Seeing God Across Your Years

As a child I talked to Jesus all the time ~ especially when I was sick, which was at least a couple months a year. I got strep throat with every change of weather. My nose tickled for weeks at a time. I was constantly scrunching up my face, twisting my mouth, and wiggling my nose to try to make it stop. So I was give yucky-tasting yellow medicine to get rid of my “tic.”  I had terrific allergies, but no one realized that was the cause.

Behold, He comes on the cloudsBanished to bed for weeks at a time, I read a lot and lived in my imagination. Often I’d stretch out on the bed, curtains wide open on my large window, and talk to Jesus. By day I’d ask if he was riding a particularly fluffy cloud. By night I’d ask if that bright star was him and was he coming down to earth.

I’ve no idea where these thoughts and questions came from. When I was 4 my parents joined a Presbyterian church where I was baptized. I went to Sunday School – or I think I did. Though I have a pretty good memory and remember things about my toddler years that surprise even my family, I have zero recollection of classes. I do remember standing in church next to my mother and loving when we’d sing the Doxology. The organ thundered the powerful, lively music; and I thought Mom’s voice was lovely. But I have no memory of actually being in children’s classes.

Grow in Christ Bookends from Guymon

Grow in Christ bookends from Guymon

We didn’t discuss Sunday morning sermons at home. In fact, Sunday was the day my father would take me and my girlfriends (Catholic, so we weren’t in church together) for banana splits or sundaes at the ice cream stand in town.

So church and the Bible were not part of my daily fare. I did go to Vacation bible School summers when I’d visit cousins in Oklahoma (hence these ancient bookends). And one Christmas I was given a children’s Bible story book ~ typical narrative recounting of Bible miracles. The book long ago met its demise in a flood or a flurry of mother’s spring cleaning. I have no idea how accurate the stories were.

As apparently minimal as my exposure to God was, in my heart we were close. I knew He was near, watched over me, and listened when I talked to him. How does one explain this?

I can’t.

I believe it’s a God thing. God never ignores a sincere seeker and is particularly tender with children. I believe he communicates with them in ways they can understand. And in Psalm 73:23 Asaph says he is always with God, so close that God holds Asaph’s right hand. That sounds as reasonable to me as any reason that I sensed God so intimately. And maybe that’s why, despite efforts to force me to use my other hand, I grew up left-handed!

Looking over your life, can you see: Was God ever taking care of you ~ even though you didn’t see it at the time?

I’m praying we have the vision to see God at work in our lives, our families, our world. Would love if you’d share ways you’ve seen God’s presence when you look back.

 

DON’T LET THE DAILY DERAIL YOUR DREAMS

Do you ever feel like your dreams get buried beneath a mountain of mundane? Your goals glide right off a cliff of daily duties? Sometimes it’s difficult to hang on to the enthusiasm. To persevere in the face of oceans of time spent apparently accomplishing nothing because you just need to do it again tomorrow.

DAVID replica, Florence

DAVID replica, Florence

Let me offer you some encouragement to rekindle your joy. Your resolve.

~ The “big dream” isn’t achieved until all the parts are connected.

~ The “big goal” isn’t reached in one giant jump, but in the accumulation of hours, days, months of small steps.

I imagine Michelangelo ate a lot of dust before David finally emerged from the marble.

 

Assumption of the Virgin by Titian

Assumption of the Virgin by Titian

 

 

I wonder if Titian ever tired of mixing pigments and dyes, or experimenting with additions of finely ground glass or metals to his paint. The magnificent David or impressive Assumption of the Virgin, masterpieces of the Renaissance, wouldn’t exist if the sculptor and painter just got tired of the repeated chiseling or swiping paint on panel.

 

 

Our family friends Bill & Lori Smith run a large, multi-faceted ministry in Papua New Guinea. Last week was Teen Camp which means Lori and a few women needed to “cook over 100 kilos of rice each day” for the 500 hungry teenagers and counselors. Over 220 pounds of rice! That’s an awful lot of boiling and stirring and pouring and scooping to do, and then repeat it 3 hours later. My mind reels.

TEEN CAMP Smiths PNG

Amazima Ministries, which reaches thousands in Uganda, recently posted:  “Yesterday we fed 1,351 children during our daily outreach in Masese, Uganda! “ Again a lot of work was done BEFORE the 1,351 children were fed.

AMAZIMAs Lunch table 1351 meals

But Katie Davis and her team choose not to see 1,351 bowls bought, and filled, and handed out. Instead they see: “1,351 faces, 1,351 names, 1,351 stories that God is writing, and we’re just grateful we get to play a small part.”

The big goals are accomplished by the accretion of small (often mundane too!) steps culminating in the outcome aimed for. And it’s easier to persist in pursuit of the goals if we keep our focus on the reason behind what we do, not on the daily ordinariness, the mind-numbing repetition.

And the REASONS?

            1. For the goal

            2. For the people

            3. For God Who asked us in the first place.

Today is a somber day of remembering that 30 years ago, 7 men and women “slipped the surly bonds of earth”* and perished in the Challenger explosion. Hardly a “big dream” like we’re talking about today. But hang on ~ it is relevant. The horrific explosion that destroyed that mighty rocket resulted from a defect in an O-ring. An O-ring!

O

A very small part compared to the huge rocket.

