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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:14:46 GMT

Did you ever stumble onto an author you like and end up reading several of his books in a row? That happened to me recently with Rohinton Mistry. I’ve discovered that he writes delightful stories showcasing family dynamics; the two tales I’ve read (so far!) were set in Bombay, India.

Before Rohinton Mistry I didn’t know anything about India. Well, because of Mother Teresa I knew there was poverty, and I knew English was spoken there, too. But Mistry’s books Family Matters and A Fine Line opened my eyes to the Indian mix of religions and the working out of Indian politics and the realities of poverty in India. I might not pick up a book about these things, but since they were part of the lives of families I got to know and care about, I learned about them in spite of myself!

Visiting Bombay was good for me. It is easy to get short-sighted, focusing so much on the near view that all else is blocked out. In these tough economic times focus tends to be on needs, but maybe that makes me lose sight of blessings. The visits to India help me with that.

Mistry’s books were not only thought-provoking and entertaining; they reminded me that I am rich. Life’s important, universal wealth is connection with others. Relationship determines what life becomes. I am privileged to know the God of the universe. I have a wonderful family. I have friends who pray for me. I have friends who debate life issues with me.

Seeing Bombay made me realize that I am rich in another sense, too. Even when it is hard to make ends meet, I am surrounded with basic things that make life easier and better. One example: in both public restrooms and at home, toilet paper is a given. I use paper towels and fluffy terrycloth towels regularly. Even though on a budget, I go to beautiful, well-stocked grocery stores -- every week.

I have a place to live and a car to drive. I have a computer that works. I have a TV at home. I have a phone. I can map quest or GPS my way to new places. I have a local library full of books -- a library that is clean and open and free.

Sidewalks line the streets near my house. And when I drive, there are lines on the road to guide me, and traffic lights that always work. On highways there are grooves along the road to remind me when I am getting too close to the edge.

Many things in my world show a basic concern for life and display an underling belief that it is worth protecting. I am so grateful to be living in a place that wants to value life. I am grateful for opportunities to learn. I am grateful for work to do. I am grateful for love coming into and going out of my life.

A glimpse of another world allowed me to see my own more clearly. I am literally surrounded by spiritual blessings and physical riches – it’s astounding! My thankfulness to God has grown, just in time for Thanksgiving.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:16-18

The Duration

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:39:29 GMT

Last night I went to a viewing. I wasn’t close to the deceased gentleman; he had been to my house once with his daughter, and we’d chatted when our paths crossed. But his daughter and son-in-law are wonderful people, friends from our church.

Remembering how we were buoyed by the presence of friends at my mother-in-laws recent funeral, my son, daughter-in-law, husband and I went to the viewing together. After meeting up in the parking lot, we went in, hugged friends, hung up our coats, and signed the guest book. Upon entering the viewing area we were greeted by photos. Stands and tables and books of photos.

How interesting to see a life in pictures, to see the paint-brush strokes of time through the years, to perceive joys swelling as the years pile up. Pride in children and delight in grandchildren was shining from the photos of our friend’s father. Each print was a tile in the mosaic of a family-committed life.

The display included a few cherished mementos, too. Two of them struck me as indicative of both this dear man and of his generation. One was a congratulatory letter from the governor of Pennsylvania, sent in celebration of the gentleman and his wife’s 50^th wedding anniversary. The other was his induction paper into the US Army, a signed agreement from 1943, in which he said he’d stay until victory was obtained.

It is an amazing thing to sign up “for the duration.” In the photos from his Army days the man who had lived 86 years, 7 months, and 18 days was young and handsome. He had so many good things ahead of him, which he knew in a general sense, but he was willing to risk them for a big cause. Along with a generation of fellow-soldiers, he did obtain victory.

All this got me to thinking about spiritual warfare, about the family of God, and about signing up for the duration. Though our spiritual battle may seem to be taking a long time, victory is certain and is coming. 2 Peter 3: 1-7 tells us to stir up our minds and to remember God’s predictions and commandments, all the while realizing that others will refuse to believe them.

Those who do not believe will spread their propaganda, saying God’s predictions and commandments are worthless because things remain the same, have always been as they are now. But they are overlooking both the fact of the past flood and of the future fire. 2 Peter 3, verse 10, says that the day of the Lord will come as a thief: even though we know the statistics on robbery, and we prepare by locking and lighting, we are still “shocked,” not ready, when we’re burgled.

