The Hits Keep Coming

            It’s been a tough week!  On Sunday our Pastor of many years, shared he was retiring and the same day a prominent family in the church shared they were moving across country!  Add to that, I had news a friend’s plans were completely turned upside down and all I could do was write in my journal: “The hits keep coming!"

https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+in+my+life+for+a+reason

            I am an emotional person who cries when sad.  So Sunday I cried!  I cried for the loss I was feeling for our amazing and kind Pastor, and for the family I’d also grown to love.  And then I cried on Tuesday for the grief my friend was bearing!  Another friend sent me this message a couple days later concerning a conversation we were having discussing our tears.   “I believe that means that although our hearts are fragile, they are still pliable and not hard – and that the Lord’s touch can shape us into something brand new, according to His will and His timing. And that’s a blessing, even though the squeezing and forming by His loving hands can seem unbearable.”  What a profound thought!

            Even as the tears of loss engulf me, I am grateful for those people God puts in my life, even when they seem snatched away without any regard to my feelings!  (It really isn’t about me at all anyway–or it shouldn’t be!)  Lives change, people grow and move on.  But isn’t it wonderful that while these precious people are in my life I can lean on them, learn from them, grow and mostly love.  

There’s a quote I’ve seen many times about people being in your life for a “season.”  I’ve included at the end of this post the poem, “Reason, Season, Lifetime” (author unknown) which is likely the source of the quote.  

            Even though I know it to be truth, I am still always amazed at how God works out details in my life through other people.  I can’t always see the immediate impact, but very often as I reflect on the situation, days, weeks or months later, I can say, “God sent this person to get me through this problem.” Or “God placed this person in my life as a roadblock to something else that wasn’t right, or to teach me something I needed to know.”  

            Another friend made this comment recently:  “When it comes to the things of God and the way He works things out, that gets me speechless.”  We serve an awesome God who knows the beginning from the end and can see the whole picture!  We only see life through a narrow tunnel and form opinions, conclusions and make decisions based on what we see.  

            All that said, I’m the first to admit waiting to see ‘what comes next’ is excruciatingly difficult.  In general terms I consider myself a fairly patient person, yet when faced with pain and life altering decisions I’m not so patient!  I want to know the answer yesterday!  I want to see the plan; the course of action needed to make things work out and learn if it’s going to have a happy ending!  (I like fairy tales!)  It doesn’t always have a happy ending though.  Life isn’t like that.  That’s why God sends people into our lives to help us through the briars and brambles that would threaten to choke the life blood out us.

            I’m grateful I have a God who knows my heart: when it’s happy and when it’s breaking. With great effort on my part, I desperately want God to touch and shape me into the brand new person I can become, even while the “squeezing and forming” of said heart, by His loving hands can seem unbearable.  The idea that God is still “working” on me is somehow comforting.  The idea that people touch my life as they pass through is also comforting.  That said, for each person I have known, I thank you, with the full knowledge you were put in my life for reason!

Reason, Season, Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.

When you figure out which one it is,

you will know what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON,

it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.

They have come to assist you through a difficulty;

to provide you with guidance and support;

to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.

They may seem like a godsend, and they are.

They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,

this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.

Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.

The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON,

because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.

They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.

They may teach you something you have never done.

They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.

Believe it. It is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;

things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person,

and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

— Unknown

https://www.facebook.com/notes/frankie-perezs-mindgym/reason-season-lifetime-poem/10150270924652782?ref=nf

Modern Idols

The Pastor preached on idols recently and I didn’t give it a lot of thought personally, because at the time I didn’t see how it applied to my life.  (Yeah, right! Right?)  Idols are anything that comes between a person and God.  Normally we associate idols with money, TV, or iPad/computer games, sports, gambling, pornography, people and any other variety of things that demand a huge chunk of our time or attention.  There are even TV shows dedicated to this idea.   “American Idol” is only one of them.   As I listened to the sermon with interest, I held a certain amount of “that doesn’t apply to me” attitude.  At the time, I couldn’t think of anything I was really putting before God.  But I wasn’t being honest and that is probably true of most of us.  

https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+modern+idols

That said, I was dreadfully disappointed this week because I had a situation which did not materialize as I had hoped.  I had counted on this “event” for weeks!  Yet, I was faced with the reality that it was not to be.  In a twisted kind of way, as I thought about it, it occurred to me that in effect, I had made this “event” an idol.  I had counted on it, rather than letting God handle the situation to His specifics.  (Of course it might be He was just teaching me a lesson. We all need those now and then!)  But wasn’t I using my human-ness to “plan” for this event on my terms?  Isn’t using my “human-ness” to come between me and God creating an idol since I was counting on it; believing in it?  Didn’t I believe I had this all figured out?  God had other plans!

