Oct 10, 2013 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hi there! This post is part of a 31-Day writing adventure I’m embarking on. I’d love for you to join me and read along. You can find the introduction to the series, and a “Table of Contents” as each day goes live, right here. Thanks so much for dropping in!
Yesterday, I shared some thoughts on the concept of losing your life to find it — and ended asking if you, Dear Reader, perhaps get a little itchy with the idea that God wants all of your life. I’d like to take a little more time for that concept to “simmer” in the pot before it’s poured, so I’m going to switch gears and discuss something different today, and then come back to that when the timing seems right.
Sound okay?
Great, let’s dig in!
How do you feel about birthdays?
A few weeks ago, I celebrated a birthday. I really like birthdays and generally don’t struggle too much with focusing on the fact that I’m clocking additional laps on the track of life, and this one was just so special there was really no good reason to be bummed — other than it being my first birthday without my Dad, and there being a few moments where his absence was a little tough.
Hero Hubs, like always, lived up to his moniker by organizing a perfectly special day for me. My Mom, as always, blessed me in countless ways and reminded me for the hundredth time that week that I’m so fortunate she’s my Mama. And a new friend of mine made all these special efforts to make the day super-great and it was SUCH a treat!
Among the gifts I was showered with were some birthday cash, which I happily received. I regularly tend to avoid spending money on myself, but with everything arranged for my friend and I to get out of the house childless and go shopping for a wee while (very big deal people!) I was very excited to grab a couple of necessities for the change of season upon us, and pretty much some stuff that I like to call additions to my “Momiform.” Which is the uniform I found myself in almost every day — jeans and a basic t-shirt, because why not?
We scooted off to the next town over and found some deals (including a steal on a much-needed new bathing suit, which was not as needed as I thought since our beach vacation has been RAINY.) And after all that fun I still had some extra cash in my pocket.
For some reason, I decided to try to spend the rest of it on other people.
In the days and weeks that followed, I enjoyed paying for a friend’s coffee as we enjoyed an afternoon out without our kids. I bought my Mom some much-deserved flowers (it was on the to-do list for weeks) and enjoyed taking the Bear and my sweet nieceypoo to a movie.
And, it might come as no surprise, I think I got more joy out of blessing others than I would have if I’d found a few more options for my Momiform. My Mom’s flowers lasted for ages and brought us both a lot of joy. I loved getting special time with my niece – I don’t get to see her often and my son. And MAN OH MAN is it a treat to just sit down with another Mama and have an adult conversation sometimes!!!
In His glorious goodness, the Lord built a gift into giving.
But let’s be honest. Giving isn’t always easy. Sometimes when it comes in the form of serving, and especially if that serving seems to go unnoticed, you can begin to really feel like you’re getting the short end of the stick. {You remember that God is all-seeing though, right?} And sometimes, when you’re asked to give, you might also have concerns about whether there will still be enough for you.
Our photography business has been asked to give a lot since we did our first photoshoot in the Carolinas, and we’ve clung to one particular principal to remind us to keep it up:
The generous man will be prosperous, And he who waters will himself be watered. {Prov. 11:25}
As a result, we have been privileged to begin to catch a glimpse of this reality. We’ve answered nearly every inquiry by giving. Our business is growing and we’re beginning to get excited about the dream becoming a reality. {We already have four weddings booked for 2014 — and I could wet my pants!}
Remember that first giveaway we did, for a Quiver Tree photo session over a year and a half ago? The family we met, who won the giveaway have since become dear friends that we LOVE LOVE LOVE.
The hard part of giving — almost every time — is usually trusting that if you give, you’ll still have enough for you and your family at the end of the day.
This is where that hard “T” word comes in — Trust.
But here’s the promise you can stand on to help you Trust, so that you can enjoy the gift in giving and enjoy it often:
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. {Phil. 4:19}
Is it sometimes hard for us Westerners to recognize the difference between needs and wants? Probably so. But we can absolutely trust the God who sees everything (and knows everything) to supply what is best for us, and to water us when we demonstrate our trust in Him and water others.
Have you seen an unexpected gift from deciding to be a giver? I’d love to hear about it.
