The Fruitful Life

Maybe, if we are feeling the load of life, part of the answer is to lighten our pockets by giving out from the things we’ve been given.  Your own heaviness may lighten and others will be nourished and blessed as, in your own struggles you hand out simple pieces of the fruit you’ve been given.  He gifts us abundantly.  Maybe part of our “burden” is that we are holding on to too much of it.  Share in simple ways in the opportunities He brings your way today, and in responding as others come to mind.  The simplest things might be exactly what someone needed.

Follow the Bouncing Ball

He has torn the veil.  He has spilled His blood.  He has given us an inheritance and His Spirit. He has poured out forgiveness and His word.  He asks us to believe.  He calls us to action.  He invites us to listen for specifics, to get to know His voice, and to respond to do the work of His Kingdom in our time.  He will always make a way to provide the means for what He asks. 

We sometimes pray prayers that continue to ask Him to do the work that He has asked of us.  When we pray “Keep our hearts and minds and eyes on You,” we may be acknowledging our struggle to stay focused; but maybe we are simply not willing to keep at the effort of following, to lean in to get to know Him, to take the time to listen, to let Him become King of every area of our lives.  We would be better off if we stop throwing the ball back into God’s court.

Jesus came and did it…prayed, listened, taught, fed, befriended, healed, forgave.  This isn’t a tennis game; it is a mission.  Are we in or not?  We can work up a sweat of bouncing the ball back, but never really participating in the work forward.  We walk off the court, wiping our brow and pretending we’ve engaged, when we’ve just deflected every invitation He sent.

Granted, we do need His mercy and His help continually, but let’s be sure we are doing our part to learn and hear and yield and respond.  We can do a quick check by asking ourselves this: “When did I last hear His voice? What did He say?  How did I respond—dismissing, continuing the conversation to learn more, obeying what was clear?”

When was the last time God “offended” me by suggesting I do something contrary to what I was inclining toward? When was the last time He surprised me by His delight in me? Both will certainly happen when we each are giving Him room to speak into our lives.

Follow the bouncing ball and discover the song He is singing.

Photograph from morguefile.com by dieraecherin

Watch For It!

Be watchful for the opportunities today to notice a bruised heart, to speak a kind word, to help a stranger, friend, or neighbor. Ask for eyes to see better and ears to hear better, for our days are chock full of moments to bless. Vision and ambition are great, but they can (and often do) blind us to the more important gift in the moment.

Unhurried

It occurred to me this morning that part of the gift of the vast creation all around us is an unending display of the variety and power and imagination God holds and the reminder that lavish scenery should be to us of His ability to answer our prayers and meet us in our needs.  His creativity (ability to devise a unique and good solution) and His inventiveness (ability to figure out what will work and how to set it in motion) and His artistry (the beauty and breath-taking way He comes up with) and His care (nourishing, nurturing, and strengthening us as we follow) are unrivaled. 

But to enter the realms of these possibilities so to experience the wonder of His work requires some decisions on our part. He is undoubtedly a God able to do instant miraculous things.  Sometimes He does.  And sometimes He is cooking up a solution that needs to simmer like a stew, whose flavors can’t be gained without the time for it to develop deeply, whose work is wider and deeper than we could have imagined.  He is after delight yes, but also of deep and mature work.  Are we willing to wait if that is the recipe He is working on?

I am not saying that it is easy to learn to hear His voice.  It is harder still to follow—to yield our own kingdom for the promises of His.  But it seems our current inclinations in a world of ever-increasing speed and expectation has reduced the time we are willing to give God to work.  Often, frankly, we want our happiness and we want it now.  In our impatience, we miss so many masterpieces and settle for our own fast food drive-through solutions that satisfy the taste buds of the moment.  We miss the formation of sitting at His feet listening, of being shaped as we see the unfolding of His wisdom, of gaining the experience of trust that reveals His utter faithfulness, of receiving the prizes He had in mind. 

Of course, He can and does still work when we don’t choose as we could have.  That is the miracle of grace and restoration and the heart of the gospel.  But let’s be honest with ourselves and not use those precious gifts as an excuse to do what we know is not His best.  That’s the thing about the drive-through menu…it is all listed right there as a choice, shiny and colorful and seemingly inexpensive.  Let’s please be more discerning with our precious lives.      

It Was No Accident

She was young, yet her age wasn’t an obstacle.  Her heart, somehow, was already responsive and ready. 

She didn’t require answers from a God who had spoken.  She didn’t demand understanding when her heart heard His voice.  She didn’t give room to her fears to come in and whisper a bazillion “What ifs?”  She was a lovely canvas on which God had been given full permission to create beauty, life, and a path by which He could draw mankind to Himself in any way He chose. 

