About Logan

Well friends, I’ve done it again…I’ve bitten off more than I should chew at once!  I mean, I’m chewing on all the life that I have stuffed in my mouth right now, but it’s one of those kind of bites where there’s too much meat, so you chew and chew and chew…like a cow regurgitating it’s cud because one time down just isn’t thorough enough.

Amidst planning Allume 2013, hosting over 100 people at my home this past Friday for a Christmas party, preparing to head to Bangladesh with Food for the Hungry in a month, and being wife and mommy (which alone are a mouthful to chew), we’ve just put our house on the market in hopes of moving just 2 doors down.  It’s a lot…and it’s all during this holiday season full of general hustle and bustle anyhow.

But you know what is interesting to me in the mess of all this craziness?….Somehow in all the chaos, I actually haven’t lost sight of my Jesus.  And the fact that he came as a teeny tiny baby and landed in the midst of a world full of more chaos, has brought me peace in the moments that I steal away.

I’ve been wondering what it is that has kept all of these distractions in my life from actually truly distracting me from the Lord lately.  And I think that I’ve realized that I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m just in such constant communication with my heavenly daddy, that I just haven’t lost sight of him.  He’s just here. He’s just real.  And, I remember Ann Voskamp said, in a wonderful illustration at Allume, that we’ll know we’ve gone too far when we can no longer hear his voice.  He’s the reason that all this stuff in my life is happening anyhow, so I guess I find myself talking it through with him on a regular basis.  His voice is right here beside me.  

And lately, I’ve found myself lingering on and enjoying the thoughts of my Jesus as that tiny baby in a manger, and the hard journey that his mom and dad had to make, on a donkey, to a far away land, just to be counted.  

Isn’t it true that we all often embark on journeys in life sometimes just to be counted?  But what if, like with Mary and Joseph, in the midst of heading on our way to make our mark in the world, the God of heaven shows up to us in the fullness of gentleness and purity…in an unexpected place?  What if, on our way to matter, on our way to count, the King of heaven and earth descends and is born to us in new ways?  What if in this time and place….he goes from being the God of heaven…to the in-the-flesh, prince of the earth in our own lives?  What if… on our journey to matter, instead of seeing a God who’s high up in the sky…we meet the real Jesus?

“What is REAL?” asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day… “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. 

“Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand… once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.”― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

There’s beauty in what is real.  There’s beauty found in a dirty stable with smelly animals and a tiny soft baby in a manger.  There’s beauty there because it’s real.  Most of us can’t relate to the lavish life of a prince or princess.  But we can relate to the dirt and muck of real life.  And it’s that real life that our Savior chose to invade.  He entered this world in the harsh reality of a cave full of animals, and it’s STILL true of him that he intersects with us in the midst of our muck.  Once he’s real to us….He can’t become unreal again.  And once we’re real with him, we begin to see that we can’t be ugly to him because he understands.  And…it lasts for always.

“It’s a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real”

What if friends, this Christmas season more than ever, we let Jesus become real to us?  And what if, we allow ourselves to become real  with him as well?

 *Image credit: The Velveteen Rabbit

So, Allume has passed, and I’m still finding myself pondering some of the same things that the Lord has had me pondering for months now. Much of it, I shared in my session at Allume on Blogging as Discipleship.  I’m going to share a few snippits from that session below, but if you want the full on thing (complete with Monty Python impersonation) then you can download my session, along with the whole bundle of almost 30 other incredible speaker sessions HERE!

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I’ve always been a people person. I am an extrovert if there ever was one, but I think the proverbial “lights came on” in my mind when I realized something years ago about myself.

I love a good party. I love to plan them to the enth degree….to decorate…to create atmospheres and environments where people can just come and have a good time.

I’ve been decorating for Christmas, as I’m sure many of you have been as well.  We’ll host a Christmas party this year at my home again, and so the decorating gets amped up a notch.  It’s even more fun to go to great lengths when you get to share it with others.  But… as much as I love to create and prepare, in the end…none of that matters to me as much as the people who walk into my home. When the first person walks through my door, worrying about the environment is done…and the people are what’s important to me.

And my blog needs to be the same way….

The blog has to be about the people reading. And whether we have 50 followers of 500,000, we ALL have the opportunity to impact lives.

When we blog, most of us all have little buttons on the side somewhere for all the myriad ways that people can follow us. They can follow us on Pinterest and see what we think is beautiful or interesting. They can follow us on Twitter for little snippits or links to what is going on with us in 140 characters or less. They can follow on Facebook, or subscribe to receive our posts in their email. We welcome “followers,” and sometimes it can even be easy to get hung up on if we have enough of them or not.  A disciple is by definition “a follower…a pupil of a teacher.”  But my question to you, and to myself is, “What are we asking people to follow?”

Jesus said in Mark 1:17, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” So if we’re following Jesus, wouldn’t it be fair to assume that our blogs would reflect that somehow?

I’m not saying that means we should all write devotional or spiritual blogs all the time either. Some people are gifted to be able to do that all the time, but some of us are called to make disciples other ways too.  

They say that people are the happiest when they’re giving themselves away. So I want to encourage you to give of yourself from your areas of giftedness. Give of your talents, and your passions, your wisdom, and your struggle….give them all to the glory of the King. Invite people into your journey…into your creativity….into your elements. Chances are if you’re blogging, you’ve got a few followers….and whether you realize it or not, you are making disciples.  We have the privilege of sharing our journeys, our daily living, the funny, the mundane, the beautiful, and even the hard….all to the glory of our King.

Our lives tell our stories, and I believe that the world needs to see what authentic journeys with a loving God look like. The journey is the guts of a story and what makes the testimony in the end hold weight.  It’s following one story that starts in the hard of here and ends in the peace of there. And the thing I’ve realized is that what God does in one life…in one journey, he can do in thousands.

We write. And we have a voice that has the capacity to reach farther than voices have been able to travel in all of history.  And, there are hungry people out there. People are hungry for authenticity, but not just a boldness without a filter….people are hungry for what is real. People are hungry for a journey that leads them to peace and truth in the end.  

Jesus himself said “Follow me..and I will make you fishers of men.” People are following….so the question then is “Where are we leading them?”  And if somehow in the end, they don’t catch a glimpse of what it means to be discipled….to be led in love….then what are we doing?

