Putting My Shoes Back On

Today, I put my shoes back on.  Alert the media.  I had not had them on my feet in a few days.  Instead I have been schlepping around in bedroom slippers, or fuzzy socks, or plain old bare feet.

Why?  Or more to the point, who cares?

Point taken.  The thing is, I have been sick.  That awful pestilence - no, not Ebola or the bubonic plague, although it felt like it - but rather the common stomach flu.  You know, the kind where first you are afraid you are going to die, and then you are afraid you might not.  That kind.

However, I am now recovered, and I know this not because the fever and chills are gone, nor because the Advil has been stowed away. No, I am sure I am well because I felt good enough to put on my shoes and do something.  Anything.  Anything other than lying around feeling icky.

When your feet are well-shod you can do just about anything.  Ask the Apostle Paul, he knew.  He wrote about it in Ephesians when he told us to put on the armor of God.

"... and having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace..."

When you have good feet and the proper foot wear almost anything is do-able.  Some people have problems getting their shoes on, though.  My mother had a thing called a hammertoe.  It was awful. That thing was so bad that she could be heading north and her toe would be pointing east.  She limped badly because of it.

There are also some common "spiritual foot ailments" that can cause our feet to be poorly prepared to spread the good news of peace.

Corns of criticism - Oh, maaaan, these little things can hurt, and yet they are originally caused by friction on the toe - constant rubbing the wrong way.  About the only treatment, for feet that want to be prepared for peace is to refuse to criticize others, and refuse to allow other's criticism of us to 'rub us the wrong way."

Bunions of bitterness - Pointy-toed shoes are often the culprit here.  Pointy at this one who "done us wrong" - or pointy at that one, who "just didn't understand" - etc.  Bunions are no joke, they can be so crippling that they require surgery.  Bitterness is just as seriously injurious to our spiritual walk.

Hammertoe of hatefulness - James tells us that we "bite and devour one another" and end up hating one another because we want what we don't have.  Hard to spread peace when we are limping with resentment.

Fallen arches of failure - Otherwise known as having "flat feet" - the military is well-known for refusing to allow people to serve if they have flat feet.  Fallen arches - guilt, remorse, depression over past failure is not from the Prince of Peace.
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Personally, I am soooo thankful to be up and around again that even my old black Reeboks look pretty good to me. Hoping to spread a little peace today.  Hope you have avoided any of the dread foot conditions mentioned above and that you have a peaceful day, too.  Until next time ~ Marsha

Heaven Help Us - In Other Words

When you have no helpers,
                    see your helpers in God.
When you have many helpers,
                   see God in all your helpers.
When you have nothing but God,
                   see all in God.
When you have everything,
                  see God in everything.
Under all conditions, stay thy heart only on the Lord.
                                ~Charles Spurgeon

My daughter once shared with me something her pastor had used in his sermon one Sunday morning.  It has stuck with me for years. He said,
            You don't know that God is all you need,
              until God is all you have.

Perhaps you have experienced this very thing; I have, and it made me more grateful than I had ever been before.

Just this last week, we truly needed "helpers" as we were moving for the first time in over twenty years.  Several of our family members were unavailable due to jobs, distance, health issues, etc.  But a family moving in across the street from where we were moving out helped us in surprising ways, and we were grateful.  And they helped despite the fact that they had a brand new, two week old, baby.  Can you imagine?  Talk about heaven sent.

For several reasons, we did not feel we could ask anyone to come help us.  However, without being asked, another family member who had only been to our home twice in several years, suddenly called and said he was on his way to help us pack.  It was a ten hour drive one-way; but he came and spent three days helping pack.  It was a direct answer to prayer, as I had been praying about some "moving help" for weeks.

On another front, though, my son is ill, and all the helpers in the world cannot help.  We need God to give us a genuine "heavenly assist" - because even the doctors can only do so much in this situation.  So I am focusing on "seeing God" in every doctor, every nurse, every day, every hour, while also remembering they are limited, but we serve an unlimited God. For nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:37 NIV)

During my life, I have been blessed to be "the helper"  from time to time; but in recent months, I have needed some help. For me it is much harder to receive help than to give it.  And it used to almost choke me to have to ask for it.  Yesterday, it was as simple as needing someone to lift a 35 lb. bag of dog food out of the trunk of my car, where the grocery clerk had placed it.  Ten years ago I could have hoisted it out myself.  Not anymore.  One of my son's friends came by and gladly did it for me.