I’d like to challenge you to choose to be generous today — and let me know how it goes!
xCC
Oct 9, 2013 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hi there! This post is part of a 31-Day writing adventure I’m embarking on. I’d love for you to join me and read along. You can find the introduction to the series, and a “Table of Contents” as each day goes live, right here. Thanks so much for dropping in!
We are enjoying a yearly tradition of spending time with family at the beach this week and yesterday, I had the privilege of taking the Bear and my sweet nieceypoo on a little trip to the movies. My niece doesn’t live nearby, so I love soaking in her fun and vivacious personality when I get the chance to spend time with her.
We had about ten minutes before the movie was supposed to start, and I had a couple of quarters in my pocket so I decided to let the kids play the race car game they’d been pretending to play while I was getting snacks. After putting quarters into the machine, I quickly realized the Bear’s feet wouldn’t reach the peddles, and slipped into the seat with him in my lap so that he could steer while I pushed the pedals.
Watching the screen was nothing short of painful — I could see that we were about to slam into things and would do my best to slow down. We were very obviously in eighth place and I was trying to help catch up!! I occasionally tried to grab the wheel to help, which sometimes helped, but sometimes resulted in us flipping completely over or slamming into something and bursting into flames. It became obvious that I needed to let go, slow down, and just let the Bear go at his own pace, which was quite a test of will for me.
Attempting to let someone else drive but simultaneously trying to push the pedals immediately made me begin to think about how I interact with the Lord. I wondered if sometimes I try to push the pedals or grab the wheel and steer because I don’t like the course being set for me. Even though I absolutely want to whole-heartedly give my life to the Lord, I sometimes cling to the wheel for fear of what that could look like.
A missionary named Jim Elliot, who lived an incredible life for Jesus, traveling to unreached people groups to share the Gospel with them for the first time, once said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Jesus delivered this similarly challenging word to His followers: “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” {Matthew 10:39}
As I mentioned the other day, it is often a challenge to let go of something we’ve been clinging to for the sake of Jesus. He doesn’t promise we will be safe, but He does promise we will find eternal life with Him when this blip-on-the-map called our life on earth is over.
It is an unexpected paradox, like so many aspects of His glorious goodness, that clinging to something will cause you to lose it, but letting go of something will cause you to find it. Matthew Henry comments on it this way:
They who like not Christ on these terms, may leave him at their peril… It is very encouraging to think, that whatever we leave, or lose, or suffer for Christ, we do not make a hard bargain for ourselves. Whatever we part with for this pearl of price, we may comfort ourselves with this persuasion, that it is well worth what we give for it.
Is His glorious goodness good enough to leave everything for? Do you get itchy with the idea that God wants all of you — or wants the steering wheel and the pedals?
Can we chat about that more tomorrow?
xCC
Oct 8, 2013 | 31 Days, The Good Word, The Parenthood
Hi there! This post is part of a 31-Day writing adventure I’m embarking on. I’d love for you to join me and read along. You can find the introduction to the series, and a “Table of Contents” as each day goes live, right here. Thanks so much for dropping in!
I’m a parent, and like a lot of parents, I think my kids are uber-awesome. Really. I adore each one of them for different reasons — I love the Bear’s tenderheartedness, his clever mind, his deep thinking. Although the Tank is absolutely a steamroller in many situations, he somehow also has this incredibly gentle spirit, loves to give kisses, shows deep concern when someone is sad, and is full of that age-two-everything-is-full-of-wonder stage that melts my heart on a daily basis.
The Belle, of course, is our little princess and we cherish her. She shows so much delight in the world around her. She is quickly becoming very eager to not just watch, but participate in what her brothers are doing. She loves to be tickled and to giggle, and has an out-of-this-world nose scrunch.
It’s pretty easy to come up with a list of reasons why the small people in my life have such a special place in my heart (besides, obviously, the wonderful knowledge that they’re mine) but there are also times when it is NOT so easy to be their Mama. When I feel like a steaming pressure cooker with a stuck-on-lid, when there are more rides on the drama llama than this Mama can handle.
A couple of weeks ago, the Bear had one of those drama-llama moments. It had been a really long day. He no longer takes naps in the afternoon, but I sometimes think he still could (but then he’d never fall asleep at bedtime.) He’d been very active and was probably a little tired, though he wasn’t showing it.
