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Greater Love

Posted in Easter, GOD, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #easter, #greaterlove, #nogreaterlove, #selfsacrifice, #theloveofgod on March 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Who do you love?
a spouse? children? friend? parent?

Why do you love them?
how they make you feel?
what they have done for you?
they are yours?

To what extent would your love go for their benefit?
do things they like to do?
move to another city?
sacrifice time? money?

There is a story that always reminds me about the greatest gift of love:

There was a little girl who was suffering from a rare life threatening disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had somehow survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes, I’ll do it if it will save her.”

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?”.

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

That story always reminds me of the love of God, for us, his children. It is the love spoken of in John 15:13, which tells us, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

In Ellicott’s Commentary, on this verse, we read that, ” … the highest reach of love is the self-sacrifice which spares not life itself.”

If I think about it, I can imagine being willing to sacrifice my life for a handful of individuals … maybe a few more. I care for those people, have a relationship with them, seek the best for them and desire that they have future, a hope.

The thing is the love of Christ for us goes the next step further. God made this sacrifice because he cares for us, seeks the best for us, desires a future and hope for us. But, he made this sacrifice for those who have relationship with him, as well as those who have not chosen relationship with him … and his sacrifice was his own son.

It is the greatest love … there is no greater.

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The Return of the Blessing

Posted in FAMILY, GOD, WONDER, tagged #aaronicblessing, #andtheirchildren, #benediction, #elevationworship, #theblessing, #thelordblessyou, #thelordturnhisfacetowardyou, #thereturnoftheblessing on March 8, 2020| 4 Comments »

and guess what?

it never went anywhere

“The Lord bless you
and keep you
make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you his peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26

The blessing given by the Lord to Moses, saying: “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel” (v. 23). It is known as the Aaronic blessing and, although said to many people at one time, is believed to actually be received by each person as a personal blessing from God, himself (they are his words, after all).

This blessing has such meaning to our family.

It has been the blessing of dedication for each of our children (the one we, as parents whisper into the night), one that was a nightly lullaby when they were so very wee (above) and the benediction of blessing that hubby offered to congregations for so many years …

I cannot hear it, read it, without seeing him, in my mind’s eye, lifting hands and repeating this blessing to the “people of God” (POGs, as I would joke).

The thing is … it has become harder for me to hear, to receive, even to speak since that season of life came to an end.

Then I heard a new song (like only days old, kinda new … video below) that somehow helped me to hear and receive this blessing as, I believe, God wants us to hear it …

as a blessing, from God, spoken to Moses, for each of the children of Israel, but also for me … for you … right now, wherever we are.

There was something about this line:

the Lord turn his face toward you

The Lord turn his face toward you …

Remember, these are his words, so there is no mistaking them. He wants us to be blessed by his turning to us …

He, the God of creation, of this world and the one to come …

turns to us …

think about this …

think.

about.

this.

God is turning his face towards us.

Like a parent who looks into the face of their child to assure them that they are not alone, to remind them of how loved they are, to bond and attach to the one who is theirs …

This is part of the blessing.

Today our fab five family will reunite after almost six months apart … a fresh reuniting. And my momma heart will be receiving and sharing the blessing that has been here all along … just like a parent who ever turns their face to their child … the blessing … it never went anywhere.

“May His favor be upon you
and a thousand generations
and your family
and your children
and their children
and their children”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PRSFrXjivQ

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The Everyday Things

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #dontgiveup, #godspeaks, #igiveup, #listenforhisvoice, #theeverydaythings on March 5, 2020| 1 Comment »

As I read the words they stuck, momentarily, in my throat …

for I knew that I was not leading devotions, but being led into devotion.

I had chosen to share this story just the day before, no real conviction in my choosing … more like desperation for something that I thought would just do … without seeming like it would just do.

The day I read this hastily chosen story, I was in a funk.

