Close Enough to Really Know Him

Even though my nest is now quite empty, I once had a typical American family set-up in my home.  I had a husband (and I still do, thankfully!).  I had the storybook set of children - a girl and a boy. They're still around too - they just have their own addresses now.

My daughter Nikki is 41 years old now and she and I kind of grew up together because I was a young single mother. She now lives 200 miles from me. I only see her once or twice a year and usually for only a very brief time when we do manage to get together.  I make a point of calling her every Tuesday evening on her day off and we get a little conversation - sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 30, but a very short time in the course of our lives.

My son Josh is 30 and he lives only about 13 miles from me. Often he and his wife and daughter come and spend the night or even the entire weekend with us.  We've taken vacations together often over the past several years since we moved to Virginia.  When we're not in the same place, we often chat on Facebook about one thing or another.

I was thinking about how these relationships this week and it occurred to me that even though Nikki has known me longest, she knows me the least.  There's no criticism in that statement. Her life choices and mine have put us in different places geographically, but because of that, she has limited information about who I really am these days.   Unless I tell her over the phone, she has no idea what I am doing with my time, what I am planning or dreaming, or even what I'm thinking about her.

My son could do a bit better.  He's often with me on my little adventures or just my boring grocery trips.  He knows some secret plans I'm working on.  He's around enough for me to "tell him about himself" when I think he still needs some motherly correction.  I can tell him about a little household project that I need his help to complete and he'll do it without too much grumbling. 

Our relationship with God can be in both those places at different times in our lives.  Of course, we're never geographically far from Him.  He's as close as our breath.  However, we can put distance in the spirit between ourselves and where He is. 

When we are distant from Him, we don't know much about Him.  We don't know what His plans are for our lives or His kingdom.  We don't know the thoughts He has toward us and who He says we are.

When we're a little closer, we might get a glimpse of the Kingdom and what will unfold in the future.  We might get some direction on something that God wants us to do in service and we'll be obedient in following through.  We're close enough that the Holy Spirit can do some correction and speak into our lives.

Of course, there's an even deeper measure of intimacy we can have with our heavenly Father and if we pursue it, we can be even more in tune with where He wants to take us and what He wants us to do.  That's another level of being close - more like the closeness of a marriage, where two are living so close together that they can finish each other's sentences, anticipate each other's needs, and work together to achieve their dreams and goals.  When we walk that closely, the Holy Spirit can supernaturally partner with us to bring heaven to earth.  I'm not there yet.  I've had moments like that, but not nearly enough of them.  

If my daughter chose to move to Virginia to live closer to me, I'm sure we'd spend much more time together and our relationship would deepen.  Our son is trying to sell his house and his family will temporarily move into our home while they are looking for a larger house and we'll all have to adjust to living very close together.  I'm sure we'll know much more than we really want to about each other by the end of that experience!.  The difference in our knowledge of each other will be our proximity to each other.  I know that my proximity to God is not something that is His responsibility to cultivate - it's mine.  I can be as close to Him as I decide to be - and so can you.  

A Consistent Message

As some of you know, I am currently working on completing my first book. Though there is a lot of new material, much of the content comes from the blog posts I've been writing for almost two years.  You would think it would be easy to copy and paste articles from the blog to the working manuscript, but it hasn't proven to be quite that simple.  It's a constant battle of organizing and reorganizing, of making sure I haven't put the same essay in two different places, of correcting spelling errors or typos that I missed when I first published the blog, and of adjusting the language so that I'm not speaking in present tense about events that happened three years ago.  Whew!

What's really important to me is that people will really understand the theme of the book and that it will make a real difference in deepening and enriching their relationship with God.  I want to be clear and understandable, but above all biblical.

When I think that God used flawed people to get His Word to us in a book that stays on the best-seller list, I am assured He can help me put all the thoughts and lessons He has given me in a manageable form.  What a remarkably consistent message His book has!  He's loved us and wanted us from the beginning of time and He's provided a way for us to have a relationship with Him.  He's written us a love letter that has everything we need that pertains to life and godliness.

I hope you'll excuse this very brief post tonight, but I've been away for my fall break weekend, enjoying some time with my husband and spending long evenings in the hotel room putting the finishing touches on the message God has given me.  I'm proofreading all my words just as He proofreads me and makes course corrections as I walk through the pages of the book of my life.

I hope that tonight, you are allowing Him to do that in your life as well.  Please pray for the successful completion of this manuscript and that God will use it for his purposes. God bless!

When You and God Don't See Eye to Eye

Have you ever found one of those temporary cartoon tattoos for children in a cereal box?  Bella and I found one over the weekend and the picture was of characters from a movie she really enjoys.  I sat her up on the kitchen counter so I could be close to the sink to get water to wet the sponge I needed to use to apply it to her arm.

