Location, Location, Location

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers.”  Psalm 1:1-3

The Center

When I was a newborn Christian in 1974, a song that would make a lasting impression on me was also brand spanking new, although the words were straight from the Bible and core to the ancient ways of the faith.  Written by Karen Lafferty, it began spreading like wildfire through the kids (and meetings) of the Jesus movement and was a steadfast part of the worship menu when contemporary Christian music was taking its first toddler steps, and thousands of new believers were hungry for the food that their Savior offered to a new generation.   

I don’t hear it often anymore, but there is a rhythm of it that shaped my young beliefs and I’ve been considering this morning how much its simple melody seems to have held and shaped me.  I remember considering it way back then, letting the lyrics wash over me, and soaking in the promises.  It seemed the foundation of the whole of the gospel message and how to do this life that I was discovering, observing, and beginning to experience.  I remember singing it often in a round as a room crowded with young adults in long skirts, tattered jeans, many with bare feet, and both male and female with long hair as we gathered in a circle of chairs, benches, or on the floor—wherever there was room.

And more often than not, this little simple round would spring up somewhere before the meeting was over…

Seek ye first the kingdom of God


And His righteousness


And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia



Man does not live by bread alone


But by every word


That proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia



Ask and it shall be given unto you


Seek and ye shall find


Knock and the door shall be opened unto you
Allelu, alleluia



Seek ye first the kingdom of God


And His righteousness


And all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia



Man does not live by bread alone


But by every word


That proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia

The song invited me to live a life with Jesus at the center, God first, faith central, and to expect and watch how He moved and provided as I trusted Him that I could live with life in that order.  I took it as a serious and joyful offer from the heart of a God I barely knew to jump in with both feet and see what He would do as I lived that way.  There have been plenty of dark nights and stormy days to journey through with sometimes only a small candle of promise in the distance, but I have seen unexpected provision, miraculous timing, prayers in abundance answered as I have taken Him at His word.  He works in ways we would never have dared to imagine. 

I encourage you today to readjust your life to this order.  It is the way we were intended to live.  It is a relationship of dependence on God and freedom for all the gifts He has deposited into your life and wants to bring together with others who are consumed with hunger to know Him and reach the waiting hungry and thirsty souls that have almost given up that good is there for their lives.  We have a job to do and we cannot do it if we are chasing earthly riches and security.  We HAVE security in the One who will lead and provide as we follow.  We can tend to the work and responsibilities of life (it isn’t abandoning those considerations), but keeping the priorities right as we go.  There is far more help and guidance and supplies than we would hope for.  

The God of Disproportionate Exchange

Dusting off an old piece to post again...

Your strength for our weariness
Your provision for our need
Your power for our weakness
Your freedom for our chains
Your righteousness for our sin
Your food for our hunger
Your joy for our sorrow
Your life for our death (because of Your death for our life).

All the weight of goodness is on Your side.
We get to turn in our brokenness and have You instead.

Remembering. Responding.

The greatest lie is that you can’t do anything about it.  Of course you can.  That’s why you’re here. 

In the face of any evil, begin filling your day with steady streams of hope, determination, and kindness as the opportunities unfold to speak truth and extend care in the normal events around you.  You will discover before long that you have made a significant difference one situation at a time.

Evil can’t win if we don’t give it permission to take over our hearts.

Memo:

It seems that there is a tendency to believe in God enough to blame Him for what goes wrong in the world, but not enough to take a look at the story He wrote to help us understand why there is such a mess, what He reveals we can do about it, and to look around at the evidence that He is present, calling our names, and ready to guide and help.

If we think He is powerful enough to be held responsible, we may be wise to take a look at what He sees as the solution.  You can’t expect a CEO to get the company in order if no one is reading the memos.

I'm All In

It’s been two days since the calendar page turned and a new digit marked the first of the pair that makes my current age.  Having a “6” there feels a little strange.  I don’t feel 60. 

I’ve taken some time over the past few days to appreciate the good life I’ve been privileged to be live, one that I am intentional about living as well as I can.  From the time I was a child, I tended to look at the beauty of life and to try to make choices that wouldn’t damage me, or those around me.  Of course I haven’t succeeded in doing that without many failures.  But I’ve tried to be intentional to do the best I could.

I have taken the time again to be thankful my good family, a husband who works hard to make the wheels of our life turn, our seven children who all tend to live passionately and aren’t afraid of the risks of life.  I have learned some powerful things from them and from the opportunities that have come from being their momma and bearing, birthing, guiding, encouraging, disciplining, and walking alongside them as best as I’ve known how. 

I’ve paused to note the amazing friends and acquaintances who have been a part of my life and for the things that I’ve learned from you, the courageous and caring things you’ve modeled, the joys and adventures we’ve shared, the heartaches we’ve carried together, the victories we’ve seen, and the things we are still persevering for.

And I’ve thought back to the many layers of my life and realized this morning that some of each of them is still with me.  I am still the careful child, watching for the subtle things before deciding what route I will go.  I am the teen who wanted to lean out and catch the best parts of life.  I am the mid-twenty momma with expanding hopes for her life and dreams for her family.  I am the thiry-ish woman who dug in deeper than before to build a faith, to make a home, to reach out for all that God had imagined for my life, and to pour His presence out to those around me regardless of the state of what we seemed to have to offer.  I am still the forties one who had a veil pulled back on a picture of His desire that both satisfied me and stirred a deep hunger for more.  I am the woman of my last decade too, where all that I had sown needed to be pulled on, where I discovered that He is with me in far deeper ways than I’d imagined, where promises He’d made were kept, where refreshment was present as was shelter in the storms.  

I am now 60.  I feel the strength of roots that have grown deep, of freedom that I’ve practiced through trusting on many days that He would be good because He said He would (even though I couldn’t see how He would possibly pull off a miracle this time.)  And by gum (I’m old enough now to have earned adding some of those kind of phrases to my vocabulary), He’s done it!  And He’s still doing it.  One of the best blessings of getting older is having the stack of volumes of evidence in my own life. 

Time is feeling a little short, though you never know…I may have several good decades still ahead of me.  But I’m not taking a chance.  Today is to be lived with as much spirit and trust as I can muster.  I want to keep on in this great adventure, watching how He continues to be who He claims, being woven with and surrounded by His care and provision, being called to what will inevitably be more uncomfortable places and finding they will be home because He is with me. 

This Jesus, …this Galilean who walked on water and stilled storms, …this Nazarene who trusted through the wilderness and midnight garden prayer and a hilltop execution clear to a resurrection morning has given me the gift of life and the opportunity to live with abandon to His call.  He is a roaring lion and a whispering lover who has a great dream of sharing life with us as He continues to rescue and heal us and a broken planet.  I am ruined.  Any other offer is a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of life He invites me into. 

I’m all in.  Age only makes it richer.

A Door With A Handle On Only The Outside

If the door before you has you looking for spiritual loopholes to twist an “OK” into existence so you have permission to walk through it, wake yourself up!  Recognize it as one of Satan’s oldest (and most successful) tricks.  If you are prefacing your thoughts with “Did God really say…,” then you can be pretty darned sure that it won’t lead you to any better place than his luring did for Adam and Eve.  Don’t let him steal, kill, and destroy you because there was some enticing door that distracted you from God’s promise for you that was yet to unfold.