Thus, whether we are helping, or being helped, we are all limited in what we can do for each other.  But God is able to do all things abundantly above that which we can even ask or think.

I will strengthen you and help you...  (Psalm 41:10 NIV)

Where would we be without Him?  Heaven help us, I don't want to find out.  Blessings to you - until next time .... Marsha
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The host for this weeks IOWT is Jennifer at Scraps and Snippets.

Deep Weakness - Deeper Strength (In Other Words)

I remember being in awe of, and deeply humbled by, the story of Andrew Murray's life when I first read it many years ago.

He was a man of great faith, and a tremendous prayer warrior.  I seem to recall that when they prepared his body for burial, it was discovered that he had spent so much of his life on his knees in prayer that he had callouses over an inch thick on his knees.

Today's quote is from this man of faith:

The Christian often tries to forget his weakness:  God wants us to remember it, to feel it deeply.  ...by Andrew Murray

I cannot know his intent when he penned these words.  But given the boundless love and grace of God I can only conclude that if God wants us to remember and deeply feel our own weaknesses, it is only so that we will be more closely bound to his grace by our utter dependence upon his strength.

The old hymn says, "I am weak but He is strong. Jesus keep me from all wrong."  Indeed, only He can do so.

Jesus told his followers, "I am the vine and you are the branches.  Without me you can do nothing."

However, his word also tells us in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

There is an old story told of a prayer gathering during which the overly pious participants tried to out-do each other in humility.  They called themselves, worthless, vile, wretched wrecks, etc.  Finally one fellow decided he would be the lowliest of them all, proclaiming himself to be nothing more than a "slug for Jesus."

Let us be clear that God does not intend for us to dwell upon our shortcomings and failure out of some morbid sense of duty to do so.  Nor from some pitiful navel-gazing perspective of the school of thought that tells us to remember that we are all just "slugs for Jesus" as the old joke goes.

No, if we are to recall our inadequacies (and they are, indeed, many) it is only so that his adequacy can be all the greater encouragement to us.

He and he alone is able to make us "more than conquerors" and I am thankful.  We can be encouraged that as high as the heavens are above the earth, so much higher is his strength than our weaknesses.

Blessings to you  ...Marsha
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Please join our host today at Sunflower Faith for more on today's In Other Words Tuesdays.

An Unwelcome Gift - In Other Words

“But this disappointment, those tears,
this heartbreak is God’s gift.                                       
In this quiet empty ache, He enlightens.
By it, He plants and grows within me a certainty
that there must be more.
And that He is the More.”
by Jo at Mylestones

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My sister, who just lost her oldest son to cancer two months ago, said to me the other day on the phone, "I just don't understand this."

Amazingly, she was not referring to her own loss, which would have been very understandable.  Instead, she went on to say, "I just don't understand why God has allowed K. to be sick again.  To have to have this awful surgery and to go through another three months in bed.  I just don't get it."

K. is my oldest son, who has been a paraplegic for over twenty-five years and is currently bed fast, due to a particularly nasty emergency surgery two and a half weeks ago. 

She went on to say, "I dealt with home care and the strain of it for 7 months (the time from her son's diagnosis until his death); but you have been dealing with this for twenty-five years.  I don't know how you do it.  And I don't know how K. does it.  I just don't get it."

While I appreciated her empathy, she was apparently assuming that I do "get it" - that I understand this current situation.  I do not.

According to today's quote, this current situation is "god's gift" to me, and I suspect the author may be right.  It does not mean that I must like it, but if I am to honest with the Lord and myself, I must acknowledge that in this, as in all things, He is acting according to His own principles of justice, mercy, kindness, and love.  It just doesn't look much like it at the moment.

However, even the unwelcome gift, is sometimes accompanied by some welcome by-products.  When I met my sister briefly the other day, her first remark was, "My gosh, you've lost weight."  A welcome gift from days of non-stop of fetching and carrying.

Darker circles under my eyes, and until last night, no more than 2 hours sleep at a time, not so welcome.  The constant tension of knowing his wound vac machine could "alarm" in the night, and I might not hear it quickly enough caused me to lay awake for hours.  But last night I slept nearly seven hours, a welcome gift.

From my phone calls home to my husband, who is eighty miles away,  I learn that my roses are dying despite his efforts to water and tend them.  Unwelcome.  But from my son's front window, I can see across the street the lady's roses which are beautifully healthy, and I get to enjoy looking at them without worrying about rust, black spot, or aphids.  A welcome gift.
 
