacle interrupted the scheduled surgery. As a friend, and I believe I can speak for all of her friends, we do not understand. This person has the best attitude and the best outlook on life. She is a ray of light in a dark world! She seems to be handling the change of plans much better than the rest of us. Instead of us encouraging her, it is she who continually encourages us. Isn’t that usually how it is?
I was recently sitting in a waiting room in a doctor’s office and heard an older woman say it best, “The ways of God confound man.” Amen. I know they often confound me. There are so many things I don’t think we’ll even come close to understanding until we see Him face to face…and ironically, it probably won’t matter all that much then.
When I received news of this latest obstacle to my friend’s transplant surgery, I thought to myself…there are a lot of folks out there in need of transplants…not kidney transplants, but heart transplants. No, not the kind you’re thinking about. I’m not talking about a “Baby Fae-type” transplant. They don’t need a baboon heart. I’m talking about a “change of heart.” I thought about how that’s God’s specialty…changing hearts! He’s the original cardiologist…the first heart doctor. His business is all about our hearts. That is what is most important to Him. Once He has full command of our hearts, all those other things just seem to fall into place.
I think about Uzzah…that story in 2 Samuel about when they were moving the ark of the covenant. You know the ark of the covenant…the very presence of God! And when the oxen stumbled and the ark was about to fall off the cart and how Uzzah reached out to grab hold of the ark and God struck him down and he died. I thought about that and wondered why did God strike him down? To a bystander, Uzzah appeared to have been protecting the ark from falling off the cart. To me, it looked like what he did was the right thing to do. But God knew more…as He always does. He can see more than the human eye. (not to mention they had no business moving the ark on a cart for heaven’s sake!) He can see into the very depths of our hearts. The Creator knows all about that which He created. Undoubtedly, His business is the heart business. I have to believe He knew something about Uzzah’s heart that no one else did. All I can say is that, “the ways of God confound men.” I can tell I’m going to get a lot of mileage out of that little nugget of truth.
So, let’s get back to my friend who is waiting on the kidney transplant…I think to myself, “God, what are you up to?” (That’s a rhetorical question in case you’re wondering. Although, I would love for Him to tell me.) I believe the divine cardiologist is busy at work. Who knows whose heart He is working on right now? Who knows the number of folks who’ll be eternally impacted by what the human mind perceives as a scheduling delay? I dare think we can begin to fathom all the He is doing. Maybe somebody needs a heart transplant and so my friend’s kidney transplant has been put on a temporary hold. Maybe He’s touching lives that we can’t see with our human eye, as He so often does.
And by the way, we’d all do well to be like my friend who is waiting on her transplant. She’s more fortunate than most. Truthfully, her only problem is a bum kidney…Most folks have issues far beyond anything that surgery can repair.
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GPS
Gen 6:12 “And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction.”
We recently purchased GPS for both of our cars. I love the GPS and the lady inside the GPS. She is very knowledgeable and over time, we’ve actually become friends. Dewey especially enjoys the GPS. He has set the voice preference to a woman with a British accent who we now affectionately refer to as “Clarice.” Every now and then he’ll start an argument with Clarice over which route is best. In fact, if her performance doesn’t improve, he has threatened to suspend her paychecks or dare I say…fire her! I fear that Clarice’s time with us may be cut short due to her perceived incompetence.
When we have the British lady on the GPS telling us to take the “motorway”, it makes me feel like I’m riding in the European country side when in fact I’m on my way to our friend’s house in Red Oak. Sometimes, just for fun, we change her voice and of course we then have to change her name. Sometime’s she Lola or Elvira. I especially enjoy the GPS when we choose a different path than Clarice suggests. She immediately recognizes that we’re off course and begins her course correction. She’ll tell us to turn around immediately. Or make a U-Turn at the next possibly opportunity. (Are you doing the British accent because you have to do the accent to get the full effect) Well, sometimes we know more than Clarice. Sometimes we have to backtrack…maybe to the house to get an earring or article of clothing that someone has forgotten. One Sunday we got all the way to church and realized Nicholas had forgotten his shoes. Clarice is not programmed to deal with unforeseen events like this. On that day we were so close, she was about to say, “You have successfully reached your destination.” She was about to display the little checkered flag on the brightly colored screen…but just in a “nick” of time, we look in the backseat to see our Nick’s bare feet. I spun around and turned Clarice off at that point. I simply could not deal with the disappointment in her voice.