In the midst of a world that dances with idols, it was refreshing when the mission team, who recently went to Nicaragua, shared the team handed out Testaments to the children there.  These young people were overjoyed at receiving this gift, of God’s Word, where in their world it is considered a huge treasure. Personally, I could probably count twenty or more Bibles in my home.  One I’ve had since I was a very young child, there are two “family Bibles” with our family genealogy filling the spaces on the front pages; my husband’s Bibles, and then there are mine.  I have a variety of different versions, several on the computer, and those Bibles on the shelf my children neglected to take when they left home since they each had more than one themselves.  

I am certain my home doesn’t represent a minority among Christian households.  Many homes have Bibles, even in some non-Christian or un-churched family homes.  Bibles seem to be in abundance in our culture.  Yet when asked just how much time is spent in the Word, I’m afraid the answer would make most cringe.  Many people will even profess to take those three minutes in the morning to read a devotion, often without reading the Biblical text which accompanies it; add a thirty second prayer so we’ve done our duty of “checking in” with the Father every day.   And then we’re off doing other “more important” things.  There are times I’m as guilty of this as the next person.

Given my writing genre, I tend to be in the Word more than the average person who doesn’t write Christian material.   But, if I am only in the Word to write Christian material, I’ve cheated myself out of a precious relationship with The Lord.  I have put other things ahead of Him.  I have inadvertently created idols because I’ve allowed the world to rearrange my priorities.  Those things, which we put before God, even if it's not something concrete, which dominates our time and attention or something we are counting on --and believing in-- rather than letting God take the lead, can indeed qualify as being an idol.

So I ask you, as you reflect over this last week, how much time did you spend with The Lord?  Did you find yourself rearranging your day since it was over-booked and decided to leave out time with Jesus…..just this once?  If you look carefully, can you see an idol you have inadvertently created in your life?  If you can, I suggest you are breaking fellowship with the One who loves you more than life itself; with the One who gave His life for you.  How’s that working for you?  Can your “modern idol” meet all your needs?  Is it worth separation from the only True God?

Little Lives, Huge Impacts

I was talking with a friend this week about how decisions aren’t always about just one or two people but that it has a ripple effect and affects so many others.  My friend’s response:  When God is in it, then you need to follow what God is telling you to do.   The rest of the issues will work themselves out, because God is in control of the whole picture anyway.

https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+ripples+in+water

Life has a way of creating circumstances over which we feel we have no control.  As children of God, we don’t “need” control if we believe God is at the wheel.  Yet God can use these circumstances, which often feel like an obstacle course, to mold us into the person he wants us to be.  It can be a great time of discovery into who we are and what we are to become; but it can also be a time of despair as we deal with emotions which feel like giant ocean waves.  It’s a time where reliance on the Father can become so profound we can sense Him holding us.

Our inexperience of where we are, as well as, who we are becoming, can shake our world.  It’s new, exciting and exhilarating.  At the same time, it can be very frightening as we walk and cross over new thresholds.  It’s at these times where true reliance can turn into an exquisite peace as we watch God work out those details we could not have fathomed.  Rearrangements of plans, adjustments of attitudes, surprise waves of strength, with fresh ideas are all gifts from the Father.  Not everything works like we plan, but we can know that His ideas are better than ours anyway!

God has a remarkable way of using little things to create huge miracles.  I can’t help but be reminded of the time he fed 5,000 with just five loaves of bread and two fish.  If he can feed the multitude with so little, then why can’t he take my life, as inconsequential as it seems, and make it a miracle out of it, in whatever way he thinks is best?  Truth is, can’t God do that with every one of us?

Each of us has a specific reason for being here.  We each have gifts which when worked together, can create an environment which furthers the Kingdom.  When we don’t realize our gifts, and therefore, don’t use them, we have cheated ourselves and our community, not to mention the Lord.  What is even worse, is when we know our gift, and refuse to use or share it because we don’t think we’re good enough, don’t have enough time, or choose not to because we are rebelling in our relationship with God.

So when we look at our circumstance, which feels like a raging river sometimes, and recognize those things over which we have no control, we can know God can use our “little gifts,” and arrange our “little lives” to have a great and huge impact by touching other lives in ways we never thought possible.  

What we choose to do with our lives and circumstances does affect other people.  The ripple effect mentioned earlier, is very real.  It’s in God’s power, however, to use these effects to cause us to grow in Him, as well as, in those whose lives are also affected by whatever decision we are making. But God promised to help when we need him.  He never sleeps, promises to stand beside us, knows our comings and goings, and He promised to never leave us (Psalm 121).  If our heart is right and we’ve been in sweet communication with our “Abba Poppa,” our God, we can know “He has our back!”  That’s amazing comfort even in difficult decision making!