So this current trial is one of those unwelcome gifts that God sometimes allows to come our way. I have been the reluctant recipient of more than a few of those in my lifetime, and my guess is that if you are older than twelve, so have you.  Stuff happens.  God allows stuff to happen.

Do I understand it?  No.  But do I still believe that there is a greater purpose and plan than I can currently perceive?  Yes.

There is an old song (perhaps by Patti Paige - long before my time) that I think is called "Is That All There Is?"  The lyrics are about life and ambition and achievement, and disappointment and loss, and ultimately the utter dissatisfaction that accompanies all of them, outside of a relationship with God.  The plaintiff refrain sums it up as "Is that all there is?"

Thankfully, for the believer, the answer is a resounding "NO"!  There is more, He is more and through Him we can become more.

According to Romans 8:37, " No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

Through Him, I can either embrace this unwelcome gift, and welcome His working in my life - or I can resist it, although I will still have to deal with it - but I will simply have to do so with less peace and less strength.  Seems like a no-brainer to me. 

Thank you, Lord, for this unwelcome gift.  I nevertheless, welcome your working in my life.  Make me more like you, the One who is More than all my needs.  

Note: Today's hostess for IOWT is Loni at the Writing Canvas.

Conflicting Concerns - Everyone and Everything

“The rush and pressure of modern life are a form,
perhaps the most common form,
of its innate violence.
To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns,
to surrender to too many projects,
to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence . . .”

                                                 ~Thomas Merton

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I saw my first knife-fight when I was six years old.  It was Christmas eve, and at my paternal grandparents house this meant drinking, and lots of it.  After several hours of over-indulgence, some minor family squabble had erupted into a serious argument between two of my hot-headed uncles.  At some point a knife appeared and the rumble was on. 

Instead of Red-Nosed Rudolph and red tree lights, I remember the red flashing lights on the police car as it arrived upon the scene. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured; but the holiday was ruined.  This incident was my first introduction to violence.  It made a deep impression, as you might imagine.

Merton asserts that the rush and pressure of modern life are a form of violence.  He could be right.  His viewpoint, however, was undoubtedly colored by the fact that he spent a good deal of his adult life in a Trappist monastery in Kentucky, as a contemplative monk. Not your typical high-risk lifestyle.  He was also a keen intellectual, and at a fairly young age, a published author.

He further states that "to allow oneself to be carried away by a  multitude of conflicting concerns..." can be to succumb to violence.  I don't know that I agree that passively being swept along with the daily tidal wave of concerns rises to the level of violence, but it can certainly be injurious to one's inner peace and tranquillity.

Violence can, of course, take many forms; there is the physical violence of force and injury by one party upon another, the violence of war, the violence of nature, and many others.  One can be said to "do violence" to a text, by twisting it into a meaning not intended by the original author.  Generally any definition of "violence" involves some form of extreme force or pressure.

No doubt about it, conflicting concerns in our lives create pressures.  For example, we want to be peaceable, in fact, the scriptures admonish us to live at peace with all men inasmuch as it "lies within us" - in other words, to the extent that it is within our power to do so.  However, sometimes the "party of the second part" does not reciprocate our peaceable intentions.   Suddenly peace does not reign supreme in our environs.

To "surrender to too many projects" may be another form of self-harm, but I doubt it extends to doing violence to oneself.  It does, however, often produce unhealthy behavior, making us susceptible to from everything from headaches, to insomnia, to damaged relationships.

And then we come to Merton's last assertion in this quote, the desire or inclination to "help everyone in everything" which he says is to succumb to violence.  Again, I am not so sure about violence, but I can aver some pointed humiliation in this area.

I believe he is referring to what some psychologists call the "collapse of appropriate boundaries", when we over extend ourselves.  Good intentions, carried too far, almost always end up in misery, conflict and hurt feelings.  To this I can attest personally, painfully, and recently.  

Calls for help, broken promises and manipulation, red flags all over the place. I had already been "had" two days ago by this same individual, and I suspected at the time that I was being played.  But I went in hoping that a genuine desire to help might prevail upon better selves.  Apparently "B." simply thought I would be an easy target a second time.  However, as they say in the South, "I may be some dumb, but I am not plumb dumb."  


The outcome was a painful reminder, though, that I cannot help "everyone in everything." And if I try, while I may not find myself subject to violence, I most certainly will experience the pain of being on the receiving end of human failure.

Thus, while I may respectfully disagree with Merton's definition of violence in modern life, I can agree with his examples of choices and behaviors which constitute unhealthy risk.  Let this be a lesson to me.
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Our host today is Emily at imperfect prose.

