The Spot

I am convinced that everybody needs a spot.

You know, a place to escape everyday life. To mentally vacation even if only for a few minutes.

My spot is on the back deck enveloped in the adirondack chair my dad made for us. The kelly green canopy goes as high and far as I can see. Feet (must be bare feet you know) are up on a bench stolen from the nearby picnic table. Head back, sunglasses on. No book, no iPod. I want to just sit and listen to nothing for a while.

Even if I can sit here for a few minutes I feel completely refreshed (although wishing I could stay much longer than I'm usually able).

So, I'm curious:
What's your spot??

Rattles

Wow - almost 2 months since the last post! I just can't seem to get motivated to sit, think and write. But I figured today I will at least sit and write - with as little thinking as possible. :-) So here are things rattling around in my head lately:

-It was the good Lord's wisdom to give kiddos a "trainer" set of teeth. They get all their trips, falls and accidents out of the way (mostly) before the "real" ones come in. This was a very good idea.

-I'm realizing sometimes my "small" prayer requests mean just as much to me as the "biggies". And it's almost harder to receive a "no" to a small request. But that's my human mind - I forget that there is no difference to God. It's not as if He'll say "yes" to a smaller request because it's easier for Him. There's no "easy" or "hard" for God. There just "is" or "isn't". (And could I use quote marks any more in this paragraph??)

-Spring - also a fabulous idea on the Lord's part! As if He needs my opinion, but still, I think it's pretty great.

-Baby monitors: a blessing and a curse.

-Did you ever wonder why there is no "Joseph" tribe in the Bible when he was one of Jacob's 12 sons? This did not occur to me until the other day and really bothered me until I figured it out. (And I'm not tellin' . . . hee hee!)

-Dead bird on back porch = Our doggie's idea of a "get well soon" present to her best bud, our 1 year old, after she took a fall. Very sweet in doggie world. Very gross in my world.

-Husband and I have very different ideas of camping. His includes a tent - all other equipment/facilities optional. Mine includes a camper/shelter, flush toilet and a real bed. We don't go camping together very often.

So. Sitting and writing. Very little thinking. Result: very random post. Maybe my brain will kick into gear one of these days . . .



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Vision Check

I have been feeling just beat down lately. Anyone else there?

For about the past two weeks my heart and mind have been occupied:

-Many of my friends are in incredible pain right now for various reasons.

-People I don't know, but whose stories I have followed, are hurting in unimaginable ways.

-The world around us is a literal mess - natural disasters, poverty, persecution, so many that are spiritually lost.

Sometimes the realization of how much pain is in the world causes me vision problems: I get spiritual myopia. The pain feels near and very clear while goodness seems far off and fuzzy.

In the midst of my near-sightedness I noticed the Bible verse for today sitting by my kitchen window:

I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:13-14

I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

When I allow God to put His lenses in front of my flawed eyesight the fuzziness comes into focus. I will see His goodness. Not just one day in the future, but right now in the land of the living.

This doesn't take the reality of worldly pain away. But, in my eyes, it offers hope.

And that's something worth looking for.

God's Goodness

Several years ago my dearest friend's father was in the midst of a horrific medical crisis. A "routine" procedure had gone very, very wrong and after literally being brought back to life there was much uncertainty about how much damage was done.

God's people responded. One night church members that had come to support the family and pray overflowed out of the hospital waiting area and into hallways. My sweet friend's family was lifted up continuously to our Father.

When it became apparent that little permanent damage had been done - and this defied any medical reasoning - people rightly glorified God. They exclaimed over and over to my friend, "God is so good!"

And then she posed a question to me that I will never forget:

"What if God hadn't healed Dad? Would these people still know that God is good?"

Wow.

That question still gives me goosebumps mostly because the rock-solid faith of my dear friend blew me away.

But she had a point.

I think maybe what we mean to say in those situations, when God says "yes" to a dramatic request, is "That was so good of God!" Because my friend was right. God IS good. All the time. Unfailing. No matter what His answer to our request.

And if He, for whatever reason, had chosen to say "no" to the many pleas over her father's life He still would be just as good.

