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Be Strong and Courageous

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #dohardthings, #pushthroughthehardstuff on August 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I am inspired by those who do the things that many of us would shrink away from.

The other day I wrote about doing the hard things here. After it published the emails and pm’s and dm’s started to roll in with the same message :

“I think you wrote that for me because …”

I am thrilled that my wordy hobby might be used for a greater purpose, in other’s lives.

These communications I received … they were from people who shared such inspiring stories of doing the hard things … and so, I just couldn’t end the topic there.

The person going back to school, part time, knows this will open opportunities … even though it is going to be hard.

The one who is struggling with moving beyond a weight loss plateau knows that they will enjoy more energy … even though it is going to be hard.

The one who is struggling with anxiety knows that going out with friends will be fun … even though it is going to be hard.

The one who is returning to work after many years, knows that they will benefit from earning money and learning on the job … even though it is going to be hard.

The one who is sending her first born off to university, knows that the education and experiences for her child will be amazing … even though it is going to be hard.

The ones who are struggling in their marriage, know that counselling will help them figure their way through their struggles … even though it is going to be hard.

In my years working in special education, I have seen so many who do hard things. For those with special needs, doing hard things is an everyday exercise. Learning to sit quietly in a classroom or to not eat except during breaks are common hard things for these students. Then there are those who have to do the hard things like not give in to their obsessions or compulsions.

This summer I began volunteering, weekly, for an organization that I have admired. I knew that I would have to be the one to make efforts to get to know people. I knew it was going to be hard … and it was. My first day, I knew no one nor their ways of doing things. After each week I would say, “it was hard … but it’ll get better” … and it has. It would have been SO easy to quit after the first day … but I had to persevere, because I need to do what is hard.

We all need to do what is hard in our lives. There is mutual understanding in that reality. But we never set out to do such things on our own. God goes with us, wherever we go, whatever we do.

“Be strong and courageous;
do not be frightened or dismayed,
for the Lord your God is with you
wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:9

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Do the Hard Things

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #donotfear, #dothehardthings, #strengthandcourage on August 27, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The fiftieth anniversary of the lunar landing was just last month. Before it happened, it was viewed by many as impossible, too risky, too costly, too hard.

On June 6 of this year was the seventy-fifth anniversary of the D-Day landings, a sacrifice that is still known as the beginning of the end of WW2.

This November will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a tumbling by ordinary citizens of the Cold War and communism.

These are examples of efforts that were hard, risky or costly that resulted in a “giant leap for mankind.”

Doing the hard things is … hard. It takes perseverance, determination, time, risk, and effort. It makes us uncomfortable, nervous, sweat and our hearts race.

It is easier to just stay where it is safe, easy and predictable.

“An individual develops courage by doing courageous acts” — Aristotle

Many of us have prayed for patience, only to learn that there is only one way to attain patience … by being in situations where we must be patient.

It is the same for developing our strength or courage … to attain such we must be in situations that require us to do what is uncomfortable, even fearful, or hard.

The more often we do the things in life that are hard, the stronger we become.

“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Some of us will say, I cannot do those hard things, because they make me anxious, and I struggle with anxiety. And sometimes, we need to take a break and fill our cup before we can dip our toes in the water.

But, to attempt to do something hard, even in a small way, can create an amazing sense of encouragement and strength, to the one who is anxious.

According to neuroscientist, Philippe Goldin, “Exposure is hands down the most successful way to deal with phobias, anxiety disorders, and everyday fears of any sort. Simply repeatedly exposing ourselves to the thing we’re afraid of — ideally in a positive way — gradually brings down the physiologic fear response until it’s gone, or at least manageable.”

Baby steps are still moving away from where we are to a new location.

We all face opportunities in our lives to do hard things. For some of us it is a new job or career, for others it is returning to study, for others it is saying no, or getting on a plane, or picking up the phone, or telling someone you love them, or … walking out your door.

Let’s do the hard things, at least one hard thing each day … one small step for man.

“For I am the LORD, your God,
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you,
Do not fear; I will help you.”
Isaiah 41:13

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The Dimming Light

Posted in life, Nature/Creation, WONDER, tagged #lettherebelight, #thedimminglight on August 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I saw it, knew it was happening for real, just last week as I was driving home in the early evening.

Summer is fading.

Of course it has been fading since it’s first day in June, but now it is not just the lessening of evening light, but also how the leaves on the trees are looking tired, spent of their life … the sky looks like it’s deep summer blue is fading in the sun … the summer flowers slowing in their budding.

