"I'll do it myself!"

Any mother of toddlers has heard these words, usually shouted at top voice.

My three-year-old twins are no exception to this. They are champions of Do It Myself-ness.

My son in particular loves to be independent. He wants to be Superman.

Every day getting into the van, we have a struggle over opening the automatic sliding door. He wants to open it himself, but, although he can press the button inside to close it, he's not strong enough to pull the handle on the outside to activate the opening mechanism.

As you can imagine, this causes a lot of delay. I've actually starting to leave the van door open inside the garage in order to avoid the whole thing.

My little boy simply refuses to accept the fact that he's not able to open the door from the outside, and he needs Mommy's help in order to do it.

This reminds me of us as Christians in a way. We want to do it ourselves.

More than anything, we want to rely on our own righteousness. We want to be "good enough" for God. We say we're saved by grace and all that, but do we act that way?

In fact, many times what we do is live by a set of rules, and try to get everyone else to agree that our version of the rules is the correct one.

But we don't earn God's grace by being good enough to deserve it. We can't.

So why do we keep trying to be good, using our own strength, instead of allowing God to work through us? I don't know.

Not only is relying on our own righteousness much harder, more frustrating and utterly doomed to failure, it can actually separate us from God.

Galatians 5:4 says, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."

When I read this, I found it incredibly convicting. Is trying to be justified by my own "goodness" actually alienating me from Christ? God forbid!

Why can't I just be humble enough to admit I CAN'T do it myself?

Mary's Response to an Angel Visitor

"The Annunciation" by Paolo de Matteis

The Magnificat, or the Song of Mary, is found in Luke 1. Here is the beginning:

⁴⁶And Mary said,

My soul doth magnify the Lord,

⁴⁷And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

⁴⁸For He hath regarded the low estate of His

handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all

generations shall call me blessed.

⁴⁹For he that is mighty hath done to me

great things; and holy is His name.

(I apologize to those who prefer the more modern translations, but I like this one in the King James.)

This is famous as the response of Mary to the news that she will bear the Savior. Her song is often contrasted with the answer of her cousin's husband Zacharias, who received the news that his old and barren wife would bear John the Baptist. He said, "How can I know this is true?" to the angel Gabriel, which was a bad move on his part.

Zacharias gets struck dumb for nine months after that little breach of etiquette. Although there's no Emily Post for Angelic Visitations, it does appear that as a Levite and high priest he should have known better.

However, in re-reading the account in Luke, I noticed that the Magnificat does not in fact follow the Annunciation, but instead it occurs after the Visitation.

"The Visitation" By Edward Von Steinle

Putting that in normal language, the Song of Mary is not the Virgin's response to the angel Gabriel at all. She doesn't sing it until she goes to see her cousin Elizabeth.

She doesn't produce this beautiful song of steadfast faith until after she's had time to absorb the shock of being visited by an angel and getting pregnant by the Holy Ghost and all. Plus, it's also after Mary receives confirmation of the word of the angel through her cousin, who calls her "the mother of my Lord."

All Mary says to the angel Gabriel is, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

One could interpret that as a shell-shocked, "Um. Okay." (speaking of more modern translations...)

So although it's certainly true that Mary had great faith, greater than the priest Zacharias of course, she was not some idealized paragon who immediately spouted poetry upon hearing the most shocking news anyone had ever received. She took her time and allowed God to work through her, and when the time was right she was ready to sing her beautiful song.

In other words, the greatness of Mary's faith was not found in her own abilities, but in her willingness to allow God to demonstrate His power through her. And God was patient with her, allowing her to seek the comfort of her cousin Elizabeth and giving her time to learn to accept the strange new thing that had happened to her.

This should be a comfort to those of us who aren't quite ready to sing praises to the Lord after an unexpected turn in life sends us reeling. God understands that we need time, and He is patient with us as well. He wants us to submit to His will, but He doesn't force us.

But if we are able to respond, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord," He'll bless our timid acquiescence with abundance.

He will take our, "Um. Okay," and turn it into poetry for His glory!

Rest and Trust

"Mother and Child" by Mary Cassatt

My three-year-old daughter loves to sit in my lap.

She will call out "Sit with me, Mommy! Sit with me!" while I'm doing the dishes or reading the mail or working on the computer. All she's asking me to do is sit on the couch and let her rest in my lap. That's it.

She has no other agenda when she calls for me to sit with her. Small children live in the moment. She is not like me, thinking of the dinner that must be made soon, and why is the cell phone company still billing me wrong, and oh my goodness when will bedtime get here?

She just wants to be with Mommy.

Psalm 131 says:

¹ My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
² But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

That's what we should be like with God. Instead of worrying about what's coming next in life, we should simply rest in Him.

My little girl does not concern herself with dinner because she knows Mommy will take care of it. When she is hungry, she asks me for food, and she is certain she will get what she needs.

If only I could be like that with God!

Lord, help me to rest and trust in You, like a child trusts in her mother.

Watch and Pray

My Sunday School lesson yesterday came from Mark 13:32-37.

I found it really meaningful, so I'm just going to crib directly from it, instead of trying to rephrase it.

First of all, the Scripture reading:

(image from daves-little-blog.blogspot.com.)

³² “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even

the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

³³ Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when

the time is. ³⁴ It is like a man going to a far country,

who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and

to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.

 ³⁵ Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master

of the house is coming—in the evening, at midnight,

at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning—

³⁶ lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.

