Glory Renewed

The Big Bucket Surprise

We were at the waterpark last summer. You know the kind where the slides are high and steep and way too scary for younger kids, let alone grandmas. We eventually found an area for the kiddos that looked a lot more their speed. There were little climbing obstacles in the shapes of sea life, water sprays and falls everywhere. It was a very hot day so it was a perfect place to be for water fun. I held my little grandson’s hand as we climbed some steps to a higher level so he could safely go down this little, mildly steep, water slide. He was apprehensive so I was pep-talking him that this was going to be “so easy and so fun!”

Then, as we were climbing, all of a sudden, it was like the sky opened up and a torrential flood of water came down on us. You see, at the top of this play place, unnoticed by us, was this huge bucket gradually filling with trickles of water. When it reached its tipping point, whoosh! And we were at the wrong place at the wrong time. It took a while for me to earn his trust again.

At the beginning of this New Year, I have been apprehensive about making any resolutions. Everything I read says that little steps, little daily habits, are the way to go. But I like sweeping changes. Epiphanies. I like, strong shows of power. I hunger for more than slow, steady drips. But could it be that by doing the little things, consistently, faithfully, that sweeping change I desire will happen?

This concept works both ways, dear reader. When the seemingly small, negative habits outnumber the good ones. Those slow steady drips of sin, can fill up a bucket as well, with the meltdown that seems to appear out of nowhere and drenches us in remorse. When this happens to me, I can almost always trace it back to the little things I did, or neglected to do, that would have prevented my lack of self-control.

Another reason that I am hesitant to make resolutions is because I hate relapses. They are bound to happen and God reminds me that this is why there is grace. I could use a big bucket of that today, how about you? (1 John 1:9)

So here is my “little” list of things to do daily:

1. Pray (Fervently, James 5:16)
2. Worship (In Spirit and Truth, John 4:23)
3. Love Others Around Me (1 Corinthians 13, all of it!)

These are not original resolutions. They come from a book I just finished reading and highly recommend. “You Can Trust God to Write Your Story” by Nancy and Robert Wolgemuth. They come from a man who lives in chronic, debilitating pain, all of his own strength has been stripped away and he wants us to know that there are abilities that can never be taken away from us. As long as we have conscious thought, we can do those three things. These three things put God where He deserves and needs to be –FIRST. He is who we pray to, and the Person we worship and His greatest command is to love Him and others.

I want to remember the bucket too. What I am filling it up with daily as I ask God how He wants me to live out my resolutions. Pray for me? I will be praying for you.

I see their faces as I write their names. Each one in my “inner circle.” The space God has placed souls. The one I married and promised the rest of my life to. The ones I birthed, the ones they vowed the rest of their lives to. The babies born to them. My parents, his mother, the siblings having special needs. The circle increases in diameter…

Morning prayer-time is sacred. I rarely miss it, but when I do, I really miss it. I wonder how it affected their day. Did they miss something because I missed praying for them?

A few years ago, I had a son-in-law deployed to Afghanistan. For this reason, I started journaling my prayers differently. Since a young adult, I have always journaled my prayers, but the reality of a loved one being placed in what is considered “real danger” drove me to make sure he was prayed for specifically every day. So I started writing each name, pausing to see their faces. Reminding God that these sweet ones were important to me and I needed Him for them. To watch over them and protect them, help them with whatever they faced that day.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6

There is a whole-wide world out there, I know, but these dear ones mean the whole-world to me. I am sure your circle means the same to you. Because they are so important to us, we can be consumed with worry when their lives are in danger or they are making bad decisions. We want to change their opinions or fix every mistake they have ever made. That is not our job, but praying for them is. Giving them to God is the first, very best thing we can do and trust Him to work things out for their good and His glory.

I keep a box of tissues handy because sometimes when I write those names tears come. Tears of joy, God is there to celebrate with, tears of grief, He is still there, and they are in the best Hands as I hand it all over to Him.

Sometimes I do not even know what to pray. Tim Keller writes in his book Prayer, Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God,

“The Spirit, even when you do not know how to pray, takes your core prayer and prays as you should be praying before the throne. (Romans 8:26) When you struggle in prayer, you can come before God with the confidence that he is going to give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything He knows. He does care, and He loves you boundlessly.”

Dear reader, pray for the whole-wide world, but please, never forget to specifically pray for your circle. Watch your love grow for them and know the peace of God that passes all understanding.

