Part 10: 2013

Romans 14:1

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

I have lived on both sides of this verse and the end results have been very different.  In my younger years, I thought Christianity was all about being right.  I could argue with people about theological issues for hours and I know that in the process, I hurt people.  In particular, I remember, having a discussion with my younger sister where a group of us were discussing the role psychology and medication played in a Christian's life.  At times, the discussion got heated and for me it was about winning and being right.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, she had been a victim of rape and she was suffering under keeping this a secret from our family.  In hindsight, it is quite obvious to me why she felt she had to carry this burden on her own. My heart has grieved many times over the last 8 years for the ways the spirit of religion  closed the door for her to immediately come to her Christian family and receive love, acceptance and help in her time of need.

Her story has been one of the ways the Lord has slowed my tongue and opened my ears to hear, love and accept other believers.  Unfortunately, it is not the only incidence of missing someone's heart in my passion to be right, but as always, I am thankful that the Lord is a teacher and a Redeemer and as we stop to listen and walk in His ways we are changed by His grace.

As I stop to look back over my past and see what has changed in me, I realize that one of the main things is understanding my security in Christ.  Before, when I'd argue with people, I was arguing from a place of position that was secured in "my truth."  I was sure that I was on God's side about a particular issue and for anyone to rock that boat for me caused panic.  But as God settled my heart in Himself, over and over again, freaking out has become less frequent, though my husband can attest to the fact that I can still get flustered.  But these moments of flustering usually come when I take my eyes of people and I am just trying to be right.  

The understanding that I am secure in Christ because of He first loved me, has opened the door for me to minister to many different women.  As a result, they have taken the time to be vulnerable with me and to tell their story.  With each new story I hear, an increasing ferocity for protection of these precious hearts rises up in me.  They don't need to be brought to the truth through argument rather they need to be treated with love, honor and respect as precious children of God.  I will gladly admit that it is a whole lot harder to love than it is to argue about being right.  But the most "life-change" I've ever seen has come out of the arena of love not the arena of argument.

Once again a quote from Henri Nouwen puts the words I am fighting for in this post into beautiful succinctness:

In solitude we can listen to the voice of Him who spoke to us  before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone.  It is in this solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the results of our efforts.  In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.  It's there we recognize that the healing words we speak are not just our own but are given to us; that the love we can express is part of a greater love; and that the new life we bring forth is not a property to cling to, but a gift to be received. (from Mornings with Henri Nouwen).

So remember:

In Christ,

P.S. If you have been a victim of rape, first of all I am truly sorry.  If you have never spoken out, please find a trusted friend to open up to.  You can read and listen to my sister's story at that link.  While she never received justice from her perpetrators, she has opened and continues to open wide the door in the political realm for victims.

Relishing in His Goodness and Beauty

I feel like I'm having an "epiphany" of sorts.  Some of my ways of thinking are being shaped, squished and reformed all at once by various sources.  However, as I step back and reflect on it all, I see the fingerprints of God all over this reshaping.

I don't know if you've ever experienced something like this, but I feel like half of myself is stepping away and evaluating my other half.  I am watching "how I've lived" in my thought life and I'm asking if this has been the right way or if perhaps there is a better way.  The "how I've lived" has been shaped by a quiet fear of the unknown, fear of everything suddenly crashing down and as a result even in the moments of great joy, I find myself holding back a little back because I somehow think that if I get too excited it might all fall apart.  So my thought process is, "If I don't get too high in my enjoyment, then when I fall it won't hurt so much." As I step back from these thoughts and evaluate them, I realize that I am allowing the unknown, the fear of the future steal my present joy.

In my edge of the world, spring has managed to sneak through on a few days and on one absolutely gorgeous day, I was on a run when I was struck by the beauty that surrounded me - the green grass, the beautiful blue sky, the singing birds, the cool breeze and the frogs croaking in the pond.  It was one of those moments of complete joy, where at the same time I found myself hesitating from entering in and then I questioned myself, "If the ratio of God's goodness and beauty far exceeds the moments of evil and sadness, why do I find myself more occupied with the thoughts and fears of evil than resting in the beauty of God's grace, goodness and beauty that constantly surrounds?"