Still, at each moment along the way, like us, she had to continue to choose to trust Him.

We saw it first when she was barely past girlhood.  Her words (without having to text her friends to get their opinion and support) were these:  “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants. May everything you said come true.” 

She didn’t insist on convenience or happiness for herself.  Mary believed Him as the one designing the plan and who was in charge of the timing and the outcome. 

As the years went along she obviously didn’t shift to a different mindset.  It was after a few decades of watching and waiting for His plan to further unfold when she was simply sitting at a wedding celebrating and noticed a tension arising when the wine supply had run out.  There was no question about where provision could come from or who had the answer, even though her son hadn’t done a single miracle yet.  Her simple effort now was to encourage the servants to believe Him.  Perhaps she was so practiced at being ready that she could now anticipate when God was about to do something.  Is this the fruit of those who ready themselves for His call?  There was only one way for Mary to do life:  “Do whatever He tells you.”

Today we each have the same opportunity.  Just check--is following Him at the top of your to-do list today?  If so, keep your ear tuned, for He will make very good use of your yes. 

We don’t accidentally become His disciples.

Photograph from morguefile.com by Marinapriest

Becoming

As we enter another year, maybe it would be helpful to remember what inspires us.  I am guessing that most of us appreciate those who have weathered storms, pressed in with grace and integrity in the face of difficulties, and developed character by believing a good outcome would eventually come if they did the right things now. 

The best outcomes usually don’t happen instantly.  Set your minds now for what kind of person you want to be in the year ahead, then do what it takes in the moment, even if it isn’t the most convenient or comfortable.  When next December arrives and we get to the last days of 2017 you will have more peace and be content in a deeper place for having lived well through whatever struggles come.  You will be stronger, wiser, more mature.  We will all have some difficulties.  Who will we become for having encountered them?  

Photograph from morguefile.com by BBoomerinDenial

A New Year, the Same Goal

My goal for 2017 comes from a decades old song that impacted me from the beginning… “to see Him more clearly, love Him more dearly, follow Him more nearly day by day.” 

My hope is that whatever the weather of the days ahead, whatever the circumstances of my life, whatever the junk I discover in myself that needs to go, I will press in, surrender my will to His, and trust in His vast ability to do good work in and from my life.  I cannot imagine any greater thing than the opportunity to know Him more in the year ahead. 

Onward.  Welcome 2017 and the lessons and provision and miracles ahead. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward

My friend and co-worker Jill posted this on her facebook page the other day:  “Summarize your 2016 in three words…”

My reply was: "God showed up."

I am pondering the events of a year that is wrapping up that had many peaks and valleys.  It held deaths and weddings, chaos and peace, need and provision, endings and new beginnings.  I have seen miracles happen in it.  I am not expecting anything different than that to keep unfolding in 2017. 

I ordered a little book that arrived this week.  This morning in it I came across this sentence:

“Miracles can only be exhibited in brokenness.”  That short statement fits what I have been considering in the last several months—His power to heal and restore, His endless invitation for us to come close, to know Him, to believe in His goodness, to witness and participate in His provision coming to earth.

As we enter 2017, be confident in the care and power of a God who is going to be there, doing His work, waiting for those who will believe Him and live in a way that will open the doors for miracles.  The ones we read about in the scripture occurred because a human being was in a circumstance of difficulty of one kind or another, heard His word, believed His intent was good, and followed His call.  I am counting on seeing God do more magnificent things in the year ahead. 

I wish you all a happy new year, and one where you believe Him and are filled with wonder at how He meets you in it.

Barriers Broken

He came in flesh to live with us, this God of restoration and will do the most unlikely things to woo us back and to reveal His vast and strong love. 

This morning as I was thinking about this amazing series of events unfolding, it occurred to me for the first time that at the very moment when He was born a tiny picture of His greater coming work was happening in miniature.  Mary, being a virgin, would have had her hymen still intact until that moment of Jesus’s birth.  It was a thin veil of skin broken and a symbol of the intimacy that had now begun for us all by His work.  This incarnation was a whole new way of God coming to meet us, to live with us, to have the barrier between us removed.  That tiny piece of flesh in Mary was torn, some blood spilling out at this arrival of a new king and a new kingdom.  This young woman who had trusted His greater plan, experienced the first breaking barrier as He entered the world. 

And so it can be for each of us as we align our wills to yield to His, that more and more barriers are broken because His death for us tore the big barrier forever.  Through this freedom He won for us, we are now enabled to win the little victories that we are here to bring to earth.