My dear friend Kristen Schell said to me in a conversation before Allume when we were talking about fishing for men, that “the call is to be fishers…the Lord will provide the catch.” We are simply a conduit ya’ll. The glory is to the Lord and so is the haul.   The question is, will we drop our nets?  

Image Sources: 1)My living room from www.LifeforDessert.com, 2) Fishing Boat on Flickr

I was on a phone call the other day with a wise new friend.  Somehow in the conversation, my friend brought up the words from Psalm 77 about how the Lord makes a way where there was none.

I’ve been thinking about those words quite a bit since.  That day even, I knew I had more to chew on with those words…the reminder that God doesn’t need a way that makes sense or is obvious to get us where he wants us to go.

For some reason I ended up reading through some old devotions and came across this one, written just a few days after we lost our baby, Fisher, in March of this year.

Then, there it was…Psalm 77, staring back at me…not fully copied and pasted within the margins of that post.  Verses 1-15 shared.  A lament to the Lord.  Words like “weary, rejected, disturbed, faint, and forgotten” speckled throughout the psalm that spoke to my soul in such relatability.  I got it.  I felt that way.  And I found comfort too in remembering that Jesus had felt that way on the cross as well.

As I read back through though, I realized that the part I’d shared, through verse 15, was so applicable to me at that time, I managed to overlook the rest of the psalm somehow in my grief.  I saw the promise of the Lord in verses 11-15, the reminder that God is a redeemer, that he works wonders and is good, but I missed part….until just the other day.

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
You with your arm redeemed your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph.

Psalm 77:11-15

It wasn’t until my friend mentioned it, that I went back and spent some time with the rest of that psalm…

“Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.
You led your people like a flock
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.”
Psalm 77:19-20

Here I am now, 8 months later, realizing that God parted waters and made a way where it seemed that there wasn’t one.  I came to the edge of a vast ocean, hemmed in by the life chasing hard behind me…my own version of a vengeful Egypt hot on my trail…threatening to overtake me if I didn’t keep moving.  So I did….I kept moving….towards an ocean of impossibility.  Putting one foot in front of the other, worrying about just the next step I had to make…I crossed over.

Here’s what I wrote to my friend after the Lord revealed this all to me last week:

“I’m on the other side of that ocean now…and He’s closing those parted waters back over.  I see how I got here, but I can’t go back there to the other side again.  I see how his promises have made a way where there shouldn’t have logically been one, and now when I look back, I see that other side, but in between it’s filled in with his goodness.”

And I want to remind you my friends….that He makes a way.  He makes new ways.  He creates dry paths across vast oceans and rivers, walkways through deserts, and He forms rivers through droughtlands.

Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
-Isaiah 43:19

And those ways that he makes….they are better.  Because if I’d been Moses, I’d have hit the edge of that water and panicked.  I’d have looked around the dry desert and wondered how I’d fashion enough rafts for tens of thousands of people to cross an entire sea.  And I would have thought to myself that by all reason, sometimes there just isn’t a way.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
– Matt 10:27

“You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 16:11

But, there is friends….with God, there is always a way.  Sometimes, we just have to take the steps forward into the “impossible” to walk on dry land.  Then, at some point in our journey, we’ll look back and realized that we crossed over a place where there wasn’t a way that we could see, and God has covered that place back over with his goodness and mercy.

Photo Credit: A Lonely Walk to the Ocean

I just have to share a really phenomenal thought that I recently heard.  It’s been rocking my world since I heard it…in a super-awesome-holy-spirit-infused sort of way.  I’m gonna make it short and sweet today, and let the word of God just do it’s thing.

In ancient cultures, the city gate was the place where pretty much anything of importance happened.  Most all cities had a wall around them that protected those within and kept the outsiders out.  So, the gate really became a hub of activity. Outside of the gates was where the sick were laid out.  Trials and stonings took place at the gates.  The elders of the city would meet at the gates. Commerce happened at the gates.  The gates were the heartbeat of the city.  Full of life, but also chaotic with so much going on all around.

The city gate is where the culture addressed the chaos of its people.*

The gate was a place that was anything but peaceful….anything but shalom.

The Hebrew word shalom (šālôm) is defined as a state of wholeness and security embracing both the physical and spiritual dimensions and relating not only to the individual, but also to entire communities and relationships among persons. **

The gates and culture were chaos, but then….then, friends, came Jesus.

“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture… I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Jn 10:9–10

If the gate is the place where the culture addressed the chaos of its people, and Jesus came as the gate….then where there was chaos, we now know peace. 

And not only that…but where there is chaos, He asks us to bring that peace in his name.  We represent the Kingdom of Heaven wherever we go.  And where we go, we bring Jesus.  We carry His perfect shalom and can bring that peace into any chaos around us.  Thy Kingdom come…thy will be done…ON EARTH as it is in heaven.

So bring it friends….bring that peace with you.  Let’s address the chaos of our culture with the shalom of a Savior.

* Quote by Rich Butler, **reference, The Eerdmans Bible dictionary, Photo Credit: Bogle Photography

Friends,

Allume is done!  And oh my words was it fun!!!  I am truly humbled and grateful for the opportunity to serve all of you, to laugh with you, to eat and fellowship with you, and to encourage the things that the Lord is doing within this community!  Oh MY WORDS….I am beyond blessed to be a part of this incredible event and group of women.

I totally meant to have this post up last night or first, first thing this morning, but let’s be honest….I was so stinking tired and I’m just kinda banking on a little bit of grace from you all!

I don’t have a single picture from the entire weekend either….so our lovely picture above is from a completely impromptu word the Lord gave me during my breakout session.  Don’t ever underestimate the power of God to use even Monty Python for his glory!  And for those of you who missed the reference (and thankfully for me….the live impersonation of it), here’s what I want to say to each of you:

We are all parts of one body, and if we don’t operate out of the giftings that the Lord has given to each of us….then we become a useless trunk of a body….paralyzed by ineffectiveness at the job we’ve been called to do as a whole.  This is a community chocked full of phenomenal giftedness in different areas, and I couldn’t be more proud or excited to see how our Father will use our time together this past weekend to impact the world!

So a few fun takeaways that really stuck with me….

Grow your passions, and that will grow your blog.

Live your real life, not just your virtual online one…

You’re not just generating followers….you’re making disciples.

Get low and let your brokenness heal you.