I find it interesting that no matter how far off the original charted path you get, no matter how many mistakes or wrong turns you make. No matter how many times you go a different way, Clarice is able to recalculate the route and chart a new path and get you to your final destination. You can always get to your final destination from wherever you are. You know the saying, “You can’t there from here”? Well, with Clarice, you can. You can get anywhere from anywhere. It is a fascinating technology.
I have found that God is like that. No matter how many mistakes, how many U-turns, no matter how much backtracking, no matter what we do in our own wisdom, God is able to course correct. He’s able to take us from wherever we are and point us toward our final destination. You know why…because He works all things together for His good. You can’t mess up so badly that God throws his hand in the air in frustration and declares, “That’s it, I’m done. I don’t know what to do. I’ve never seen this before. I have no clue where you are. I can’t get you back on track. You’re simply too far gone!” He’ll never say that. He’ll never say, “You can’t get back to me from where you are.” You just won’t hear that…ever!
You know why? Because He ALWAYS knows where we are, He can redeem anyone, anytime from anything. I’ve seen him deliver some folks that I didn’t think had a chance. I’ve seen him change hearts and refocus lives of people who appeared to the outside world to be way too far gone. He is a fascinating God!
I wonder if He, in his infinite wisdom is saying, “I know the plans I have for you” (Jer 29:11) and He’s charting our path ever so meticulously, one instruction at time. Then out of the blue, we take a detour. We choose a different path. We backtrack. We revert back to an old behavior pattern or an old habit. All the while, He’s gently urging us to make a U-turn. He’s course correcting. But in our own wisdom, we stand firm and we ignore His advice. Sometimes we are so intent on going our own way that we may even get annoyed with Him. We might think we know more than he does. We might even try to turn Him off. But if you’re His, you can’t turn Him off. He’s always there.
I will leave you with this final thought… “You’re never too far gone to make your way back to God.” -Suzanne Clark
Suzanne Clark is a local author. Her first book, “Cry Out to Jesus” was released earlier this year.
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Salt of the earth
I know someone, who shall remain nameless, who doesn’t cook with sugar. Her food is horrible. She also boycotts salt, butter and anything else that might make her food edible. I think she’s trying to declare “fat-free” status for her meals which everyone knows is a euphemism for flavor-free. If I cooked and wow, that ‘s a big “if”, I’d use salt and butter and all the good stuff. It’s biblical…”we are the salt of the earth.” When the salt has lost its saltiness, what good is it for?…
All I can say is “Amen.” I have often wondered, if food loses its flavor, what is it good for? Take rice cakes for example…what are they good for? Perhaps they would make good coasters or frisbees for people with small hands…they sure aren’t good for eating. They aren’t exactly flavorful…I’d say they lost their saltiness, but I don’t think they ever had a saltiness.
On the flip side,…movie popcorn, now that’s good eatin’! That’s good for something. If it is true that you are what you eat, then I want to be an extra large tub of movie popcorn. Movie popcorn has definitely not lost its saltiness. Those tiny bite-sized corn-popped delicacies dripping in salt and butter all neatly housed in a gallon-sized bucket are good for something.
I’ve found that I prefer to analyze those folks around me rather than gaze too deeply within myself, so I’ll comment on my observation of others. Isn’t it just easier to do that? With that said, I must admit that I know some folks who have lost their “saltiness.” And yep, I’ve even asked myself what are they good for?
Don’t lose your flavor folks. That’s why we’re here. As for me, I want to be like movie popcorn. I don’t want to lose my saltiness. I want folks to be looking for a glass of Living Water after a few minutes with me….
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Swimming Lessons
1 Thessalonians 1:3 , NIV “We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
My dad was the youngest of nine children…Can you imagine? They would have to add a whole new row to the Brady Bunch grid. Wow!
