BAREFOOTIN'

My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.                                   Psalm 25:15 NIV

Do you ever have trouble recognizing the answer to prayer? Do you jump at every possibility, only to realize that wasn’t it? You’ve run ahead of God, straight into disappointment. Or, do you hold back, sure this can’t possibly be what you’ve waited so eagerly for?   

I prayed many years for the man God had for me. Then a single guy from church came over to pick blueberries. “I’m allergic to dogs,” he said when Mollie greeted him.  As we settled at my bushes, he asked, “Would you like to spend some time getting to know each other better?”

“Why?” I thought. “God isn’t going to give me to someone who’d make me give up my dogs, is He? But, what if He’s trying to answer my prayer here, and I shut the door in His face?”

“Okay,” I said.

We’ve had twelve good years of marriage together, and he’s still a keeper.

I have a decision to make in a short time. For years I’ve struggled with distractions and discouragement, trying to find time and energy for my novel, both to write and to learn all the collaterals of the craft. For years I’ve prayed for mentors: one for craft, one for techie stuff, one for marketing. Now a new writers’ guild is starting up, mentored by a team led by a highly successful writer with an excellent reputation. Everyone gets to be part of a writer family, but ground floor members get a cheaper price and extra attention for a little while.

Is this my answer?

It sure would take a lot of the pressure off in the craft and marketing realms.

My fear isn’t about the program itself. It’s about whether I’m going to get tangled up again in social media and computer stuff and not be able to get full value from the program.

Get out of the boat, girl. How else do you expect to walk on water?

Yeah, it’s all His problem. I’ll just keep on praying for a techie mentor while I write my books.

Avi, help me to keep my eyes on You. My hand in Yours, let me enjoy the feel of storm winds in my hair and cold water on my toes. In Your holy name, Amen.

 

 

PRESS THREE FOR TRINITY

And call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you and you will honor me.                  
Psalm 51:15 NIV

Late on writing my blog because I’ve been trying to contact Microsoft about a problem with my Surface 3. Screen frozen, won’t turn off, won’t respond to buttons, keys, touch.
 
At all.

For two days.

That’s a mighty long three minutes to wait for a call back or a chat. Then, with every call, a message would finally pop in to say that no techs were available, call back during regular business hours—8AM to midnight.

Duh. My clock says I’m smack in the middle of that time frame. You’d think a big tech company would have a working clock, wouldn’t you?

Can you taste my frustration?

I got up this morning to try again, a prayer on my lips and in my heart, a plea to the God who promised to be there, to hear, to answer when I call. “Please let me get through to someone who can help, and let this machine, this expensive young machine, be OK.”  

Finally, after several more tries, I called a different number to register a complaint. The phone was answered with a minimum of menu runaround—by a tech.

After I promised to try not to take my frustration out on him and told him my story, he fixed my problem. A simple, 30 second, one button fix.

Y’all been there, done that?

Microsoft is no different than anything else in this world. All of it will let you down.  But not God. Not the One who can and will keep His promises.

Oh, and if anybody else has the same problem, you just press the Power button and hold it down for a full 30 seconds. It’ll go off, and you can turn it back on normally. I just hadn’t held it long enough. At least I knew enough to keep it on the charger; you can't replace the battery when it's gone.

Avi, I don’t know where to start. I’m overwhelmed by Your faithfulness, Your care for me in the smallest details of my life. Help me to praise You, to thank You, to love You, to honor You. In Your holy name, Amen.

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.   Hebrews 13:5 NIV

1.6 billion dollars.

It’s a good thing I can pay for my gas at the pump. Can’t go into the store to pay for it without a long wait because of the crowds buying lottery tickets and talking about what they’ll do with the money when they win.

I can get into that. Pay off all our family debt. Big family. Top out the church building fund. Pave the driveway. Fill the garden with rich loam. Put in a way better fence set in a deep concrete base. Or wait, buy the pasture that surrounds us and put the fence around that. Oh, yeah, and a big expensive RV with room for my canine girls to travel with us. How about RV’s for the whole family? How about a personal computer tutor?

But I didn’t play. I guess I’m pretty weird, because I don’t want to win that money. For several reasons.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my life taking care of money. I don’t want to spend my days thinking about money.

I don’t want to fend off all the outstretched hands coming out of the woodwork.

I don’t want to have to be continually guessing whether people like me for myself or for their hope of what’s in it for them.

I don’t want to have to hire a social secretary to protect the solitude that’s so vital to me.  

Most of all, I don’t want money to come between me and my God. I know myself—and it wouldn’t be long before I was trusting the money instead of Him.

Money will forsake me. Youth and health will fail me. But Jesus will not forsake me, and He’ll never fail me.

Avi, my brother-in-law used to say, whenever he thought someone was asking too often for help, “I didn’t take you on to raise.” But You did, Avi. You saw my need and took me into Your own home, Your own family. Help me to thank You with my life. In Your holy name.

 

 

 

 

WHERE CAN I GO?

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?       Psalm 139:7 NIV

I’ve been missing loved ones gone on. Friends and family passing away. Friends moving away. Other friends following their lives in different directions. Beautiful people disappearing into dementia.

I get things from dogs that I don’t get from people. I share things with dogs I can’t share with people. 

I get things from people I don’t get from dogs. I share things with people dogs are unable to understand.

I get things from God that I get from neither. I share things with God I can share with no one else.

I don’t want to live past being able to have a dog—but it’s OK. My God knows who I really am, and He likes me anyway.

