Friday, November 13, 2015

The One Thing Worth Chasing

Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up..,
 
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth...”
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

- Hosea 6: 1, 3, 6
If to know the Lord is to walk in clarity and light, just as the dawning sun illuminates the earth – if pursuing Him leads to refreshment, growth and renewal, as the rains of spring do to the winter-hardened earth (v. 3) – then when we find ourselves tired, confused and spiritually dry, we might do well to consider what we're chasing after.

What is our main pursuit in life – is it the approval of man, the satisfaction of our flesh, the avoidance of our fears? Or are we consumed with “pressing on” to know the Lord better every day, which is the only goal in life that will ultimately satisfy and revive the soul?

How are we like the ancient Israelites, offering up “sacrifices” instead of genuinely pursuing to know the Lord out of steadfast love (v. 6)? Sacrifices are the easy route – we simply muster up the spiritual zeal to serve in some way that we feel is important, and then we're done. We can move on with the rest of our week, relatively unchanged in our hearts, yet feeling good about having checked off our “service to the Lord” box.

But Christ desires our hearts, not just our hands.
 
He desires us to daily draw so near to Him that we cannot help but walk away changed by the experience of knowing Him better through His Word and prayer.
 
And as we “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8), our love for Him will grow, and we will hunger for more of Him, pressing on to know Christ – whom to know is life eternal (John 17: 3). As we embrace Christ, we embrace eternal life in the here and now.

So let us daily draw nearer, knowing and therefore loving Him better. Let us fight against the temptation to put ourselves on spiritual cruise control and complacently sit back, content with the knowledge of Him that we've gained from previous days.

There is infinite goodness in Christ to be had! If we spent every one of our remaining waking ours at His feet, we would still not come close to drinking in all His beauty! But let us be found there. Let it be our goal that we do less “returning” (because we never left) and more remaining at His feet.

All throughout our days, let our hearts ever anchor themselves next to His. And “as sure as the dawn” - as certainly as the ever increasing morning light of a sunrise gradually reveals the world around us - God will steadily give us more knowledge of Himself and a deeper relationship with His Son if we stay awake and pursue Him.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church - Nov. 1 & 8, 2015




Even if our understanding of it is limited, there is no denying that prayer is a mighty weapon gifted to us from our Father, Who calls upon us to wield it "without ceasing" on behalf of our Christian brothers and sisters:

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
 - Hebrews 13: 3
 
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
- Ephesians 6: 18
 
Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 
- Galatians 6:2
 
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.
- 1 Corinthians 12:26-27
 
...you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.
- 2 Corinthians 1:11
 
 Today and Sunday, Nov. 8 are International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. May each of us carve out time to "bear one another's burdens" out of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. For great suggestions and verses to pray for the persecuted church, click the following links:

 
And as we go about our daily lives here in America, may we also remember:
"The persecuted Church needs our prayers. But we also need their example. Often, they have told me that they pray for the Western Church—that we will be faithful to Christ in the midst of our materialism and the numerous temptations of our culture. We need their prayers, not least because they need for us to be strong in our faith in order to stand with them. Together we are one body—suffering together and rejoicing together." - Al Jannsen


 

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Waking Up to the Syrian Refugee Crisis

A Confession

For far too long, I've been living unto myself, safely tucked away in my little American bubble with no real worries to speak of. I shamefully admit that, even though I'm saturated with far more blessings than most of the world would even know to dream of, I have daily battled against discontentment and self-pity. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, as a byproduct of being raised in modern America, I had bought in to the consumerist lies that permeate every facet of our culture. It nauseates me to confess the trivial thoughts that were constantly at the forefront of my mind: Could I find a good deal on outdoor sofa cushions? When will I finally get some “me” time? I wonder what's happening on Facebook? I'm so tired of my purse – I need a new one. Wouldn't things be so much better if I could just keep those five pounds off?
 
Although, through the years, God's Spirit within me had steadily moved my heart closer to what concerns His heart, my mind was still far too consumed with thoughts about myself.

Then came February 15, 2015, when ISIS released the graphic video of their brutal, systematic murder of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on the shores of Libya.
 