³⁷ And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”

A Reflection from "Living the Good News" 27 Nov 2011
(livingthegoodnews.com)

When Jesus warns us to be constantly alert, we might
take that ominously, as though some distant, punitive
deity is waiting eagerly to pounce on our slightest
mistake. But we can think of this gospel more positively.

(images from http://www.visualintel.net/)

Our news reports are filled with pictures of families

awaiting the return of spouses, offspring, siblings and

parents from war in Iraq or Afghanistan. When the buses

roll in, sometimes at odd hours of the night, gyms are

packed with welcome banners and fluttering flags. As

each beloved soldier emerges, families and friends explode

with joy. The same phenomenon occurs at airports.

Observe the faces scanning each arriving passenger, then

see them light up as a familiar, beloved figure emerges

into the waiting area.

Do we await Christ’s coming with the same happy anticipation?

Would we rush delightedly into his arms if he

appeared suddenly at our doors? “I’ve waited so long

for you!” we might cry. “And I’m so glad to see you.”

If we don’t think of a reunion with Jesus that way,

why not?

Seeking the Lost

The other day I was at the park with my three-year-old twins and they were gathering up leaves.

They made the leaves into bouquets and carried them around. Whenever one leaf escaped from the bundle and blew away they'd hurry over to pick it up and restore it with the others.

It made me think of Luke 15:

³ Then Jesus told them this parable: ⁴ “Suppose one of

you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he

not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go

after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it,

he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home.

Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says,

‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you

that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in

heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine

righteous persons who do not need to repent.

They cared so much about the leaves that they couldn't stand to see even one get lost. They would not rest until every leaf was in the bundle.

This is the way God the Father cares for us, seeking each one until he or she is restored.

As Jesus Himself said in Luke 19:10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Now that's amazing!

An Overwhelming Fragrance

        Lalique perfume bottle from djltrading .com


My daughter broke a bottle of perfume in the downstairs bathroom the other day. She cleaned it up, but the perfume smell remains.

It's a really small bathroom too, so the smell is VERY strong. Fortunately, it's a nice perfume.

But it made me think of a Bible story, found in Mark 14:

³ While Jesus was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head.
⁴ Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
⁶ “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. ⁷ The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. ⁹ Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Can you imagine the fragrance that must have filled the room when this unnamed woman broke a whole jar of perfume? (Maybe THAT'S why those present were rebuking her...)

But what she did was an outward and very physical sign of what was inside her heart, which was a desire to honor Jesus.

How would it be if the fragrance of my own heart, so to speak, were filling this room? What would people sense if my own love for Jesus were phyiscally present every day, like the smell of that perfume lingering in my bathroom?

In 2nd Corinthians 2:14-15 Paul writes:

"But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God."

I just pray that my own life's fragrance is pleasing to God.

Is Positive Thinking the Answer?

Today’s verse is Philippians 4:8.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

What is this verse telling us to think about?

I’ve always heard it read as just advice to look at the positive things in life, but what if it’s more than that?

Perhaps it’s an instruction to meditate on ONE thing.

Is there one thing that embodies all of these traits?

There is only One who demonstrates all these: Truth, Nobility, Righteousness, Purity, Love…

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and

the life. No one comes to the Father

except through me. (John 14:6)

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives

in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16)

So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?

No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Matthew 19:17)

So it follows that the only One truly worthy for us to meditate on, is God Himself.
 
It's not just about positive thinking, it's about God-centered thinking.

If we were able to truly follow the directions of this verse, our lives would be transformed.
If we are meditating on Him then there is no room for sin.

(above image from amazon.com)

Am I Giving or Getting Taken?

"Open Hands" by Patricia Awapara from fineartamerica.com

Yesterday a woman asked me for money in McDonald’s.

Well, actually it was a lot longer conversation than that, involving he fact that her car was out of gas, she was from out of town, and her ex-husband was threatening her. But the point of the story was that she needed money to fill up her car and get home.

I had no way of knowing if any of this was true, of course. You always hear about people getting conned with sob stories like this, don’t you? I don't want to "get taken."

This is something I’ve had trouble with in the past: How do you know the guy on the street corner with the cardboard sign really is hungry, or if he’ll just take your dollar and use it to buy drugs? I used to wrestle with this idea a lot. If I give the guy a dollar, am I contributing to his dependency? What is the right thing to do?

And there was a harder question to answer as well: Was I just using this whole thing as an excuse because I'd rather just keep my money?

One day I received a clear message from the Bible on the subject.

“But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1st John 3:17-18)

This really hit home for me, because I felt like whenever I did NOT give to someone who claimed to be in need, I had to shut up my heart, to steel myself and say, “No, because he won’t really buy food with the money. He‘s not REALLY in need.”

But God doesn’t command us to give to those who deserve our help, or those who behave properly. In fact, Jesus Himself said:

“Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:42)

And He doesn’t require us to be responsible for what others do. In Ezekiel 33 God makes it clear that the prophet’s responsibility is simply to be obedient to what God has commanded HIM to do, and not worry about what the other person does after that.

In short, it didn’t MATTER if this woman was telling me the truth or not about her need. When I felt a tug on my heart to give to her, I was required to obey God’s command and simply give.

It wasn’t about her and her need for money at all. It was about me and my need to learn generosity.

Now I understand that it’s not always practical to go around giving money away. I would run out of it pretty quickly that way.

But I have to remember to cultivate and attitude of generosity and obedience. And when I feel God is telling me to give, I should give with an open hand, and not shut up my heart.

