How gentle a Savior

I think my greatest weakness in this journey is for me to stay calm when inanimate objects do not cooperate with me. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I had baked some pumpkin bread for a bake sale and I was attempting to wrap plates of sliced bread with Saran Wrap.

From the get go, that stuff would not do what it claims, “Wraps tight without a fight.” Well, it not only fought, it attacked and nearly killed me.  After several attempts to cover the plates without completely encasing the bread in crumpled messes, the floor was littered with great balls of plastic wrap, large drops of blood, and in the air hung a heavy cloud of dicey language meant for only Saran to hear.

As soon as I started forming this cloud, my guilty conscience overtook me and I began to sob as the foul language echoed across the walls of the dining room. Oh, I had failed again to pass this test. 

Several hours later I was still lamenting my setback and I said, “Thank you Lord for not striking me with a bolt of lightening.” Immediately, I heard in my spirit a very quiet, gentle, “I am not like that.” 

Oh, the tears flowed again as I realized how kind and understanding He is to me. 

A stigma to embrace

Since it is almost Christmas, I have been thinking a lot about the predicament Mary found herself in after she, without skipping a beat, accepted to play the role of the Mother of our Lord. I imagine how she broke the news to Joseph and how he may have initially responded. 

The Christmas story reveals that he acted as a man who knew the rules of his faith, but that he did not want to follow them to the letter. Instead of having Mary stoned to death for being unfaithful as the law required, he chose to quietly divorce her before the town found out what was going on. 

Fortunately, since he would play a key role in the plan of salvation, the Angel of God explained to him his beloved’s new role. He became convinced that she was carrying the Lord. The two married and he became the earthly father and protector of the baby Jesus. Good man.

Surely the town found out about this development and tongues began to wag about this “hussy” and that “illegitimate” pregnancy. She, Joseph, and all the family were probably looked down upon by those who enjoyed the feeling of superiority when “sharing” with others this “sad” news. 

“Oh, those poor, poor, parents.  How they must feel having spent all their years trying to raise a good girl, and now look at her.”   “Tisk, tisk, it’s such a shame, and blah, blah, blah...”

Because scripture says that Mary pondered everything in her heart, I believe she never told anyone, except her family, about the angelic visitation, or the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, or all the miraculous events thereafter. She kept all to herself at the cost of losing her reputation and maybe some of her family and friends. 

I bet the stigma of this pregnancy was attached to her her whole life.  And I bet when Jesus took his ministry to his hometown, thirty years later, a lot of that stigma found its voice and judgement and fueled the townspeople with desire to push him off the cliff outside of town after he made the audacious comparison between them and two Gentiles of the Written Torah whom God favored. Luke 4: 21-30 

Even though Mary knew that she would be treated most unfairly, looked down upon, and become the gossip of the town for years to come, she did not hesitate to accept the Lord’s plan for her life.  Let us do the same.

Can you help me?

Recently I read an account from a mother of a toddler who wrote about her conversation with the little girl.  “Mom, can you do me a favor?” “Sure,” the mother responded.  The little girl asked, “Can you help me clean up?”

How cute is that?  The little girl was imitating her mother who has probably asked her that question ever since she could toddle. 

In the universe of a child, Mom is the sun and Dad is the moon.  The child always wants to be near Mom and wants to imitate everything she does.  Eventually he or she will switch the celestial orbs and Dad will become the sun and Mom the moon, but in those beginning months and years, Mom is the center of a child’s everything.

Jesus told his disciples that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, all must become like little children. To long to be near the Lord and to imitate all that He has done is to enter the Kingdom. 

Jesus also said that the Kingdom of God is within us and to do as this toddler manifests the Kingdom for us and to others.

If we all who profess to be Christians truly acted like her in our actions and in our wills we would experience what Jesus longs us to experience. It would be peaceful and heavenly.

We would not have the in-house fighting, the church splits, the back stabbing, and all the things disgruntled, bad children do to each other.  

In this Christmas season can we turn our attention to the lowly stable where Jesus’ mother and Joseph cradle the Kingdom of God in their arms? Can we put down the sharp words and the knives and instead imitate the Lord who will ask us in love, Can you do me a favor, can you help me clean up?”

We will

There is so many warm fuzzies to look forward to during the Christmas season.  The food, the visits with family, the office parties... The reason for Christmas is a respite from the rest of the year’s worries and I love it. 

Today I read in Luke that we Christians have other things to look forward to that are not warm fuzzies but cold pricklies. These things are sure to touch each of us in varying degrees, and Jesus predicts these things for us so that we will not be surprised when they happen.

He says in the book of Luke:  “...you will be seized and persecuted; you will be handed over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.  Make up your minds not to prepare your defense, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.  You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated universally on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your perseverance will win you your lives.” Luke 21:12-19

The words “will” and “shall” are used ten times in this short paragraph. We will be seized, persecuted, handed over to secular courts, and imprisoned by the actions of family and friends.  But these events will be our opportunity to wax eloquent with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and by persevering we will win our lives. 

I hope when we experience things along these lines we really will be ready to meet the challenge and not be taken aback with disbelief.  

Thomas A Kempis wrote in The Imitation of Christ: “If you have Christ, you are rich indeed, for only He can fill all your needs.  He will be you provider and defender and your faithful helper in every need, so that you need not trust in any other.

"How quickly people change and fail us; but Christ abides forever and remains at our side to the end.

No confidence is to be placed in mortal human beings, no matter how helpful they may be or how dear to us, for we are all frail. Neither should you be downcast if one day they are on your side and the next day they are against you; for humans are changeable like the wind.

"Therefore, put your complete trust in God and let Him be the center of your love and fear.  He will answer for you and will do what He sees best for you.”

I don’t think any of us look forward to the predictions in Luke’s book, but we can look forward to having our Lord stand next to us defending us in our time of trouble.