And always….ALWAYS….eat your mudcake without a fork!

Love you all!

You can link-up your Allume posts here!

Friends, Allume is less than a week away, and I am SO looking forward to seeing so many of you!  Please…run up and tackle me with hugs!  I promise I won’t think it’s weird!

Sarah Mae very generously dubbed me the Allume “hospitality artist” months ago.  As we’ve all been working on various parts of the conference, and my job is particularly hospitality oriented, I thought I would share with you all what hospitality means to me…and more importantly, what I believe it means to Jesus.

I could honestly go on and on about biblical hospitality, and in fact have enough notes and research to lead an entire study on it.  I’ll spare you the months worth of info for now though and tell you this:

Hospitality isn’t just a spiritual gift given to some.  It’s more than being able to throw a fabulous party too.  True biblical hospitality is a demonstration of love for others.  And before you say you aren’t good at it…you should probably note that it’s pretty much a requirement for all believers.  We “practice” hospitality because we can always improve upon loving others well.

In case you were wondering, the word hospitality comes from the Greek word philoxenia which means, “Love of strangers.”

I love the verses in Hebrews 13:1-2 that say “Let brotherly love continue.  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  Perhaps as exciting to me as the idea of literally entertaining angels is the phrase, “let brotherly love continue.”  Part of the way we show hospitality is just to continue to love one another!

All throughout the gospels we see examples of Jesus and the disciples coming into a city and being “received” into the homes of the believers there.  And then there’s the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10…one woman all heart, and one hyper-disciplined…exemplifying that our hospitality should be a combination of service, loving, and giving of ourselves to one another.

Romans 12:10-13 says, ” Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

One of my most favorite passages regarding what it means to be hospitable is in Acts 28.  Paul lands at Malta when he is blown off course in one of his missionary journeys.  The natives welcome him, and a man named Publius entertains him for 3 days in his home.  It even says that the natives showed “unusual kindness.”  It just so happened that Publius’ father was sick with dysentery and so while he was there, Paul visited him and prayed for his healing.  The Lord healed him, and then the rest of the people on the entire island who were sick came and were also healed.  When Paul left Malta, they supplied everything he could possibly need for the rest of his journey.

Did you get that?!  Random unexpected guests get welcomed in…and for THREE days at that?!  Before Paul’s time there is done, an entire island’s worth of sick are healed.  And… the biggest thing that the Lord has continued to impress upon me, is that when we usher in an atmosphere of hospitality, the Lord is pleased and we suddenly see Him show up in power.  We honor the Father when we honor one another, and as a result, he breaks out unexpected blessing right back onto us!

So here’s what I want to say about all of this hospitality in regards to Allume.  We’ve all been working our little tookis’ off to make sure that the upcoming conference is fantastic.  We’ve crafted, and dreamed, and created things to make the environment lovely.  The meals have been carefully selected to be delish (and will actually include some green vegetables this year)!  The space is well thought through, the gift bags delightful, and the i’s have been dotted and the t’s crossed.  But once we’re all there….let me say that those preparations and details will take a back seat to the fact that all of your lovely faces will be filing through the doors.  Because loving people is what true hospitality is about.

So don’t be surprised when the presence of the Lord descends in a mighty way as you are ushered into the conference.  Expect to be loved on, and expect to be blessed.  And just as Paul was refreshed from his time spent receiving the hospitality of Philemon (in Philemon 4-7), so we pray that you will be refreshed from your time at Allume.  And so friends, it is our desire that our time together at Allume will be marked by true biblical hospitality….of loving well both strangers and friends.

See you soon!

Photo Credit

I just spent an entire week in Colorado for some counseling.  After a few hard losses, my husband and I realized that it could only do us good to spend some time and money investing more deeply into ourselves and our relationship.  It was phenomenal.  And that word, I’ll tell you, is an understatement.

While we were there, we were reacquainted with a concept that I’ve understood before, but the Lord really impressed upon me the importance of both employing more in my own life and also to share with you all as well.

It’s called “heart prayer” and it is the most healing and gentle way of seeking the Lord for things we may need to see or understand better.

The fact of the matter is that we all experience hurts in our lives.  And if we’re honest, most of the time, a person who hurt us isn’t the one who can fix what’s been broken either.  Sure people can apologize, and that may help…but really, there are times when we know we’ll never likely see an apology.  There are times too where it’s not a person, but a circumstance that brings pain.  Our Father is the one who wants to heal those places….he’s the only one who really can.

But Lord, where were you when______________?!  How could you leave me when I was _______________?! 

It’s so easy for us to think that maybe the Lord was some distant bystander to our lives sometimes….you know, those times when he seemed so far away.  When you lose a baby, or a spouse, or maybe you were abandoned as a child…perhaps you were abused, or neglected?  WHERE ARE YOU GOD?!  Where are you Papa?  Lord….are you there?

Time has passed though, so we have to move on.  We can’t change the past.  We accept it and we trudge along.  Right?

Maybe not friends.  Maybe not….

Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus… – (Acts 3:19)

Our circumstances won’t change, but we can certainly find peace.  It’s not what happens to us that will ultimately make the difference in our lives, but rather what we BELIEVE about what happens to us.  If we can ask the Lord to get our history straight for us…to sanctify our past and bring truth to the lies we’ve believed, we can walk in a place of victory where we’ve believed ourselves to have suffered defeat.

But, where was God when….?!

What if I suggest to you that He’s there now?  That place we’ve been asking about….the hurt we felt, the pain we’ve experienced, the confusion we’ve endured.  What if I told you that whether it was 20 minutes ago, or 20 years ago….our limitless, timeless God is there NOW?

 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. – (1 Ti 1:17)

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. – (2 Pe 3:8)

    For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. – (Ps 90:4)

So go to that place in your mind.   That place that left you broken, shattered, and confused.  Go on…I dare you.  Go there in your mind.  But this time, instead of just going through the motions of what happened…stop, look around, and ask Jesus where he was right then.  Jesus….where are you now, in this place?

“I am with you always.” – Matt 28:20

Where are you standing Jesus?  What are you saying to me?  What lies have I believed?  Who do you say that I am?  Will you come Lord to this wounded place of mine?  Will you hold my hand?  Will you tell me the truth?