I had no ‘treats’ (ok, sugary motivation) for the students to ‘sweeten’ my sharing of devotions with them. My tummy was terribly upset and I longed for a steeped tea. Then my drive to work took too long for me to stop for the tea I so desperately wanted. I reached work, only to find that conversations were already in process, so I couldn’t even have a moment to air my frustrations with the day.

Death by a thousand cuts.

So I began to read, feeling confident that the story would at least keep their attention … hoping that they would hear the hope that was written between the lines.

“Sometimes the best training for the really big things is just the everyday things.”

gulp.

Those words for me.

I knew it and I knew who placed them on the paper, who led me to them the day before, who led the classroom teacher to ask me to cover devos. this week. It was the same one who I have been groaning to for months … the same one who I had recently started to moan, “I give up.”

Don’t go sighing … don’t mentally, condescendingly pat me on the back … you’ve done it too … we have all done it.

We get frustrated waiting for the answer and we throw our hands (and our hopes) up in the air and declare it (whatever it might be) to be too hard, too frustrating, too much.

Then we have a choice …

walk away from the hard things, the unanswered things …

or …

do we dare listen, for that still small voice?

Here is what that still, small voice said to me, just the other day …

maybe, when you read it, there will be something that you read that gets stuck in your throat … and you will know, that this was here for you to read.

The story of Cliff Young,
as told by Ann Voskamp

The old cahoot ran in his boots.

Weren’t too many of anybody who believed he could.

How the old guy ran for 544 miles. His name was Cliff Young and he wasn’t
so much. He was 61 years old. He was a farmer.

Mr. Young showed up for the race in his Osh Kosh overalls and with his
workboots on, with galoshes over top. In case it rained.

He had no Nike sponsorship.

He had no wife – hadn’t had one ever. Lived with his mother.

Never ran in any kind of race before. Never ran a 5 mile race, or a half-marathon, not even a marathon.But here he was standing in his workboots at the starting line of an ultramarathon, the most gruelling marathon in the world, a 544 mile marathon.

Try wrapping your head around pounding the concrete with one foot after
another for 544 endless, stretching miles. They don’t measure races like
that in yards – -but in zip codes.

First thing Cliff did was take out his teeth. Said his false teeth rattled when he ran.

Said he grew up on a farm with sheep and no four wheelers, no horses, so
the only way to round up sheep was on the run. Sometimes the best
training for the really big things is just the everyday things.

That’s what Cliff said: “Whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go run and round up the sheep.” 2,000 head of sheep. 2,000 acres of land.
“Sometimes I’d have to run those sheep for two or three days. I can run this
race; it’s only two more days. Five days. I’ve run sheep for three.”

“Got any backers?” Reporters shoved their microphones around old Cliff
like a spike belt.

“No….” Cliff slipped his hands into his overall pockets.

“Then you can’t run.

Cliff looked down at his boots. Does man need backers or does a man
need to believe? What you believe is the biggest backer you’ll ever have.

The other runners, all under a buffed 30 years of age, they take off like
pumped shots from that starting line. And scruffy old Cliff staggers forward.
He doesn’t run. Shuffles, more like it. Straight back. Arms dangling. Feet
awkwardly shuffling along.

Cliff eats dust.

For 18 hours, the racers blow down the road, far down the road, and old
Cliff shuffles on behind.

Come the pitch black of night, the runners in their $400 ergonomic Nikes
and Adidas, lay down by the roadside, because that’s the plan to win an
ultra-marathon, to run 544 straight miles: 18 hours of running, 6 hours of
sleeping, rinse and repeat for 5 days, 6 days, 7 days.

The dark falls in. Runners sleep. Cameras get turned off. Reporters go to
bed.

And through the black night, one 61-year-old man far behind keeps
shuffling on.

Cliff Young runs on through the dark — because he didn’t know you were
supposed to stop.

The accepted way professional runners approached the race was to run 18
hours, sleep 6, for 7 days straight.

