Life as a Christian Woman

Recently, one of my friends posted online asking for prayer for a baby named Stellan. I followed the link to a blog, where Stellan’s mom writes daily updates on his condition. Stellan is a five-month old little boy who was never supposed to make it. While still in utero, he developed something called “Superventricular tachycardia” (SVT), a rhythm disorder of the heart that makes his little heart race for hours, days, even weeks. But the little guy’s heart settled down, and he was born healthy as could be, defying the doctors.

Until about 10 days ago. Stellan was feeling puny, and his mom took him in to get checked out. The doctor gave Stellan a nebulizer treatment, which abruptly sent him into SVT. Over the course of more than a week, little Stellan has been given a blood transfusion, fluids, gone through vomiting and diarrhea, all the while his heart racing uncontrollably.

I won’t go into all the details, because I want you to visit the blog and read for yourself (click here to visit the site)… frankly, I can’t do it justice. But I will tell you that in the past 48 hours, Stellan’s heart has been returning more often to a normal sinus rhythm.

What makes Stellan’s story compelling to me is his mom’s blog. She is a woman of faith. She calls herself MckMama (her husband is dubbed Prince Charming and her four kids are known as

Big Mac, Mcknugget, Small Fry and Stellan is Mckmuffin). In her writing she deals with the frustration and anger of a sick child, fears of what is to come, no sleep, nowhere to sleep, medical personnel that talk around her or don’t talk to her at all… on and on. She is tired, cranky, sad, weepy, you name it. But her faith never waivers. NEVER!

I have been so amazingly blessed by her strength, her ability to put a voice to what she is going through. This little midwestern mom’s blog is now regularly drawing over 200,000 readers a day. When she first thought she was going to lose Stellan, months ago when he was still in her womb, she began asking family and friends to take pictures of Stellan’s name all over… at ballgames, in fields, classrooms, church, wherever. A way to have Stellan travel the world she feared he might never know.

She called it Stellan’s Name Gallery. And photos came in. And then Stellan was born, but photos continued coming in. And now, with people all over the world praying, the names are coming in even faster. Stellan’s name has been written in the sands of the desert in Senegal. His name has appeared in front of the Eiffel Tower. A group of women have prayed for him in Ivory Coast.

Wow.

All this has calmed Mckmama, knowing that a world is praying for her son. And she hopes that once Stellan is better, she can wallpaper his room with all these pictures, so as he grows up he will see how he was loved and prayed for.

Mckmama knows that Stellan has a tough road. She is at peace with whatever God sends them. That doesn’t mean she accepts it happily. But it does mean that she trusts our creator completely.

I hope you will take time to read MyCharmingKids.com (follow this link to the site).  Look at the left of the page and click on Stellan’s Name Gallery and look at pictures from around the world. If you feel led, take a picture and send to the sight.

And say a prayer for Stellan.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Mahatma Gandhi

We hear it all the time. Christians are hypocrites. Christians think they are better than everyone else. Christians think they have all the answers. Christians say one thing and do another.

All those statements have been true at one time or another. We can really get on our high horse. We can pontificate until the cows come home… or in our case, Jesus returns. In other words, we are human.

When the unsaved look at us, they see a mirror image of themselves. Flawed. Sinful. Imperfect. They expect more. After all, don’t we try to let others see Jesus in us? But often others are looking at the wrong thing. We, as Christians, should never claim perfection, or that we are “better” than others. We aren’t. We are saved. We are forgiven. But we alone aren’t God’s children. All people belong to Him.

Often where those who are seeking the truth err is that they expect to look at us and see Christ, they expect us to pour a saving grace upon them. But we cannot save them. What we are called to be is God’s conduit to a lost world. And we need to keep that role in our minds as we try to lead others to Christ. We need to re-orient their sight from us, to God above.

When they look at us, they see the result of a life rescued by Christ. It isn’t a life without torment, without problems, without sin. It is a life redeemed. And it is a life that overflows with God’s love.

