Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children.
Tender Love
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Monthly Archives: June 2013
In Between
So I am supposed to write for five minutes. No editing. No rewrites. Here we go!
Subject: In Between
In Between is like holding your breath – like waiting suspended in time. To me, it means nothing is happening. Something is being left behind, something is coming, and I am left hanging in the in between.
I remember times like this in my life; the time between engaged and married, the summer between high school and college, standing on the starting blocks, waiting for the starter to call “Take you marks!”, and then the gun goes off.
What is really happening in this time that is ‘no time’? In the place that seems like ‘no place’?
In Between is the filling station for grace – for an infusion of heavenly power to get to the next level. What a beautiful time. But no wonder it seems like nothing is happening. Who can feel grace? Who can see it? It comes as silently as the space between the diving board and the water below.
It is filled with promise as I look behind to see what I was, and anticipate the future to see what I’ll become. I didn’t look at the in between, but God is there. That time is the whole reason I can go forward; from my past and into my future.
Thank you to Five Minute Friday at lisajobaker.com
Thank you to TGIF at http://biblelovenotes.blogspot.com/
Thank you to Sunday Stillness at janiscox.com
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Amazing Grace
In 2010, Facebook sponsored a “Facebook Fans Rank Favorite Hymns.” Amazing Grace ranked #3 on the list. (Want to know what ranked ahead of it? #1. Here I Am, Lord
#2. How Great Thou Art.)
The love shown in God’s grace is “amazing”, and moves me to do things I would never do on my own. With my cooperation, I pray that “grace will lead me home.”
As familiar as I was with the song, it was only recently that I became familiar with the author of the hymn, John Newton. Mr. Newton was born in England in 1725. He didn’t have any religious affiliations or any big plans for his life. He was forced into serving his country in the Royal Navy, which ultimately led to his employment as a Captain on a slave trading ship.
In 1748, he was onboard his ship, when a violent storm blew up. He became very frightened of losing his ship and his life, so he cried out to God for help. He promised the Lord he would quit the slave trade if he were saved from the storm.
Mr. Newton’s ship was saved, and he eventually fulfilled his bargain with God. He was ordained into the Church of England, and published “Amazing Grace” in 1779.
The day of the storm, and that saving experience so long ago, truly was a day filled with grace. God saved a ship filled with his children. The risk in the storm caused a man who did not practice any faith to call out to God. The Father enlightened one more soul about the evils of slavery. Encouraged and supported to attend classes, this sea captain became a lyricist of sacred music.
All these changes really make me pause to thank God in the Spirit for his power to change people and events. I don’t know which one of these changes you think is the most powerful-but I was impressed by one more thing in this holy episode.
John Newton made a promise to God, and he kept that promise. Yes, it took him a little while to get around to it, but he did it. (See Matthew 21:29) How many times have I made a pledge in great distress, only to forget all about it when the ‘storm’ has passed?
In all the wonderful things I learned about this man, and the road to writing this hymn, I will remember his trustworthiness the most. He gives me hope. The power of God’s grace can help me be more accountable for my promises too; both to God and to his children. That will be “amazing!”
Thank you to Angel at Finding the Inspiring blog, for my new bible! I won her blog contest by ‘joining’ her, and she sent me The Woman’s Study Bible . It’s beautiful! So nice to have met you Angel, and I look forward to getting to know you better :).
Relentless
The word ‘relentless’ has been bouncing around my brain for over a week now. I know it can have negative connotations, but that’s not the kind of relentless I mean. I mean having the will to stay with an idea or action no matter what, because it’s the right thing.
I admire people who accomplish the goals they set for themselves.
The woman who loses fifty pounds, the Olympic swimmer who wins a gold medal, the troubled teen who turns it all around and finally earns that GED. On the surface, I see the shining moment of victory. Lying just beneath all the glitter, are the minutes, hours and years of non-stop hard work.
I stand in awe of the toil and self-sacrifice. The commitment to the road they have chosen has to be made, and remade, every single day. Each goal had it’s own unique demands for success. Each person said ‘yes’ to those demands. They embody, for me, the meaning of relentless.
