It's All a Matter of Perspective

Standing at the kitchen counter, I feel a tug at my pants leg. Fully aware that my tiny granddaughter stands at my feet, I continue spreading peanut butter on a slice of bread. The tug becomes more insistent. 

“Just a minute, Caroline. Gigi can’t pick you up right now.” 

Caroline (lightly dusted with flour from Mommy's baking)

A frown creases her little brow. Whimpering, she grabs both pants legs, arching her back as if to will herself higher. 

“I know you’re hungry. Hang on. I’m making you a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” 

My words only fuel her distress. With a final swipe of the knife, I add jelly to the sandwich, then smoosh the two pieces of bread together, completing the PB&J marriage. A wail at my feet signals the end of Caroline’s patience. 

I understand her frustration. 

From her limited perspective, nothing is happening. My back is turned, and I am clearly occupied with something other than her. To make matters worse, she has a need I'm not responding to.

Or so she thinks. 

If Caroline was a little taller, she could see the truth—that I'm not ignoring her. Not only am I not ignoring her, but I'm actively working on her behalf. 

I’m a lot like Caroline. 

I’ve learned where to go when I have a need, and that’s a good thing. I approach my heavenly Father with a gentle tug and a whispered prayer or plea. If he doesn’t respond immediately, I become more insistent. 

Some days his silence makes me feel as though he’s turned his back on me and is deliberately ignoring my urgent demands. Other times, I must confess, I launch a full-blown tantrum, complete with thrashing and wails. 

Like Caroline, I have a limited perspective. 

Tethered to earth by my mortality, I cannot see into the spiritual realm, where God is always at work. I forget he is my advocate, my provider, and my deliverer. Spiritual amnesia robs my memory of all the times he’s come to my rescue, and I panic, forgetting that his timetable is different from my own. 

This is when I must rest in what I know, not in what I see. God’s Word tells me the truth—that he knows me, loves me, and promises to care for me all the days of my life. 

“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isa. 46:4). 

What are you struggling with today? Trust God with it.

May this be our prayer: 

Father, help me trust you when I cannot see you. Help me remember all you’ve done for me in the past and wait patiently when your answer is long in coming. Grow my faith as I learn to depend on you. In the strong name of Jesus I pray, Amen.





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Will you trust him, no matter what?

When our daughters were teens, we coached them on how to handle temptation. “Suppose you’re at a party,” my husband would propose, “and someone hands you a drink. What will you do?” Or, “what if you’re spending the night at a friend’s and she wants to watch a movie you know is inappropriate, what will you say?” Other times we’d role play or brainstorm proper responses to the scenarios we described.

“The best time to decide how to handle a difficult situation is before you get into that situation,” we’d say.

The same is true for grownups, but today I’m thinking less about temptation and more about trials.

A dear friend recently died of cancer. To be honest, death is something I’d rather not think about. The loss of someone I care for, however, invites me to ponder my own mortality. This is a good thing. It’s biblical. The psalmist prayed, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).

We’re also wise to acknowledge that if we live long enough, trials will come. This is biblical, too. “In this world you will have tribulation,” Jesus warned his disciples. Accepting this fact gives us an opportunity to decide in advance how we’ll act and react when troubles enter our lives.

 I pray your trial doesn’t come in the form of cancer. It may come instead as a wayward child, unemployment, or infertility. No matter what our challenges look like, we are wise to mentally and spiritually prepare for them. We must decide in advance how we will respond.

Nineteenth century theologian Oswald Chambers has wise words on this subject in his classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest (June 25). “Sorrow burns up a great amount of shallowness, but it does not always make a man better.”

This has been my observation, too. One friend has lived with rheumatoid arthritis for most of her life, yet always has a smile and an encouraging word. Another suffered through a difficult divorce, became consumed by bitterness, and turned her back on God. My friend Sue used her Caring Bridge site to share the faith lessons she learned during her journey with cancer. In her last journal entry, she wrote these words:

“I trust God to follow through on this and all his promises. It’s what I cling to with a vivid image of swooping over green hills and, yes, winding blue rivers, lifted by divine wings. It’s where that one river will take me that makes me unafraid now. He’s winged me successfully through many procedures and surgeries because of cancer, which has drawn me closer than I’ve ever been to him. Is cancer a blessing? In more ways than you can imagine.”

Sue decided to trust God—no matter what.

You and I should, too. 