Conversation through a farm house basement window

I got the call that it was time to haul more firewood to the basement.  Because it was a cold, windy day, I bundled up in my insulated overalls then walked across the yard to the old farm house where the folks live.

One of the tires on the wheel barrow has a leak so I have to put air in it every time before heading to the wood pile sitting behind the long retired semi tractor trailer.  The last time the plates were updated on the rusting hulk was in 2000 when Dad was 72 years old.  The faded lettering on the door still reads clearly, “Heikkila Forest Products, Floodwood, MN”

After I loaded the wheel barrow and pulled it over to the house, the basement window was removed by hands protected by a pair of old leather gloves, my Dad’s.  “LOTS of WOOD,” he says approvingly and with admiration.  He has forgotten his own strength and now thinks I’m Pauline Bunyan.  

I slowly hand him one stick at a time, making sure to get it in far enough for him to reach easily.  Mom stands on his right, out of range of my eyesight, except when her hands, protected in old garden gloves, jut in front of the old leather gloves to grab the stick ahead of Dad.

Silence and the scraping of wood against the window sill pervade when Dad suddenly says, “When you and Earl put the wood in, I don’t know how you two survive it.” He says that because Earl throws the wood through the window like a rapid fire cannon.  I stand far away on the stairs leading to the basement until he is done, then I stack the heap into a pile. I think Dad envisions me standing in the line of fire miraculously and successfully dodging the wood and living to do it again the next time.

Silence overtakes again.  When the second load of wood arrives to the window, I hear in the bowels of the basement, “BIG LOAD.” Again, we hand and take each stick until the wheel barrow is empty.  

“One more load,” I tell them.  “Oh boy,” my Mom exclaims.  “Lordy, Lordy,” is the reply of the old man occupying the leather gloves. 

When the third load is being handed through the window, the stack on the floor is higher so the garden gloved hand more often juts in front of the leather gloves to grab the sticks.  The garden gloved hands are ready to be done with the job.  The leather gloves don’t get a chance to grab the sticks too often at this stage of the game. They spend more time empty handed, midair, and in the recesses of the dim basement light. 

When the job is done, the window is replaced and the gloves come off until two or three days in the future when we do it all over again. 

This is my version of Sirach 3 which says, “My child, take care of your father when he grows old; give him no cause for worry as long as he lives. Be sympathetic even if his mind fails him; don't look down on him just because you are strong and healthy.  The Lord will not forget the kindness you show to your father.” 

I know He’s watching over me

Today I had to do some “manwork”.  Now, my kids will tell you that me and “manwork” do not work well together, especially when it involves pipe wrenches. I had to  become MacGyver and figure out a way to drain my well through the outside house spigot without using a hose and without letting the water spill all over the ground near the house.

The first thing was to free the frozen hose from the spigot...using the pipe wrench. Well, after a few tries with the “righty tighty, lefty loosey” formula, I saw that it was going to have to be “righty loosey, lefty tighty” instead. During this step of the process the pipe wrench and the nearly stripped hose end were recipients of dicey language and one fling in the air. 

Now besides this annoying problem that involved “manwork”, I had my guilt to deal with too. So, I went in the house to cool off and do my devotional reading. I started by listening to a song by Audrey Assad.

“Why should I be lonely, long for Heaven and home when I have Jesus as my portion and a constant friend I know, 

Oh I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free, His eye is on the sparrow, His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He’s watching me.

By the end of this verse and chorus I was in tears, sorry for my behavior that never seems to get better.  Then, all of a sudden, right next to the window I was sitting at a gentle swirl of hoar frost shimmering in the sun danced playfully before my eyes for several seconds. I knew in my heart that indeed Jesus was watching over me and He would help me accomplish the task. Then I cried some more.

 Why should I be troubled when His tender word I hear? No, I rest in His goodness, in my doubting and my fear.

Oh I sing because He loves me, I sing because I’m free, His eye is on the sparrow, His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He’s watching me.

After I had calmed myself down, I went back outside and found everything I needed to direct the water away from the house.  I must say that though it looks like a hillbilly rigged up this system it works, and MacGyver would be proud of me.

Two Shoulders


When in town recently, I saw a forlorn young lady sitting on a bench. I have seen her before and knew by the looks of her that she was very sad and weighed down with the cares of her world.  It was obvious she had made some poor choices in her short life.

My first, callous thought was, “Well, she’s got to lie in the bed she’s made.” Because I was too busy being weighed down with the cares of my world, I did not have an ounce of compassion for this woman.

But I’ve recently had a small epiphany of which I am so grateful to God for. My heart, and not of my own volition, has suddenly swelled with compassion for this sad person. This is due to the fact that I have also recently realized that I have been carrying my own yoke by myself for the last while.

I’ve been dragging this thing as fast as I can to the finish line, sweating, grunting, and groaning and displaying all sorts of theatrics besides. I have not viewed this yoke as an instrument meant for two to carry, but for me to drag alone while digging great trenches in the ground along the way.

I also had a light bulb moment when I realized that it’s ok for my burden and my yoke to feel light and it’s ok to feel rest while carrying my half.  Jesus has invited me to this understanding when he said, “Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.” Matt. 11: 29, 30

He has also asked permission to accompany me each day when he said, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.” Luke 9: 23
His words do not imply, “Deny yourself and struggle under this burden everyday of you cotton pickn’ life, Bwahahahaha.”  For me, his words patiently say, “Carry your burden, but let me come with you and take the other side and we will walk and talk together. I will be with you and I will teach you.”

Now my stone cold heart has warmed a little.  I hope to see that sad woman again someday.  I would like to sit with her and simply say, “I’m sorry that you are sad.” I  know I can’t fix her world but I can at least show a bit of compassion.

Doing more than nothing

Moms, you know how it feels when you tell your children to do chores A, B, and C and they do them, not because they recognize that they need doing, but because you told them to do them. And you know how it feels when you inspect their work and find that even though the chores were done they were done sloppily and with the least amount of care. And! You know how it feels when you come home to a messy house that no one has bothered to clean up because they weren’t told to do it! 