But Cliff Young didn’t know that. He didn’t know the accepted way. He only knew what he did regularly back home, the way he had always done it:

You run through the dark.

Turns out when Cliff Young said he gathered sheep around his farm for
three days, he meant he’d run across 2,000 acres of farmland for three
days straight without stopping or sleeping, without the dark ever stopping
him.

You gathered sheep by running through the dark.

So along the endless stretches of highway, a tiny shadow of an old man
shuffled along, one foot after another, right through the heat, right through
the night.

Cliff gained ground.

Cliff gained ground because he didn’t lose ground to the dark. Cliff gained
ground because he ran through the dark.

And somewhere at the outset of the night, Cliff Young in his overalls, he
shuffled passed the toned runners half his age. And by the morning light,
teethless Cliff Young who wasn’t young at all, he was a tiny shadow — far,
far ahead of the professional athletes.

For five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes straight, Cliff Young ran, never once stopping for the dark –

never stopping until the old sheep farmer crossed the finish line – First.

He crossed the finish line first. Beating aworld record. By two. whole. days.

The second place runner crossed the finish line 9 hours after old Cliff.

And when they handed old Cliff Young his $10,000 prize, he said he hadn’t
known there was a prize. Said he’d run for the wonder of it. Said that all the
other runners had worked hard too. So Cliff Young waited at the finish line
and handed each of the runners an equal share of the 10K.

While others run fast, you can just shuffle with perseverance. While others impress, you can simply press on. While others stop for the dark, you can run through the dark.

The race is won by those who keep running through the dark.

(I could not find the link, but you won’t regret checking out Ann Voskamp)

” … we know that … perseverance (produces) character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

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“Don’t Cry”

Posted in GOD, Grief, life, WONDER, tagged #dontcry, #grieving, #mourning on March 3, 2020| 3 Comments »

What would you think if you were crying and someone said to you, “don’t cry?”

Luke 7:11-13
Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.””

In this story of Jesus meeting up with a funeral procession, Jesus said to the mother, “don’t cry.”

It is so easy to simply focus on just those two words, but, there is more revealed in the story to give us understanding of what Jesus was thinking when he said those words.

Verse 13 says, “When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.””

Jesus was all God, all man. He could laugh, and cry. He could celebrate, and mourn (after all this was not the only person who Jesus raised from the dead. When he heard of Lazarus’ death, he wept, then raised a four-days dead man!). Jesus humanly understood the sorrow that the young man’s mother was suffering, and her suffering tugged at his human heart … as well as at his divine being. Maybe he not only saw, but also felt the heartache that the mother was feeling (Romans 12:15 “rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.”).

As ‘his heart went out to her,’ Jesus saw the heartbreak, the agony, the loss, and the hopelessness in the countenance of the widowed mother of a dead young man. Her son that was to be her only hope for a future in that society.

Jesus also knew that he, a son, was the only hope of a future for us. Perhaps the mourning that Jesus saw in that woman was a foreshadowing of what Jesus, the Son of God, would experience when he would be separated by death, from his Father.

Then he said, “young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” (v. 14-16)

And, as the people were all in awe that “God has come to help his people,” those same people knew nothing of the sorrow that He would bare in order to help them, in the very near future. But, He knew.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Anyone who believes in Me will live, even if he dies.
And those who live and believe in Me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
John 11:25-26

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Lenten Addition

Posted in Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #easter, #imitatejesus, #jesusprayer, #lent, #lentenaddition on March 1, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Lent, from a Latin word, meaning forty, can imitate Jesus forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert, as some celebrate lenten practise six days a week (not on Sundays) up to Thursday night celebration of the last supper (Maundy Thursday) and others do so every day straight through to Easter Sunday.

There is nothing magical or mandatory about the practise of Lent. It is, quite simply, an opportunity to prepare, focus and share in sacrifice as we await the season of Easter.