My heart feels heavy as I see these annual changes, heralding the end of summer, the beginning of autumn. I do so love autumn, with it’s cool nights and warm days, it’s colored trees and harvest moon. I love the celebrations in our family of birthdays and anniversaries. I love the renewal of schedules, the opportunities of re-starts and the new experiences to come for those I love.

Yet … my heart feels heavy …

It’s the light, the reduction of light that makes me feel the seasons change … just like I feel them (in a more positive ‘light’) when winter is being traded for spring and the light is increasing, winning the hearts of all who it touches. This is the reality when one is solar powered … and aren’t we all solar powered?

“Let there be light”

The first words of God that are recorded, give us insight into the importance of light, as it was also the first thing God created.

This light is not just the light of the skies, but also the light of the Holy Spirit, living within us. When we say yes to Christ, God gives the command to “let there be light” in our sin-darkened souls, and we illuminate his light to the world.

That is not a light that dims … no matter the season.

“May it be a light to you in dark places,
when all other lights go out.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

“The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:5

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Let the Dust Fall

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #dustoflastweek, #letthedustfall, #praisenotpleading on August 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

How will we enter this new week? Are you sliding into it? wandering? hesitant? excited? fearful? reluctant?

In the last couple of weeks I have heard many stories, from many individuals. Stories of struggles with the church, health, finances, marriages, children, loneliness, anxiety and apathy.

The weight of those stories, heavy. They are stories without easy answers that can be attained and tied up with a bow. They are stories that can leave us exhausted, immobile, frozen from fear.

But this is a new week. A fresh start. What will we take into this week? What will we bring into this day, this new week that might mar what it’s freshness has to offer?

We enter into the new with the dust of the old.

What is the dust we are carrying into this clean new week? Have our worries and our sorrows left us singing a dirge? Are we starting the week with prayers of pleading, prayers of need and desperation?

I have started too many weeks this way. I have forgotten that my every fresh start should begin, not with pleading, but praising. I need to start afresh with thanks for his sacrifice, for his incomparable love for me.

If anyone is worthy of praise and thanksgiving, it is the resurrected Christ. We need to start our week with what God has done through Jesus, in mind. We may feel like very brittle, breakable, clay jars but within us we carry the power of the Spirit of God.

Let us begin this week praising God, allowing the dust of last week to fall from us.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our (light and momentary)* troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

light and momentary* (troubles)
This definition of our troubles is not a statement due to lack of sensitivity, but of eternal perspective. It could be referenced to statements of how short our lives are on this earth, such as you are but a vapor (James 4:14).

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Master Planner

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #controlfreak, #godisincontrol, #masterplanner on August 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Anyone else out there like to make plans?

I don’t just like to make plans, I like to construct plans that are made in consideration of anything that could go wrong or alter the outcomes from how I envision them. My plans are on my timeline where words like wait and patience are banned.

When I think of my planning and of what the Bible teaches, my mind goes to Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Sometimes it is assuring to me that God is a planner, just like myself.

But, God’s plans are not always that same as mine, nor is his timeline.

Unlike myself, who plans while squinting into the foggy future, God has wide eyed sight of the end from beginning, and everything in between.

Proverbs 19:21 is an even better (in my estimation) biblical representation of how I need to think about my planning for the future,

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.”

The Pulpit Commentary gives a great understanding of what is being said in that verse:

“The immutability (unchanging) of the counsel of God is contrasted with the shifting, fluctuating purposes of man ”

Whereas my planning is temporal, God’s is eternal.

It is not that I/we should not make plans, but that we acknowledge, in our planning, that God needs to not just be involved and consulted in our planning, but also that we ensure that we acknowledge that he is in control … for he truly is.

“As children bring their broken toys
With tears for us to mend.
I brought my broken dreams to God
Because He was my Friend.

But then instead of leaving Him
In peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help
With ways that were my own.

At last I snatched them back and cried,
“How could You be so slow”-
“My child,” He said,
“What could I do? You never did let go.”

(author could be
Loretta P Burns, Robert J. Burdette
or anonymous)

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In the Details

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #inthedetails, #thekingdom, #thekingdomofgod on August 11, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I have been writing a story, a book, this summer. It is something I started years ago and I am finally taking the time to clear it out of my head. To be honest it is also a personal challenge for me, as it requires self control and commitment.

As I have never written a long story (or book), this is new ground for me to wander along. I have been surprised at how productive I have been and how much has been written (now just over two hundred pages) and how I have been quite consistent in writing every day … until this week.

All of a sudden I have been dragging my butt to the sit at the table with my computer. All of a sudden I sit at the computer and stare (and surf through social media). I can’t even say it is due to a writer’s block, because I know exactly where I am going with the story. My problem is …

I want to get
to the end of the story

I know what will occur in the lives of the characters who I have gotten to know so well. I feel like they are friends, a part of me … and I just want to get them to the end.

