Category: Walk with God

Seeking a path forward

I’ve had a lot of adjusting to do lately. The night my husband had a stroke everything changed. Our financial situation changed, the dynamic in our family changed, and even my husband’s personality changed.

We joke about it because you may as well laugh when you can. I tell him I feel like I’m living in a bad soap opera and I woke up married to his evil twin. He insists that he’s new and improved! Either way it’s an adjustment.

Every day has been uncertain. A year and a half of putting one foot in front of the other and unable to see where we are going. This has been a struggle. We are doing our best to adapt, but it isn’t easy to say the least.

When I was a child we hiked a lot as a family. There is a particular feeling that comes when you’ve been walking through the bush, only able to see a short way in front and keeping your eye focused on the path and suddenly the trees thin out and you find yourself in an open space. An alpine meadow with vistas that take your breath away. One moment you can only see the tangles of trees and shrubs, the next you are awestruck by the broadness and majesty of the view.

This is where my hope lies. I hope that if I just keep walking at some point the brush will thin out and I’ll have a view that takes my breath away. The reality is this may not come in this life, but whether God reveals his hand to me now or later this is my hope.

The path can be so convoluted and hard to find. Good thing Jesus told us what to do. We don’t need to find the path or our way forward. We need to focus on him. The rest is just noise. I need to keep my eyes fixed on Him and pursue Him.

Matthew 6: 31-33 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Consider the sparrows

I love to watch shows about disasters. One series I recently watched dealt with plane disasters. Grim subject I know, but my interest is in the investigation after. It fascinates me to watch the team as they try to find the problem that caused the accident.

One episode dealt with a plane that burst into flames after landing. They discovered a piece of the wing had dislodged and punctured a gas tank (don’t question my technical knowledge here – cause I know nothing about planes and how they are built). At the end of a long and convoluted investigation they found that a bolt was missing a tiny washer. This washer kept the bolt, which had been designed too small, from falling through and allowing the piece to dislodge.

One seemingly insignificant washer caused an airplane to burst into flames and claim the lives of those who were unable to get off in time.

Sometimes I feel insignificant. I feel as though my voice is a drop in the ocean. I’ve done nothing of interest, nothing of value. This is the way I measure myself when I’m indulging in self-pity.

But maybe I’m that tiny washer. Maybe I can’t see the bigger picture and the part I play. I just need to trust God and trust his plan and believe that he understands and knows what I can’t see. It is enough for me to do my little part and accept that a designer and creator is managing the whole show.

Maybe you are a washer too?

Luke 12: 6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of
them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

An example of faith

Daniel has been one of my favourite books of the Bible for years. It has all the elements of the great Bible stories, but even more so. For example, Joseph gets framed and falsely accused, and ends up wasting away in jail. But in the book of Daniel jealous elements of the court conspire to frame Daniel, and he gets thrown in a den of lions. No sissy prison for these rulers. Daniel’s friends get thrown in a fiery furnace! These guys ain’t messing around.

To a kid who loved the action of the Old Testament, Daniel is a great book. It combined visual descriptions of dreams and stories with extreme events. As a child this was pure gold!

As an adult, I love the story of the hand writing on the wall. It again is such a visual story. But now I not only react to the imagery but the also to the impact of its meaning. Belshazzar is hosting a banquet and in an act of arrogance he demands to have the spoils from their Jewish conquest, the temple goblets, brought to him. They drink from these and praise their own gods and goddess. It is an act of supremacy over the Jewish people and their God. A hand then appears out of nowhere and writes on the wall. He calls for his wise men to come interpret the writing. They all fail so Daniel is brought in to decipher the meaning.

Daniel 5: 25-30 “This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN “Here is what these words mean:
Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.
Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain
was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in
the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,
and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

The idea I like most is the idea of an external judgement. The visual representation of a truth that is separate and beyond the powerful. The reality that the ruler by which we are measured is not held by men, or by the authorities of the day.

The events of our world lately have many people on edge. It can be easy to feel helpless and small in the currents of world affairs. And yet, the scriptures offer a different view. We like Daniel can cling to what we believe to be true. We can hold the line as individuals. This may come with hardship and suffering, but we are fighting for the stronger side. We do not need to feel like victims. We serve the All Mighty.

Kings came and went, but Daniel remained faithful. He served God.

Serving God

The counter-intuitive idea of serving God is tied up in the idea of freedom or slavery. We tie ourselves to God and to his teachings. A pile of ‘do this and shan’t do thats.’ It seems to the outsider that Christians chain themselves to a puritanical and demanding master.

Humans are wired to serve. We will serve something.

This is where the ironic bit comes in. If you ask people who have given their lives to God, they will describe the freedom that results from this choice. They speak as sons and daughters not as slaves.

Choosing God allows us to reject other far more demanding and demoralizing task masters; fear, lust, despair are a few. Take fear for example, if you have ever given yourself over to fear, you will know what awful master it truly is. Fear is an enormous black hole that will never be satiated. You will never hit the bottom. There is always more to fear.

