#11 All People are People

Unborn people are people.  Special needs people are people.  People from every part of the world are people.  Poor people are people.  Unlovely people are people.  People in jail are people.  Prostitute people are people.  Any person you are prone to discount as lesser—they are people just like we’re people.

God the Father gave His one Son Jesus to become a Person to die for people.  Of all the arguments of the value of a human life, this is perhaps the most provocative: the Prince of glory died because of His immense love for people, all people. 

As Jesus’ followers, what Jesus loves, we then love.  What Jesus values, we then value.  Don’t ever let yourself look down on another person, Eden Joy.  Kill that part of your heart that would raise yourself (your person) above another person.  Instead adopt Jesus’ attitude—give your life for them, wash their feet, eat in their houses, serve them, look them in the eye, put your hand on their shoulder.

James 3:9 says that all people are made in the image of God, and 2 Corinthians 12:10 says that when we are weak, the Lord is strong through us.  So the Lord shines through us most when we are the weakest.  Perhaps then the best way for us to physically see Jesus in this life right now is to look into the eyes of someone we’d be prone to discount.  

#10 Someone needs a spanking.

You know your sweet grammy?  The precious little woman who’s bundled in love? 

I’m scared of her.

When I grew up, she was 100% as loving and kind as she is now, but that came out in some pretty prickly ways toward me and my temper.  I was a very sassy child, and she was a very faithful disciplinarian.

This pattern happened over and over growing up:

1. Something bad happens (usually my fault).
2. Mom calls me out on it.
3. I give her sass.
4. She won’t take it.
5. We fight.  Depending on my age, a spanking might be included here.
6. I storm upstairs and lock the door.
7. I cry a lot.
8. Angry tears turn into sad tears.
9. I accidentally fall asleep.
10. I wake up and for a moment forget what just happened.
11. I remember.
12. The guilt is too much to bear.  I see I was really wrong.
13. I figure out an apology speech and practice a couple of times.
14. I hang around my room building my courage and waiting until my eyes aren’t red anymore.
15. I go downstairs.
16. I apologize.
17. Mom forgives me.
18. We hug.
19. I cry more, but happy tears.

The period between #6 and #14 are the darkest periods of my childhood.  My world totally stopped for however long it took.  But then post apology, my world began again. 

Today, I had a major bad attitude at work.  My heart was really really sassy.  I left my office so my coworkers didn’t get burned by being in the same room as me and went and sat in an empty spot to get a handle on my heart.  There I realized: ‘I need a spanking.’

Mom was by far the biggest factor in tempering my anger and stubbornness.  Were it not for her, I’d be completely unfit to be an adult.  But her role in that for me is over now.  She’s finished shaping me in that way.  So what do I do now when my attitude is wrong?  I see three different possible directions:

1. I ignore it and keep moving forward following my feelings.
2. I see the problem, and try hard to fix it on my own.
3. I see the problem, apologize to God, and listen for what He wants me to do.

Which direction to choose?

Answer Key:

1. Since I know my feelings are fickle friends, this direction ends either in trouble with my boss or trouble with the law.  I don’t want either of those, so this answer is WRONG.
2. Since I’m prone to blame shift, this direction would lead me to see how I could fix everyone else, all the while missing how I’m truly to blame.  This would lead to lots of judging, relationship strain, and not living in reality.  So this answer is also WRONG.
3. This one is RIGHT.  It's the hardest on the front end, but the easiest on the long term.  The Lord is my ultimate Disciplinarian.  When I apologize to the Lord, my world can begin again.  He directs me to the right place and shows me what to do.

Get ready Eden.  One day you’ll realize that your mom and dad are finished with disciplining you.  You’ll be a full grown up.  When that happens, be careful that your relationship with the Lord becomes no less childlike.  You’ll outgrow your parents’ shaping, but never the Lord’s.

Seeking God

Seek the LORD while He may be found; 

call upon Him while He is near; 

let the wicked forsake his way, 

and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, 

that He may have compassion on him, 

and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. 

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, 

neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  

For as the heavens are higher that the earth, 

so are My ways higher than your ways 

and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isa 55

This is one of my favorite passages from the Bible. I love how it encouraged the wicked and the unrighteous to return to the Lord out of their wrong ways and thoughts. It is never not a good day to seek God. Frank Laubach talks about asking the Lord for His thoughts since they are higher than ours, for what thoughts would He give us if we only asked? Opening yourself up to listening, to seeking is a way to experience more of God.

I cannot begin to tell you the beauty that the Lord has revealed to me over the years of pursuing Him intentionally through music and prayer. The glory, the beauty, the grace, the strength and the passion that the human race is looking for-- are at His feet and in His face. As your Grammy likes to quote -- we are homesick for God and when we have Him, we are at home. The aching heart we have for the unattainable is blessedly soothed when we make eye contact with the One we irresistibly love. 

Music is a gift for the emotions from God. How should you help your heart obey in difficulty? Or believe against the odds? Fall on your face. And sing. Declare His praise till your heart lifts and your emotions catch up to your will. Take the eyes of your heart off yourself and place them on the hills where your help comes from. Let Him serenade you with truth to remind you of how the world really is and Who holds the victory. 