That's really hard to say. And really hard to swallow sometimes. Because it doesn't feel good when the answer is "no", when the life is not spared, when the job does not come through, when life is just really hard.

But see, my feelings don't dictate God's character. And really, that's a good thing.

Oh, I've been told "no" to an urgent plea. And it hurt. As Beth Moore puts it in a book of hers, it hurt my feelings. I'm not going to pretend that all these years later I get it now, that I understand why He said "no". That I now see the glorious purpose in the pain.

Um, no.

But has my faith been stretched? You betcha. Because at that moment, when the "no" hurt to the very marrow, God gave me a choice: 1)abandon Him, the one who said "no" or 2)cling to Him even though I was hurt. There was no in-between.

So with a deep breath, many tears and hurt feelings I chose to stay. And although there's so much I still don't understand about those circumstances, a peace that passes understanding allowed me to start digesting that God had not failed me.

He was still good.

Life's hard. We live in a fallen world with situations that bring us to our knees, crying for the Lord to come quickly. And it's right for us to pray, to pray for miracles, to pray for compassion, to pray for healing. We are God's dearly loved children and He loves to give good gifts to us.

It's hard to say this without saying cold or trite. Please hear the tenderness in my heart, the heart that's also withstood a devastating "no", when I say to remember that God is still good when bad things happen. He does not want us to fall away on account of circumstances. Instead He wants us to run to Him so He can embrace us and wipe the tears from our face.

And because God is good, remember that this world is not our home. One day there will be no tears, no heartbreak, no enemy.

And that is very, very good.

Wants and Needs

Do you ever get the feeling God is trying to tell you something?

Last week, the scheduled lesson to teach my 2nd graders at church was how God provided manna from Heaven and water from a rock to his grumbling children. We really focused on how God always, always provides what we need. He may choose to also provide wants and sometimes he doesn't. But He always supplies our needs.

When I came home I picked up my daughter's Sunday school handout to see what they had discussed in her class: Jesus using the boy's fish and loaves to feed thousands. Um, in other words, how God provided exactly what the people needed at the right time.

Then this morning I was half-listening to the little Bible cartoon my daughter was watching. But my ears perked up when I realized they were talking about how God always supplies what we need even if He doesn't supply what we want.

Hmmm.

This makes me a little nervous, honestly. I have to wonder if something is coming where I will need to remember the lesson of wants vs. needs.

Well, I guess even if something specific never happened it would be a good lesson to remember anyway. Like right now I really want a large piece of chocolate cake and Blue Bell milk chocolate ice cream. This is not a need, this is not a need . . .

So often I look blissfully at my two daughters, thinking how nice it is to be that young. Playing most of the day, unaware - as they should be - of worldly burdens and responsibilities.

BUT.

This morning I ate chocolate cake for breakfast. Because I could.

There are some advantages to being a grown-up. :-)

God Said

I rarely read the Bible from book to book. Usually I camp out in one book for a while and then skip to a different one that seems to be calling my name. Admittedly I find myself hanging out in the New Testament most of the time - although I do so love Isaiah and the Psalms.

Last night, on a whim to be different, I started at the beginning. You know, THE beginning. Genesis 1:1.

The first four words alone are enough to captivate me for some time: "In the beginning God . . ."

I thought I knew the Creation story backwards and forwards thanks to years of flannel trees, stars and animals forever etched in my Sunday school memories. But as I read through the familiar story some particular words grabbed my attention.

Take a little looksie with me:

6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

This pattern continues in the same way for the rest of God's creation. In the rhythm of this accounting I find a most reassuring truth. Look again:

6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.

11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

God said.

And it was so.

Beautiful, yes? Such power, such reassurance, such faithfulness packed into six glorious words.

We know that God's character is unchanging (Hebrews 6:17-18) and all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 2:16). Therefore what He speaks, well, is so.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

God said. And it is so.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

God said. And it is so.

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." John 14:1-3

God said. And it is so.

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12

God said. . . Well. I think you get the idea.

In this world of relativity, this culture of confusion, how beautiful the truth becomes. And God is truth. (Psalm 31:5) He said so.



[quotes taken from biblegateway.com ; all italics and emphases mine]