Uplifted in a Broken Down World

     Every child has that one physical toy that turns into their constant companion.   It becomes the inseparable security blanket that accompanies them day and night, sharing the joy of happy times and the security of never being alone in the scary times.   My loyal, loving friend was, and is, Cologne – a stuffed animal SKUNK!!!

     This week as I, once more, packed my belongings for where God seems to be calling me to next hang my hat, I boxed Cologne for the journey.   Cologne has been with me for at least 70 years.   Through the good, the bad, the blessings and the stormy mountain climbs of my entire life, Cologne has been hugged by my laughter and jubilations and washed by my fears and tears.   However, for the first time in my life, I have, just now, realized the lifelong message and meaning with which God has stuffed Cologne.  

     Seriously speaking, seventy some years ago, I did not choose Cologne but rather God chose Cologne just for me!!!   Let’s be honest, what child would deliberately choose a skunk for their life long companion and confidant?   What’s more, how probable would it be to even find a SKUNK on the shelf of a toy store, unless God so deemed it His “perfect gift” for one imperfect child?

     Cologne, today, is well worn and even thread bare in places.   Since I was a sassy lassie to, now, a doting Grammy, Cologne has been a stable and staple decorating the shelves of my life.   For many a year, her presence has been a closet shelf, but one thing remains front and center.   I cannot, and will not, get rid of her.   However, only this packing up of my treasured belongings did I hear God whisper His explanation of why He infused the blessing of a skunk into the aroma of my life.

     My life, like a skunk’s, has never been called to being cast as one of the crowd.   On the contrary, in standing outside the circle of the “in group” I most often found my niche.   My greatest sense of being needed and pursuing God’s purpose for me has never been found in the midst of the popular.   The outreach that I’m called to, and which fulfills me, is to help the outcast of worldly popularity discover the uniqueness and power God has sewn into their hearts and souls.

     I can’t help but laugh a little and smile a whole lot as I finally realize Cologne was never a random worldly toy but my heavenly chosen possession.   She is not superficially wrapped in earthly glamour; but, without a doubt, she is stuffed with inner meaning and message.   Praise God, a beauty queen doll never laid hold of my heart, but a skunk did capture my soul. For this blessing, I am most grateful…

     At times, in the greatest of our trials, God’s way it to take care of us, put us back together and re-glue the broken pieces over tearing apart another who has inflicted the pain.   God has chosen to save us, to restore us and to grow us.   The question is are we grateful for our restoration and flourishing, or are we consumed in hate and anger that the source of our agony is not attacked, punished and destroyed?

     It boils down to where our happiness is found – in our grateful heart or another’s demise.   Do we count our God given blessings or cling to our man made tally sheet?

     Even after God blesses us, why is it so hard to turn away from cursing an enemy?   Revenge consumes.   Christ never sought revenge.   If needed, He turned His back and walked away; but He never succumbed to Satan’s trap of wanting revenge.   “When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats.  Instead He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.”  1 Peter 2:23 (NIV)

Help me, Lord, to be the person You created me to be.

     Lately, more times than I wish to count, I’ve found myself uttering “Oh, my goodness.”   Startled, shocked and, even, dumb founded, it’s been my reaction to so much of today’s world.   “Oh, my goodness”, more times than not, is followed by my questioning “where is our world going?”   To which I recently felt God answer me with “where our world is going” might best be determined by remembering from “where you are coming”.   Immediately, for me, “Oh, my goodness” was replaced by “Oh, my Godness”.

     Though the world is going wrong, us remembering that we come from God is the only way to help change going wrong into becoming right.   The greatest of strength is not triggered from going wrong.   God, rightly, generates from where the most powerful of strength comes to change the world for good.   Our challenge is to replace worry over “where the world is going” with trust that “comes from” God’s Book.   “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.” 1John 5:4 (ESV)

     Look at the world.   Has it ever been in more need of slaying the giants trying to destroy every aspect of Christianity?   Jesus bequeathed to each of us, and commanded all of us, to “practice”, “preach”  and “protect” our religious faith. 