Valleys, Shadows, Weeping - What Plan?

There is a book called The Tapestry, written by Edith Schaeffer, wife of well-known theologian of the 1970s and 80s, Francis Schaeffer, wherein she shared her thoughts of why we often cannot understand God's plan in our lives.

She likened our lives to a tapestry, and said that we see events and circumstances in this life from "underneath - looking up".  All it looks like is mixed up threads, jumbled colors, crossed stitches, knots and cut threads.  In other words, a mess.

But the Master weaver, sees the design from above looking down, and He alone can see the whole pattern, in its beauty, its symmetry, its planned design.

The Cross and The Switchblade, Wilkerson's first book, was probably the first book I ever read, written by a Christian that was also a modern best-seller.  I was about 15 or 16 at the time and had not yet discovered C.S. Lewis. Years later, it was my privilege to hear David Wilkerson in person and I was struck by how humble he seemed, despite his fame and influence.

It does not surprise me that he acknowledged that when we are walking through "the valley of the shadow of death" there are some "dark, awful nights" full of weeping.  He did not try to sugar coat the truth.

I find it encouraging that after over fifty years of active ministry, he was still saying the same things he had always taught.  Right up to the day God called him home.

If you are also going through dark nights, valleys and shadows, I encourage you to do as David Wilkerson suggested, let God embrace you.  Our human inclination is sometimes to resist God's comfort just when we need it the most.  We are angry and afraid, and we turn inward, as our shoulders shake with both fury and silent weeping.

Instead of inward, let us turn our eyes upward, where our Father in heaven is, He truly is, watching over us, whether we feel like it right now or not.  Wilkerson knew this as he drove on that Texas highway, on April 27th, when God said "Welcome home, David."

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I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.  (II Timothy 4:7-8 NIV)

Please visit our hostess today, Debbie over at Heart Choices.

Empty Cups of Fear - Full Cups of Faith

"Lord, I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment.  If only I had known you better I'd have come running with a bucket."
                                ---Nancy Spielgelberg  


Crawling across the barrenness ... we have all seen the scene in the movie where someone nearly dead, is inching their way across the blistering desert .... thirst is palpable in each breath ...

All the viewer can think of when watching this is the one thing that isn't present in the scene - water!

                                           *************
If only I had known you better ....

We sometimes attribute things to the Lord that just aren't there  -
one of them is a lack of willingness to bless us.  We imagine that we must beg, plead, persuade God to bless us, almost against His better judgment.

It is in such times, that we hold forth our little tin cup made of fear, and hesitantly hope for a drop of mercy.  But it is God's great pleasure to bestow His mercies up on us.  He is so committed to it that unlike, for example, a rainbow which only appears occasionally, He has promised us that He would supply new mercies every morning.

God is not in the business of dribbles, drabs, and drops of blessing.  He is the God of rushing mighty waters!  If only we knew Him better....


We fear censure, but God sends cascades of refreshing.  If only we knew Him better....


We suspect He may not like us very much, because after all, He knows us as we really are.  But He died for us "while we were yet sinners."  If only we knew Him better....


Friends, how about we toss away our tin begging cups made of fear and uncertainty, and grab a great big bucket of faith and go running toward God's fountain of blessing?

We can know Him better, if we really want to. 
                               ****************
Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."  John 4:10

God's Desire

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.  Hosea 6:6  

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This verse has long been one of the most cherished scriptures to me.  To think that He "who spared not his own son" - choosing rather to sacrifice Him on Calvary for our sake, desires mercy and not sacrifice is an awesome concept.

What is even more astonishing is that the Creator and Master of the universe, is willing to place His desire in our hands, knowing that we will often fail to give Him the desires of His heart.

What is this mercy that God so desires?

It is more than just refraining from punishing or harming others, even when we think they deserve it.  One definition is that it is "kindness in excess of what may be expected or demanded by fairness."

Oh, ouch!  I like to think that I am a reasonable and fair person.  But when "fairness" would require a certain price, exact a certain penalty, am I then willing to show mercy, just because it will please the heart of God?

The neighbor who revs his motorcycle engine at 3:00 a.m. - for the fourth night in a row - am I willing to pray for his salvation as I lay awake for hours, unable to go back to sleep, long after he has gone to bed to sleep off his drunken stupor?

The extended family member, who asks that I spend a holiday afternoon with others who have been rude and demeaning toward me in the past - am I willing to show mercy, and extend kindness beyond what fairness would require?