 

 As I stared into the determined eyes of those brave martyrs, my own eyes that were once sealed shut to the ISIS-induced crisis going on in the Middle East began to crack open. I was finally jarred awake to the magnitude of monstrosities that are being committed every second in the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Men, women and children – children - raped, tortured, and beheaded on a daily basis, under the banner of a holy calling.
 
Refugees in crisis.
EPA
Life is so desperate for them that, in 2015 alone, of the 300,000 refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat as they flee the terror of ISIS for the safety of European shores, over 2,500 have drowned, their bodies washing ashore as the world watches.
 
To understand more about the extent of the crisis, click here.
 
A woman removes the life jacket from a baby, who survived the journey,
moments after Syrian refugees arrived on a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos


How could I have missed this for so many years? Where had I been?!
 
I knew at the very least that I needed to start praying for this situation, so in February I set an alarm on my phone and began to pray every day for the relief, strengthening and protection of the persecuted Church. And now, six months later, I feel like God has been faithful to answer my prayers in a way I didn't expect as He has more fully removed the scales from my eyes and stirred deeply in not only my own heart, but in the hearts of my husband and close friends.
 
I came home last week to find a book titled Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard lying on my husband's nightstand. He had devoured that book in only two days, and God used it to spark a raging flame in my husband's heart. I am now married to a man on fire who is consumed with prayerfully searching out how we can use our lives to bring God's light and love to those suffering through this crisis. And in His perfect providence, God has simultaneously been at work in the hearts of many of our friends as well, stirring us all more and more awake. This has caused my prayer focus to now shift toward asking God how my family, friends and I can specifically be the instruments of relief, strengthening and protection for which I was originally praying.

We've only just begun this journey, but for starters, my husband's and my whole outlook on how we spend the money with which God has blessed us has radically changed. We've become hyper-aware that every dollar that flows in and out of our home can either be used for eternal good, or for our own selfish gain (oh, how much money we have wasted!) – and so consequently we are in the process of completely re-vamping how we manage our funds so that we can free up more of them to go toward the refugee relief effort, as well as looking in to various ways we can make extra income to donate.
----------------------------------------------------------
 
A Call to Action

What if we all began to have the radical perspective that God allowed us to be born here in America not simply for our own comfort and gain, but so that we could maximize the opportunities we have in order to bless others with them? We did nothing to deserve being born here – why do we think we should just hoard all our gain unto ourselves? Who does that benefit? In the end, it doesn't even benefit ourselves – just look at the results of our national greed (obesity, depression, debt, addictions, etc.).

A person can never be truly satisfied if they are living only for their own gain. If you want to see a truly joyful person, find someone who is following Paul's example in Philippians 2:17 and pouring out his every day for a cause greater than himself. In the inspirational words of George Bernard Shaw:
 
This is the true joy in life...being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one...being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy...I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

The ultimate joy is to align our lives with the mission of pushing back the darkness by holding out the light of Christ. Jesus rightly said in Matthew 10: 39 that unless we lose our lives, we cannot find them.
 
The persecuted Church knows all about this.
 
Syrian refugees in Bulgaria
But as modern Americans, we are pummeled daily with the completely opposite message: YOU are what it's all about. Seek comfort, pleasure and protect whatever is YOURS above all else. We are fools to think this self-absorbed, antichrist mindset has not permeated the American Church.

 I challenge you to spend some time asking Christ how you specifically have bought into this lie, and to help you see that, as His children, our lives are not our own, they were bought with a price, and truly there is no greater joy than laying them down out of gratitude and love for Christ.
 
As Defying ISIS author, Johnnie Moore, writes, “It has always been a mystery to me why so many Christians in the West struggle to live for what so many Christians in persecuted countries are willing to die for.”
 
It is a difficult exercise, but for the sake of compassion, just take a moment and try to really understand what life is like for those being hunted down by ISIS. Allow yourself to imagine what it would be like if ISIS showed up on your front doorstep, lined your family up and then demanded that you all either convert to their ideology or die. And then imagine what it would be like if the last thing your eyes ever saw before you entered eternity was the murder of your own children for their refusal to deny Christ. As seemingly impossible as it sounds in our modern era, this is no nightmarish fairy tale – this is the brutal reality for thousands of Christians this very moment.
 