Chambers issues the challenge: “My attitude as a saint to sorrow and difficulty is not to ask that they may be prevented, but to ask that I may preserve the self God created me to be through every fire of sorrow.” 

He cites the words of Jesus as the supreme example: “What shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!" (John 12: 27-28).

The best time to decide how to handle a difficult situation is before we get into that situation. This advice was true for our teenaged daughters, and it is true for us as well. If we decide in advance that we will trust God—his love, his wisdom, his provision, and his good plan—no matter what, then our faith will hold firm when trials come. Instead of being tossed to and fro by every wind of circumstance, our faith will be anchored to the bloodstained cross where Christ proved his unquestionable love for us. 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

“Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-3).

Will you trust him today, no matter what?

The music video by Hillsong United, "Oceans," is a beautiful declaration of faith. If you're an email subscriber and can't see the video, CLICK HERE to view "Oceans."

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Trapped in the Middle of the Ocean -- Third in the Series of Cruise Devotions

"I could never go on a cruise," a friend of mine said the other day as we discussed my recent 27th anniversary cruise. "There's just something about being stuck out in the middle of the ocean, unable to get back to land whenever you want to that makes me feel, well . . . vulnerable," she concluded.

I understand exactly how she feels. 

I shared her feelings as our ship pulled away from the dock on that first day, and I watched the skyline of Charleston get smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely. Although our ship had seemed enormous when we boarded, it was dwarfed by the miles of empty ocean that soon surrounded it. Gazing at the lifeboats strung like wooden beads around the ship caused a tiny flutter of fear to dance in my middle as I pondered the "what ifs."

Other experiences over the course of my lifetime have fed that butterfly of fear:

Taking a mission trip to another country.
Sending a child off to college.
Signing consent forms for surgery.
Helping my daughter move to one of the most dangerous cities in the country.
Making a will.

These experiences and others like them cause us to realize a truth we try not to think about -- we are vulnerable.

The apostle Paul felt that same vulnerability. As he said goodbye to loved ones and friends, he said, "I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there." He recognized, contrary to what William Henley suggests in his poem, "Invictus," that we are not masters of our own fates, nor captains of our own souls.

On the contrary, we owe the very breath in our bodies and the life in our souls to God's great love and care. Jeremiah the prophet understood this when  he penned Lamentations 3:22. He said it is "because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail."

It is also on the basis of God's love and sovereign control over the events of our lives that we can rest secure. Corrie Ten Boom said this, "In the center of a hurricane there is absolute peace and quiet. There is no safer place than in the center of the will of God." 

This reminds me that I am safer in the center of God's will in the deepest jungles of Africa than outside God's will in my own home. Safety is not in a place. Safety is in a person. And as Corrie said, safety is not always the absence of difficulty, but the presence of God.

Paul knew this. Listen to his poignant words of farewell to friends he knew he would never see again on this side of eternity. 

"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me."

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:22-24).  

Is God calling you today out of your place of apparent safety and into the center of His will, risky though that may appear to be? If His calling is sure, you are safe to follow Him. 

 "Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Heb. 11:6).

You can trust Him. 


"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Heb. 11:8-10).

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Forsaken

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent." 
(Psalm 22:1-2)

It was our first day in Boston.  It was also my mom's first experience with the "T," Massachusett's underground subway system.  Riding the subway was a big step for her.  Keep in mind that Mom has lived the last 15 years of her life in the very small town of Sandy Run, South Carolina, population 5,047.   There, heavy traffic means that the mailman AND the UPS man drive down the road on the same day.

So there we were in Boston, about to embark on a grand adventure, when something went terribly wrong.  My mom and daughter stepped onto the subway train, and I did not.  The doors closed and they were gone, hurtling down the rail at 40 miles per hour.  In the wrong direction.  Away from me.

David, the author of Psalm 22, felt the same way as my mother as the train raced down the track farther and farther away from where she wanted to be.  He felt forsaken.  "My God," David cried, "My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?  O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent."

Sometimes we feel forsaken too.  Maybe we have cried until we think there isn't another tear left in our bodies, and then we cry some more.  Maybe we have felt abandoned, afraid, or hopeless.  Despite our earnest prayers, God seems far away, and we feel so alone.  We begin to wonder, like David (and my Mom), if the one who was supposed to be taking care of them had fallen asleep on the job. Or worse yet, didn't care.