The school bully, who threatens one of my children or grandchildren, and whose parent then justifies their child's meaness by berating my child's "wimpiness" - am I willing to show mercy, knowing none has or will be shown to me and mine?

These are not hypothetical questions, but rather they are examples of where the mercy God desires from us faces the reality of the world in which we live.  It has often been said, "Life is not fair."

This is true, however much we might wish it were otherwise.  But are we willing, as Christians, to go beyond an acknowledgement of this reality, to show mercy beyond what fairness would require?  God desires it.  Am I willing to give Him what He desires, despite how difficult and unnatural it may feel to me?

Only He knows the answer to this question as He examines my heart, and observes my walk before Him each day.  The extent to which I am willing to show mercy, is the measure of my "acknowledgement" of God in my life.  This is a hard truth.

Thank God, His word tells us that "Mercy triumphs over judgment." 

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Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful.  Mercy triumphs over judgment!

James 2:12-13                   * * *

Our hostess today is Nina at Mama's Little Treasures.  Please join her for thoughts on today's In Other Words quote.

Holy Humor - An Unexpected Tool for Victory

Nothing irritates Satan more than us choosing God over our pain and suffering. We can endure everything if we know Jesus is sitting next to us.  ~Joni Erickson Tada

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Our host today has written a fine post on how we gain victory over Satan's efforts to derail our faith.  We "win" by choosing God, faith and trust in Him, over fear and failure.  Karen knows whereof she speaks, as she is currently fighting her own battle with cancer.

She speaks poignantly about how the enemy of our souls knows how to push our irritation buttons, and about how we sometimes seem to race each other to the "top of the annoyance ladder" in escalating issues, family feuds, silly quarrels.  Yep, been there, done that.  Not proud of it.

Her post today reminded me of something I once read about Martin Luther's take on defeating Satan.  I am paraphrasing, but the quote was something to the effect that Satan can overcome the believer's resistance to his wiles in many ways.  But one thing he cannot tolerate.  Luther said, "Satan cannot stand to be laughed at."

I seem to recall C.S.Lewis used a similar thought in the Screwtape Letters.

Sometimes laughing in the face of tragedy can seem insensitive, even ghoulish.  But sometimes a good laugh in the middle of pain and problems is as effective as a good antibiotic.

My oldest son once came rolling rapidly in his wheelchair into the kitchen toward me, about a year after he had been paralyzed from an auto accident at nineteen years old, saying, "Mom, mom, I have decided what I want to be when I grow up."

I looked at him askance, never knowing quite what he would come up with next.  "What's that?"

"A stand-up comedian." he replied with a grin, and cracked himself up laughing.  I couldn't help but chuckle, too.  His sense of humor and his ability to make fun of his own severe disability was one of the things that got us through that terrible time.

He is in his forties now, and works as a high school special ed teacher, teaching the toughest students in a tough school.  Recently he dared them to complete some assignment and if they did, he would allow them to dye his hair purple on a day that he was scheduled to attend a public meeting of a serious business nature.

Talk about, "You can't keep a good man down, Charlie Brown."  :)

Of course, given Satan's devious and mean-spirited nature, he has tried to high jack the sense of humor God gave us.  Watch any current TV comedy (although I don't recommend it) and you will hear a long string of suggestive, and sometimes downright lewd, scatological humor.  Most of it originates in one of two rooms in the house:  bedroom or bathroom.  I hate it.

But God truly loves a good laugh.  He gave us humor.  His word says, "A merry heart does good like medicine." (Proverbs 17:22)

And part of the description of the virtuous woman in the final chapter in Proverbs is that "she can laugh at the days to come." (Proverbs 31:25 NIV)

Now I am not suggesting that we all go around with silly grins on our mugs in the middle of tough battles.  But I am suggesting that keeping a sense of humor in the middle of the fray may mean the difference between just barely hanging on through it all, or riding a wave of triumph that befuddles the sceptic and warms the heart of God.

God invented humor, many of Jesus' parables were funny stories in the culture of their day.  I have read that the "camel through the eye of a needle" was considered a real knee-slapper in his day.

So why not trust God with a good belly-laugh.  Oh, go on, go for it!  Satan will run like crazy and you will not only feel better for it, you will experience a touch of the "peace that passes understanding."  Laughing produces those endorphins, don't you know?

God bless you ...Marsha

Note:  Today's host is Karen over at In Love W.I.T.H Jesus.  Please join her and leave a comment on today's quote.

