Have It All…
It’s been a long, hot summer – and not just here, and not just the weather.
Here the usual relief of afternoon downpours often haven’t happened. Then there’s the flooding in Louisiana – and we count our blessing of not too much.
There’s the earthquake in Italy – homes, businesses, loved ones – gone in an instant. And we count our blessing of sound ground.
It seems the dark-sky-rumble threatens somewhere everyday. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” (Matthew 24:7 NIV) (And tornadoes and storms and terrorists attacks, and and and)
But then there’s the bare flowerbed left alone because it’s too hot to bother. Suddenly green lacey leaves sprout. Overnight the barren becomes an oasis of waving yellow. Seeds dropped a season or two ago quietly nestled in the dark earth until just the right time.
And so it is with the fruit that pain sometimes brings. A need, a longing, a desire to know there is something bigger than our bank account, a roof over our heads, or any other so called security. And through the hard thing, faith grows.
Deep in our hearts is a knowing that this is not our home. That this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be. “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” (Hebrews 13:14 NLT)
In the mirror I glimpsed my deep smile lines and in that same moment turned to see the swelling of new life in a young mom. Life being knit together in the safety of the womb. And I’m reminded that a blessed life starts with smooth skin and ends with hard won crinkles where eyes smiled at the wonder of it all.
Rain or shine, bare fields or green harvest, youth or aging grace – we have it all.
All that the world tries to convince us we need cannot compare to what we already have. For if we’ve surrendered self and accepted true life, then it’s us who can tell the world “You are really missing out.”
Lived hard, loved deep, laughed loud – we can joy in this not because of the ease, but because of the struggle. It is in the hard stuff, we acknowledge our hope.
So the next time you hear ‘You can have it all’ – smile, knowing you already do. “From His abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.” (John 1:16 NLT)
Pineapple Bandits…
It happened again.
Most people don’t realize it takes two years (at least) from the time a pineapple top is planted till it flowers and grows a pineapple. I’ve grown a few, then last year a thief gnawed one clean off the stem and disappeared with it. I had waited one day too many.
That’s how it is with many areas of our lives. We keep waiting one more day to quit a bad habit, to offer forgiveness, to give to someone in need. Then one day we realize our rest has been stolen, our peace has disappeared, and we’ve missed out on true joy.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)
This year three (count them, three) pineapples decided to grow. One had about a month head start on the others. As I worked outside one morning I noted it was just about ready. Sure enough the next morning as I went out with knife in hand, the bandit had struck again. The evidence left was a gutted pineapple skin with only the core inside.
“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV)
Now is the time to write that letter, visit the shut-in neighbor, study His Word. None of us knows what tomorrow holds, how many days we have left, when it will be too late.
So what about my other two pineapples? No hesitation, the moment they looked ready, I cut them. Their fragrance and sweet juice were a delight. “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 NIV) Desires put there by Him to shine His light in this hurting world.
We have just this one wild and precious life to share what’s truly important: the good news of salvation and the great promise of eternity. Don’t wait…
InSight…
Spending time – the only sure way to truly know another soul.
Sometimes a brief chat on the phone lifts our spirits, but nothing replaces a good heart-to-heart, hours-long soul searching with someone you love and care about.
I’ve had the privilege to bare my soul and find loving acceptance – as well as to listen and give back that same acceptance. ‘Sweet’ describes the bonds made – and memories made – during these times.
The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense. (Proverbs 27:9 NLT)
And yet, as wonderful as these times shared with earthly friends and family may be – they don’t quite hit the mark. We sense something is left unsaid, unfinished.
Imagine how satisfying it was to Jesus’ followers to hear these sweet words as they journeyed through hard times with Him: You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. (John 15:15 NIV)
Everything – Jesus bared His soul. Everything those who follow need to know, He has revealed. And whenever we spend the time to bare our souls to Him, He tenderly and attentively hears. And He reminds us of the hope that is ours.