Photograph from morguefile.com by diannehope  

The Unexpected

We would have thought God would choose a more spectacular way to save the world. Perhaps His Son would be sent in glistening armor, followed by a massive army of angels to plow through the evil in the world in an unquestionable display of power and simply set up a new government.  Instead He sent a baby boy who would take another thirty years to begin doing something extraordinary.  Even then, the things Jesus used...water, bread, fish, words, wine, fishermen were not anything beyond the norm.  What He did, however, with the ingredients of the everyday was superb. 

We can notice a few things:  His perspective was different. His motivation was different, and His goal uncompromised.  It is stunning what happens when belief and willingness are added ingredients to the stuff we find all around ourselves as we mix together the activities of our lives into the recipe of a day. 

Jesus has never forced anyone to hear, see, or follow.  In fact He seems remarkably satisfied with those who are frayed but honest, gritty but humble, average but available to see what He is up to in each moment.  It has always been simply an invitation, never a demand.  Rare is the person with so much power who chooses not to exert it over someone they could easily control.

The opportunity is to pause and notice, to taste and see, and it happens when we step into the water of faith and walk through the waves believing that a God who loves lavishly will somehow, eventually work all the things of our real lives together for the good.  We can easily opt for hanging our own glittering baubles and tinsel and lights over our lives to make them look good and feel satisfying.  Or we can wait and trust and watch our burlap rough circumstances be the very things that miracles are birthed from.  The older I get and the more I understand that His way and economy are never the way that mankind would run things, the more excited I get about what He will do with a life that will offer itself to the Wild and Grand Invitation. 

Warning:  You may be called into some difficult days.  Those are the places He has the fewest willing participants.  Those are the places He wants to make the most amazing miracles happen because someone was willing to love there.  It isn’t always going to be fast food service or instant results like an ATM.  But the more we draw on Him, the more we savor His company, the more we see His faithfulness, the sweeter the taste of following Him becomes.  And, after all, He IS the gift.  We are invited to unwrap each day with expectation to find His presence.

I wish you a merry Christmas and the most delicious new year.

Photograph from morguefile.com by  Jogonesoft

The Nativity

Mary SAID YES, then WALKED OUT HER FAITH.  She LABORED to bring God to earth.

Joseph TRUSTED what God said and planned, even if there were skeptics who would forever raise their eyebrows, spread rumors, and shun his family.

Jesus CAME, and YIELDED to His Loving Father’s greater plan every moment of His life.

Shepherds were amazed, and REJOICED.

Wise men traveled far, knowing that to SEEK HIM was a divine and amazing opportunity.

These were all living people who made choices, some of them in extremely difficult circumstances, to respond to God.  It wasn’t just theory for any of them.  They adjusted the rest of life to be participants in His plans, to share what they were observing, to discover more of who He is and meet Him in person.  They ended up with incredible stories to tell.  It is the invitation to all of us.

Photograph from morguefile.com by paulabflat

The Impression We Leave

It is the irony of the Christian life and the paradox of a Savior who was both Lamb and Shepherd.  We are invited into a life of yielding and following Him.  Along the way, it will often feel like lying naked in the snow…vulnerable, shocking, stark.  

As we decide to offer it all, in the moments as they come, and spread ourselves fully to His will, a mystery occurs.  In that point of challenge, and a decision of trust in His goodness, we will leave a mark of heaven on earth.  Walking in our own strength looks only like two footprints, that we were here.  Discipleship will leave something more beautiful.  We get to choose the imprint we leave.

Photograph from morguefile.com by mmainco

Using the Scraps

This isn’t the time of year when birds are making nests, but it is the season, leaves long gone now, when the nests used in the previous months can be more clearly seen tucked in the branches that held them securely through the warm spring and summer. 

In the seasons past, each bird was building something for the future.  Each chose a secure place in which to build a nest that would hold her eggs.  But consider what each used to build that nest.  Birds gather a whole lot of things that do not hold life in themselves anymore to make those nests.  They use broken pieces of twigs and sticks, cut grass and clippings, dead leaves, yarn, string or thread, human hair or animal fur, feathers.

This week I noticed two nests in a tree just outside our living room windows.  Even in the now stark days, snow falling, wind blowing, they sit securely.  They succeeded in their purpose of being a good place for the laying of eggs and the nurturing of young life of the baby birds who were gaining strength to set out on their own.

I have been impressed for weeks now about the reality of restoration that is available to us.  God is mightily at work to build strong and beautiful things out of our broken lives and use us for holy purposes in the realities of a messy world.  Those nests showed me something else.  They reminded me that I can take the dead things of my life and gather them with the mud of His grace and care and promises, and instead of trying to discard the messy stuff, let it be used, now redeemed, for the birthing of new things. 

