So often I have been having some kind of struggle and asked God to save me from the hurt. So often I have begged Him to come and rescue me and to change my circumstances. So often I find myself in want and feeling slighted. What has happened to the God that so many of us have been taught about? Or should I change that question to, What has happened to us? We have taken the bible and read and learned from it through the wrong eyes. We read it out of context. We read it through our eyes, living in a country of plenty. We are a weak people. We want our quick fixes, our instant food and our immediate pleasures. So when we ask God for help we are asking Santa Clause, because that is who we know. What would happen if we started looking at Him through the correct eyes? How would we see Him if we learned more about the culture and landscape of their time?
I love to learn. One of my teachers is Ray Vander Laan www.followtherabbi.com/ In many of his teachings he talks about the arid conditions of the dessert and how tough it is being there. So for time and space consideration I will only talk about one example. (This is from Ray's teaching mixed with my own personal story.) Shall we begin...
In Psalm 18, David is describing his God and his relationship with Him, "It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights." David does not ask for God to change his circumstances, but tells us that God gives him the right kind of feet to so that he can balance. Have you ever watched mountain goats as they leap from cliff to cliff. God has not given them an easy path. He has given them a place to live where most of us would fall to our death, but the mountain goat does not slip away. He has the right kind of feet. His feet were made for this environment. He can run and jump with ease. This is the kind of deer that David was watching. He knows his God and he understands that God can provide for us the right kind of feet to travel the path that He has placed us in. If God allows you to go through it, He will give you the right kind of feet to help you balance and move freely.
My grandmother was a woman whom God equipped to live in the dessert of life. She was a simple woman who loved her family and loved to cook. Her home always smelled of fresh baked cookies and pies. Before you would open the door the sweet aroma would already be over taking you. Her kitchen was small and well used. This is where she would bake for us her love. This is where you could taste her delight. She was a woman who had an enticing smile and would serve you her warmest love of her amazing God. She was a woman who had the right kind of feet to walk the path of pure example for all of us. She was a woman who knew her Savior and loved her Lord. Now I say that God gave her the right kind of feet, but there is something very important that you must understand. She was a woman who endured 44 surgeries! She was a sweet woman who showed God's love to all of those who came into her home and her hospital room. While she was in her hospital room she would ask for her hair to be fixed and her blush and lipstick to be applied. (She didn't want to look sick!) In her home you would walk into her home with the sweet smell of cookies. In her hospital you would walk into her room with the sweet sound of her gospel music.
After one of her surgeries the doctors sent her home with her feet wrapped in bandages, with pins that were sticking out 1-2 inches from her toes. The pins were going all the way through her feet, yet her home still had the smell of those delicious cookies. I watched her wheel her chair into the kitchen with her feet sticking out, careful to not bump anything in shear fear of the pain that would ensue if she did. In her pain, in her discomfort she made us those delicious cookies. I watched her as she placed her heals onto the floor so that she could stand and retrieve that... I watched her smile, sing and cook in the midst of her suffering. She lived out her love for her God and her family. She had the joy of the Lord and praised Him even though...
Philippians, the book of joy written by Paul while he was in prison. He had joy even though. He knew his calling and rejoiced while he walked with God through his suffering. "And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear."
My grandmother was a woman who showed her love for God wherever this life took her. Others were feed her sweet love for her Lord and they were touched by how she danced through her struggles. She did not pretend everything was fine. She hurt and she cried, but she loved her God through it all. She had a peace with her. She had the joy of the Lord. It is not about happiness. It is not about changing the path, so that we will have a flat easy walk. It is about giving us the right feet to balance upon the rocks. It is about our hearts and what we expect. I pray that God gives me a heart for Him today. I pray He allows me to walk along the cliffs of my life with the right feet, no matter how they look. Please God allow me to see that whatever mountain path I find myself in today, help me to have the right feet that will allow others to see you working through the pain. "Experience the joy of your faith."
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Karaoke Star
Last week I had a theme in my home. Do you ever have themes that seem to keep appearing? You know, that "something" that keeps coming up no matter where you are or what you are doing, that is a theme. Our theme was obedience. You see, Jason kept all of his Lego's and many other toys from when he was a child. He kept most of them in their original boxes and the building instructions that go with each set. When we brought them from his parents house we threw away most of the boxes and combined them together as one very large and obtrusive mass of Lego pieces. He saved them as his gift for his son and he has already given many of them to him. But here recently our youngest boy wants the pieces that build a city. Now you must understand that not only did Jason keep all of his original Lego toys, but we have also bought our children new ones. Lets just say, "We have tens of thousands of Lego's!" Do you know what a mess this can make in our home?! Our son wants to build a Lego home and he wants to start with ours!! Jason already built the boys a Lego table in their room, a special place just for their enjoyment. However, they cannot play there, it is covered with toys piled upon toys. Solution, organize the Lego's.