      The LORD your God is in your midst,
      a mighty one who will save;
                  he will rejoice over you with gladness;
      he will quiet you by his love;
                  he will exult over you with loud singing. – (Zep 3:17)

He’s there now friends.  He’s in that place.  And I can tell you…he’s not across the room either.  He’s holding you.  He’s walking beside you.  He wants us to know the truth about who he says we are, and he wants us to walk in the present with the truth of Him defining our pasts.

           “And now, here’s what I’m going to do:
                 I’m going to start all over again.
                 I’m taking her back out into the wilderness
                 where we had our first date, and I’ll court her.
                 I’ll give her bouquets of roses.
                 I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.

– The Message (Hosea 2:14–15)

“The object of my greatest pain, can become the source of my greatest blessing.” – Corrie TenBoom

He wants us to invite Him to walk through those wounded places with us….again.  He was there the first time, but somehow we’ve lived rather believing a lie.  Time travel with Jesus in your mind friends….He is limitless.  He is timeless.  And, he will show us the truth about who He says we are and bring us healing.

It’s not what happens to us that will ultimately make the difference in our lives, but rather what we BELIEVE about what happens to us.

**I want to give credit for the references, ideas, and depth of insight into this concept to Crossroads Counseling of the Rockies in Buena Vista, CO.  Thanks to them, I’m seeing the Lord turn my own Heartbreak Valleys into Acres of Hope too.

Image Source

I have heard this verse a million times.  “Walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Cor 5:7)  But I can honestly tell you that until recently, I don’t know that I’ve grabbed onto it very fully.  I guess maybe I always think about life like a hike…that we trust where we’re walking without always having to know what lies around each bend.  Oddly enough, I’m sort of ok with that.  But recently, the Lord has been teaching me something different about this verse that I wanted to share.

As you all know, the past several months in my life have been a struggle to recover and move forward from my 4th miscarriage.  This past Friday was my scheduled delivery date.  It has definitely been a forward-moving crawl of progress, but I keep running into this place, this question… where I haven’t trusted what’s around each bend as easily as I have in the past.  And the root question that I know is at the heart of it all is the Lord asking me, “Do you trust me?”  I find myself honestly saying….”I’m not sure Lord….because look at all of this behind me.”

For the first time after 6 pregnancies, I’ve been afraid to go forward, not because of just what might lie ahead, but because of what I know has lined the path on my way to this place.  Loss…heartache…doubt.  And somehow, until this most recent loss, I’ve managed to outrun all of that stuff.  Like, when it finally caught up…it all came crashing down on me in one lump sum that has left me feeling afraid and confused.

In a counseling session last week (yes….I have been going to a counselor,) my friend and counselor reminded me of this verse from 2 Cor. And for the first time maybe ever, I realized that I had to stop listening to the eyes in the back of my head and still walk by faith.  I can’t be afraid to move forward just because of what’s behind.  I can’t stop trusting God because of some fear that he’s not good.  He IS good and I can trust him.

Then the Lord reminded me “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.  You are with me.”  Walking through the valley isn’t just about what lies ahead of us, it’s knowledge of what lies behind as well….and still choosing….CHOOSING to trust the Lord.

Yesterday, I found out that the baby for months we’d thought was a boy (because of an intelligender test I took) was, in fact, a girl.  At an ob appointment to just check in with my doctor and to talk about the future, I learned that our lost baby Fisher was an XX….girl chromosones through and through.  I have 2 boys, so this was pretty exciting news for me.  One, because now I know we’re not a boy factory, and two because in that realization, I saw how the Lord had answered some prayers for us.  From the start of the pregnancy and before, my oldest son had been praying for a sister.  And while I love my boys, my heart’s desire would be to have a girl in our family as well.  Had I known that even back in March, I think that I would have been angrier at the frustration of feeling robbed almost.  But….the Lord, in his kindness, saved that little nugget of information for me to see his provision….his answer to prayers.  And something about that knowledge made me feel loved…and empowered…and unafraid.  He’s been listening all along.

Every time I looked out the back side of our house yesterday, there was a red-tailed hawk perched on our children’s playground equipment.  Once on the playhouse, then on the climbing dome, and then the last time it was staring straight at me from the post of a half-built zipline platform.  I was talking to a dear friend at the time and was exclaiming at how close this giant bird was to our home…and how I felt like it was staring a hole into me.  She suggested that I look up information on hawks because sometimes the Lord speaks to us in different ways.  She asked how it made me feel, and my response….”somehow powerful.”

I did some random digging around on the WWW and came across this interesting thought:

One thing that all hawks have in common is the skill to move between the seen and unseen realms gracefully connecting both worlds together. Their acute vision compliments this ability and their discriminating nature keeps them out of harms way. The broader vision of the hawk allows them to see what lies ahead.

They move amongst the seen and unseen in grace and power. 

Suddenly, I felt the Lord telling me that I am powerful and that my broader vision of the knowledge of his goodness is enough to trust what lies ahead.  That walking by faith and not by sight is walking in that valley…and not fearing.  That walking in faith in full knowledge of what’s behind, but choosing to press ahead….that’s glorifying to our maker.  And ya’ll….that’s just downright empowering to me too.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  – Phil 3:12–14

**How about you….do you need to stop looking backwards in order to move forward in power and grace?  Would love to hear your thoughts!

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I went running last night with some girlfriends.  This is a feat in itself because we’re totally a rag-tag bunch of wannabe runners.  As in, we’ve signed up for a 5K and none of us currently run.  So really, I should say that I did a walk/run if I’m being honest.

As we were panting running down the road, we were talking about how there are times in life when we want to keep helping, but sometimes feel like helping may even mean moving out of the way.

I don’t know about ya’ll, but I want to help people.  I want to fix when there are issues.  I want to give where there is need.  I want to encourage where there is doubt.  I want to make things right when they seem wrong.  But the truth is that there are things that I can’t fix, and needs I can’t meet, and doubts I can’t silence, and wrongs I can’t right no matter how much I want to.

Sometimes, just sometimes….maybe when I’ve exhausted what I know the Lord has called me to do…I just need to move out of the way.

One of my friends said, “Something we’ve realized over the past few years, is that we should never stand in the way of a wrestle that someone needs to have with the Lord.”

Remember awhile back when I wrote about the wrestle?  I had to go back myself and read it, and the Lord reminded me of something when I did. 

He reminded me that there is blessing in the wrestle.