As you can imagine there was a strong sense of family, I guess mainly because there was just a lot of family period! A by-product of that must have been a huge amount of trust as well.
They grew up on a farm and occasionally had the opportunity to take a break and go to the swimming hole. My dad said that is where he learned to swim…The swimming lessons were unconventional to say the least. They went something like this…My dad would jump off a rock into the deep, murky water (I’m sure snake-infested, among who knows what other varmints) and would raise his hand for someone to retrieve him. Then one of his brothers, who I am assuming had already successfully completed the swimming course, would swim over to him and together they would make their way back to shore.
I’ve thought on that story many times with amazement and terror. Amazement that he survived and somehow was always retrieved from the depths of the murky water. And terror because that sounds exactly like something my Nicholas might think was fun…(:
The way I see it, that demonstrated one of two things…either complete foolishness or incredible faith. Since this is a “faith” blog, let’s say it was the latter—- a demonstration of unparalleled faith.
In the case of my dad and the swimming lessons, I’m pretty sure that their faith had a little help. Ironically, I think it was fear that sent them in that water to rescue the one whose hand was raised in desperation—- Fear that if they came home without everyone accounted for that their father would have spent some quality time with them and shown them a little old school “tough love” if you get my drift….Regardless of their motivation, they did demonstrate a fair amount of faith.
Oh to have the complete abandon that little boys have…What if we demonstrated that type of faith in our lives? What if we didn’t just say it or sing it, but really believed that if we were in over our head, with only our finger tips barely visible above the surface of the murky water that the one we call Lord would retrieve us every single time? What if? I believe we’d be amazed that Hebrews 13:5 is more than just words on a page…Maybe for the first time in our lives we’d personally experience that He keeps His promises…We’d realize that every single time, regardless of how murky or deep the water was, that He would rescue us.
Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
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Edible Appliances
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” ~Victor Borge
This one is for my friend who wants me to post more funny blogs……
I’ve been very open about the fact that I am not a cook. Because it is always more fun to blame somebody else than take responsibility for yourself, I am going to be brutally honest and explain the history behind this phenomenon.
I am an only child and growing up I was not allowed near the stove. I think they were afraid I would get burned or even worse, burn the house down!
Thank goodness for microwaves or I would surely have starved to death as an adult. However, I feel like I must add that I nearly electrocuted myself using our microwave…something about a short in the cord…the details are a little sketchy. It was one of the first microwaves to come out. I call it the “floor model” microwave because it was almost too large to fit on the counter. Remember how big they were? If I’d gotten a good jolt from that one, I wouldn’t be here to share this with you today!
Later in college, I graduated from the microwave to the fry daddy. I really was not ready for this leap in technology. I was nowhere close to being able to handle such a sophisticated home appliance. Allow me to elaborate….
For some reason I was attempting to fry chicken and I deep-fried the fry daddy lid…no one has anything on me. Why would you make a fry daddy with a plastic lid anyway? It is begging to be melted by the 400 degree grease boiling just inches below…and does it say anywhere in the fry daddy literature to remove the lid? Is there a warning label on the side of the cast iron fryer? Perhaps it too, had been melted off at some point. I must say that the fry daddy manufacturers leave a lot out there for you to infer. I need literal instructions, user guides, warning labels, skull and crossbones…What mental giant invented this thing?
I was “cooking” fried chicken in a fry daddy…not the fry baby which might have been a smaller disaster…but the fry daddy…when I do something stupid I like to do it up right! I prefer those XL disasters… Anyway, I was frying chicken in the Fry daddy and I noticed the hot seething grease was not hot and seething fast enough for my taste. To speed up the process, I thought I’ll put the lid on it and trap the heat in hopes of bringing it to a hotter heat and more seething boil. I stepped away, literally for 5 seconds to get something out of the refrigerator. We all know that a “watched pot never boils.” I had to walk away. It is practically a rule.
