Uplifted in a Broken Down World

     Basking in the soft, sweet hand of God gently guiding my life is my favorite place to be.   Peace is in my heart and “all is well with my soul” runs through my veins.   I wish that this scenario was my 24/7 reality; but, truth be told, it isn’t.   I’m a flawed, stubborn human being.   Many a time, to boot me to His chosen path over my desired trail, God has needed a rigid hand to guide (sometimes shove) me.   I am prone to, occasionally, think I’m not only an author of words but, also, capable of penning the course where God wants and needs me.   It is at these moments in time that God uses a rigid hand to insure His will over my way.    

     When I first felt God’s rigid hand, I was unsettled and anything but graciously accepting of His guidance.   Only God’s extra injection of grace into my being brought me around to comprehending my route was a detour and not God’s chosen path.  

     While God’s hand, when needed, is rigid, it is not a harsh weapon or whip.   I feel it more as a firm protection to keep me from straying.   My visualization and perception is God’s mighty hand rigidly (yet protectively) encircles me.   It is not to bruise me as I stray but, rather, to block me from losing direction and wandering away from the trail I’m meant to blaze.   God’s rigid hand does not cage me in, but it does protect me from what is outside both His will and where my life was created to go and grow.

        God’s hand does not forever remain rigid.   Once I have realized the purpose of His rigid hand, my stubborn streak fades; and my Heavenly Father’s rigid hand becomes embracing encouragement.   Having revolved my wayward choice toward His perfect direction, God then opens His hand so I can take up the course He has purposed my life to travel.   How do I know this for sure?   Because, as God’s hand unfurls to form an open gate, His pointer finger stretches forth, confirming where His calling, and my destiny, awaits me.   “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  Proverbs 3:6 (KJV)

     In looking at 21^st Century Christianity, reflections of Christ can easily be seen – soup kitchens, free medical clinics, homeless shelters, missionary trips, to name a few.   However, present day society, also, depicts a vision where Christ is, tragically, not mirrored.   Are political vigilantes to blame for this; or are we, Christ’s offspring and disciples, the one’s failing to shine forth the vigil light of reflecting Christ?   I refer to how we act, and react, when rising tempers seem to run our lives, unkind words and deeds belittle or attack us, underserved punches pummel us or others, etc., etc. etc.  

     The common scene today is any and all of the above resulting in responses from an angry demonstration to full blown deadly rioting.   Many take things into their own hands because they want to right a wrong.  However, is this right or wrong?   Shouldn’t we be looking at what Christ’s hands did when confronted with injustice and persecution, as opposed to the force with which our own hands can retaliate?   In honesty, my words, in this regard, are neither significant nor Godly absolute; but Christ’s are.   Thus, I share His not mine.

     “While He was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.   Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; seize Him.’  And he came up to Jesus and said, ‘Greetings, Rabbi!’ And he kissed him.  Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, do what you came to do.’  Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.  And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.  Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place.  For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.’”  (Matthew 26: 47-52)  ESV

     My intent is not to lecture or stand in judgment of any.   It is only to remind us all of Christ’s example, both in word and action.   I mean not to dictate but to suggest.   Maybe, we all could find the best Christ-like reflection for today’s worn and torn world, if united we looked to our sacrificial Christ, not uprising mankind, to best mirror Christianity as founded, and entrusted to us, by our Brother, Jesus Christ.

        TV cameras rolling carry current chaos into the shelter of our homes.   In disbelief, we shake our heads and, sometimes, our fists.   The real horror is not in what appears on the screen but what has disappeared.   Christ’s example and words are nowhere to be found.   Ever wonder how this world would change if instead of screaming blame, we would pray in the name of Jesus Christ and seek to mirror Him?

     God grants each of us our own unique talents to be used according to His purpose and needs.   Thus, naturally, since He knows all (past, present and future), He endows us with the individual gifts He needs us to possess to fulfill His purpose and His needs in, and through, our lives.  

     Honestly, have you ever shook your head, while questioning if God really slipped up a little when choosing what talents were best for you?   I have.

     Ask me what gifts, in my teen years, that I always desired to possess and how I was convinced they would lend themselves to the utmost service to God.   The answer wouldn’t have been the talents which God wisely gave me, but those I wildly wished to have.   My two coveted choices would have been a beautiful singing voice and the ability to draw.   In reality, let me just say, I can’t even carry a tune in a bucket nor draw a straight line with a ruler.   Did God make a mistake?   No.   The one in error was me.     Singing and drawing were my fantasies.   God knew neither would, in truth, best serve Him.

