Discovering True Intimacy with Our Savior

Journey in Journaling

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I was so excited this past Sunday when our pastor, Calvin Kelley, did a sermon on our spiritual journey and how it’s critical that we devote time each day to reading God’s word. I was afraid if I screamed, “Amen!” my Southern-Baptist roots would start to show, so I fought the urge. Instead, I did the new-tradition of head bobbing with a “That’s right” whispered under my breath. But oh, how I wanted to shout, “Amen!”

Part of Calvin’s sermon focused on journaling and how it can enhance your walk with God. I couldn’t agree more.

I can sit down and read a passage of scripture, and technically, I’ve spent time in God’s presence, but until I actually put pen to paper and write out what I observe; until I take the time to reflect on what He’s trying to tell me, it’s doesn’t get past my head and into my heart.

This blog is somewhat of a journal, and I started it last year to share my spiritual journey with you: to share what God is doing in my life; to pass along the secrets He whispers to me; to paint a picture of the glimpses that I catch of Him; and to hopefully provide you with ideas and tools to help you on your spiritual journey. I want people to know that you don’t have to be a scholar or be super-spiritual to be changed by God. He can change anyone.

And He WILL change you…
piece by piece
verse by verse
moment by moment
He will change you, not into who you want to be, but into who He wants you to be. He will change you into the image of His son.

I saw a note the other day in one of my journals: “You have to submit in order to be rescued.” So…

Will you submit to Him?
Will you take time to be alone with Him and listen?
Will you let him get inside you? Not just below the surface, but deep down inside – where all those empty, dark and broken places are?
Will you let him heal you?
Will you let him change you?

He will. If you let Him.

Resolve

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Resolve.  It’s a seemingly insignificant word.  Not one frequently used (unless you have to clean your carpet a lot).  It’s just two syllables. A mere seven letters. But yet, it is a mighty word for in it determines the success or failure of an endeavor.

I learned about this “resolve” characteristic last year in a study of Daniel.  Daniel and his pals – now they had some resolve!

Did they defile their bodies with tasty food?  “Nope.  Pass the fruits and vegetables, please.” (Daniel 1:8)

Bow to a statue?  “Over our dead bodies!” (Daniel 3:17-18)

Resolve.

Resolve requires you to make a decision before a decision.  It requires planning, discipline – and truth be told – good old fashioned stubbornness.

Stubbornness kind of gets a bad rap.  It gets thrown into the “character flaw” category a bit too often.  You’re more likely to hear someone say, “Would you PLEASE quit being so stubborn?” than you are to hear, “I love your stubbornness.  I wish I could be like that.”

Some people like to use sissy-words like, “determined” or “persistent,” but in my opinion, those are all just poodle-like synonyms for the great dane that is stubbornness.

Yep. Stubbornness needs a new image.   Stubbornness needs to take perseverance by the horns and show it who’s boss!

So, how can we give stubbornness a face lift? We can use our powers for good and not evil. We can use it to complete those resolutions we’ve set for the new year.

So, what have I resolved to do this year? What’s my passion? Well, this year, with the help of my awesomely cool and fabulous accountability group, we are reading through the Bible chronologically.

So, are you game? Come on! You know you want to roll up those sleeves of stubbornness and do it. All it takes is a little resolve.

Ordinary Miracles

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Last week, I had the honor of witnessing a miracle.

It was an ordinary day. I was walking into work and overheard two people behind me. I’m not sure what caught my attention. I promise I wasn’t eaves-dropping, and I didn’t hear the conversation. What captured my attention was the sound of a lady’s voice broken by a flood of emotions she was trying desperately to restrain. Though, she was speaking softly, the sound was as loud as a scream.

My initial response was to turn around and look at her, but I kept walking, intently listening. I heard her say something about a stroke and “we buried him Tuesday.” My heart sank, and my mind began piecing together the situation.

The man walking next to her probably said, “Hi. How are you?” It’s an ordinary phrase. One we mutter to people we pass in our hurry to get where ever we think we need to be so that we can do what ever it is we think we should be doing. I’m sure he was expecting an ordinary, “I’m fine. How are you?” But instead, his ordinary question was met with an extraordinary hurt and an unanticipated response.