First, I squinted at the tiny directions written on the back of the package.  Why do they have to print things so small these days?  I peeled the protective film from the front of the tattoo and placed it face down on her arm and started pressing the wet sponge against the backing to get the picture to release and attach to her arm.  Her little eyes filled up with tears as she looked down at what I was doing.  She saw a white rectangle of paper with the directions printed all over it instead of the picture she had imagined was going to be there. "No! No!", she cried and she tried to pull her arm back. This was not what she wanted at all!

"It's OK, Bella.  This is how I need to do it.  You need to be still and trust me so you won't mess this up.  The picture will be there in a minute", I reassured her.  

To her credit, she stopped crying and watched me intently as I continued the process.  After a few seconds, I barely pulled back one edge just so she could see that the colors were beginning to be transferred to her skin.  I kept applying pressure and dabbing the sponge on the paper until the entire backing was wet and the picture on the other side was totally complete and visible. Then I removed the paper and let her see the finished product. She beamed up at me and started talking about one character that was her favorite.

How often do we do this very thing with God?  We have a dream - a picture of something we want to see in our lives.  We know exactly how it should look.  It will unfold in a certain way, on a particular timetable, marking specific milestones along the way.  Then, when life starts veering off in another direction we panic.  "God, this isn't how it's supposed to be!"

God hears us saying, "I'm supposed to be marrying this person, but now they've left me", or "We were supposed to have children by now, but we're having fertility issues", or "By now, I should have had a promotion at work", or "I should be further along in ministry at this point in my life", or any one of a hundred other things that we thought should be coming to pass.  

We don't see as God sees.  He says, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways."  (Isaiah 55:8) We look upon what is happening in our lives - at what God seems to be applying to our situation - and we're disappointed, scared, hurt, and so sure that God has really missed it.  This wasn't what we prayed for, believed for, stood for, declared and decreed.  Or was it?

Isaiah 46:9-10 says,

"Remember the former things of old,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’

If we will do as I told Bella and be still and trust Him through the process, we may find that the picture He is applying to us is far more beautiful than the one we had imagined.  

We will find Ephesians 3:20-21 to be true if we wait on Him. 

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

A Joyful Grave

         

I witnessed a powerful baptism service this morning.  Many people were baptized for the first time as they professed their new relationship with Jesus. Others took that plunge in a demonstration of a new commitment after a time of spiritual brokenness.  Some people were drawing a symbolic line in the sand to mark a day when things would change in their lives and their ministries. The service went long after the usual time that we dismissed, and I needed a bathroom break! But as we watched the Holy Spirit working so powerfully, my husband leaned over and said to me, "You can't leave the room during a funeral service!"

It took me just a second to adjust to what he was saying, but Colossians 2:12 says it pretty much that way. " ...having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead."

We were watching a series of burials. Old lives, old attitudes, old struggles, old obstacles were being put away - not just covered up and ignored - but being healed and transformed.

At the end of the service, we watched the ushers prepare the portable baptistry before moving it. Paul said, "Look, they're putting the lid on the coffin..."  - another wise observation from my always witty husband. Baptism is a grave where Jesus buries our past. Romans 6:6 says, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

The joy in the house this morning was evident.  Jesus is still moving, still changing lives, still intervening in circumstances.  I hope you are in a place where you witness this freedom taking place in those around you, but more than that, I pray freedom and joy are abundant in your own life. If not, maybe it's time to bury some things of your own.

 

The Timing of God

My son, Josh, made the following observation on Facebook yesterday and I told him I was going to borrow it for today's blog post.

"You can be the best hunter in the world, but if there are no deer where you are then it doesn't matter.  You can be the best hunter in the world, but if you arrive in the field at the wrong time then it doesn't matter.  You may feel your God-given talents are pointless and wasted. Remember that you may be waiting to be in the right place and season." (Joshua Ellis)

When I read this, I thought of Joseph, being given dreams of ruling over his brothers, only to find himself in a prison cell in Egypt.  All the promises of God seemed to be made null and void. He was not in a position to even imagine all God still had in store for him.  He had to wait for the right season.

I thought of David, being anointed to be king over Israel, running for his life as he fled from King Saul.  Did he question the truth of Samuel the prophet's words over him as a young boy as he faced all the adversity? In God's timing, he took his rightful place.

There are some seasons in our lives that are extremely frustrating.  Sometimes we wonder where God is in the middle of our troubles.  There was a period of about four years in my life when we were under extreme financial stress.  We had just moved to Virginia and my husband was only able to find temporary work.  Within a few months, he developed some health issues that kept him from working at all.   We were paying a mortgage payment on the house in West Virginia that we were trying to sell as well as a rent payment in our new home.  There were times when our grocery budget was less than $25 a week.  From a spiritual standpoint, we were doing all we knew how to do, but month after month, things grew more difficult.  During that time, through all the ups and downs, my faith in God grew in a way that it never had before.  It's easy to trust God when life is going well - a real challenge when circumstances are burdensome.  I wouldn't want to go through that series of events ever again in my life, but I wouldn't go back and change a single thing about that time because God became even sweeter to me in the middle of all of it.  I learned to trust and I watched as He provided my needs in ways that even today, I don't fully understand.