Scripture describes David as a man after God's own heart.  Even in the depths of his hopelessness and despair, he arrived at the proper conclusion. Listen to his words:

" But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
  Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them.
  They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed."

When his emotions told him that God had forsaken him, David remembered God's faithfulness in the past, and chose to trust Him for the future.  That's what faith is.  It is not a blind leap in the dark.  It is placing our trust in God based on what He has done in the past. The same God who rescued King David from the hands of his enemies is the same God who rescues you.  And me.  And my mom on the subway.

David remembered, "You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother's womb You have been My God."

Do you feel forsaken today?  Are you struggling to trust God for the future?  If you are, cling to the promise of Hebrews 13:5.  "He (God) has said, "Never will I leave you.  Never will I forsake you."  Trust Him for the future based on what He has done in the past.  Your trust will not be misplaced.

As for my mom on the Boston T, my quick thinking daughter remembered Newton's Third Law of Physics that states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and applied it to the train system.  She ushered my mom off the northbound train at the next stop, crossed the platform to where the southbound trains were departing, climbed aboard, and arrived back at our original stop before I had time to formulate a game plan.  Your rescue may not be as speedy, but you can rest assured that deliverance is near.

God bless you as you grow in faith and trust.

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Reflections from the ER -- Mother's Day Thoughts on God's Mercy

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."  (Lamentations 3:22-23)

It was the phone call that begins every parent's nightmare. 

"There's been an accident."

My daughter and her friends had left the house on a simple errand.  It was Mother's Day weekend.  A short time later the call came. 

As my husband and I rushed to the accident scene, all I could think was, I want to hold my daughter.  I want to see that she is all right.  I want to look into her eyes and the eyes of her friends and know that they are alive.

It was only God's mercy and biblical parenting that spared my daughter and her friends from serious injury.  What could have been a nightmare of magnitude proportions ended with a concussion, minor injuries and two smashed cars.

I had to pause and pray before I included the words "biblical parenting" in the same sentence with "God's mercy" in the paragraph above.  I feared that it might be sacreligious to include human effort in the same sentence with divine grace.  In the end, I left it there because biblical parenting and God's mercy truly are one and the same.  I know that it is only through God's mercy that we are able to parent biblically. Let me explain.

When I was a toddler, back in the days when car seats didn't exist and seatbelt use was optional, my parents and I were involved in an accident.  Sitting in the back seat unrestrained, I tumbled to the floorboard when the collision occurred.  Other than a few minor bruises and a terrible scare, I was fine. 

My father, however, was not.  He carried the horror of what could have happened to me with him for a long time.  The result was that he began enforcing seatbelt use for our family.  Typically a pushover, Dad's commitment to seatbelt use was ironclad.  The car did not move from the driveway until everyone was secured.  As children, we hated the new rule.  We whined.  We cried.  We cajoled.  We negotiated.  Sometimes we threw tantrums, but Dad was steadfast. 

Fast forward 18 years.  It was the night of the military ball, and I was a senior in high school.  As my escort and I prepared to leave, I did what I had been trained to do -- fasten my seatbelt.  I didn't think about the fact that it might wrinkle my gown, I just fastened by seatbelt.  Eighteen years of Dad's consistent parenting kicked in, and I did what he had trained me to do -- buckle my seatbelt.

That night could have ended in disaster too.  On the way to the ball, the young man with whom I was riding made an error in judgement, and we crashed into the back of a stopped car going 50 miles an hour.  Other than bruises from our seatbelts, he and I were fine.

Twenty-eight years later, my daughter and her friends were saved from serious injury because of my father's training.  The seatbelt lesson he had ingrained in me became one my husband and I passed on to our children.  This lesson had governed what happened in that car that night.  That and God's mercy.

Our family's seatbelt legacy is a small example of what consistent biblical parenting looks like. For most parents, setting the standards is not as difficult as enforcing them day in and day out. Taking the high road often makes us unpopular with our children, their friends, and even our friends. We get weary and sometimes wonder if it is really worth it. Sometimes our children seem determined to go their own way, totally disregarding and dismissing all that we try to teach them.

Faithful parent, I want to encourage you on this Mother's Day to press on.  Do not grow weary in doing good, for God's word promises that we will reap a harvest if we do not faint. Recognize that you cannot do it alone, and ask God to fill you with His strength. Your children's only hope is consistent biblical parenting.  And God's mercy.


