Ever wonder what football, poop and free will might have in common? Or want to hear a few thoughts about parenthood and living life out of control? Well this is your lucky day!
Click on over to Signpost Ministries where I’ve tied all those subjects together, in 1,000 words or less!
Look, here’s a slightly related photo of me five years ago, with a friend who’s coming to visit soon. YAY!
Happy Thursday!
xCC
Thanks to a great question from an old friend, and another great question from a new friend, I’ve been thinking a good bit about prayer. I plan to do a bit more thinking and hopefully follow that up with some writing sometime soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you today.
A friend of mind was asking for help understanding the following verse from the Psalms:
My friend wondered if you could earn God’s favour, and if He was perhaps withholding a good thing from her because she wasn’t doing something she should’ve been doing. Perhaps you are also waiting for “a good thing†and wondering what you’re doing wrong and why you don’t have it.
The thing about the blessings of the Lord is, I don’t think we earn them per se. I think blessing is the natural consequence of obedience. This is a point of significance though at first glance it might seem moot — what you believe will inform your understanding of your circumstances. It’s hard to put this into context, but let me try to explain with some examples.
God explained to Adam and Eve the consequence of sin in Genesis 2, when he told them not to eat from the tree. If they stayed inside God’s will and didn’t eat from the tree, the natural consequence of that behavior would be that they would continue to enjoy God’s blessing. But if they chose to disobey and eat the fruit of the tree, the consequence for that behavior would be death.
Now it wasn’t that God was rewarding their obedience or even punishing their disobedience — the natural result of their decisions would take place. Obey God, stay in the Garden, disobey, and your decision has dramatically altered the world you live in.
A simpler example: I tell the Bear not to touch the oven because it’s hot. If he doesn’t touch it, he’ll be fine. If he does, he’ll get burned. The choice is his. I am not punishing him for disobeying me if he touches the oven and his hand gets burned. Though I will make efforts to direct him and avoid it happening, he may still make the choice to do it, and getting burned is the natural consequence of the action.
The Lord does bestow favour and honour, and I think blessings are the natural consequence of walking in His ways. He built that into the fabric of the world we live in. (For example, if we make healthy choices in our diet and exercise, we’re much more likely to experience the blessings of good health.)
The challenge might be for us to recognise that our heart is longing for something that we think is good. The Lord who knows all things might know that something we think is a good thing for us actually isn’t. The Bear would probably think getting ice cream for dinner every night is a good thing…but his Mom and Dad see otherwise, and don’t “bless him†with ice cream for dinner. See what I mean?
And while that may seem like a simple example, remember that we are children to our heavenly Father, and His understanding is so high above ours — like the distance from the stars to the ocean. And I think we often forget that our lives are just a blip on the map — a single frame in the motion picture of eternity. And eternal perspective changes everything.
As Second Peter puts it: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. {2 Peter 3: 8&9}
Sometimes while we’re faithfully holding on for what we’re hoping for, I think God is busy behind the scenes orchestrating events to bring others to repentance, because of our faithfulness.
Have you ever heard the song, Unanswered Prayers? (by country singer Garth Brooks) I wanted to post the music video here but could only find remakes on youtube, so these are the lyrics:
Just the other night at my hometown football game
My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
And as I introduced them the past came back to me
And I couldn’t help but think of the way things used to be
She was the one that I’d wanted for all time
And each night I’d spend prayin’ that God would make her mine
And if he’d only grant me this wish I wished back then
I’d never ask for anything again
CHORUS:
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
She wasn’t quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
And I could tell that time had changed me
In her eyes too it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn’t much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what he’s doin’ after all
And as she walked away I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life
CHORUS
Some of God’s greatest gifts are all too often unanswered…
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
The Sermon in a Nutshell: I think we would do well to be careful if we think God isn’t blessing us with something and it seems contradictory to a Scripture that says He won’t withhold something good from us if we’re walking in His ways. We are a bit like the Bear in relationship to our all-knowing God. And I can honestly say for the Bear and myself, sometimes we don’t know what’s good for us.
xCC
We interrupt this Travelling Tuesday to bring you an important celebratory tutorial: How to Photograph a One-Month-Old.
If attempting to photograph your One-Month-Old baby, we have a few suggestions.
Don’t just put him down and set him up for the photos any old time.
Make sure he’s exactly one month old. And wait until he’s asleep.
Then he can stir in his own good timing.
He might pause and wonder “How did I get here?”
Or smile as he recognises the silly people doing goofy things to encourage some happy.
You’re likely to see enough cheer in his disposition
to allow you to grab a few good shots.
He might give you a sweet little smile
or look like he has something important to say.
Don’t be offended if he wants to stick out his tongue. He doesn’t know any better.
But grabbing the opportunity when he’s just waking up should give you a good chance to capture some happy baby-ness and nothing like that first picture up there. Our mistake is your learning opportunity.
Can you believe this baby is one month old?
xCC
P.S. Travelling Tuesday will return as regularly scheduled next week. We have some beautiful shots from Kalk Bay to share!