I practised lent a number of years ago, giving up cream in my coffee. It was such a little thing, but I missed it so much. Because morning coffee is how my day begins, I missed it … and, in missing something so regular, I was reminded daily of the (so much greater) sacrifice of Christ, for me.

This year I felt a tug to celebrate the lenten season again. This time, though, I did not feel compelled to give up, but take in.

A wise man, James R Dennis recently wrote, of lent,

“If all we do during Lent is give up chocolate, that’s not a Lenten discipline, that’s a diet. And that’s fine, but that’s not the life we’re called into. We are called during that Holy Season to abandon anything that gets between us and God, to lay down our burdens and begin again.” James R Dennis

ahhh … to begin again!

If giving up chocolate (or any other thing) is done so as a sacrifice that will bring us closer to God, that will remind us of his sacrifice, then do it. Let me tell you, I had no idea how important cream in my coffee was to me, until I gave it up for Lent. But I wanted something out of the lenten season that would not just remind me of his sacrifice, but also fill me with his life.

So, my lenten practise will be reading from the book of John, from the death of Lazarus, in chapter 11, to the prayers of Jesus (before his arrest), in chapter 17. I will read this passage every day, from my Bible, not a screen version. During the week preceding Easter weekend, I will then read John 18-20, from his arrest to the empty tomb. In addition to this, I have committed to speak what is called the Jesus Prayer or The Prayer (in the image) daily, to remind me that the mercy I have received has come, at great cost, from Christ.

How about you? I’d love to know if and how you include lenten practise in this season.

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Lament … it’s healthy

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #godcanhandleourlament, #lament, #lamentations, #lamentitshealthy, #sorrow on February 23, 2020| 2 Comments »

Ever cried in your pillow? How about punched something (a wall, a tree)? Ever stood in a forest and screamed at the top of your lungs? Or stared out the window, but your thoughts were so far away, you didn’t see anything? Ever sighed from a place so deep inside that you wondered if there was any air left in your body? Have you ever waved fists up in the air, while stating your sorrowful case before God?

Ever lamented?

lament … it is the feeling and/or expressing of regret or disappointment (Oxford dictionary). We all lament at some point.

I wrote this post eight years ago, though it originated from my experience, closer to fifteen years ago.

I was struggling to see, to dream even, how God might ever be able to penetrate into the heart of another. There was nothing within me, my vivid imagination, my belief in God’s redemption, that could give me hope for this person.

And so my soul began to groan in lament ...

I remember, ugly tears falling from my face, head shaking in disappointment and hopelessness when a song started reverberating through my memory.

How long O Lord ?

Though the Bible has ample examples of lamenting (the Psalms, Job, and, of course, Lamentations), it is not something that we often see, or do, in our churches. I am not sure that church is the place where lamenting should occur, but the absence of this practice (at church) could make people think that it is something that we should not do.

Often our Christian circles can be so … clean, happy, perfect …

UNREAL!

We are not living on the side of eternity, we are living lives in this temporal, sin-filled worlds, with sin-filled bodies and minds. We live lives of sorrow, disappointment, worry, sickness, heartbreak and agony. To live authentically does not mean we paste a smile on our faces and sing Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).

To lament is to pound our chests, and, with fountains falling from our faces, cry out,

“God, I hurt!”

“God, I don’t know where you are in this!”

“God, did you leave me? Because I feel so alone.”

“God, why did you allow my enemies to do this to me?”

“God, I am so lonely.”

“God, why did you …

forsake (abandon) me?”

David lamented.

Job lamented.

Jeremiah lamented.

Rachel lamented.

Jesus lamented.

To lament is to powerfully, passionately voice our sorrow, our agony. To lament is to pour out your heart. To lament is to be the most real we can be. To lament to to come to the end of our rope … resulting in the abdicating of power and ability to do it alone, anymore.

When we lament, we speak, we cry, we moan in the most pure and beautiful language to God’s ears. To lament is to be on our way to acknowledging that we cannot do it (life) without Him.

God can handle our laments … our God has broad shoulders, and he wants us to lay the weight of our world on them.