As I realized what was unfolding behind me, I felt a God-nudge (and by “nudge” I mean shove) to reach out to her. Trying to figure out the least awkward way to approach her, I decided to let her get ahead of me. In my mind, I was praying, “Please Lord, don’t make me stalk her. Don’t make me follow her to her desk.” Mercifully, her companion scurried up the stairs, and she chose to take the elevator. So, I hopped on with her.

I had no idea what to say, but there was no doubt in my mind that God wanted me to speak. My heart was racing as fast as my mind. As I stood beside her silently, tears rolling down her face, a boldness overcame me. I asked her name, and before I knew what was happening, I heard myself say, “I’m sorry that you are hurting.” Without a moments pause, I hugged a complete stranger.

Immediately, her tears stopped, her mouth loosened into a smile and her eyes sparkled. For a fleeting moment, I witnessed a miracle – a face once full of sadness and despair almost instantaneously transformed into a face full of hope.

And just as quickly as the moment started, the elevator doors opened, and the moment passed.

As I sat down at my desk, it was tempting to start my work without a second thought, but as my mind caught up to the Spirit, I realized what had happened. I realized that God pushed my agenda, my fear and my inhibitions out of the way and stepped in to help someone He loved who was hurting. Please hear me when I say this: It wasn’t me that hugged her. It wasn’t me telling her I was sorry she was hurting. It was God.

The Bible tells us that we are God’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20) and we are to imitate Christ’s love for us (Ephesians 5:1-2). God’s love is no easy feat to imitate. It’s a lavish, unfailing, reckless and sacrificial love (Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:4-5;  1 John 3:1), but we are commanded to love each other while we are a speck on the cosmic time line (John 13:34). In fact, the way we love others is evidence of whether or not we know God (1 John 4:7-8).

God’s love is huge and covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), and it’s a love that transforms ordinary moments into miracles.

My soul delights that I was privileged enough to witness that ordinary miracle, and my heart smiles in knowing that God not only sees our hurts, our disappointments, and our pain, but He goes out of His way to send His ambassadors to comfort us – even when He has to use an unsuspecting vessel on just an ordinary day.

May our prayers be not for God to comfort us, but for Him to send us people to comfort.

(Re)thinking Christmas: Gifts

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Let’s talk gifts.  This time of year, everywhere you look there are gifts.

Gift lists
Gift boxes
Gift bags
Gift wrap
Gift cards
Gift certificates
Gift baskets

As I sit and think about the gifts I’ve been given over the years, the ones that stick out to me are the ones that were handmade by those I love.

My favorite Christmas gift was an antebellum dollhouse my parents gave me when I was about eight years old.  My cousin handmade it; my aunt decorated the inside, and my mom sat in her closet gluing all the little furniture pieces together.  It occupies a good bit of my attic real estate, but I just can’t bring myself to part with it.  It’s still beautiful even after all the years of dust that has accumulated, and just thinking about all that went into making it – the thought, the love and the time – overwhelms me.

Off the top of my head, I can think of gifts friends have made for me over the years: an oil painting, a watercolor, a knit hat & scarf, a hand-thrown ceramic vase, and a ceramic plaque.  (By the way, I particularly appreciate the hand-thrown vase after a brief run-in with a pottery class from which I still haven’t recovered.)

I have a hand painted ornament given to me by my little cousin (who’s not so little anymore); a photography book made by an ex-boyfriend; a half-marathon scrapbook from a friend/training buddy, and a quilt my mom made of all my race t-shirts from my first year of doing triathlons.

I can tell you where each of these gifts are in my house and who gave them to me.  I cherish them because there are little bits of love captured in each stitch, brush stroke, and photograph.

One night, as I was knitting, God reminded me of a verse in Psalm 139: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb” (v. 13).

I chuckled as I pictured God sitting on His throne with His feet propped up on a planet and a ball of yarn sitting at His side.  Like any experienced knitter, He chose the perfect yarn and the perfect pattern for His project.  He couldn’t wait to begin.  He thought about the recipients of the gift and smiled with delight.  He followed the pattern precisely and examined His progress often.  As each month ticked on, His work grew.  Until finally, after nine months, a beautiful baby was given to the world.