When my kids were like this, I did not feel very appreciative towards them, because I felt they were not appreciative of me.  I felt their only reason for doing only what I told them to do only when I told them to do it was so that they would not have to be exposed to The Wrath of Mom.

I think this is a common problem in most families and reminds me of a couple of parables Jesus taught. The first one is the story of a master who told his servants to do chores A, B, C, and then D.  When they completed these, the master did not throw a party for them just because they did what was demanded.  Jesus said that when the servants were done completing the tasks, they were supposed to look to themselves and recognize that even though they had done so much work, they really only did what was required of them. In Jesus words, they were “unprofitable servants.” 

In the second story, a nobleman was leaving the country for awhile and gave money to ten servants to manage and grow while he was away.  All servants but one took his amount and multiplied it tenfold, fivefold and so on.  The one servant took his money and buried it so it wouldn’t get lost. He said he did so because he was afraid of the nobleman’s harshness.

The nobleman, who was pleased with and awarded the other servants for their work, was indeed pretty harsh on this man. He called the servant a wicked man and ordered his money to be given to the servant who did the most with his.

I do not advocate calling our children wicked when they only do the minimum around the house, but taking stuff away is another matter!

Because we love the Lord, can we not do more than the minimum when it comes to faith?  Can we do more than sit in a pew, recite a creed, and sing a few songs? If we really mean what we say and sing, let’s follow through the whole week long being “profitable servants” and growing the gifts He has given us for His glory and our redemption.

Mysterious Ways
God works in mysterious ways.  We quote this often, but when we really experience a mysterious, sometimes mind-numbing work of God in our lives do we recognize it as such?

The Old Testament story of the three Hebrew men being sentenced to death by furnace is a good example of a mysterious work.  The men were to die because they refused to bow down to an image of the psychotic king whom they worked for.  They accepted their fate knowing full well that God could rescue them but probably wouldn’t.

So in the fire they went.  The soldiers who threw them in were destroyed by the flames shooting out of the oven door. The Hebrews landed inside where they were met by the Angel of the Lord who had come to be with them in the furnace.

Later the king looked in to see if they were dead. But instead of three men, he saw four walking around unscathed by the flames. He exclaimed to those around him, “Behold I see four men loose, and walking in the midst of the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Dan. 3: 92

Astonished, he called them out saying, “You servants of the most high God, go forth, and come. And immediately Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago went out from the midst of the fire.” vs. 93

The ruling class gathered together to consider what just happened.  They could not deny that these men were miraculously saved from sure death! The king, a complete narcissist, was so moved by this event that he cried out, “Blessed be the God of Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants that believed in him.” vs. 95

He then proclaimed in a decree that all of his subjects now bow to the God of the Hebrews: “The most high God has worked signs and wonders toward me. It has seemed good to me therefore to publish His signs, because they are great: and his wonders, because they are mighty: and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom...” vs. 99

Being sentenced to death by fire, being met by the Angel of God in a stoked furnace, being rescued from the flames, then being promoted by the king to higher government service, and finally being able to serve their God instead of the idol of the king are surely mind-numbing works of God.

As children of our Heavenly Father, we may too find ourselves in a furnace of some kind.  No matter how mysterious, no matter how “wrong” it may seem, we have to accept what comes our way as works of God for and in us.  Only then can God touch our lives and the lives of those who are witnesses of these works.

Get rid of the rotting carcasses 

There is a constant war occurring in our minds: what Joyce Meyers calls “the battlefield of the mind.” Our enemy is forever catapulting spiritual fire bombs, rotting carcasses, and boulders into our camp, and if we are engaged in the battle, we are as quickly removing these things to the outskirts so they will not litter the ground we patrol.

If we stop engaging in the fight, we soon find ourselves underneath all that debris, and pretty soon we become a part of it.

It is one thing to have thoughts come into our heads that are not from God, it is quite another to leave them there and entertain them.  If we roll presumptions and scenarios around in our minds long enough, they soon take on a life of their own and become real and credible to us.

You know how it goes.  Your long-time friend doesn’t pick up the phone for a few days.  Last week you saw her talking to someone whom you have a disagreement with.  The fact that she has not returned calls translates into the presumption that she is in cahoots with the individual whom you are at odds with. Soon you are certain that your friend is no longer your friend but an enemy who is out to get you....or something like that.

In the meantime, your friend has no clue what’s brewing in your head and when you blow up at her, she is taken aback at your accusations.

How can we all avoid such unnecessary scenes and total wastes of our time? By remembering that even though we live in the flesh, our battle is not with the flesh.  Our battle is with the devil and all his minions who prowl about seeking to destroy us all.

  They use whatever they can to disarm us and make us totally theirs. Be it a guilty conscience, unrepentant sins, or the weakness to think and talk too much about things not edifying and things not true.

As hard as it is to be engaged in battle 24/7, we have to be. We have to remove the junk hurled our way and not engage it.  All thoughts that are contrary to God’s teachings should be tossed out like the rotting carcasses they are.

When we catch ourselves off guard, we need to pick up the shield, helmet, and breastplate, and bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” 2 Cor. 10: 5.

Setting our priorities aright 

In the days of King Darius, the prophet Haggai received a word from God in regards the the peoples’ lack of desire to repair and care for the house of God. Their attitude was, “The time is not yet come for building the house of the Lord.”  But God said in reply, Is it time for you to live in nice homes while my House lies desolate?

Since they were all about themselves and nothing else, everything they attempted to do for themselves came up short. That is why they planted much and gleaned little, and suffered from hunger and thirst.

That is why they were insufficiently clothed and suffered from the cold, and why  their earnings were “put into bags with holes”, or as we as would say, “right down the toilet.”

Because they did not care for God’s house, whatever they strived to earn for themselves became less, and whatever they tried to hoard, God “blew it away”.