The stories are endless. And it could very easily be our own reality sooner than we think.
 
We are living in a time of laying down lives – our persecuted brothers and sisters lose theirs because they would rather die than deny their precious Savior. Let us follow their stunning example and, at the very least, lay down our comforts, taking up the mandate to live simply, so that our storehouses are opened to their needs, and perhaps somehow we can offer them relief.
 
Syrian refugees.
Photograph: Sedat Suna/EPA
In the words of Sister Rose, a young Iraqi nun who is bravely risking her life to save those hunted down by ISIS, “Americans are wonderful people. It's shocking to me that they are so silent in the face of our genocide. Please help us. Raise your voice for us. Our children are dying. In America you care for your pets so well, can you care for your Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering?” (Defying ISIS, p. 70).

 Start asking God how He wants you to help:
  •  For an excellent article on practical ways to get involved , check out 8 Ways to Help Refugees a World Away.
  • How can you encourage your friends, family and church to get involved?
  • Whatever job God has given you to do, do it for a greater purpose! If you write, write for this greater purpose. If you create, create for this greater purpose.
  • Take a hard look at how you spend the money with which God has blessed you. What if you only lived on half your income and donated the rest of it, instead of saving up for another toy that you'll tire of in two weeks? Or, what if it was a given that, of course we all lived on one income and gave the other one away?
  • What do you have lying around your house that you could sell and donate the money to help refugees? What about all that old jewelry getting tarnished in your closet? How many bags of gently used clothing can you fill up to donate? 
We all know that in the end, we can't take anything with us when we are done with this life. Scripture speaks again and again of our need to not be tied down with the love of money, but to be satisfied with living simply. If the Church would take this Biblical mandate seriously, billions of dollars would be released to serve those in need. According to the Status of Global Mission 2010, only 1.73% of the total global church member annual income is given to Christian causes.
 
Beloved Church, our brothers and sisters are desperate, displaced, and dying every day...and yet we are shamefully far more concerned about where our next vacation should be or what restaurant we'll eat out at tonight.  

 It's far past time for us to wake up to the vicious reality of what is happening on the other side of the world (and is rapidly on its way to our shores). Christ calls us to help those who are suffering, especially those of the family of faith (Galatians 6: 10), and when we do, it is as if we are doing it for the very Lord Himself:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ - Matthew 25: 35-40
Christ's Body is floating in the Mediterranean Sea, beaten and bruised. How can we sit idly by and do nothing?
This is the greatest humanitarian catastrophe we will ever see in our lifetime, and it's happening to our Family members. We can no longer turn a blind eye with the hopes that it will just all go away. It is happening, even as I type these words – and we need not deceive ourselves with the thoughts that it will never happen on the presumed safety of American soil.
We each have to decide in our hearts whether we will be a part of the silence, or will we join with those who are standing up, speaking out, sacrificing comforts, and serving?
We were born for such a time as this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The Lord Will Not Forsake His People

Psalm 94
O Lord, God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    repay to the proud what they deserve!
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
    how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words;
    all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,
    and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
    and murder the fatherless;
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;
    the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8 Understand, O dullest of the people!
    Fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
He who teaches man knowledge—
11     the Lord—knows the thoughts of man,
    that they are but a breath.
12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,
    and whom you teach out of your law,
13 to give him rest from days of trouble,
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not forsake his people;
    he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous,
    and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
    Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not been my help,
    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
    your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
    your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
    those who frame injustice by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous
    and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,
    and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity
    and wipe them out for their wickedness;
    the Lord our God will wipe them out.





Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Guard Against the Joy Thieves


“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
- John 10:10

When I think of a thief, I instantly picture a cartoon figure clad in a striped shirt and sporting a black eye mask – not too sneaky of a get up for a thief, if you ask me.