     One additional certitude I share.   No one, not any of us, is without God chosen and given talents.   Even in our lowest moments of doubt, insecurity and perceived failures, our God given talents remain, and testify to, our worth in God’s eyes and His entrusting a mission of value to our lives.   The challenge is to trust not only God, but also ourselves, in recognizing what God has called us to do, and that the gift to do so rests within us.

     I thank God for His choices in gifting my life.   What about you?   Have you, gratefully, embraced the talents God bestowed on you for His purpose and needs?   If not, the time has come to do so.               

     Having very young grandbabies, I find myself re-uttering the prayers I placed, many years ago, over my young babies.   “Dear Heavenly Father, I ask not for “wonderful” years in the lives of the children with whom you have blessed me, but for “wonder filled” minutes each and every day of their journey on earth.”  

     “Wonderful” and “wonder filled” – what’s the difference, you might ask?   True answer is one gives fun to your days.   The other brings SON to your nights.   “Wonderful” implies coasting through life on a vacation, enjoying whip cream and cherries as a main food staple.   “Wonder filled” relies on being carried over life’s rugged mountains through the nourishment of Christ’s power, strength and miracles.

     “Wonderful” is human life, coated in sugar.   “Wonder filled” is the aroma of Divine life, flavored in awe, as we taste communion with God.

     We indoctrinate youngsters to “wonderful” by reading stories of fairytales and unrealistic human relationships.   We teach “wonder filled” to our (and God’s) children by opening up to them the pages of the most read book of all, the Bible.  

     Lives predominantly fed “wonderful” face starvation when storm, ravaging rains devour worldly, sunny scenarios.   Souls nourished in “wonder filled” reliance withstand earthly furor because their sustenance feasts upon knowing the reigning SON shines through every worldly trial and tribulation.

     Much inner peace, and outer direction, is to be found if we would take time to close the “wonderful” fantasies of our world and unearth the “wonder filled” realities of Scripture.   “You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your might among the peoples.” Psalm 77:14 ESV)

     The easiest thing for mankind to forget is really the one thing we all need to remember – i.e., each and every one of us is a sinner.   When society, including Christians, stand on “their” rights, they almost always fall out of God’s grace and mercy.   The very substance of peace and gratitude, over war and contempt, is God’s grace and mercy.   Is it any wonder then that our lives (when we feel and act like our opinions rank over God’s grace and mercy) are engulfed in turmoil and destruction?  

     How do we abandon a life dependent on God’s grace and mercy?   The easiest way is forgetting we all are sinners, who constantly are chalking up personal wrongs.   The protocol ruling today revolves around overlooking “OUR wrongs”, while condemning OTHERS’ mistakes and shortcomings.   A personally pious and self-indulgent mind frame fuels us to determine we are not in need of God’s grace and mercy; but, wow, others certainly need a mega dose.   Maybe, we are so high on our horses that we become oblivious to the reality that true stature is best attained on repenting knees.

     Humanity, being so consumed by demanding their rights, has totally disenabled their ability to recognize and recant their wrongs.   Why is this important?   The answer is because the doors to heaven open to sinners who rest in Christ’s righteousness, not in their own rights.   Only by recognizing and admitting we are sinners, saved ONLY by CHRIST’s righteousness, do we receive the gift (not right) of salvation and eternity in God’s presence.   Plain and simple, it is God’s grace and mercy that enables sinners to turn from wrongs, cling to what’s right and, ultimately, be saved under Christ’s righteousness.

     In no way am I saying it is wrong to care about and, across the board, support human issues; but we are called to do so as sinners reaching out in God’s love, not as flawless commandos wielding hateful judgment.   Through understanding we are flawed, we best let God work through us and yield HIS power to right all wrongs.   God, alone, is entitled to judge.   If mankind would rest in God and let Him direct our actions, even though sinners, we would be able to see God working through us to change so much of what is so wrong in our world.     