Prep Work
So…I think that God is asking me to put some time aside, and use that time to reevaluate my own goals. I need to figure out which ones are his and which ones are just mine. Once that’s settled, the big question looms. Am I ready to put all my effort into the remaining goals? Can I wake up every morning and dedicate myself to the work God wants me to do? No excuses. Just aim for the goal.
Pursuing something in spite of hardship is not easy. St. Paul was an incredibly successful missionary for the Church. But listen to the cost: “Five times…I received forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned…” (2 Cor 11:24-25) and the list goes on. Yet, he never dreamed of quitting. He knew his mission and his goal. Hardship would not deter him.
I am not going to beaten with rods (phew!) if I don’t hone in on my God-given goals and do my best. But I will disappoint him, and that might feel even worse.
The Big Question
The Lord is knocking on my door. He is whispering the word “Relentless.” It’s time to open the door and let him in. We’ll clean the house together, and toss out the things that don’t matter. What remains will be the projects that have my name on them.
He’ll turn to me and wait. The silence will be deafening. Will I say ‘yes’?
I won’t refuse the Lord. I’m ready to try. I know I won’t be perfect, but he knows that too. If I truly am the one called to do it, then he will be with me. When it gets hard, he’ll either change the situation, or change me, so I can keep going.
This is an important time. I need to listen and pray. I shouldn’t try to force my way. Like the tortoise in Aesop’s Fable, ‘slow and steady’ will win the race. Yes, the hare lost out by being overconfident, but I think the real hero of the story is the tortoise. He gets the prize for being…you guessed it…relentless.
Rhythm
So I am supposed to write for five minutes. No editing. No rewrites. Here we go!
Subject: Rhythm
Rhythm…it’s something that I recognize more when I’m feeling the lack of it, rather than the fullness of it in my life. It’s like the faithful washing machine that I mindlessly cram my dirty clothes, towels and whatever into every week. I don’t notice the rhythm of that ritual. I do notice when the machine breaks down! The rhythm is broken…and I then I miss it.
What else am I missing?
The crack of the bat against the ball at the Little League game.
The waves of the ocean pushing to the shore only to quickly pull back again.
The breath of a little one, as she falls helplessly asleep after the late night feeding.
The crunch, crunch, crunch of my footsteps on the gravel path where I walk.
The sound of a heartbeat echoing in my ear, reminding me that my body moves in it’s own secret time every moment of my life.
The passing of Seasons, one into another, as the year progresses.
Beauty hides in the everyday rhythm and ritual of living.
Time to start opening my ears and my eyes to the wonder of the rhythm of life.
Thank you to Five Minute Friday at lisajobaker.com!
Just Pedal
J
esus and I were riding a tandem bicycle. At first, I sat in
front; Jesus in the rear. I couldn’t see him, but I knew he was there. I could feel his help when the road got steep. Then one day we changed seats. Suddenly everything went topsy-turvy.
When I was in control, the ride was predictable-even boring. But when Jesus took over, it got wild! I could hardly hold on. “This is madness!” I cried out. But Jesus just smiled-and said, “Pedal!”
And so I learned to shut up and pedal-and trust my bike companion. Oh, there are still times when I get scared and I’m ready to quit. But Jesus turns around, touches my hand, smiles, and says, “Pedal!”
Author Unknown
I am a lover of front seats; I have to admit it. With a full view of the road ahead, I am pedaling as fast or slow as I want, and I steer the bike wherever I want to go.
I know I got into a ‘bike path’ rut. Confession: I am an avid volunteer. There wasn’t a committee or job I wouldn’t turn down. “Sure, I’ll do it” I’d reply. It’s for my church community, so it must be a good thing, right? And maybe you’ve experienced this too-if you say ‘yes’ enough, you become the go-to gal for projects.
Bide ride after bike ride I’d travel down the same road. Commission Chair, Committee Member, Small Group Organizer, music minister, bake sale baker, sure. I’ll do that. But you know what? I think I was boring myself a little bit too. I started to think, “Yes, I
can
do it. But should I be doing it?”
Only in the last couple of years or so have I allowed Jesus to come on up and switch seats. I climbed in the back and started pedaling. Oh man, what a ride. I’ve become a Nana twice. My husband has been unemployed for over a year. I pulled back at church a bit. I started this blog. My mother and my mother-in-law died. It’s been pretty…eventful.
