Are you the same person you were a year ago? Five years ago? Ten years ago? Think back and remember where you have come from. Even if you aren’t as far along as you’d like to be, I will bet that you have made progress. Think about where you have come from! Isn’t that a reason to be grateful?
One of the traps people have always fallen into is forgetting where they have come from. Read the Old Testament and you'll see it over and over again. God's people forgot that they were slaves and God sent Moses to deliver them. They forgot that while they were wandering in the wilderness because of their unbelief, God provided for them. They forgot how He split the Red Sea, or opened a path through the Jordan River, or sent food they didn't have to grow or hunt for in manna and quail. It goes on and on.
The Scriptures bear witness that God's people continually, even habitually, forget what God has done for them in the past, complain about their present, and don't expect God to fulfill His promise for the future. As much as we hate to admit it, you and I are just as prone to such forgetting.
Read moreHave you ever let loose some toothpaste words? You know the kind I mean. You say something that you wish you could take back as soon as it”s out of your mouth, but, like the proverbial toothpaste, you can’t put it back in. I am old enough that I could probably fill millions of toothpaste tubes with the words I wish I could take back. Words that hurt someone else. Words that revealed my own pride and insecurity. Foolish words. Harsh words. Words I had no business speaking. I have been in conversations where I was literally biting my tongue to prevent myself from letting out words I would regret. Words are important. They have a short duration, but a long impact. One reason I like writing is that it gives me a chance to refine my words before I send them out. Proofreading what I write keeps me from toothpaste words. What if we took the effort to “proofread” our thoughts before we let them become spoken words?
It’s not a stretch to say that lack of restraint is causing a lot of problems around the world. Much of the chaos in the world we live in is simply the result of people not guarding their own words and behavior. Many people in our current culture don’t really care about their toothpaste words. You see them all over social media. You hear them in songs, on TV, podcasts, the radio. But all these unfiltered words are merely symptoms of a much bigger problem. People dont’t make the effort to control themselves. They don’t control their words or their behavior and the result is a chaotic world filled with damaged people who hurt others because of their own hurt through their lack of restraint. This isn’t the way God intended human relationships to be, but it is universally true and all of us suffer for it. So, what can you and I do? Where can we start? How can we make a dent in the chaos around us?
Read moreOver the years I have had some really creative ideas. I could be so proud of me for having them, but the truth is, many of those idas have never gone anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, there are some things that I am working on and are getting done more slowly than I would like, but there are other things that were just ideas. I never followed through.
I want to be someone whose word is reliable. I want to be known as someone who follows through, but the truth is that I often say that I will do something for my husband and then I forget. I really want to do it. I just get distracted. I know it’s human. We all have weaknesses. True. Very true. But this idea of being someone reliable, a person who follows through, someone who can be depended on, that is a God thing. Follow through is really important to Him.
Read moreI watched as he folded his six-foot frame down to toddler height so that he could look eye to eye with the agitated child. Her eyes lit up as he spoke to her and a huge smile spread across her face, erasing the petulance that had been there when he entered the room. I couldn’t hear the words he spoke and I don’t know what their relationship was, but it didn’t matter. I could see their effect. Such joy radiated from her face that the little girl could have illuminated an auditorium. She reached around his neck, kissing his bearded face as he scooped her up in his arms and resumed his full height. Suddenly, the child had a six-foot perspective on life and she was willing to go wherever he wanted to take her. As the giant man carried the tiny girl lovingly toward the door, I couldn’t help noticing what strength and humility it took for him to lower himself to her height and speak in a way that produced such an obviously joyful effect. He could much more easily have towered over her and used his powerful voice to command her to come with him, but his quietness and restraint were much more effective in reaching the child and gaining her trust and compliance.
We live in a power-hungry society. Power is elevated and paid attention to. Gentleness and humility are ignored. The cycle will continue as long as children are taught through observation that this is the way to assert themselves, unless they are gifted with exemplary mentors like the man I described. A child taught me that..
Read moreThere are milestones in life that need to be celebrated. Some of them are expected and hoped for. Others creep up on you and you shake your head, “How did I get here?!” Mom turned 80 last week on October 19. When I spoke with her on that day, it was clear that this is one of those milestones for her. I mean, think about it, Mom was three years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed and the US entered World War II. Imagine all that has changed in her lifetime! From the telephone to television, to space travel to computers to the Internet and social media. A lot has changed!
So, Mom, how did you get here? You kept going and didn’t give up. You have lived your life one step at a time. You may think of your life as small and unimportant, but I’d like to share a few things I’ve learned from you. You need to know that your life has made a difference. So, here goes!
Read moreI have had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Africa on mission trips. Africa was probably last on the list of places I wanted to travel to, but I was longing for an opportunity to be a part of a missions team. I told God, “I’ll go anywhere!” So, when the door opened for Burkina Faso, West Africa, I walked through it with my husband. We became a part of a small team that would distribute shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse headed by Franklin Graham.
