Devoted

I was privileged to grow up in a Christian home. From the time I was 5 years old going to church was important to my family, and it was a regular part of every week. We did not just attend because it was the thing to do, we attended because my parents each had a personal relationship with God and saw church attendance as pivotal to fellowship and growth. We were involved in mid week church activities; and my parents attended Bible studies and were involved in church leadership. However, Family Devotions were an elusive part of our family life. Family Devotions were not something to look forward to, they were something we all dreaded. Devotions were even something that were pulled out when we were all being rotten! The kids are behaving badly? Let’s have a family devotion! There is nothing that makes you dread spending time in the word more than being sent there so that you “could think about what you have done”.

 

 I don’t believe that this is the spirit in which God wants us to spend time with Him. While the word of God is designed to point to the sin in our lives, it is also meant to encourage us in our faith by helping us to see the promises of God and how he has worked over time in the lives of his people, as well as how he has worked through His son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world. It is so much more than a reprimand.  It is my delight.  I delight in chocolate so I eat it. I delight in spending time with my sister, so I make time for it.  I delight in walking my dog, so we walk. If I delight in God’s word, I will choose to make time for it. Psalm 1:1-3 says of those who choose to walk with God,

“But they delight in the law of the Lord,
    meditating on it day and night.
They are like trees planted along the riverbank,
    bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither,
    and they prosper in all they do.”

I desire to be delighted with God’s word and time spent with Him, yet the delight doesn’t always translate into time. The desire to spend time with God is something that seems to have an ebb and flow in my life. There are times when I crave that intimacy with Him, and times when I am there out of obedience.  Each has a place, and blessing abounds because he is a good and faithful God who desires my devotion; Devotion to Him, not devotions for the sake of duty.

So Let it Grow

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be perfect?  I think it would be pretty great. I would never be wrong. I would never do anything less than capably, correctly and with great quality. If I was perfect I would never say the wrong thing, never make a bad decision and be an amazing wife, mother and friend all the time. I would be perfect! Life would be perfect! 

In the book of James, God has something to say to us about perfection, and frankly, it dims the glow for me just a little bit:

“Dear brothers and sisters, when trouble comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Ah. So perfection, at least the biblical variety, comes through trouble, testing and endurance.  There are actually people who enjoy endurance…they are quite often runners, and usually do things like train in the rain for a marathon, or enter mud runs and other crazy races. They have the ability to withstand hardship and stress. They know what it is like to persevere.  I am struck by the way James says (about endurance) “So let it grow!!!!”  As for me, I feel like the four (added) exclamation points are necessary. It is like he is saying, “Bring on the perfection! Let adversity and the testing of faith begin! I want to complete and lacking in nothing.”

Hebrews 6:11, 12 “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience, inherit the promises. “ Could it be that being perfect is not about a flawless life, but that being perfect and complete means we inherit the promises of God?

The good news is this. Even if you are not the world’s best wife and mother, if you sometimes say the wrong thing, and if every task you take on is not accomplished in the way Martha Stewart might do it, as a believer in Christ your are perfect and complete and lack nothing because of Christ and his work of completion in your life.  This ongoing work of completion will certainly include hardship, trials and tests.  But we know the outcome: perfect in the sight of our heavenly father. And that is all that matters.  “So let it grow!!!!”

Deep & Wide

I am awestruck by the incredible depth of God’s love for me. I see it in my life, in the lives of those around me, and in creation itself.  The word of God has much to say about our father’s love for us. Ephesians 3:16-18 are some of my favorite verses on this subject.

“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.”

His love for you and me is deep and wide. Deep: his love permeates my very being, sinking down into my soul. He desires for us to have a full awareness of his great, unceasing and amazing love.  This love is to be accepted with no doubt as to its realness. Have you ever sat on a comfy chair to find that it has sucked you in? God’s love surrounds and enfolds you: like a caterpillar safe in its cocoon, like a joey in its mama’s pouch, we are protected, surrounded, loved.  Wide:  his love encompasses every area of my life and is with me wherever I go. I am never away from his love for me. Like a light piercing the most complete and dense darkness or a shadow cast wider than the tallest mountain, his love falls over me, casting a wide and complete net.

As children, we accept this love without reservation, as adults we strive to be worthy of it.  Ephesians 3:19 goes on to say, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully, then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” From our understanding and experience of God’s love comes completeness. We don’t deserve his love because we are complete, completeness comes after accepting His love.

Be Still

As a kid I think I was constantly told to “Be Still”! Admittedly, I was a serious wiggle worm with a propensity to keep moving. Sitting still was not on my daily list of things to do. Stillness is still not something that is always on my daily list of things to do. Being still is an art, and it is one that I have striven to cultivate in my own life. Our society values people who are on the go, and so do our churches. Scripture tells us to do things like: follow God, pursue righteousness, and flee from temptation.  All of these things require action. However, we are also told to “be still”. What purpose is served by being still? Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still and know that I am God.” Stillness allows us to put focus on God: the creator and sustainer of our souls. 