Our youngest is just about to turn 7. He is the one that is obsessed with the Lego's. So this is what Jason told him almost a month ago, "Sort your Lego's by color. Put the white ones in this bucket. Put the red ones in this bucket.... and so on. Once you have sorted the Lego's, I will give you the rest of what I have. If you want all that I have to give you, you must show me that you are responsible enough to have them."
We worked with our son. We encouraged him. We pleaded with him for three weeks to listen to us so that he could receive all that his father had to give him. For three weeks this went on until that fateful day, Father's Day. Jason wanted to take the family to see a movie, but the instructions were that in order to receive the prize the Lego clean up had to be completed. The end result, the child was banished from playing with the Lego's he had already received and he is not going to get what his father had prepared for him.
The week of obedience. During this week I had one line from a country music song singing within my mind. I don't even listen to country music any more, but this song would not stop playing! "She's a big star at Banana Joe's Bar where she sings karaoke every night." Just this one line playing over and over like a skip on the CD. Over and over. I didn't get to the rest, I just landed on the truth of what we all do everyday, all of the time. Our Father has a gift for us. He has something that He saved for us before we were even born. He has a plan for our future, a gift we can delight in. But, we do not get past the moments of playing with what we see right in front of us. We do not stay strong and we settle for something that is small. We can still enjoy our time. We can sing in a small bar with only a few people looking on, but the ultimate prize we throw away because the work just seems too much. We want to play now, because the right now is all we can focus on.
We all do this, I do this. I grab a large helping of sweets. I know that in order to function tomorrow, in order to enjoy this life tomorrow, I have to be diligent with what I eat, but I don't. I eat what is placed right in front of me. I want that desert. BUT I do not just take a simple bite to enjoy, I go into indulgence mode and fill my plate. Then after that is over I sneak another bite or two from the refrigerator. The next day, do I fill satisfied? Do I fill energetic and ready to play with my kids? Do I feel ready to get what needs to be done for the days agenda? Noo! All I want to do is sleep. Am I willing to give up everything God has planned for me over one simple indulgence? I must be, I do it all of the time, but I do not want to. I want to get to the end of my time here with endurance. I want to finish this life out with energy and a fire that cannot be extinguished. I want to affect many people on this journey. I want them all to see the life that I have sung. I do not want to settle for being a karaoke star in some unknown bar. I want my life to be a song the whole world can sing. I want to be Christ's big star. I want all of the plans that God has for my life. I do not want to settle. Do you?
Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. "
Our youngest is just about to turn 7. He is the one that is obsessed with the Lego's. So this is what Jason told him almost a month ago, "Sort your Lego's by color. Put the white ones in this bucket. Put the red ones in this bucket.... and so on. Once you have sorted the Lego's, I will give you the rest of what I have. If you want all that I have to give you, you must show me that you are responsible enough to have them."
We worked with our son. We encouraged him. We pleaded with him for three weeks to listen to us so that he could receive all that his father had to give him. For three weeks this went on until that fateful day, Father's Day. Jason wanted to take the family to see a movie, but the instructions were that in order to receive the prize the Lego clean up had to be completed. The end result, the child was banished from playing with the Lego's he had already received and he is not going to get what his father had prepared for him.
The week of obedience. During this week I had one line from a country music song singing within my mind. I don't even listen to country music any more, but this song would not stop playing! "She's a big star at Banana Joe's Bar where she sings karaoke every night." Just this one line playing over and over like a skip on the CD. Over and over. I didn't get to the rest, I just landed on the truth of what we all do everyday, all of the time. Our Father has a gift for us. He has something that He saved for us before we were even born. He has a plan for our future, a gift we can delight in. But, we do not get past the moments of playing with what we see right in front of us. We do not stay strong and we settle for something that is small. We can still enjoy our time. We can sing in a small bar with only a few people looking on, but the ultimate prize we throw away because the work just seems too much. We want to play now, because the right now is all we can focus on.
We all do this, I do this. I grab a large helping of sweets. I know that in order to function tomorrow, in order to enjoy this life tomorrow, I have to be diligent with what I eat, but I don't. I eat what is placed right in front of me. I want that desert. BUT I do not just take a simple bite to enjoy, I go into indulgence mode and fill my plate. Then after that is over I sneak another bite or two from the refrigerator. The next day, do I fill satisfied? Do I fill energetic and ready to play with my kids? Do I feel ready to get what needs to be done for the days agenda? Noo! All I want to do is sleep. Am I willing to give up everything God has planned for me over one simple indulgence? I must be, I do it all of the time, but I do not want to. I want to get to the end of my time here with endurance. I want to finish this life out with energy and a fire that cannot be extinguished. I want to affect many people on this journey. I want them all to see the life that I have sung. I do not want to settle for being a karaoke star in some unknown bar. I want my life to be a song the whole world can sing. I want to be Christ's big star. I want all of the plans that God has for my life. I do not want to settle. Do you?
Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. "
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