That’s the face we need to show the world, a face of love. That is the face of God.

I just finished watching the episode of ABC’s news show Nightline dealing with “Does Satan Exist.” The show featured philosopher Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson facing off against Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church and Annie Lobert, founder of the Christian ministry Hookers for Jesus.

I feel like I have been through about 100 stages in the hour that I have been watching the program. Anger. Joy. Grief. Pity. Disbelief. And that was just in the first five minutes!

I tried to take notes throughout the program, but about halfway through I quit and just took it all in. If you haven’t yet watched the program, it is available online (click HERE to view, or go to abcnews.com/nightline/faceoff).

I’ll try to give you a little bit of what I took from the program. While the show was billed as being about the reality of Satan, and it did have dialogue on the issue, much more centered on whether there is a God, whether the Bible is real. I am always amazed that some of those who consider themselves scientists think that science disproves God.  It doesn’t. But what much of the show boiled down to was Chopra aluding that we all evolve at different planes, and that those that are more highly evolved have no need to believe in a god or a devil, that it is mythology for the weak.

Chopra says that “All belief is a cover-up for insecurity.” He goes on to say that if something is real, you don’t have to believe in it, you experience it. I enjoy good debate. And I love words, I love language. I was raised to believe that words are powerful. But doublespeak is doublespeak. Chopra used for his example gravity. We don’t have to believe it exists because it exists. Circular logic at best. This intelligent, well-read and studied man is missing the simple meaning of the word “believe.” As defined, BELIEVE means “to accept as true.” Therefore, I believe gravity exists.

And I believe in God.

Other points that Chopra made were:

• The most fervent believers in the world are the cause of all the problems in the world right now.
• I want to be in the company of those who seek the truth, I want to run from those who have found it.

Deepak Chopra on ABC’s Nightline

Now, I hate to quibble, but since I am standing on my “wordsmith” box, the definition of “fervent” is “ardent love; sincere or intensely felt; intense emotion.” I have a fervent love of my God, as I’m sure most if not all of you do. I love Him with every ounce of my being. And I’m not sure what problems I am causing in the world with that belief. The true lovers of God that I know go out into the world in love, seeking His kingdom, and to add to His kingdom through love of others. The people that I believe Chopra is referring to, the ones that he names when he speaks of the more than 30 wars going on world-wide, all of which he attributes to religion, are not lovers of God. They have taken God and distorted Him for their own purposes, just as Chopra distorts his vision of who is causing these wars for his own purposes.

One of my favorite exchanges came early in the program:

Chopra: “What convinces you that God is a he?”
Driscoll: “Jesus. You may have heard of Him. Really big dude.”
Chopra: “My god is not a sexist god, thank God.”

I admit I spent most of the program angry. Angry that because I am a Christian, I am dismissed as ignorant as well as one who causes worldwide wars and devastation. But suddenly, my heart changed. And I was sad.

Sad because this one man influences so many. Sad, because he just doesn’t get it.

Now some may say that I’m the one that doesn’t get it. But I do. And I’m adding Mr. Chopra to my prayer list. Why?

Because I BELIEVE FERVENTLY that he needs to meet my God, to know my Jesus.

Does Satan Exist?

That was the question posed on tonight’s episode of ABC’s news program Nightline. According to ABC’s website, this was the third in a series entitled “Nightline Face-Off.” The first episode, in 2007, had Kirk Cameron and his partner at The Way of the Master debating God’s existence with two self-proclaimed atheists.

Tonight’s episode, “Does Satan Exist,” pitted Pastor Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church) and Annie Lobart (founder of the Christian Ministry “Hookers for Jesus”) against philospher Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson

The show was taped at Mars Hill Church, which has seven locations in Washington state, including Seattle and Tacoma.

I only saw the tail end of the debate, but thanks to modern technology I will be watching the entire thing (even parts that didn’t make it on air) on ABC.com this weekend. (To view the program, follow this link: www.abcnews.go.com/nightline/faceoff)

I encourage everyone to watch the debate. Just the few minutes that I have seen were enough to both encourage me and really tick me off!  On Monday, I will go in-depth on the program for those that are not able to watch it, and perhaps start a dialogue with those who do see the program.