Because God’s house remained desolate and “every man made haste to [take care of his own stuff], the heavens and earth stopped yielding her fruits.”

Their priorities were mixed up.  They worked and worked to fill their own barns and suddenly, their number came up and everything they worked for never materialized and what did, ended up going to another who did not work for it.

We can take this piece of history and apply it to our own lives.  If we see our hard earned money going up in smoke and if we can’t seem to keep the dike of life from crumbling around us, what are we doing wrong?

Are we putting ourselves and all our wants ahead of God’s? Are our priorities backwards? Probably.

God wants our attention and He will do what is necessary to get it for our own good. So, when the bills are mounting, and our “progress” is one step forward, five steps back, we have to evaluate our lives for clues as to the reasons why.

Are we hoarding or cheating others of our goods?  Are we treating our brothers and sisters in the Lord with contempt or gossiping and spreading rumors about them? Are we focused on putting on that new deck instead of tithing money to help others who suffer want?

These things may seem like small matters to us, but not to our Lord. If we want have peace in our hearts and homes, we need to “Set our hearts upon our ways, and go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, says the Lord.” Haggai 1: 10

Rest with Jesus
This evening I was walking towards my house, dodging rain drops and watching the gray clouds skim by.  A thin, wispy ribbon of a rainbow was off to the north.  In just a few moments the other end of the rainbow appeared in the south and pretty soon the whole rainbow glowed in front of my eyes.

I felt like I was standing before the gates of heaven.  The gloomy clouds continued to move along but the rainbow stood brilliant through them all.  It was like an arch of a great doorway beckoning me to look through it.

Eventually it started to fade, but the clouds soon turned from gray to pink and the sky chorused with blue. This beautiful display of God’s nature spoke to my heart in a most profound way.

Sisters and brothers, the Lord will never leave us.  He is always with us no matter how dark and stirred up the sky is.  It doesn’t matter if we don’t see his rainbow and only see the clouds, it is still there encircling us with God’s love.

Unlike the apostle Peter, always fix your eyes on Him and pay no attention to the storms that threaten your peace. But if your eyes do look at the trouble around you, all you need do is cry to him and he will lift you out of the stormy sea and into the boat.

When hard times press in, my husband often will imagine himself in the boat with Jesus. There he rests and there Jesus brings the boat to shore.

Don’t waste time

What do you do when you are hurting?  How do you spend your hours while going through your darkest days? Do you physically and mentally curl up into a fetal position and block everything out until it’s over, or do you lash out at all around you until you find some outside relief?

If we have chosen to follow Jesus, we know that our commitment is to pick up our crosses and follow him. This is not an option but what we must do, because a cross is assigned for all to carry whether we like it or not.  But if we lie like slugs and whimper underneath the weight of it, we will never be able to please our Lord. He carried his cross and so should we.

Jesus knows how hard it is to accomplish this task.  He knows the pain of being abandoned by friends and family, and he knows that it is the enemy of our souls who is behind every attack.

When we experience tribulation, we too need to be aware who the real enemy is.  It is not so much the people who betray us or do their best to harm us, it is the devil who is working through them.

They may be unaware that their hateful energy is supplied by him. They may think they are God’s defenders, as Saul thought as he terrorized and killed his contemporaries who chose to follow Jesus. Or they may think they are divinely designated whistle blowers of other Christians in order to “clean house” in one church or another. If the fruit of whatever action someone takes against another is bitter and causes division, then you can bet the action was not of God.

Have you ever thought that maybe you are experiencing a difficult time because you may be a conduit of the enemy to hurt someone else?  That thought has crossed my mind more than once. None of us are exempt from being tempted to work for the other side, and we had better be aware of that possibility.

In the mean time, instead of wasting our lives doing nothing with our suffering, we need to get up off the pity pot, as my husband’s mother used to say, and work. Write a song, visit a homebound person, volunteer time at a crisis center, or listen to someone else who needs an ear.

Because, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When  others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 1 Cor. 1: 4

Go in peace and serve the Lord

Jesus was invited to the home of a very prominent citizen, a Pharisee named Simon.  This man’s prominence, though, was outdone by his large ego, and his self-righteous opinion of himself.  These attributes became apparent by his actions, or his inactions in this case.

When Jesus entered his home, the usual customs of hospitality that one would receive were not afforded to Jesus.  Simon did not give him wash water for his feet, he did not give him the welcome kiss to his home, and he did not anoint his head with oil.  But why would he, he was a very important man and Jesus, to him, was just a cur sitting under his table.

During dinner, an uninvited woman came into the room where Jesus sat. Carrying a very expensive box of fragrant ointment, she began to wash and anoint his feet and then wipe them with her hair!

Did Jesus take offense when this red-light-district woman came into his “personal space”? No, he was moved with compassion for her and the degrading circumstances she experienced with her “job”.

Meanwhile, pious Simon disgustedly muttered to himself that Jesus should have known better than to entertain this sin soaked woman. Did the woman, a mere cur who sits under the tables of the powerful men in her city, care what he thought?  Did she concern herself that she was not clean, outside nor inside, before approaching Jesus with her offering?

No, she recognized that Jesus was the man who could change her from a cur and into the beautiful woman God intended her to be.  She knew she did not have to be beautiful before He made her Beautiful.  If she had thought she needed to be presentable before kneeling at Jesus feet, she may never have done what she did for him.

Her example is the answer to the question asked by people who feel they need to be cleaned up before they can ask God for forgiveness.  Like her, all of us are invited to bring ourselves with the bulk and baggage collected over the years, untie the bundles, and let them fall at his feet.  Then we can kneel before him and wet his feet with our tears of regret and sorrow.

Then we can all hear Jesus say to us, “Your sins are many and they are forgiven. Your faith has saved you, go in peace.”

Go in peace and serve the Lord.

Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words. Francis of Assisi.

Last March we went on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean accompanying our elderly friend, Fr. John, who cannot travel alone due to his health issues.  The one thing he wanted to do on this trip was to get his feet wet in the ocean like he had done in years past. So, whatever it would take, we were going to make that happen for him.