We had an evening out.
Mommy’s milk in the fridge and I’m squeezing into clothes hopeful with a moment to touch up my face and at least my hair’s been brushed.
We struggle to remember the last time though it wasn’t too long ago.
And HH made the decision: just dinner.
Instead of rushing through a meal to catch a movie, we make the most of our evening by aiming to do less. We sit long at the table and thoughts and fears and feelings and how-are-yous have a good chance to unfurl…
Like our newborn’s tiny fists, so constantly clenched they collect lint and grubbiness and need to be unfurled and scrubbed at bathtime, so our hearts need this quiet unfurling, as we share an appetizer and talk about our children. I savour my main and we talk about our future.
Going slow to enjoy a great steak, going slow to enjoy a great evening, is going slow to enjoy a great moment that now is but won’t be tomorrow. We look up at the stars for a bit. We listen to the ocean for a while.
We talk.
We talk about being generous with our gifts.
We talk about the older one, still cheery and sweet, but also newly dramatic and occasionally fretful — longing for attention.
And I remark to the Hubs over a sweet little creme brulee — this was the best way. Not rushing to do more, but enjoying this. He already knew and that was why he made the plan.
And we think about each other, and the older one with needs and we know: this is how he spells love. And isn’t this is how we all spell love.
Sometimes my hurried heart needs reminding:
The future isn’t here yet. You only get one chance at right now.
Quality is often a much better goal than quantity.
There will always be laundry and dishes. Take the time to be still. Savour this moment.
For house guests and strangers, friends and family, spouses and children alike, we are better off trying to spell love generously, with the only thing we can never get more of. And love is so often best spelled T-I-M-E.
xCC
Yesterday Hero Hubs took the Bear for a special adventure, just father and son. He promised the Bear ice cream and they headed into the little village beachfront area of Gordon’s Bay to get it. Although he can’t pronounce it particularly well, the Bear loves him some I-skeem, so he was stoked.
They headed out just after naptime, Bear clicked into his car seat, Dad driving, Mr. Potato Head grumbling along. (He misses going fast.) After finding a space just in front of the little ice cream shop, they hopped out and headed inside to start choosing flavours.
The Bear was keen for choc-choc…no surprise there…and they sauntered up to the counter to place their order. The young guy behind the counter in a bright coloured t-shirt said the total was ten Rand. So HH looked down at the Bear and said, “The ice cream is ten Rand, Bear Bear. Do you have ten Rand? You’re going to need ten Rand if you want ice cream. You were supposed to bring money, of course. If you don’t have it, I guess we’ll just be leaving now. I suppose we can go down to the beach and you can pick up a rock or take a shell home with you instead.”
The Bear was bewildered and completely confused, and his bright green eyes welled up with tears as he shuffled his feet out of the ice cream shop. Empty-handed and heavy-hearted, he…
OK, can I stop right there? How many of you actually believe this story? Hopefully if you know HH at all, you know that this just wouldn’t happen. He’s a good Dad, and if he promises the Bear ice cream, you’re darn tootin’ he’s going to do everything in his power to deliver on his promise. His promise will directly result in his provision, because
Good Fathers keep their promises.
Just recently, I’ve been praying for a friend who is in a tough situation. She has some life-altering decisions to make and my heart is heavy for her as she walks through this difficult time. I found myself replying to one of her emails earlier with these words:
I trust that God will gently lead you and give you peace and direction. I also trust Him to provide for you as you walk the way He leads — He will not guide you somewhere and then not provide for you there.
I stopped myself as I finished typing those words and pondered them for a bit. How often do I doubt that this is true?
I am often afraid that I’m going to make a mistake, and that the metaphorical bottom is going to fall out. I’m afraid that I’m going to take a left instead of a right at Albuquerque, and the rug of blessing and provision is going to be pulled right out from under me.
The Lord reminds me again and again that He loves me even more than I love my little ones. But somehow, that love starts slipping through my fingers, Disbelief starts creeping in, Fear starts whispering, and my mind tells me stories about what it looks like to be up the creek without a paddle.
But that is not the God I love. That is not the God I worship. That is not the way of our loving God.
My God is the loving Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.
He’s the One who says I came that they might have life and have it to the full.
And says don’t worry about tomorrow. Consider the lilies. Look at the sparrows. Don’t you mean more to me than them?
He pointed out Himself that if asked for bread, even an imperfect, human Dad won’t give his kid a stone. And then reminded us that He’s perfect.
He may not be all about my comfort, but He is able to work things together for my good.
While reminding myself and my friend of this truth, I thought it might be something you might need to hear today, too. I am not completely sure what tomorrow looks like for any of us. But I’m choosing to remember to put my confidence in the God who knows. He’s already there, and His plans are plans to prosper, and not to harm.
So, good news! God isn’t waiting for you to take a wrong turn so He can pull the rug out from under you, either. And I think that truth tastes even better than choc-choc ice cream.
xCC
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