     “Practice” is to allow the creed of your soul to permeate your life 24/7.   “Preach” is to share with others the doctrines of Trinity, Christ’s redeeming death on the Cross and the all-encompassing grace Jesus secured for every one of us.    Most all Christians understand, and at least put forth an earnest try to, “practice” and “preach”.   However, when it comes to “protect”, it’s not that we don’t cross the finish line but that we don’t get off the starting line that thwarts our attempt to “protect” Christianity.   

     Unquestionably, Christianity is under attack.   We all agree on this.   None the less, to “protect” being able to freely follow and live life as a Christian, we so often leave this exclusively to God’s power – not including what little ability is ours to offer.   After all, God’s big guns, not our little sling shots, is the sole power able to protect our souls.   Or is it?

     I believe there is a present day lesson in the age old story of David and Goliath.   David, a young shepherd with no military training, knew His God could and would defeat any, and all, enemies trying to harm God’s band of worshippers.   David, while knowing all power and strength rested in God, did not choose to stand idly by and just wait for God to bring reckoning.   Instead, he readily, and faithfully, chose to step forward and let God work through him to bring down the enemy.   David was fully aware God designated him to forge ahead in God’s strength.   David’s weapon for battle was an amateur slingshot and stone.   It’s all he had, but the importance is not the caliber of his weapon but his readiness to use his meager defense and stand up to “protect” his God.   David knew God would do the winning, if he just did the standing up to.

     What about us today?   Do we wait for God to do it all, or do we open the door for God to powerfully bring down the enemy by boldly standing up for our belief in God?   To do this our arsenal need not be a PHD in theology.   The slingshot and stone of simply being a child of God possessing a tiny nugget of being willing to openly defend our faith in God is all that’s needed.   Question is, are we willing?   Truth is we are able.

     Thus, when we give to God all the enemies threatening our religious beliefs, expecting Him alone to conquer, might He, in return, be asking us “where is your slingshot and stone”?

     “When Jesus saw His mother there, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to her, ‘Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your Mother.’  From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.”  John 19:26-27 (NIV)  

     “Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit My Spirit.’  When He had said this, He breathed His last.”  Luke 23:46 (NIV)      

     Upon His crucifixion, Christ committed His soul to His Father in heaven.   We, Christians, are well aware of this Scripture.   However, have we ever contemplated the message of Christ committing His Mother into the loving hands of His disciple, John?   We should.   Actually, this was Christ’s last worldly action during His life on earth.   I can’t help but feel there is a significance in this, and we are missing it.    

     Taking care of His Mother was so important that Jesus assigned it to John, the one whose faithfulness was closest (emotionally and physically) to Him.   Thus, though overlooked, this act is extremely noteworthy, meaningful and reflective of how we should put emphasis on caring for our loved ones.

      As society pushes to climb the corporate ladder and measure its identity in the statistics of rising above the rank and file, what happens to stepping down from worldly heights so as to live for (and from) family roots?   Is family cherished, and looked out for, the way one protects, and exists for, sustaining the image of loyalty to a career?   Too often, they are not.   Yet, ironically, the world wonders why loneliness and lack of meaning ring loud and clear in 21^st Century existence.   Could it be we have our pinnacles reversed?  Shouldn’t taking care of family out rank caring for a worldly career?

     To find this answer, let’s look at what Christ was pointing us to when, amidst His pain and suffering, He insured His Mother would not be without family to love and protect her?   “But if any do not take care of their relatives, especially the members of their own family, they have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever.”  1Timothy 5:8  (GNT)   Wouldn’t it be a blessing to all family members, if each and every one of us became less wrapped up in protecting our careers and more swaddled in taking care of each other?   