And so, this song, this Psalm (for the words of the song come from Psalm 13) has been playing in my mind again … not so much out of current lament, so much as a reminder of fifteen years ago, how I lamented from the deepest depths of my being …

and how I am now seeing God’s hand on what I had lamented as hopeless. He is giving “light to my eyes” as “I trust in his unfailing love.”

Lament will come again, perhaps just around the corner … but the one to whom I lament … his shoulders can carry the weight of our lament … he desires it from us.

Until then, even when the lament comes, I will remember that, “he has been good to me.“

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

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Wavering Faith

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged #godiswithyou, #lookup, #waveringfaith, #wheredoesmyhelpcomefrom on February 20, 2020| Leave a Comment »

The sun’s rise signals the start of a new day.

How I love to actually see it rise since we live in a place that sometimes called Raincouver, the Wet Coast or (more commonly, by me) the Monsoontown. For many months it takes faith (and hope) that the sun is actually rising … somewhere, up there.

Yet, when we get to this annual February repose from the Pacific Northwest winter doldrums our (wavering) faith is rewarded with glorious sunrises and sunsets, the daily growth of bulb plants emerging from the ground and even blossoms on the trees.

Wavering faith …

Like my mind and mood in the dark and damp winter months, our faith can sometimes waver. Perhaps it wavers due to the dark and damp months effects on our serotonin production. Perhaps it wavers due to external forces on our lives and loves that just do not make good sense. Perhaps it wavers due to hurts, so deep, that it could take a lifetime of mining to bring them to the light of day … the light of a sunrise.

To see the light of a sunrise only takes opening ones eyes, for the source of the light (the sun) radiates to wherever it touches. To steady faith that is wavering … that also takes looking to the source …

Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“Sorrow looks back;
worry looks around;
faith looks up.”

His quote fits well with Psalm 121. This Psalm/song to sing while travelling is known as a song of ascents. It is a song whose lyrics remind the traveller to trust in God during the journey … for he is not just at the destination, but God accompanies us throughout the trek, as well.

God is with us … in the mountains and in the valleys. He is with us when our faith is strong, but he is also with us when our faith is wavering. He does not move, he does not leave us alone. We need to look up.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

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The Lasting Expressions of Love

Posted in GOD, life, Love, WONDER, tagged #lastingexpressionsoflove, #lastinglove, #love, #theloveofgod, #valentinesday on February 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Cinnamon hearts, Hallmark cards, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, flowers priced double (triple) what they will be in a week … the consumable expressions of love in our society.

If they are consumable, they don’t last … so what are the lasting expressions of love?

I look at my ‘ring finger’ on which is my gold wedding ring sits. Though it is not my original wedding ring, it does symbolize the vows we took, the promises made thirty plus years ago.

If he were to die ahead of me (which is not my plan), it would provide a constant reminder of the love we shared for each other … it does that now while we are both still alive and well … well, most days.

The Bible speaks of an expression of love that lasts into eternity.

“Greater love has no one than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). This is a verse which tells of the expression of love from Jesus, through the willing sacrifice of his life on the cross. It is also the model of love for us all.

Jesus’ expression of love for us is the example of the Golden Rule,

“Do to others as you would have them do to you“ (Luke 6:31).

And we read it, and we quote it, and we post it on social media … like it’s easy!

It’s not easy!!

When Jesus went to the cross, as the ultimate and most everlasting expression of love he did so for ALL people!

He did so for :

his mother
his disciples
for the sweet church lady
for the child with special needs
for the man who gave wealth to care for the homeless

But he also gave his life for :

the Jewish leaders
Pontius Pilate
Adolf Hitler
the addict who just stole a purse to buy more drugs
the man convicted of child abuse

I struggle to even write that Jesus gave his life for … these people. For I struggle to see them as worthy of such love. And that is where the lesson of love rests, for me and you. The love of God is greater, goes farther, reaches lower all to reconcile, to pardon, to redeem the vilest of us all ..

me … with my hard heart (and matching hard head), my selfishness (opposed to his selflessness), my judgemental attitude.