When our ship docked at the island of Granada, a bus tour of the island finishing with a visit to the beach was offered. We left the ship and boarded the small, steamy bus to see the sights of the coast. When we arrived at the beach, we got him settled in his wheelchair under a shade tree near the edge of the sandy beach.

Later, I asked our tour guide to help us bring him down to the water. We must have been quite a spectacle; Earl and I holding Fr. John arm in arm slowly plodding over the sand to the water, and our guide following with a wheelchair.

As soon as we got him settled in his chair, another tourist from our ship walked over to Fr. John, shook his hand vigorously and said, “I hope you have the best time ever.  It is so great that you could come on this cruise.”

Shortly after that, an islander selling scarves on the beach broke out in loud praises in front of all the beach goers. “Praise the Lord!  This is the way we show our love to God and our neighbor!” He went on for a good five minutes with his lively sermon.

I will tell you, that of all the experiences of that trip including all the niceties and extravagances of ship travel, the joy of helping Fr. John get his feet wet was the most gratifying part of the trip.

I had not really realized until this beach excursion that our care for this elderly man with so many medical problems is what speaks so loudly of our faith in Jesus Christ.  We could never have said in mere words the love God has for us all.  It was best told through our actions to those watching.

Every time I think of this day, I repeat what the islander said, “Praise the Lord! This is the way we show our love to God and our neighbor!”

Rejoice in your suffering!

Recently, a pastor said to us, “If you are not being attacked, you are doing something wrong.”  I agreed with him wholeheartedly.

I believe that when we are doing what God wants us to do, we will suffer for it, but when we suffer, we should rejoice!

Rejoice because “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.” Rom. 8: 28

Rejoice because we are blessed when we suffer for justice’ sake. And, rejoice because we are told to be not be afraid or troubled by their fear. 1 Pet. 3:14

Rejoice when you, with modesty and fear and having a good conscience, are on the receiving end of evil gossip, or false accusations, because your accusers will eventually become ashamed of their talk.  They will see your good behavior as a Christian and will have to eat their words. vs. 17, 18

Rejoice because the trial you experience now will bear in you the sweet fruits of righteousness: long suffering, patience, joy, peace.

And, rejoice because our trials can help to save souls by furthering the gospel. Phil. 1: 12

When we have a right perspective on suffering and what it is meant to do for us, it makes the ordeal a little bit easier to endure!

A Simple Prayer

“I lock my door to myself, and I throw myself down in the presence of my God. I divest myself of all worldly thoughts, and I bend all my powers and faculties upon God, as I think, and suddenly I find myself scattered, melted, fallen into vain thoughts, into no thoughts; I am upon my knees, and I talk, and think nothing.” Dr. John Donne 17th cent. Anglican priest

Reading this quote was, for me, like looking in a mirror.  I am so much like this.  Are you? Are your thoughts an undisciplined ramble careening from one idea to another?  Then maybe you ask the same question I ask. How am I supposed to pray unceasingly when I cannot even get myself to stay on course for a few minutes?

One man, an anonymous homeless wanderer from Russia, found his answer while on a ten year walking pilgrimage in search of God.

After hearing the words in a sermon, “Pray without ceasing” this man sold all he had and started a quest to answer the question of how it could be possible to do this when one had to “concern himself with other things also in order to make a living.”

After many disappointing encounters with religious men of many different faiths, he met a monk who shared with him the Jesus Prayer.  He said, “The continuous interior prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted calling on the divine name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart while forming a mental picture of his constant presence, and imploring His grace...at all times.” The words he was to pray were: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.”

First the monk told him to pray this three thousand times a day(!) This he found difficult, but eventually it became “easy and likable”.  The he was told to pray it six thousand times a day and then twelve thousand times a day.  The idea was to make this prayer a part of his very breath. The result was the pilgrim began to breath Jesus and life became new for him.

I want to breath Jesus too. And though I don’t think I will repeat this simple prayer thousands of times a day, I can repeat it when I am doing mundane chores, driving the car, or while I awake at night.

“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.”

God is most near when we suffer

Do you remember the Lynn Anderson song, Rose Garden? Though the lyrics describe a rocky, temporary relationship, the lines, “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden.  Along with the sunshine there’s got to be a little rain sometime”, are words all of us can take to heart.

Our Lord never intends any of his children to live out their lives without rain.  He desires us to grow and the only way to grow is with rain. A slow drizzle of adversity is good for strengthening our resolve to serve the Lord, and we may feel we are growing in our faith.

But what happens when the drizzle becomes a monsoon? Is God in it?  Does He expect us to grow in it, or will we give up and die? In the book of Isaiah, God comforts his people by telling them:  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”

The floods will come and the monsoon will try to uproot us, but God is near, and if we hold on to his hand we will come through our calamity.

We waste our time when we forever try to avoid the rain or shorten its duration.  Instead we have to see the good in it and know that if our eyes are fixed on God there is  good in all our suffering.

Author Simone Weil wrote, “The supernatural greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that is does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it.”

Pastor Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs, testified in his book Tortured for Christ that when he and his fellow Christians were being tortured in Romanian prisons, their souls were lifted up away from their bodies and from their torturers and the prison cell walls became as glistening diamonds with the presence of God.

God was with them; God was in their suffering, and God gave them the resolve to endure, not shorten, the pain.  If God can help those who are in the most dire of circumstances, He can also help us.

Are you afraid to die?

It is inevitable.  Death comes a calling for all of us.  Too soon sometimes, and sometimes too late. It seldom comes at the time it is convenient for us because we have so much to do and our heads are often so much ado about nothing.

We spend our days searching for the fountain of youth in anti-aging serums, exercise programs, Botox, herbal potions, and the list goes on and on.

Why do we do it?  Why do we try to avoid what no one has ever been able to avoid?