 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Pr 22:6

This post was shared on Bible Love Notes' Bless a Blogger Friday at  http://biblelovenotes.blogspot.com/p/friday-blog-hop.html

"Shhh! No Talking While the Pastor's Preaching!"

 How many times during church have we felt a little tap on our arm or a tug on our sleeve and leaned over to whisper, "Shhh!  No talking while the pastor's preaching!"?  I felt that little tap this past Sunday during morning church service.  Since my children are grown and my husband was in the sound booth, I quickly recognized that the tap on my arm was really a tap on my heart.  I realized that it was the LORD Who was speaking while the pastor was preaching.

And so, while the pastor was delivering a stirring sermon on every believer's call to be a missionary, the Holy Spirit was addressing an entirely different issue in my own heart.  In order to do so, He hijacked my pastor's perfectly good text, threw me into the wagon with it, and off we went down a divergent path.

In the hope that our conversation might also help you, I transcribed it to share.  It went something like this:

"The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat." (Mat. 8:14)

How are we going to pay for college next fall?  We only have a small savings.  It is not even enough for ONE year, let alone four..


"Why are you talking about having no bread?  Do you not still see or understand?" (Mat. 8:17) 

How much or how little you have is irrelevant, because your provision is not in what you have, but in Whom you have.  And you have Me.

"Is your heart hardened?  Do you not have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?  And don't you remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfulls of pieces did you pick up" (Mat. 8:19)

Do you not remember that I have always provided for you?  Do you not remember that I sent your husband to school when there was no money?  Do you not remember that I sent your daughter, too?

I do remember, Lord.  We stepped out in faith, believing that you were calling Him there, and without fail, every semester, you provided.  For over four years.  Over $17,000.
And Kristen, too.  She'll graduate in May with no debt.  You provided.

And how many baskets of food were left over after I provided for your needs?

Lots, Lord..  We've had everything we've needed and then some.

"Do you have eyes, and do not see, and do you have ears and not hear? . . . Don't you understand yet?"


Yes, Lord, I understand.  And I want to understand while it is still faith, not sight.


Thank you, Lord.  I love you a lot.

Dear friend, are you struggling?  Are you seeing the giants and forgetting the promises?  Are you facing huge needs with small faith?  Are you forgetting all that God has done for you in the past and focusing only on what is looming before you today?  Then join me. Put your face in His hands, look deep into His kind eyes, and hear Him say, "Don't you remember?  Do you not see?"  And let's watch Him do a miracle.

"If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Be thou removed.'"

Like a Weaned Child

When my daughter was a baby, she was not the most patient infant.  She would go from sleeping to screaming in less than a minute.  What began as a whimper would soon become a cry, which would escalate into a full-blown wail, complete with red face, kicking feet, and thrashing arms.  The whole neighborhood knew when she was hungry.

As time passed, she learned that she didn't have to scream and thrash to let us know she had a need.  She didn't panic when the first whimper went unattended.  Best of all, she learned that we loved her and delighted in caring for her.  She learned to trust us.

Sometimes I act like my daughter did.  When life throws me a curve ball, I can often go from a whimper to an all out cry in less than a minute.  Fear and panic rise up in me, and I am overwhelmed.  I feel abandoned and all alone.  I begin to doubt that God will hear and answer my cry.  As fear escalates, my imagination goes crazy, my heart races, and I become more and more distraught.  Before long I can become hopeless -- an emotional and spiritual wreck.

Psalm 131:2-3 is God's word to me in times of fear and need.  "Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever."

Psalm 46:10 echoes the sentiment:  "Be still and know that I am God."

In times of trouble, I must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, make my need known to the Father, and be still.  I must rest in the fact that He loves me, He cares about my needs, and He is trustworthy.  I must choose not to listen to the voice of the enemy who causes my heart to fear.  I must choose instead to trust in the God who cared enough to die for me.
 "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"  (Romans 8:32) 

Like God Today

 

 

I got to be like God today.

Whenever we visit the mountain house, one of my first priorities is to fill the many bird feeders that dangle from the wraparound porch. The winters are very cold at 4,000 feet, and thick snow often blankets the ground. It is difficult for small creatures to find enough to eat.

I love to haul the huge bucket of bird seed outside to the porch, dig out the scoop, and fill each feeder to the brim. For good measure, I also scatter some seed on the porch railings. Within minutes hungry birds begin to flock to the feeders. There is the occasional squabble over a particularly savory sunflower seed, but for the most part the steady stream of visitors comes and goes quietly. Their silent takeoffs and landings remind me of the times I’ve looked out from the observation deck at the airport and watched the planes come and go.