Each strand of hair perfectly positioned
Each cheekbone strategically sculpted
Eye color carefully chosen
Height meticulously measured
Body type purposely proportioned
Personality distinctively defined

I wonder what the world would look like if we stopped thinking of each other as people and started thinking of each other as a gift from the Creator?  Or what would happen if, when we looked in the mirror, we stopped critiquing the Master’s masterpiece and started focusing on our beauty instead of what the world points out to us as flaws?

It’s a radical concept, and one that I’m not so sure the devil wants us to grasp.  But this Christmas, I challenge you to focus on the gifts in your life – not the man-made, store bought gifts – but the handmade gifts God has given you:  those you love; those that are hard to love; and those you prefer to love from really, really far away.  They are all gifts – every single one of them.

Disagree?  Take it up with The Almighty.  It’s His Word that says, “…I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:14).

Sing Sing Sing

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“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.” – Acts 16:25-26

Is there anything in your life that you feel is keeping you prisoner? Perhaps there is a sin that you feel powerless to overcome. It doesn’t have to be what we consider a “bad” sin. Maybe you overeat, or TV has become your idol. Maybe you spend more time at work than you do in the Word, or maybe you are struggling with simply being obedient to something God has called you to do (or not do).

As humans we have a tendency to make a hierarchy for sin. Murderers and child molesters at the top followed by people who rape and steal. Then maybe we’ll put in those who commit adultery next. You get my drift.

We want to believe that the sin in our lives isn’t as bad as the sin of others. It makes us feel better. But the harsh reality is…it’s all sin. As much as we hate to admit it, those little white lies we tell are the same in God’s eyes as someone who steals or kills. But praise God for His amazing grace!

I have this “little” sin that keeps popping up in my life. I found myself last night doing the very thing I prayed I wouldn’t do that morning. I’m completely in touch with Paul in Romans 7 when he says, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (v. 15). So. Very. Frustrating.

This morning, I bowed before the LORD ashamed that I had failed Him once again. That’s when God gave me an idea.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were imprisoned. There they sat shackled in the midst of robbers and murderers and child molesters. Did they complain? Oh, no. They prayed and sang praises to God.

I love what happens next. “Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose (Acts 16:26).”

Could it be that singing praises and praying are the keys to breaking the chains of sin in our lives? What would happen if, instead of visiting that website you shouldn’t be going to, you sang praises and prayed? What if the second you wanted something sweet to eat, you praised God and asked Him to send his sweet presence to you instead?

It’s just a theory. I don’t know if it will work, but I’m willing to give it a try. What about you?

Third Greatest Story Ever Told

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This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to teach what is quickly becoming one of my favorite bible stories. I’ve been in church pretty much my whole life, and I’m convinced every sunday school teacher and pastor over the past 30ish years has deprived me of the third greatest story in the Bible.

How can I be so sure I’ve never heard the story? If I can remember the story of a man getting swallowed and regurgitated by a whale and a story of a guy with a multi-colored coat, I’m about 110% positive I would remember someone having a donkey that talks.

Is anyone else surprised that there is a talking donkey in the Bible? It’s kind of easy to overlook. I mean, God kind of hid it in the book of Numbers like an awesome movie that went straight to DVD. And just like that awesome movie that you can’t believe didn’t make millions of dollars at the box office, you feel like it is your duty to share your fortune with a friend.

So, that’s just what I did this past Sunday. We talked about talking donkeys, because let’s face it, if a donkey talks, I think everyone should know how to handle themselves in the event they encounter one.

All this talking donkey business got me to thinking….God’s Word never, ever, ever ceases to amaze me. Whether it is by pointing out a story that I’ve never seen before, or the Holy Spirit giving me new insights into a story that I’ve heard a million times, it always meets me where I’m at, not only because God is awesome like that, but because His Word is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:11).

So, get into the Word. You never know what adventure God might be waiting to show you.