The day after I asked myself this question, I was bombarded (in a good way) by Scripture and I was overwhelmed as I saw the invitation of God to live not in a place of constantly being prepared for the bottom to drop out, but rather being able to relish in His goodness:

from Psalm 139:

You encompass me behind and before

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

so high I cannot attain it.

from Psalm 146:

The Lord looses those that are bound;

the Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord lifts up

those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous...

the Lord shall reign forever.

from Isaiah 61:

To give them a garland instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit, that

they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,

that he may be glorified.

from Proverbs 4:

I have taught you the way of wisdom;

I have led you in the paths of uprightness.

When you walk, your step will not be hampered;

and if you run, you will not stumble.  Keep hold of instruction;

do not let go; guard her for she is your life...

the path of the righteous is like the light of the dawn, which shines

brighter and brighter until full day.

from Luke 1:

This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham:

to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship without fear,

holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our lives.

from Exodus 15:

In your unfailing love, O Lord, 

you lead the people whom you have redeemed. And by

your invincible strength you will guide

them to your holy dwelling.

You will bring them in and plant them, O Lord,

in the sanctuary which your hands have established.

from 1 Peter 2:

For you were going astray like sheep, but

now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

These Scriptures overwhelmed me with the grace of God and His promises to lead and guide His people.  I realized that I am unable to contain the glory of God in my small meager self - it far, far exceeds any capacity that I have.  Yet that inability does not disqualify me from being able to drink it in and relish in His goodness.

During Lent, my pastor gave each person a seed to remind us about who we are in Christ.  As I've held that seed in my hand and reflected on it, I've continued to feel more layers fall off of "trying to be" something for God; that burden is too heavy.  However, the ability to solely respond to the glory of God and to soak it in as a plant soaks in the sun is a beautiful and freeing.  That is what I see, that is what I feel as I read these verses over and over.  Freedom to be, to live in a place of joy held by the shepherd and guardian of my soul.

In Christ,

For more thoughts on this theme check out my other posts:
Worrying
360 Vision: Not Lacking Anything
Being Changed by Contentment

Part 9: 2013

Romans 13:12-13 
The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

"Be up and awake to what God is doing!"

After a week like this week in the news media (Boston Marathon, Kermit Gosnell), it is easy to be discouraged thinking that the evilness of man is somehow winning in this world.  That is what I initially think when I look at the news, but then I stop and I'm once again reminded that God moves in the smalls of this world and in His infinite wisdom He remains patient and confident that His ways will continue to turn this world right-side up.

Psalm 11 asks: "When the foundations are being destroyed, what are the righteous supposed to do?" (Psalm 11:3 NIV).  This Psalm used to frustrate me because I felt like it left a direct question unanswered in a direct way.  However, when I look at it again I see that it calls us to fix our eyes on Him and what He is up to:

Psalm 11 (MSG)

I’ve already run for dear life

    straight to the arms of God.

So why would I run away now

    when you say,

“Run to the mountains; the evil

    bows are bent, the wicked arrows

Aimed to shoot under cover of darkness

    at every heart open to God.

The bottom’s dropped out of the country;

    good people don’t have a chance”?

4-6 But God hasn’t moved to the mountains;

    his holy address hasn’t changed.

He’s in charge, as always, his eyes

    taking everything in, his eyelids

Unblinking, examining Adam’s unruly brood

    inside and out, not missing a thing.

He tests the good and the bad alike;

    if anyone cheats, God’s outraged.

Fail the test and you’re out,

    out in a hail of firestones,

Drinking from a canteen

    filled with hot desert wind.

7 God’s business is putting things right;

    he loves getting the lines straight,

Setting us straight. Once we’re standing tall,

    we can look him straight in the eye.

This Psalm solidifies that God is firmly established on His throne and He is well aware of what is happening in the world.  The question when we see the evil in the world is not what is God doing about it but rather the question is do we believe that God knows what He is doing when He asks us to love, to pray for our enemies,and to do good even when evil is what we get in return?  Does His way really work?