Our painful experiences hold the very ingredients that can enable us to be compassionate with those who are suffering, and are the grace-nests or sorts…evidence that whatever our past, even our current struggles, we have a very good reason to hope. In these weeks of Advent, of waiting for the coming and all that that meant and means still, let our hearts burn brightly with the hope that is embedded in His story.  He came, He isn’t afraid of the realities, He is brilliant and picks up every available piece and winds it together to become useful for His purposes.  He has peace and joy for us, and we don’t have to chuck the mess of our own stories to have them.  Some of the brightest things forward will be birthed from the scraps we make available to His work.

Photograph from morguefile.com by TwoCherryFarm

Christmas Preparation

One small piece in my morning readings (from Oswald Chambers).  In the midst of holiday preparations and busyness of the weekend, perhaps you could carve out a few minutes to pause and consider this.  It ultimately is not about what we lose or give up, but the amazing life and relationship with Him that we make room for. 

 “Sanctification means more than deliverance from sin, it means the deliberate commitment of myself whom God has saved to God, and that I do not care what it costs.” 

This is part of Advent…”Let every heart, prepare Him room.”  The result?  “And Heaven and nature sing.”

Photograph from morguefile.com by luisrock62

Cynic?

I realized this morning that I am at a crossroads of sorts.  I have been in a rhythm of faith and belief for more than four decades.  I have also been in some rough situations that stretch and frustrate me.  Granted, I have considered and prayed about them, about my heart/actions and the heart/actions of others, but I also find that I have let my mouth speak too critically too often and am realizing the cost it could take.  Although I have a high degree of hope in transformation and in God’s faithfulness, I also can get cranky when I don’t see it unfolding, especially when apathy seems to be the prominent tone in any given circumstance. 

I have a choice.  I can dive into a pool of cynicism or stand on the presence of an utterly brilliant God who is assuredly at work, and wait for His answers to arrive.  I can complain or I can join Him by quiet listening, quick responsiveness, and vulnerable availability to what He wants to shape in me along the way.  I am sensing that this is a crucial time.  What kind of woman I will be in the years ahead, and how I influence the atmosphere anywhere I am will likely be determined in part by how I choose to live out these things now.   Paying attention to these nudges is a part of the shaping He does in us.  I don’t want to be resistant to His mercy and wisdom in them; it is a gift.

Photograph from morguefile.com by 5demayo

A Reason for Hope

Hope is not logical.  Hope anyway.  

Nothing in the unfolding of God coming to earth is logical.  The Son of God planted into the womb of a virgin by the Holy Spirit…The Creator tucked small into a tiny human body—a baby, for heaven’s sake…The ultimate visionary growing up as part of a family…The Holy One gathering a company of friends who weren’t the cream of the crop…God serving man…The perfect One dying…The dead one rising again to bust through the boundaries our sin had caused.  His life offered to save ours, His resurrection announcing eternal (and for every single day of our gritty lives) Hope, His reign continuing still and expanding wherever love and forgiveness and grace are expressed. 

Religion packages things neatly.  God is continually surprising those who are willing to follow Him around the unexpected turn in the road.  They are drawn to believe for this moment because their hearts burn with some awareness that He is real, He is good, and He is for us. 

In these days, faith is still looked upon as foolishness by many.  It will always be the diamond in the rough, the unexpected response to a world that is not fair.  Faith will never be the most popular thing on the planet, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t the most trustworthy path. 

Photograph from morguefile.com by doctor_bob

It's the Person

My reading this morning in “My Utmost For His Highest,” held this statement:  “The type of Christian experience in the New Testament is that of personal passionate devotion to the Person of Jesus Christ.” 

 

It is so easy to slide into devotion to a group of people, to a cause, to a theory or a theology.  It is easy to hold tight to sets of expectations and rules and to become stiff and, in the process, create our own little kingdoms instead of expanding His.  It is another thing entirely to be devoted to the person of Jesus, to live in rhythm with Him, to live in response to Him, to live in relationship with Him where He continues to amaze and surprise us with what He asks, what He gives, who He is. 

 

This is the season of Advent, the waiting and expecting time, anticipating His coming.  He still comes.  He has more to bring.  He is not done.  This month as we draw near to Christmas, also draw near to Him freshly.  He has refreshment and renewal for us all.