Dinner wasn’t going to take long so I suggested we go for a stroll to the playground to enjoy just a little more fresh air at the end of our day. I have a double stroller, and it’s anybody’s guess, sometimes, how many kids I’ll be pushing in it. The Tank wanted to ride in the back, the Belle was in the front, and the Bear was riding the Tank’s bike, so that if he decided to get out of the stroller and ride a bike, he could.
It was not a surprise when the Tank switched gears and wanted to ride his bike. The Bear happily jumped into the backseat of the stroller when I said it would be okay — yes, he’s probably too old to be riding in the stroller, but I caved in the name of having fun.
We arrived on the gravel path we take for the last stretch to the playground, and, no surprise, sweet little Tank wanted to ride in the stroller again because it is too hard to push a plastic bike over a gravel road. Truth.
A fight ensued. Over rights to the backseat of the stroller, of course.
Knowing we would not make it to the playground without the Tank getting in the stroller, I asked the Bear to get out, and he was… more than a little disappointed.
I did my best to explain my reasoning, talked about how great it would be to play at the playground, attempted a little discussion about the best decision in this scenario, tried to make it NOT a big deal… nothing doing.
He parked himself in one spot and didn’t budge.
I strolled a little further (safe location folks, don’t worry) and looked back to see him still arms crossed, crying a little.
I strolled a little further and the weeping turned into wailing. Embarrassingly loud, cray cray wailing. Perhaps he would follow now?
I strolled a little further and he eventually freaked out with scream-crying.
Without boring you with more exhaustive details, I’ll basically say it ended badly. His favorite toy taken away for a week for his disobedience (when I asked him to come), other punishment for the fact that he yelled at his Mama… still more discussion later that evening about the fact that — {ohmigosh this is what it looks like} he actually did a little on-the-ground kicking and screaming. It wasn’t a full-fledged grocery-store-kid gone wild — but it was the closest I’d ever seen from him.
Eventually, order was re-restored, but we never made it to the playground. He cried most of all of the walk home, and waited in his bedroom for his Dad to get home.
Washing dishes after dinner that night, I reflected on the reasons behind the freak-out, and thought about what I could have done differently to better handle the situation, and to perhaps even prevent it from happening like that again.
I remembered this verse from Psalm 18:35:
You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.
In the middle of the Bear’s tantrum, which allow me to mention — this might have been his third one, total, in his five years of life — it’s totally not like him — the first one ever was shockingly embarrassing when we had to leave a pool party early…never mind. In the middle of the Bear’s tantrum, the thing that finally connected me with him enough to manage to get him off the ground and on the way home was stooping down to look him in the eyes.
{It doesn’t always look like this…}
However, I pretty much presided over the entire tantrum, from my vantage point, a couple of feet above him.
But my conclusion as I washed the dishes and thought about the best course of action? It would have been very good for me to have gotten down on his level sooner — to gently discuss the situation, to talk about what was happening in a way that could have put it in perspective for him, instead of barking out my own threats or wishes or commands or whatever else.
Sometimes the mess a kid is in can feel so bad you don’t want to get in it. You don’t want to bend down to try to start wading through the web of emotions and screens to get to the heart and really gain understanding.
But how gloriously good is this?
In the midst of our own mess, our collective strops and tantrums and rages, our arms-crossed defiant head-shaking no-shouting ways, (which are sometimes not visual from the outside, mind you) the God of the Universe stooped down to make us great.
Jesus condescended, entered a broken world, and created an opportunity for us to climb off the back of our own drama llamas, and to choose a life well-lived, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to the honor and glory of God.
The verses that surround this one from Psalm 18 declare the goodness of God, and discuss what He does to strengthen and encourage and prepare His people for the battles that we will face. He does not leave us to face the challenges that absolutely do come our way empty-handed.
Other translations declare that His humility, or His mercy, or His gentleness makes us great. And amen. But I love the picture of the God of the Universe stooping down to look us in the eyes, the way I might have better connected if I’d decided to kneel in front of a frustrated son that day.
Who could have expected the God who created the universe to love the people He created this much? With this everlasting, never-changing love!