Anyway, when I returned I couldn’t find the lid. I looked all around the fry daddy, on the counter, on the floor….no lid. What happened? It was just here? Oh well. Who are we kidding, I’ll probably never fry chicken again, so I probably won’t miss the lid. By now the chicken was done and a crispy golden brown. I removed it from the fryer and later noticed what I’ll call a “residue” ever so lightly coating the inside of the fry daddy. Hmmm…what could that be? I ate my chicken and continued to ponder that thought…After finishing my meal and during the process of cleaning the fryer, I noticed the residue had cooled and hardened. If I looked closely I could make out some writing that appeared to have been embossed in the once plasticky coating. It appeared to be an “F”…hmm…Wonder what that was for? Yep, about now I was realizing that was the part of the lid that had not adhered itself to the chicken…that was the part I had not eaten! By the way, that mental giant who invented the fry daddy is looking a little smarter than the one who ate the lid. (:
As a sidenote…If you ever melt your fry daddy lid, take comfort that it is, in fact, edible. I’ve tested and proven that theory. Who knew? Sure enough it is a consumable!
Okay, so I ate a chicken breast with a light coating of lid and have lived to tell about it. Anytime someone looks at me funny when I tell that story I go back to the “pound of dirt” theory. If you don’t know what that is, you need to get out more…Go to a playground, watch small children, watch them make mud pies and then watch them eat them!…Okay, anyway. I live by the mantra, “That which does not kill you makes you stronger.” I am sure that I am a better, stronger person having eaten a fry daddy lid.
It is these things that I ponder in the wee hours of the morning…
Perhaps my parents should have lowered that hedge of protection just a bit, huh?
The spiritual message here…Not sure there is one. I’m just trying to appease my friend who prefers funny blogs…
No, I believe there’s a lesson here…Maybe it’s: Laugh at yourself! It is what humanizes you. These are the things that folks identify with. Chances are, they are just as crazy as you are and they have done a lot of crazy things in their life too. People need to know they’re not alone.
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Blessed be your name
“Blessed be His glorious name forever; let the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen and Amen!” (Ps 72:19, AMP)
There is a popular Christian song that says talks about praising God in the good times and the bad times…
It goes like this… “Blessed be your name… Blessed be your name when all is at it should be. Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering tho there’s pain in the offering. Blessed be your name in a land that is plentiful.. When I’m found in the desert place, tho I walk thru the wilderness Blessed be your name.”
Praising God in all things, regardless of the circumstances…That is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my walk with the Lord. It is so easy to boldly proclaim, “Blessed be your name” when life is good and everything is progressing as planned. It is easy to praise Him when, as the song says, “all is at it should be.” However, when you stand in the center of your life and watch the things you’ve given your life to fall around your feet, it is difficult to muster even the slightest bit of courage to utter those words under your breath…
I think about that how we are commanded to “give thanks in all things.” We’ve talked about the “alls” before. They’re tough to swallow on a good day! I thought about what that means in practical application. I’ve tried to bring it home and put it into practice in our everyday lives.
I think it might go something like this…
Blessed be your name Lord, When everyone is singing my praises, patting me on the back and telling me how great I am.
But what about blessed be your name when I’m being treated unfairly, friends are hard to find, and it seems like nobody is on my side. Or as Needtobreathe says, in “Washed by the Water”, “when the Earth crumbles under my feet, Even when the ones I love turn around and crucify me.”
Blessed be your name Lord when I’m on vacation and everyone around me is relaxed and rested and happy and tanned and wearing “Life is Good” t-shirts…
But what about blessed be your name when I’ve worked all week and I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired?
Yes Lord, blessed be your name when all is well with my world and “the sun is shining down on me and all is at it should be.”
But what about blessed be your name when it’s raining and my favorite sunglasses snap in half and I’m late for work and the children missed the bus and I spill my grande mocha skinny latte down the front of my white blouse?(with the emphasis being on “grande” and “white”…)
Blessed be your name when I’m having a good hair day and feeling thin…. But what about blessed be your name when I’ve just been diagnosed with cancer and my list of priorities has been turned upside down and everything I was once so sure about now seems confusing and unimportant.
