by

With your whole heart…

The call to live a life of faith can feel like a lot of hard work. To be good, do what is right and swallow our pride takes effort. The kind that, if we are honest with ourselves, we don’t always want to make. It’s hard to tithe when the budget’s tight. It’s hard to make time in your day to pray or read the Bible when you never feel like you can sit down. It’s hard to control your tongue when every ounce of your being wants to complain. It’s hard to go against the grain.

In this environment, choosing good sometimes feels like trying to push a big boulder up a hill. The Apostle Paul was no stranger to this struggle when he wrote in Romans 7:18, “I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Do you ever feel like Paul?

In my last post I focused on Jesus’ words of comfort for those who follow his way. He said, “Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.” He was talking about the kind of rest we long for… freedom from the boulder pushing life.

In Matthew 22:36-40 a teacher of the law; a ‘good’, diligent & righteous man, came to Jesus & asked him, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

Jesus, in that simple yet profound statement said, when put to the test, all the laws… all the rules… all our good effort can be measured by this: Love.

Love God. Love others. Simply love.

There is such freedom in those words. Who does not want to be loved, to give love? To spend their days both giving & receiving love? There is no list of rules, there is no checklist or unattainable goodness in this life of faith. There is one request.

With you whole heart, love. With all you do, love. With all you are, love.

Today be set free in your life from the yoke, the labor, of goodness. Instead, freely come to the one who loves you as himself and take up his yoke of love. This is the way of faith.

20140827-215505-78905823.jpg

by

Rest for your soul

IMG_0883Sometimes I feel totally unqualified for my life. It’s not a new revelation or growing fear. Simply, when I look at the balance sheet of my life, with all that needs to be done and measure it against all that I bring to those tasks, it doesn’t equal out. My resources and talents are simply not enough. At least by my own measure…. I lack.

My talents, my resources, my time is never enough for my ideas, my plans, my insistence on perfection. When I consider my own ability, I don’t see what others see. I don’t see what God sees. All I can see is the lack. The problem is that the scale, by which I measure, is one of my own creation. I am the one saying what is “enough”. Living by that standard, the burden of my life, my way, can get so heavy.

It’s only when I set down my grandiose ideas about life at Jesus’ feet, it’s only then that I realize how unnecessarily heavy they are. In a world of great ideas, glossy photos, self help books & how to manuals it is easy to feel like I have to be enough. That I have to do it all. That it is realistic to expect my life to be storybook picture perfect. Jesus has another way, another standard of measure.

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus invited us saying, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”

I love this passage for so many reasons. It is one that reminds me that I am not journeying this life alone; that there is one who loves me, has compassion for me and walks with me. Jesus doesn’t simply say, “Here, do it my way. It’s better. Now get on with it.” He does not leave me to figure out how to do the new way on my own. Instead, he says to me who is struggling, “Here, let me help you. Let me show you another way. I will make this easier for you.” He fills me with his spirit, teaches me with his word and gives me new ideas for my life.

He does not look at my life through the lens of my ability or from the perspective of my ideals. He looks upon me with grace love. He does not leave me alone with my burdens. He invites me into a new way. He gives me a new measure. When I look at his version of the balance sheet of my life it is written all over with the red lined edits of grace. That balance sheet doesn’t have me come out in the negative but in the over abundant excess of his grace.

Are you weary? Heavy-burdened? Jesus offers rest to your soul.

For me, this process of lightening my burden means setting aside the ones I’ve put on myself. It means being freed to listen to the gentle teacher who says he will help me understand what my true burden should be. I’ll be writing about that process here. I’m choosing his way. Want to walk this journey with us? ~ A

by

Tasting Delight

A little over a year ago, we were expecting our fourth child, planning to move across the country, preparing to sell our house & figuring out how to raise our own support for the first time ever in our lives.  Needless to say, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all & when I get that feeling like I could sink at any moment I often go to the psalms for comfort. The poets of the psalms have a way of calming my soul like David did for Saul with his lyre & songs.

At that moment in my life I came to Psalm 37 & found great comfort there.  I read it over & over.  I posted it on the wall above my kitchen sink.  I prayed & meditated on it.  It was a story of righteousness in the midst of difficulty, perseverance even when the odds seemed impossible, provision in time of need, encouragement to keep hope & the promise of blessing for “committing your way to the Lord”.  The more time I spent with this chapter, the more I was challenged to ‘press on’ and the more puzzled I became with exactly how it should be done. My trouble came from this single verse:

It mystified me.  Delight? In the midst of everything…all the trials, all the adversity, all the hardships, all the fear? When it feels like I am just getting by, making it through, keeping it together, what does it mean to ‘delight in the Lord’? I wasn’t sure I was delighting in much.  “I want to know how to do that!”, I cried.  Little did I know what this past year or so had in store.