As I sat, staring at the computer screen the other day, I realized how that describes me and my approach to life so often.

I love living forward, looking to the next event, the next vacation. I also love to look at the end of life and my hope of eternity. The eternity that is spoken of in Revelation (21:3-4):

“They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain,for the old order of things has passed away.”

There is even more that I look forward to in living this life.

I look forward to seeing the pieces of broken lives come together. Like a happily ever after story, I look forward to resolution to their pain, their loneliness, their suffering. I look forward to their happily ever after.

I dream of the day when loved ones are healthy, thriving and walking with God.

I dream of the days of the kingdom of God …

But …

Like a story in a book, that is not just about the beginning and the end, but the minute details of the process of moving from beginning to end, so it is with our lives.

Psalm 37:23 tells us that “God delights in every detail of our lives.” He is not rushing to the happy ending when he looks at us in the midst of our messy lives, he is in the details, in the minutia of our daily living. He is here, now.

“The kingdom of God doesn’t come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, ‘Look here!’ or, ‘There it is!’ And why? Because God’s kingdom is already among you.” Luke 17:20-21

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The Sweet Life

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #donttakelifeforgranted, #takealookatyourlife, #thesweetlife on August 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Have you ever tried really sour candies? You know, the kind that makes your tongue roll back in your mouth and your lips pucker and your eyes squint. After having such a rude sour experience, tasting something sweet seems even more sweet, more enjoyable.

In Italian the sweet life is translated, la dolce vita. In contrast the sour life is translated la vita acida. Those translations make sense as I say them, for acida sounds so … acidic.

Contrasts such as sour and sweet make me think of the book of Ecclesiastes.

Recently, while on vacation, I sought out the following verse from Ecclesiastes, as it’s meaning kept echoing throughout our time away:

“On a good day, enjoy yourself;
On a bad day, examine your conscience.
God arranges for both kinds of days
So that we won’t take anything for granted.”
Ecclesiastes 7:14 MSG

Our vacation was day, after day, after day of good days. We heard good speakers, ate delicious foods, saw beautiful sights, walked in the sun and on the sand, caught up on the lives of friends, rested, laughed frequently, planned, dreamed and simply loved each other. It was pure delight.

It is a place we visit annually … but every year is not equally good.

Some years there are things that hinder the good of the day(s). Maybe we were particularly tired, or preoccupied, or ill, or not one with each other in a multitude of ways. Those are the the bad days.

I much prefer the good to the bad days. They simply feel so … good.

One reason that they feel so good is that I also know what it is to have bad days. Those days when we just do not connect, when our joy is drowned out by the dark and twisties of real, human life. When the beauty and blessing around us is shadowed by the other, darker side of human existence.

I love the reminder that Solomon gives us that “on a good day, enjoy yourself.” There is nothing said about feeling guilty when good comes our way, no condemnation for a day of blessings … just the instruction to experience it, for what it is … good … sweet! When la dolce vita is your experience of the day (or season) take joy in it!

Just a chapter later, seems to be affirmation of enjoying the sweet life:

“a man hath no better thing under the sun,
than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry”
(Ecclesiastes 8:15)

The line that follows intrigues me in that it contrasts the sweet life, with a bit of acid, “on a bad day, examine your conscience.” In this translation, examine is often replaced with consider, but in the Hebrew the verb is raah (pronounced raw-aw) and it means to see. So another way to read this line might be “on a bad day, take a look at your life.”

When things are bad, it can be a season to reflect on where our priorities are and a chance to rely on the faithfulness of God, in bad times of the past. We often learn and grow during sour times.

I hear Job (2:10) asking “”shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

There is a harmony that is given when we experience both the sweet and sour, the good and bad. The good gives us energy for the bad, the bad gives us joy in the good. Having the experience of both reminds us to not take the good days for granted, but to be thankful for the times when life is sweet.

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Laverne, The Theologian

Posted in life, Walking with God, tagged #cantstaycoopeduphere, #gointoalltheworld, #lavernethetheologian, #sanctuary, #thegreatcommission on August 1, 2019| 2 Comments »

One of my favorite theologian’s name is Laverne.

She is female, I think. I do not know her age. I presume her to be Catholic. She is wise, and funny, and sarcastic (oh, how I do love sarcasm). She is not human. She is not even alive. She, my favorite theologian, is Laverne, one of the three gargoyles from the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (and the only one whose voice comes from a female).

Some of the things that she taught me are :

“… take it from an old spectator. Life’s not a spectator sport. If watchin’ is all you’re gonna do, then you’re gonna watch your life go by without ya.”