     Before letting go of my pencil for the week, one more thought I yearn to share.   Our world, currently, is under many different epidemics of destruction and death.   Yes, when God calls us to do so, each and every one of us must, in truth and boldness, let God work through us.   However, to best stand for God we must go before Him on bended knee and, like David going up against Goliath, pray and beg God to work through our sinful being to unleash His power to defeat all evil giants attacking our world – be it in Hospital ICU’s, Afghanistan or our very own hearts and minds.   Only through God working inside us can, and must, we defeat our enemies with God (not us) holding judgment and the tally sheet.  

     As we head into this week, may we not scream our rights but fall down in prayer, begging God’s grace and mercy to end our wrongs and resurrect His children whose bodies are diseased, bravely fallen for our freedom, grieving as Gold Star families or cut off from a path to freedom.   May we most humbly seek God’s intercession, not under the clout of our “know-it-all” smartness but beneath the acknowledgement that we are sinners, yet God welcomes us, forgives our transgressions and answers our prayers.   This week we have a choice.   Do we combatively hop on our soapbox and proclaim OUR rights?   Or, do we claim the cleansing waters of God’s grace and implore His mercy to make us instruments of HIS justice, change and peace?     

     Let’s decipher the age old debate of what it takes to gain the reward of eternal life with God in heaven.   The New Testament clearly states: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life”.  (John 3:16  ESV)   None the less, throngs of Christians holdfast to the New Testament verse: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24  ESV)   Plain and simple, John 3:16 gives God’s grace, received through Jesus Christ, as the way.   James 2:24 emphasizes the need to earn, through ourselves, the gift of passage into heaven.   Many basically feel “believing” is too easy and, surely, it has to be harder to merit heaven than that.   Well, I’m here to say, wake up every one!!!   “Believing” is enormously harder than the act of doing.   In fact, there might not be anything harder than “believing”.  

     Abraham took his son, Isaac, up Mount Moriah to obey God’s asking Abraham to sacrifice his child.   Abraham’s “believing” in God was the only thing powerful enough to enable him to even crawl this path.   Abraham “believed” God would ultimately bring Isaac back to life to fulfill the promises God had made to him.   Can any parent reading this sacrificial story even doubt that Abraham’s “believing” in God had to be the hardest possible thing for Abraham, or us, to do?   Wouldn’t it have been easier for Abraham to have offered a billion good works over “believing” God was enough and would save his son?

     Ask any parent watching their child fight a fatal disease, if it would be harder to accomplish the most treacherous good work imaginable or to believe their child’s life in God’s arms is better than life cradled in their own.

   This week has tragically unfolded before our very eyes the scene of many of our fellow countrymen and friends of America stranded in Afghanistan.   Which do we judge to be harder for those waiting to be rescued – waiting for the good deed of our military bringing them out or believing God’s grace will ultimately save them, no matter if the worst happens?

     Good works can be accomplished by strong hands and feet.   “Believing” is strongest when weak knees bend in confident prayer.   Take a moment and ponder.    Is “believing” really too easy a way into life with God for anyone to accept as adequate merit?   Good works are a tally sheet of positives.   That’s an easy accomplishment.   However, when life is full of negatives, is it not much harder to “believe” that grace, through Jesus Christ, is the only deed we need?   Is God in heaven more concerned (and confirmed) with the counting up of our pluses or with our holding on to even the tiniest thread of “believing:???

     I found myself walking the beach a lot this week.   Normally, this means my life is swimming against the current, and I’m in need of scenery personifying God’s power and might.   Strolling the ocean’s shore repeatedly baptizes my being with re-found wisdom, hope and gratitude.   However, this week doused me with a new, divinely whispered wave – sometimes the challenge is not to feel God but rather to not let the devil touch you.

     Let me be honest.   I’m 99.9% certain each and all of us existing in today’s world are fighting to stay afloat in a riptide sea.   How many time a day do we cry out the despair of not being able to feel God anywhere or anyplace?   That was me this week, until God softly voiced His message.   Maybe it’s hard, or at time impossible, to see God in our society; but God, dwelling in our hearts and souls, can always be felt in our internal core.   We just need to stop, shut out the exterior noise and pray our hearts out in praise and petition.   God’s peace will then, most certainly, splash over our entire being.