LEARNING TO WRITE crFor most of us the majority of days are of the mundane variety with the occasional fire-cracker, red-letter day thrown in. But masterpieces are mostly created that way.

How many hundreds of hours of feeding a baby, teaching him to hold a spoon, a pencil, a steering wheel before you see the wise, kind, loving man your son becomes?

All the small parts are important, exponentially so.

So if you feel your feet are jelly-stuck to the kitchen floor instead of soaring through the heights, if you feel buried beneath mounds of laundry or bills, can I hear your hearty cry:

“This matters! This is important. Hallelujah ~ God is weaving something                   great from this.” Because He is.

Hang your heart on this, friend. “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

We will reap. That’s a promise. It’s just sometimes hard to wait for that “due season,” yes?

If you need more reminding, check out this video. Packs a powerful “Thank you, Mom” message. Will pour some needed balm on your tired soul. Perhaps even pour some cleansing tears.

What dream or goal feels buried to you? What is 1 thing you can do today to ease it toward fulfillment? 

*Quotation from “High Flight” by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., 1941, made familiar by President Ronald Reagan on January 28, 1986 as he spoke after the Challenger disaster.

Photo credit of David replica and Assumption of the Virgin ~ Wikipedia.

VISION BEYOND THE DEAD-ENDS

2014 - YOSEMITE WINTER - writers refuge FEBHow are things going for you in this new year? Had any hopes, dreams, buildings raised ~ and then dashed?

Bad news and burdens just keep piling up like a snowdrift against the door. It could get you down, yes? As one dear friend said, “I think I’m a bit depressed.”

The comfy chair beckons. We just want to collapse in it, sip cocoa, and wait to feel better. Wait for circumstances to change. Wait for the phone call.

 

PATHWAY w timbered stepsBut before you decide to just park, may I offer you a different vision?

~  A bend in the path ahead often appears to be a dead-end, but isn’t.

~    New hopes can grow like a phoenix from the dashed ones.

~   “Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but actually you’ve been planted.” *

 

FOG in color

These chirpy little sayings might appear to be silly platitudes. But they contain nuggets of truth. Sometimes we all need reminders of a truth that, at the moment, is foggy to us. Nudges to persevere. Words to revive our hope.

 

 

Often “dead-ends” are meant to make us pause, look around, evaluate. Not quit. But if we stop in our tracks when we see the closed gate ahead and sit down, we’ll never see the new path, new sights, joys, mercies, or miracles that wait just over the horizon.

So I invite you to pause and remember:

~It was not raining before Noah, working on the             plain, built an ark.

~Moses and the Israelites didn’t reach the Promised Land without plenty of walking.

~The walls of Jericho stood tall and strong until Joshua and his army, in faith and obedience, walked around them and blew their trumpets.

HORIZON over water w mntns

~”Be patient. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. One step at a time. In the right direction. No pressure. Just keep moving. You’ll get there.” Johnnie Morris

Or in the words of that brilliant theologian, Gracie Allen: “Never put a period where God has put a comma.”

What small step can you take today to move beyond an obstacle?

Tweetables ~

Need a fresh vision? Sometimes a dead-end is really just a bend in the road.

You won’t see the mercies or miracles God has just over the horizon if you quit at the first roadblock.

* Quote seen on Facebook. Author unknown. If you know who said this, please let me know so I can give them proper attribution. Thanks.

 

FLOOD IN THE DESSERT

Ed at Yosemite - falls close up brtAre you needing guidance from God? Perhaps a word of encouragement, hope, or comfort? Sunday Johnnie Morris preached an encouraging message from Leviticus. (Yes, encouraging. Yes, Leviticus.) One point was ~

God leads us into a dessert to re-introduce us to Himself before he leads us to our promised land.

I asked God for a word for 2016. Then I asked for confirmation. I sincerely wanted his reassurance that I’d heard right.

Well, over the next days he flooded me with signs of reassurance. It was as astonishing and powerful as encountering a Niagara Falls in the dessert. So many Scriptures, ideas, stories, people, information that on Sunday evening I actually whispered, “I have to unplug. My brain is jangled trying to grasp it all.”

[Can’t help smiling as I write this next bit.] On Monday morning as I was working on this blog post ~ a gigantic wrecking ball flew out of nowhere and smashed through our family. The devastation is severe and will be long lasting.

It’s taken a couple of days to get back to writing this post. And though there are likely more consequences of our wrecking ball to be revealed, we are at peace. Also incredibly grateful.

Grateful that as each of us learned the hard news, the first thing we did was call to God, “Help!” And he did. Many of those lessons and words and Scriptures he’d poured over me on Saturday and Sunday were just what was needed on Monday. Amazing.

Grateful that, as bad as the situation is, we all see it could have been much worse.

And I’m so grateful that God flooded us on Sunday knowing Monday was coming.

Silly, childish me, fearing that the God who answered my request so wondrously might drown me with blessing!

TREE in Fog POSTER - No Vision 2 crMy word for 2016 is vision. God certainly gave me a glimpse of life through his eyes. I aim to remember it as we walk through this dessert. I fall into “Be Thou My Vision.” Here’s a link to a lovely version.

Our words matter to God. I hope you can take encouragement from this experience of ours. I pray you see God’s flood of provision over you and your family. Please, let me know if you have a need I can pray for.