Surviving the Storms of Life

Ivan Aviazovsky "Jesus Walks on Water" 1888

This morning I read the story from Mark’s gospel of Jesus walking on the water:

Mark 6:45-51

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into

the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida,

while He dismissed the crowd. After leaving them,

He went up on a mountainside to pray.

Later that night, the boat was in the middle

of the lake, and He was alone on land.

He saw the disciples straining at the oars,

because the wind was against them.

Shortly before dawn He went out to them,

walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them,

but when they saw Him walking on the lake,

they thought He was a ghost. They cried out,

because they all saw Him and were terrified.

Immediately He spoke to them and said,

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind

died down. They were completely amazed.

What I found interesting about this version was the fact that Jesus saw the disciples struggling in the lake, and then went to them. Even though He was far off and on land, He could see them, and the first thing He did was go to them.

He did not stop the storm from where He was on the shore, which He no doubt could have done. In fact, He didn’t seem to be intending to calm the storm at all; Mark tells us, “He was about to pass by them.”

What He did was this: He went to be WITH them.

And when they cried out to Him, he answered them and calmed the storm so quickly that they were amazed.

For us, His disciples today, this lets us know: Even when we feel God is far away and storms are crashing around us, He is right there. All we have to do is call out to Him.

Psalm 139:7-12

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

The Spiritual Pantry

I tend to be a stockpiler.

When I go to the grocery store I buy too much food. Even when I already have enough at home, I find it hard to resist buying a few more cans of Chef Boyardee, just in case.

Especially if it’s on sale! But that‘s another story…

Seeing those stores of food all lined up in the pantry gives me a feeling of security.

This isn’t a bad thing, when you’re talking about canned goods. After all, they say you should be prepared in case of an emergency, right? And you can never have too much Chef Boyardee…

But the problem comes in when I try to apply my stockpiling needs to my spiritual life. I want God to give me a stockpile of spiritual resources as well, enough so that I can line it all up in the pantry of my soul, so to speak, and feel secure that all my spiritual needs will continue to be met. I’d like to have enough reassurance, encouragement, serenity and peace to last me for years.

But it doesn’t work that way. He doesn’t give you tomorrow’s Chef Boyardee today, if you know what I mean.

I’m reminded of the story of the Israelites in the desert found in Exodus 16. When God provided them manna to eat, He only gave them enough for one day at a time. If they tried to save it until the next day, it would go bad.

God was trying to teach them to trust Him, to rely on His grace to supply all their needs. He is teaching us the same thing, in a spiritual sense.

I have to learn to trust Him to give me what I need to face each day, and not try to look for tomorrow’s help today.

Does anyone remember the old Doritos commercial? It said, “Crunch all you want; we’ll make more.”

In the same way, God has an unlimited supply of all that I need. But he’s not giving it to me to store in my spiritual pantry. He wants me to rely on Him daily to supply my needs.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Because of the LORD’s great love

we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.

above image from chefboyardee.com

Thomas the Doubter

"The Incredulity of St. Thomas" by Caravaggio

housed in the Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany

Today I read the story of “Doubting Thomas.”

I’m sure you know this one: Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus appears to them after the Resurrection and so he doesn’t believe Jesus has actually risen. He announces that he will not in fact believe it until he has seen and touched Jesus for himself. Then Jesus Himself does appear and invites Thomas to inspect Him, after which Thomas is humbled and believes in Jesus.

The story ends with a blessing on those who have not seen and yet believe, obviously referring to future Christians.

This passage is usually interpreted as putting poor Thomas in a bad light. Even the name “Doubting Thomas” seems like an insult. In fact, author Dan Brown goes so far as to cast this story as a bit of anti-Thomas propaganda in the book The DaVinci Code, which is going a bit far I think.

Still, you can imagine all the disciples standing about smugly as Jesus shows Himself to Thomas, nodding to each other and saying, “See! WE TOLD you we saw Him!” Conveniently forgetting that they too had required the proof of their own eyes in order to believe, the disciples would have been reproving Thomas for his lack of faith.

But today I saw the story a little differently. Let’s read it first:

John 20:24-29

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus),one of the Twelve,

was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” 

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks

in His hands and put my finger where the nails were,

and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again,

and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked,

Jesus came and stood among them and said,

“Peace be with you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas,

“Put your finger here; see My hands.

Reach out your hand and put it into my side.

Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen Me,

you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen

and yet have believed.”

One thing that struck me here was the fact that Jesus made a special trip just to appear to Thomas. He had already completed His work on earth. He had appeared to several disciples after the Resurrection. He could have gone ahead and trundled off to Heaven, but He came to see Thomas instead.

Did He do this in order to rebuke Thomas for his lack of faith? Or in order to reassure him?

To me His words here seem gentle and comforting. He offers no recriminations; He only instructs Thomas to “stop doubting and believe.” He doesn’t even throw in an “O ye of little faith!”

In His compassion, He comes to see Thomas and Thomas alone, to let a beloved disciple that He was indeed alive, and to shore up the crumbing faith of one He cared for.

In this light, I find the story encouraging. Jesus is shown here as the One who comes to us to reassure us. As the Psalmist says in chapter 103,verses 13-14:

“As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him;
for He knows how we are formed,
He remembers that we are dust.”

Instead of sitting up in Heaven waiting to bop us on the head and rebuke us for our failings, the Lord has compassion on us, and wants to help us instead.

Even those of us who are “Doubting Thomases!”