When my little granddaughter was two, she had to have a blood transfusion. When the nurses came in to start her IV, little Lilly pleaded with them, “No thank you, No thank you” she would cry out. It was heartbreaking to hear her try so politely to refuse what was about to happen. A treatment that would help her recover from a dangerously low hemoglobin level, but she didn’t care about that. All she knew at that moment was something was going to hurt and she didn’t want it.
When we can control what we let into our lives, the use of “No thank you” is the polite way to refuse the choice in front of us. But what if we do not have that luxury? What about the things we can’t control? And is it ever appropriate to say “No thank you” to God?
I’ve said “No thank you” to Him before, not in words, but by my actions or lack of. The time He presented an opportunity for me to give till it hurt a little bit, and I refused. The time He said, He was waiting to speak to me through His Word and I just kept scrolling. The times He has asked me to do something, share something or say something for Him and I didn’t. Just like a two-year-old, it might hurt or be inconvenient to be obedient and I didn’t want it. Sometimes my own façade of politeness is my undoing.
This is the place where child-likeness and child-ishness have to part ways. A child is innocent, has no choice but to trust those who love her to make the right decisions that affect her, painful or not. I am not innocent. I get to choose to be disobedient and refuse the blessing. Just tell myself “be thankful” and move on.
Somehow I don’t believe that “giving thanks in all things” applies to my disobedience. There are the sins of commission and there are the sins of omission. Could what I am omitting, or not doing in obedience, be what is holding me back from experiencing the blessings of living an obedient, abundant life?

The more I learn about Jesus from His Word, the more I see how living given to others is important. He came to show us the loving heart of God. The way He shows this is how He gave.

Ephesians 5:20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;”

Receiving all things from God’s hand with thanksgiving is the only way.  The good and the hard. Being thankful, “Yes” thankful, turns whatever we receive into a gift that can, in turn, be given to someone else. We are not here just to serve ourselves.
To know that we are ambassadors for Christ, (2 Corinthians 5:20), representing Him in our world, should make us ready ministers, not wanting fame or privilege but a life of service and humility. (Mark 10:43) Jesus is our example. He took time in the mornings to pray and ask His Father into His day. He went out of His way and to places that others considered beneath Him because He knew people needed Him. He comforted, He healed, He prayed until He sweat drops of blood asking His Father if there could be any other way than the Cross. He never said “No thank you” and neither should I.

Dear reader, I don’t know what you might be saying “No thank you” to today. What you have been prompted by His Spirit to do in order to follow Christ. God knows your heart. Looking back, I know every time I refused an opportunity to be obedient, I missed out on something for others that would have helped me to recover from my low empathy level. One of the most dangerous pathologies in Christianity.
Starting this Thanksgiving week, I am purposing in my heart to make it a “Thanksliving” week. Right off the bat my husband reminded me of something I neglected to do and I was tempted to throw in the towel. The Lord’s Spirit, not mine believe me, prompted me to do the thing and thank my man for the reminder. The enemy lost that one. This week I’m going to try to say give thanks more often and say a few more “yeses” to God and others. How about you?
Like the transfusion that hurts but is life-giving, obeying God can be painful, yet it yields blessings that we just cannot realize any other way. We would tell Lilly, “It only hurts for a little bit.” God tells us the same thing. In the frame of eternity, our current struggles are so microscopic.

Romans 8:18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Glory renewed.

He Reads Minds – Kind of a scary thought, isn’t it? But there is really nothing you have ever thought that God wasn’t aware of. We are created beings. Not so with God. He always was, always will be, mind-blowing right?

“…whatsoever things, are pure, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8

God is omniscient. This adjective used to describe our God means “having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding: perceiving all things.” He knows it all. The good, the bad, the messy and the beautiful. He doesn’t just see the outside behavior, what you actually do, but he knows the thoughts and intents of your mind and heart. God goes for the deep work that needs done. Scripture supports this:

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 KJV)

Having a free-will means we are free to not think good thoughts as well as to think good thoughts. This is the battle we face every, single day and we have to have a weapon to win it. That weapon is the Word. Dear reader, you are a warrior on a winning side when you get into the Bible. Read it. Study it. Memorize it. Use it to reap all the rewards of strong faith. Courage. Strength. Peace. Hope. Joy. To name a few.

The enemy is described in the Word as a “roaring lion.” Have you watched those National Geographic films where the lioness prowls around a herd of animals on the Savannah? Looking for the younger, weaker ones to take down. Satan is like that. Different than God, Satan is a created being that went against God.

1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Satan cannot read your mind, but he can see your actions. The way you behave when you are not in His Word, not staking your joy on God’s truth. I believe he uses this observation to spring into action and cause you to doubt God’s good plan for you. He moves in just like he did in the Garden.

Ann Voscamp writes, “If Satan can keep my eyes from the Word, my eyesight is too poor to read light—to fill with light. Bad eyes fill with darkness so heavy the soul aches because empty is never truly empty; empty is only a full, deepening darkness. So this is what it is to be. Eve in the Garden, Satan’s hiss tickling the ear. “Did God actually say…?”” (Genesis 3:1 ESV). Ann points out the need for us to look at our lives through a “biblical lens” in order to decipher the meaning of it all. (One Thousand Gifts, Devotional, Reflections on Finding Everyday Graces)

In Jesus’ great Sermon, there are some verses, Matthew 6:22-23, where He teaches about light and darkness. How our eyes can be good and provide light for us, or bad and fill us with darkness. The choice of where to go with our field of vision is ours. And the choice is made in our minds with the information we allow to influence us.