     In truth, God shamed me this week.   The prime cause for my not feeling God’s presence was due to my senses all being in tune to letting the devil’s jabs capture my focus, touch my life and draw me from God’s inner peace to worldly, frantic frenzy.   Don’t get me wrong.   In no way am I saying to ignore, overlook or underestimate the devil’s warfare.   We must recognize and be aware of Satan’s threats, but beware if we let ourselves be so absorbed in Satan’s destruction that we abandon a solid base of resting in God and His power to allay our unrest.   Plain and simple, Satan gets a glance, but God is our stance.

     This week’s walks along the ocean didn’t end with me finding God and leaving Him there, waiting for me to return and find Him again.   Quite the opposite, God’s whisper in the waves stays inside of me for every moment of every day – and night.   Like a child placing his ear against his seashell listening for the voice of the ocean, I place my auditory (and inaudible) balance against the shell of my soul and vow to not let the shrill shrieks of Satan, but the presence of God’s peace and power, be the melody I hear and upon which I rest, stand and go forward.   Will you join me???     

     An admired, Christian friend of mine, recently, asked me who, or what, I considered myself to be.   Extemporaneous me, I didn’t waste a beat in my reply.   However, from the look on her face, it was not at all — in any way, shape or form – an answer she expected!!!

     Who, or what, am I?   I am nothing but the outer casing of a rubber hose.   In retrospection, I confidently add, this clarification most likely defines you too!!! 

     For most of my life, I have been considered, by many, to be articulately able to express a message capable of motivating others to believe in God’s Faith, Hope and Love.   I admit that I, as a vessel, have been enormously blessed to witness this happening.   However, key word here is “WITNESS”.   I have not accomplished.   I have “WITNESSED”.   Simply spoken, God has accomplished.  I, as a vessel, have only “WITNESSED”.

     Let’s go back to my definition of me – the outer casing of a rubber hose.   In absolute definition, Christ, when He summoned us to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19 ESV), was making me, and you, the outer casing of a rubber hose.

     Make no mistake, you and I (the outer casing of a rubber hose) are only a vessel.   You and I are not the lifesaving water that flows through the casing of a rubber hose.   It is God the Father’s, Christ the Son’s and the Holy Spirit’s life, power, healing, forgiveness and righteousness that flows through and baptizes.  You and I cannot claim to be the source of even one tiny drop of the baptismal waters conducted through the casing of us, as vessels.   We are not rulers of others’ destinies but servants of our triune God, who governs all.   God does not call us to be a leading source but, rather, a following outgrowth.   In short, who and what we are comes from WHOSE we are.   Because we are God’s, we are christened as vessels through whom Christ’s presence and saving love is commissioned to flow into others.

     Allow me to deviate.   When our gardens endure a drought, what do we do?   Do we put the hose away and say grounds too choked in dehydration to flower?   No, on the contrary, we pull our hose out, morning and night, to enable roots to grow deep, buds to open and our world to be frocked in living color.  

     What about God’s kingdom on earth?   Not a drought but a dearth is trying to strangle it.   As the outer casing of Christianity’s rubber hose, what are we doing?   Are we coiling up trying to avoid the engulfing aridness?   Or, as God’s vessel are we stretching long and wide to enable Christ’s baptismal waters to flood the barren state of prevalent worldly existence?

     As the outer casing of a rubber hose, we are not to fear any extrinsic pressure.   The force of God flowing through us, not only, furnishes a surge of life giving water to all inner souls, but also, out masters any external evil force trying to scorch out the reign of eternal life.

     My prayer this week is that each and every one of us finds (or better yet, deliberately makes) time to be a helping vessel for God’s saving water to reach a thirsting soul.

     It’s been a hard week.   My bet is most of you are saying “Amen”.   It would be so naïve and self- absorbed for me to think I, alone, was besieged in recent struggle and heartbreak.   Fact is, so long as the devil roams our world, war will be waged against us all.

     This week’s battles were piercingly unexpected and irreversibly decisive.   My salty tears blurred the impact of outer superficiality while stinging the ulcerated core of reality.   Unfortunately, all of you most likely are cringing now out of identity to such a defeat at some point in your lives.   After all, we walk in an imperfect world, and the devil attacks us all.