The same things would have happened if I was in the front, but I would have fooled myself into believing I had some kind of control over all this stuff. Which I don’t.
I never did. From the back seat, I can just pedal and know that Jesus will lead me through it all, and I’ll be o.k..
I’ll tell you, it’s never boring. Sometimes, I fall back into my old way of thinking and I tell Jesus we should switch back again. Some of this stuff is hard and I’d rather think I’m in control. But Jesus will still smile at me, and still encourage my pathetic pedaling.
I’m not too sure where we are going. Jesus is navigating, so who can say? But I’m glad I’m not in the front…for today anyway. Every day it’s a struggle to not jump off and bump Jesus to the rear. But I know he doesn’t belong there. That’s my spot.
Comment Question for the day: Are you in the front seat of the bike, or the back?
Praying in Community
This past weekend my husband spied a growing beehive in the corner of our garage. It was very small, but we knew it was only a matter of time before it would become a large, busy home for the bees.
It got me thinking about the qualities of bees and their hives. Bees are industrious creatures, and they live together like a large family. All the members go about their business gathering pollen, keeping the queen happy and producing that sweetest of all treats, honey. The honey nourishes the hive, but it also can be harvested to feed us too.
This process reminds me a lot of life in prayer.
We go about our business, praying each day for our needs and the needs of others, just like the bees leave the hive in their solo search for nectar. The bee has to do this for the good of the himself and the hive; and we pray alone for much the same reasons.
But one bee cannot manage the production of large amounts of honey. He needs his hive-mates to do their job too. Working in concert, all the hive inhabitants help to produce the sweet miracle of honey. People mirror this by praying in Small Faith Groups or in the Church Community. It accomplishes the same thing.
For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.
Matthew 18:20
Jesus wants us to know that there is power in the prayer of the many. It produces good things.
Knowing that, I‘d like to start “Praying in Trust” on Thursdays here at Evangelize to Me. We all will have the opportunity to come and bow our heads in prayer to make that powerful, prayerful noise to God. The aim is to help our brothers and sisters in need.
This is what I ask of you:
1.
Come to this site on Thursdays and pray for the topic offered. There will be a devotion given.
2.
If you have a theme to suggest, please offer it!
3.
If you or anyone in your life needs prayer, please submit the name of the person and their need. I will compile a prayer list to display on the blog during that week. If you do not want to name a specific person or problem, “Anonymous” is fine. The prayer need does not have to match the intention for the week.
4.
Prayerfully consider ‘joining’ this blog. That way, people with prayer needs will see that you will support them. You will also get a reminder of the day through the post delivery. If you do not have a blog, you can still ‘join’ but please sign up for posts by email, and you’ll get that reminder too.
Our world, our human family, needs our prayerful support. Prayer changes things, so lets gather together as a blogging community to help each other.
We will offer up the steady hum of prayer, and we trust that God will accept this prayer. Not only that, but that he will produce sweet fruits for those who need him.
Listen
So I am supposed to write for five minutes. No editing, no rewrites. Here goes!
Subject:
Listen
Listen to me! Says the man with the crudely made cardboard sign that says:
“Homeless and Hungry”
Listen to me! Says the child wailing in the cart in the Greeting Card aisle of
Target
Listen to me! Says my husband as he holds the newspaper with the article
that agrees with his opinion
Listen to me! Says the lady on the phone who wants to sell me…something. I don’t
know because I’ve already tuned her out
Listen to me! Says my garden full of flowers and weeds growing gaily together
Listen to me! Says my 95 year old aunt, who wants us to bring her Chocolate
Éclairs to the Assisted Living Community she lives in because she
can’t drive anymore
Listen to me! Jesus calls softly in my ear.
“How can I listen to you Lord? It’s so loud, with all these people calling!”
Jesus smiles. “I am calling you to all those places. Go out…and Listen to Me!”
Thank you to Five Minute Fridays !
What? Me Worry?
I have come to the realization that I must love worry a lot, because I spend so much time doing it. The things we choose to do repeatedly are the things we truly love, right?
How about a show of hands for worry—who loves worry? Something tells me nobody is going to raise any hands in here. I’m sure not going to do it. So how do I explain my attraction to the endless churning over my actions? Of course, I don’t stop there. I’ll be happy to worry about what you really meant when you said that to me.
