Uplifted in a Broken Down World

     Christians, and non-Christians, are attributing our Country’s closed churches to a deadly virus.   My personal, and preferred, choice is to spread a different way of viewing this.   Most declare our brick and mortar worship structures were closed to combat a health enemy.    I discern the closure of our houses of collective worship as a reminder that not church architecture, but each member of the congregation, is meant to be the home where God reigns and is praised.   Our lives, not a building, need to be the open door where God, and all humanity, can peak in and see the gift of God’s blessings and sustaining strength.

     Too many Christians trust that showing up in a building for a Sabbath day church service not only labels them eternally saved but, also, fulfills their payback to God for His payrolling their happy ever after.   God doesn’t call us to a weekly church schedule.   He created us, and commands us, to continually praise Him throughout each and every one of both our good days and our bad nights.    We were given breath to praise God not just in a building but in our every breathing moment – even if we are fearfully panting our way through a life suffocating pandemic.   “The people whom I formed for Myself that they might declare My praise.”  Isaiah 43:21 (ESV)

     Now, by no means am I implying God sent this deadly disaster.   What my “always find a positive message” pencil is trying to write is I view our church buildings being put to sleep as a wake-up call for all us Christians.  

     Great community, inspiration and deep hope grow from us coming together as ecclesiastical family in churches around our Nation.   Unquestionably, yes, this is great praise to our sovereign Lord.   However, in a time when many falsely think Sunday church is the percentage of praise God calls us to, then churches being shuttered is a way for us to have the blinds raised and realize we owe God more – in  fact, ALL.

     Thus, on the bright side of this dark time, since sitting in a straight row of pews is temporarily off the calendar, let’s welcome God back into the family circle of our everyday lives.   While barred from the buildings where the Cross of Christ triumphantly hangs, may we all be upheld by the hope-filled armor of Christ’s arms, once more, stretched out for us and carrying the cross of this deadly coronavirus.  

     Yesterday, from within the walls of our churches, our voices joined in choruses to praise our Almighty Father.  Today, each of us stands outside the closed doors of America’s churches.   However, we cannot feel excused from praising God because the choruses have fallen silent.   Instead, we must stand solo and raise our voices in praise and petition, knowing God hears and embraces our every word.   Herein, lies the way to the tomorrow that will re-open all our churches.

     “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow” – so the lyrics go…   But what about today???   Fear, panic and worst case scenarios are the fodder of much of our go to media information sources.   Twenty-four hours a day, it seems like we are being “press”ed into anxiety, hysteria and a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.   Medical experts, our president, vice president and even both sides of the aisle are (to the best of human ability) working, advising, and guiding us to what’s in all our best interest.   However, maybe our way through this journey, minus the paralyzing fear, is not found in who is guiding us but in WHO is guarding us.   “But the Lord is faithful.   He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”  2 Thessalonians 3:3 (ESV)

     The current tendency is to feel powerless.   This can change.   We, being children of a guarding God, can choose not to panic but to place our fears into our Lord’s hands.   We can even find peace by rephrasing the emphasis of “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow” to BE, cause He lives.   I CAN face tomorrow.

     Be is a verb meaning exist, breathe, endure, prevail and survive.   Most assuredly, we can BE, exist, breathe, endure, prevail and survive cause Christ defied human death and lives.   And yes, even in the midst of a pandemic, we CAN face tomorrow with faith and hope because Christ lives.

     The very core of our faith is to know and believe God carries us not just on our sunny days but also through our storms.   No matter what outcomes we are handed, the Hand of God carries all of us and never abandons any of us.   “…I will not forget you!   See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” Isaiah 49: 15-16 (NIV).   In God’s hands, we are cradled in inner peace on earth and eternal peace in heaven.

     How we, as Christians, personify our faith in the virus of a storm might best testify the truth and power of our preaching pulpits.   Do we, Christians, truly find peace in God’s promise to uphold and  carry us; or when the pedal hits the metal, so to speak, do we fear we are crashing?   One way or the other, our actions in the current storm will answer this questions for all the world to see – God, too!!!