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. (Hebrews 6:19 NIV)
Through the curtain, a passing in, always welcome. Better than any spa day could ever be, for this sanctuary is always at hand. An inner sanctuary – a place of rest free from condemnation and full of acceptance.
We are precious in His sight. InSight, He keeps us always before Him. His counsel always satisfies. Let’s pass through the curtain daily for the insight we need…
Night Light…
Ever turn out the lights at one end of the house only to realize one isn’t on in the bedroom where you were headed?
Sometimes I try to just walk through the dark (slowly) and find my way – sometimes I flick back on the light and go turn on the one I need to guide me.
I know there are a lot of grateful children to the inventor of the ‘night light’. Just a little light to make the night a whole lot less scary. That’s what us grown-ups need when suddenly darkness seems to surround. Those night times of severe illness, financial woes, loss of a loved one. And now in this world, husbands/fathers who don’t come back home from work or children who vanish never to be found. The long list of dark is scary.
We need a night light: “Even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.” (Psalm 139:12 NIV)
God is perfect light and it is on His Light we can always depend. A storm may knock out the power to our homes. But even the most vile circumstance cannot overshadow the Light of our souls put there by the Holy Spirit. “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” (Psalm 27:1 NIV)
Even the night sky is lit up for us. The Father knows His children’s footsteps are tentative in the dark. So many references in the Bible to God lighting our way, bringing us into the light, putting His light in us.
Once I took a tour of a cave with a dimly lit path. The guide stopped us and turned off the lights. Total darkness. Eyes never adjusted. What a relief when she turned the lights back on. Total darkness – that’s where many lost souls are when those scary times come. For that very reason He has put His light in us. We can shine our light for others to make the path a bit more bearable, to make a way from the darkness.
This is our promise, words written a long time ago and still true today: “For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even to the end.” (Psalm 48:16 NIV) The Light that never flickers, never fails.
Partly Sunny…
I’ve decided the weather anchors shouldn’t say ‘partly cloudy’.
Why not partly sunny? Instead of chances of rain, what about the chances of sun?
It’s all how we look at it. The Father calls us to be light, to bring light to dark places. And, oh, there are many dark places in our world. Darkness tries to creep in to every life – and so we need to share our light, whether with our best friend or a total stranger.
Seeking the Light is a daily, sometimes minute by minute, quest. Darkness wants to overwhelm, discourage, convince us of partly cloudy and the storm. But the Light reminds us of unfailing love and our forever.
“You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.” (1Thessalonians 5:5 NIV)
I’m a morning person, as long as ‘morning’ has light. I do not consider 5am morning – it’s still dark. But once that light filters through the window, no alarm clock is necessary. I want to get up, go out back to see if there are new flowers, smell the early air, hear the twitter of birds.
The Light that awakens our souls is Jesus. Each day the Father rouses me with the Light of His Son. “For God, who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’.” (2Corinthians 4:6 NIV)
So how about we be weather anchors for God? When the storms threaten darkest is when the world most needs our forecast.
When my mom passed away, darkness was where my heart rested. As I drove away from the little town where she lived out her last few years, I turned on the radio. The song playing was called ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. Two of the lines are “Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind, It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day”. A Father who is in every detail gave a grief stricken daughter a forecast that this is not all there is.
Someday it will always be a bright, sunshiny day. God tells us that we are “a people belonging to God, that we may declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His wonderful light.” (1Peter 2:9 NIV) Today, I think I will declare that though now it’s partly sunny, someday Sonshine will be our everyday.
Big God – Small Us…
I love the movies where ants are the characters and even a blade of grass seems ten stories tall. Match boxes are houses, thimbles are boats, cats are ferocious beasts.
A whole new perspective. That’s us in the universe. Even our planet earth is minuscule. And us on earth? I’ve heard that our entire population could fit in the state of Texas – all seven billion of us. Might be a little cramped, but it gives us a picture of small us.
Know why newborns like being swaddled tight in a blanket, why dogs like their Thunder Jackets®? Because it gives them a sense of security, of not feeling small in such a big place.
