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 Her best desires for her son had been replaced by a Desire much greater: complex beyond comprehension, yet thoroughly good.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?

Kindness and the Lawnmower

Our lawn mower decided not to start. That was after the lawn got a growth spurt from the rains.

Our yard was beginning to look like we'd moved out already: the grass had to have been five inches high! I drove in from work and despaired that our lawn looked even worse between our neighbors' manicured yards.

Later, I was working on my computer and I looked out and watched Sue drive her mower beyond her property boundary, making repeated loops from her lawn to ours. With each turn, the side of our property was mowed. I was grateful because each fresh cut leveled a portion of my embarrassment.

I went out to apologize and explain the reason we hadn't cut our grass. Then I went to the shed to bring the lawnmower to the garage. I looked up to see Garry walking toward me offering to help me get it started as he had the week before.

When I explained my predicament, he helped me lift the lawnmower into the car, angle it and disassemble the handle so it could fit in the sloping hatch back -- a tedious task.

Driving home the next evening, I wondered how I could borrow or rent a lawnmower. I pulled in the drive and saw the front lawn neatly mowed. Honestly, the surprise sent me into giggles of joy.

My neighbor smiled when I went to thank her. She was happy to help. After all, my husband had helped hers when he was doing some construction, she said.

Today, I watched Garry use his rider to mow down the overgrowth in the back. Sam, our neighbor behind, mowed our extra 4 foot behind his yard to our tree line. How wonderful to have neighbors who help in practical ways! I'm amazed at their kindness and deeply thankful for their help.

God showed me love through my neighbors and their lawnmowers. They fulfilled Christ's law of love and my needs were lavishly met. That serendipity endears my Lord to me and makes me love Him more.


For Your Consideration

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:1, NIV)

Do you have any need that has grown beyond your ability? Have you asked for God's intervention?

You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand. (Galatians 6:2, CEV)

Might you extend a helping hand to your neighbor when you see a need with which you can help? Will you acknowledge the joy God must also receive as you express Christ's law of love to others?

One Little Word

This morning I read Hebrews 12:2 in the New King James Version. It says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

It was “unto” that first got my attention. I tried substitutes: “toward,” “up to,” “at,” and wondered how the different nuances might affect the way I looked to Jesus. Then I noticed my study bible had an explanation of “looking” from the Greek word, “aphorao.”

It is made of 2 words: apo, “away from,” and horao, “to see.” It denotes attention that is riveted to the object; undivided attention, without distraction, so the onlooker’s gaze is fixed on one object.

The New International Version translates the phrase, “Fix your eyes on Jesus.”

What happens when I rivet my eyes on Jesus? Or gaze upon His beauty? What if I lock in to try and absorb grandeur or power beyond my comprehension?

Is that how Jesus looked to His Father? Is that how He could stay on His Father’s track when hoards of people clamored for His attention and needed quick fixes?

I suspect Jesus’ early hours with His Father were extremely focused. He knew the value of the relationship, of locking eyes, focusing, and keeping the main thing the main thing.

I must try to remember this word -- aphorao (af-or-ah-oh).

Oh! Oh the wonder when I see Him, when I really look TO Him. It’s that look, that gaze, that persevering focus that keeps me encouraged. He endured past the cross and the shame. Because of His persistent focus, He pushed past weariness and finished His earthly assignment.

With His returned look, so will I.

For Your Consideration
What helps you fix your eyes on Jesus?
What helps you keep distractions to a minimum?