But the thieves Christ is speaking of are so much less obvious than what our minds imagine. They show up in the subtle lies whispered by our sinful hearts, the world and Satan, whose main goal is to trick us into believing that there is something else in life that will make us happy. These thieves never rest; they are ever attempting to lure us away from chasing our joy in Christ. When we fold to them, we fling open the door to our hearts and allow them to wreak havoc on the peace Christ died to give us – the abundance of life we are offered in Him.


These thieves are opportunists, knowing that our physical lives this side of heaven will very likely be one of trials and struggles. They've helped twist the understanding of this verse and promoted the “prosperity gospel” lie that the abundant Christian life is one marked by a full bank account and a clean bill of health. While most of us, if we are honest, desire those things, what Christ is talking about here is so much more than just our material security, which we all know is fleeting and can change on a dime (no pun intended).

So what is the abundant life? When we are born into God's family through faith in Christ's redeeming work on the cross, His Spirit dwells in us and the abundant life can be experienced in our daily decision to be satisfied in Him alone. Our simple lives become supernaturally empowered, allowing us to live life to the fullest in the strength He supplies, just as He designed it to be lived.


It seems like a foolish question, but who doesn't want a MORE joyful, fulfilling life? That is the abundant life that Jesus promises – that in Him (and Him alone), we are graciously given the chance to operate infused with his unshakable joy every day; and when our days on Earth are done, eternal joy. Let's make it a habit to ask God for the grace to stop being satisfied by lesser joys, as C.S. Lewis famously wrote,

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”


Lord, help us to lock out the thieves and vigilantly guard our hearts (Proverbs 4:23), turning our minds toward the face of Christ by saturating them in Your Word, our main weapon, as often as we are able, knowing that a richer, fuller life marked by joy and strength in Christ alone awaits us.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Rome: An Unexpected Lesson on What Falls and What Stands


So, Rome. It's hard to walk away from a visit to what has been called the “Eternal City” without, at least on a sub-conscious level, pondering the question of what is truly eternal and worthy of ultimate trust.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.”
(Psalm 20: 7)

Imperial Rome, although at one point it ruled all of what was the known world at the time, had a set time for its reign, and eventually collapsed. It doesn't take a lengthy glance back at human history to see clearly that the same has gone (and will go) for all other man-made institutions of this world. Anything that is not based on what is eternal will inevitably fall.

So, the question looms large before us – at this point in human history, where is our hope based? Is it our country, our financial security, technology, medical advancement, our philosophies, those around us, ourselves? Or is our trust, our final sense of assurance, based on the only One Who sits on the everlasting throne?

As we watch our country struggle, we do well to remember that even though we should stand firm in graciously speaking the Truth in love, when all is said and done, we can rest in knowing that God's providence cannot be thwarted. We can trust in the name of the Lord our God, even if all that we know collapses and falls, because if we are in Christ, His saving work on the cross will ultimately cause us to “rise and stand upright” in the end.
 
Until that Day, may God help us to remember and live out His command to love with a true love:

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of the Lord endures forever."
(1 Peter 1:22-25)

Friday, May 29, 2015

What's On Your Mind?


...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things...practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
 - Philippians 4:8, 9b

Every year the mud martins came – pretty little birds who would build their muddy nest in the safety of our front porch. We welcomed them because they were fun to watch, but any time we attempted to walk out our front door, they dive bombed us with military fervor. Pretty little birds with a pretty impressive attack mode.

When it comes to our thoughts, there's great wisdom in the old saying that you can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop it from building a nest in your hair. Often thoughts can seem to bombard us out of thin air, and before we know it, we find ourselves, sometimes even subconsciously, letting them “build a nest in our hair” by dwelling on that which is unhealthy, unhelpful, and unholy.
 
Do you ever find this to be true in your life? Your day starts out fairly smoothly, but then somehow - totally undetected - some lie begins to sneak into your thoughts, clouding the Truth in your heart, and slowly turning your mind towards that which is negative, fearful, selfish, just ugly...And before you know it, your perspective on life is completely tainted by that insidious lie's shadow, causing your actions (usually regrettable) to follow suit. It's been rightly said, “Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character.” What we allow ourselves to think on, we will do, and what we do, we will become.