     Not just for others, but for our own inner need, may we take time to find, claim and rest upon the calming peace of God’s own reassuring words.   “Be strong and courageous.   Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you.   He will not leave you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6 (ESV)

     For weeks now, residual side effects from a Eustachian Tube infection have clogged my life with diminished hearing and amplified frustration.   My go to phrase has become, “what did you say?”   This, less than embraced, condition never crossed my mind to possibly be, like so many other instances I’ve interpreted as, a loud and clear Godly message for me.   However, I finally heard it as a twofold God vibrating alert!!

     Our two ears are meant to hear as one.  Both ears perceive and blend together vibrations into one resonating sound.   Talk about a jarring experience.   Have your ears ever heard the same thing individually?   Mine did.   It was as if two people with identical, but separate, voices were talking at the same time, saying the same thing and heard simultaneously, but independently, of the other.  My immediate reaction was not only surprise but also fear that my auditory sensors were not only malfunctioning but, even worse, possibly beyond repair!!

     Even after a couple of days, when my bilateral ears began to once more function in unison, I continued to wonder about what I conceived then as complete malfunction.   Finally, the lightbulb   dawned and a smile lit my newly illuminated understanding.   Looking unto heaven, I uttered, “Got it, Lord!”

     How does God hear prayer?   Think about it.   Billions and billions of prayers are offered each day to our Heavenly Father’s ears.   Many, if not most, rise from dire need.   So, are our prayers heard in unison or individually?   Many voices express the exact same plea.   Are these longings heard as a chorus or a solo?   I choose to let my weird hearing occurrence remind, and reassure, me that God hears each and every one of our prayers not as a chorus but individually as a one on one communication.   What’s more, the Bible confirms God hears our individual voice.   “Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” Jeremiah 29:12 (NIV)

     Having earlier stated my Eustachian Tube symbolic message was twofold, I’ll proceed to my second aha moment.   Days turned into weeks of sounds around me often being muffled, at best, and completely muted, at worst.   Both frustration and irritation took over my personality as inaudibility captured much of my hearing.   “What did you say”, became my refrain.   Believe me, that’s disastrous for a lady as verbally attentive and responsive as I am!!!   At times, I, literally, felt shut out from conversing with population planet Earth.  

     At the height of my exasperation, once more, I sensed God nudge my plight towards His enlightenment.   There I was, angrily annoyed because I couldn’t hear all the noise and chit chat gabfests of the outside world.   Could it be God’s engineering wisdom was shouting not outside babble but His inner voice and direction was what I needed to get an earful of and heed?   I was hell bent on hearing the world, loud and clear.   However, what my life (yours, too) most needs is to mute the outside world and, in silence, listen to the word of God that often speaks quietly from within my heart and soul.   I had forgotten that, so often, God speaks inaudibly from inside out and not blaringly from outside in.      

  My fight to hear what was coming from external voices turned to God’s peace and understanding, internally, speaking to me.   Maybe, God’s message to all of us clearly articulates that not the world’s chatter but His voice needs to be sought, heard and followed.     “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.   And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” Deuteronomy 28:1-2 (ESV)

     This past January 2^nd, I was, oh so overconfident, that the December “jinx” was behind me and only blissful good days awaited.   Then God’s “think again” newsflash declared stormy seas would continue to abound!!   However, the equally clear message that God, not I, would tame the gales of waves was, also, symbolically delivered!!   Since then, a deluge of life’s challenges, like a rolling snowball, keep packing on layers and growing in size and shape!! 