The coming victory will involve fire—the heavens will be burned up and dissolved, the earth exposed. The question is, “Since these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of The Day of God?”

As the lives of others move into eternity we must face the fact that things in our own lives will not always be as they are today. "The duration" of our own spiritual warfare will come to a close, too. God is moving the world along on his schedule, determined by his goodness. Victory is on the horizon; God will do what He has both pictured for us and promised to us. We will soon experience his promise of New Heavens and New Earth in which righteousness dwells. Here's to V-day!

Traveling Thoughts

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:45:19 GMT

Some people love to travel and some people don’t. I, for instance, love a good road trip. But my granddaughter does not.

She’s only two, and she may grow into road trips, may see them turn from boring to fun – maybe when it’s her turn to drive? But for now, getting serenely from point A to point B with my granddaughter in the car works best with some planning ahead. So my daughter prepares special activities for travel.

There are stickers, books, songs, puzzles and snacks. These occupations are chosen for their challenge and benefit, as well as their adaptability to travel. The car provides a wonderful opportunity to match shapes, find colors, create stories, learn songs, and discover snack-able fruits and veggies.

On a trip earlier this month I got to sit beside my granddaughter, which meant I was the one presenting her with choices. It was so much fun to share her choosing of activities, to review and discover and learn together. And it was those hours together on our trip that came to mind as I was reading Ephesians 2:10 the other day.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. I glimpsed myself as a child on the road-trip of life with God as my loving, insightful parent. I am not self-made; I am choosing any good that I do from selections God prepared for me before the trip began.

As we travel, what is my Father’s goal in the choices he gives me? In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (2:22). We are going home. Really home, to our family home in heaven where I and the entire family will be united with our Father. That’s what makes the trip worth the travel.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:38:53 GMT

Harvest

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:15:58 GMT

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

Ah, harvest time. A time to enjoy what has grown over summer, a time to gather in bounty before winter comes. And a season to examine the cornucopia of our spiritual lives.

What does growth in Christ look like? Peter says that saving faith is the beginning. The bounty of a Christian life grows from that faith.

First we grow virtue, which means we begin to be honest, wanting truth in every relationship, in every interaction, in everything. When we are honest, we realize that we don’t know God well, that our religious backgrounds and present earnestness do not begin to do him justice. Longing to know God better, we add knowledge, we learn about God through study of his word; we block off time and spend it with him, talking with him through our life’s troubles.

Knowing him even a little, we want to be different than we are, want to be more like him. Time with God makes us see ourselves clearly, realize what urges need to be controlled. God’s Spirit inspires and enables self-control.

The arduous work of self-control teaches steadfastness—you have to stay with self-control a long time to see results. Steadfastness enables godliness, the character of focusing on others long-term. Brotherly affection comes first—empathetic, caring concern for the situations and circumstances of others; love comes last. Love meaning we actually give up ourselves, putting aside our preferences and our needs, to the honor of God and the benefit of others.

It is these qualities that will keep us from petty lives, from small Christianity, from preferring entertainment to battle. Though the fruit of the Spirit is singular, its flavor has many nuances. The weeds of sin that choke growth must be avoided. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law (Galatians 5:22 & 23). May your harvest be bountiful.

Consider Done

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:46:13 GMT

Monday morning I was driving on I-95, returning home with my husband after our weekend visit with my daughter and granddaughter, when a sign caught my eye. At the top of the sign big letters said, “Consider Dunn.” My mind turned this into “Consider Done,” and as I drove I began considering why it is that I never feel like things are done.

I have a to-do list that I keep in my head. Frankly, I can’t recall the last time it has been all crossed off. So with the cruise control set on 70 and my husband asleep in the passenger’s seat, I began to wonder why I have this list.

Do I think it keeps me on track, keeps me on top of things, and reminds me not to be lazy? Maybe I believe it gives me structure; or perhaps it makes me feel important, as in always needed, a necessary person. Maybe it is linked to what I think others will think of me if the things on the list are not done—after all, good people don’t let things get too out of hand, and I want others to think well of me.

It dawned on me that the main truth about my list is that it steals peace and joy. Its next-in-line pop-up feature crowds out rest even when necessary tasks are satisfactorily completed. I was struck by the realization that I DIDN’T think of my list as something God gave to me.