Whether we admit it or not, our souls know how small we are. No amount of money keeps away old age, sickness, or broken relationships. No amount of power protects, assures continued control, or circumvents every circumstance. No amount of popularity will last indefinitely – fans are fickle and trends change. All we strive after – money, power, popularity – vanish without notice.
But we have One who is greater than all things, and small us can rest in the only Big God. We cannot control the weather, the terrorists, the economy. But He does. No hurricane is a surprise, no terrorist attack catches Him off guard, no downturn in the stock market makes Him wonder if there will be enough.
These things have to happen. In our fallen world there is trouble. But the Holy Spirit inside us is our Thunder Jacket® – helping us feel secure. He reminds us that in this big world, spinning through the infinite universe, we are held tight. Psalm 139 NIV says: “Where can I go from Your Spirit?…If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast.” (verses 7a, 9-10)
This is why in the midst of whatever life brings our way, we have hope. The Holy Spirit residing in our hearts assures us of God’s constant presence and reminds us of the eternity that awaits us – our hope surrounds us. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5 NIV)
This is our Eternal Perspective: “With brave hope we look ahead — to the One who has our heart…” (Ann Voskamp)
Whispers Are Louder…
When my daughter was little and had something really important to tell me she would climb up beside me, move my hair, and whisper her news. Whisper moments were precious and I listened carefully.
I’ve noticed in a crowd it’s not the noisy conversations that get my attention, it’s seeing someone whisper in their friend’s ear.
In our noisy world do you ever feel like your voice doesn’t matter?
It matters to One, He’s always listening to you. Take a look at Psalm 139 (NIV). Notice verse four says “Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.” He is so tuned in to you that He knows your thoughts even before you do. And what’s on your heart matters – to Him.
Ever feel that you are trying to hear what’s important, but keep missing it?
We fall for what the world tells us will make us happy, what the world says will make troubles go away, what the world says will make everyone like us. So noisy is the clamor of the world that it is easy to miss hearing what’s important. Our hearts sense it – that still, quiet voice calling to our soul: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise…Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4: 8, 9b NLT)
We can choose to: a. listen to all the noise of this world or b. seek out all the treasures of what God says.
Choose ‘b’ ! Spend five quiet minutes of your morning before the clamor starts. Whisper your heart to a God so near. When the news shows the dishonorable, look for what is honorable. When confronted with wrong and false, remember what is right and pure. When faced with the unlovely, don’t look away, remember His promise to restore beauty. When you witness shameful acts, pray for the admirable to shine in lost hearts. He’s calling us to always seek the excellent and the praiseworthy, because what is darkness now He can redeem to brilliant light.
Most of all fix your thoughts on what is true – the love of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice of the author of life, this is true.
In those quiet moments He is able to move our hearts, turn our attention, and bring us peace. His whispers are louder.
And…the Brave
For a four year old the shallow end of the pool is safe, but the deep end, forget it.
The shallow end is where we want our lives to be – safe, familiar, nothing we can’t handle. In this life, before we know it, something tosses us into the deep end and we come up crying out – Help!
While the four year old will eventually learn to swim and enjoy cannon balling off the side, rare is the person who welcomes life’s trials. Yet there is purpose in everything – and all those times we have to fight like crazy to come up for air, to reach the side so we can hang on – they develop in us real faith.
Not the faith that says ‘Sure, I believe in God. A loving God would never let __________ happen (you fill in the blank).’
But the kind of faith that says ‘Yes, I believe in God, whatever happens He will be right there with me.’ This kind of faith not only helps the believer through those deep end times, but those who are watching from the shallow end will want to know the source of that bravery.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8 NIV) A gift from God – on our own we will cling to the wall in the shallow end never wanting to increase our faith in Him. But life has a way of either increasing our faith as we trust Him, or proving we never believed Him in the first place.