I don’t want to live past being able to enjoy human relationships—but it’s OK. My God is there when no one else can be. And He never misunderstands me. 

I don’t want to lose humans I’ve loved and enjoyed and shared His Spirit with—but that’s OK. I’ll have them back in Heaven.

I don’t want to be lost to my loved ones while my body still lives here—but it’s OK if I have to go where my loved ones cannot follow. I can’t disappear from God’s sight.  

Avi, You are Yahweh Shammah, the God who is there. You said no one can take me from Your hand. You promised never to leave me or forsake me, even to my old age and gray hairs. You’re the only One who can make those promises and fulfill them. You’re the only Guide who is everywhere and who knows every path. You’re the One who never forgets me, who never gets distracted or weary. You are my Shepherd.

And I’m Your wandering lamb. Keep me near You always, Avi.

In Your holy name, Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY NEW

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:8,9 NIV

Everybody wants to be happy, but the world offers only counterfeit happiness, temporary and ultimately disappointing. And the thing is, after life disappoints us too many times, happiness drifts a little farther out of reach, hope gets a little harder to hold onto. The harder it gets to hold onto, the faster we chase the next sure thing, and the next, and the next. But happiness, the butterfly riding on the back of that sure thing, flies away and lands on some other sure thing.

Ever try to catch a butterfly?

Our God Jesus offers real life, real hope, real joy.

The most attractive thing about Christians isn’t what we say and do. Joy is the magnet that attracts us to the God whose image we bear. And the joy with which we live our abundant lives in Him, the peace and hope that shine out through that joy, attracts our neighbors, near and far, to Him.

Happy New Year. Happy new life abundant in Jesus!

My resolution, my only one, is to live this moment—all of it—in our happy God, and enjoy Him.

You hold all the sorrows of the world in Your own heart, Avi, but You still have unspeakable joy. I’ve never seen You; when You sing over me, I don’t hear Your songs—but I feel the peace of resting in Your arms. You’re the God who is there, always and unchanging. when the world drags me down, remind me of Your joy. When life gets too heavy, remind me that You’ll carry my load and me, too. Remind me that you hold my life in your hand, and that you give life abundant, joy abundant, just for the asking, for the accepting. Help me to rest in You, Avi, until You come for me and we leave all my burdens behind here. In Your holy name, Amen. 

 

 

LEGACY

And by faith he (Enoch) still speaks, even though he is dead.   Hebrews 11:4 NIV

What a way to end an earthly life! Gone home with God, but still preaching to those he left behind. And what better time than year's end to look forward to our own endings? This isn't macabre; it's scriptural.

How will my life end? What will I still be saying after I’m dead? Who will hear that message?

Today ends an old year. Tomorrow is the start of another new one—but we only get one moment at a time. Little is much—even this one small moment in front of us—if God is in it.

Tomorrow, if it comes for me, is a fresh start.

Even if tomorrow doesn’t come, I have this day, this moment. Got to get out my trusty blue pencil and update my sermon while there’s still time. Let His joy shine through me, that others might see what true happiness is: peace with the One True God who created us.

How do I do that? Easy. I just remain in Him, reflecting on His holiness, His joy, and He does it all.

Avi, You give joy, but the choice of whether to accept Your joy is ours. I choose You, again and again, every day.

People who don’t know You tell us, ‘If you’re happy today, you just don’t understand the situation.’ But, the opposite is true; Your children have happiness and joy in the middle of trials and depression and pain because we do understand; we see beyond.

Help me to write a message with my life that will resound through all the years left to this world. Let my small light shine so bright in Satan’s growing darkness that those who haven’t yet found You will look up from worldly infatuations and see our true Hope, the Light of the world.

In Your holy name, Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

THE CHRISTMAS CROSS

…the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 NIV

Peace with God, the peace that passes understanding.

Manger scene illustrating Sunday’s church bulletin, crowned by a great eight-pointed star. Beams right and left, up and down, depict a cross. Overlapping in the center, an ‘X’, short for the Greek word for Christ.

Look up. See God’s hand, His plan. The Star of Bethlehem, the Christmas Cross, calls to all mankind.

The Gospel in a nutshell: God gave His perfect Garden to His newly created children, Adam and Eve. But, since He wanted real, two-way love, wanted them to choose Him, He gave them one simple commandment and a penalty—eat from that one tree and you die—and they blew it.

Banished from the Garden to struggle in a broken world until their bodies succumbed, they ached with the greater death of perpetual separation from God.

“Children, I love you, and I don’t want you to die,” God said. “Someone else—sheep and cattle and goats—can die for you.”

But animals are a part of this lost Creation. Even millions of such deaths aren’t enough to save just one soul. There’s only one Perfect Lamb who can pay that final price, that balloon payment, for all of us. So, God made Himself a body that could die—something our spirit God cannot do—and died for us to make peace between Himself and Adam’s whole race.

Then, get this, He whupped the tar out of death and walked out of that grave! And so will we, if we choose Him. 

Wise men of old followed the Christmas Cross. Will you? Will you come to the Creator of Life, who calls us to new life abundant and eternal?

Many times death has been close to me, Avi, and many times You saved me. Even so, this frail shell will die, if You delay. With every new twinge, every new failing, I look forward to the new body You’ve promised I’ll live in—but even more I look forward to the Friend I’ll live with for all eternity. Come soon, Avi. In Your holy name, Amen.