     Before we set out to prove to the world how much we deserve positions of leadership, honor and glory, may we all first insure our families, and all their needs, rank forefront in our hearts and deeds.   None (not one of us) can save humanity as Christ did on Calvary; but all of us (each and every one) are called to love, secure and protect our families, just as Christ did that Good Friday long, long ago.      

    

Today finds me completely drained – not in a bad way but a “thank you, God, for helping me hear You call and try to give my all” way.   So many, many culminations were conferred by God this week.   Though my soul cried praise to my eternal God, my heart and eyes cried tears at the reality that minutes on earth are short lived.

     Exhausted, and on my 6^th plane ride in half as many days, I found myself at the refueling pump of basking in the recitation of how Jesus taught us all to pray.   “Our Father… deliver us from evil”.   Suddenly my energy, momentarily, rebounded and I chuckled out loud.   A line of my own I had, inadvertently, added to the prayer Jesus taught us all.   Herein rests the short message I share this week.

     “Our Father … Deliver us from evil”; and, Dear Lord, when it is beyond me, at any given moment, to act like Christ, please, at least keep me from acting like the devil.  Amen.      

     Once again, I picture our Heavenly Father standing above the clouds, looking down at me while shaking His head and proclaiming “FINALLY”!!!   As for me, my enlightened reaction is “Oops, got it, Lord.”   Bottom line is I’ve been asking the wrong question.   You know, it’s hard (if not impossible) for us humans to find the right answer if we’re asking the wrong question.

     I’ve been looking at our present day world and thinking the solution comes from wondering if my faith is fierce enough to carry me through the mud and mire.   God opened up to me that this was the wrong question.   The real quandary must be “What tense is my faith?” not “Is my faith intense enough?”.  

     “Intense enough” implies power.    “Tense” defines time – past, present or future.   Without a doubt, I know my faith is deep or intense; but this, quite simply, is not sufficient.   Of greatest importance is where my faith is working – past, present or future.

     If my faith just rests in the past, then my life is passive.   In other words, Christ’s Crucifixion saved me; I’m ok and my life is on cruise control.  I can’t spread God’s word, do God’s work or help all God’s children make this world a more Christ-like place, if I’m exclusively living in this past redemptive moment.   Christ’s work was at Calvary and, though of the past tense, He still lives on in this very moment of time.   Shouldn’t the core and purpose of my faith do the same and be alive in the here and now?

     What about the future?   Suppose my faith completely clings to the gift of my future in heaven.   I then ignore God’s call for me to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.   And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28: 19-20 (NIV)   If my faith is riveted on the future tense of “the very end of the age”, am I fulfilling Christ’s commands of “go and make” which are of the present tense?   Answer is NO, I’m not.

     The past (Calvary) saved me.   The future (eternity in heaven) rewards me.   The present (go and make) is today’s calling and purpose from God and to me.   Yes, my present life is rooted in the past of Calvary, flowers in the future of heaven, but it is meant to grow Christ’s presence in our present world.

     Standing convicted, I see more clearly that it matters not only if my faith is intense but, also, that it is of the right tense- the PRESENT.   I am not baptized to ride out the ungodliness of today’s world on the shirttail of yesterday’s Crucifixion.   Nor am I christened to passively let go of today’s spiritual tribulations and float in outer space till tomorrow, when I reach heaven.   I’m commanded to take firm hold of my faith, reach down to the bottom most core of my soul, put on the armor of God, and then, this PRESENT moment “go and make disciples of all nations”.

     What about you?   To what, and in what tense, is God calling you???

     It was winter of my 5^th grade.   A cold Chicago day found me bundled up and sitting in church, more attuned to the stained glass windows beside me than the preacher in front of me.   Sixty-four years later finds me still intrigued by the “stained glass window meaning” I discovered that elementary school day.  With regret, I realize the message I for decades have cherished is, unfortunately, unseen by today’s youth, whose churches no longer are adorned with stained glass window.