There's No Gold Star Award For Mommy

Motherhood is the original thankless job.
(I know they say it’s the second-oldest profession, but surely there was SOME gratitude involved for the first!)

Since the first child was born, mothers have been pouring all their mental, emotional and material resources into their babies and receiving very little in return.

I know, we receive their love and sweet little smiles. Sometimes.

But we also receive their tantrums. And their screams. And, well, their poop.

And then they get bigger, which is a whole new problem.

That’s the way it has to be, right?

After all, one day our kids will have their own children who will turn around to do the same thing to them.

(Unless they’re boys. But that’s another story.)

So we all understand that this is way it has to be when you’re raising children.

But I tell you, it’s tough when you’re going through it.

As author Jo Anne Miller said, “The work of motherhood is unseen, intangible, unrewarded and unending.”

You said it, sister!

Just trying to write this short essay I’ve been interrupted a good fifteen times by my own demanding toddlers.

Would it be so hard for them to just say a little thank-you in return?

(Yes. I know. They’re TODDLERS. I’m dreaming here.)

But the truth is, I’m not supposed to even be looking for anything in return for my efforts as a mother OR as a Christian.

Colossians 3:23-24

23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Matt 6:1-4

1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Hmmm. So it looks like I’ve had the wrong idea all along here. We’re not supposed to be working for any rewards, even gratitude. We do it all as unto the Lord, in an attitude of thankfulness for all He's given US.

After all, aren't WE the original thankless children?


above image from amazon.com

Who Controls the Future? Not Me!

"Corn Fields and Poppies" by Vincent Van Gogh, Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Here are some thoughts I wrote a while ago on a pair of Scriptures:

Mark 4:26-29
Jesus also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

I Corinthians 3:6-9
I (Paul) planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.

Those are pretty cool when read together, don’t you think?

This is very timely for me right now: I’ve been thinking a lot about What Is My Purpose Here On Earth and all that. Maybe it’s a midlife crisis thing or something; I’m coming up on my 40th birthday soon. (If you see me buying a red sports car, stop me! Ha ha)

But, the thing is, much of what I do every day as a mother seems absolutely pointless. I mean, I wash clothes, and they get dirty again. I feed people, and they get hungry again. I clean the house, and it gets messed up again. It’s frustrating. Maybe you know what I’m talking about. At the end of the day, I look back and ask, “What have I accomplished today?” Rarely can I hold up some sort of finished product and say, “THIS! I completed this thing here!”

And sometimes it seems like the best thing I can say at the end of the day is, “The children are all still alive! I have sustained these five lives for one more day!” And maybe that IS enough. But I always feel like I’m falling short, that I’m not doing a good enough job as a mother. Especially when one or the other of them does something that makes me say, “What have I done WRONG that my child would ACT this way!” (Which is pretty much every day when there are so many of them. At least they take turns.) I worry about their futures, about what kind of people they will become, and what they’ll have to tell their therapists about me when they grow up.

Anyways, back to the Bible. What this Scripture is saying to me is, Just do YOUR job, and leave the finished product to God. As human beings, we want to control so many things that are really up to God. The truth is, we can’t even make a seed grow! We can do our part, planting and watering and all that, but ultimately, the result is in God‘s hands. HE must grow the seed. He controls the future, and we don’t.

And so what I have to do is trust God, and keep doing what He has set in front of me to do. And that’s both the easiest and the hardest thing about life!

It's NOT About Me?!

"Greek Slave Girl" by Whistler

Here's a reflection I wrote several months ago after reading a devotion.

The Scripture passage was 2 Kings 5:1-14, the story of Naaman the leper who went to Elisha for healing. I’ve read this story before, but here’s what the devotional writer in my “Upper Room” book had to say about it:

IF this story were being made into a Hollywood movie,

the title role of Naaman would probably be played by

a famous, handsome leading man. On the other hand,

the part of the nameless captive girl would probably be

played by a less-than-famous, less-than-glamorous

character actress. But in fact the girl captive is central

to the plot. God chooses to heal Naaman through Elisha

not because Naaman had won any particular favor with God;

Naaman's healing was to demonstrate to the unnamed,

doubting king of Israel that "there is a prophet in Israel,"

that God was active in that time and place. In this story,

the lives of both the captive girl and Naaman reveal

God's power.

We are often told that the world does not revolve around us.

But the story of Naaman and the captive girl suggests

that even our own lives do not revolve around us.

We are not stars of our own biographical movies but

players in the larger story of God's kingdom.

"What have I done to deserve this?" is not the right question

in times of either blessing or tribulation. Instead we can ask,

"How can I be useful in God's kingdom in my present circumstances?"

(written by Michael McDonald of NC)

Wow. I found this to be very profound, because the truth is, I want to be the star of my own show. I’m a product of the “Me Generation.” (or is that the Pepsi Generation? Ha ha)

We’ve all grown up with this idea I think, that our life is our own to do what we want with. From Frank Sinatra’s “I Did it My Way” to Billy Joel’s “My Life,” that’s the message we’ve received in this individualistic culture. We believe “It’s all about ME!” (to quote another song--I’ve a got a million of ‘em!)

To be told that this is not so is a radical idea. To accept that my life is not about what I want flies in the face of every natural instinct that I have.

But Jesus Himself said, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” (Mark 8:35, also in Matthew)

So clearly we’re being instructed to let go of our own plans for our lives and let God work what He wills for us. This is obviously not the first time I’ve heard this idea; it’s a familiar one to most Christians I think, on an intellectual level.