     Stubborn, hard headed and presumptuous in my ability to be a “fixer”, I have over and over again reached into my God inspired tool box with desire to be God’s agent and “fix” the situation.   And, over and over again, God has taken would be “fixer” tools from my grasp and left me empty handed.   Eventually, not just I, but the tool box too, were exhausted.  Herein, God shared His lesson I so needed to understand.   “Be still and know that I am God.”  (Psalm 46:10 NIV)  

     God does not always call us to be active and “fix” all that is in need of repair or replenishing.   Being human, our power is often very limited and even, at times, nonexistent.   During these moments, our course must come from remembering God alone is God and from resting in His power and peace.   Only then will our being helpless not translate into our being hopeless.   “And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?  My only hope is in You.” (Psalm 39:7 NLT)   In other words, hope does not come from me, you or any other mortal creation being able to “fix” what needs fixing.   God, and God alone, is the source of all hope.   Thus, to be filled with hope, we need to be brimming with God’s power overflowing and washing away our fears and inadequacies.    When our hands lack the tools and ability to “fix”, hope rests in turning over all to God’s hands, knowing and believing His power always ordains the best of solutions and “soul”utions.   Easy, this isn’t; but emphatically necessary, this is.

     When lacking in tools to fix what is broken, we must retreat into the Lord, trusting His power to divinely heal what we cannot humanly “fix”.  To do this, we must have a relationship, or history, with God.   Most importantly, we must see this history as affirming “HIS story” and not declaring our desired narrative tale.   Simply stated, to trust God to save the day, we must seek, find and rest in Him during our darkest nights.   “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

     Next predicament is when our tool box is empty, what do we do with it?   Better yet, what shouldn’t we do with it?   Never shut it closed and store it on a shelf.   Instead, leave it wide open, in the center of our reach, and be ready to once more be of assistance when God determines our “fix” is warranted.   Rest assured, if and when, God calls us to a “fix”, we will not first need to make a tool buying run to Home Depot.   God already will have replenished our tool box with the needed implements.    “And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Philippians 4 19-20 ESV)

In First Grade, I was introduced to God centered knowledge. Growing up Catholic, Nuns taught me that all learning, and life, is about God’s hands putting blank sheets of paper into our hands.   In return, our hands are lovingly challenged to write God’s story for our individual life.   Be it Math, Science, English or History, it is God who centers the story, and we are to write it according to His purpose and glory – even if we don’t like the subject or story line!!!

     As a reminder that it was all for God’s glory, and not my own honor, every single sheet of paper I ever wrote on had to first be dedicated to God.   I was in college before I ever wrote on a sheet of paper that the first mark on it was not the Cross on its center top.   That Cross on the top of every single sheet of my pre-college education instilled in me the reality, and wisdom, that every ounce of my lifelong learning has to hang under the Cross Jesus took up for my salvation.   Only then can I do God’s chosen will for my life.

     Those Nuns also told me that no matter how smart I might become, God wouldn’t always give me A’s.   There’d be some lessons where the grade would be a far cry from an A.   However, if my work hung under the Cross, done for God and with God, then the mark would always hold God’s love and direction.   It would, also, hold the forever reminder I was to follow and seek God’s way and approval, not the world’s.  Many times, what I, or the world, might see as a great big “F”ailure, God would view as a strong seed of “F”aith.

     Sixty-five years later, my denomination has changed a few times, but my first grade Nun dogma remains a denominator of my life.   Some days, weeks, and even years are easy to hang under the Cross.   Others are almost impossible to so do.   It’s easy to forget that God doesn’t ask, or expect, us to bring only our good, better and best days, and ways, to the Cross.   His love and forgiveness waits with open arms to absolve all we repentantly hang under Christ’s Cross.

     The Cross of Christ was staked on top of a mountain He first had to climb.   What God asks of us is much easier.   Whether successfully climbed or not, we are to hang our mountains under the Cross.   Christ’s crucifixion has already secured for us absolution and freedom from our sins.   Then with renewed hope, the faith of Philippians 4:13 becomes our anchor in both the days of SONshine and nights of storms that await us.   “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)     

Nothing less than perfect I, or you, do is unworthy or unaccepted by God, if it hangs remorsefully under Christ’s Cross.   Everything good I, or you, achieve only has value and purpose if hung under the Cross and centered in Colossians 3:17.   “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

     The wedding portrait is displayed, front and center, in most every home you enter.   My home is included.   Children’s wedding photos, also, are spotlight illuminated.   Here too, I gratefully, proudly and jubilantly share in this exhibition.   Picture perfect happiness is captured in these remembrances of “I do”.  