Yes Lord, I’ll bless your name when you answer my long list of wants and you give me everything I ask for in my timing on my terms… But what about blessed be your name when it seems like you aren’t doing things MY way, when nothing is going right… when you’re answering my prayers with a string of “No’s” or “Not yets” (which is really another way to say “No” because I want it right now!)
Blessed be your name when you give and give and give… But what about blessed be your name when it just seems like the scales are tipping in the opposite direction and way too much has been taken lately?
No one ever said it was easy. And it surely isn’t.
I think about the lyrics to “Through the Fire” and will share as my encouragement for the difficult days when praising Him isn’t so easy….
“Just hold on, our Lord will show up and He will take you through the fire again.”
That is a promise. Not from me, but from Him. I know He has in my life and I know He will for you.
Blessings, Suz
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Sweaty Sport
James 1:2 and “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kind…”
When Nicholas first started playing baseball he was just like most children. He looked cute in the uniform and…well…that was about it. He would go out on the field, uninterested and unaware of the game being played around him. His main focus was whether they were having Cheeze-Its or Doritos after the game. Once we sewed up his pockets (see previous blog for details) he would pass the time by picking flowers or playing in the dirt. Sometimes he would yawn and daydream and completely turn his back to the game being played all around him. When that season was over we asked him if he wanted to play the next year. He adamantly replied, “No, it is a sweaty sport!!!”
I thought to myself, yes that is true. I have found that most sports are sweaty. In fact, I would venture to say that if you aren’t sweating you’re probably not contributing a whole lot.
Some days Life is Good…just like the popular t-shirt says…(BTW, I love those t-shirts! My favorite color is blue and I wear a medium…just in case you need to know) And some days life is a “sweaty sport.” Sometimes it just feels like it’s too much work. I know there have been some seasons of my life that I would have much preferred to have sat on the sidelines under a big ‘ole shade tree because it seemed like I had to work too hard and sweat too much.
Unfortunately, life is a lot like sports and if you aren’t sweating you probably aren’t getting a whole lot of it. In my own life, I’ve noticed that God does the majority of His work in our lives when the heat is turned up and the trials are the most difficult.
C.S. Lewis said, and I love this quote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains, it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
So, on the days when you’re feeling like life is a “sweaty sport,” perk up your ears and listen closely because God is shouting to you through his megaphone. You don’t want to miss what He has to say even if you have to break a sweat!
P.S. As for Nicholas…he’s come a long way since his tee ball days and not only does he enjoy the sweaty sport of baseball, he excels at it…maybe he takes after his mom…I’m just saying…
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Summer
And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,” (Gen 1:14, NIV)
Of all the seasons we have, my favorite time of the year is summer! I love it, even in NC…and yes, even when its 110 degrees in the shade with humidity through the roof that destroys a good hair day!
This is why I love it: I love picking tomatoes from the garden and slicing them while they’re still warm and making BLT’s. I love walking barefoot in the grass…I actually don’t even mind cutting grass if I have my IPOD & a riding lawn mower. I love Saturdays at Kerr Lake. I love stopping the boat in a cove and everyone jumping out to swim. I love it when someone else grills for me. (: I love taking vacations. I love the feeling of being out all day and getting a lot of sun and then taking a shower and going to sleep. Dewey calls that a “good kinda tired.” I love riding around on “Stacey” (my Stang) with the windows down, listening to music…(if I had a convertible that top would so be back) I love walking through a garden that’s not mine! (: I love the smell of tobacco (you can tell I’ve never worked in it) I love slicing cucumbers and soaking them in vinegar to snack on. I love long days when it’s pushing 9:00 before it even starts to get dark. I love Nicholas’ fireworks display on July 4th. I love riding the golf-cart through fields at night right before dark and looking for deer. (that drives Blakely crazy!…speaking of which, I love driving Blakely crazy…) I love eating outside.. I love wearing sunglasses…my favorite pair just snapped in half (R.I.P. Shades). I love wearing this pair of umbro shorts (circa 1988) that are pink and purple and frayed around the edges and should have been tossed a long time ago. I love a warm breeze at the beach. I love wearing flip-flops. I love listening to live music.