But on a personal level, to think of this servant girl so many years ago, to realize that the ENITRE PURPOSE OF HER LIFE was in that one conversation with her mistress about the prophet of Israel who could heal her master; well, that’s astounding.

I mean, this was a real girl, with a family and friends back home in Israel, plucked from her homeland and sold into slavery to a bunch of heathen foreigners. She probably suffered quite a bit: loneliness, confusion, even physical deprivation. She was a SLAVE! That’s probably about the LAST plan anyone would choose for their life! It’s a tragedy of a life, by any rational standard.

But God allowed all of that to happen in order for her to fulfill her purpose. And she herself stayed faithful to God… and how do we know this? Because she did not allow herself to become embittered by her circumstances; she had compassion on her master (her oppressor to put it bluntly!) and she remembered that there was a prophet in Israel who could help him.

But again, I keep coming back to this: That’s ALL her purpose was? One conversation to set in motion the events of 2nd Kings chapter 5?

My reaction here is, What is gyp! (not very spiritual, but there it is!) You know, my instinct is to say, if I'm going to give up all of my plans and follow God's plan, then He'd better have something REALLY COOL for me to do!

I find it difficult to accept that an entire life can exist for one simple moment. Everything she went through, all her trouble and suffering, and that’s all it was for? One sentence recorded in Scripture for us to read thousands of years later? That's IT?!?!

But what if she hadn’t said it?

She would still have gone through all that trouble; it had already happened. And God would still have fulfilled His plan, because He is sovereign and that’s what He does. But she wouldn’t have been a part of it. She wouldn’t have done what she was meant to do.

And THAT’S a real tragedy.

That’s what I DON’T want for my life. So even if my purpose is something as small as hers was, I want to fulfill it. God give me the strength and wisdom to do whatever it is You have for me to do. And that’s my prayer for today.

What Should We Boast About?

The Conversion of St Paul by Peter Paul Rubens

In 2nd Corinthians 11, Paul is trying to refute the teachings of those false apostles who are leading his flock astray. Apparently they were claiming to be more qualified to teach than he was, and he decided to list his own credentials in verses 21b-28:

If they can brag, so can I, but it is a foolish thing to do. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Jews? So am I. Are they from the family of Abraham? Well, so am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a fool to talk this way, but I serve him better than they do. I have worked harder and have been put in jail more times. I have been beaten with whips more and have been in danger of death more often.
Five times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes with a whip. Three times the Romans beat me with a big stick, and once my enemies stoned me. I have been shipwrecked three times, and I even had to spend a night and a day in the sea. During my many travels, I have been in danger from rivers, robbers, my own people, and foreigners. My life has been in danger in cities, in deserts, at sea, and with people who only pretended to be the Lord's followers.
I have worked and struggled and spent many sleepless nights. I have gone hungry and thirsty and often had nothing to eat. I have been cold from not having enough clothes to keep me warm. Besides everything else, each day I am burdened down, worrying about all the churches.

It’s interesting that when Paul begins his “boast”, what does he spend most of his time boasting about? About his trials! All the bad things that had happened to him since he’d begun following Christ.

Hey, um, Paul? News flash! There are cooler things to brag about than getting whupped up on by the Romans.

But apparently this is what we are all called to do: to boast, not in our accomplishments, but in our struggles. (Not exactly the best way to pad the old resume, right?)

Consider James 1:2-4:

My friends, be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble. You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested. But you must learn to endure everything, so that you will be completely mature and not lacking in anything.

And as Paul himself wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:9:

But he replied, "My kindness is all you need. My power is strongest when you are weak." So if Christ keeps giving me his power, I will gladly brag about how weak I am.

I wonder how that would look, if all of us as Christians spent time boasting not about our strengths, but about our weaknesses.

It would certainly set us apart from the world, wouldn’t it?

The Work of the Harvest

"The Harvesters" by Pieter Bruegel the Elder,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Two readings from Matthew:

Matthew 13:10-17
10The disciples came to Him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'
16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

This is right in the middle of the parable of the sower, before Jesus gives the disciples the explanation of what the parable means. I find it interesting that He basically tells them that they already have understanding given to them, even though they don't realize it. They understand more than they think they understand.

I think sometimes we are like this; we ask God continually to tell us what we already know. Thankfully, He often obliges. But it is important to remember that He is not asking us to do anything He has not already equipped us to do.

Here's the second passage:

Matthew 9:35-38
35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then He said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

I notice here that He doesn't order them to do the work of the harvest. (Unlike other times in the Gospels, such as when He says, "YOU give them something to eat," before the feeding of the 5000.) He asks them to pray to God to send workers.

The work of the harvest is hard, and He wants us to WANT to do it before we begin.

I am reminded of Isaiah 6, which (not coincidentally) Jesus was quoting in the Matthew 13 passage. This passage is often referred to as "The Call of Isaiah," but as it was pointed out to me recently, Isaiah was not called. He volunteered!

Isaiah 6:8
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Right after that, in Isaiah 6:9-10, come the verses Jesus quoted about how people will not listen and they will not understand. That's the bummer of the work of the harvest: it is a calling to deliver a message that no one wants to hear, that people will actively close their ears to. But we are asked to pray that God will send workers to do this.

And we are challenged to answer His call with "Here am I. Send me!"

I'm still working on the praying part, personally...

Opportunities for Mercy

Veronese's "Christ Healing the Woman With the Issue of Blood"

from the National Gallery, London

The recommended Bible reading for Friday looked like it was a typo to me at first.