And He stoops down, AND says,
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.” {Jer. 31:3}
The love of God for you and me is the most incredible unexpected treasure. And the Holy stooping He does, to help us wade through our own mire, turn our eyes to Him, be lifted up and gain understanding? It is nothing short of glorious.
xCC
Oct 7, 2013 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hi there! This post is part of a 31-Day writing adventure I’m embarking on. I’d love for you to join me and read along. You can find the introduction to the series, and a “Table of Contents” as each day goes live, right here. Thanks so much for dropping in!
There are a few things that I imagine just about everybody will struggle with while walking the path toward holiness. And it is hard for me to contemplate fear not being one of them.
While running the race seems mostly like a linear push toward a finish line in the distance, there are times where I tend to feel more like I’m racing around a track. I’ll think I’ve worked my way through a certain struggle, leaned on Jesus and found His help for it, and then, shew-wee I hit that quarter-mile marker and a struggle (this time, fear) is on my back whispering in my ear again.
One of my greatest fears has largely to do with how much I love my family. The fear of losing my Hero Hubs or one of my children — just the thought of it, can start enacting scenarios in my head. What would I do? What would life look like? How would we make it? And the runaway thought-train gets specific: Will I have to quit homeschooling the Bear? What sort of work could I do that would allow me to still be home a lot? Could I sell decent-paying advertising slots on my blog?
Giving those thoughts headspace is usually an awful decision — but sometimes it seems like they have a head start, they are already trailing along and building idea on top of idea — and I’m left behind, trying to scale the lofty tower of “what-if’s” to knock down the beast that’s busy stacking something else at the top.
What’s interesting is that what the Lord gives us to combat fear is not what we might expect, or choose if we had a choice. If I had a choice, I would probably like to ask the Lord to 1) promise me that the Hubs and I will live to a ripe old age and enjoy our grandchildren 2) promise me that our children will all outlive us, and that we’ll never have to say goodbye to any of them at a time that seems premature.
Lord, let me see the whole picture folded out in front of me — will I get to do this and will my eldest do that and will we ever manage to do this and…
But He doesn’t answer fears individually, really. He doesn’t say “I promise this will go like this and that will go like that.”
Somehow, the answer to our fears is simply the belief that God is good.
What sort of adventure would life be if we could map it all out? And if we could map it all out, what use would there be for trust?
In His glorious goodness, He rather chooses to let us fully put our trust in Him, because really, that’s the only thing that never changes. He is always good, and He promises to be with us always.
People live to a hundred. Children die within a few days of their first breath. Winter gives way to Spring. Regimes rise and fall.
He is the only Being who is eternally consistent, never-changing in all the Universe.
And He is willing — He actually desires to meet us, personally engage with us, and even to help us punch fear in the face
. And what an unexpected turn — the only appropriate place for us to fear is with regard to the Lord Himself. We fear Him with a Holy reverence — because He is good, and also great (in the sense of His magnitude). He is very strong, very loving. Out of respect for Who He is and what He is capable of, it is right to fear Him.
But He is also gloriously good — and in this unexpected juxtaposition, we can find our fears eradicated. We turn to Him, He lifts us out of the mess we’ve been entertaining, and He shows us how to trust. It might go something like this:
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him. {Ps. 40:1-3}
In His glorious goodness, God’s willingness to meet us as we turn to Him and put our trust in Him can be the beginning of a new story of joy in our lives — and an opportunity to encourage those around us.
Once again we find if we can just let go — there is something so much better to grab hold of.
xCC
Oct 6, 2013 | 31 Days, The Good Word
Hi there! This post is part of a 31-Day writing adventure I’m embarking on. I’d love for you to join me and read along. You can find the introduction to the series, and a “Table of Contents” as each day goes live, right here. Thanks so much for dropping in!
And thanks to a reader’s comment, I realized I hadn’t enabled my Subscribe via Email option. If you’d like to be receiving these posts via email, you can sign up in the sidebar right there –>
Yesterday we chatted about the gloriousness of a God who came near when we pulled further away, and the glorious gift that is the Holy Spirit — the Helper sent by God to enable us to stay in communication with Him, live out His heart and abide in His presence.
The Holy Spirit is a gift indeed — one that many never take out of the box.
A.W. Tozer gives this exacting description of the purpose of the Holy Spirit in a fantastic published sermon series called I Talk Back to the Devil!:
I am convinced that in New Testament Christianity, the object of the Holy Spirit is twofold. First, He wants to convince Christians that it is actually possible for us to know the beauty and perfection of Jesus Christ in our daily lives. Second, it is His desire to lead us forward into victory and blessing even as Joshua once led Israel into the promised land.