Whatever the season is in your life, enjoy it. Don’t just endure it. Don’t wish it away. Instead, embrace it and hold on tight, because just like summer it will be gone all too quickly.
Happy SUMMER!
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Deep Fried Manna
I was cooking supper last week and I made the remark to a friend that we fried everything in the kitchen except the paper towels we were using to drain the grease on! We really try not to do that very often. But every now and then we need to lubricate the arteries, not to mention it makes my coat shiny…these are the things I tell myself to justify the lard intake. You know I make the comment quite often, if people look too healthy or too fit, that they need to eat a biscuit every now and then…
Speaking of biscuits…I was trying a new recipe where you take canned biscuits and deep fry them, then sprinkle them with powdered SUGAR or cinnamon SUGAR. I like to put the emphasis on SUGAR! Let’s be real, you’re basically frying a donut. And might I say, they are not Krispie Kreme, but they are quite tasty. Plus, there’s something about them being homemade that just makes it seem healthier.
Donuts makes me think of manna. You know the manna that God sent from heaven when the Israelites were traveling across the desert. The manna they whined and moaned about.…The manna they tried to store up overnight and hoard because they were sure God had led them out of Egypt to starve and die! Yes, that manna.
I imagine that manna probably tasted like donuts…I checked out manna on Wikipedia (so you know its true!) and it says that it was sweet to the taste. You know if God made it that it had to be good!
I think about how God provided for them one day at a time. I love how he asked them to trust him and have faith that He would meet them at their point of need. God brought this to my mind the other day when I was praying for a friend. I was praying for all the things I thought she needed and I started asking God for something that was nearly a week away. I caught myself and stopped mid-sentence. I thought about manna. I thought about one day at a time. I knew God knew better than I do what was coming up next week or next month or next year. I quickly changed my prayer and asked God for what I thought she needed this day. Then I told Him, more of a reminder to myself than new knowledge for Him, that I had faith that He would provide whatever she needed when she needed it and that I would shift my focus to today. As for tomorrow… Well, I would get up the next morning and pray about the issues of that day at that time. He brought this verse to my mind as a promise that I needed to focus on THIS day.
Matt 6:24 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”(NIV)
Amen! If nothing else, life is daily. Each day brings its own issues and worries. But you know what? If we are doing what we’re supposed to, it is that “daily-ness” that keeps us close to Him. It keeps us focused and in constant communication. It keeps us “praying without ceasing.”
Today, thank Him for the “daily-ness” of life. Tomorrow, get up and do it all over again…
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Sewing Up Pockets
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (NASB, Rom 13:14)
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)
When Nicholas first started playing T-Ball he had this habit of putting his hand in his pocket during the game. He would get really comfortable on the field and prop himself up and put his hand in his back pocket. If a ball had been hit in his direction, it would have flattened him. We would yell from the sidelines for him to take his hands out of his pockets and get down and get ready. Of course that was a complete waste of our breath…Because, time and again, he would go right back to that same habit. We would look out on the field and there he was standing with his hand stuffed in his back pocket.
Finally, my mom became disgusted with this and decided to take matters into her own hands. She went home and sewed his pockets completely closed. The next time he took the field, he started his usual fiddling with his pockets…but this time something was different. He couldn’t get his hand in his pocket. He seemed confused…He finally gave up trying.
Some of us need to sew up some pockets. And some need to sew up some for our children. That may mean changing the channel on the television or completing turning it off or pulling the skullcandy earbuds out of their ears or taking hostage the holy grail, every teenager’s lifeline …(long pause for emphasis)…the cell phone. Ouch! There, I said it. If I had any teenage readers, I’m sure I just lost them.
We refer to “sewing up pockets” as attitude adjustment weekends at our house. We go “Amish” on them. We have No-Technology weekends…In other words, if you have to plug it in or it requires a battery, you can’t use it. Yes, it is painful, but it gets their attention.
Our kids actually went outside and played basketball the other night. We nearly passed out. They NEVER do that, especially not together. I’ve found if you drastically reduce the number of options they have, they will eventually make the right choice…Mind you, sometimes it is the only choice that is left. But it is correct, nonetheless.