And I started thinking that despite our best efforts to want to help others sometimes, we just might be getting in the way of the wrestle that the Lord needs to have with them in order to give the blessings he has in store.

I so often think back to Jeremiah 29:11….He knows the plans he has for us to bring us a hope and a future.  But the thing is, he said that to his people when they were in the middle of a wrestle with Him!  It’s when we have to lay flat on our face before the Lord and need him in ways we’ve never needed him before that we find him! 

We find him!

Sometimes…oftentimes…probably even most of the time, in the lives of others (and in our own lives if we can be that honest with ourselves,) we need to quit trying to fix and control, and realize that there are just gonna be some things we need to work through with the Lord.

Certainly, the body of Christ is meant for the encouragement, support, and edification of one another.  So please don’t hear me say “live and let live” here.  I think what I’m trying to communicate is that if we’re not careful, we can either come to a place where we can’t walk without a crutch, or we become a crutch to someone else, and then are in the way of a necessary wrestle with God.

Perhaps we find ourselves in financial distress and need to wrestle to discover Jehovah Jireh, God the Provider.  Or maybe we find ourselves amidst inexplicable chaos, and He wants to introduce us to Jehovah Shalom, God is Peace.  Maybe it’s a season of sickness and we need to encounter Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who Heals.  It could just be that whatever it may be, He wants us to surrender it all to Him as Adonai, El Shaddai, and El Elyon…our Master, Lord God Almighty, and Most High God.  Because he knows just where we are, and just what we need.

And he is kind.  He is good.  He is gentle…and faithful.  He is generous….extravagant even.

Another of my friends said at lunch the other day, “He is seldom early, but never late.”  He shows up.  He always shows up.

We do not have a God who will stand us up.  Who will humiliate us or torture us.  He is kind…and good….and gentle…and faithful.  He allows us to co-labor with him here on this earth….but we all know, that not much gets done when there are too many cooks in the kitchen.  I’d rather have a meal from a master chef, than a bunch of first week culinary students.  Wouldn’t you?

**Are there circumstances in your life where you may need to move out of the way in order to allow someone else to have their wrestle with the Lord to find Him him/herself?  Have you allowed yourself to become a crutch in an effort to prevent hardship for another person?  Have you inadvertently created a crutch for yourself of someone else?  I’d love to hear from you who you need the Lord to be (what you need from Him) in order for you to move out of the way for someone else, or to let someone move out of the way for you.

Photo Credit: United Nations Photo

So, I’m from the South.  The land of sweet tea, grits, and Southern drawls… sticky summer nights, and minding your manners.  And when I say “minding your manners,” I’m not just talking about putting your napkin in your lap at dinner.  It’s a different culture down here.  Here in the Bible belt, it’s easy to sense people minding their manners even in a prayer session.  Around these parts, the joke is that, as long as you say “Bless his/her heart” with a phrase…it gets to count as a sympathetic word.

But get this…. “Lord, help Betty Lou…That woman is mean as a snake….bless her heart.  And Jesus, we submit Billy Bob to you…That poor man just can’t get control over his addictions…bless his heart.”

Yeah….it’s rude.  It’s a cover.  A big, fat, fake excuse for gossip.  And it does nothing for a person but tear them down.

Now, it may not be that obvious as my exaggerated version above, but we’ve all done the same thing whether we want to admit it or not.  A “Lord help my husband be a better _____________.”  Or, “Jesus, my sister is making me crazy….give me patience to deal with her.”  You know what I’m talking about.  Prayers out of exasperation.  How about this, “Father….my children are out of control….help me handle them well.”

Last week I wrote about calling out the greatness in others.  As I read through the comments, I really loved what a gal named Barbie said about it all.

“I’ve always been taught to call out the greatness in others, calling forth those things which aren’t as though they are.“

And I’ve been wondering if that idea is something that Christianity today has really taught us to do?  I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s a relatively new concept.  It’s only been for about 4 years that I’ve even realized that we have the authority, given to us by Christ Jesus, to do this.  To speak something into existence….or out of existence for that matter.

So if you’ll be so kind as to let me speak really candidly today, there’s just something that I wanted to share that has revolutionized my life and my capacity to pray for people.  It’s simple really, but before I learned this, I think I often felt myself struggling to pray well or to even know what I was praying for sometimes.  Today I want to share with you something I learned, that around my circle, we call “praying in the opposite spirit.”

I wish it was easier to pray for people well sometimes.  Especially those situations with the “hard-to-loves” in life, it can be a struggle.  Our flesh can so easily rattle off all the things that tick us off or get under our skin, but to really pray for someone, we should be releasing blessing over them.  If all we’re doing when we pray sometimes is having a complain-fest to the Lord, then we’re missing the point and allowing the enemy to stick his big ugly foot smack in our sight-line of Jesus.

So let’s just say that Betty Lou really is as mean as a snake.  She’s unkind, and her words are full of venom.  She walks into a room and because of poor self esteem, she picks someone out to focus on tearing down.  And boy does she rip into that poor soul.  Oh she disguises it well though.  She’s arrogant and proud…but of what you don’t know.  Every word out of her mouth is a lie.  But, smooth words and a big smile pretend to hide the meanness she’s fully intending to sting…but sting she does…over and over and over.  Betty Lou gets under your skin.  She makes you angry.  You just don’t like Betty Lou.

So when we pray…we might be tempted to focus on all of those things I just listed above and basically after rattling them all off, we essentially just ask God to change her heart in a quick summation at the end.

But friends, we are daughters of the King.  And so is Betty Lou.  As citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, we are entitled to it’s benefits.  Benefits that Jesus paid for on the cross, and fruits that come from the Spirit of the Living God.  Things like love, joy, peace, patience and so on.

So this whole praying in the opposite spirit thing….it’s kinda like the concept of binding and loosing found in Matt 16:18-19.

“on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

I’ve often noticed that this verse is used to just bind something away from us…to remove away things that are bad….depression, anger, pride, etc.  But if all we do is bind, we’re on the defensive against the enemy.  We’re reacting…not being proactive on the offensive.  When we loose though, that’s when we ask heaven and all it’s benefits to come down here to the earth.  As Kingdom citizens, we’re binding away the works of the enemy and then releasing the benefits of heaven to invade the earth.

