Living It Out

   This morning, out walking in the still cold weather, I ran into a friend out to check his heat pump and to get his morning paper. In the course of the conversation, we talked about the travel situations in Atlanta during the Tuesday snow in the South.

   He mentioned that Birmingham was as fouled up as Atlanta, but just was not in the news as much as Atlanta, probably because the Weather Channel was not headquartered there. In talking about that Alabama city, my friend also mentioned the story of the Chic Fil A store that went above and beyond the call of duty in helping stranded motorists. The story is here is you have not already heard:

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/01/29/chick-fil-gives-free-food-to-motorists-stranded-in-southern-snowstorm/

   At the end of the article, the owner gave this testimony of the "whys" of their actions:

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,” Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew. “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”

It was a Sunday school lesson illustrated on a snowy winter day along Highway 280 in Alabama with a chicken sandwich and a side of waffle fries.

   How many of us, those who call ourselves Christian, would have even thought to do that? How many of us even think that way?

   I'm sure the emotions on that snowy day among the people caught on that freeway ran the gamut, from despair, to rage, to frustration to most anything else, and that could have included the owner and staff of that one eatery. But they chose to serve, and that made all the difference.

   Difference in the lives of those who were served, those who heard about those acts of kindness, and those who were privileged to be on that serving team.

   I'm grateful for the fact that I ran into that friend this morning, and I am grateful for people who live out what they believe. Their example is a beacon in an otherwise snowy and frustrated world.

   The power of a chicken sandwich

 ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

Giving Thanks

   I woke up this morning with thanks on my mind, and it all relates to what we found out about our weather yesterday.

   We struggle with the things that go on with our plans. It is OK to make plans, but our problems stem from being disappointed when what we plan does not work.

   There is no way to tell what might have been our day yesterday. We did not travel, but we can see what happened in those areas that we had to travel through in order to get to our destination. We can see the pictures of the gridlock on the highways, and we can be thankful that we were not there in the middle of it.

   But I look at that traffic, and I feel the stress that those motorists must have been going through. Why am I out here? What is the use? How can I use any of this time productively? What about my family? What about any passengers that are traveling with me? Stress and wondering, along with possibly beating myself up over the whys of how I got here.

   Sure, we did not get to where we planned to be, but there is a noticeable lack of stress when you are sitting at home, warm and snug, watching and thinking what might have been.

   So I give thanks for a decision to stay home, a decision that I prayed much about, and one that I felt was the right one to make in our particular circumstance.

   And, even though the decisions of this new day are not as pressing, will I still take the same attitude of one step at a time, following the arrow of God's leadership, or just slide through the day with no thought of what God might want me to do with these hours that I have?

   The hours that will pass through today will not come again. My prayer is not only of thanks about yesterday, but one of looking for how to use the ones of today, for Him.

   Is it wasting time to work that partially completed puzzle that is sitting on the counter? It seems to be calling my name.

   If that is the arrow for right now, I also need to keep my senses open for another arrow if it appears. One bad thing about going where it points is camping there and not caring about the next one.

   Even being obedient to that first sign is not enough. It is a start, but, as long as we are alive, there will be more, and true obedience is following all of them, as they show up.

   One puzzle piece (or arrow) at a time......

 

It All Seemed So Simple, But...

   When I sat down yesterday, with some decisions hanging over me, and as I thought about that "Arrow" picture that I had taken, the whole trust and follow idea seemed to just flow out of my mind and onto the screen of my blog. It seemed so simple, to just see that arrow and take it one step at a time, and follow where it led.

   And I felt comfortable living that way, yesterday.

   But then comes this morning, and my thoughts are all jumbled up. I followed yesterday, and I stand on the threshold of yet another day. A day that will hold more decisions, some mundane, some more profound perhaps, but I can't wrap my head around them.

   I read in the Moravian Daily Text words like "pilgrimage" and read stories like that of Jacob fleeing Esau, going to his mother's people in a far away land on a journey. It relates to me in a way that says that, even a journey like that in my plans, is in fact a small part of the "big journey" of life that I am trying to navigate.

   And I felt comfortable living that way, yesterday.

   If I felt so good about the direction yesterday, and yet feel so "up in the air" this morning, what is God trying to show me? Does a day of trust automatically mean that I've got it from now on?

   Maybe God gave me a clue, but I did not really embrace the lesson.

   There is that arrow again. It still speaks of a journey, and it speaks of a direction, and there is still only one of them. I took its meaning yesterday and thought I had learned. But that was yesterday, and I did feel good about it, and comfortable.

   Just maybe I should have made this arrow larger, and then I would have followed its meaning better and with more confidence.

   But that was yesterday, and today I need the lesson again.

   Oh, God, please be patient....

 

Only One Arrow

   I come to this time, this morning, with decisions to make. What to do, where to go, when to go, and I look for answers in what I read, in what comes to my mind. Everyday decisions, not earth shattering, one chance decisions, but ones that I want to get right.

   In the course of my reading several passages and in the things that they led me to on the internet, there was this song by Avalon, entitled "I Don't Want to Go", the refrain from this contains the lines:

   I don't want to go somewhere 
If I know that You're not there,
'Cause I know that me without You is a lie.
And I don't want to walk that road,
Be a million miles from home,
Cause my heart needs to be where You are.
So I don't want to go.