Any time I find myself covered with the splattered mud of my selfishness (or any number of sins), I can always trace my actions back to my mind's believing in some sort of lie that my sin nature, the world or Satan has thrown at me. Every sin is rooted in wrong thinking – just as, conversely, every godly act is rooted in right thinking. When we find ourselves slowly sinking into a mental pit of stinky thoughts (jealousy, worry, selfishness, insecurity, anger, idolatry, etc.), we are believing some sort of lie that has been sown into our minds. And we can be sure that if we continue to brood on it, the inevitable result is sin – which, if we have God's Spirit dwelling in us through faith in Christ, will always destroy our peace.

So how do we conquer "the life of the mind"? God knows that, since the Garden of Eden, we humans have been easy targets for the swaying of our minds toward the dark and untrue (and we've been watching the results of wrong thinking wreak havoc on human history ever since). So, out of the Father's tender love, He commands us to get control of our thought life by continually redirecting our minds to that which is:
true
honorable
just
pure
lovely
commendable
excellent
and praiseworthy
 
– essentially, turning our minds toward Jesus and His Word, which embodies all these qualities.
 
To do this, we must trust Him. God's Word promises,
 "You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you,
all whose thoughts are fixed on you!"
-Isaiah 26:3
 
Do you trust in the Lord? Does your heart rest in the fickle fact that you have enough money in the bank, your last health check-up was good, you've got a ring on your finger, or you're just feeling generally well-liked at the moment...
 
Or does your heart truly, moment-by-moment, peacefully rest in the unchangeable fact that - no matter what - the Lord is
sovereign,
faithful, 
all-powerful,
merciful,
loving,
patient,
forgiving,
gracious,
and will work all things together for the good of those who love Him?
 
People (including ourselves) will fail us. Our health will fail us. Whatever we are leaning on to maintain our false sense of security will ultimately fail us.
 
Only Jesus is fully trustworthy and will never fail us.
 
When we discipline ourselves to think on this Truth (and a huge tool to help us do that is memorizing Scripture), we are much more likely to fulfill the next verse's command: to put these things into practice.
 
As we think God's thoughts, which are clearly laid out for us in His Word, and should be in our hearts through memorization, we are forever changed as His Spirit redeems our minds. We begin to see life from God's perspective, and we can then live out the kind of walk He desires. And as obedience leads to deeper intimacy with Jesus, we are promised that “the God of peace will be with [us].”

Are you lacking peace in your life today? Do you want more intimacy with God?
 
First check your thoughts – what is your mind's “default setting”? What do you think on when you're just “spacing out”? If it's not Jesus and all His beauty spilling forth through Scripture and His grace around us, then ask the Lord to help you learn to trust Him and learn His Word (see links below) - so that, even if you're bombarded daily with all manner of thoughts, you will find your mind always returning to its safe haven, always being restored and grounded, settled and ultimately wrapped in peace and not fear, as you learn to dwell on Jesus and His powerful Word, which alone is
 true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy.

Father God, please give me the grace to capture every thought that is not from You and replace it with Your Truth, as I seek to write it on my heart. My mind desperately needs to be renewed by Your Spirit through Your Word every day. Thank you that no lie from the Enemy, world or my own sinful nature can stand up to the purifying light of Truth found in Your Word. Amen.



[P.S. To learn more about God and how to have His peace, click http://www.cru.org/how-to-know-god/would-you-like-to-know-god-personally.html
P.S.S. www.fighterverses.com is an excellent tool for Scripture memory! Find someone to be your partner in memorizing God's Word to hold you accountable - it'll make all the difference.]


Monday, March 9, 2015

Troubled or Trusting?



Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” - John 14: 27

Just as it does in our beloved Texas, the “weather” in my heart can change in an instant. It seems that within any given week, my perspective on life can swing from mountain top to valley – sometimes within just a matter of minutes! Often the stormy moments are kicked up by very real outside factors, but many times the waves come crashing as a result of my own sinful heart (or hormones!). Regardless of the cause of the storms of life, we all know they come, are approaching, or are already here - sometimes as brief gusts that leave as quickly as they came...and sometimes as F5 tornadoes that lay waste to virtually everything standing in our lives. Life is rarely smooth sailing.
Knowing this, when we begin to see the waves rising, when the winds start to stir up in our hearts and we think, “surely, not another storm already!”...where is our hope anchored (Heb. 6: 19)? When the tempests hit, may we be found steadily clinging to our Rock, our hands securely resting in the unbreaking grasp of our Savior. As the storm waves come, may we let God's Word wash over us too, reminding us of His Truth that:
never will He leave us nor forsake us (Deut. 31:6);
He will work all things together for our good (Rom. 8: 28);
His purpose will stand (Prov. 19:21);
He is our refuge and strength (Ps. 46:1);
He has overcome the world (Jn. 16: 33);
He disciplines those He loves (Heb. 12: 6);
He will make all things new (Rev. 21:5);
and even though we walk through deep places, we will not be overtaken (Is. 43: 2)...
(This list of promises could go on - God's Word is chock full of 'em).

We must, moment by moment, anchor our souls in Christ; and as we do, He will flood our hearts with His promised peace that passes all understanding – that true soul rest that the world cannot give, although it searches desperately for it at empty wells.

Sweet Captain of my life,
as You lead me through the inevitable heights and depths of life's adventure, strengthen my failing heart to not be troubled or afraid, but trusting in You and Your great, never-ending, unfailing love – the ultimate source of all lasting peace
.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

The Gift I Wouldn't Have Chosen, But Am Glad I Received


 
It was a sweet birthday spent surrounded by my most treasured little people and darling husband, filled with homemade gifts, drawings, letters and little voices shouting “happy birthday, Mama!” every half hour or so (love how kids are even more excited about your birthday than you are). I thought I had really been taking it all in – this ridiculous blessedness in my life – trying to thank God, as often as it occurred to me throughout the day, for how He has lavished His grace on my life.
 
But apparently God had an unexpected, more profound birthday gift for me that He knew I needed, one that was most definitely not on my 'want list' – but one I am now grateful for because of the renewal is has birthed in my heart.

Driving home from taking our kids to AWANA and grabbing a quick birthday dinner at my favorite local restaurant, my eyes were once again opened to the brevity and fragility of this life. We were coming up to a hill, slowing down on the dark two-lane highway to turn left onto the road that leads to our neighborhood, when a truck coming the other direction swerved into our lane. I was mid-yawn, listening to my silly 3-year old sing Christmas carols (even though it's now well into January), half-dreading the beat-down of our nightly routine of wrangling 4 small kids into bed, when, out of nowhere, the lights of an extremely close oncoming vehicle appeared in our lane. Before my brain could even really register what was happening, Chris swerved to the right to make room for the truck, while thankfully its driver realized his error and corrected himself back into his lane as well.

And there we were. All okay. Chris smoothly turned left off the highway, and we cruised safely back home. But in my mama heart, something snapped awake. Something changed. God used the lights of that truck to shine deep in my sleeping heart, snapping me awake with a renewed appreciation for every single breath that not only I take, but that fills the lungs of my precious family - because in an instant, they could've been emptied. The nightly bedtime routine suddenly became less of a beat-down and more of a blessing - needless to say, I treasured my moments with my children as I marveled at them snugly tucked into their beds, because they so easily could not have been.

And what if they weren't? What if our night had ended in the hospital, or if we'd never even made it off that highway? What then?
 
This is where it gets hard.
 
It's easy to praise God for His steadfast love and mercy when life is on the upswing. But what about when He allows it to slide back down the pendulum? What about the dark times, the valleys of the shadow of death? I've only been around 37 years now (as of yesterday), but I've lived enough to walk through some of those shadows myself and have certainly seen other precious souls thrown headlong into them.

It is a tricky question that my heart runs away from because I naturally want to shield my eyes from the darkness of life. But two answers come to mind when I am forced to think through the “what ifs.”
 