Luke 8:40-42
So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. And he fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
But as He went, the multitudes thronged Him.

That’s it. Stop right there.

I mean, seriously! Doesn’t that look like a mistake? We’re right in the middle of the story of Jairus’ daughter and making our way towards the woman with the issue of blood, and we stop here at the end of verse 42 with people crowding around Jesus?

So I looked back at my book and noticed that the theme was on “Waiting to Receive Instructions.” Could they have stopped at verse 42 on purpose after all?

Let’s look at the story a little more closely.

Circumstances were preventing Jesus from reaching His goal as quickly as He probably would have liked. So what did He do?

He didn’t order His disciples to clear these annoying folks away so He could go about His important business.

He didn’t whine about the fact that He wasn’t ever going to get anything done if people didn’t get out of His way.

He didn’t yell, “Everybody MOVE! Son of God coming through here!”

Instead He had patience. He knew that His Father was in control of circumstances, and He just watched to see what opportunities this delay would bring.

Enter the hemorrhaging woman. Now you’ve probably read this story before so I don’t have to copy verses 43-48 here. We all know the woman touches the hem of His garment and is healed. But the important thing was that Jesus took the time to notice her and have mercy on her.

That’s something He would not have been able to do if His focus had been on all the stuff He wasn’t getting done because of the annoying crowd all around Him.

In other words, we should never get too busy to pay attention to others and have mercy on them. We should never see the people around us as a bunch of obstacles in the way of all the things we need to get done.

As a mother, I am completely guilty of this. The constant interruptions my children bring usually drive me insane. Quite often I am too focused on all that I’m not getting done, rather than on the people I’m actually doing all this stuff for, namely those same annoying little interrupters.

Instead I should be taking the opportunity to show mercy in the way Jesus did.

Following are two more verses about keeping mercy at the forefront of our minds:

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

As a side note, my kids interrupted me approximately 4000 times while writing this. (Numbers are not exact.)

Maybe binding a reminder to be merciful around my neck is a good idea...

Loving One Another

I was talking to my kids about how their name-calling upsets me.

I said, “When you call your sister a bad name, it’s like you’re calling me a bad name, because I love your sister the same way I love you.”

My youngest daughter’s eyes got big. “But I wouldn’t call YOU a bad name, Mommy.”

“But that’s what you’re doing all the same,” I explained.

She looked thoughtful.

Her oldest sister rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

I don’t know if the lesson really got through to them, but I was serious. It hurts me when my daughters hurt each other.

Then at my Bible study class, we read the following verses:

1st John 3:14-15
Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don't love each other, you are still under the power of death. If you hate each other, you are murderers, and we know that murderers do not have eternal life.

1st John 4:20-21
But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other!"

I suddenly thought, God feels exactly the same way about His children!

Because He loves us, He wants us to love each other.

And in the same way, when we hate each other, it’s like we’re hating Him.

Pretty strong stuff.

I just hope the lesson sinks in a little better on me…

"Love" image from CD cover art bandcamp.com

The Faith of Abram

               "March of Abraham" by Jozsef Molnar

I was reading about Abram, the usual passage in Genesis 12 where God tells him to go out from his home to the promised land. Here’s verses 1-7:

1 The LORD had said to Abram,
“Go from your country,
your people and your father’s household
to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

Okay, this is a pretty familiar story: Abram leaves what he knows and heads out into the unknown, because God told him to.

And we all know this as the evidence of Abram’s great faith, that before he was called Abraham, before he received the son of the promise ( a full twenty-five years before that!), he had faith in God and obeyed His word. He heard God speak and he packed up and went straight to Canaan.

As Genesis 15:6 says:
Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.

But backing up just a bit, to Genesis chapter 11, we see a little about Abram’s family: his father Terah and his brothers Nahor and Haran.

Their native land was Ur of the Chaledeans, but they weren’t actually there when Abram received this call from God.

As Genesis 11:31 says:
Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.

So it turns out they were already on their way to Canaan when Abram received this call from God. Except they had stopped along the way and settled somewhere in between Ur and Canaan.

Had Terah heard the same call from God that Abram had?

This makes me wonder what would have happened if Terah had actually gone all the way to Canaan. What if he’d accomplished what he’d set out to do? Would he have been considered the father of God’s chosen people, instead of Abraham?

But that wasn’t God’s plan, or else that’s what would have happened!

So maybe God intended for him to just get started in that direction, so that Abram would be ready to carry out the rest of the journey his father had begun when the time came?

There’s no way to know the answers to these questions, but what this story shows me is the mighty hand of God reaching across history in ways that we can’t understand.

The Bible tells us Terah was 205 years old when he died, and that Abram was 75 when he received his call. That’s a lot of years, from the perspective of a human lifespan!

But from God’s perspective, of course, it’s not much at all.

God is working in ways we can’t see, all the time.

I can imagine Terah’s disappointment in never reaching his goal and never seeing the results of his journey. I can imagine Abram’s frustration, in reaching the ripe old age of 99 before he ever saw evidence that God was going to do what He’d promised. And even then he only saw partial results.

As Hebrews 11:13 tells us, when speaking of Abraham and the forefathers of faith:
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

So we never see the final fulfillment of God’s promises in our lifetimes. We never see the end of the story.

Because of course the story isn’t over! God’s still writing it.

For our part, all we can do is trust Him, that He will be faithful to keep His promises.

Short Verse, Long Message

Image from amazon.com

 John 11:35, “Jesus wept,” is the shortest verse in the Bible.

