Month: March 2022

Follow close

Over the last few years I have occasionally had a frustrating and threatening dream. It is always different but the theme is the same. I find myself in a dark unknown place trying to find my way. Usually I have one or all the kids with me, and I am trying to stumble through the dark and find safety.

It isn’t a dream that leaves me wondering. I know exactly what I am worried about when I wake. The world is so frightening and so out of control that I feel the weight of leading our family through the darkness. My dream is an outcropping of worries that often don’t even reach my conscious mind.

As I review this dream and think over my concerns, I remember that I am not responsible to be the one finding my way. I just have to keep my eye on the shepherd. I just have to feel His presence. I don’t have to know where I am going or where He leads. I do not need to fear. I must rely on Him.

John 8: 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Learning to give

When my kids were little, I had an epiphany. There were many moms that I knew who were skeptical of Christmas and over-giving to their children. It is an honest and reasonable concern. Our society is blessed with an abundance of ‘stuff.’ It can feel excessive. Particularly when comparing it to the poverty we see in other parts of the world. Many people I knew were giving gifts of donations to other causes, or even asking others to donate in their child’s name. I didn’t like this and I couldn’t put my finger on the reason why.

We never spent a lot at Christmas. Our financial situation always ensured that we were unable to ‘spoil’ our children. I did, however, get great joy in selecting gifts I thought they would enjoy. I planned ahead to make our small budget go as far as possible. Some years I couldn’t sleep on Christmas eve, I was so excited to see how they would react.

Our children were always excited and happy with their gifts. We shared great joy as a family. It was after one of these mornings that the reason I didn’t like the over reaction to our materialism. We need to learn the joy of receiving before we can learn the joy of giving. If I had not experienced the joy of a perfect gift, then I wouldn’t enjoy the act of giving to my own children. I never felt any guilt in wanting to make my children happy. And I certainly didn’t want them to feel bad because they received something they would enjoy.

Matthew 7: 11 – 12 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you,
for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

God goes with me

I had a hard week. It seems the older I get the more I resent the time change. I resent it in the fall, but it’s easier to take. In the spring it tosses my whole world around. This year was the worst. Likely because of the schedule I’m keeping, I felt it more this year.

All week I felt like I was typing with my fingers in the wrong space. oy yitmrd piy ;olr yjod/ – oops, there, now my fingers are in the right spot.

It can also feel like this when I forget that God is close to me. When I feel like I have to fight the battle on my own, I forget God is with me. Something is just not right. Everything is slightly off. Like a hungry tired child I can’t even figure out what is wrong.

Yesterday, I took several naps and had a really good night sleep. That seems to have fixed most of the issue I was having with the time change.

Today, I am reading my Bible – that should help remind me that I am not alone. Not ever!

Joshua 1:9 ” Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Walk humbly

What does it mean to be humble?

I saw a quote today, it went something like (I’m paraphrasing): Being humble is not about being as important as we can be, but trying to change the lives of others.

I have issues with this. First, no one ever at any time has ever described being humble as trying to be as important as you can be. That is the opposite of humility. Why that would factor into the description, is a mystery to me. Perhaps they were using it to explain by showing the opposite? If so, I still don’t get it. Trying to change the lives of others is not exactly the opposite of being important, nor is it humility.

Why do we think we can change others? Why do we think we should change others? Is this not arrogant in its motivation?

Perhaps humility is understanding that we can learn from others. Or maybe that others were also made in the image of God. Or even learning to love our enemies, simply because Jesus said to.

This quotation bothered me. Maybe if we stopped agitating for change and just served simply and honesty. Maybe if we acknowledge God’s supremacy, His holiness, His greatness, we might be struck by our own smallness and insignificance. Once we feel that, then we can grapple with the fact that He still loves us. That is the source of humility. That is the posture where we learn to be humble.

John 3: 16 – 18 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Pursue truth

These are confusing times. Nothing seems right. Families are fractured. Information abounds and so does pure propaganda. As Churchill said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”

What we are dealing with is a war of worldview. Issues of a worldly nature have occupied the part of our thinking that was devoted, in the past, to religious thinking. Theology has been supplanted by politics, philosophy, environmental and health concerns. When this happens it doesn’t elevate these issues to the status of the spiritual part of our minds, but rather it removes our measuring stick. We no longer have a moral compass by which to judge all other issues of life.

I see two reactions to this right now; rabid support of the new progressive thinking or violent reaction against. One pushes harder and faster. The other is looking wildly for answers.

We need to be careful. We need to step back from both sides and reclaim our measuring stick. READ YOUR BIBLE. Focus on the bible. Don’t tell the bible what to say. Don’t come to the bible to prove your side or disprove your enemy. Be open. Be humble before God. Recognize that truth lives outside you, that it is owned entirely by God.

Jeremiah 23: 16 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord.
They keep saying to those who despise me, ‘The Lord says: You will have peace.’
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say,
‘No harm will come to you.’
But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?
See, the storm of the Lord will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked. The anger of the Lord will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart.
In days to come you will understand it clearly.
I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.
“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away?
Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.

The wilderness

Moses ran to the wilderness. It was in this self-imposed exile that he prepared for his great work. He then led the people of Israel through the wilderness for many years on their journey to their promised land and the work of building a nation.

Elijah also prepared in the dessert for his great mission. After the great triumph over the prophets of Baal he ran back to the wilderness; afraid, alone and seeking comfort from God.

Even Nebuchadnezzar was sent out into the wilderness to live like a beast. Learning in his madness of his place before God.

John the baptist was a man of the fields. Living off of honey and locusts, staying in the wilderness and speaking to all that would seek him out.

Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness where he also prepared for the great work of his life. Fasting, praying and facing temptations, when he emerged he was fully ready to start the great work of returning God’s people to His care.

It feels to me like we are currently in the wilderness. I am not sure how long it will last, I am not sure what will happen next. Even the best guesses are at this point just guesses, time will tell what occurs next. But I do feel deep in my bones that we are being prepared for a great change.

We need to look at this wilderness and remember that we are being prepared for what comes next. Let us spend less time (and I’m looking squarely at myself here) worrying about what is to come, and focus on what we can gain and learn from this period. Accept the wilderness and grow. We need it to face tomorrow.