In the meantime, enjoy the weekend… see you in church!

I’ve been watching a lot of college basketball lately. Every now and then, during a post-game interview, you will hear an athlete say something along the lines of “First, I want to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

The commentator goes on with the interview and that’s that.

But the next day, on talk radio and TV sports shows you can hear the little jabs that come out. The appropriateness of sharing one’s faith in that moment is not just questioned, quite often it is ridiculed. Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner has a faith that others strive for, as well as skills that athletes dream of. When he led the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl Championship a few years back, he famously acknowledged God’s role in his life on that world-wide stage after the game. And he immediately became a target of derision (it should be noted that Warner never blinked an eye at the criticism. He is a man who is well-aware of what is most important in life).

The fact is, most news people in general hate it when God’s name is invoked after a big win. Even those that profess to be Christians are made uncomfortable when God’s name makes an appearance in an interview.

A few months back I was listening to the Dan Patrick Show on XM Radio. He was talking about the fact that he doesn’t believe that God cares who wins or loses games, that His mind is on bigger issues than that.  He went so far as to say that, if he were a baseball catcher, when a hitter made the sign of the cross before entering the batter’s box, he would make the same sign, to “cancel” out the hitter.

Folks, God just doesn’t work that way. You can’t cancel out someone’s prayer or entreaty to God by praying for the opposite. And to say that God doesn’t care who wins a ballgame because He is busy with other things is to limit Him, to put God into a human frame. He is so much bigger than that.

We are all familiar with the scripture from Matthew that says that God’s eye is on the smallest sparrow, and that He knows even the number of hairs on our head.

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Matthew 10: 29-31

What is being conveyed in these verses is that God cares about the smallest details of our lives. Yes, most assuredly He cares who wins a ballgame. It is all used to His glory, wins and losses, tears and joy.

To suggest that God can only handle one thing at a time is not only ridiculous, it is insulting to Him who cares about all things. He is the ultimate multi-tasker!

And as to whether it is appropriate to acknowledge God after a game, look at the verse that follows the above scripture:

³²“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.
Matthew 10:32

Sounds like the coaches and athletes have the right idea.

What constitutes a miracle to you?

Is it when you pray and you receive the answer that YOU want?

Is it when you get an unexpected, yet desperately needed, item?

Is it when you pray for a healing, and the healing occurs?

We would all have to agree that miracles can be found in those types of things. But miracles can also be found when the answer to our prayers is not the one that we want or expect.

I just read a blog that spoke of the fact that God is God. Our prayers do not change Him. He knows what will was, what is, and what will be. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t pray, that we don’t ask Him for those things that we desperately want, such as healing and health.

Prayer is not the magic panacea that gets us what we want. It is how we talk to God. Frankly, that in itself is a miracle. The God of all, of the universe, wants us to speak with Him, to come to Him.

³ ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
Jeremiah 33:3 (New International Version)

God longs for us to come to Him. But the goal is not to change the will of God, it is to SEEK the will of God. And that is where we sometimes forget that the miracle still occurs.

When we pray for a healing, whether for ourselves, a friend or someone we love, we have to enter into the prayer ready to give God the glory, and accept His answer to our prayer. Sometimes His purpose, His will, is better served with an answer that we don’t want. But perhaps it is the answer that we (or someone else) need.

Sometimes the miracle may remain unseen for days, weeks, even years. But other times the answer may be right in front of us, and because it isn’t the miracle we prayed for, we don’t see it.

As you talk to God, look around you for the miracles that He has put in your life, the answered prayers.

I love to ski. I talk about it to all my non-skiing friends, tell them about the views, the crispness of the clean mountain air.

I especially let them know about the views from the top. I show them pictures online and say, “Look, you can even see the lakes, you can see forever from up there!”  There’s just one problem…

I’ve never been to the top.