God gave his life for me … even if I choose to not receive his gift of love, even if I choose to not be transformed by his love … he gave anyway.

The love of God is the greatest, most lasting expression of love.

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Four-Letter ‘F’ Word

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #fear, #lookforsolutions, #thefword, #youarenotalone on February 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

For many it rolls off their tongues as if they have been saying it since they uttered their first words, for others is only spoken in the safe confines of their minds … it’s the still voice … that is not so small.

Above all other words against humanity, I would rate this four-letter F-word the worst of them all … spoken verbally out loud, or (perhaps worst of all) lived, as though it’s four letters are the prison walls that surround the individual.

Fear

Fear is an emotion, caused by a threat … the thing is we can feel fear over what will occur, what may occur or even something that isn’t likely to occur. So, though fear is an emotion that can cause us to avoid danger, it can also cause us to avoid living.

We all have fears. For some it is creepy (or slithery) crawlies. For others it might be speaking in public, enclosed spaces (caves, elevators), needles, boating, flying or broccoli (or maybe that is just a preference … not mentioning any names).

Some of us have fears that are so debilitating that our fears have become phobias, meaning that our fears are so great that anxiety accompanies the fear, preventing us from doing things and going places that we would otherwise love.

Fear

Fear is sneaky too, for it disguises itself in other words … anxiety, uneasy, uncomfortable, overwhelming, weakness … words that send us to our knees.

… can that be so bad?

It is said that there are three hundred and sixty-five times in the Bible when the message,

do not fear

is delivered. I haven’t counted, but I do know that is a common biblical communication to us. It is a message that God has incorporated into his Word, from the Old Testament to the New, from cover to cover.

God knew that fear would come to us when sin entered the world, so he has been whispering, ever since Eden,

… do not fear, for I am with you

What if we acknowledged that whisper when the hairs on the back of our necks start to stand at attention? What if, we reach for a verse in the Bible (see below) and read it, memorize it, read it in the context of the chapter it is written. What if we give out energies over to the opposite of fear … God … instead of giving our full attention to that thing that has our knickers in a knot …

We are not alone in our fears.

May we all be encouraged (as in full of courage) to look for solutions to our fears … there is one and he is always with us, even to the end of the world.

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A Tale of Two Lives

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #ataleoftwolives, #notjustonepath, #tworoads, #walkingwithgod, #welldonegoodandfaithfulservant on February 6, 2020| 1 Comment »

As I talked to my friend, my heart ached, for they so desired an experience with God, such as Moses and his burning bush.

What this friend desires so much is a beautiful thing, a powerful thing, but God has his own way of interaction and intimacy with his children.

Maybe, as a parent, I understood this better than my friend (who has no children), simply because I know what it is, as a parent, to have similar yet different hopes, and successes, and lives for my three children, because I love my children equally, yet differently.

I could think of no words of wisdom that would penetrate that doubt-filled heart of my friend … then a story began to form in my imagination …

There were two brothers … twins who were so identical that if they were looking at each other they might mistake their brother for a reflection of themselves. Their identical physical appearance could make one imagine that they were alike in every way, but their only other similarity was how they each loved and wanted to worship their God their lives.

When they grew up to adulthood, they both went to Bible school, both determined to give the rest of their lives to serve their God. Initially both were headed to a life in public ministry, both studying theology, public speaking and ensuring that God’s desires for their lives came ahead of their own desires.

After graduating, the first born volunteered to do a two year mission, in a third world nation with great needs, including the needs for clean water, education and spiritual formation. His two years turned into four. During this time he helped raise money (from back home) for a well project to bring clean drinking water to the village, started a school and had converts to Christianity numbered in the hundreds.