I spent over a year writing Living Braver – I learned it’s not so much about overcoming fear (unfortunately fear is right here with us) – it’s about being willing to take one brave step at a time with God and learning He truly does see us through. I don’t like the challenges and heartaches anymore than the next person, but I want to come through them not just gasping for air. I want to pull up out of the side of the pool and have a heart full of trust.
The home of the brave is in the arms of Jesus. Our home is not here, this is our temporary place. We love it, we live it, we wrestle with it, it ends. But for the believer, the brave soul being carried by Jesus, the end here is the beginning of forever.
Charles Spurgeon said: “Little faith will take your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.” Our faith is made great during the trials of life producing in us a joy that’s hard to express but that everyone can see. For this is not all there is and our soul rejoices in heaven now and forever…
Of the Free…
Freedom? An ideal, a wish, a reality?
It is hard in a world bent on pleasing self to find true freedom. Whether under a tyrannical government or being a citizen of a country like America, if we define freedom by human reasoning or ideals then that freedom could be fleeting.
But there is lasting freedom.
Jesus tells all who hold to His teaching “Then you will know the truth, and truth will set you free…So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:32, 36 NIV)
Man’s laws, constitutions, leaders, rules, courts are not where freedom is found or lost. We can be locked away in a cell and be freer than the millionaire in his high rise office. It is said freedom comes at great cost. How true that statement. Our freedom cost Jesus His life, God His Son. But oh what freedom we have.
“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” (Psalm 119:45 NIV) Many see ‘religion’ as the ultimate loss of freedom – I couldn’t agree more. Religion is manmade and full of fallible do’s and don’ts. But God didn’t call us to religion. He called us to follow.
Following Christ leads to us ‘walking about’ in freedom. It is freeing to know that whatever hardships we may have in this life, someday is waiting where hardships don’t exist. It is freeing to know that though we may struggle here, someday we shall be in want no more.
Someday – the ultimate hope of every follower of Jesus. Hope that does not disappoint, hope that sets us free. Free from selfish ways that lead to the detriment of others, from selfish ways that ultimately wind up being our demise. Free to find joy here in the midst of the worst storm, free to spread love even to our enemies.
Others will counter that God’s Word is full of commands, how is that freedom? Yet it’s the perfection of His ways that are our freedom. In choosing not to lie or steal I am free from guilt. In choosing not to commit adultery I am free from the anguish of wounding another.
“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” (Psalm 119:32 NIV) Will we live perfectly? Not in this lifetime, but when we run in the path of His commands there is freedom for our souls for we are choosing to truly live in the land of the free.
***If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at Encouragement Cafe, WELCOME! So glad you are here!***
Passing It On…
Filled, overflowing – do you ever feel ‘filled up’ – the satisfying kind?
Like when the skies are blue, no one is in crisis, and you sigh contentedly? That’s my moment right now. We all know in this world that ‘feeling’ can change in the blink of an eye.
But will we embrace those moments no matter how fleeting? Lifting eyes to God to thank Him. Letting smiles lead the way, for now. Knowing that someday it will always be like that. Making note of all that is good, and choosing to, ever so briefly, push back the bad. To glimpse our forever in the presence of Jesus.
This is not just for us, this is to be passed on.
“Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:13 NIV) Maybe our Lord had more in mind as he prompted Paul to share those words. We may take ‘need’ to mean food, clothing, money. But what is our real need?
To know Him more and more. “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,” (Colossians 1:10 NIV)
To trust Him more and more. “…being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience,” (Colossians 1:11 NIV)
To live for Him more and more. “…and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:12 NIV)
To let our joy show on the outside can speak volumes to a longing soul. Rejoicing in the knowledge that when all is not smiles, it will be someday. Passing this knowledge on can fill the need of a deep hurt.
Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament, started almost every letter with some form of “grace and peace to you” – this in the midst of persecution from those who once embraced him, in the midst of a physical ailment, in midst of being in jail, and many other trials. He passed on what was most important: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1Corinthians 15:3b-4 NIV)
Pass it on…
***If you stopped by because you read my devotion today over at Encouragement Cafe, WELCOME! So glad you are here!***
parisrenae 