So Betty Lou….when we pray for her, it’s so easy to think of the things we don’t like. So, so easy.  But what if when we pray for her, we name the things we don’t like, but only to bind them away….and then we go one step further to release the blessings of heaven onto her as well.

Father, I lift Betty Lou before you.  In Jesus precious name, I bind unkindness from her lips.  Father, I ask that you release the kindness of Jesus over her.  I pray Father that she begins to understand your kindness towards her and as a result, she desires to share that kindness with others. Father, though Betty Lou may struggle with self worth, we declare that she is valuable to the God of all Creation.  You sent your son to die for her, and I pray Father that she can slip into the righteous garments that you have made for her.  You call her beloved child, and I declare that she will begin to understand that her true identity lies in you and who you say she is.  We declare that the lies of the enemy to cause her to question her value must cease, in Jesus name.  Father, I ask that in your kindness, you release a spirit of humility over Betty Lou.  I pray that her lips will speak truth, and where lies have come forth before, we declare that the attempts of the enemy on her speech must stop now, in the name of Jesus.  Father, you love Betty Lou.  You sent your son to die for her just as you sent him to die for me.  We are all sinners in need of a Savior, and I pray Father that Betty Lou is drawn into communion with you through your kindness over her.  I pray Father that she feels your gentleness over her and that her spirit is softened because of your goodness poured out upon her.  She is your beloved child.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now tell me that you don’t like Betty Lou better now after that kind of prayer for her?  For real….when we can find the things we don’t like and come up with the opposite to pray for someone, it’s amazing the blessing we suddenly find ourselves able to release over someone.  Talk about calling out the greatness?!

Instead of just praying for an end to selfishness….let’s release selflessness, compassion, sympathy.  Instead of words about pride, let’s speak out humility and a tender spirit.  Instead of addressing harshness, let’s ask for gentleness, mercy, love.  You get where I’m going here?  And if you’re having trouble, get on Thesaurus.com and go to town with some antonyms.  If you think Betty Lou is mean, put that in the search box, and then you pray the antonyms for her…generosity, kindness, unselfishness.  Once you start, you’ll be amazed how much easier it is…and how much differently you’ll feel then too about Betty Lou.

Anyhow, I know this is a bit different from the normal devotionals that you’ve come to expect from me, but it’s something I’ve just been wanting to share with you all for a long time.  Because the truth is, that when we learn to pray for one another well, we learn how to love one another better too.

So let’s get out there and start praying in the opposite spirit!  Let us be marked by the blessings we release, and the benefits of heaven that we call into existence!

*What do you think?  Have you been doing this all along, or is this a new concept for you too?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and revelations in the comments below.

Image Credit: Someecards.com

Three times over the past month I have heard the phrase “call out the greatness” used with regards to building others up.  Once it was in the context of marriage, once in reference to training our children, and once regarding other churches within the body of Christ.

Third time is a charm… but being the obtuse individual that I sometimes am, I have finally caught on that there’s something the Lord has for us with this idea.

Calling out the greatness in others

Marriage is hard.  Anyone who’d tell you otherwise either still has on the rose-colored glasses of early marital bliss, or is lying.  One of many places where we are challenged and learn to die to selfishness in our lives, marriage puts pressure on ourselves and on our spouses.  We all bring a suitcase or two of baggage into it, and sin and flesh whisper deficiencies into our ears….shortcomings of our own and of our beloved’s.

And child rearing…training…raising…  The only people who seem to know all the ins and outs of raising perfect children are those who’ve never actually raised any.  It’s hard.  It’s a blessing.  But again….selfishness creeping around every corner, expectations of behaviors and attitudes that should be….it can be a sticky place.

Let’s talk too about the church itself…ourselves.  The judgements we all hold deep in our hearts, if we’re being honest, about even other believers.  That church is so showy, that one is too rigid, those people have too much freedom, some put God in a box, and others don’t seem to have any boundaries.  You know what I’m talking about….we’ve all thought it.  Self righteousness telling us that the way we know church to be is the only right way.  We nit pick other denominations, and choose sides, and in doing so, we weaken the whole body.

But what if in marriage, and in raising kids, and in living truly as one body of Christ, we call out the greatness in one another instead of focusing on the deficiencies and differences?

What if, instead of nagging our spouse about being such-and-such kind of leader in our marriage, we begin to call out the things he does well?  What if instead of complaining that he never cleans up the dishes, we randomly speak life into him about how proud it makes us to see him work diligently on the yard?  And, instead of moaning about lack in some area, we make efforts to promote him for the places where he excels?  What if he’s impatient, so we begin to speak patience into his life…and pray patience over him?  What if we call out the fruits of the spirit in our spouse….call them into increase and greater existence?

With our kids…it’s the same thing?!  Instead of chastising my son for antagonizing his little brother, how might things change if I heap praise upon him for his gift of making others feeling important and included?  Instead of calling a child bossy, what if we instead recognize and cultivate the hearts of young leaders who learn to take charge with Godly purpose?  Instead of pushing the shy into uncomfortable places, let’s honor the humility and meekness.  Let’s speak into our children the life-giving virtues we pray so diligently for them to posess.

And the church…let’s definitely not be remiss on this one.  Instead of comparing the virtues of expository teaching versus spirit-led storytelling to choose the greater, let’s honor each place and person for the giftings each posesses.  Instead of thinking that one place has it figured out better than another, or getting caught up in minor rib issues, let’s applaud what each different body does well.  Let’s be thankful that those who need deep expository teaching have the option to get it…and not to be forced into a sound and lights production on Sunday mornings.  But by the same token, let’s honor those places that may be more “seeker-friendly” for their ability to draw people in and create an environment of comfort as they ease newcomers into understanding of life in Christ. 

Shakespeare was right…”Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

As believers, we cannot be afraid of greatness.  According to Christ, we are born great….we are the workmanship of the God of creation.  We achieve greatness the closer we get to Jesus.  And, greatness has been given to us through faith in Christ, so let’s walk that out as we thrust it onto others.

Let us be a people who love…and in love, we speak life, we give life, and we change lives. 

Let’s call out the greatness. 

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. – Philippians 2:1–4

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. … May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.  – Romans 15:2, 5–7

“Ever wonder where you’d end up if you took your dog for a walk and never once pulled back on the leash?” ~Robert Brault

My family went to the mountains for a couple of days this weekend. The weather was a glorious 20 degrees cooler than at home, and the sounds of crickets and tree frogs lulling me to sleep was just the peaceful respite this soul needed.