My Little Corner of the World - In Other Words

“God is not concerned about what is around the corner.  He created the corner.”

Corners are funny things.  They must be interesting to us, because we have quite a few sayings that we associate with them.

"I believe she has turned the corner." This usually means someone has made some noticeable improvement or progress in either a long-standing dilemma or illness or project.  Something like that.

And then there is the saying about "blind corners" as in "You never know what's coming at you around a blind corner."  True, but then again, I rarely know what's coming at me anyway, even on the straight-aways.
And, of course, the old standby, "He has certainly painted himself into a corner this time."  Uh-huh, been there, done that.  Put myself in a position such that no matter which way I walked, I was going to make a mess. 

So today, I am really relieved that He created the corner in the first place, that He knows what is around it, coming at me, how to get me out of one I have boxed myself into, or how to help me turn the corner.

I have long known He was the God of light and dark, up and down, and this and that; but it is good to be reminded that He is also the God of corners.  My little corner of the world is better for it.  Hope your is, too.
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Be sure and join today's host, Deborah, at Chocolate & Coffee.

The Give and Take of Life

" The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;  may the name of the Lord be praised.  In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing."  

Job 1:  21-22 (NIV)

The neighbors later told me that they  had never seen me run so fast.  I simply remember my feet pounding the pavement, my heart pounding even harder.

We were packing to move, again, and the morning had been spent loading furniture and boxes onto the moving truck.  Our boys, four and six at the time, had been busy making a general nuisance of themselves as only little boys can, when there is serious work to be done and they are not getting enough attention during the process.

Suddenly I heard someone shout, "Your little boy has been hit by a truck!"

What? How could that be?  He was just under my feet a minute ago.

But he had somehow slipped away in the hurry-scurry of loading the moving van, and was around the corner from our house. As I ran, the words of these verses in Job ran through my mind.  The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord .... oh, Lord, please.  I am sorry I have been resisting what you are doing in my life.

The fact was that I had been crying, alone and in private, for three straight days.  That was unlike me, as I am not a "crier".  I tend to be fairly stoic.  But we were facing some truly dismaying developments in our lives, and I was not happy about them.

I had been complaining bitterly to God along the lines of "Why me?  Why now?" - and as I ran, I suddenly realized it all was in His hands and whatever God was sending my way, He would be there with me to face it.

As I rounded the corner and saw his little four-year old body lying at the side of the street, my heart broke as I said, deliberately and with purpose, "Lord, whether you give or you take away, I will serve You.  Please give me strength to face this.  Have mercy on my child."

A middle-aged man sat, ashen-faced, unable to move behind the wheel of his pickup.  My son, Mark, lay about twenty feet from his front bumper, unconscious, unmoving.  He looked almost asleep, his white-blond hair in disarray as it always was, his sturdy little arms and legs sprawled every which way.  There was no blood.

As the man stumbled from his vehicle, he began to murmur, almost to himself more than to me, "He just ran right out in front of me.  I never saw him.  I didn't have a chance to stop."

By then others had gathered around, as his father and I scooped him up and raced off to the hospital.  He had been hit head-on, and thrown twenty feet through the air, landing in gravel at the side of the road.  The front grill of the pickup was badly dented in, and looked like you might expect if the driver had hit a deer.

How could a little child survive a hit like that?  But he did.  Not only that, but when he came to and began to cry on our way to the hospital, he did not appear to have any broken bones.  Later the doctors said he had some bruised ribs, and needed two stitches in his hand for a minor cut.  He had a mild concussion and they advised us not to allow him to go to sleep for a few hours, and then to awaken him every two hours throughout the night.  That was it.

Sometimes, in life, the worst that can happen does.  And sometimes the worst that does happen is almost negligible, compared to how much worse it could have been. This was one of those times. I don't purport to understand the rhyme nor reason of it.  But this I do know, from both joyful and tragic experience; when the Lord gives He does so with abundance, and when He takes away, He does so with mercy and compassion.  More than this, I do not need to know.

From that day on, I have never read those two verses in Job without remembering that hard run and hard realization that it can all change in a moment's time.  That is when I first truly knew that all my times are in His hands.

God bless you .....Marsha
Miriam Pauline at MiPa's Monologue is hosting today and has given a thoughtful post on these verses.  Please join her there.

Right Answer to the Wrong Questions

I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer.

You are yourself the answer.

Before your face questions die away.

What other answer would suffice?                      

~ C.S. Lewis ~

In one of his books, Lewis uses the following question as an illustration of nonsensical questions:

 

            Is yellow round or square?