Maybe it’s because what we most prize is here on this earth and not in heaven.  Maybe we believe that this is all there is. Or maybe we are just plain scared of the unknownness of it all.

There is no getting around it.  We don’t know the details of what will take place for each of us.  We’ve read the books on what others have encountered in their near death experiences.  We’ve heard about the light people see, the angels people hear, and the loved ones that meet someone who is near the river’s edge.  But we don’t know what it will be for us. And that’s just the way it is.

So what do we do to lessen the uncertainty and, for some, the fear?  St. Thomas Aquinas said in his Imitation of Christ, “Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out.  Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience....Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death?  If you aren’t fit to face death today, it’s very unlikely you will be tomorrow...”

I believe this is key: have a quiet conscience...today.  If my conscience is telling me I am not fit to stand before God because of unconfessed sin, then I had better confess the sin and stop practicing it.

If material things have a hold on my heart, then I had better sell the things or give them to the poor, as Jesus suggested to the rich, young ruler. If I want to accomplish X, Y, Z before I die, I must remember that X, Y, and Z don’t mean a hill of beans if it is not part of God’s Kingdom plan.

Jesus told the young ruler, and he tells us too, that when we focus on building for ourselves treasure in heaven where moths nor rust can destroy and thieves cannot steal, our hearts will eventually yearn to go home.

Joy Unspeakable

Anyone who has experienced a close encounter with God never forgets it.  The memory, if not in our immediate thoughts, occupies the back of our minds all the time.

I was around 15 or 16 years old when this happened to me the first time.  From the time I was a child until sometime after this experience, I would lay in bed at night and go through a myriad list of prayer requests.  It was long and laborious and I didn’t want to miss a thing.  Visually, for me, my prayers seemed like large, complicated scaffolding reaching up along side a sky scraper; a structure that I had to climb to the top of each night before I could go to sleep.

One night, I lay on my bed in the pitch dark room going through this routine when suddenly Jesus was standing next to me.  I did not see him, but I felt Him standing by the bed.  I also felt happiness.  And, in my mind I began to ramble a happy, bubbly, monolog. I don’t remember how long He was there, because I didn’t stop for air.  I just gabbed with Jesus as though the two of us were having our own slumber party.

Then just as suddenly as He came, He was gone. It was then that I realized I had been doing all the talking, something I rarely do when I am with people.  So I said that I was sorry, and He replied that it was ok.  In my mind’s eye I could see him standing there laughing and smiling at me.

What a gift! I have cherished that memory for 40 years, and it has recently made me rethink what heaven will be like.  If experiencing Jesus, silently and invisibly near me for just a few minutes can bring such overwhelming happiness and joy, what will it be like to be in His presence all the time in heaven?

I think the best answer, in part, comes from the old hymn: Joy Unspeakable.

It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,
Full of glory, full of glory;
It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,
Oh, the half has never yet been told.

Your sin will find you out

We’ve all heard the mantra countless times.  A politician or an athlete is caught having an affair or using enhancement drugs, and they come out with a press conference saying how terribly sorry they are, and how they hope their families will forgive them, and so on.

Personally, I’m a skeptic and I question if these people are really sorry or if they  are sorry for having been caught.  I also question why high profile people think they can do these things and not get caught?

For that matter, why do any of us think we can do wrong and not get caught?  Can we act “Christian” in public while acting like the devil in private?  If no one sees, does anyone see? Fortunately, yes.

Ask any child this question and they will tell you that, somehow, they can’t get away with much.   “Mom has eyes behind her head,” they will say.  And that is a good thing. It is as though God has surveillance cameras set up so that when we think it is safe to do what we wouldn’t do in public, it still isn’t safe.

Jesus spoke to his disciples about this very thing in the book of Luke. “‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees,’ he said. ‘They just pretend to be godly. Everything that is secret will be brought out into the open. Everything that is hidden will be uncovered. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight. What you have whispered to someone behind closed doors will be shouted from the rooftops.’”

I like to think that when the religious leaders dragged the prostitute to Jesus accusing her of her deeds, what he began writing in the sand were their names and the times they had paid her a personal visit.

From the oldest to the youngest, they dropped their judgement stones because their sin was made known. It is speculation, but whatever he wrote made a big impact on these guys.

It is holy and frightful to know that whatever we say, do, and think is written down in the records of heaven.  It should be a strong motivation to keep ourselves in check in every circumstance.

The Shepherd’s sacrifice

Where briars grow, unwary sheep,

Befogged by hungry need,

Entangle fleece in thickets where 

We only thought to feed.

The Shepherd comes to set us free

From snares of piercing thorn.

Released, we are made whole, but look,

The Shepherd’s hands are torn.

On every bare and rocky height,

The sheep in safety graze.

God shelters us from wind and rain

And from the sun’s bright blaze.

The Shepherd pastures us in peace,

To living waters leads.

All hurts now healed, we are at rest,

But see! The Shepherd bleeds.

These two stanzas of an old hymn make me ever more aware that every time I am focused only on myself and my particular interests, another wound is inflicted onto my Lord.

Every time I speak unkind words, or think unkind thoughts,  another thorn is driven into His temple. And every time I fail to do what I know is right, or fail do to what God has instructed me to do, another lash is laid into his back.

But, when I give Him praise for all He has done for me, I have helped him carry the cross to Golgotha.  When I give assistance to those who are in need, I am giving Him a drink of cold water after he has fallen under the weight of the cross. And when I sit quietly in his presence, I am standing vigil with His mother and John as Jesus cries, “My God, why have you forsaken me?”

When I read this hymn, I feel sick at heart because of my own sin and the sins of all humanity. God is calling us all to Him, and Jesus must shepherd the children back.

For he has other sheep than these,

Who have not heard his voice,

But when the last are gathered in

The heavens will rejoice:

The saints who crowd the gates of God

Stand waiting to extol

The last sheep found, for then, ah! look

The Shepherd is made whole.