When he returned home he was invited to work for an evangelism organization, sharing the Gospel message to people in some of the biggest cities in the world. He wrote books that became best sellers. Everyday there were messages of people who came to know the Lord through his spoken or written word.

Though he did desire to marry and have a family, he never wanted anyone or anything to come between he and his devotion to God’s plan to use him to spread the saving power of God. So he intentionally stayed single, never dating.

Many years later, after a brief illness, he died. At his funeral were dignitaries from around the globe, singing his praises for what he had done on the mission field throughout his life, both abroad in third world countries and in spreading the good news to millions around the world, many of whom accepted the gift of grace that God offers.

Meanwhile, in his final year of university, the second born met a woman, who also loved God. They enjoyed spending time together, love grew between them. They met each other’s families and married soon after graduation.

He had intended to join his brother on the mission field, but his new wife had recently been diagnosed with a chronic disease, requiring treatment that could not be given in a third world country. So, they settled in the town where they graduated, she a school teacher and he, working in the insurance company that her father owned. Over time they had two children and he moved up in the company, eventually taking it over.

They lived a good and happy life together, active in the lives of their children, their community and church. He volunteered in a homeless shelter, was a basketball coach in the local high school. He and his wife, personally, donated and raised the money needed to maintain the school that his brother had begun. He loved his life, his family and community and wouldn’t have traded it for anything, but … especially whenever his brother was in town, he wondered if he had sacrificed enough for God. His brother, who led so many to Christ, whereas he (with his wife) could only remember praying with their children, as they accepted God’s love at young ages.

After a brave battle with cancer, just weeks after his minutes-older brother, he too died. His funeral was in the country church where he and his lifelong love were married and attended. It was attended by family and friends, clients and co-workers, people he had coached in basketball, who had been neighbors.

When the two brothers reached heaven, they found each other, embraced and enjoyed the presence of the other. As they were chatting, Saint Peter approached. “Excuse me, someone told me that the two of you are identical twins. Is that true?”

The brothers looked at each other, one still a reflection of the other, amazed that anyone would have to ask. In unison they replied, “yes, we are twins.”

“You may find it an odd question, but here in heaven we do not see as humans do on Earth. Here, we see the heart, the soul that God created you to be. So, when twins arrive in heaven, we do not see how they are physically similar.”

The brothers pondered a moment, then the younger asked, “Saint Peter, could you tell me if I lived my life as God had created me to live?”

Saint Peter stared at the younger brother. Then he said, “wait here a moment” and disappeared.

Soon after Saint Peter returned, with God himself. “Hello boys, it is so good to see you both,” God said, arms outstretched, inviting the twins into his arms, as a father might do with young children.

As they embraced their Father-God, the Maker and Creator of all things, they felt something that was beyond words. It was love, and acceptance and approval and pride. They felt the very assurance that they had lived their lives in a way that way pleasing to God. Both brothers felt so good in that moment, they both felt they were receiving the pleasure of their God for having lived lives for him.

The younger brother, still somewhat uncertain, looked up at God and asked, “how is it that I could feel that you are as pleased with the life I offered to you as the life my brother offered? He was the one who never allowed himself to marry, to have a family. He was the one who spoke your name around the world, and to millions of people who gave their lives to you. How could my sacrifice be as good?”

God looked, from one brother to the other, smiling at what he could see … beyond the identical outer layer.

“The two of you have been born twice to me, once from your mother’s womb and I breathed the breath of life into your lungs. The second time was when you chose to accept my love and grace, receiving the redemption that only I can give.

I look at you and your brother and see that you both fulfilled the mission I placed in front of you. I do not see numbers of people, I see pure hearts, loving sons, men who each did their best. The two of you are my sons who I love, not for what you have done, but because you are my sons, because you have invited me to be in your lives.”

At this God paused, looking deep into the eyes of this younger twin, “you, my son, have been faithful with what I placed in your life … the people, the opportunities, the resources, the time. Well done, good and faithful servant! Now, come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:23)

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—”
Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken

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