Thursday, December 23, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Praying Mantis
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| Photo by Heather. |
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
cancer sucks
A good friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer this week and as I was praying for her I asked God if He wanted me to tell her anything. Immediately, Isaiah 43:2 came to mind:
She was encouraged and, while that was the point and I am glad, there is more to this verse than comfort - there is a warning implicit. Nestled between the promise that God is with us is a promise that there will be fire, there will be frightful, painful things ahead. Just because we are not burned doesn’t mean that we aren’t melted down to the very essence of who we are. That can be a scary thing and I fear for my friend, though I know she will be the better person for this eventually because she truly loves our God. I guess you could say that, more than fear for my friend, I fear for other Christians in her place.
So often we hear it preached from the pulpit that God is the smart choice, the easy choice, the happy choice, and for just the price of a prayer we can have peace, joy, and contentment in our lives. It is shameful how the church has turned those valuable gifts into market buzz words and completely lost their intended meaning. We pitch Christ like one would pitch their wares at the market, or a late night infomercial.
Christ didn’t live an easy life. He certainly didn’t live a peaceful life, not in the modern vernacular. He didn’t sell himself, either. He knew that his life was hard and he warned others as they considered entering into it. Ever tried to warn someone against becoming a follower of Christ? Jesus did. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Mt 8:20)
What would happen if we started getting honest with our friends? Christianity doesn’t make everything better, it isn’t a magic potion that cures all ills and loneliness. Christians get tired, they get sick, they die. While we are tired, sick, and dying we are called to live like He did giving our lives away to those around us. We are called to love God enough to live by His standards and to do it cheerfully, even when we are waiting to learn if we have cancer. We are called to live in this world and love those around us, even after we get a flat tire and the bank deposits our check into the wrong account. We are called to hold our tongues when we are wronged and not gossip in the workplace, or anywhere else. In many ways, becoming a Christian makes one’s life more difficult! The main difference is this: Those who put their trust in God develop the capacity to carry those burdens as if they were 'easy' and 'light' not because they are but because He is our sustainer. He sends something that we call peace: the ability to live through the brokenness without being broken. He sends something we call joy: the ability to recognize the reality of a painful situation and still find happiness in the sunshine and butterflies in spite of the clouds and the wasps. My other friend Kami says it is precisely that challenge that makes living like Christ so attractive. I think I agree.
I really don’t know where this is going, except to say that I’m glad my friend is a woman who understands that she has hard times ahead but, in spite of that, God will sustain her. The waters she is about to enter will try to pass over her head but God will keep her afloat. And when she looks into the fire, she will find who she truly is- stripped down to her elemental behaviors and her default thought patterns and then she will melt into the shape that God has called her because the fire will melt down any last vestiges of HER strength and force her to rely on God’s. Knowing her, she will lean into the process and welcome God changing her with open arms because she trusts Him. Just wait and watch, though - through this and on the other side, she will touch others lives by the way she lives through the storm and praises God for the tiny pieces of beauty she sees when the lightning flashes.
That is the secret strength of a disciple of Jesus Christ.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
She was encouraged and, while that was the point and I am glad, there is more to this verse than comfort - there is a warning implicit. Nestled between the promise that God is with us is a promise that there will be fire, there will be frightful, painful things ahead. Just because we are not burned doesn’t mean that we aren’t melted down to the very essence of who we are. That can be a scary thing and I fear for my friend, though I know she will be the better person for this eventually because she truly loves our God. I guess you could say that, more than fear for my friend, I fear for other Christians in her place.
So often we hear it preached from the pulpit that God is the smart choice, the easy choice, the happy choice, and for just the price of a prayer we can have peace, joy, and contentment in our lives. It is shameful how the church has turned those valuable gifts into market buzz words and completely lost their intended meaning. We pitch Christ like one would pitch their wares at the market, or a late night infomercial.
Christ didn’t live an easy life. He certainly didn’t live a peaceful life, not in the modern vernacular. He didn’t sell himself, either. He knew that his life was hard and he warned others as they considered entering into it. Ever tried to warn someone against becoming a follower of Christ? Jesus did. "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” (Mt 8:20)
What would happen if we started getting honest with our friends? Christianity doesn’t make everything better, it isn’t a magic potion that cures all ills and loneliness. Christians get tired, they get sick, they die. While we are tired, sick, and dying we are called to live like He did giving our lives away to those around us. We are called to love God enough to live by His standards and to do it cheerfully, even when we are waiting to learn if we have cancer. We are called to live in this world and love those around us, even after we get a flat tire and the bank deposits our check into the wrong account. We are called to hold our tongues when we are wronged and not gossip in the workplace, or anywhere else. In many ways, becoming a Christian makes one’s life more difficult! The main difference is this: Those who put their trust in God develop the capacity to carry those burdens as if they were 'easy' and 'light' not because they are but because He is our sustainer. He sends something that we call peace: the ability to live through the brokenness without being broken. He sends something we call joy: the ability to recognize the reality of a painful situation and still find happiness in the sunshine and butterflies in spite of the clouds and the wasps. My other friend Kami says it is precisely that challenge that makes living like Christ so attractive. I think I agree.