There are times when being on mission can be frightening. One of the scariest aspects of the trip for me was not that we were the only white faces in the towns we visited or traveling to remote areas where there was no running water or electricity, it was carrying a significant amount of cash in a hidden money belt. I didn’t even know such a thing existed! What if the belt fell off or I forgot to zip the pocket and the cash fell out? I felt the weight of the responsibility and I wanted to fulfill it well. I had been given a trust. In this case, the money was not our own. It had been given to us by a friend for the purpose of ministry in Burkina Faso. We were praying and looking for the place where God wanted us to invest it. Until then, we had to conceal it and keep it with us since it would not be safe left anywhere else. I was relieved when we knew where the investment was to be made and our trust was discharged. I was grateful for the grace God had given me to be able to fulfill that trust.
Every day you and I have a trust to fulfill. We have been entrusted with great treasures that are not our own.
Read moreThere are moments in history that become etched in our memories. A generation of people remember where they were when they heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. Succeeding generations pinpoint when they heard that the Challenger space shuttle exploded or that Princess Diana had been killed or when a normal day at an elementary school became a war zone. Do you remember?
In August of 1997 we were at the end of a long car trip that began with a family wedding in Saint Lous, then a stay with relatives in Chicago and finally visiting with friends outside of Cleveland. We were in the car headed to Sunday services at our friend’s church when the radio announcer reported that Princess Diana had been seriously injured in a car accident in Paris. Her beautiful, young face flashed through my mind. It was unbelievable that such youthful radiance was now battling for life. When later that day news of her death at 36 years of age swept the world, millions mourned. Her good works were retold around the globe. Many openly wept. Their lives had been touched by what was defined as her goodness. I remember feeling sad and wondering if all her good works would be remembered by the One who matters most. She had done so many things that could be defined as good, yet without a relationship with God and a desire to please Him, they had no eternal value. I had no knowledge about any relationship with God she might have had. I wondered if her good works without reference to God were empty actions. Diana’s deeds helped many and were good externally, but if her heart’s motivation was to prove her own value or to be loved by people, then they were not acts of goodness in the Biblical sense.
Read more My favorite fairy tale character has always been Cinderella.She has had countless representations throughout the centuries, but the one that really captured my heart and imagination is the 1963 television adaptation of Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical “Cinderella.” The lilting melodies and sparkling sets and costumes were certainly a part of the attraction for me even as a small child, but I think it was this Cinderella’s simple and gentle care for others in spite of her social position or other’s treatment of her that has inspired me.
This delicate and graceful, dark-haired Cinderella responded gently and respectfully to the cruel and uncaring stepmother and stepsisters, but her responses to the loving fairy godmother and the unrecognized prince passing by were equally gentle and respectful. Cinderella speaks of her father as being in heaven only once, but her face and voice reveal a great love for him and joy at his memory. It is clear that she knew that, in spite of her present situation, her father had loved her. Perhaps, having been deeply loved by her father before his passing created a character in her that was strong enough to overcome her circumstances. Yes, she is a fairy tale, but weren’t fairy tales created to teach moral lessons? This Cinderella exhibited a quality that is worth exploring in our selfish, combative culture: kindness.
Read moreWe recently went to be with a friend in the emergency room. We got there as quickly as we could to see our friend, but the ER personnel made us wait to go in while some things were being taken care of. I hated sitting in the waiting room knowing that our friend had been hurt. I kept getting up and walking around. It was hard to sit still. It seemed like forever before they finally let us go in! Don’t you hate waiting?
I once had the opportunity to teach elementary school students about the fruit of the Spirit we call patience. To begin the lesson I had found a video called “The Marshmallow Test.” Children were told that if they didn’t eat the marshmallow set in front of them while the adult was out of the room they could have two marshmallows when the adult returned. The camera captures the longing and reasoning in the children’s faces. Most didn’t wait until the adult returned and fully enjoyed their one marshmallow. But those kids who were able to restrain themselves had, not only two marshmallows, but the inner triumph of knowing that they had endured. You could see it on their faces. Their patience was rewarded with, not only another marshmallow, but the development of their character. Whereas the one-marshmallow kids were able to enjoy their treat, the two-marshmallow kids learned the lesson that waiting has intangible rewards as well as tangible ones Could those kids articulate all that they had received? Of course not! But the next time they were in a situation that required enduring, they would know that they could. My study in preparing for that lesson gave me a greater understanding of just what patience is and how much I need it.
Read moreIf you have seen the movie Unbroken or read the book of the same name, even if you haven’t, I want to recommend a movie called Unbroken: Path to Redemption. (https://unbrokenfilm.com/movie). It picks up the story of Louis Zamperini, former Olympian and World War II plane crash and Japanese prison camp survivor, where the movie Unbroken left off. Louis had survived a great deal, but the truth is that Louis did not come home unbroken. He was broken on the inside and was experiencing the ravages of his own war within. Unforgiveness, anger and fear tormented him. He was unable to find contentment. Nothing was right inside of him. The continual unrest was destroying his relationships and his marriage as well as his physical and mental health as he turned to alcohol to numb his pain. His war raged on and he couldn’t escape it. Even in sleep he was tormented by nightmares of all that he had endured. The seemingly unbroken war hero was headed toward destruction as alcohol took more and more ground in his life. He was helpless and without hope. Then something happened that brought a ceasefire to the battles within.
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