Back on Track

Every once in awhile my devious self will want something badly, and it is usually something that is temporal.  Of course, the thing I’m craving will be used for “spiritual” purposes, don’t you know. 

So I approach God with different ways of requesting this something, explaining that it will be used to “glorify Him”, and used to help XYZ Christian Organization, and so on.

My request is always the last of a stream of requests for family, friends, and others, and it is worded so as to sound selfless and helpful for others. My reason for mentioning it last is so that it will be most prominent in His mind, so I think.

But after a few weeks of this routine, I get bold and just come out with it, “Lord, please I want this thing.” 

Who am I kidding with the nicey nice prayers anyway? Certainly God knows what I am up to, but I continue to persist until I get tired of silence. Then I put the request on the shelf and let it be as He wishes.

My deceitful prayers remind me of the mother of James and John who in the book of Matthew is recorded as coming to Jesus, “adoring Jesus wishing to ask something of him.” She boldly asks that her boys be given seats of power, the greatest seats of power mind you, when Jesus would begin his rule on the earth. 

“Bless you my Lord, bless you, oh by the way, can the boys have lots of power and influence when you set up your kingdom?” I can hear her say.

In response, Jesus told her she didn’t know what she was asking for and that he was not in charge of those assignments. When the other disciples got wind of this, they were pretty disgusted with James and John.  

But maybe the boys were trying to discourage their strong willed mother with, “Ma, please not now,” or maybe they were scheming together.  Who knows but God, who knows all hearts and intentions.

Getting caught in this trap of feigning worship in exchange for some favor from God is low and despicable. We are not on this earth to accumulate things, we are here to worship Him in everything we say, think, and do. 

For me, the quickest cure for this latest “gimme episode” was a few chapters in the book Tortured for Christ by Pastor R. Wurmbrand.  He tells story after story of Christians giving up everything for the Lord in Communist Romania over 50 years ago.  Not figuratively but literally life and limb.

So what am I doing asking for things so unimportant when my brothers and sisters on the other side of this world are, more than ever, suffering for their faith?

   

I thank God He loves me enough to gently wake me up and put my brain back on track. 

Victory in Jesus!

I found an interesting book at the local used clothing store recently. It’s by a very popular contemporary Christian author who used the pages to inform her readers how to live victorious lives.

It is a good read, but I tell you our Christian bookstores are overflowing with books of the same nature.  We all want to live victorious, joyful lives, and we all want new and enlightening answers that will give us those results.

For me there is something exhilarating about finding THE book at the local book store, paying for it, going home, and sitting down with a cup of coffee to start the journey to victorious living. 

While reading the book progress is made and, for a short time, after the book is done.  Then the search begins for the next book that will give me some more new and enlightening answers to jump start my journey to victorious living. 

But after many books read, I now have the perfect synopsis for every “how to live in freedom” book out there. (I also have the perfect centerfold photo idea for every women’s exercise magazine: a close-up of a push lawnmower sitting on about five acres of lawn stretching out into the horizon behind it.  Just thought I’d throw that in here.)

Anyway, here goes: You take a piece of paper and you write these phrases across the top:

Read and meditate the Scriptures

Pray every day

Go to church at least once a week

Say, do, and think only what would please God

And then along the side of the page you list the days of the week so that you can check each item off each day as you do them.

Now I’m not saying you literally have to do this, but I am saying that this is the basic prescription for a victorious, joyful life.  We don’t need to read long, albeit interesting, books to achieve it, we need to simply do what we already know we need to do. 

“But my problems are so complicated, this simple approach won’t do,” you might say. The Lord says, Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all the rest will be taken care of. 

When I let go of the complicated mess I have been trying to untangle and return to the simple to-do list above, the mess starts to get untangled because God is doing the untangling. 

Living a victorious life does not mean living a life of leisure and a life free of problems, it means having the strength to keep our eyes fixed on what is eternal while all else rages around us. That is victory!

Nothing can separate us from God

“As the dear pants for the water, so my soul longs after Thee.”  This Psalm is the cry of every heart, whether we know it or not.  

Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of Voice of the Martyrs saw first hand the evidence of this truth.  When the Communists came to power in Romania in 1944 Wurmbrand, while working with the Underground Church, encountered scores of Russian officers who knew nothing of God, but knew they wanted Him.

A typical incident involved an Orthodox priest friend of his who could not speak Russian.  The priest called Wurmbrand for help to speak to a Russian officer about the Lord. The man wanted to confess.  He had no religious education and had never attended a religious service.  The man loved God with no knowledge of who God is.  

When Pastor Wurmbrand met him, he read the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus to him. The man danced around the room joyfully crying, “What a wonderful beauty!  How could I live without knowing this Christ!” Then when he heard the story of Jesus death, the man fell in a heap and wept bitterly.  But when the resurrection story was read, he rejoiced and cried, “He is alive, he is alive!”

Later, as the two men prayed together, the man in childlike honesty said, “Oh God, what a fine chap you are! If I were you and You were me, I would never have forgiven You of Your sins.  But You are really a very nice chap! I love You with all of my heart!”

In Pastor Wurmbrand’s book, Tortured for Christ, encounter after encounter resonates the same hunger.  No matter how successful the Communist system was at brainwashing the Russian people, they still knew in their heart of hearts who their Maker was. For Pastor Wurmbrand it was “heaven on earth” to talk to these men and women.

Romans 8: 38-39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  “...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

No matter how hard outside forces try to eliminate God from our hearts or how hard we try to separate ourselves from Him, He will eventually make His way into our hearts even when there is only a small opening in the “door”.

Sore thumbs

Back when I was in college, I took a weaving class and was working on a Navaho loom.  I was weaving a scene of rolling hills with a small lake in the middle.  Working from the bottom up, I came to the middle of the lake and put in a small strip of white yarn. The rest of the scene was muted greens and blues so the small bright spot, at the time, did not fit the color scheme.