If we answer yes to those questions, it leaves us with one more question - How do we walk this out? The answer circles us back to the end of the first verses Romans 13:14: "Dress yourself in Christ!"  Scripture after scripture tell us how to dress in Christ (if you would like a list of 11 of them click on my post called Spiritual Wardrobe).  These small choices we make everyday are those investments that yield great returns in the spiritual realm.

I will leave you with a final thought from Henri Nouwen from Mornings with Henri J.M. Nouwen:

The mystery of life is that the Lord of life cannot be known except in and through the act of living.  Without the concrete and specific involvements of daily life we cannot come to know the loving presence of him who holds us in the palm of his hand.  Our limited acts of love reveal to us his unlimited love.  Our small gestures of care reveal his boundless care.  Our fearful and hesitant words reveal his fearless and guiding Word.  It is indeed through our broken, vulnerable, mortal ways of being that the healing power of the eternal God becomes visible to us.  Therefore, we are called each day to present to our Lord the whole of our lives - our joys as well as our sorrows, our successes as well as failures, our hopes as well as fears.

In Christ,


This is part 9 in a 13 part series: 13 Inspirational Thoughts for 2013.

2013: Part 8

You can’t go wrong when you love others.

When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

(Romans 13:10 MSG)

This verse is the most simple and straight-forward verse of all the verses we've looked at thus far.  As I view this verse in light of all that came before it - I see it as a response to what has come before rather than "a requirement" that we conjure up inside of us.

We have seen:

• the heart of the Father for us
• we are His beloved children 
• that we exist in Him and Him alone
• that our daily actions, the simplicity of life is lived in Him

So from this place we are asked to love.  Christianity has gotten a bad rap that it is people trying to live out a list of rules that they wish to impose on themselves and on others.  In light of the cross, we reflected on last week, we should lift our heads with pride while kneeling in humility before all of our neighbors and ask - how can I show you love today?

So what is love?

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies.

(I Corinthians 13:3-8 MSG)

Living & loving like this comes as a response to the love we first received from Him.

In Christ, 

Worrying

Life has been stressful the last couple of months.  My husband has had some health issues that we have yet to find the root cause.  The next two weeks are full of busyness and as they've come closer I have found myself filled with dread.  One of my friend's texted me the other day to check in on me and I was going to text her back that "I just want to close my eyes and fast-forward through the next two weeks."  But as I went to write it, I felt a little check in my spirit and I was reminded of what the Lord has been teaching me over the last few weeks.

For the last month, my daily prayer time included the following verses:

Remember my affliction and my bitterness, •

the wormwood and the gall!

But this I call to mind, •

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, •

his mercies never come to an end;

They are new every morning; •

great is your faithfulness.

‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, •

‘therefore I will hope in him.’

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, •

to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that we should wait quietly•

for the salvation of the Lord.

For the Lord will not reject for ever; •

though he causes grief, he will have compassion,

According to the abundance of his steadfast love; •

for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

Lamentations 1.12, 16a,b; 3.19, 21-26, 31-33

Reading and praying those verses everyday has been great preparation my heart and mind.  As each day came it was tolerable and actually a lot of days were for the most part good - but no matter what they were all filled with grace.  Grace of a handwritten note of love, emailed prayers and encouragement from friends, pulling out a freezer meal made by friend for a rainy day, texting my mom back and forth with notes of prayer requests, watching my daughter snuggle close to her dad, getting Starbucks dropped off just because... the list goes on and on.  

So as I thought about these verses and these moments of grace - I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God's mercies are new every morning and that He had been faithful to me everyday.  I also knew that it was safe for me to rest in His steadfast love.  But yet there were many moments when I thought about the "possibilities of the future" that hopelessness would begin to settle into my heart and then it dawned on me:

When I reflected on the past and I lived in the present I could see the grace of God and just as He promised His grace was sufficient in my weakness.  However, when I looked to the future it was bleak and it appeared too hard to walk through.  The missing component of all my future fears was that God was still going to be present, able and loving no matter what happens.  As I venture forward, I have heard the whisper of God that He is a safe place for me to put my hope in and He will be faithful to my family every step of the way.  So I am leaving tomorrow in His hands and resting in the grace that He has provided for today.

In Christ,