Jesus’ life was not marked by a long to-do list. The Bible paints honest pictures of its heroes, but it never portrays Jesus as frantic, or shows him frustrated by the small amount of things that got done in a day. He said this about his own to-do list: “I do what the Father tells me to do.”

When Jesus and his disciples were visiting in the home of Martha, she had a zillion things on her to-do list to get things company-ready. She was buzzing around, very frustrated by her sister Mary who was sitting at Jesus’ feet. She was so sure she was right about Mary’s need to get to work that she asked Jesus to tell Mary to help her.

But instead, Jesus used Martha’s request to point out the importance of prioritizing time with God, of knowing what really matters and will last. Martha had chosen to focus on external, non-eternal things; Mary was focused on Jesus himself. Mary had chosen the better part.

From Martha I learn that the simplest of meals can honor God more than a lavish one. A long to-do list is not a sign of a God-pleasing or spiritually-productive life. In the same way that we prefer to spend good times with our children rather than to receive a delivery of gifts from them, God asks us to simply show up and spend time with him. The to-do list he has given us is short: love God, love others.

I never read the smaller letters of that sign along the road in North Carolina, so I don’t even know what was being advertised. But “Consider Done” reminded me of the peace and joy and rest that Christ gives us. Sure, there will always be work to do, and that work will often be a part of loving God and loving others. But my endless list is not from God.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11: 28-30

Ready For Change?

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:11:11 GMT

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same. ~Norman Mailer

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One of my vivid childhood memories is of my Dad and me sitting on the roof of our house. I straddled the peak of the roof, sitting right beside the chimney, while Dad worked on the shingles. The view was spectacular.

We were a family of do-it-yourselfers. Mom made much of our clothing and baked treats; Dad fixed our cars and did house repairs. We raised a few vegetables, and in my earliest years we even raised a few chickens. (I understood first-hand the expression “running around like a chicken with its head cut off”!) One of my jobs was mowing the lawn.

Sometime in my elementary school years we stopped raising chickens. From today’s vantage point I wonder if perhaps a city ordinance was passed forbidding it. In any case, the neighborhood and the times changed.

I mowed the grass where we’d raised chickens. We planted flowers instead of vegetables. Mom got a job outside the house. We wore store-bought clothes.

In both secular and sacred life, change is inevitable. Change can be difficult. But later, when we look back, we often admit that in the hard changes we learned lots, grew up, and got stronger.

Many changes are good, and we welcome most of life’s big ones as new stages or as adventures in life. We choose change daily, too, by varying small details in our schedules or meals. We often say we need a change to keep things from being boring. That’s another way of saying change challenges us, grows us.

We are supposed to change. In all of life, physical and spiritual, lack of change is reason for concern. Salvation is defined as a change, with old things gone and a new life begun. By definition, good things like maturity and character development imply change. The main goal of spiritual life is to change, becoming more Christ-like.

Purposeful change is work. Whether you’re building change or growing it, your hands get dirty. As well as hard work, construction and garden projects take planning, preparation, and lots of time. Both are used in the Bible to picture Christian life: building on the foundation of Christ; producing a thirty-, sixty- or hundred-fold harvest, growing the fruit of the Spirit.

God has given us everything we need to change, to live in a way that grows godliness. The power of change is Christ; the paths of change are his great and precious promises. You ready for a change?

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His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature 2 Peter 1: 3 & 4

The Colors of Fall

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:12:25 GMT

I wish you could see the view out my window. A beautiful fall day is framed by leaves in shades of red, yellow, green and brown. The air is apple crisp; leaves and acorns crunch underfoot.

The other morning the fall weather called for me to come outside and take a walk. I was just dazzled by the stunning maple trees in my neighborhood. The soothing earth tones of late summer have been splashed with vibrant color; the beauty is breathtaking.

What makes trees do that? According to an article in my local newspaper entitled “Leaf Color 101,” the brilliant colors that trees display in fall are the grand finale of photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the complicated process used by vegetation to produce food. The process occurs in leaf cells that contain chlorophyll, the pigment that makes leaves green. During the growing season, there is a constant turnover of chlorophyll. But in autumn, as the temperatures get cooler and the days get shorter, the synthesis of chlorophyll slows and eventually stops. The amount of chlorophyll in the leaves decreases and the color it produced starts to fade, unveiling pigments that were previously masked by the green.