I am afraid to go to the top, afraid I won’t make it back down. I am still a beginning skier, and even though most ski resorts have beginner trails that start from the top, I have a fear that keeps me from checking it out. I continue to muddle around on the lower part of the mountain, content on my bunny slopes.

Oh, I wish I had the courage to go up. My husband tells me how beautiful it is, and assures me that I could do it. He would stay with me the whole way, to aid my confidence.

But I just can’t do it. Actually, that’s not right. I just WON’T do it.

And that is how many Christians are with their faith. Once we accept Christ into our lives, we are content to muddle through on the edges, showing up for our one hour a week at church but not leaving our comfort zone to grow in our faith. Digging deeper into the Word, sharing our faith with others and giving ourselves to service within the body of the Church are things that get pushed aside, often from fear of failure, or the contentment that we find in our “safe place.”

But if we would venture up that mountain, we would grow in ways that are hard to imagine. If we would leave the bunny slopes for higher terrain, we would grow closer to God in the process. The higher we go, the closer we would come in communion with our God.

And the views would be fantastic!

Luke 15:11-32 (NIV)

The Parable of the Lost Son

¹¹Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

¹⁷“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ ²⁰So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

²¹“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.^[a]‘

²²“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

²⁵“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

²⁸“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

³¹” ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³²But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ “

I try not to bore you all with stories from my life too often (really, I promise I try!), but this is a story that needs to be shared. This past weekend I attended a wedding. Most weddings have a fair amount of drama, but this one had the potential for, well, drama of the epic variety. Let me set the stage:

* We have the bride’s parents, who went through a bitter divorce 12 years ago.
* We have the bride’s mother’s new mother-in-law (the step-grandmother).
* Mix in the bride’s maternal grandmother, a wild card.
* Add a dose of the groom’s parents, who are separated.
* For the icing on the cake, add the bride’s brother, who hasn’t spoken to his mother in more than seven years.

Ah, but people were praying. Praying for healing, praying for peace, praying for a day that would be remembered for the right reasons. And God heard those prayers.

The bride’s parents finally buried all past hurts and had a great time. They talked and laughed, took pictures with their beautiful daughter. There wasn’t just peace, there was happiness and joy, and pride in their daughter.

The bride’s grandmother? She was hugging on everyone and happy for the newly married couple, while the step-grandmother befriended everyone, most especially the bride’s step-mother. The groom’s parents were basking in pride for their son.

But there was still the matter of the bride’s brother. The split between he and his mom was bitter. No words, no cards, no communication in more than seven years. He has been filled with anger that boiled over on so many occasions.

To get to the wedding, he had to borrow a car. And since the car was a stick shift, he had to learn to drive it. He drove five hours, leaving early in the morning, knowing he would have to return just hours after the wedding to go to work.

Knowing his mother would be there.

He got there just before the wedding, and sat with his dad’s family. He watched as his mother was escorted to her seat. When the ceremony ended, he went to stand with his dad.

His mother had been told he was there. When the service was over, she walked over to  him, not knowing what his reaction would be.

He saw her coming, and whispered to his dad, “Here we go…”

And she hugged him.

And in that one moment, all the anger, bitterness, hatred, all of it was gone. Just like that. She whispered to him that she loved him and missed him. He couldn’t speak, his throat was so tight with emotion.

Throughout the reception, she kept going back to him, hugging him, smiling at him. His grandmother and step-grandmother hugged him close and raved about how great he looked, how handsome he was, and how much they had missed him.

And then, what most of us thought would never happen, did.

The photographer lined them up: The ex-spouses, the bride, and the prodigal son. Together. Smiling. Happy.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I know that there has been a healing in this family. While I expected epic drama, what I experienced was the epic manner in which God moves.

Never, ever underestimate the Great Physician!

“What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
Mark 10:9

Today is the day.

The day that my step-daughter gets married.