     However, I’m often prone to wonder why we only half sketch our memory on the canvas.   Each time we gaze upon our wedding portrait, beautiful reflections of the day our fairytale came true are relived.   Perfect bliss abounded.   Months and months of preparation brought forth the perfect celebration; but what about months, or years, later when a disaster might befall.   

     Could possibly the source for overcoming future tribulation have also been sewn into the seams of wedding day preparation?   What about a couple’s premarital counselling?   It’s so easy to put it on the shelf and never gaze upon it; but maybe it, too, should hold a forever frame for us to view its memory when life’s trials make its lessons needed to be heeded.  

     As two in love prepare to become one, wise guidance is part of the course preparation.   However, not too sure many think this instruction any more vital than listening to a stewardess explain how to use a seat cushion for a floatable life vest in case of an emergency water landing when your flight’s route is over the Sahara Desert.   Engaged couples aren’t prone to consider they will ever face an enraged moment with their soon to be forever spouse.   Yet, life on earth is anything but perfect.   Even the best of marriages will need to climb the toughest mountains; and sometimes, the amount of sweat and tears produced in scaling the precipices of life require rock climbing couples to just about need a life vest to keep from drowning!!!

     How sad when only the reminder of the most perfect day on earth is all that adorns your walls.   Thus, in not so sunny times, the only reflection radiating is of a day that doesn’t now seem to shine brightly at every given moment.   What if, in addition, a second commemoration of your wedding was displayed?  I propose all couples, before they close the final lesson of premarital counselling, decide upon a symbol representing the construction skills they learned. Maybe this symbolic token, if placed in prominence as the wedding portrait, will keep you tuned up for future repair when the road travelled is filled with potholes or in need of repaving.   Moreover, when difficult times appear, instead of seeing only destruction, the view would include tools for reparation instead of separation.

     The choice is every couple’s.   Nothing wrong with just showcasing the fairytale, happy ever after, wedding portrait.   Nonetheless, everything is also right with additionally displaying the reality that forever love sometimes relies on the toolbox of premarital counseling.     

     Predawn this morning, while leaving the fitness center, I met a new acquaintance whose name is Willow.   Introductions completed, I turned, took one step toward the exit, but then reversed my course.   A message needed to be delivered – to a new friend then and to you all now.

     In true blunt and to the point Bonnie Jean fashion, I blurted out, “Do you know the inspirational meaning within your name?”   In response came a quizzical, “No”.   To which I retorted, “Well then, let me tell you what our Good Lord has just instilled in me.”   My perceived “God Enlightenment” began.

     A willow is a tree.   The tree named Willow is twined to weeping.   To weep is to cry.   All weeping willow’s branches bend down but do not break.   Ever wonder why?   Is this a sign of weakness or where the greatest strength is found?   I believe the later.   Indeed, when God created the weeping willow tree, a message of HOPE was planted as its root. 

      Weeping is not meant to break us.   Our tears flow because our spiritual souls feel sorrow, and our physical hearts fear painful shattering.   The weeping willow tree holds God’s guidance.   When hardest we are weeping, all branches of our being must bend down and pray with deepest supplication.   Herein, lies the only way to keep from being broken, when storms of earthly life engulf us.  

     There are many challenges in life that we are incapable of overcoming by standing up in confrontation.   If, on our own, we try to do so, we will be broken.   We can only keep from being broken, if we branch the way, by bending down in prayer and giving God our weeping tears and sweeping fears.  

