11: Because It's Good to Laugh . . .

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10: Blooming

(Okie dokie then . . . 10 posts down, 90 to go!)

In a gift shop once I ran across a greeting card that brightly proclaimed, "Bloom where you're planted!"

I bought it and have had it posted in several places over the years - in a home office, by my desk during my teaching days, in a collage at home. There's just something about that phrase that not only resonates with me but seems to be something I need to remind myself of over and over.

Spring is among us again and God's paintbrush has been dotting the landscapes with technicolor displays of his glory. Azaleas, pansies, daffodils and lilies line the roads pronouncing the season of splendor has arrived.

This particular beauty is a type of daylily . . .



Most people might refer to it as a "Tiger Lily" but others prefer the name "Ditch Lily".

Apparently this floral phenom has a great fondness for growing in . . . ditches.

Talk about blooming where you're planted!

So often I feel like I'm in a ditch.

I'd rather be in my ideal garden with nice cozy mulch to nourish my roots and a predictable sprinkler system to keep me thriving.

But, no. I'm in a ditch. Where I have to rely on the unpredictable rainshowers to bring relief and I might get trampled by a passing cyclist or even a stray dog.

But the Father knowingly allowed me to be here for reasons I may or may not ever get to know. What I do know is that He provides the rain, the sunshine that allows me to grow here. Who am I to refuse to bloom and display His glory?

People may expect lilies in a garden, but not in a ditch.

Bloom where you're planted . . . even in a ditch.

9: The Music in Us

"Too many people die with their music still in them."
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes

I love this quote but it also brings to mind a favorite joke:

A tourist in Austria came upon an old cemetery. As he came closer, he realized there was music coming from a particular gravesite. The tourist realized it was Beethoven's 8th symphony but being played backwards. The tourist thought this very odd and decided to come back the next day to see if it happened again. The next day, the tourist returned to the gravesite only to hear Beethoven's 7th symphony also being played backwards. The tourist returned day after day, each day hearing the next symphony in reverse order and always backwards. One day, as the tourist was listening to the 3rd symphony, backwards of course, he noticed the cemetery's gardener close by. The tourist stopped him and said, "You'll never believe this! Every day I come and every day I hear music coming from this grave! It's the most remarkable thing - first it was Beethoven's 8th symphony being played backwards, then the 7th and so on. Today it's the 3rd. Isn't this unusual??"

The gardener nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders, returned to pruning the shrubs and said, "Oh, that? That's just Beethoven. He's decomposing."

(ba-dum-bum!)

Do you know what music is in you? Do you feel like you're letting it out or keeping it in "until" . . .until you have the time, until you have the money, until [fill in the blank]?

Of course, there is a time and place for all things. Maybe now just isn't the time to let that particular music make its debut. But there's a difference between prayerfully considering the timing and plugging our ears while singing "lalalalalalaican'thearyoulalalalala" for fear of actually having to DO something about that music.

Oh. So been there.

There now actually.

What about you? Is there something in you burning to get out? Is it a timing issue or is it a fear issue?

(I can only ask because I have been delivered from the pit of fear countless times and always seem to find a way to jump back in . . . It's sadly a familiar place for me but the Lord is so gracious to continually yank me back out.)

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all let our "music" out - whatever that may be - before we start, um, decomposing? :-)

8: Prayer

So my last post got me thinking a lot about prayer.

I have a lot of thoughts and questions on the subject (well, mostly questions) but today I'm curious about your thoughts . . .

What do you think the role/purpose of prayer is?


(By the way, I started reading a great book on the subject quite a while ago. Haven't gotten all the way through it but I'd highly recommend it . . . "Prayer" by Philip Yancey)

7: Mighty - to Save or Not

This morning I was reading about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being rescued from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3) and was again reminded that God is indeed mighty to save. (When He does a work He does it 110% - the Bible says that not even the smell of fire was on them.)

But what amazed me this morning was a part of the three friends' response to the king that had escaped my memory.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were Jewish exiles living in Babylon. The Babylonion king, Nebuchadnezzer, had created a huge idol of gold and decreed that all must bow down and worship it or else be thrown into a fiery furnace. When the king received word that these three exiles (government officials even, thanks to their friend Daniel's favor with the king - see Daniel 2) refused to bow to the idol he was furious. He gave them one more chance to deny their God and worship the golden statue. This was their response:

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:17-18

Did you catch that? "Even if he does not . . ."

We pray faithfully for God's saving hand in many ways - for situations we're facing, for people we love, etc. And it's right to do so. I Peter 5:7 tells us to "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

We rejoice when the answer is "yes" but what happens to our faith when the answer is "no"?