God is the only Master who chooses to serve us. We say, “Yes, I’ll serve you God.” He then kicks in and does everything else; salvation, joy, meaning. I have to say we are getting away with an incredible deal! Take this deal! Run with it and don’t look back. Go forward in His love. Leave all the other masters behind.

1 Samuel 12: 24 Be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Zach Williams – No Longer Slaves (Live from Harding Prison) – YouTube

Focus on God

The world around us is spinning, wilder and more out of control. It is harder to see the problems as distant. The troubles of the world seep into our homes and everyday lives. How do we keep our own hearts from despair?

There is one option; keep your eyes on God. Focus your gaze upward. Lean into His loving arms. This is the way to keep the problems of the world at bay. The world cannot touch or corrupt what we give to God. They can take our possessions. They can take our lives. But they cannot take our souls. They cannot touch what belongs to God.

The first thing to recognize is that worry and concern are human. God knows our humanity, he understands how hard it is for us to not focus on the turmoils of life. Once we acknowledge our shortcomings and our concerns we then ask what next?

It is a matter of focus. A young teenager wakes up and finds a pimple on his forehead. It is all he can see. He spends the day covering it with his bangs or hat, leaning his hand on his forehead and turning his face away. His is focused on the problem. By the end of the day the blemish is larger and even more noticeable. His whole body and mind is affected by a small blemish that will go away in a couple days.

What if he turned from the mirror, forgot its presence, joked about it, or put the concern where it should go, in a temporary problem category? He’d still have the pimple. It may even still cause embarrassment, but he’d be able to carry on and live his life. His attitude would keep the problem in check.

This may seem a silly example, but this is what we need to try to do. I am not minimizing problems. The problems in life are terrifying and real. We need to remember that we have a home with God. Focusing on this will help us see our struggles as temporary. It’s a question of scale.

John 14: 1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God;
believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so,
would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take
you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Facing trials

When I was a young woman, a friend told me that something (my memory fails what the subject of the discussion was) would build character. I responded that I thought character was highly over-rated. I was trying to be funny not profound. In doing so I unknowingly hit on something true.

If we could see around the corner at the suffering and the tests that are to come, we would beat a different path around it. In that moment we’d be unable to see what we might learn, how we might grow, we would just see the ugliness before us. Before you walk down an ugly path the obstacle is larger than the gains.

When speaking to other parents of children with serious illnesses or conditions one common view is expressed. Paraphrased as such, “I would undo what my child has suffered but I wouldn’t undue what we have learned.” Few people voluntarily take on a life of hardship. It is rarely a choice. But how we react and what we learn is the by-product.

We are urged to control our attitude in the face of trials. This after all is what we can control. Choosing to find joy in the face of trials is how we can at once acknowledge the ugliness while determining to make some good come out of it.

James 1: 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,
whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete,
not lacking anything.

One step at a time

If you are like me (and the odds are you might be) at the first sign of trouble you start to look for an exit. Fight or flight instincts are strong. I am a fighter, but only after I can’t find a way out. My instinct is to try to avoid problems. But… some problems are unavoidable. We can pray and beg for a way out, but it has been my hard-fought experience that the only way through most situations is straight down the middle.

Straight into the mud, muck, and ugliness, that is the only way out. If you try to skirt the problem, you can end up in a worse situation. Go forward into the darkness and pray for God to light your feet. That is the only solution I have found. At some point the journey will end, and the light of God will grow ever greater.

It sounds like it takes courage and perseverance to do this but, it only takes enough courage to take the first step. Then the next day a tiny bit of courage to take another step. By the time you are in the thick of it your tiny bits of courage have brought you that far. The by-product of these daily choices is perseverance. It is not something you have at the beginning of a journey, but it is built in you by the end.

In this way we can get through some very dark days, just one step at a time. The rewards of hardship are not always great material blessings, sometimes it is simply perseverance and wisdom.

In our saviour we have an example of ultimate suffering. God so loved us that he not only acknowledges our sorrows, but he came and participated in them. How rich an idea that is! Just let your mind dwell on that.

The next time you feel overwhelmed by your path reach to Jesus, our saviour. He truly does understand and will give you comfort.

Psalm 119: 104-105  I gain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

A question of value

“We believe in being moral, but that is evolving,” said my friend. “We just don’t see how an ancient, out of date book, written in a different time can be relevant to us in today’s world. I don’t see value in going to ancient texts for my morals. How does that make sense?”

This isn’t an unusual statement for me to hear. Most of my neighborhood friends are atheists. My beliefs are often being put up to a modern ruler stick. Most of the folks around me think Christianity isn’t meeting up to today’s moral standards. They tolerate me and my weird beliefs.

I ponder this statement. Does this hold water? Is this true?

Then I go to the Bible and I read. I find so much guidance, so much knowledge of human nature, so much wisdom. I conclude that my friend isn’t right. She just doesn’t know the Bible. She hasn’t read it, she has just decided that it doesn’t work for her.

Again, this makes me ponder. Why would someone write off a book without even reading it? I’m not sure I have an answer for that.

But I read the Bible. I see passages that are simple and yet wise. It is hard for me to comprehend how anyone could just dismiss this text.

Micah 6: 8  He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.