A Mistake, A Flexibility and A Message

   Yesterday I had a schedule, two meetings at church, one at 7AM and the other at 3PM. That was to be my day.

   So I went to the early one and got home around 9:30 or so, did some stuff and ate lunch, preparing to go back at 3. This I did and showed up right on time, to an empty room. I knew it was the right day, so I found the church administrator who informed me that I was an hour early. The meeting was at 4.

   What to do? Fortunately I had my camera in the car and decided to go to a nearby pond and see if I could learn more about this new lens. I got this shot of a peeking turtle:

   Then I went to a spot behind the church and worked some more, looking eastward toward the marsh, like this: marsh grass reflected in a pool:

   I thought this morning that there must be a lesson in all of the above that I can apply to my life and maybe even write about. At this point there is a question: to just write, to go ahead with my routine of reading and praying and write from that time, or just to try to see in that Scripture something that will fit what I have already decided to blog. My plans or God's?

   My first thoughts this morning were questions: What was the meaning in yesterday's mess up? Was there something that I ought to learn? How did it all work out?

   Then I read Psalm 131, the first reading for today. It began:

"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,"

   OK, don't try to do too much with those questions, unless God leads. Sometimes the questions are only answered in time.

  Then I read today's commentary in Jesus Calling, part of which states:

"When you project yourself into the future, rehearsing what you will do or say, you are seeking to be self-sufficient: to be adequate without My help. This is a subtle sin--so common that it slips by unnoticed. Train your mind to seek My help continually, even when you feel competent to handle something by yourself."

   I had a good thought in mind as I set down this morning, "don't hold on to your plans too tightly, but be flexible and take what comes". But that does not seem to be the thing that God wanted me to hear, however right that that thought may be.

   How about being self sufficient?

   How about being adequate for the task on my own?

   How about being quiet and listening for God's message ?

   How about letting go?

   My plans or His heart?

Badwater Belt Buckle

   I happened upon a show on the TV last night entitled Ultramarathon. Now I know what an ultra is in this case, a race longer than a regular marathon, longer than 26.2 miles, but I had no idea about the one that was being featured in this production.

   The Badwater Ultra is a race from Death Valley to Mount Whitney in California. Held in July, the 135 mile test seems to be the ultimate of physical endurance, set in an atmosphere of epic proportions. From temperatures of up to 130 degrees in the desert, to the number of hours involved to complete the distance, the effort to finish is tremendous. I can't even begin to fathom the preparation for such an endeavor, much less the actual running of the event.

   The race organizers take only a limited number of runners for the yearly event, these picked from an applicant pool of many more. I believe 90 is the cutoff now, and the runner must have some proven ability in this race or other ultras in his portfolio.

   Any runner that finishes the course in under 48 hours receives a prize. And what is that prize, you may ask, a bronze belt buckle.

   A bronze belt buckle, a symbol of great effort, many hours of training and a perseverance to continue the quest to the end of the goal, no mean feat for sure.

   I thought this morning, as I looked at the Scripture, of a verse from I Corinthians 9:

 "Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one."

   And I thought of the prize for completing the course of life, a life well lived; a well done from Jesus Himself.

   I do not discount the effort involved in that race, in fact, I am awed by just the thought of it, but I know that the imperishable crown is far superior, not even in the same league.

   The image that sticks in my mind from this documentary was that of a 76 year old runner standing in a close circle with a couple of friends. As the film showed this and then several other runners preparing to take off at the start, the words of a prayer, one being offered up by a man in that circle for the runner, furnished the background:

   "Lord, help this man to run the race set before him for Your Glory"

   Now that is a real prize...

Can or Will, That is the Question......

   What if I go through my routine, if I do my reading, my praying, my silent walking and my putting in the time to do all of this, and God does not speak?

   What if I get up early and make myself available and do not get any great revelation?

   Is it OK?

   Does it mean that I have something in my life that is blocking God, or not allowing Him to speak to me or me to listen?

   Or could it be more? Could it be that this is His choice for this morning time? Could it mean that it has become for me just another routine, a set schedule that is meant to make Him give me what I need for a particular day? Could I write up a schedule that would guarantee His speaking into my life?

   Is it any, or all of the above, or a combination of several of them? Am I at the core of the whole process, or is He?

   How many times have I read in the Psalms:

   "Lord, do not hide your face from me"

   I do not know all of the answers to these questions. I do not know the whys of any particular day or time.

   I also read:

   "Your ways are not my ways"

   Can I let God be God and not question so much?

   Perhaps God has spoken, and this is what He wants me to know.

   Can I be OK with that?

   Maybe that is not even the right question.

   Not "Can I" but "Will I"......

Look at Both Sides of This Coin

   Just to read the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5 can give me a feeling of joy. The words "Blessed are those..." can denote peace and happiness, because it is somewhat easy to put myself in the place of those being blessed and look forward to being in that state. Those are good words, ones that lead to thanksgiving to those who fall in that category.

   But I have to confess that the verses of today's Gospel reading have not entered into my conscious thought before. There is a portion of the Book of Luke, chapter 6, that I do not remember reading. The section begins like the Matthew portion in this way:

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh."

   But then the verses that follow look like this:

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
“Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep."

   All is not sweetness and light. There is not just a pleasant reward for doing well, there is a different reward for those who neglect this warning.

   It is easy for me to pick and choose the verses that I want to concentrate on because of the way they may make me feel at a particular time, but the whole Word of God is there for a reason.

   The choices are not just "blessed" or nothing, good outcomes or neutral.

   There are "woes" in there, too, and I dare not forget those. They apply to me also.

   Rewards can sound very positive, but maybe.......