A few months ago, I decided to tackle this puzzle from a fresh perspective. I pulled out my Merriam-Webster Dictionary to see how it defined delight. There it was, exactly as I expected, ‘extreme satisfaction or gratification’ with the synonyms of ‘pleasure’ or ‘treat’ listed below. Not exactly the words I would use to describe my attitude towards my life & circumstances. Well then, I guess I was NOT delighting in the Lord or much else for that matter! Thankfully, however, those were not the only words on the page as I kept on reading.  There they were.  The words I needed. Manna. Joy.

Manna, as you may recall, comes from the story in Exodus of the Israelites who were freed from the servitude of the egyptians to wander for 40 years in the desert. It was God’s provision for them , where there was none, so that they could thrive in a place no one would expect them to even survive. I knew the story & I knew the word but I went to Merriam-Webster anyway. I was curious. It said:

a : food miraculously supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness

b : divinely supplied spiritual nourishment

c : a usually sudden and unexpected source of gratification, pleasure, or gain

Instantly I wept. Manna.  Joy.  Those were not things I manufactured.  They are not things that begin with me.  They begin with the one who gives them… freely…that we may thrive, not just survive this life!

When my daughter, our fourth child, was born last year it was after much hardship. When my water broke at 6.5 months into my pregnancy we were faced with an uncertain number of weeks in the hospital hoping to hold off her birth. Though the odds were stacked against us, I had chosen hope, waited on God, embraced His peace instead of my fear, persevered in the midst of much difficulty, embraced  thankfulness in my time of great need. I was trying to ‘trust in the Lord’ as Psalm 37 declared I should. But not until our baby was born, after 7 long weeks of waiting in the hospital, did I realize the true lesson I had been learning all this time. I was being given just what I had cried out for. It was my daughter & her amazing birth story was my lesson in delight. Her very life is God’s lesson of “sudden and unexpected source of gratification, pleasure, or gain”. His provision, entirely, ‘miraculously supplied’.

When I hold my daughter I am often reminded of that lesson.  I am amazed at the One who continually provides & cares, guides & protects for our good.  He does provide, not just our material needs but so much more! The very presence of my daughter, my husband & our 3 other  children are an amazing gift in which I can delight. My eyes are opening to a whole new layer of beauty around me and that beauty is what my heart desires! I want to see it, I want to experience it, I want to savor it, I want to taste it… Delight.

by

Choosing treasure

20120729-154056.jpg

Today I am choosing to delight in the treasures of this very moment…

 

Berries in my fridge

Pansies on my windowsill

Clean linens on the line

Bare feet in the summer

Pen on paper

Moments of reflection

A tall, cool drink

Red beads on my wrist

Sunshine & blue sky

Laughter in the yard

Eyes to see it

Ears to hear

Time to notice

 

Choosing to treasure my life & taking the time to see it means setting aside the dirty dishes littering my kitchen. That simple act of setting aside a moment of reflection completely changes my heart. The busyness of the day can choke out the beauty that’s right there waiting to be seen. I don’t want to lose the wonder in my days. Take a minute. What has surprised you as a hidden gift today?

by

What is precious?

After posting my last blog on choosing (see The act of choosing) I’ve had a few poignant songs running through my head. One of my favorite singer/songwriters right now is Sara Groves. She writes earnestly about life & faith and does so using her own personal struggles or life changing revelations. Below is a link to a song about choosing what is precious in the hum drum of everyday life.

Listen to this: Precious Again by Sara Groves

Sunrise, sunset with no eyes to see it
Garnets and rubies ground up in the sand
Words from my children with no ears to hear it
Where is the wonder?

New tender mercies and infinite graces
Woven like threads in the cloth of my days
Deep wells of glory behind common faces
Where is the wonder? Where is the wonder?

Oh oh, I need a song that’s never old
Oh oh, I need a story never told
Promise that just when love grows cold
You’ll make it precious again

Friendship and goodwill, a sweet invitation
Kindred in spirit and eager to share
Love in familiar and long conversations
There is the wonder, there is the wonder

Oh oh, sing me the song that’s never old
Oh oh, tell me the story never told
Promise that just when love grows cold
You’ll make it precious

Press mud with holy fingers, light the ineffable
Fused in the ordinary, so much to wonder
Oh, what a wonder, wonder, wonder

Oh oh, sing me the song that’s never old
Oh oh, tell me the story never told
Promise that just when love grows cold
You’ll make it precious, oh, make it precious
You make it precious again

In our daily act of choosing, can we make the small, every day, graces we experience precious treasures? How have you witnessed grace & blessing in your life? What can you treasure today?