     Bible stories were picture book told through stained glass windows.   Long before my eyes could read, pictures radiating from stained glass windows taught me about God, His will, His way and people who belonged to Him.   My favorite window was God’s Son sacrificed on the cross.   In truth, before that day way back in 5^th grade, not meaning but, rather, its intricate multicolored pane (not the pain of Jesus nailed to a cross) made it my favorite.   However, deeper perception, truth and meaning shone through the Crucifixion window on that 5^th grade moment, a very long time ago.

     Allow me to dig deeper into my elementary school stained glass memory.   Neither on that day, nor now, do I have a clue about the sermon being preached.   However, I will never forget the lesson I learned.   When you look at a stained glass window, what do you see — a finished picture, or, of what the picture is composed?   The completed scene offers deep breaths of beauty.   Meditation on its components might just take your breath away.

     Let’s focus on my childhood favorite, Christ crucified, and what my eyes saw and my soul witnessed that 5^th grade day.   To me, nothing was more brilliant than sunlight flowing through the scene of Christ dying on the cross.   That was until my vision turned from sunlight to SON making right.  

     Stained glass achieves the reality of a picture from tiny pieces joined in proximity to produce a unified depiction.   So, let’s decipher the tiny pieces which, when joined together, produced the crucifixion.   Were they sole flecks that shimmered when sun shone through them or blemished specks taking on eternal life through the soul light of the SON?   What, or more appropriately who, was the composition of Christ’s death that day on Calvary and every day thereafter?   The answer is both you and me.  

     Next time, if blessed to find a stained glass mirror of Christ dying for all of mankind, may we all not stand in awe of this work of art but, rather, kneel down in recognition of ourselves as the integral pieces whose speckled sins when joined together, truly, form the vision of Christ dying on His (more accurately, OUR) cross.  

     “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.”  1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

     It’s a gimmie that when joy, dreams realized or unexpected blessings reign in my life, I can easily see the Hand of God in them all.   However, it is so much harder to see the Hand of God in things that are not so beautiful a gift.   Life, lately, while heaped in blessings, also, has piles of manure that I had to remind myself might, additionally, be from the Hand of God.  

     God has purpose for all of our lives and every minute in our lives.   We might not always understand; but through times when we look up to heaven and cry out “really, God?   Are You Sure?”, our Heavenly Father might be availing us His most loving and wisest of Hands.   Or, so my life has reasoned, lately.

     From the time I was a child, God has led me to (and through) unbelievable miracles, blessings and, yes, even great trials and tribulations.   God’s Hand always proves to be the source, the power and the will and way through the good, the bad and the indifferent.

     The strings of events in our lives are often without logic or human wisdom.   None the less, God’s Hand is beneath each and every strand interwoven in our lives.   I see the Hand of God not because I am wise but because I have had so much experience seeing the Hand of God emphatically appear throughout my life.   

     When good befalls, I clearly know and admit nothing I did (or was within my power) secured the gift.   Only the Hand of God could deliver it.   It took me a lot longer to realize God’s Hand, also, brings strife, disappointment and, even, failure to my life.   Why?   The answer rests in my character, moral compass and depending on God grows best in the muddy mire of struggling through darkness, than it does from basking in the sunshine of perfect days.

     The Hand of God doesn’t allow trials and tribulations to uproot and defeat us but, rather, to plant our roots deep in His Hand and trust His Hand is the foundation that can bring purpose and blessing out of sorrow, stumbling and, even, what at first glance appears to be failure.   Truth is out of worldly failure can come the strongest of spiritual successes.   Tragically, if we fail to see God’s uplifting and safeguarding Hand in our trials and believe that God can grow us through our tribulations into renewed purpose, then we most likely will deduce God has abandoned us and does not protect us.   While the blame for our struggles does not rest at God’s feet, the way beyond them does rest in God’s Hand. 

       Thus, next time your world seems bleak and you feel lost, alone and defeated, let your doubts and fears be washed away by believing and proclaiming:  “You, Lord, are all I have, and You give me all I need; my future is in Your Hands.” Psalm 16:5 (GNT)