Living Fully at the Cash Register

I pushed the wheelchair to the register without the dress we were hoping for.

It was Mum’s first shopping trip in two years since her illness. Looking for suitable clothing had tired her out so I was conscious of the small talk the cashier was making with the customer ahead of us. If she wouldn’t chit-chat with her friends, I thought, we could get through more quickly.

When it was our turn, I found her warm -- not merely professional. I realized then that she was as genuinely friendly to us as she was to her previous customers. She directed us to where the better dresses were, and we wheeled over to them.

Our second time through the line, I complimented her on her outstanding customer service. As I completed the form she offered me to write my commendations to management, I couldn’t help but wonder if she might be a Christ follower: she was extraordinarily personable.

She efficiently took care of the sale, while she told us how she loved her job and considered it a blessing to be there. “I had been down for many, many months with an immune system disorder, not thinking I would ever recover.”

“But God is good and I’m now able to work again. Glory to God!”

No wonder, she was uncommon. Her can-do attitude was probably shaped, or at least strengthened, during her illness. Now her eyes and voice reflected an uncommon love of life and people.

I suspect it may have been the powerlessness she experienced during her illness that propelled her into God's great power to conquer and live fully in each moment.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35, 37, NIV)

For Your Consideration

Consider how your daily life might be transformed if you realized your health was in jeopardy.

How might you give your frustrations to Christ?

Meditate on the love of Jesus Christ pouring into your life at your point of greatest need.

Familiar Yet New

"Are you unpacked?" That's the question I have been asked lately.

"No, but I'm getting there." I'm still looking for ways to organize this new house in between finding my way in an unfamiliar city, cooking, doing laundry, and unpacking another box.

An interesting discovery has been how my morning times in the Scriptures and prayer have grounded me. In a time of unfamiliar roads, grocery stores, and light switches, when I sit in the same brown chair, though in a different room with a new view, I am "home." The same Lord, the same Word who spoke so regularly in the old place still speaks here.

This morning I read from Hebrews 4, a chapter which continues to intrigue me as I discover its gems.

"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts." (verse 7)

"Today ... hear his voice" eased into my heart.

Not long after is this recognizable verse (12):

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Today I can hear the living word of God. Today that word can speak cleansing. Today I can have confidence in the Word who is also my High Priest. He sympathizes with my displacement and gives me rest even when the work of unpacking and reorganizing stares me down (see verses 14-16).

So in the midst of the unfamiliar, I am confident. His familiar voice speaks what I need to know or remember.

Today I will unpack my heart with my High Priest, confident of His help as I call on him for the most mundane things. That's when I "receive mercy and find grace to help ... in ... time of need."

That familiar voice speaks a new word this day. What a solace in my time of upheaval!

For Your Consideration

What do you need to unpack with Jesus Christ, our High Priest?

If you are in a challenging day, what 'new' word do you need?

How to Share Your Comments

For those of you who have mentioned that you read my blog, thank you for your encouragement. Several, though, have said they didn't know how to post comments.

Look for the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Click on it and you'll get a screen where you can share your thoughts. You may share annonymously or you may give your name. (I like to know who I'm talking with, but would prefer an anonymous thought to none at all.)

I'm very thankful for the people who already share their thoughts with me. Extrovert that I am, it makes me feel as if I am connecting in a meaningful way. So join us, won't you?

I will be moving to Muncie the end of this month, so I probably won't post for a few weeks in favor of packing and more packing. I'll appreciate your prayers as we transition.

Have a great summer!

For Your Consideration

When you communicate with God, what helps you best hear the Holy Spirit's input?

Shorn Hair and The Holy

In place of her flowing hair a feathered headband cupped her recently shaved head. She didn't look as if she was on the other side of cancer, so I wondered why this dramatic transformation.

I went to hug her and commented on the half inch growth framing her bright face. She was astonished that I didn't know that Peter had a bout with cancer, and she had shaved her head to stand with him.

The more her story unfolded, the more I was aware that the ground underneath me was burning.

"Now I know how Abraham could sacrifice his Isaac," she told me. "I got to the place where I understood anything God did was good and for Peter's best. So I'd pray that God would have his complete way in his life. If he needed to vomit, let him."

Shirley stepped a foot away and continued. "Then I'd put on my Mommy hat and ask the Lord to please have mercy on him. Please don't let him be wiped out by the vomitting."

I sensed the weight of what had happened. Not only had her hair been shorn. Her will had been. And out of releasing her hair and her son -- both familiar and beautiful -- had come a greater beauty.

Her broken heart had expanded. Her shattered dreams had kaliedoscoped. Her best desires for her son had been replaced by a Desire much greater: complex beyond comprehension, yet thoroughly good.

I thought I was going to hear about a hair cut. Instead, I stood in the presence of the Holy.

