Dragging Feet

"He did what was pleasing to the Lord, but did it reluctantly" - 2 Chronicles 25:2

There's a wonderful older lady in our neighborhood who drives her rusty sedan with one foot on the accelerator and one foot on the brake.  I can always tell when she is passing by the house because her brakes squeal in rebellion as she's rolling down the street.

I found myself chuckling a little last night listening to another one of her drive by's. "Don't laugh Gen".. my husband Tim warned with a wink. "You know you'll be doing the same thing when you're older!" Of course this made me laugh louder, but I started thinking about it again this morning as I was reading my bible.

I'm just as guilty of driving with the brakes on right now in my younger years.  Maybe not literally... but metaphorically speaking.

I go to a meeting reluctantly instead of enthusiastically.  I'm eager to plant a flower garden in my back yard, then drag the project out for months. Why do I drag my feet? 

Sometimes I'm afraid of looking too "gung ho." That wouldn't be dignified, and it might scare people.  Sometimes I just don't have a vision of the possibilities.  Sometimes... well....sometimes I'm just plain lazy.

Funny thing is, I'm the loser when this happens.  The meeting misses my needed voice, the garden project takes more time and effort than if I had thrown myself into it with enthusiasm, and it takes longer to enjoy.  Not very bright on my part!

I wonder what this week could be like for me if, instead of just "getting by," I actually took my foot off the brake and let'er rip! Perhaps I'd be cruising toward an unexpected adventure.  I know I would get more done and have more fun doing it, too.

Lord, help me see the exciting possibilities when I shift my mind into the right gear and stop slowing myself down!

Anxiety

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything; tell God your needs and don't forget to thank Him for His answers..." Philippians 4:6

I think historians might consider calling our era "the age of anxiety." Anxiety is the natural result when our hopes are centered around anything short of God and His will for us.  When we make anything else our goal, frustration and defeat are inevitable.

Though we may have less to worry about than previous generations (at least in my opinion...), we have more uneasiness.  Though we may have less real cause for anxiety than our predecessors, we are inwardly more anxious. Calloused hands were the badge of the pioneer, but a furrowed brow is the insignia of modern man.

God has never promised to remove all our troubles, problems, and difficulties.  In fact, sometimes I think the truly committed Christian is in conflict with the society around him more than any other person.  Society is going in one direction, and the believer in Christ is going in the opposite direction.

This brings about friction and conflict.  But God has promised, in the midst of trouble and conflict, a genuine peace, a sense of assurance and security, the worldly person never knows.

I will be praying for the Lord Jesus to teach me how to keep my eyes centered on Him rather than on myself and my anxieties.  That He would help me to allow Him to give me peace of heart and mind in all I experience through this life.

Work is a Blessing!

"Clothe yourself with this new nature...." ~ Ephesians 4:24

I had the opportunity this morning to listen to someone call in on a talk radio show.  He expressed how unhappy he was because he spends a lot of hours at work and he's exhausted when he comes home.

Now I have no idea who this person was, or what he's actually struggling with...I only heard a 3 minute pre-recorded phone call, BUT... the conversation got me thinking about my own attitude toward work and what I experience day to day.

Listening to that caller this morning put my heart in check.  I think one of my responsibilities, as a believer and follower of Christ , is to have a new and different attitude toward life and the work I have...

So many young people today want Christ without responsibility.  I found myself thinking.. "Where do we get off reasoning our relationship with God in this manner?... Jesus was no drop-out! What gives me the right to think I'm "entitled" to anything... when I haven't fully appreciated what it took in order to receive?"

2 Thessalonians 3:10 says "...He who does not work shall not eat..."

The Apostle Paul made tents for a living while he carried on the work God assigned him. As a carpenter, Jesus worked hard too...

I wish I could have spent a day in Joseph's shop watching Jesus use a hammer and a saw. I picture calluses on His hands, rough calluses that never fully healed over. I picture dirt under His nails, which were most likely cracked and splintered, and painful to touch. Sometimes I forget Jesus was human, as well as divine.

If the chisel had slipped and cut His fingers, His blood would have been red and warm like mine.  He knew what it meant to work long hours, to come home at night tired and weary... He also knew that a laboring man needs rest and recreation.  "...Come unto me, all ye that labor..." Matthew 11:28

I was humbled thinking about my own selfish attitude toward work this morning.  I've heard before.. that I should be thankful for what I have, and I am...God just took me a bit further today, by helping me remember the work I do should be done unto Him.

I should do my best at whatever it is I'm doing, and not dwell on how it might make me "feel".  I should be faithful, clean, honest, and thankful everyday I get to experience work, because work IS a blessing...in more ways than one!

Remembering the labor Jesus did here on earth...which led to his supreme sacrifice, helps me realize all work is sacred if done for the Lord.  I find rest and feel refreshed when I consider this... and I pray all my labor will glorify Him.

Comforter

"... and He shall give you another Comforter..." - John 14:16

Its been a long, tiring week as things fell apart around me, and as I've pushed myself to meet several deadlines, sometimes getting up before the sun and often working until I fell into bed at night...

YES, I'm a procrastinator, but lately I've become aware of something: I LIKE it this way! Deadlines are good for me. Pressure is good for me. Yet sometimes, after a long push, there's often a harsh letdown....

I experienced the letdown this last weekend. It was supposed to be a weekend of refreshment. One without the kids... and at first... everything ran smoothly.. and then the car broke down!