On Friday morning, we decided to take a short hike up to a rock face that overlooked the lovely mountain town of Highlands, NC down below. We started off with the end in mind. We weren’t 100ft into the 3/4 mile hike when my 2 year old stopped to pick up a “cool rock.” To me it looked like a piece of gravel, because it was, but to him, it was something valuable. Another 100 ft and we were stopping again…this time for a curled up dead leaf…wildly valuable goods indeed. Our pace continued like this…starting, stopping, starting, stopping. I could feel the tensions rising from both my husband and myself as we exchanged glances that said, “This is going to take FOREVER!”

We tried picking up the pace, we tried making up games to get our kids to “race” up the trail, we even tried pointing out things that would seem more interesting farther ahead of us to create a sense of rush.  Nothing worked.  So, we started and stopped and started and stopped.

About halfway up the trail, the thought occurred to me that I’m awfully glad God isn’t so impatient with me as we walk along this road of life.  He lets me stop and mill around…smelling the proverbial roses, if you will, along the way.  He lets me pick up a nugget here and there, and if I find value in it, he lets me keep it.  He doesn’t rush, or push, or try to trick me into going at a pace that makes me lose sight of all that’s around me.  He stays in step, encourages me that there’s so much more ahead, but then allows me to make the pace.  He knows what amazing things are in store, but he’s not going to try to force me to want it either.

Somewhere in our walk, I felt my throat loosen and the tension ease.  I held out my hands to collect the treasures my kids found along the way…rocks, and ferns, feathers and flowers, and even a snail shell.  And when we reached the top, we had more to enjoy than just the view…we had the collection that had been made from the things we gathered along the way, the items that told the story of where we’d been on the way to the top.

And suddenly, I realized that the journey was just as important as the destination….that the journey holds so many gifts for us too.

      You make known to me the path of life;
      in your presence there is fullness of joy;
      at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

~ Psalm 16:11

       Lead me in the path of your commandments,
      for I delight in it.
     Incline my heart to your testimonies,
      and not to selfish gain!
      Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
      and give me life in your ways.
~ Psalm 119:35–37

      And I will lead the blind
      in a way that they do not know,
      in paths that they have not known
      I will guide them.
      I will turn the darkness before them into light,
      the rough places into level ground.
      These are the things I do,
      and I do not forsake them.
~ Isaiah 42:16

We too often forget that I think….that the journey sometimes holds as much wealth for us to collect along the way.  That the destination in itself is only part of the gift.  We want to rush and get to the end. We want a fast-food life…where we get what we want, how we want it, and immediate delivery too. But that’s not really what we want is it? I mean, a meal from a lovely restaurant where we wait and delight in the passing of time will almost always surpass the stuff in a paper bag from a drive-thru…in both flavor and experience. 

That’s the life that I want.  The one with the amazing view from the top, coupled with the treasures from the journey.

And sometimes we even have to be reminded of our own inspirations…

 that “This life is our only dessert….too brief, too sweet, and too delectable to hurry through.”

– Ann Voskamp

Our freezer stopped working yesterday.  Our deep freezer.  You know, the one chocked full of meats bought in bulk, extra spaghetti sauce, the casseroles I doubled for a “rainy day”, a handful of Kashi and Healthy Choice frozen meals for when my Hubs is gone, giant bags of fruit for smoothies, veggies, and more.  Yeah….that freezer.  The one that was packed to the gills.  It seems to have died, or decided to take a break from cooling for awhile in this sticky, South Carolina, summer heat.

All of the meat thawed.  It was amply cool, but completely thawed. 

So, after a few moments of panic over the thought of losing a few hundred dollars worth of food, we decided to make lemonade out of lemons.

We sent an email to a boatload of friends this morning, and tonight… we had an emergency feast.

And a feast it was too.  I roasted pheasants, grilled pork tenderloin and chicken breasts, made fruit cobblers, and yellow rice.  Our friends brought more amazing sides and desserts…Tomato Panzanella salad, fresh fruit, green salads, pasta salad, banana cream pie, and more.  We probably had 30 people over…on a whim…an emergency whim.  And it was fun!

And as we cleaned out the freezer, I got to thinking how this process today reminds me of life so often.

First, there’s some sort of upset.  An emergency, or things break, and all the goodness contained within is threatened by looming spoil.  And we have a choice.  Do we cry and throw it all away, or do we allow the Lord to use it to create something entirely better out of the contents?  Do we take the mess and invite others in to make a feast out of what could have gone wrong?  Do we engage community and opportunity to serve out of our mess?  Or, do we chuck it all out and sulk about the massive waste?  Do we allow lemonade to be made from the lemons?  Or better yet, do we look for ways to make the lemonade?

When we were cleaning out the freezer, I’m sorry to say, that stuffed at the very back, my husband found something from 2007.  Ok, ok…I’ll be fair….he found a few things that were way too old to eat.  Years too old.  So, we threw them out once they’d been examined and we determined them useless and spoiled.

And that got me to thinking too about how often life throws us a thawed freezer, and we’re forced into a call for an emergency feast.  But, before we can even feast, we have to remove all the contents, and determine what’s worth keeping and what isn’t.  What food is good to eat, and what had no business being in there still anyways.  Old baggage that just got shoved behind newer stuff and needs to go.  Old wounds that we’d forgotten we even had…but still need to be dealt with.  Sometimes, we unearth things in the midst of one crisis that lead to an overall cleansing which wouldn’t have ever happened if the freezer hadn’t died. 

Sometimes, the mess is the very thing that brings community.  The mess is the thing that brings a feast.  The mess is the thing that allows us to start fresher again.  Sometimes….maybe sometimes….we need a mess to spur us into those places.

And I don’t know what mess you may be dealing with in your own life, but I do know that if we allow it to spur us into deeper community, and feasting on His word, and cleaning out old baggage….it’ll yield a cleaner heart, joy in the mourning, and life where spoil could have ruled.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,  casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.  Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Pe 5:6–11

      I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up
      and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
      O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,
      and you have healed me.
      O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
      you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

       Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
      and give thanks to his holy name.
       For his anger is but for a moment,
      and his favor is for a lifetime.
      Weeping may tarry for the night,
      but joy comes with the morning.