The fact that God can read your mind need not be a scary thing, especially when we remember this promise in 2 Timothy 1:7,

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Speak those words the next time your knees are shaking or you are tempted to believe you are powerless, unlovable or losing your mind. I have, believe me.

He cried his little heart out in my arms. It was late, bedtime even, and he wanted…candy. And this was not the first request, but his daddy had already shared some with him earlier and they had a “talk” about no more until tomorrow.
I don’t like the answer “No.” I didn’t like it when I was a kid, young adult, or “older” adult. I wouldn’t ask for something if I didn’t want it, how about you?
Have you ever begged God for something? I mean really asked with all your heart, over and over and only to experience that little word with the biggest meaning of hurt, that you think your heart just can’t possibly absorb? You are not a little girl anymore, so the asking is not “Could I have …this?” and you could take the no and move on. But, “Please God, You know how important this is to…and how could this possibly not be Your will?” This kind of over-and-over prayer that comes with deep, on-going disappointment. Heart wrenching even.

“Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses: for we do not know  what we should pray for as we ought: for the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He that searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27

So what we don’t have words for, when we don’t even know what to pray for “as we ought” the Spirit of God prays for us. And because the Spirit knows what the will of God is, (and we don’t) the prayer is offered perfectly and answered perfectly. Not saying it’s easier to take when it is so different from what we are asking, what we see would solve a problem, or help someone who is struggling. Because the picture is much bigger than we are capable of envisioning.
Dear reader, God is so big. He knows the end from the beginning and all those that are connected to your life and actions. If I think about it too much, my head hurts with the responsibility of it all. All I can do is trust Him and try to overcome the need to control anything. Just live abiding in Him and absorbing His Word.
“No” can seem unkind, especially to those in our close circle of family, friends and church. But it does not have to be when we remember to attach the love to it. To not use it in an automatic way to brush off responsibilities or make things more convenient for us. I love how Ann Voscamp says “You are willing to love only as much as you are willing to be inconvenienced.” That phrase “love is not convenient and I love this person” is one I say in my mind when I am asked to do something for someone that I quite truthfully do not want to do because it’s a bad time for me or I think I’m too busy. Try it, it works for me.
We girls love the romantic comedies where the guy, eventually, gets down on one knee, and asks the question that he pretty much knows will be answered with a “yes!” And of course, through the course of the story, he has had quite a bit of a struggle winning that “yes.” With the possibility of a thousand missed opportunities and missed connections leading up to the climax of the movie, and the happily ever after. This is the movies, dear reader. Anything can happen, and does.

Not so in real life. I would love to write that this life is fair. All our prayers are answered with the “Yes” we expect and everyone lives happily ever after, here. But that is not the truth. We will have trials. We will be persecuted. We will not always get the candy before bedtime. But that is okay, because the love this parent is modeling at the start of this post, is like the love that God has for us. He knows the whole story. God knows our whole story and He has to do what is best for us, because that is what His love does.

I know these are pretty common now, but I wish they were available when my kids were little. Those shoes where the soles sort of flash and light-up as they step. So cool!

The other morning I got to keep my great-grandson until his daddy got off work. Since the sun does not show up till later and later every day, he walked out of the house in the dark, but his shoes lit-up his path on my front sidewalk, with every step he took.

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 (NIV)

I thought of that verse as I watched him walk the sidewalk to the car. Darkness dispelling bit by bit as he took those little steps. Lights show up the best the darker the path. And words can be like lights that enlighten dark spaces when we are not sure what to step into.

Sometimes all it can take to brighten a dark, dingy day, is a word of kindness. A smile. A listening ear. And there is the light. A thought or word of praise, for God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). And there it is, in the middle of what would send you spiraling down, down…lifts you up.

“That was the true Light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.” John 1:9 (NKJV)

The light to walk through the hour-by-hour or day-to-day is not like the kind of light that lights miles ahead. If we only look at the light at the end of the tunnel, we will end up with tunnel vision. The hear-and-now and right-in-front of us will get missed. He is always there for us and wants us to notice His light for the small steps and not just for the giant leaps.

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” I was just thirteen years old when Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon. He said those words as he stepped onto the moon that we gaze upon from 238,900 miles away. It’s glow caused by the reflection of the sun, which, by the way, is 92.96 million miles from us.  Another interesting fact I found was that the moon reflects only between 3 – 12 percent of the sunlight that hits it. We glow when we reflect the Son. We all seem to have varying degrees of reflection. So many parallels.

I love space movies. Not the “Alien” kind at all, but the documentaries out there about the astronauts and space truth and travel. They reinforce my belief that our beyond intelligent God created the universe and rules it from His throne in the heavens.

The words I attached to this blog, “Renewed. Refreshed. Redeemed.” are a reflection of what His light brings to my life. Dear reader, this is what He does. There is no day that goes too badly, nothing that can be just too old, or spoiled so rotten, that He cannot bring His glory to it. Sometimes just watching a little boy with light-up shoes can remind you of that. Glory Renewed.