     Knowing that anger and blame would not help me (but would hurt others), I chose silence as my shield.   It was in this choked up state that I dared to peer through a different looking glass.   It was not my choice to be so hurt, but mine was the choice of where I would go in seeking release from my wound.   Would my heart blame others, or would my soul wonder what is God doing?   Heart blaming gives the devil a curtain call for authoring his tragedy that starred, and scarred, me.   Wondering what is God doing credits our Heavenly Father with writing the script of Romans 8:28.   “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (NIV)

     The devil longs to control our heads and hearts whenever we encounter the short end of the stick.   There’s no easier way for him to steal our souls than for hurt and hardship to make our sole focus blame and anger.   The choice for this to happen does not belong to the devil but to us.   Satan has no power over us.   I repeat, the devil’s weapon in not his power but our weakness.   Yes, our weakness to succumb to hurt and hardship with blame and anger takes us out of God’s hands and into the devil’s snare.   The devil cannot snatch us from God.   We have to choose to crawl to Satan in order for him to cage us in the slippery slope of striking out when life’s woes have closed in on us.

     God does not cause, but allow, hurt and hardship to rain on us.   His reign showers Romans 8:28.   God works for good in all the bad (and good) that befalls us.   He plants seeds of hope, not despair, into our lives, no matter what storms or SONshine we are experiencing.   Never doubt this.   What we need to wonder about is whether we let the devil feed into our weakness or God nourish our strength.   A second thought worth pondering is the core of today’s message.   When hurt and hardship strike us down, how do we get up?   Do we feel an uprising of blame and anger in our hearts, or do our souls rise up wondering what is God doing, while knowing (or at least trusting) it is for our good?    

     Having returned from a plane trip to one of my grandbabies and getting ready for a car ride to the other two, I changed from my oversize travel purse to my everyday size bag.   In the process, I decided to clear out the non-necessary junk I’d been lugging around as “false” essentials.   Upon completion, I was actually patting myself on the back for reducing my clutter to less than half its volume. 

     Let’s fast forward to my arrival at my other two grandbabies doorstep.   My two and a half year old, beloved little man was immediately attracted to his Grammy’s purse.   He wanted to play the game of taking everything out of Grammy’s purse and then putting it all back in.   Every zip and snap was opened wide to make the process complete.   What struck me most was his determination, each and every round, to throw away the “garbage” in Grammy’s bag.   Having considered my own just completed “junk removal” totally accomplished, I was beyond certain nothing remained for the garbage can.   Little man felt differently.   One, in and out, game he found a just emptied, plastic Kleenex cover.   Then next round he located a tiny paper scrap.   So delighted was my grandbaby as he cleaned out, and re-filled, his Grammy’s bag of necessary belongings.,

     About the 5^th or 6^th go around, my purse was cleared out of what I could possibly see, and accept, as additional garbage to be removed.   However, little man was not ready to stop; and so his “get rid of junk” endeavor turned into a “you really don’t need and can do without” discovery.   Each succeeding round resulted in the disposal of something little man instinctively knew, but I had to realize, wasn’t truly vital or even needed.

     Game almost over, my little man became mesmerized by my emery board.   To satisfy his curiosity, I explained its purpose.   This is a magic stick.   It makes something rough or torn become smooth.   With wide open eyes and listening ears on, he asked, show me how!!!   One of his tiny fingernails was chipped.   Ever so gently, back and forth, I moved the emery board over his nail and, like magic, the chip disappeared and left a smooth edge in its place. Instinctively I told him, this is just like God can rub away your brokenness, cuts and bruises.   My heart was thrilled.   This tiny tyke game had afforded me the beginning step toward my grandbaby’s understanding a future soul touching truth.

     The call for dinnertime echoed from the kitchen, signaling the Grammy purse game was over.   However, yet to come was deciphering its meaning and message.   

     Next day, while driving home from my visit, I wondered how often do I, and you, believe we have cleaned out our lives of all its garbage, only to have God, in all His wisdom, come through and prune some more.   We think we know what our necessities are and cling to them as essential; but are we really toting around what is better to be discarded?   Of even more significance, is some of what is, by and outside source, taken from us actually intended as cutting back our lives from worldly overabundance that camouflages our God given life sustaining, fundamental blessings?   How often do we not rely on, and treasure, our hearts and souls because of the clutter of all our worldly accessories?   Or, how much unnecessary weight do our lives tow around because we refuse to release and discard the rubbish of our excesses and physical possessions?  

     Two and half year old, little man’s game might have originated in his baby boy imagination; but it resounds with a grown up Bible warning.   “Watch out!  Be on guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” Luke 12:15 (NIV)