“these (physical) chains aren’t what’s holding you back”

“We just thought maybe you were made of somethin’ stronger.”

“Fly, my pretties! Fly, fly!”

But my favorite teaching from Laverne the theologian was, “nobody wants to stay cooped up here forever.” She says this to the bell ringer, Quasimodo, who had spent his life being ‘safe’ in his cathedral tower. Inside the walls of the church he had all he needed. He had friends (the gargoyles), he had food, and clothes, and … sanctuary. He was protected from the evils outside of the walls of Notre Dame.

But, was he living? Was he fulfilling his purpose?

It was not until Quasimodo left the sanctuary of his bell tower that he could taste and see what life among the living was like. It was in learning to risk, and love and lose that he learned that he had something to bring to the world, beyond the safety of his church walls.

For me, this lesson is one that I want to hold on to. I too enjoy the sanctuary of my church. But, it is in my leaving this place of sanctuary, that I bring what I have, in Christ, to the world. If I stay ‘cooped up (at church) here forever’ I then am not allowing God to use me, as his vessel through which he might speak to those yet to choose life with him.

When we, who profess the Christian faith, surround ourselves with only those who share our belief system, we have forgotten the words of Jesus:

“And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” Mark 16:15

This is the great commission, this is our commissioning, from Jesus, to take his word, his light into the world … it is why we are here, our purpose.

So, I challenge those of you (and me) who find sanctuar

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Laverne, the Theologian

Posted in GOD, life, WONDER, tagged Go Into All The World, Laverne, Life, Risk, Safe, Sanctuary, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Theologian, You Can't Stay Cooped Up Here Forever on August 1, 2019| 2 Comments »

One of my favorite theologian’s name is Laverne.

Some of the things that she taught me are :

“… take it from an old spectator. Life’s not a spectator sport. If watchin’ is all you’re gonna do, then you’re gonna watch your life go by without ya.”

“these (physical) chains aren’t what’s holding you back”

“We just thought maybe you were made of somethin’ stronger.”

“Fly, my pretties! Fly, fly!”

But, was he living? Was he fulfilling his purpose?

When we, who profess the Christian faith, surround ourselves with only those who share our belief system, we have forgotten the words of Jesus:

“And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” Mark 16:15

This is the great commission, this is our commissioning, from Jesus, to take his word, his light into the world … it is why we are here, our purpose.

So, I challenge those of you (and me) who find sanctuary in the walls of your cathedral, we can’t stay cooped up there forever.

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It’s a Beautiful Morning

Posted in life, Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #anewday, #restforthenewday on July 30, 2019| 7 Comments »

I haven’t met many mornings that I didn’t immediately love.

I love the excitement of the sun rising, of a fresh new day (with no mistakes in it, as Anne of Green Gables would say), the fresh energy that courses through my body and the reminder of walking with God in the very beginning.

In Proverbs (8:17), we are told:

“I love them that love me:
and they that in the morning early watch for me,
shall find me.”

As my day begins, I am eager to connect with God.

For hubby … not so much, or, more specifically, not so early.

I am pretty certain that hubby has never and will never see God early on any morning. Just a few days ago, as we were listening to a speaker, he reminded us of another Proverb (27:14):

“A loud and cheerful greeting
early in the morning
will be taken as a curse!”

Hubby heard it too and raised his eyebrows at me … I think I am going to be hearing this verse quite a bit.

As we have been vacationing at the coast, going to sleep and awaking each day to the sounds of the surf and the seagulls, my love of mornings has reached new heights. I simply cannot wait to peek through the blinds to see the waves crashing against the sandy shore. Each morning here I rise with the song it’s A Beautiful Morning playing in my brain.

The aesthetic beauty here is awe inspiring and it provides ample opportunity for creativity, renewal and rejuvenation.

But it is that morning glow … of my soul, that awakens a part of me beyond the typical dawn. This is a benefit that comes from experiencing summer sabbath rest, away, in the midst of beauty, and solid teaching, and good friends, and good food. It is like having the freshness of a new day, on steroids.

The other day someone reminded me of something from the creation account, that I had not thought of, before. Adam and Eve were the end of God’s creation week activities, truly they/we are his pièce de résistance … his greatest work. The day following that human creation was the day of rest, the sabbath.

Before Adam and Eve had to work, they rested. Imagine how spectacular their first morning, after their sabbath, felt for them! It made me realize we do not rest to get over our day, but we rest, in preparation for the new day.

“It’s a beautiful morning
I think I’ll just go outside for awhile
And smile”

“Every morning
he makes me eager
to hear what he is going to teach me.”
Isaiah 50:4

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