   In my mind, and in my comfortable surroundings, I don't want to go, but?

   And then I think about my real question: Do I just not want to leave my comfort zone because I just don't know how the days will pan out if I do take that road?

   I thought about a picture that I took one day in downtown Brunswick, why I don't know, I just did, but it says something to me right now.

   It is only one arrow, pointing up that street. Only one, not a series of signs pointing the way to wherever, only one.

   I want to look up and see more arrows, and most of all see the place they lead to, but in my shot, I see only one.

   But I want to know more, the lay of the land, the weather, the people that inhabit that space, the situations that will arise, all the reasons that will emerge, but there is only one arrow.

   Is that enough?

   If He is there, it is.

   Go and live out the arrow, one day at a time, looking for the next arrow, living it out and trusting the One who put it there.

What Do I Look Like?

   I thought about a lot of things as I went through my reading this morning, but the most prevalent thought was about love. Specifically about how I show love for others.

   One verse in particular comes to my mind: John 13:35 (The Message)

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

   So this is how the world outside the church can see who Christians are: Loving One Another

   Does that mean that I am to look around and love those that are like me? How am I to know who are believers and who are not? Do they all have a fish symbol on the back of their car? Do they always smile and say thank you?

   Jesus also says in Matthew 22:

 ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’

   So we are to love the brethren and also love others. That seems to say that love of people is the thing that I should do, most of all.

   I realize this, and then I look at the way I am sitting on this sofa and see a picture of my self.

   Sitting on my hands

   Love is an action verb. I can write about it all day. I can see what the Bible says about it. I can even thank God for His love, but is that it?

   God, help me to live it out in the world today

What Do You Do When You Just Don't Know?

   Sometimes as I read Scripture, I read a familiar passage, one that I have read countless times, then I read it again, and maybe again, then still just don't understand the whys of what I just read. Take this passage from Matthew 9 this morning: (from The Message)

"He touched their eyes and said, “Become what you believe.” It happened. They saw. Then Jesus became very stern. “Don’t let a soul know how this happened.” But they were hardly out the door before they started blabbing it to everyone they met."

   I wanted to make something of the phrase  “Become what you believe.” , but instead Jesus words farther down drew me in:

 “Don’t let a soul know how this happened.” 

   An event like this happened several times in the Gospels, Jesus saying to the healed person, "Don't tell anybody....", and then they did. He even spoke sternly, as in a command, but they did anyway. They did not seem to be able to help themselves. Something happened to them and they wanted people to know of their good fortune.

   I could not put an answer to the question of why Jesus would say that. The Bible just did not give the answer.

   There were opinions on the question out there as I found from a Google search. Blogs and articles abounded that gave someone's opinion on the question. Since they covered a whole spectrum of ideas, the odds were that some could have been correct, but which ones?

   Maybe it is a question that I don't need an answer to. Does it matter if I don't know? Why do I want to know anyway? Curiosity or something more?

   It starts out as more curiosity than anything else, but then I think "maybe this is something that I should know in order to live in the right way".

   I still don't know, but I enjoyed the search and the thinking about it all, and maybe it was all about the search and the reasons behind it.

  So I end my search for today the same way I began it, with a prayer that if it is important for me to know, He will make it plain.

   Questions and Life, a journey that we all live in.

Power In Pebbles

   In Matthew 9, the narrative is about Jesus on his way to see about the daughter of an official of the area. It reads:

"Just then a woman who had hemorrhaged for twelve years slipped in from behind and lightly touched his robe. She was thinking to herself, “If I can just put a finger on his robe, I’ll get well.” Jesus turned—caught her at it. Then he reassured her: “Courage, daughter. You took a risk of faith, and now you’re well.” The woman was well from then on."

   She touched his robe. The Message translates this as "she lightly touched his robe". Just a fleeting touch, just enough to say that she actually did it. Jesus did not tell her what to do, he was still purposefully on his way with the town official. And she was healed.

   In my mind's eye, I think I can see what happens next, but I'm not sure I understand Jesus' words. In the midst of the crowd moving on the road, He turns and speaks quietly to the woman:

“Have courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well.” (NET)

   Not a loud pronouncement of what had just happened, but almost like an aside to her. Then He seems to just walk on His way. She is left there, healed.

   Did she ponder what He had told her? Why had He told her to have courage? What was her life going to be after this miracle?

   He told her to have courage, courage for what?

   She was going back into a life, filled with people who had not been there. They had not seen what she did or heard Jesus' voice. Would they believe what had happened? Was there a reason that she had that might cause her to clam up and just be quiet about the whole thing?

   The Bible is filled with bit players, who enter the Story for a brief moment, and then disappear, never to be heard from again. I would have liked for her to leave a diary of the rest of her life, and what impact this healing had on her, and what her courage, both the touching of His robe and the aftermath, had on her and the people who knew her.

   One small act, a touching, and one quiet word, courage.

   Two small pebbles cast into a lake. How far did the ripples go?

   Don't underestimate the power inherent in a touch or a word.

   We all have pebbles in our hands.