I should hire out, I do this so well.
Worry, worry, worry. Worry has to be the most destructive of things that I do. What exactly does it accomplish? Have I ever had a break-through moment as the result of fixating on a problem? No sir.
I need a little clarity here.
Worry is most often a prideful way of thinking that you have more control over life and its circumstances than you actually do.
June Hunt
What an interesting idea. Worry can actually be an example of self-sufficiency gone viral. This is definitely a possibility for me. I was educated as a nurse, and I like precise and textbook answers to life’s little nagging problems. If there just aren’t any obvious answers, I get a little panicky. There must be an answer somewhere….I know! I’ll get acid reflux worrying about it!
(A full twenty percent of the US population has acid reflux, so we can’t all be wrong.)
But what I really need to do is act when I can, then let it go into the arms of God. I do not have ultimate control over anything. Big shock, I know. The Lord set up life this way so I’d learn how to rely on him, not on my own understanding.
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
Jesus Christ
Jesus certainly gets down to the meat of the issue. He was not ambiguous in the face of human misery. He knows that I’m a worrier.
Jesus also sees me as I am, the child of the Father.
It’s hard to see the kids worry, isn’t it?
The Lord sees me in my distress. It hurts his heart to see me twist in the wind, grasping for solutions to problems that are not mine to find. And honestly, there usually isn’t a problem at all. It’s just my overactive love of producing stomach acid taking me over again.
Time for me to see worry for what it is. A distracting, self-absorbed heartache for me and for Jesus.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; whom shall I dread? When those who do evil draw near, they stumble and fall.
Psalm 27:1-2
Psalm 27:1-2
Thank you King David. I needed that. And back into my week I go. Reset the score clock between worry and me. I’m preparing for an epic comeback.
Comment Question for today: What are the triggers that cause worry in you?
"Hi Nana!"
Praying can be a tricky business for me.
I know that’s silly, but I am willing to bet that there are people who suffer from the same silliness. I wonder…am I praying too long? Too short? I can’t kneel anymore because of my fabulous knees, but Lord? Does sitting seem like I’m being lazy?
Do you want me to pray, or listen? Should I be praying pre-printed standard prayers, or in my own words? I’m too tired/ill/stunned to pray. Is it ok if I just sit here and be quiet?
I was quite capable of driving myself crazy. (After all, who knows me the best?) Fortunately for me, I have recently been able to overcome these ‘prayer crazies’, and you know how I was able to do it?
Here’s a hint: “and a little child shall lead them.”
I have a little fifteen-month-old granddaughter. She is currently trying to master walking, talking and pushing out teeth from her swollen gums. She can even point to her nose when prompted! (You never know… your life might be on the line, and the only way to save yourself is to answer the confusing question: ‘HEY! Where’s your nose??”)
Isn’t she amazing? Isn’t she the most wonderful little fifteen-month-old child you have ever heard of? But let me tell you the most impressive thing of all. Among her very small pile of words, lies the phrase, “Hi Nana!”
Oh my gosh. I could hear that all day. Sometimes I get really lucky and she walks toward me chirping “Nana, Nana, Nana.” I just melt into a puddle. She literally enchants me when she spontaneously bursts forth with those greetings. My love for her just pours out and I am sure it could flood a mountain.
Thinking about how much I just adore her led me to my ‘cue the sunshine through the parting clouds’ moment. All my little one has to do is say my name and I am enthralled. Add ‘hi’ to the mix, and you can add ‘enraptured.’ Honestly though, if she sat down in front of me and starting spouting gibberish, I would smile and wish the moment would last forever.
If small, imperfect, mortal me can feel that way about her, in her limited ability to connect to me, how much more does Jesus in heaven love me when I sit in front of him and splash about in my inadequate pile of words? Yes, sitting is ok! Like he would care, right? He also sits opposite me, cross-legged, elbow on knee, chin in fist, watching me with a love that washes over me like the ocean.
I think I’m done worrying about prayer. If all I can do is just say his name over and over that’s ok. He will, still and always, think of me as his beloved and cherished child. And if I can’t pray in words, I’ll just sit and soak up the moment.
And that will be just fine with him too.