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had great faith in the ability and mightiness of their God to save them. But they were also prepared to accept that their deliverance might not be part of the Lord's plan. Either way, they refused to turn to any other. Either way, God was their God. Period.

It's so hard to receive a "no" from the Lord. It can be a real blow to your faith but then there's a choice to make: to stay the course and continue to worship God or to turn to another.

When we miscarried a year and a half ago it was the biggest "no" I'd ever received from the Lord. I had pleaded with Him for the pregnancy but still received the gentle but devastating "no". We went straight into that fiery furnace of grief and loss.

Oh, how I struggled with that "no". And not always gracefully. In fact, it was downright ugly sometimes between me and the Lord.

I came to a pivotal point when I read this in Beth Moore's "Get Out of That Pit":

"God thinks of His children continually. And when God thinks of His children, He only thinks in terms of what can be used toward our good, toward His plan for us, and toward the future. His intentions can only be pure. Right. Full of hope. Promoting peace. Listen carefully. God did not haphazardly or accidentally let Joseph's brothers throw him in the pit. He had already thought it out in advance. Considered it. Weighed it. Checked it against the plumb line of the plan. He had looked at the good it could ultimately accomplish, the lives that could be helped and even saved. Then, and only then, in His sovereign purpose did He permit such harm to come to His beloved child. Had the incident not possessed glorious purpose, God would have disarmed it."

Those last two sentences still put a lump in my throat. I know them to be true but it's still really, really hard to reconcile myself to. It's a daily work. However, I feel like wrestling with the Lord over that particular "no" brought me to a place of trust in Him that I never would have got to otherwise. In a way that was a healing - just not the one I expected or even preferred at the moment.

God's "no"s are just as glorious as His "yes"es.

Just because He is mighty to save doesn't mean He will. Or maybe He does, just not in the way we understand or expect.

And that is a really hard lesson to learn. A lesson, I have a feeling, that is not a one-time thing. Probably more like a life-long journey.

My prayer for all of us (myself most definitely included) is that when we come to that crossroads, when we're in need of saving, that we will be confident that God is mighty.

To save.

To not save.

But always mighty.

6: Names

I love names.

I love the meanings behind them, the stories.

I'm a firm believer that you never, ever make fun of someone's name. (Well, we really shouldn't be making fun of anything about a person - but most especially their name.) That's their core identity, something so deeply embedded in their very being that to damage it renders a deep wound.

My 3-year-old is in a phase where she loves to pretend to be her favorite cartoon character of the moment - so much so that when I kiss her goodnight she requests for me not to use her given name but rather her animated alter-ego's name.

I usually comply, but always have to sneak her real name in there somewhere - which of course completely irritates her - because I just can't call her by anything else. I love the name we gave her and to hear her refer to herself as anything else just doesn't seem right. It's not who she is.

Sometimes I think of all the people, in all the world, and wonder how is it that God even notices me much less knows my name?

Isaiah 43:1 says:

But now, this is what the LORD says—
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine."

Of course, in this context, the Lord is speaking of His people the Israelites. But as New Testament believers we know we have been grafted in (Romans 11:17) to also be His people.

We also are told in the Psalms that God knows us intimately, having knit us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139:13)

So I feel like the above verse from Isaiah is one we can claim for ourselves as well - God knows each and every one of us. He knows our names. He calls us by our names.

And the best part of that verse I think comes next:

We are His.

I think "Child of God" is possibly the best name of all.

5: Nothing to Say

So, today is Day 5 of my little 100 posts in 100 days challenge. And I'm already struggling for something to write about.

Awesome.

Really, it's awfully discouraging and downright fear-producing in me. I'm already imagining how difficult the next 95 days will be if I can't even come up with something on Day 5.

(Oh, and please know that I understand in the whole scheme of world-wide tragedies that me having nothing to write on my blog is pretty darn low on the list. BUT since it's a leap of faith and something between me and the Lord then it's a pretty big deal to me.)

I know logically that anytime we act in obedience the enemy will not be far behind and that could well be at least partly responsible for my sudden case of writer's block. I'm pretty sure he's definitely behind the fear part that's leading to a shameful season of doubting.

Um, how many times have I told someone that if the Lord calls you He will equip you?

Dang it. I hate when I have to take my own advice.

So, I really have nothing to say today except this is already harder than I thought it would be.

(Although I have to interject here that "Tomorrow" from the movie Annie just popped in my head . . . this is random but I so used to love that movie. Anyone else?? My friend and I had matching Annie dresses. And an Annie wig. And Annie dolls. And Annie clothes . . . I should also interject here that this was when I was in preschool. Just to clarify that this was not recent history. Although my Annie wig would have looked better than some of my past hairstyles. But I digress . . .)