Looking Out For The Little Things

We each have the potential to be “amazing human beings.”  It comes down to how you treat your neighbor and how you treat the ones you love.  I know of one wife who raves about her husband’s kindness and thoughtfulness, because he works hard at “looking out for the little things.”  He will surprise her with flowers or other “just because” gifts; encourages her to spend time with her sister who surprises with a visit while he prepares dinner; brings her breakfast in bed from time to time; but mostly he shows her and tells her how much he adores her through the tenderness he is not afraid to display. Because he sees her needs are met, she finds it very easy to meet his.

https://www.google.com/search?q=friendship

            While the examples of “looking out for the little things” described by my friend might not work for every couple, there are plenty of other ways to demonstrate affection and love.  Holding hands while walking, the gentle touch of a hand to the face, a look in the eyes, the genuine, consistent saying of “I love you, can all be examples, and there are many more.  Clearly, it is a deliberate effort of one person to make the other happy and letting them know they are loved.

            The idea of “deliberate effort,” I suggest, also applies to friendships.  We each desire extensions of who we are and often find them in other people.  Are we quick and purposeful about letting other people know how we feel?  In our world of perverted ideas regarding homosexuality, it’s become more difficult to express genuine affection for the same gender without it being misinterpreted.  We ladies have “girlfriends” which means we have those friends with whom we “connect.”  Guys would loathe the tag “boyfriend” and I completely understand, yet even guys need to connect with other guys of similar interests and beliefs.  

            I always chuckle when guys meet guys they haven’t seen in a while.  Their opening remark might be something like, “Hey, Ugly!”  Women on the other hand would never say that to another woman, even if they thought it!  It just doesn’t happen.  Women are quick to say something like “You look great!” even if they notice their friend has put on a few pounds! 

            As friends, it is as important to be honest, as in a marriage.  Falseness can destroy a friendship as quick as anything, as can gossip.  Here again it takes effort to maintain the relationship, and there are as many ways to demonstrate this, as there are friends!  A chat over coffee or tea, shopping together (sorry guys!), sharing sad times and allowing tears to flow without judgment, reveling in their success and joys, seeing to needs during a crisis, just checking on them to make sure they are okay and for me, the physical display of affection: a hug!   

            The point is, it is important in relationships to share what is in your heart that lifts up the other person.  That’s what we are called to do, Biblically.  In a marriage it is paramount.  This is where the “ideal” relationship should be exemplified.  Marriage along with all other relationships should be a reflection of our relationship with Christ.  Sadly this isn’t always the case.  Our society has demeaned marriage and Satan is working to see marriage relationships crumble daily. Couples seem to go in their own direction as Satan works in the mind, filling it with alluring worldly pleasures, or the other extreme filling the heart with anger and bitterness which is also hugely destructive.

            I would ask that this week you evaluate your relationships, marital (if it applies), friendships, even the relationships with your children.  When was the last time you demonstrated “deliberate effort” toward those you care about?  It’s not about money or material things.  You don’t have to spend a dime.  It’s about the heart and showing affection, love, caring, understanding, warmth, comfort and anything else that demonstrates the love exemplified through our perfect role model: Jesus.  Wouldn’t it be grand if all our relationships made the Lord smile?

   

But God!

I write this blog today with a thankful heart.  My daughter introduced me to a song a few weeks ago called, “But God.” The song resonated through my being as tears rolled the entire time.  (I know, there I go again!)  But I believe we can all identify with being sad; with being down, yet for those of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior, know God is in control.  Does that make circumstances less painful?  No, but it can give us confidence that we will get through it and that ultimately there is a purpose we have traveled through this dry desert.  God is still up there on the mountain ready to pick us up and carry us if we only ask.

(“But God” link):   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CpKUbgUZw8

https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+but+God

 

I am thankful I serve a God who allows me to be who I am because He created me and delights in my personality!  I am thankful I have a God who knows me, even my weaknesses and desires, and when I falter, reminds me He is there.  This is true to the point, that even when I may want to do something considered out of character that may dishonor him, (even the biting remark or mean thought) I can feel his gentle nudge saying: “But God!”   

We probably all face circumstances sometimes where despair throws us into a state of sadness that may even border depression.  We see no light at the end of the tunnel, no rainbow after the rain; ultimately little hope of recovery from where we find ourselves.  This is when it’s even more important to read God’s word, study it and humbly bow before Him in complete honesty, pouring out our souls to our Creator.  He knows the beginning from the end and how it’s all going to turn out.  This pouring out of our hearts to Him makes us vulnerable and helps us be dependent on Him.  It gets out into the open how we really feel and sometimes this is where healing can begin and answers will come.  

            At the end of the day, we are all accountable for how we’ve handled the situations in which we have found ourselves. Even as we face circumstances, we can be thankful decisions can be based on discernment and wisdom, when we seek God and his Word.   I want to be like Job who knew His God was powerful, never changing, could do all things and ultimately would reward him for the test he had endured.  Does that mean he didn’t ask hard questions and become filled with despair during the test?  No! He surely did.  But he held fast, despite all the bad advice from those around him--even from his wife who told him to curse his God.  

            God does answer all our prayers and is faithful.  And despite everything that would cloud our thoughts and judgments as we face the pain and suffering, questions and decisions, we can know God is steadfast and never changing.  In all life’s circumstances it is a wondrous thing to be able to say, “But God!”