I wrote on my church's Facebook page one day in the worst of the financial mess that I was in:

"I have learned so much in the last year about faith and patience, about waiting on God, about trusting His timing.  There are situations that I wanted Him to handle differently, but now I can see the "why" of the way things have played out - the other people He wanted to bless in a situation that I thought was mine alone.  Everything we need God to do in our lives also touches the lives of others.  Only He sees the big picture.  Thank God that He IS God."

The seven years of waiting to sell that West Virginia house ended up being a blessing to the family who purchased it while it taught me to wait and trust.  A car that we wanted to sell when it became too difficult to maintain two vehicles finally sold to someone in our church who needed it at just the right time for him - weeks after I thought it should have already been sold.  God's timing is perfect though we may not always agree with how it unfolds.  It's not all about us - it's about Him.

Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

Whether you are waiting for a financial breakthrough, a ministry opportunity, a restored relationship, a healed body or for an outlet for all your gifts and talents to be used or noticed, waiting on the timing of the Lord is the sure way to know that all is being done His way and for His glory.


Photo by Jim Fawns from Pexels

Practice What You Preach

This summer our family rented a house on the Chesapeake Bay for our vacation.  On the street leading to the house was a set of speed bumps.  Our granddaughter loved going over them and started raising her hands every time we approached one.  Before long, everyone in the car was raising their hands and a tradition was created.  It wasn't long before she had us raising our hands as we crossed railroad tracks, went through tunnels, and even turned into our street, where there is a rough section of pavement.  It's become such a family ritual that my husband and I do it when she's not even in the van.  (I know - we're weird....) 

If we ever forget to do it, Bella reminds all of us as we approach the landmark.  "Put your hands up, Mommy.  Put your hands up, Daddy. Mawmaw, Papaw - put your hands up!"

Today in the van, we went through an area behind a store where there were ten speed bumps and later in the trip three railroad tracks and the street to our house. Bella was so busy telling all of us to put our hands up that most of the time she forgot to raise her own.

I think we can be like that sometimes in our spiritual lives.  We give advice or encouragement to others, but sometimes we don't do the very thing we've just told them to do. It's easy to just say what we think is the right thing based on our own experience or biblical knowledge.  We can reduce navigating our journey to a formula of a verse or two of scripture and a pre-packaged prayer when what needs to happen is that we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit both in our own lives and as we minister to others.

Even in the life of a Spirit-filled believer, ritual and tradition can overtake the fresh, living, direction of the Spirit of God if we are not careful to maintain that connection.

I'm glad Bella finds such joy in very simple things, but I hope that she'll remember to focus on her own behavior and not on that of others as she grows and matures. The old adage "practice what you preach" is still good advice. Examine yourself with me and make sure that's exactly what you are doing.

Does Your Heart Have a Boo-Boo?

Our family has been experiencing a time of testing for many months.  My amazing daughter-in-law, Brittney, after having many medical tests and going to many specialists, has been diagnosed with a heart issue at the age of 30.  There are several other conditions that are contributing to and complicating the treatment of the issue, so it's been a time of financial hardship and frustration with the medical system for her and my son, as well as a physically exhausting and painful time for her.  She's bearing it with grace and faith that God has a plan and that her testimony will be for His glory.  I'm believing for her full restoration to health and energy, both for her and for her daughter, Bella who is a busy almost-three-year-old who really needs her mama.

Brittney's been in the hospital all weekend and Bella has spent a lot of time with me.  When we were praying for her mother last night I asked Bella, "What's wrong with your mommy?" to see what level of understanding she had at this young age.  She told me, "Mommy's heart has a boo-boo and she is at the doctor".

There are a lot of hearts with "boo-boos" in this world.  Some are physical heart conditions, but there are many, many more spiritual heart issues than physical.  The physical issues can be treated.  There are medicines, therapies, and surgeries that can improve a person's quality of life and restore their health, but a spiritual heart condition can only be cured by one specialist - the Great Physician - Jesus.

Just as we seek out medical attention from the doctor who has the right expertise to know what to do in our situation, we must seek the Lord for the healing of our spiritual wounds.  If we don't consult the medical experts, our condition may worsen and it certainly won't improve.  In the same way, ignoring God and just expecting our spiritual heartsickness to disappear can cause it to worsen.

Psalm 34:18 says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

In this difficult time for all of us, I'm leaning on God to deal with all the things I am powerless to change.  Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Is there a spiritual heart issue which is exhausting you and causing you pain?  Have you tried everything else to soothe that discomfort and found that nothing is helping?  Consult the right specialist for the job.  He created your heart in the first place.  He knows what you need and He has the power to heal every issue in your life.