Last night we had the rehearsal, and her mom and dad struggled to get through the night. Today will be much worse. The groom has been summarily threatened if he fails to take care of daddy’s little girl. The flower girl has informed the bride (her sister) that no one will be looking at the bride because all eyes will be on her. Family has come in and decorated the hall, put together the reception, prepared to videotape. Dresses bought, tuxes rented, music selected.

Weddings entail so much. There is much emotion, much joy, and much credit card debt! But often we lose sight of what occurs on that day when two become one. The vow the couple takes is before God. They promise God they will love each other, forsaking others. And family and friends promise to support the marriage, pray for the couple, lift them up.

But once the bride and groom have left, once the dress is packed, tuxes returned, reality sets in. And unless God is at the head of the marriage, trouble will follow.

No marriage is perfect. Even the most faithful Christians will have problems within the marriage. The difference is, with God as the head of the marriage, the foundation, the couple can retreat into His arms. They can go to Him with their concerns. And they know that failure cannot be an option. They must do their best to keep the marriage holy in God’s eyes.

The Bible speaks of couples being “equally yoked.” 2 Corinthians 6:14 says:

¹⁴Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

The word “yoke” refers to a device that join oxen together when they are pulling a wagon. When the oxen are equally yoked, things run smoothly, they work as a team. When the yoke is not set properly, when it is uneven, the oxen work against each other, and cannot pull the load well.

So it is with Christians. We are to be equally yoked, to work together as a team. If we aren’t on the same page as our spouse, we can’t accomplish the works that God has planned for us.

Today I hope all goes well with the wedding. I hope Sarah and Devin have the wedding of their dreams. But I pray that they have the marriage that God desires.

Have you ever been having one of those days? You know the kind… your running late drop the kids off at school and get caught in a traffic jam? While trying to eat an Egg McMuffin in the car on your way to work you spill it all over yourself?  You save your money for something special, and the day before you are going to buy it your car breaks down?

We’ve all had those days. They are so demoralizing! But the simplest little thing can turn it around, shed a new light on your day and perk you up.

The other day I woke up late and had to get my five year old up and ready for school in five minutes. Obviously, there was no time to get myself ready for anything, so after throwing her clothes on her, running a comb through her hair and brushing her teeth, I threw on a sweatshirt over my flannel pj’s and prayed I wouldn’t have to get out of the car.

After dropping her off right as the bell rang, I took a deep breath and decided to grab a fast food breakfast at the local Micky D’s, then run home to work on our taxes. Not exactly a day to look forward to. But as I pulled through the drive-though, the woman working the window handed me my food and said, “You look beautiful today.”

Now nothing could have been farther from the truth. Let me set the stage: Uncombed hair in a ponytail, no makeup, oversized sweatshirt. But that one comment made me smile. Her comment to me, and I’m sure to every driver she saw that morning, was a simple gesture on her part to put a smile on the faces of strangers as they rushed to their early morning destinations.

And it worked.

Romans 15: 1-2 says:

¹We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. ²Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.

God wants us to lift each other’s spirits, to put a smile on the faces of those around us. Early in my career I had a boss chastise me for how I accepted work assignments. When they were brought to me I would say, “I’ll get to this as fast as possible.” I didn’t see anything wrong with the wording, but she pointed out that the message was being delivered with a scowl, which led others to believe that I was ticked off at getting the assignment. So I changed my approach. The words remained the same, but I put a cheerful face on the delivery. No more complaints.

Smiles disarm anger. Smiles lighten the hearts of others around you, including strangers. It’s impossible to be smiled at and not return the smile.

The Son shines in us. Let that come out and shine on others!

The Heart of Worship

Words & Music by Matt Redman

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless your heart

I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the ways things appear
You’re looking into my heart

I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You
All about You, Jesus
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You
It’s all about You Jesus

King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath

I’ll bring You more than just a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart

I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You
All about You, Jesus
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You
It’s all about You Jesus

Its all about you
Jesus

We all start out with the best intentions in our daily lives. But by nature we are a narcissistic society. We expect others to react as we would react to a situation. And we want things the way we think they should be.