My initial attitude.. was "God... Please just give us a break already...what are you trying to teach us?"....

Of course now, after a quick self evaluation...I'm thankful to God for surrounding me with the Holy Spirit and my family of friends... all of whom, helped me remember what's really important!

In the midst of the storm...I remembered my "soul-mothering" list, a mental log of things that nurture me, make me feel whole, warm my heart and heal my spirit. I like to think the Holy Spirit works along beside me in this process of soothing and renewing. He reminds me of my JOY in the middle of a battle.

And He came through for me again this weekend, when I was faced with a particularly sticky situation after that long week of struggling... I was able to put my frustration aside, remember His blessings, spend quality time with friends I love dearly, and feel peace in Christ Jesus.

Spirit of the living God...fall afresh on me...

Spiritual Maturity

So yesterday a friend of mine sent me a audio clip referencing Matthew 11 and John the Baptist. I love John the Baptist! I picture a rough looking man coming out of the desert... with a torn tunic and honey fused to his long, course mane of matted hair ... maybe some bug wings... stuck between his yellow teeth.. or at least what's left of them.... The lady on the audio clip described him as foaming at the mouth.. which made me laugh a little...


John may have had harsh features.. or at least that's my mental image of John.. despite what he looked like.. he was a man who knew nothing but COMPLETE joy in Christ. He knew Jesus intimately.. not just because they were cousins.. but because the Holy Spirit lived inside of him and he lived aggressively and passionately to serve the Lord and His will.

I think John the Baptist is a picture of what God is raising up in the church today. God is preparing us for the toughest of battles in the great war against the kingdom of darkness. In order to have victory in this battle.. God is conditioning His people to aggressively seek Him... with radical wholehearted commitment. Some will catch on, and grow in spiritual maturity... some won't.

Several things jumped out at me while studying this passage. God loves us... more than anything; a capacity we can't possibly understand. I have a very limited comprehension of that kind of love as a parent... I love my children more than anything according to my understanding of love. Take my four year old, Caleb, for instance...I don't think I could love him more than I already do.. or at least its difficult to imagine, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to let him drive my car, or ride his bike down the street by himself.

He's just not mature enough to handle that sort of responsibility. And I think living in Gods kingdom... unified with Him, while we're here temporarily on Earth.... is exactly like the picture I just described with Caleb.

As humans... we are limited by our level of maturity, as believers.. we have the opportunity to grow in unity with the Lord and the Holy Spirit helps us achieve this.

There are elements of Heaven that only the hungry find, only the love sick find, only the spiritually mature find... but one can't receive those gifts passively. One has to aggressively pursue them, like John the Baptist did.

Matthew 5: 6-7 .. the Beatitudes... as they're known.... talks about this very level of spiritual maturity... "blessed are the poor in spirit.. blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness"... all of these things require positioning ones heart to receive the gifts God wants and has planned to give...even before the world began.

Being united with the Lord means loving the truth without an agenda. It means radical intolerant living while the world around us falls for a delusion of open minded, non-committal ideas about "religion". It means pressing into His word and guarding it closely.

I know I have a long way to go before I get there, but I'm excited to see the end result!

Are We Talking to God, Or Are We Crying Out to Him?

"My soul longs for, yea, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God..." -- Psalms 84:2

I love this verse! I've read it year after year and I always come away astonished. Whoever wrote this verse deeply understood and knew God. He was intimate with the Lord, connected with him on a level most of us will probably never comprehend. Even more.. the author longed and was thirsty for closeness with the Lord continually.

Our lives are filled with so much stuff, it can easily become hard to see and feel God near us. I wonder if it becomes harder to feel God near us because He's not "tangible". You can't reach out and touch Him or see a physical image...or can you? Is it possible to be in total unity with the Lord...so much so you can physically feel His presence? I think so.. though this has rarely happened to me.

God created us for the purpose of perfect unity in Him. Sin broke the original connection, and now we spend a lot of time asking forgiveness and turning away from our sins... so we can achieve unity with the Lord again.

Our lives become more complicated when the Lord isn't near us. I think in times of trouble.. we feel the weight of our sins an cry out for the Lord to guide us. I wonder how often we cry out to God though. How often are we on our knees asking for guidance? How often are we seeking life with Him?

Darkness

"In Him was life.... The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

--John 1: 4, 5

One morning sudden fog blanketed a section of the freeway near where my husband and I lived. Before minutes had passed, over 60 vehicles had smashed into one another with a number of fatalities. I remember one driver commenting on the news "I couldn't see anything. All I heard was the crunch of metal smashing and twisting into metal."

I think about that sometimes when I read my bible. Scripture frequently uses the picture of darkness to describe a world lost in unbelief. Man doesn't believe he's driving in the fog though. He thinks the sun is bright in his world and the road is safe. He even thinks at times he can create his own light if needed. But the more he tries to light up his way with the kind of person he tries to be, and the kind of things he tries to do, the denser the darkness becomes. He steps on the gas, not even realizing he's heading for a horrible crash scene.

I think the "fog" of unbelief will be here until the world ends. But I don't have to drive in it. There's light for me, John calls this light... "life" and its found only in Jesus.

I'll probably be thinking about what exactly that means for days. "What is life in Jesus?"... "what does it mean to live with Jesus?" I'm not sure I have any idea, but I know I want to.. I'm excited to!