And Esther 8:9 is the longest verse, but that’s neither here nor there. (It has 78 words, in case you‘re wondering.)

This morning I read a devotional in the Upper Room about someone who said that John 11:35 was her favorite verse.

My first thought was, This is what a third-grader says to his Sunday school teacher when she asks him to memorize his favorite Bible verse. “Which is the shortest one, ma’am? Well, THAT’s my favorite!”

But this person actually preferred John 11:35 for its content, not its brevity. She said it showed how Jesus had compassion on people.

So I looked it up to see the context of this compassion.

This verse is smack in the middle of the Lazarus story. You know, the one where Jesus’ friend Lazarus is sick, Mary and Martha send for Jesus, and then Jesus dilly-dallies for a few days so that Lazarus dies before Jesus can get there. (verses 1-16)

Now we all know this story ends with Lazarus getting raised from the dead. But that isn’t until verse 44. So let’s try to get there in an orderly fashion, okay?

So, as the story goes on, Jesus arrives in Bethany (verse 17), talks to Martha (verse 21) and Mary (verse 32), and both of them say reproachfully, “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died.”

Obviously both of them were a little peeved at Him for not rushing over as soon as they called Him. Also both Mary and Martha are crying and wailing, very upset over their brother’s death.

And Jesus knew this. He knew how the sisters would be feeling before He even got there. Just like He already knew Lazarus was going to die, and He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

But the interesting thing here is, Jesus didn’t get all la-di-da about it either. He didn’t say, “It’s okay; I already know everything will work out at the end of the story.” He didn’t yell, “Calm down people! Don’t you realize JESUS is standing here with you? What are you getting so worked up about?”

What DID He do? Okay, NOW we’re on verse 35: “Jesus wept.”

Even though he knew there was nothing to cry about, He cried, out of compassion for Mary and Martha.

Even though He understood Lazarus was going to be alive again in five minutes, He wept with His friends because they were weeping.

Even though He realized the sisters’ grief was meaningless in the grand scheme of things and completely temporary, He grieved, because their grief was so real to them in that moment.

That’s the true meaning of compassion, modeled for us by Jesus Himself.

“Jesus wept.”

Let God Arise!

Image from Kol Simcha CD

Today’s Scripture is Psalm 68:1-3.

1 Let God arise,
Let His enemies be scattered;
Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.
2 As smoke is driven away,
So drive them away;
As wax melts before the fire,
So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
3 But let the righteous be glad;
Let them rejoice before God;
Yes, let them rejoice exceedingly.

It’s always a little problematic for me to interpret passages about the “enemies” of God.

I mean, we’re always taught that God loves everyone, right?

1st John 4:8 says “God is love,” and Romans 2:11 tells us, “There is no partiality with God.” 2nd Peter 3:9 says God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” This message is repeated several times in the New Testament.

Sounds to me like no one is God’s enemy.

However, I know that in the Old Testament, pretty much everyone except the Israelites were the enemies of God. But even then, there are instances in which He showed mercy on those who were not His chosen people.

For example, He sent Jonah to preach to Nineveh, possibly the worst of the idol-worshipping cities of the day. And then He accepted their sincere repentance!

And of course, God sent His Son Jesus to die for all the world, Gentiles included, ultimately showing that He does not consider any of us enemies, but wants to bring us into relationship with Him.

So what does this Psalm above mean for us in this post-New-Testament world?

Although I don’t believe any PERSON to be the enemy of God--not even Osama Bin Laden!--He does have enemies in this world.

Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

The enemies of God are not people; they are the spiritual things that separate us from Him.

And according to this Psalm, God will arise, and these lesser things--His enemies--will be scattered! They will blow away and melt before Him! (Can I get an AMEN?)

The image in verse three reminded me of a sculpture class I once took, where we learned about a process called “lost-wax casting.”

Lost wax casting is pretty involved according to wikipedia. It’s used for metal sculptures, such as bronze or aluminum. I learned a simplified version--it was a beginning class.

The basic idea is: you begin with a wax model of the sculpture you intend to make, which you encase into a fire-proof mold. (We used tightly packed sand.)

Image from wikipedia

Then you pour the liquid metal (over a thousand degrees Centigrade!) onto the wax, which will melt away, leaving behind a metal image of the thing you originally made out of wax.


When I thought of this, the spiritual implications came to me immediately.

I mean, isn’t that what we ultimately want as Christians? To have the sinful and temporal (waxen) parts of us to be lost, while we are reformed in the perfect and eternal (metal) image of Christ?

Although that doesn’t sound particularly COMFORTABLE, I know this should be my goal. So my prayer today is that I will allow God to pour Himself into me, melting away all the useless wax inside.

Let God arise, and let all that is not of Him be scattered!

"Little Ballerina of Fourteen Years," bronze by Edgar Degas

Choose Life!

I have a personal tendency to look on the dark side of things.

I’m not exactly proud of that, but it's just the truth.

Whenever something bad happens, or when something is more difficult than I had anticipated, or I fail at something, I tend to despair and say to myself, "Oh it’s just too hard. I’ll never get it right. It'll never get better.”

Again, I’m not proud of it; it's just the truth. Just trying to be honest with you here.

This is especially frustrating because as a Christian, I know that I should have hope for the future. I should have faith that God will work out all things for my good as Romans 8:28 says. I should remember the promise of Jeremiah 29:11, that the Lord has good plans for me, to give me a hope and a future.