Three pigments that can be found in deciduous tress besides chlorophyll are tannins, caretenoids, and anthocyanins. Tannins are found in all leaves, but in different amounts. They are the reason leaves that were once beautifully colored will eventually turn brown after being on the ground for awhile. Caretenoids are the yellow pigments responsible for gorgeous gold leaves; anthocyanins create the rich reds in maples and sumacs and the purple in dogwoods.

It is amazing that God designed the cycles of nature in such a way that they produce beauty even when in decline. While walking the other day, I thought about people-seasons in comparison to tree-seasons. As with trees, in the fall season of life some people are vibrantly colored, while others show very little color before becoming dry and brown.

As Christians, we have God’s Word and Spirit in us, providing us the possibility of living gold and crimson as days shorten and winter’s climate approaches. But the tannin of sin is there, too. Life’s fall season is revealing: as the chlorophyll green of life’s busy food-producing time slows, the amount of our other “pigments” shows more clearly than before.

The events of this summer remind me that it is fall in my life: our children are all married, all our parents moved to heaven. Added to that is the gladness of grandchildren. So the beautiful autumn leaves this year represent possibilities. Fall, in life as in the calendar year, can be delightful and lovely, the best season of them all.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s multicolored grace 1 Peter 4:10

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness

2 Peter 1:3

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Leaf info taken from: “Boomers,” A publication of Lancaster Newspapers, Inc., September 26, 2009. Leaf Color 101, by Steve Gallion, page 16.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:42:44 GMT

I discovered an amazing thing in my devotions yesterday morning: focusing on the Lord's soon return and heaven is a factor in self-control. And self-control, in turn, is a factor in determining the effectiveness of my prayers and my ability to love others.

Since self-control, prayer, and getting along with others are some of the biggest biggies of my Christian life, this is welcome news. 1 Peter 4: 7 & 8 causes me reflect on my own (limited!) experience with future-focus. I have loved God and others more and been more self-controlled when I have focused on the Lord's return and/or on our amazing future with God.

I remember how excited I was about our future in the new heaven and new earth during the weeks when I was reading Heaven (by Randy Alcorn). And I know my perspective changes in the days after a funeral. Awareness of how soon the world may end and of how good things will be when we are with our Lord colors how we see both others and ourselves. One of the best aids for a believer wanting to maintain balance and perspective in relation to both self and others is for him/her to think regularly and often about the Lord's return.

A focus on the Lord's return is a simple-yet-difficult thing. There is so much everyday stuff that is a necessary part of living. If we aren't careful, our lives can be completely filled with these necessary things. They are not bad things, but they can take our thoughts away from the Lord's soon return.

How can we focus on the future while living in the here and now? We can learn to see the everyday, necessary things from the angle of their part in our journey to Christ's return. We can build some reminders of Christ's coming into our lives.

Both bread and wine serve as reminders of Christ's death until he comes -- and also remind us that he is coming. Obituaries, funerals, and illness remind us that life is short and that eternity is close -- we may hear the trumpet blast that puts an end to death very soon. There are many Bible passages that tell of God's plan to come back to earth; we can read about the second coming in other books. It's worth doing whatever it takes to keep the fact of our Lord's imminent return in our minds.

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4: 7& 8

It's Time

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:19:27 GMT

Thursday morning my husband’s cell phone rang while it was still dark. He got out of bed as he talked, and jumped into the shower as soon as he hung up. A few minutes later he was on his way to the retirement home where his mother lived.

A short time later my husband phoned to tell me that his mother had died. Sad, orphaned feelings washed over us. Yet we knew that she had been longing for heaven, had been suffering from poor health for a long time, and was really feeling great for the first time in a long time.

One of the hardest things for us is that my husband’s mother had been the last living parent we had between the two of us. Her absence ushers us into a parent-less era, a place that makes the world somehow seem a bit colder; a place that makes us feel quickly “aged.” Now we are our family’s oldest generation. We are the next ones in line for the ride called Eternity.

It is sobering to realize that my time is limited. I’ve always known it, but I don’t often face it. It is a good thing to look at squarely. The day after the last parent’s funeral is a good day to reflect on the time I have left.

What time is it? It’s time to really believe in God’s sovereignty. It’s time to live trusting Him; it is time to bring everything to Him. It’s time to enjoy each moment of life. It’s time to take those leaps of faith I’ve been considering.

…do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. 1 Peter 3:6c

Lorraine Weaver 1930 - 2009