My instructor kept telling me to take the strip out because it stuck out like a sore thumb, but I kept it in for a reason.  Finally near the top of the scene, I added another strip, brighter than the first to represent the sun. She then understood what I was doing and the sore thumb had a purpose in the overall picture.  In fact, the picture would not have been complete without it. 

We all have “sore thumbs” cropping up, unexpectedly in our lives, and they are for a reason.  Like Joseph in the book of Genesis who was sold by his jealous brothers to traders heading for Egypt, he understood many years later that what the brothers meant for bad, God meant for good.

“Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!  And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.  For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping.  But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” Gen. 45: 3-7

Can I remember this lesson the next time a sore thumb comes to disrupt “my” plans?  If I do, the pain or the inconvenience I feel at the time will be much easier to bear when I also look forward to seeing how God uses it to do something amazing!

Offer it up

Because Christians in Communist and Moslem countries have plenty of opportunities to suffer for Christ and are, in record numbers, being martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ they, to me, represent the apple of God’s eye. 

When I was a teenager, I assumed that the only suffering worthy of God’s approval was when one was dragged away to jail for having stood on a stump on some street corner “spreading the Good News.”

We in America, where freedom of religion has not been totally obliterated yet, do not have to suffer like this. So, most of our suffering, I once thought, amounted to nothing more than great wastes of time and not worthy of God’s approval. I also assumed that these ideas were mine alone, until today.  Today I heard someone express those same notions while beating themselves up for being “so sinful”.

Now I wonder how many others believe the same way.  How many Christians view illness, bad marriages, abuse, the battle to rid oneself of bad thoughts, and just about everything else as having no connection to furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  And how many feel this suffering is for nothing and of little interest to God? 

In recent years, I have gotten to know a lot of faithful Catholic Christians, and one thing they all believe about suffering is, all suffering does matter to God and it is redemptive.  When these Christians suffer, they all say: “Offer it up.”  

Offer it up to the Lord as a sacrifice of praise.  Offer it up as a tutorial that will someday help me to help someone else.  Offer it up like a child who comes to his daddy with a “booboo”, and snuggles on Daddy’s lap so he can be hugged.

This someone I mentioned earlier has suffered severe hardships for decades.  Not like Christians in North Korea or Egypt, but like Christians who stand by their convictions to do what is right even though doing what is wrong would free them from their hard circumstances.

  Staying in a difficult marriage because one believes her vows before God are more important than her happiness, turning over to God one’s fears after receiving a diagnosis of cancer, quitting a good job instead of working for a shady boss; all these sufferings “spread the Good News” through our attitude and actions in them.

Where I got the idea that only by suffering the consequences of stumping for God on a street corner or in the bowels of Africa was worthy, I’ll never know. It has been very freeing to know that whatever is given me to deal with is an opportunity to “offer it up” for my salvation and the salvation of others. 

He came near

Jesus told this story when asked, “Who is my neighbor?” by an expert of the law.

“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him went away, leaving him half dead.

And it chanced, that a certain priest went down the same way: and seeing him, passed by. In like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by.  But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him; and whatever you spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay you.”

This story not only taught the teachers of the law to have compassion for all and especially their enemies, it informed them in no uncertain terms that they could not expect to go to heaven simply because of who they were.

The Jews believed that they were a privileged people because they were Abraham’s offspring.  But Jesus showed them, by using a priest and a Levite as the callous bystanders, their blood line alone was not enough. 

By depicting the despised Samaritan as the one who came to the aid of this injured man, told Jesus’ accusers that it was the works of kindness that mattered.

The story makes me wonder if the Samaritan would have helped the man if he had not gotten close and seen how bad off the man was.  Jesus tells his listeners that he came near, saw him, and was then moved with compassion. Maybe if he had kept his distance, he too would have walked away. But because he came near a man who was very likely an enemy of his and his people, his heart was softened. 

Jesus wanted the “expert in the law” to know that his neighbor was anybody who needed his help, friend or foe. He wanted the man to know his education, pedigree, and lineage was of no consequence if the love he showed others was not equal or greater than the love he had for himself. 

Perversion of Truth

For Jews of the first century, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was a radical change from life as usual.  The Apostle Paul was spreading the good news that they no longer needed to be circumcised, they no longer needed to offer animal sacrifices at the temple, and they no longer needed to do all the other ritualistic activities of their religion to keep themselves in good standing with God and their teachers.

This revolutionary doctrine told them that the works of the Law no longer removed guilt. Now, faith in Jesus Christ replaced the arduous tasks once required.  That was good news indeed.

But for many, it was just too much.  Judaizers, those who embraced Christianity as long as some of the old customs were included, began to follow the Apostle Paul on his journeys.  They began to “disturb” the Galatians by distorting the gospel of Christ saying that those who had faith in Jesus Christ must also follow some of the old covenant rites including circumcision. This bit of tweaking in their message, in one fell swoop, negated everything Jesus did for the salvation of the world.

Their mission greatly angered Paul to the point that he wrote to the Galatians condemning those who preached another gospel, other than what he preached, as accursed.  He repeated this statement twice, back to back in the beginning of the letter to the Galatians showing that he meant what he said.

These men had so swayed some of people that Paul stated in his letter, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel...Gal. 1: 6 He goes on to say that what they were preaching was a perversion of the truth.

These Judaizers were treading on shaky ground. They spoke the truth, but added just enough deception whereby the whole message was distorted. Many followed them and were, once again, enslaved to the old rites of their religion.

To skew the Gospel, to preach just enough truth while adding a bit of untruth into the mix is dangerous for the preacher and for those who blindly follow along. 

There is a world of deception present in this age.  It seems, more than ever, the devil successfully makes his way through the church doors unbeknownst to many, leading captive men and women who are not well versed in their faith.  

Studying the Word of God and the teachings of the Church can protect us from these charlatans. This daily practice will enable us to be good workers for God and enable us to discern what is right and what is false in the current spiritual theater and political theater.