And this is easy to do when the sun is shining, and all is right with the world. Well, it’s easiER.

In more personal terms: It’s easier to do when no one is fighting, and nothing is boiling over on the stove, and a huge mound of dirty laundry isn’t staring me in the face even though I JUST FOLDED AND PUT AWAY LIKE FIVE LOADS!

You’re probably thinking, “WHAT? Is that all your problem is? It THAT what makes you feel despairing? LAUNDRY?! Lady, your life must be easy-peasy!”

And maybe you’re right. But again, I’m being honest. It’s not the big crises that throw me into despair. The big crises are when I can have faith, and pray and know that God always pulls through for me. 

It’s the little annoying things that get me down. Like that Francesca Battistelli song, the one where she loses her keys and can‘t find her phone: “This is the stuff that drives me crazy…In the middle of my little mess, I forget how big I’m blessed.”

It’s the millionth time a day I’ve broken up a fight over the “good” spot in front of the TV. It’s the we’re-late-let’s-go-walk-out-the-door-why-can’t-you-find your-SHOES?! It’s the broken back window on my car, just when I already had two other unexpected expenses this month.

So that’s when it gets hard for me. Because for me, it’s easier to trust God in the big things that in the small things.

On Sunday I heard an Easter message. The pastor said, “Every time we choose hope over despair, Easter happens again.” At least I think that‘s what she said. It sounded better when she said it. I probably should have written it down.

That phrase really hit me. The “every time” part. It’s not a one-time choice, like the decision to become a Christian. It’s a daily decision.

I thought of Joshua 24:15, “Choose THIS DAY whom you will serve.”

And of Deuteronomy 30:19, “THIS DAY.. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life!”

So the Bible clearly says you must choose daily. I must make a conscious decision EVERY DAY if I‘m going to serve God or serve myself, if I’m going to hold onto hope or bow down to despair.

And some days I make the right choice…and some days I don’t.

But every day I get a new chance to choose, for His mercies are new every morning.

Every day we all get the chance to say, “THIS DAY I choose life! THIS DAY I choose hope! THIS DAY I choose to serve the Lord!”

Above images from the CD's "This is the Stuff" and "Disarming the Darkness"

God's Plan: He's Got the Whole World...

This is the first thing I wrote when beginning my devotional group last year.

I usually read two Scripture passages; I have a devotional book with a suggested reading accompanying it, and I have a list of the lectionary readings for each day.

This morning I read Jeremiah 29:1-7, which was very interesting; one often hears verses 11-13 quoted from chapter 29 but I don't remember ever hearing the beginning of the chapter before. It is about God's instructions during captivity. Basically he tells the Israelites to keep on keeping on until the captivity is over.

And that's the context that verse 11 comes from: they need to hold on and keep following God because His plans for them are to give them a hope and a future.

Then in the NT I read the story of Anna the prophetess from Luke 2. Anna was 84 years old and waiting her whole life to see the Messiah; God granted her this desire before she died.

These two Bible passages together say this to me:

I don't know God's plan for my life. I can't possibly know it, no matter how much I want to.

I can't know why things happen the way they do, or how my little life fits into God's grand plan for the whole world. All I can do is trust that there IS a bigger plan, and a reason for everything I don't understand, and trust His word that says His plans are for good and not for evil, to give me a hope and a future.

Hope in the Midst of Trouble

 

Rembrandt's "The Prophet Jeremiah" from http://rembrandtmuseum.com/art.shtml

This morning I read from Lamentations, chapter 3.

Yeah, I know. THAT’S the way to start your day, with a reading from Lamentations! Yay.

Or that’s what I was thinking when I saw the assigned reading in my book. Good old prophet Jeremiah, always an upper, right?

But it was actually an encouragement! Here are verses 21 through 26 in the NIV:

21 Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26 it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

This is right in the middle of all the terrible stuff that the book of Lamentations is famous for.

To me, this was an incredible source of hope. In the midst of all the bad things Jeremiah was going through, he was still able to hope in God. He was still assured that salvation was coming from the Lord.

In fact, just before this, in verses 17 through 20, the prophet describes his feelings:

17 I have been deprived of peace;
I have forgotten what prosperity is.
18 So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the LORD.”
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.

I don’t know if I could write better portrayal of depression than this, the “everything good is gone and nothing is ever going to get better” feeling he’s just described here.

But in the middle of this black despair, there is still hope. Now that’s encouragement!

Why am I Making a Devotional Blog?

The short answer is: I want to share what I've received in my personal devotionals with others, in the hopes that Christian women will be encouraged.

Oh, did you want the long answer? Read on!

Last year I was involved in a devotional group with some friends online with goodmorninggirls.com. This was a seasonal thing, which I believe they will start again in the winter.

It was really encouraging to read what other Christian women had gleaned from their Bible readings and morning devotions, and it helped me personally collect my thoughts when I wrote them down to share with others in my group.

This morning when I was reading my own devotional, I thought again about sharing what I was hearing from God's Word.

Personally, I have been feeling in great need of encouragement recently, and I know other women are probably feeling the same.

I have thought about this before and wondered what format I could use to share encouragement. Then I realized...DUH! You have a blog!

I decided to make a separate blog for devotions, however, since my regular blog, mommyvsarmyof5.blogspot.com, is meant to be for funny observations about my life, and I feel like devotions are a whole different subject.

So that's the long and short of it. I plan to post here (hopefully!) once a week what God has revealed to me  through my morning Bible readings.

I hope you'll join me!