Sometimes I enjoy being still…quiet, aloneness, and introspective. I have found that stillness can be a state of the heart and mind, not of being. I spent a lot of time in my car driving back and forth to my mom’s house while she was terminally ill. I found this to be an incredible time of aloneness, and of thoughtful contemplation. I would often drive the full hour to her house and realize I had not even turned on the radio; I had been consumed by the stillness around me, and in that stillness, when we allow Him, God speaks.

“I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from Him. Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him”. Psalm 62:1 & 5

I can rest in Gods’ care for me, and can put my confidence in Him to give me hope and victory over whatever is going on in my life. Cultivating stillness allows me to spend time in quiet contemplation before God, allowing Him to speak into my life.

“Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me”.  Psalm 131:2

Instead of worrying about all manner of things, I can rest in God’s care for me, the way a baby relies on its mother for rest and nourishment. Then, weaned, grown away from milk, ready for more. My soul, having found its rest in God, is ready for more.

Ringing in the New Year

Most local churches used to have towers with bells in them. The bells were rung daily to mark time, and also for special events. In England it used to be customary to ring the church bells at midnight on New Year’s  day, to both send out the old year-as you would ring the bell for someone who had died-and to welcome in the New Year.  Because of this, we “Ring in the New Year.”

 I have always found New Year’s to be a little bit of a let-down. The holidays are over, my house looks bleak without the Christmas tree and decorations, and there seems to be a slight air of unrest.  It is as if the New Year is asking for more of me.  There are certain things that I find myself doing: cleaning closets, organizing drawers and paperwork, exercising more, eating better.  Each year I think I will make some changes. I decide this is the year that I won’t let my paperwork pile up before I file it.  I will stop hiding chocolate in the cupboard and eating it when no one is looking. I will walk my dog more often and go to yoga twice a week. I will spend more time in the Word.  Somehow, someway, I crave change.

This year, the New Year has already been “rung in”, but it isn’t too late to affect change in my life.  I want to view change as a healthy and regular part of life. In truth, change is coming whether I want it or not. However, like the New Year, I can choose the way I ”ring it in”. If I am standing still, if life is standing still around me, I am stagnant and unable to grow. If I am open to change in my life, in my heart and in all that goes on around me then I am ready to receive whatever it is the Lord has for me this year.  And in this world of change, my God remains steadfast. He remains the constant to which I will cling.

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.” Is 54:10

Christmas Present

I love the holiday season. I love all the things about Christmas that many people consider a hassle. I love shopping for the perfect gift for my loved ones. I love to decorate my house. I love to bake, to entertain and to sit on the couch and admire my beautiful Christmas tree. 

We have a lot of traditions in our family that accompany the Christmas season.  We pick our Christmas tree on the weekend following Thanksgiving and have a tree decorating party with our family. With mom being gone this year, the tradition was carried on at my sister’s house.  We host a few annual parties, we celebrate Christmas Eve first at church, and then at dinner with friends. On Christmas Eve everyone gets to open one special present-always new pajamas- so that you look good in the pictures the next morning! We have Christmas day with family; this year at our house. We exchange Christmas presents; a show of our love for each other and joy of being together to celebrate Jesus’ birth. 

With all of these traditions, I sometimes have to remind myself, in the midst of all the fun and preparation, to remain Christmas Present.  I want my heart and mind to be focused on the real reason that we celebrate at Christmas.

I want to be Christmas present. I want to be present in this moment of celebrating Jesus’ birth. I want my traditions to be built around something with more foundation than boxes, bows and shining lights.

Luke 2:11  “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” 

We celebrate because He is Present.

Love Story

 

I was thinking about the plot of a basic love story: girl meets boy, relationship ensues, huge obstacle gets in the way of love, until finally, love triumphs in the end. 

The love story that is told in scripture about Jesus’ birth is not simply about a boy and a girl. It is a love story for every person, and every generation.  It is not just for a beautiful girl and a misguided man-it is for every girl and every boy-for the beautiful, and the not so beautiful. It is for those who are wayward, and those who are filled with integrity. It has made the cover of magazines, topped the best seller list and has been read at bedtime for countless generations. It never becomes dated or out of style. Why would this story live on in the hearts of mankind?

We have seen countless movies with the same story line, and we see it in the book of Matthew. Mary (nice girl) meets Joseph (man with integrity), and a betrothal is arranged.  Enter the huge obstacle:  Mary is pregnant, by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, while deciding what in the world to do, is greeted by an angel.  When writing down these events, Matthew gives very few details. However, he is big into labels as a way of identifying the major players in the story: An angel visits Joseph, but it isn’t just any angel, it is an “angel of the Lord”. There is no doubt that this meeting was God ordained. Joseph is addressed as “son of David”. There is no question of Joseph’s lineage. Mary is labeled as a virgin. There is no question of her sexual purity.  As readers of the story, we take these facts for granted.  As players in the story, these facts add up to fulfilled prophesy. Joseph and Mary would have known the story as it was passed down. They would have known that the Messiah was to be born of a virgin and come from the line of David.  They became part of the greatest love story of all time.

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.” Isaiah 7:14

The story lives on because God’s promises and plan never fail.  This love story is now a part of each of us who believe. It lives on because our very own Savior, Jesus Christ, lives on. Immanuel, God with us, is still with us today. It is a telling of God’s love for us. His love story for humanity is what we celebrate this Christmas.