Saturday, November 8, 2008

Fishes & Loaves

It seems every Sunday for weeks on end, my kids leave Sunday School with some sort of Fishes and Loaves craft. It is a simple story that is oft told. Indeed, the story of how Jesus fed 5,000 with a little boy's lunch of two fishes and five loaves is so well known that most of us don't truly appreciate the miracle of it or what it is meant to tell us for our lives today.

This was powerfully brought home to me recently reading a selection from the Women of Faith Amazing Freedom devotional about this story. In it Sheila Walsh points out: "He gave what he had to Jesus, and in return he got to see what God can do when heaven and earth hold hands. This miracle on a hillside is repeated over and over every day from Pittsburgh to Paris, from New York to New Zealand. It is the mystery and miracle that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is invited to participate in -- bring all you have to the table, and see what God will do!"

She goes on to say "Too often we miss the point as daughters of the King. We look at what we have to offer, and it is clear to us that it's not enough so we hold back. Yet the fact that we don't have enough is the whole point. We are given the outrageous invitation to partner with the King of kings as lavishes his love and grace on this earth....Whatever you have today is enough. It might not look like it to you, but put into Jesus's hands, it is more than enough."

That really hit home for me as I SO often think I just don't have what it takes so why bother trying? This really made me see that all that is required of me is to bring what I do have and give it to Jesus.

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. --2 Corinthians 12:9

I never got the above verse before. I didn't understand how God could use my weaknesess, without actually fixing them first. So I kept bringing them to him and expecting them to be fixed, snatching them back when He didn't fix them. Unknowingly, preventing him from using them for His miracles. Now, I'm finally beginning to get that God truly does just want me to bring me and put myself in His hands and see what He can do with what He has been given, even when it is clearly not enough in my hands.

There is freedom.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Travelling Heavenward

One of the devotions in my Bible asked the question, "What would happen if, before getting out of bed tomorrow morning, you asked yourself, 'How will I travel heavenward today?'"

I am headed home but I am still on a journey and I need to remember that how I travel is no less important than where I am going. Indeed, where I am going must influence how I journey or I will miss the blessing that awaits me. The where and the how are intertwined and cannot be separated from each other.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the same essential idea from Jesus:
What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul (Mark 8:36)

The same devotion also directed me to Psalm 84:
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. (Psalm 84:5)
We are on a pilgrimage to heaven and are strength is to be in the Lord on that journey and to have our hearts fixed on making the journey, even if it's difficult. It strikes me that it is very easy to have our hearts distracted from pilgrimage and where we are going. The how of the journey will quickly follow that distraction. If I find my how is messed up (I am short-tempered, lacking joy, missing the fruits of the Spirit, etc.), then I can be certain that I have also lost site of where I am going.

I believe if I can keep where I am going in mind (my heart is set on pilgrimage), then the how of my life will flow more naturally. When I focus too much on the how on its own, I end up going in circles and acting out of my own strength, which cannot bring the blessing. When I know where I am going, I receive the strength of the Lord to continue on the journey to the blessing He has prepared for me.

How will I travel heavenward today?

Monday, May 26, 2008

A Good Day

Today was a good day - a fantastic day!

In my efforts to walk in the light, I am going to try to actually write down what was good about a particular day. It seems I have a tendency to dwell on the negative and forget the blessings and today was full of blessings.

It was a holiday so I didn't have to work (and I deliberately chose not to open my work computer so I wouldn't be tempted to just "check my e-mail").

My children played nicely with each other, freeing me to do my housework. I folded and put away two loads of laundry and ran two more loads. I emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I made today and tomorrow's dinners. I vacuumed the living room. Mopped the kitchen floor (daughter peed on it).

I took the children to the party store to buy their birthday decorations. They missed out on McDonald's because they couldn't behave in one store but that was the most that went "wrong" today.

I played two games of Candyland and one game of Go Fish with my daughter. Would have played Wii boxing with my son but one of the controllers wasn't charged.

Had a pleasant dinner with my children (even though carrots were on my son's plate) and homemade chocolate ice cream (with sprinkles).

Children bathed without battling. (Kaara even managed some imaginative play with her splash around Dora on a secret submarine mission.)

Put the children to bed. Kaara fell asleep immediately and Noah and I chatted about "perfect-fantastic" days.

Designed a logo for a friend who thought it would be fun to have one.

Talked to my husband.

Finished a couple of scrapbook pages.

Thank you Lord for a whole day of blessings upon blessings, reminding me that You do know the desires of my heart and I am chosen and dearly loved.

On this Memorial Day, thank you that I live in a country where I have so much freedom and for the sacrifices of the men and women who gave all for the freedom I enjoy.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

All is a lie

I recently read a devotion from Proverbs 31 ministry that just won't let go of me called All About Eve. Eve and the nature of sin and the problem of evil have really been occupying my thoughts the last few months.

This devotion pointed out the fundamental lie that Satan enticed Eve with - all is better, all is the best - God has all and He is God. He is holding out on you so you won't be equal to Him. There is more and you don't have it so you should get it for yourself. And God was holding out on Adam and Eve. He was withholding the knowledge of good AND evil because He knew how terrible the knowledge of evil is. Eve fell for the lie that all had to be better because it would be all good. It never occured to her (probably because she didn't have the knowledge of good AND evil) that "all" could include something that wasn't good.

I think we fall for the same lie still. The continual lust for more is driven from this same naive belief that "all" means only all good. We forget that "all" includes all evil as well. Would that apple be so enticing if we remembered it includes all the terrible, horrible, vileness this world can summon? The hope of Heaven is the promise that there will be no more pain, no more sorrow, all our tears will be wiped dry, evil will be overcome once and for all. And yet, I think there still lingers the trace of the lie that not having "all" means we are missing out on something...something good.

Perhaps all the terribleness of this world is to help us reach a point where we choose to believe the truth...that the only thing God is holding out on us is something we don't need and don't want, that all good is enough, more than enough, and that having it "all" does in fact lead only to ruin, destruction and death.
And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
for when you eat of it you will surely die." -- Genesis 2:16-17