Seeking the Lord develops your own personal interaction with God. It wards off a religious shell and keeps the genuine heart of relationship at the center of talk and action in the Christian life. Shallow talk is replaced with Spirit-sensitivity to others and Martha-activity takes on colors and aromas of Mary life because He is there. When you remember He is with you still, always, now, tomorrow, and forever, life loses much of its urgency and is compounded with joy. 

In college my dorm room was on the hall closest to the famous prayer towers at CIU. Through all the heart ache, loneliness, insecurity, struggle and confusion at that time of life-crossroads, the prayer towers was my place to wrestle it all out with God, seeking His heart and direction that He would desire for me. I remember times of reaching out to heaven, the dark skies bright with stars, alive with the glory of the Loving Savior who really was bending down to listen and speak to me. 

Seeking the Lord is done on your part. He doesn’t force it on you. You freely chose to love Him back by pursuing and listening to Him. I have never regretted my time spent. After an experience of His presence, I only stand amazed at what I would have missed if I hadn’t taken the time! I am very fully convinced that my times with Him are the very best part of me. 

Blessed Jesus, may my girl love Your presence. May she want to be with You more than anything in this world. Make her a woman after Your heart with a passion for Your beauty. May temptations pale in comparison to the joy she experiences at Your feet.  May You be her true fierce love to the very bottom of who she is. May Your Spirit be on her so strongly that others get a glimpse of Your glory. 

I love you.

Momma

#9 Should I Run a Marathon?

Should I run a marathon?  Would I be a better aunt if I had a marathon under my belt? 

Wrong question. 

Would I be a better daughter of the Lord if I aim to run a marathon? 

Wrong question. 

Who would benefit from me deciding to do this?

Still wrong.

Could I add to the kingdom of God through running?

Wrong wrong wrong.

Is the Lord already moving forward in this marathon idea and can I join Him?

Ahhh now we’re talking.

Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  John 15:19

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  Ephesians 5:1

Jesus is God, so we are called to imitate Him.  He said that He does only what He sees His Father doing.  So we should do only what we see Him doing as well.

Do I see the Lord running a marathon?  Not literally--I don’t even see Jesus exercising for sport in the Bible. 

• · I see the Lord saying that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19), so I need to keep my mind and my heart and my body clean and healthy for Him. 
• · I see Him saying that we should honor our parents (Eph. 6:1-3). 
• · I see the Lord saying that we should encourage one another and spur one another on (1 Thess. 5:11)
• · I see how Jesus spent so much time praying to the Lord in lonely places (Luke 5:16).

For me, I need to do a better job of keeping my body healthy.  My sweet Momma, your Grammy, has been steadily preaching to me the value of exercising for about 5 years.  One of my close friends from college will be coming to my city to run this marathon 6 months from now.  Running it with her would be a totally unique way to reconnect with her and spur each other on.  I’ve always found that I’m the most focused to pray when I’m running.  All the training time is a perfect ‘lonely place’ for me to spend with the Lord.

In this way, I see the Lord working in the idea already, and from as far as I can tell, it would please Him to do it.  So let’s do it!

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.  Philippians 2:13

When I’m doing what pleases God, then I know I’m getting the desire and the power from Him to act.  God’s power is limitless, so that means whatever I am doing to please Him is also limitless in potential.  So I CAN do all things through Him who strengthens me!

What an incredible life we have when we please the Lord!

#8 Sorry I'm Not Sorry

Colin Powell used to be one of our military leaders.  I heard him recently describe what it’s like to visit hospitals full of recovering soldiers who’ve lost an arm or a leg or sometimes both.  He said, “I never say to them: ‘I’m sorry that this happened to you.’  These men don’t want pity and misery—they want to talk about their battles.  So the first thing I ask is always ‘Were you a good soldier?’  That’s the perfect opportunity for them to talk about their battle.”

Profound.

Today a sweet sweet friend of mine told me that her heart is completely broken.  Knowing her circumstances, I believe it.  The Lord put her into the fire two months ago, and last weekend He unexpectedly put her into a whole different kind of fire.

Everything in me wanted to respond: “My sweet friend, I’m so sorry!  I see that this is extremely painful, I hate that you’re going through pain and I wish it were a different way.”

I can see four things are true here:  The Lord is in control.  He has my friend in His arms.  He uses suffering to forge immaculate character.  And she is already trusting Him in a radical way.

Certainly it’s comforting if she knows that when she hurts, I hurt.  But I don’t want to empathize to the point of leading her to lament what God is doing in her life, even (especially) the sharp turns that He takes.  So maybe instead of offering her my pity, it’s more helpful to offer her our Jesus, who is far FAR more compassionate than I can be or even understand.

Tough times are often paired with spiritual battles.  I don’t want to be a fellow soldier who comforts the physical and emotional, yet works against the spiritual battle that’s still waging.  I want to hear how the battle is going and help point her to Jesus our physical, emotional and spiritual Savior.