After all, it’s all about us, right?

And this spills over into our faith walk, our worship. We enter with the highest of ideals, but somewhere we lose our focus and make it about us, not about Him. We get jealous if someone else gets more of the spotlight. We criticize the singer, the sermon.  We join different groups within the church not for His glory, but for our own advancement or to garner earthly praise.

In other words, while God is the intended focus of our worship, often we shift the spotlight to our surroundings, our experience… ourselves.

But it isn’t about buildings or music. It isn’t about sermons or soloists. It’s about Him. It’s about the great “I Am.” All those things can be a part of worship, but they aren’t necessary. All that is needed is your heart, speaking to Him, opening to Him.

The words of the Chris Redmond song “Heart of Worship” are so powerful, yet so calm. We have made worship into a production, when it is an intensely personal thing, whether in the middle of a large congregation or alone in your home

Take back worship. Turn it back into the God-honoring thing it is meant to be.

Click here to listen to The Heart of Worship.

I heard some interesting words spoken by a visiting pastor today. I have heard the words before, but today they resonated.

(It’s funny how that happens sometime. A word or phrase you have heard a hundred times takes on a new life all of a sudden!)

Anyway, he was speaking about our role in the church, how WE are the church. How we are all to be involved, not just taking up space on a pew. And then he said the phrase that has stuck with me all day:

“God doesn’t choose the qualified. He qualifies the chosen.”

I cocked my head a bit when he said those words. I wrote them down. Later, when I came home, I thought about them some more.

Suddenly, words I have heard before made sense. I have heard church leaders talk about their lack of qualifications, but how God chose them and molded them into what He needed them to be. But in today’s sermon, the pastor wasn’t speaking about leaders. He was speaking about all of us within the church. We may feel God pulling us to do something within the church. Maybe it is to be a Sunday School teacher, or to join the choir. Maybe it is to be a door holder or greeter. But we feel unqualified.

“I’m not smart enough to lead a Sunday School class,” we tell ourselves. “God surely doesn’t want me to do that!”

But God doesn’t make mistakes in who He chooses to carry out His work. He chooses us based on His needs, not ours. Often, when He chooses us for a role, it isn’t just to fill a need in the church, it is meant to fill a need within ourselves.

My dad was a Sunday School teacher. He had never sought the role, but our pastor came to him and asked him to lead the Young Marrieds Sunday School class. There were only four couples, and Dad was very outgoing and personable. The pastor thought it would be a good fit. My dad declined, saying his knowledge of scripture wasn’t good enough to lead others. But the pastor was insistent, and Dad (along with Mom who took on the class secretarial duties) began leading the class.

Two years later, the class had a whopping 35 couples in it! A member commented on how Dad was such a blessing to the class, how his “leadership” was inspiring.

But he turned the compliment aside. He told the member that teaching the class had been a blessing to him. In his desire to be a good teacher, he studied relentlessly. He prayed to provide the proper leadership, to speak the right words, to young couples just beginning their lives together.

Teaching the class had brought him closer to God, had immersed him in the Word. And it had brought my parents together in a new way, as they sought to counsel and lead young couples.

And watching all of this unfold was a little rugrat who would grow up to have her own family, her own battles with her role within the church. Me.  He may have been teaching a class at church, but a lesson was being learned at home, too.

Never question God’s role for you… you might be the one missing out on the blessing!

I am convinced that God has one heck of a sense of humor. But I am also sure that He likes a good practical joke now and then.

Two days ago we woke up to sunny skies, and temperatures in the low 80’s. This was the cap of a collection of days that saw warm weather finally moving in. Trees have begun to bud, flowers are starting to peek out. After a long winter, with some unusually cold temps, everyone was breaking out the shorts and going to the park.

Today was supposed to be a little colder, maybe some precipitation, maybe not.

Oh boy…

Suddenly, we have 3-5 inches of snow on the ground, temperatures are in the low 30’s, and schools are closed Friday.