I really don’t know where this is going, except to say that I’m glad my friend is a woman who understands that she has hard times ahead but, in spite of that, God will sustain her. The waters she is about to enter will try to pass over her head but God will keep her afloat. And when she looks into the fire, she will find who she truly is- stripped down to her elemental behaviors and her default thought patterns and then she will melt into the shape that God has called her because the fire will melt down any last vestiges of HER strength and force her to rely on God’s. Knowing her, she will lean into the process and welcome God changing her with open arms because she trusts Him. Just wait and watch, though - through this and on the other side, she will touch others lives by the way she lives through the storm and praises God for the tiny pieces of beauty she sees when the lightning flashes.
That is the secret strength of a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
tap, tap, tap
The little cardinal is back this morning. She comes tapping on the dining room window several times each day. Her persistence is both heart-warming and frustrating. I hate watching her beat her delicate beak against the glass over and over again. At times, my foolish nature overtakes me and I set out a plate of seeds on the table and open the window. The invitation frightens her, though, and she flies away and refuses to return until I shut the window again. I've left the window open for hours at a time but, to my knowledge, she's never ventured inside my home.
This morning as I was watching her, it occurred to me that I am not so different from her. Like the cardinal, I bang my head against a barrier that I can neither see nor comprehend in a desperate effort to enter into the Kingdom of God. I have to wonder: Have there been moments when God's compassion for me overwhelmed Him? Has He opened a window? And have I, like my feathered friend, become suddenly frightened and flown away until the window was closed, the opportunity passed, and I felt safe again?
Dear One, let not fear of the unknown keep me from entering into those places which You invite me!
Matthew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thoughts on Freedom
Freedom requires courage.
We are never truly free until we can look into a mirror and evaluate ourselves with honest eyes. We must know both our strengths and our faults to understand our limitations. Why do we need to understand our limitations, though, aren't we discussing freedom?
A caged bird might long to take wing and soar the skies but cannot. In a similar manner, a penguin might wish to fly but cannot. The difference is that one was created to fly and the other was not. Understanding our limitations is freedom, in a very real sense of the word. The penguin who understands what he was created for happily dances in the water and lets the other birds take the sky. He doesn't exchange the goodness and bounty of the open ocean for a life of pining away, watching the gulls, or jealous sulking.
Is this to say that we cannot dream? No! We are dreamers by nature, we need our dreams to challenge us to higher heights or - for those of us who are penguins - to deeper depths. As a girl I dreamed of flying - Top Gun was my favorite movie and I had my sights set on attending the Naval Academy and never mind that women were not allowed to join, that my eyesight was sub-par. I knew I was supposed to be a pilot. Now I am a mother and, while I am still free to remember my girlhood dreams fondly and even pursue a pilot's license, I am not allowed to indulge in the idolatry of regret because freedom requires seeing the landscape before us rather than constantly peering behind us.
So then, freedom also requires truth and freedom without truth is no freedom at all. Truth is frightening, though, and truth about ourselves is the scariest of all. Where do we find the courage for this undertaking, this quest? What force can compel us forward? What power can convince us to uncover the Mirror of Truth and gaze upon that heartless surface? I know of only one.
Who, but the person who understands that they are loved and accepted, can face the truth about herself?
Courage requires love.
The love that courage can stand on is rock steady. The love that courage requires sees a person's faults and doesn't love that person in spite of them but because of them. Our faults make us who we are, too, because what are faults but misdirected strengths? (Don't confuse 'faults' with 'sins' as that is an entirely different matter.) Perhaps this is our primary purpose here on this earth. Perhaps this is how the Kingdom of God sneaks into the world as gently as a sleeping infant and as inevitable as springtime after winter. Perhaps it is our purpose to love those around us so completely that it is nothing to say, "Yes, you are boorish and pushy but that's just because you haven't figured out where to direct all that passion yet. I love you." Perhaps it is our job to love with a love that doesn't excuse sin but understands why it is there, "Yes, I see you drinking and squandering away your life with drugs but that is because you have lost your way. I love you."
If we can love the people around us as God calls us to do, then the Spirit will be faithful to work within them the courage to peek at Truth. Who knows? Maybe they, too, will be set free. We will never know unless we are willing to put ourselves aside and provide a foundation of love for fledgling courage to stand upon.
Freedom requires love.
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