  

Photograph from morguefile.com by imelenchon

Invitation to a Miracle

I am quieted and inspired this morning to consider that everything that comes my way is a precious opportunity from God’s hand, where He is asking me to not only trust Him, but to move with Him as a companion to accomplish His will in this moment.  He knows who I am.  He knows the reality of my development—where it has been refined and where it is still lacking.  He is aware of His power available and His ability to do what I cannot if I am expecting and inviting Him to be present.  These moments are like little “I trust you” messages from God, giving me the chance to respond and receive what He is doing.  I can be a help or a hindrance to His will coming to earth.  

 

Photo by ThatG1r1 from morguefile.com

Being Shown the Way

It has been a season for the books. I am sure I’ve written similar phrases periodically through these days as I have grappled with and processed it along the way. 

 Six months of time and transition.  Mom’s passing last spring, already six months ago (the reality comes in waves that both of our parents are now gone, punctuated again this week on what would have been Dad’s birthday).  Another one of our children was married, there is a continual whirlwind pace at work, sorting Mom’s house and our childhood memories and the layers of decades that were tidily packed onto neat shelves in her home.  All of this came on the heels of a rough and heartbreaking season at the place we’d been a part of for forty years and the settling in that we’ve begun in a new little gathering that is being rooted in the soil of God’s goodness and will as we listen in prayer and hear and care for one another.  But life’s road is bumpy at times, no matter who you are.

Our community is in the throes of an epidemic of heroin overdoses and the resulting effects that it takes on our police and rescue teams and hospitals, as well as the families that are being torn apart by the addictions that seem to be running the show.  Our nation, too, is facing an election that has many of us scratching our heads and one in which the outcome of our ballots will be significant. 

 And so, one morning last week I was feeling the squeeze of all of this.  Granted, in the midst of the challenges, there have been many sweet moments and the evidence of God’s stunning ability to BE God in the face of any difficulties, but it has pressed me still.  That morning I had a more than vague sense of being in a tight tunnel, not knowing exactly what the outcome would be when some of these things were resolved.  I have been off my “game” in these busier than normal months, out of rhythm, not seeing or feeling where I am heading.  And in the middle of talking with Him about it, He floated an image to me.  It was kind of like receiving a postcard from a friend who was on holiday, who could enjoy a great scene because they weren’t trapped in the wrappings and stresses of everyday.  Many messages that God sends have that feel…clarity brought into the muck.  It is one of the things that has enamored me toward this sovereign being who loves and guides.  This message was no less impacting than any of His others.  I am not in a tunnel; I am in a birth canal.  Yes, I am being squeezed.  Yes, it is dark.  And He is at work to move me as I go.  He is good and bringing me through this time and space toward something new.  I have experienced it before…the discomfort of transition as I am being moved to new seasons and spaces.  This one has been primarily centered around losses, so I had missed some of the perspective that it is also the path to new things. 

 No matter how far along we are in the journey, we have a God who is always doing His work to heal and restore and work deeply.  We have no reason to fear.  I had gotten sidetracked from some of that hope in the busyness and am grateful that He spoke His greater truth to me again and called me back.  No matter where I am going, I am always home in Him.  He is a good land and a sure foundation.

Photograph from morguefile.com by Chriele78

A Great Idea

I wanted to share a practical tip due to the experience of settling the estate of parents.  I am grateful that in the case of working with my sisters through these last six months since mom’s passing, things have gone very well.  Part of the reason is because we’ve had time to sort, decide, and distribute slowly, which made it easier emotionally and eased the whole of the process, and because we’ve tried to consider each other well as decisions have been made. 

 

But I wanted to pass along what John’s parents had done to prepare for that time for their children.  I’ve never heard of anyone doing it the way they did, but I think it was a gift for the family in what is often a turbulent time that divides deeply. 

 

John’s dad was an engineer for Westinghouse and his career included he and Shirley living overseas for almost a decade in two different countries.  During those years they traveled in the surrounding areas and acquired some interesting things.

 

In the mid-1980s, when they were in their early 60s and settled back in the States, they created a list of everything in their possession that they felt held worth…furniture passed through the family, furniture they had purchased, items owned by past generations, objects bought during their travels, etc.  Big and small items were included.

 

The plan was this:  Send the list to all four of their children asking what items they would be interested in.  Each one marked their list and sent it back to their parents.  The lists were then considered and all the items assigned to reflect both interest and an equitable monetary distribution to each.  That list was then sent back to all four children so that everyone knew who would eventually be getting what. 

 

It was a relatively simple process, let everyone weigh in, and left the final decision to the parents.  Most of the time, a will sets many of the parameters for the estate, but often the smaller things are not included and defined.  This idea proved to be a very helpful way of moving though that time and worth sharing. 

 

Photograph from morguefile.com by TheBrassGlass