I can almost picture God saying, “Gotcha!”

We all have our “vision” of what we think God looks like, how we think He is. Maybe you picture a grandfatherly figure. Perhaps you envision a more scientific, all-knowing mass of energy.

But however you see God, or even if you can’t begin to know how He appears, remember this. We are created in His image. And laughter is a gift He has given it.

So the next time you are having a good laugh, remember that God is probably laughing right along with you!

As I have been reading this week about the tragedy at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois, I can’t imagine the horror that has shot through that church. Not only have they lost their beloved, long-time pastor, Dr. Fred Winters, but they have lost him in an amazingly random and violent manner.

“Dr. Fred,” as he was known in the community, became pastor at FBC in 1987, taking the church from a membership of less than 50, to a church that now has more than 1000 members. In his nearly 22 years at the helm of First Baptist, he was a much loved pastor, husband and father of two.

On the church’s website, the leadership has requested prayer for the Winters family, the church, as well as the assailant and his family:

Please pray for Dr. Winter’s family, our two brave members who were injured when they stopped the assailant, for the assailant himself and his family, and for our church members as they deal with this tragic loss.

In this day, where uncertainty seems to abound creating an environment in which people are vulnerable in doing things they might not do otherwise, one thing is certain, we, as human beings need a foundation upon which we can live our lives. We at First Baptist Maryville, along with other Christian believers, share this conviction: that foundation is God’s Word. In the pages of the Book we call the Bible, we find the pathway for peace, hope, and a quality of living life despite what circumstances we find ourselves in.

from the First Baptist Church, Maryville, Illinois website (fbmaryville.org)

When I read this message, I see sorrow, but I also see hope, the hope that abides in life through Christ.

And I see forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a hard skill to master. How do you forgive someone for killing someone you love? Yet as Christians we are commanded to forgive. We are told in Colossians 3:13:

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Important words. Yet forgiveness is not a “one and done” issue. The process can be long and painful. In Matthew 18:21-22 we read:

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

Finally, what is the result of our forgiving others? Matthew 6:14-16 says:

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Years ago, when I was in high school, a dear friend of mine was killed, along with her fiance, in a car accident. As they were pulling through an intersection, a car sped through, killing both instantly. The driver was drunk.

Rebecca’s parents were devastated. But that very afternoon, Rebecca’s grandmother went to her son, Rebecca’s dad, and told him that he needed to go see the parents of the boy who had been driving the car. He needed to go pray with them, and let them know that he had forgiven their son. He was incredulous. He needed to grieve, he was broken and angry.

But Rebecca’s granmother pointed out that the offender’s parents were devastated, too. They were hurt and broken, too. And that we must forgive as Christ has told us to forgive, as He has forgiven us.

Rebecca’s dad grimly got into his car and drove to the next town, where the driver’s family lived. He spoke with them, prayed with them, cried with them. And the healing began right then and there.

Forgiveness may be hard, but it will set your spirit free.

Can you imagine what would happen if God gave us everything we wanted?

Oh sure, at first we would be livin’ large, enjoying all kinds of worldly things. But then we would want more. And more. And more.

Our humanness keeps us from being satisfied for too long. We have a mentality of “if a little is good, a lot is better.” (Of course, it also seems like we don’t want the things that are actually GOOD for us… I mean, cookies vs. broccoli… no contest!).

Matthew 7:7 says:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

I remember believing as a child that all I had to do was ask, and God would give it to me, one way or the other. But the above verse doesn’t stand alone. When you read further in the chapter, you come upon this:

⁹“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!    Matthew 7:9-11

Good gifts. Not just any gifts. Gifts that have a purpose, a point.  Worldly gifts are temporary in nature. Their power to make us happy fades quickly. The gifts that Christ speaks of are eternal, lasting beyond this world. This world is not our home. The gifts that are promised by God are so much better, so much better for us.

So the next time you see something that you “must have,” remember the gift that you already have been given. The gift of love, given by God through Christ’s death and resurrection.