 

He then states that nonsense is still nonsense, whether we ask it of one another or of God.  However, the questions we often pose to the Almighty, whether or not we ever actually voice them, seem logical and even critical to us.

 

When will this be better ... or over?

 

Why me or my family?

 

How could they?

 

Such questions, carried on the heart, not only seem sensible, but we sometimes wonder, how can a loving God not give us a reply?

 

As Lewis points out in today's quote, He has provided us with an answer - Himself. 

 

When we ponder the tough issues of life, we want a step-by-step explanation from God as to the how and why of our dilemma.  Instead, He introduces us to the I Am of the Way.

 

Early Christian were often known simply as "the people of the Way."  Not the people with all the answers, nor the ones with no unanswered questions, and certainly not the people without any problems, but rather the people who followed Someone who did know the way they were going, and knew how to get them to their ultimate destination.

 

I don't know about you, but when I ask someone what time it is, I don't want them to tell me how to build a clock.  Nevertheless, we want the exact opposite from God.  He keeps trying to tell us what time it is, "look, the fields are white to harvest, the laborers are few, ..the time is coming when no man can work...".

 

But we want him to tell us how to build a "clockwork" life, with finances that never get tangled, relationships that never do either, and opportunities that abound among which we may freely choose.

 

Of course, he has given us some wonderful guidelines in His Word.  And when we apply them consistently we do experience fewer tangled messes in our lives.  But sometimes, when we forget that He alone is the answer to all our questions, we are in the same silly boat as my five year old once was when he asked me, "Mom, what's above the sky?"  When I explained a bit about the atmosphere, and then the spiritual place beyond that called heaven, I told him that he might think of the sky as the floor of heaven.

 

He got an impish grin and then said, "Well, wouldn't it be funny if I poked a hole in the sky with my light-saber, and God and all his angels fell right through?"

 

I laughed and and replied, "It doesn't work that way."  When we get frustrated and are tempted to demand an answer from God, I suspect our Father is smiling, shaking his head and saying, "It doesn't work that way."

 

There is an old song,  that says "It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus. ... One glimpse of his dear face, all sorrows will erase, so gladly run the race, 'till we see Him.

 

His silence is not indifference to our questions.  It is God declining to repeat Himself, as He has already given the answer.  His name is Jesus.

 

A Glorious Plot by the Divine Author of Our Faith

In the darkest of our times,                   

God is plotting for our glory.

If we would believe this and remember it,

we would not be blind when God reveals His grace.”                  ~ by John Piper ~


It is impossible for me to read the quote above without immediately thinking of the verse Jeremiah 29:11:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

Undoubtedly many believers have found comfort in this verse and I am no exception.  The circumstances under which I first truly memorized it, however, are somewhat unique.

On November 13, 1981 our family lost everything we owned:  all furniture, clothing, bedding, dishes and kitchenware, garden tools, musical instruments, books, family picture albums, and last and probably least to everyone but me, the only copies of the manuscript of a book I had written.  Gone - all of it, overnight. 

Just to add insult to injury, our moving van had been stolen by a young man whom a pastor friend of ours was trying to help overcome drug addiction.  He and his crew stole the truck from the church parking lot where it was locked up for the night.  Nothing was ever recovered from the theft.  The fact that the crime came about through our church / pastoral contacts cut deeply.

On the first Sunday that I went to church, after the robbery, I was visiting a congregation where I did not ordinarily attend.  I sat there alone, angry, crushed, mystified. 

Please understand, it was not just this loss alone.  I had just lived through five years of betrayal and heartache and hardly knew which way to turn.  Yes, I knew they were just "things" that had been taken.  And, yes, I was grateful, truly grateful, that my children were safe and well.  But this was simply one blow too many for me to absorb as I struggled through my personal "dark night of the soul."

So there I sat, on the back pew, shoulders slumped, mind numb, heart wracked with anguish over what this latest grief would do to my children's faith in God.  How do you explain to two teenagers and an eight year-old that everything they had, all their sports trophies, and school projects, and fishing gear bought with money they earned from a paper route, was all gone?  AND had been stolen by someone connected with a church!

Finally, I lifted my head enough to glance around the unfamiliar sanctuary, and there on the wall to my right, was a large banner.  It contained the words of Jeremiah 29:11.