For Your Consideration

What would be a costly sacrifice for you? How do you think God might provide (or has already provided) for you to live confidently in your shorn moments?

(See Genesis 22 for Abraham and Isaac's experience with costly worship.)

Marker

I was the worst mother when I refused to allow my then chubby 12 year old to wear a stylish but short skirt. I was firm, but she pressed back with everything she had.

I knew it was hard to find stylish clothes to fit her, so I knew my input was devastating. More than wanting her to feel pretty, I wanted her to dress tastefully and understand modesty.

I agreed: we’d ask her father’s input. He was a fair man and had balanced my more stringent cultural background on different occasions, so she had a shred of hope.

When he agreed that the outfit was unbecoming for our daughter, her eyes flashed and her words nailed the air with disgust.

However, it became a marker in her life. Despite the anger she felt, she remembers that we cared enough to stand up for her best.

Sometimes God insists on His way despite what we've clearly told Him was best. Thankfully, our anger does not deter His goodness ... and we live to thank Him.

That’s when we look back and appreciate the firm Kindness that covered us.


For Your Consideration

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:9, NIV)

Can you recall an incident that seemed devasting but which actually worked to your benefit in the long run?

Yeshua Almighty

She was bent and looked up from a weathered face of 81 years.

There was a quality beyond her looks that drew me to her. I'd been sitting next to her making occasional small talk at the gate. She was articulate, though a bit forgetful, and I could tell she was worried about getting her carry-on luggage in the overhead compartments.

I felt an assignment to make sure she felt secure... as if she were family. I helped remind her where her seat was: one behind mine. To reassure her, I waved to her before I started to sit. The man behind me asked if I'd like to trade seats.

So began a conversation that left us both changed. "You understand older people, don't you."

(I always ask the Lord to guide me to meaningful conversations or good rest whenever I fly.)

She came from a home where her mother hated her. Her older sister, before she died, apologized for being so mean to her. It reminded me of Cinderella, except Hilda had had no carriage, no glass slipper, and no palace life.

She did have a man who had been interested in her and courted her for years. But she was afraid that his controlling sister and mother were only too familiar.

Now, a year after his death, she was grieving what she could have had, missing his care, wondering if it might have worked.

We talked of faith, of the "Almighty" as she referred to G-O-D, and commented on His surprising similarity to the Jesus I talked about.

She didn't think she was the poorer for her experiences. Just sad. I reminded her of Joseph's comment to his brothers. "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good" (Genesis 50:20).

They could have made her bitter, those close encounters with rejection. But they didn't. She described how she broke the generational meanness by deliberately speaking encouragment into a younger relative who had also been picked on. There was a sensitivity, an openness to others who were vulnerable.

There were times she looked straight into my eyes and I into hers. Brokenness met brokenness. "Mine keeps being mended by Yeshua," I told her.

"How do you pronounce 'Yeshua' in Hebrew?" I asked. "You don't," she flashed back with a smile. In spite of her custom, I knew that same Yeshua would reveal more of Himself.

We shared slices of our lives and precious discoveries from our faith.

She nodded. "I'm very glad we had this conversation. It has helped me."

I'm glad too, Hilda. May Yeshua, closer than a brother, be your comfort and your peace.

For Your Consideration

"There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother" (Proverbs 18:24).

How have you experienced Christ saving presence in the twists of your life?

[Note: Name and photograph have been changed.]

Cloud Covering

"[God] spread out a cloud as a covering,
and a fire to give light at night" (Psalm 105:20)

It is one little verse out of forty-five, and one provision of several others the psalmist describes. He urges the people to rejoice in their great God.

"Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.... Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced" (verses 2 and 5).

The psalmist recounts the miracles God used to deliver Israel from Egypt and to supply their needs in the desert. He produced plagues of frogs, gnats, and locusts in Egypt, and supplies of quail, manna, and water in the desert. Their covenant-keeping God was doing the miraculous to help them get to a place to worship Him.

But it was the cloud covering that caught my eye this morning. A cloud to stay the scorching heat. A cloud in the waterless desert.

I've never trekked across north African desert, but pictures record endless sand dunes and hot, rainless skies. I find it amazing that God would use a cloud to stay the heat and guide them at the same time.

Depending on our desert, God will provide the cloud. Our desert and cloud may look quite different from the picture above. The desert might be a glamorous place filled with sound and lights, and the cloud the pages of a Psalm.

Today, God reminded me that He would provide just what I need, and would guide me in the way I needed to go.

I just have to ask. "They asked, and he ...satisfied them ...." (verse 40)

For Your Consideration

What does your desert look like?

What provision or guidance do you need, and have you asked God for it?

Which of God's "wonderful acts" prompts you to share His goodness and power?