If these are the gifts available to us — deeply knowing Jesus as an integral part of our daily lives, and walking in victory throughout the days we’re given on Earth, what is the barrier between that idea and its reality?
He goes on to say, “We know our lack, but we are very slow in allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us into deeper Christian life and experience, that place where the intent of our heart is so cleansed that we may perfectly love God and worthily praise Him.”
One piece of the problem lies in our remaining content with having “a persuaded mind and even a well-intentioned heart” that are still very far from the faithful practice of walking in step with the spirit. Unfortunately, speculation about the possibility of the existence of a place of walking in the promises of God is not the same thing is actually walking in them.
It is good and well to believe that there’s a Promised Land — but you won’t get there without crossing the Jordan.
When I first began to take being a following of Jesus seriously, there was one area of my life (I’m sure among many, but this was quite an obvious one) where I was unwilling to yield to God’s leading: romantic relationships. Instead, I began dating a Christian guy, which I felt “redeemed” the “issue.”
I felt the constant need to have a boyfriend — and, whichever fellow he was, he generally tended to take up a lot of my thoughts and attention and focus, and I generally made about as many decisions with my boyfriend in mind as the Lord.
I believe I was trying to fill a hole in my heart that only the Lord could fill, and perhaps dealing with issues related to my Dad (which by the Lord’s goodness, were later resolved).
Eventually, while away on a retreat one weekend, the Lord whispered to my heart that it was time to let go — and the voice that I’d avoided hearing was this time unmistakably clear.
I went home and let go.
The letting go was a dark night for my soul.
In the months that followed, still struggling to see the point, I tried to find another replacement. What I didn’t see, however, was that I could not be launched into my destiny until I let go — I would never have left home and headed to Scotland if I’d had to leave a beloved boyfriend behind. It was in Scotland that I met the man the Lord intended to be my husband all along.
Sometimes receiving an amazing gift means letting go something else first.
Tozer says, “I think the more we learn of God and His ways and man and his nature we are bound to reach the conclusion that we are all just about as holy as we want to be. We are all just about as full of the Spirit as we want to be.”
Our Declaration of Un-Independence is often a decision to stop to clinging to something (even something God-given) instead of God Himself. And it is often a decision to stop hiding something from God in order to let Him have complete authority over our lives entirely.
The cross comes before all things are made new — for Jesus and for us.
In Hebrews we’re encouraged to run the race, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” {Heb. 12:2}
Jesus endured the cross because there was something better waiting on the other side: Forgiveness and Redemption, when He paid the price for the sin of the world, and so much more.
The cross always precedes the Resurrection.
If “He who says He abides in Him ought to walk in the way Jesus walked.” {1 John 2:6}, then it is likely that we will have our own cross to bear. We don’t pay for our own salvation by any means, but there is often a letting go of one thing in order to choose the better thing that God has in mind for you or me.
In His Glorious Goodness, God sees it fit to help us let go — and though the things we’re letting go of seem absolutely huge at the time, we afterwards realize, like Paul:
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ… {Phil. 3:8}
What we gain in Christ far surpasses anything we could ever give up to receive Him. And this is another unexpected gift of God: we come to the end of ourselves and find, we give up so little to receive SO much.
Is there something you aren’t letting go of? Are you afraid of what people would think if you were to decide to dive head-first into God’s goodness and become wholly His? Are you afraid you might lose respect or social status or friends (which I would tend to conclude weren’t friends anyway…) if you make the decision to Declare your own Un-independence and choose to depend on God completely?
Have you perhaps been walking with the Lord for a long time, but there is just some area where you aren’t experiencing the victory you’ve been hoping for? Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Ask Him to show you what it is that needs letting go of, what needs to be brought into the light.
Don’t settle for mediocrity when deep and wide and ravishing treasures await those who choose the narrow path to holiness.
It’s in His glorious goodness, and Tozer explains it so well, that “In spite of our hesitation and delay and holding back God does not give up, because the Holy Spirit is faithful and kind and patient and ever seeks to lead us forward into the life of the special kind of Christian.”
You are invited to live that life. Dive in, and it will be glorious.
xCC
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