Tears began to stream down my face as I asked God to forgive me for doubting his love and his plan for my life.  If only we would believe and remember that God is plotting for our glory.
                                        * * *
Fast forward thirty years.  I wish there was time to tell you of the marvelous way God guided and blessed me over the last twenty five of those thirty years.  However, I would first have to acknowledge that there were to be five more years of loss and heartbreak to endure after the robbery.  I look back upon those ten years as my "decade of despair."

Nevertheless, I can honestly testify that, after that Sunday morning, never again did I allow doubt about whether God loved me to settle in my heart.  Regarding doubt and errant thoughts, Martin Luther once famously said that he could not prevent birds from flying over his head, but he could keep them from building a nest in his hair.  

Of course, I sometimes stumbled and fell, and often all I could do was cling to Him.  It was all I was capable of at the time as, one by one, I was stripped not only of material things, but of relationships, home and health.  But His grace was greater than my grief and it carried me through. God did "make all things beautiful" in His own time and eventually I could say, "It is well with my soul."
                                            * * *
Are you heartbroken?  Do you wonder if God really loves you, if He knows your pain or cares about your suffering?  Yes, He does!  Even in your darkest hour, He knows you, loves you, and is plotting for your glorious future.             * * *

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  Hebrews 12:2-3 (NIV)

Making an Impression or Making an Impact

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach

unless our walking is our preaching.”

~ Francis of Assisi ~

Actions do speak louder than words.  Not only louder, but clearer and truer.  Our behavior is more keenly who we are, while our words may simply be what we say we are.

The old axiom goes, "Say what you mean, and mean what you say."

Words are about making an impression.  Actions are about making an impact. 

In today's society, image is everything, or so we are constantly being told.  Dress for success.  Make an entrance.  Own the room.  Work it, work it, work it... but the "it" being worked isn't real.  It is just an impression, an image, a chimera.

I learned a little poem in Vacation Bible School many years ago, that I have never been able to forget, even during those times in my life when I would have liked to be able to ignore its plaintive message.  It went like this ....

What you are, speaks so loud

That the world can't hear what you say.

They're looking at your walk,

Not listening to your talk,

They're judging by your actions everyday.

Don't believe, you'll deceive

By claiming what you never knew.

They'll accept what they see,
And know you to be.

They'll judge by your life alone.

     (author unknown)

Sociologists tell us that we each have 17 people watching our lives.  I don't know who my seventeen folks are, but I truly do not want to lead them astray, or let them down.  Let us, then, be careful to walk our talk, rather than simply talking about the walk, or thinking about the walk, but never bothering to actually do the walking.
                                           * * *
Footnote:
A few years ago, while in Italy, we visited the village of Assisi where St. Francis lived and preached.  It is a beautiful hilltop village, but the terrain is steep.  I mean, makes-you-out-of-breath-to-climb-to-the-top, steep.  You would need to be a very disciplined and physically fit person to do any "walking and preaching" in that town.  But the view was worth the climb!

Sanity - Or The Alternative

" If you don’t change the direction you are going,

then you are likely to end up where you are headed.”

                             .....  John Maxwell

   

I have recently spent a great deal of time with someone who "ended up where she was headed."

She was a beautiful child when I first knew her.  Flaxen blond hair, sky-blue eyes, Dresden china skin, and a smile that could steal your heart in a glance.

She was the youngest, the family clown, a little doll.

The serious drinking began at fourteen. When I stood by her hospital bedside after a suicide attempt, watching her breathe in a coma that the doctors said she might not emerge from, she was 21.  The first rehab came at 22 - the most recent one at 55.  I lost count of all those in between.  There were interminable Sunday afternoons, when visitors were allowed, that I spent sitting in shabby rooms surrounded by the detritus of lives gone wrong, futures forfeited, and families forever broken - while we talked about whether "this time" would be the time she would change direction.

But, as a doctor I once worked with used to say, "Everywhere you go, there you are."  You hear that a lot now days, but back then it was a newly coined phrase, and struck me as almost ... well, profound in a simple way.

Everywhere you go, you take your hopes and fears, your disappointments and resentments, your loves and hates with you.  If the only thing that changes is location, then the only thing that will change is your address.

Those familiar with "The Big Book" (no, not the one with 66 books and venerated by fellow believers, but rather those who know and live the Twelve Step Programs) often say,

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results." 

I think perhaps that Maxwell is saying the same thing in slightly different words. 

Thus, if we like the direction we are headed, let us adhere to the path with all the fidelity and forbearance we can muster.

But if we are looking down life's road and see a sad destination coming 'round the bend toward us, let us determine to change direction.                    * * *

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation..."        II Corinthians 5:17-18