Trust is Only a Five Letter Word, But Packs a World of Meaning

   As I was out walking a bit this morning, I found myself thinking about what was on my calendar for today. Not that I have so many engagements, but just planning how the day should be lived and where.

   For some reason I thought about the story of a boy who found a sparrow that had been hurt. He was counseled to pick him up, but to do so without squeezing the bird, as that might cause more hurt and lead to the death of this winged life.

   I thought of that counsel and it seemed to apply to my thoughts as I walked. Sure, I had plans for the day, and items on a calendar that I anticipated taking part in, but how should I hold them in my mind?

   Should I hold tight to my schedule and be upset if things did not go exactly the way I had seen them in my mind as I looked toward those times? Or should I hold them loosely, being aware of other circumstances that might have a play in how the times were spent?

   Were the days and the times even in my control at all? Why should I get upset or worry about those things that might go askew?

   It seemed to be all a matter of Trust. Trust in the One who held the day and the times in His hand, and trust that all these things would revolve around what He wanted for me.

   How can I argue about that? I cannot, but I still have to remind myself of this fact, as I try to be in absolute control of all the facets of my life.

   This verse was in my reading for today. From Psalm 13:

"But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation."

   Oh, how I need to live this trust out in my life.

   Get out of the way "me"!

Another's Journey Leads Me On Mine

   This has been a strange morning. Not anything to do with the way the day began, but the way this writing has played out.

   First the journey to this moment in time: I got up pretty early, read my Scripture readings, and the Moravian ones for today, the Jesus Calling entry and then went for a stroll. Coming back in I ate breakfast and then waited for a repair guy to come and fix a door. While I waited I read some on the chapter of the Discipleship book I had as homework for the session tomorrow.

   After calling and finding out that the "repair guy" had forgotten and would be here early in the morning (he wrote it down this time), I thought about what I needed to do this day, realizing that having something to write in my blog post was pressing me a little. I do not like having to say that nothing I did this morning in the way of study or prayer or whatever, nothing was worth putting on paper, Then a phrase I had heard hit me:

"The unforced rhythms of grace"

   I looked up the phrase in Google search and got a bunch of sites that had incorporated that phrase, most going back to the Scripture in Matthew 11, but one that intrigued me...a blog post from a girl in Canada who was fighting through Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. So I began to read.

   From her writing, she is a strong Christian, so her work centers mostly on her feeling of being loved by God, regardless, and how she has received His peace through her journey.

   These words she posted one day:

   "Someone is praying for the things you take for granted"

   I don't know where all of this leads me this morning, I have only thought this far and don't know what I might be led to say about it. Whatever comes after these lines will come, and the end is not for sure, but here I go......

   I know I am blessed. I have written that many times over the past years, but until I read this little line, I did not really know how much. I probably still don't, but I can put my blessing into more perspective.

   Someone is praying for a little food to ease their chronic hunger. Someone is praying for a sick child or one that is slowly dying. Someone is praying for a cup of cold clean water to drink.

   And there I am praying that the "repair guy" will come soon to fix my front door so that my air conditioning will not all leak out and my electric bill go higher as a result.

   Relate my plight to someone who does not even have a door, or electricity, or money to have something fixed, or have something to fix, and you can see how pathetic my prayers are most of the time. Even when I thank God for my blessings and acknowledge His role in all of that, I don't even know how great they are.

   So I sit here chagrined at my lack of concern for others and get a glimpse of why God has lead me on the "rabbit trail".

   Now He has spoken,
   Now I have realized the "me" in all of that
   Now what will I do?

   Want to read this girl's blog journey? Go here:

   http://lifebeyondthewindow.blogspot.com/2013

   And pray for yourself, too.

Glory and Awe, or something else?

   I have a friend up in Virginia who, in the course of a physical exam, was told that the doctor had found evidence of a cancer growth in one of his kidneys. It looked like the only thing to do was to remove that kidney and hope that the cancer had not spread from there to other areas of his body.

   The decision was made to go to Duke, to have a consultation with a doctor there who specializes in kidney removal, especially those with cancer implications. After that doctor looked at all the information furnished by the referring physician, he told my friend that he was not sure that there was any cancer there and did not want to do surgery unless he was 100% sure of why the kidney was being removed.

   The original diagnosis had seemed so definite. What had happened between the time of the first exam and the second? Did some sort of divine healing take place or had the first doctor been wrong in what he had found?

   Maybe everyone will find out, after the second set of tests have been run at Duke, what the true state of the man's health is, and, if there is indeed some change, when it took place and why.

   I thought of that whole scenario as I read the account in Luke's Gospel of the lame man, healed by Jesus in the presence of Pharisees, teachers of the Law and others. Luke records:

" And immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home, glorifying God.  And amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, “We have seen extraordinary things today.”

   The man had been brought to Jesus by four friends. There was no need for a diagnosis; he could not walk, and, when Jesus told him to take up his bed and go home, he did with great joy, glorifying God all the way.

   And the Scripture records that all who witnessed that healing act were amazed. They glorified God and were filled with awe. Did the "all" include the Pharisees and teachers? Did they too glorify God? They were there, they saw it.

   The first thing I though of when I read the man's email this morning was that the first doctor had missed it, that he had misread the images and made an improper diagnosis, but was this true? Had he seen something, and now it was not there?

   I was quick to assume that there was no supernatural healing involved, that it was a case of simple human error. When I think that way I do not have to glorify God or be in awe of His power to heal.

   Now I am doing all of this without the benefit of the second round of tests, so I really can't know, but I can see how quick I am to take away the supernatural and assume it was a normal mistake, "no big deal".

   God, help me to see Your glory in all of this and be filled with awe for what you do, regardless of the hows and whys of any particular situation. Help me not to leave you out of any equation and realize that You are in it all, regardless.