     As I walked out the Fitness Center’s doors this morning, I threw my head back, looked into the still dark sky and cautiously inquired, “Dear Lord, I hope I don’t personally need this insight today”.   Heard God whisper back, “Not only today, but every day!!!”   Heeding God’s declaration, once home, a new “stick on” adorns my desk.   “…the Lord has heard my weeping.   The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer.” (Psalms 6:8-9) NIV

     Every question and challenge in life is an open book test.   Problem is we have closed the book!!!   Be it reverence and wanting to protect the book from tatters and tears, or thinking closed covers make the hardiest of foundations on which to swear an oath, or even the practice of retiring the book to a shelf six days a week and it only becoming an accessory to proper church attire on Sunday, it’s the wrong answer and leads to scoring failure, plain and simple.

     It’s time to open this book, God’s Bible, (or Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth) and when we’re tested, search and find the answers etched onto its pages.   Maybe I stand alone, but I truly believe we are not solely to swear by the Bible but “soul”y to open and wear the Bible as children clothed in God’s wardrobe of ways.   We, Christians, have let our Biblical core become complacent in a world of political correctness and compliance.   We’ve allowed Caesar’s rights to imply God is wrong.  

     Let me emphasize that God doesn’t call us to judge.   That’s His alone to do, and He will.   However, God does call us to be a reflection not only of His love but also His commands.   Looking into a political arena and thinking we will discover a Godly path is flawed and futile.   Looking into God’s Word is an accurate script for how to chart a course in both smooth sailing and stormy seas.   Direction best comes from God’s decisive leading and not by following divisive political verbiage.

     So why is today’s trend for our Bibles to remain closed, neatly wrapped in padded covers and tightly squeezed into bookcases?   In olden days, when life was much more Godly, Bibles rested open on our ancestor’s tables.   Life’s lessons flowed from Bible pages way back then.    Thus, could it be that the way for 21^st Century Christians to recapture Godly thought, word and action, might best rebound from opening up our Bibles?   Instead of coming up with solutions on our own, what if we sought our “soul”utions from the Bible?

     This morn, I fetched my Mother’s aged and worn Bible from the hiding place where I was trying to preserve it.   Laughing at myself for being so mistaken, I realized if the Bible is, in the truest sense, to be preserved, it must lie open so pages can be scoured in search of God’s answers to all problems. 

     Side by side, will you join me in this stance?   May all our homes, as a symbol of our Christian alliance and God reliance, set out our open Bibles where daily we’ll remember: Every question and challenge in life is an open book test; and, absolutely, our BOOK is open!!!     

     When I was just a little girl in elementary school, my mother concluded, along with the 3 R’s, the moment was also ripe for me to learn the 3 C’s – kitchen cooking, cleaning and common cures for carelessness!   It was beyond my mother’s mindset to even remotely consider stupidity, not carelessness, caused any of her children’s misfortunes.   Thus, as my plumb, early childhood frame incessantly (and stupidly) stuck my finger into everything cooking in the kitchen, my mother restrained from verbal reprimand and merely snipped a tip from her “kitchen staple” aloe vera plant and handed it to me.   No instructions needed; I was the family expert on aloe vera as a cure for carelessness. 

      No wonder, once grown, my kitchen was never without an aloe vera plant.    In fairness to my own children, I must admit, no one inherited my “tasting finger”.  Our family aloe vera plant was decorative, not a working utensil.    

     A year ago, a new aloe vera plant joined our family kitchen.   Never have I seen one grow so fast.   Seriously, it’s in its fourth pot and has just been relocated from plant stand to plant table.   However, till recently, one baffling mystery had encompassed this ever growing plant.   I absolutely couldn’t get it to stand firm.   Whether I watered or dried out, staked or unstaked, fertilized or withdrew from feeding, potted or repotted, wobbling was its second nature.  

     As is often the case in my dilemmas, one day, in exasperation, I admitted defeat and that heaven only knows the answer.   Heaven did, too!!!   Immediately, and for the first time, my eyes fixed upon the saucer in which the pot was resting.   With lightning speed, I understood the message.  “Got it, God,” became my sigh of understanding.

     My aloe vera plant didn’t need more water, food or soil   It needed deeper, stronger roots.   Everything I was doing came from the top and outside in.   Strong roots are from the bottom and grow inside out.   How worldly of me to pour water on the top and expect roots in depth to take hold and stand strong.   In outward appearance, great growth and beauty were impressive; but roots were shallow and inner strength completely lacking.   An age old adage came to mind.   Shallow roots do not a strong foundation make.