      As for me, I said in my prosperity,
      “I shall never be moved.”
      By your favor, O LORD,
      you made my mountain stand strong; 

Psalm 30:1–7

I love the way the Lord showed me this illustration, as I have so needed to understand some of the mess of my life over the past few hard months after our baby died in March.  I love that in our mess we can seek him and find deep blessing and cleansing. 

* How about you?  When was the last time the Lord thawed the freezer of your life?  What did you learn?  How did it go?  What do you need to clean out to start fresh?

Marlon – “It’s not ok!  I promised that I would never let anything happen to him!!!”

Dory – “Hmmm….that’s a funny thing to promise.”

“What do you mean?”

 “You can’t never let anything happen to him, because then nothing would ever happen to him.”

We drove home from vacation today and were in the car for 11 hours.  For about four of those hours, we allowed our kids to watch movies.  “Finding Nemo” was the first choice, and from time to time, I’d catch a few silly one liners.  Then I heard the above exchange and it made me stop and think.

And if you really want to pause about it, the conversation between these two little fish happened from inside the belly of a whale.

Hmmm….that seems kinda familiar huh?

Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the belly of the fish,  saying,

                  “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress,
      and he answered me;
                  out of the belly of Sheol I cried,
      and you heard my voice.
                  For you cast me into the deep,
      into the heart of the seas,
      and the flood surrounded me;
                  all your waves and your billows
      passed over me.
                  Then I said, ‘I am driven away
      from your sight;
                  yet I shall again look
      upon your holy temple.’
                  The waters closed in over me to take my life;
      the deep surrounded me;
                  weeds were wrapped about my head
                  at the roots of the mountains.
                  I went down to the land
      whose bars closed upon me forever;
                  yet you brought up my life from the pit,
      O LORD my God.
                  When my life was fainting away,
      I remembered the LORD,
                  and my prayer came to you,
      into your holy temple.
                  Those who pay regard to vain idols
      forsake their hope of steadfast love.
                  But I with the voice of thanksgiving
      will sacrifice to you;
                  what I have vowed I will pay.
      Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

 And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”  So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.  (Jonah 2:1–3:3)

“You can’t never let anything happen to him, because then nothing would ever happen to him.”

Sometimes I wonder if we’re so consumed with never having anything bad happen in our lives, that we blame God when bad things happen, or get mad, or just go about our own plans to try and rectify things ourselves… and in the end, we miss the point of the whole shebang, or worse, we miss jumping into opportunities for greater redemption. 

Now, I don’t believe that God does bad things to people to teach them a lesson.  It’s not in his character to do so.  You may disagree with that theology, but I don’t believe he inflicts suffering on his people to “teach us a lesson” or to “make us stronger.”  I do believe that he allows things to happen, but that’s different than doing it.  Anyhow…massive theological sidebar that I won’t get into now….but no matter where you stand on that, it’s hard to deny that if nothing ever happened to us, then often times, nothing would ever happen to us.

Oftentimes, ministries are birthed from pains.  Crusades are born from a desire to see change.  Revolutions endeavor to make life different.  Revivals happen when people recognize their own need. 

Things happen when things happen.

Not that to consider what God might do with our struggles or joys necessarily changes our perspective on them entirely….but really….What might God do with us when “things happen” in our lives?  Think of the possibilities?!

Jonah went to Ninevah….AFTER he spent time in the belly of a whale.  And while I’m sure Jonah probably wouldn’t choose to have a re-do of that experience, his second chance at Ninevah saved the entire land.  The people repented and God relented.

Things happen….when things happen.

Doesn’t it make you wonder what our great God will do with each of our “things?”

      But they do not know
      the thoughts of the LORD;
      they do not understand his plan,
      that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
      Arise and thresh,
      O daughter of Zion,
      for I will make your horn iron,
      and I will make your hoofs bronze;
      you shall beat in pieces many peoples;
      and shall devote their gain to the LORD,
      their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth. (Mic 4:12–13)

I love what this commentary had to say about this…

“And thus it is here; the nations are gathered against Zion, as soldiers into the field, but God gathers them as sheaves into the floor, to be beaten to pieces; and they could not have been so easily, so effectually, destroyed, if they had not gathered together against Zion. Note, The designs of enemies for the ruin of the church often prove ruining to themselves; and thereby they prepare themselves for destruction and put themselves in the way of it; they are snared in the work of their own hands.” **

*Would love to hear your thoughts on that below!  I love that the Lord gathers for good, what the enemy intends to gather for evil.  How do you feel about the idea that if nothing ever happened, then nothing would ever happen?  Whatcha thinking?  Do tell….

Photo Credit – from Disney’s Finding Nemo

** Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: Complete and unabridged in one volume (Mic 4:8–13). Peabody: Hendrickson.

God is so big.

We all know he’s big, and all-knowing, and powerful, omniscient, omnipotent, and probably a few other omni-prefixed words too.  Lately though, I’ve been reminded that even in his bigness, he cares about the little things too…the teensy tiny things even.  Things like ants, and dew, and mustard seeds, and hairs on our head, and grains of sand.

      “Four things on earth are small,
      but they are exceedingly wise:
      the ants are a people not strong,
      yet they provide their food in the summer” – Prov 30:24–25

      “I will be like the dew to Israel;
      he shall blossom like the lily;
      he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon” – Hosea 14:5

And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. – Luke 17:6

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.  Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. – Luke 12:6–7

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.  – Ps 139:17–18

I’m at the beach with my family this week.  Today my 2 year old was playing in the surf, and as I sat there watching him, I found myself noticing the thin layer of sand which was stuck to the bottom of his feet.  The thought occurred to me that no matter how hard I’d try, there was absolutely no way that I’d be able to count those grains of sand.  No Way.

But God knows the number of sands on a beach.  He’s the only one who knows…and the only one who can fathom it.  He knows the numbers of hairs on my head, and on my children’s heads, and on your head too.  And I’ve found myself just sitting and ruminating on this Biblical concept that I’ve known since I was a kid, and thinking how unforgotten our details are to the King of Kings.

Our details are not forgotten….

In fact, our details super matter to the Lord.

It’s not a new thought….just one worth remembering.  One I need to remember; that when even my tiny details are important to the Almighty…I am assured that the bigger things are sure not going to be left untended either.

Photo Credit