Life is not all that different. Sometimes we get sidetracked and distracted and completely lose focus of what we’re supposed to be doing…We forget the whole reason we were put here in the first place. On those days, my suggestion is to get out your needle and thread and sew up some pockets!
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Hold up my arms
“So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.” (Ex 17:10-13)
I love this story about Moses. I especially love that his friends held his hands up during the battle. I love that when Moses’ arms grew tired; they stepped in to give him a boost. I love that it was the only way the enemy could be defeated.
Andrew Peterson wrote a contemporary Christian song about Moses’ battle entitled, “Hold up my arms.” The song goes something like this: Oh, but don’t you forget … To hold up my arms Like Moses in the desert When the battle ran long Hold up my arms We can go at this together When my arms aren’t strong
I have a friend who is engaged in a battle of sorts, not with Amalekites…but in my estimation her battle is much more challenging. She won’t win her battle with swords or well-trained armies or elaborate strategic plans, but it is a fierce battle nonetheless. I find comfort in the fact that when her arms grow tired, there are lots of family and friends “holding up her arms.” I feel confident that, like Moses and Joshua, this is the only way she will win her battle.
Sometimes we have a tendency to feel helpless when we watch those we love experience difficult times. I’ve even flippantly remarked that all I could do was pray…as if that was not important, as if that was not key to their survival, as if I didn’t internalize the magnitude of the One I was actually speaking with. Over the years I’ve come to realize that we are anything but helpless. The bible says that we are more than conquerors. We won’t just win the battle. We can come out on the other side with joy and peace. One of the greatest gifts we can give the ones we love is by interceding on their behalf. It is the single biggest thing we can do to “hold up their arms” when they grow tired.
My friend is fortunate enough to have people in her life who are standing by her side and holding up her hands. Some might say standing in the gap…no, not standing in a GAP. This blog is not about retail therapy although there is many a spiritual lesson that can be learned while shopping. Remember the Dolce & Gabanna sermonette?
I’m talking about standing in THE gap for someone…acting on their behalf, praying for them, being their intercessor…and yes, holding up their arms when, as Andrew Peterson says, “the battle gets long.” And yes, I would imagine her battle already seems long.
The good news is that there are many people who God has perfectly placed in her family’s life at this very time to “hold up their arms.” And the great news is that God is faithful. We are all members of a body and we each have a role. Some are like Joshua and are called to fight. Others are like Moses and they pray. And some are like Aaron and Hur and they provide encouragement and support. We should never be shy about asking for help or accepting help when we are going through a difficult time. This may be God’s only opportunity to do a work in someone’s life. In fact, I would venture to say that usually the one holding up the hands of another is equally, if not more, blessed than the one who is doing the fighting. If you’ve ever been on a mission trip you’ve most likely experienced this first hand. You enter an impoverished country to share the gospel with the intention of blessing others and you return home realizing that you were the one who has been ministered to.
As for my friend…Well, I know that those who are holding up her arms would agree that we need her much more than she needs us right now.
Whether she can see this for herself today or tomorrow or ever, I know that she, just like Moses & Joshua, will ultimately win her battle! All of us who are standing by her side holding up her arms have faith that she will win this fight. Jars of Clay has a song that says, “this will soon end in joy.” I hold on to that truth.
Yes, one day soon the battle will be over and this will end in joy…
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Thanks for your comment George! That quote is from the Amplified Bible.
... read the full comment by Suz | Comment on GPS Read GPS
I appreciated your GPS piece. It seems like GPS directions are poor when the latest maps aren’t downloaded or the location accuracy is not the best. It’s kind of like me when I’m out of touch with the Lord. He has never left; He’s
... read the full comment by George Wood | Comment on GPS Read GPS
this message is so true- Suz. are are just a blessing to us
when our plans are diffent from what God has planned in our life I guess it is then that we are THAT GIRL!!!
... read the full comment by r | Comment on That Girl Read That Girl
Suzanne, Keep on writing, God has blessed you with a wonderful talent and thank you so much for sharing it with us. Love, Jean
... read the full comment by Jean Marlowe | Comment on Fall Back Read Fall Back