First, I am reminded in my spirit that life is a gift. And we're not just talking “a good long life” - we're talking every single beat that my heart is allowed to pump. How can I say that I deserve any of it? Did I make myself?! Did I choose the time period and location in which I would be born? This list could go on, and with each question I become more and more aware of just how little I have to do with anything and just how phenomenally gracious God has been to allow me even one day (let alone 13, 505 now!). The poetry of G.K. Chesterton rings in my ears,

Here dies another day
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world round me;
And with tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?

Why am I allowed two? Oh, that I could live every waking moment with the awareness of the grace that has been lavished on me in the miracle of every moment I am given. It overwhelms me to think of the tragedy of how many moments I have wasted in selfishness, ingratitude and countless other vain outcries of my sinful heart. All I can do is turn to my merciful Savior and whisper, “forgive me,” knowing that He does. Forgive my blindness, my pride, my complete ignorance of how abundantly, ridiculously good You have been to my undeserving self. Good even in allowing what we would deem as bad – because in the bad, there will be good that comes. [God promises to work all things for our good and His glory, for those who love Him (Romans 8:28), and through His discipline there will be great fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it (Hebrews 12: 3-11). ]

The second answer that washes over my shaken heart is Jesus' beautiful words, acknowledging that life will most certainly be hard this side of heaven:

“In this world you will have trouble.
But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
- John 16: 33

I love how Jesus is so honest with us – He doesn't sugarcoat things or try to paint a picture of “the easy life.” For the One who will carry the heaviest burden ever shouldered - the sin of all humanity - He is well aware that our days on this earth can be dark. He acknowledges this, but doesn't leave us with a, “well, that's just how life is, son...”
 
No.
 
He tells us to “take heart!” He lifts our chins up and redirects our floundering focus onto HIMSELF. He has overcome it all. Our hope is renewed. Not only does He promise that through His work on the cross, we are guaranteed eternal life – life that will make this earthly one seem like a blink, just a blip on the radar screen...but He promises that while we are still in this frail tent of a body, He will be with us – even more, He will carry us...if we let Him (Matthew 11: 28-30).

So I wake up, this second day of my 37th year, treasuring the gift God has given me – the priceless reminders that:

Life is a fragile, fleeting, precious grace of a gift, and I should do my utmost to soak up every second, shouting out praises of gratitude in my heart for every moment I am given (yes, even the tough ones!),

and

Even when the dark times come (which they most certainly will), I can take heart because my Savior will never leave me nor forsake me and He has 'overcome the world', working all things together for my good and His glory.
 
Our hope can never be shaken when it is based in Him,
Who will most certainly make all things new
on that Great Day...
that is closer now than it was yesterday.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

I Can Rest Because He Will Stand

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
- Proverbs 19: 21

I've never been good at “going with the flow.” I like to have a plan, to know what's coming so I can be prepared. I want clear-cut directions to ensure that if I do XYZ, then I will get my desired result. The problem is, life is not a series of well-planned, flawlessly executed events – just ask any parent who has wrung their hands as they watched all evidence of “control” over their environment quickly disappear! We rapidly learn that children are not robots, and are pros at making any “plans” we might have regarding them fly out the window rather than actually come to fruition! Flexibility is the key.

But it's hard to be flexible. Why? Because we're prideful. We want things to go the way we think they should go because, well, that's what we want. Maybe it's easier. Maybe it'll make us look better. Maybe it feels better. Problem is, life is not about us. Yes, we have an important role to play in God's Kingdom; yes, we are so loved that He provides for our every need and loves us so intensely that He gave His perfect Son to die so that we could live eternally...but ultimately, all of this world revolves around and exists for God's glory (not our preconceived plans).

So, the next time I find myself getting all in a fuss because my day isn't shaping up the way I planned it to (which happens more often than not!), instead of allowing myself to stomp/scowl/huff/puff around in frustration, I pray I'm able (by God's Spirit within me) to see the bigger picture that supersedes my limited perspective – that there is a great mosaic God is weaving through the lives of every single one of us, and He is in control of every detail; everything has a purpose (HIS purpose!) and a plan. Nothing is random; nothing happens “by chance.” What peace that can give my control-hungry heart as I learn to fall back and rest in the arms of my sovereign Father and, with childlike faith, trust that He is good and He has it all under control. And I don't have to.