     Automatically, a parallel of aloe vera plant to human lives sprouted.   How many children of planet earth appear to tower above the masses; yet they are not founded and grounded in unwavering roots of strength that do not quiver in the gales of worldly trials and tribulations.   Even more thought provoking is what enables children of God to seek, and grow, roots which withstand the storms of life?  Watering from the saucer holds understanding of the answer.

     If roots are to grow strong, they must stretch deep and find life giving water from the innermost core of their existence.   How is this achieved?   You do not water from the top, but water from the saucer.   Unyielding roots are not vitally inherent if water is poured onto the top.   However, insure the challenge of strong survival that can only be attained by roots stretching deep to be nourished, and the result is strength that does not waiver in earthly squalls.

     Like the aloe vera plant, man’s most solid stature, and strength, comes from reaching deep within our hearts and stretching to the farthest most depth of our souls to find the life giving water of God’s mercy, forgiveness and grace.   Next time the rains of life’s storms threaten to uproot you and you feel trapped in worldly mud, stretch deep inside your heart and soul to where staunch roots of faith, hope and love perpetually reign.  For only in so doing, will you not be toppled by the force of worldly winds.   Rather, you will be upheld by stalwart roots of God planted strength and might.

     Finally, to all who wonder – yes, my aloe vera plant, since watered from the bottom, now flaunts steadfast and firmly grounded standing.   Like it, may all our lives grow deep in saucer strength.

     Many years ago, my heart broke as I stood amidst precious, elementary age children.   Statistics labeled them below the poverty level.   Within seconds of being welcomed to their school, my calculation placed them second to none and at the highest height on the loving, caring and sharing chart.

     Nearly a half century later, one lad in particular still wrenches my soul.   He was the maestro of babbling personality, prankish mischief and charming curiosity all rolled into one little boy. 

      Before saying good bye to my new little friend, I bent down to help tie his tattered shoelace.   Sitting on the ground and eye to eye level, I looked straight at his sparkling pupils and told him that he was the most special little boy I had ever met.   Immediately, a shocked expression covered his entire face – and body.   He answered me with a question.   “You think I’m special?”   I assured him I not only thought he was special, I knew he was special.   He muddled back, “Nobody thinks I’m special   Nobody wants me.”   With my heart feeling as broken as his, I hugged him tightly, whispered again how special he was and vowed never to forget him.   I haven’t.

     Today still finds me wondering what life brought, or took away from, that little boy now grown into a man.   Today, also, finds me aching for so many of my fellow children of God – both young and old in years.   The little boy I’ve shared does not stand alone.  Throngs of multitudes stand with him.   Tragically, our world overflows with hearts that have been pounded into believing they are not special.

     Feelings of unworthiness, low (or no) self-esteem and complete inadequacy, frequently, drown the person who feels labeled by their trials and tribulations.   Quite often, this negativism is seeded by accusations from an assailant standing center in their nightmare reality.   Battered victims are told by their abusers they are worthy of nothing more than being beaten.   Deserted spouses hear allegations of not being worthy of love.   Abused children learn they were a mistake and never wanted.   The greatest tragedy of all is that so many broken victims believe the “you deserve this” fallacies with which their perpetrators attack them.

     To any, and all, who see themselves in the distorted mirror of unworthiness, please gaze, and graze, upon this fact.   Your scars, misgivings, trials and tribulations are not who you are but what you went through.  

     Who are you?   You are, first and foremost, a child of God.   God is your Father – a Father whose arms hold forgiveness not blame, love not rejection, understanding not narrow mindedness, compassion not hard heartedness.   The world, and worldly, might put you down; but God will raise you up.      

My words are human.   In honesty, I’m not really sure if any human words can help ease the pain of anyone broken by those entrusted to love and care for them.   However, God’s words and love can.  “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)