Psalm 145:15 states of God, “The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” As I provide food for my feathered friends, I identify with the Father heart of God. He knows our needs. Better still, He cares about them, and He is eager to meet all of our needs in due season. We don’t have to fear that His resources will ever run short, for His bucket is deep, and His scoop is large. His hand is generous, providing all that we need and then some. “Open your mouth wide,” God encourages us, “and I will fill it!”

I got to be like God today, and it made me smile.

Landing on an Aircraft Carrier

Photo courtesy U.S Department of Defense An F/A-18C Hornet catches an arresting wire on the USS Nimitz.

 

Landing on a flight deck is one of the most difficult things a navy pilot will ever do. The flight deck only has about 500 feet of runway space for landing planes. In order to land on the deck, the pilot must catch his plane’s tail hook on one of four arresting wires stretched across the deck of the carrier. If the pilot is successful and snags an arresting wire, it pulls the wire, stopping the plane. According to the website “How Stuff Works,” (http://science.howstuffworks.com/) the arresting wire system can stop a 54,000-pound aircraft travelling 150 miles per hour in only two seconds. 

There are two critical steps to the success of each landing. The first is that the pilot catches hold of the arresting wire with his plane’s tail hook. The second is that the arresting wire is strong enough to hold the plane and keep it from skidding off the runway, crashing into the sea. 

David said to the Lord in Psalm 140, “You are my God; Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. . . the strength of my salvation.” Like the pilot on the aircraft carrier snagged the wire, trusting it to save him, David reached out to the Lord in faith.

And like the super-strong arresting wire that keeps planes safe, God is strong enough to hold anyone who places his trust in Him. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Ps 20:7)

 

Will you join me in “snagging the wire” as we trust our strong and mighty Savior?

The Parable of the Cantaloupe

I was biting into a sweet, juicy piece of cantaloupe one morning when it slipped off my fork and landed with a splat on the kitchen floor.  

Knowing that Winston, our puppy, was lying under the table near my feet, I dove for the dropped piece before he could snag it.  (No people food for puppies is the rule at our house.)  As I dove under the table, he looked up at me with startled eyes.  He hadn't moved a muscle.  In fact, he hadn't even noticed the melon that had dropped on the floor.  

As I pondered this minor miracle, God, as he so often did during his years on earth, spoke to my heart in a parable.  I call it the Parable of the Cantaloupe.

Winston didn't lunge for the dropped cantaloupe, because that isn’t how he is accustomed to being fed.  He doesn't scrounge for crumbs and scraps of food inadvertently left behind and hope to make a meal out of them.  He is fed from a benevolent loving hand that scoops abundantly from a food supply designed just for him.  He never goes hungry or has to beg for the smallest handout.  His owners love to feed him regularly and generously.

As I pondered Winston I saw myself.  Unfortunately, unlike Winston, I am not always so certain of my Master’s provision and daily sustenance.  Sometimes I see God not as a generous God who "loves to give good gifts to his children," (Matthew 7:11) but as a minimalist God who, like the miserly Scrooge, doles out the smallest portion he can get away with in order to satisfy his responsibility.  

This faulty perception affects my prayers.  Instead of praying BIG, I pray small, like a pauper trying to beg a scrap or a small coin from a reluctant passerby.  I pray hesitantly, almost apologetically, when I have to ask, and then only for needs, never wants or "extras," because after all, God only promises to supply my NEEDS, right? 

But WHY do I think, like the Samaritan "dogs" of Jesus' healing parable, that I have to "eat the scraps that fall from the  Master's table" instead of expecting God to "prepare a table before me"? (Psalm 23:5)  In His Word, God tells us to "Open your mouth WIDE, and I will fill it!"  (Psalm 81:10).  

He tells us that "He satisfies the desires of every living thing," (Psalm 145:15), does "exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we could ever ask or imagine," (Ephesians 3:20  ) and supplies “all our need according to His riches and glory."  (Philippians 4:19)  

Our God is NOT a minimalist God.  He wants to "pour out a blessing so great that you will not have room to receive it." (Malachi 3:10)

Next time I pray, I plan to sit at Jesus' feet expectantly and with trust to see what great abundance will flow from His hand to my heart.  "Early in the morning, I lay my request before you and wait in expectation!" (Psalm 5:3)