Category Archives: 1 Christ is All

Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.

The Amen Corner

1 Christ is All, 6 Looking Back // Memories!, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

It is by grace we are saved…but oh the ways we try to make make grace even better! {{insert *wry-and-weary-half-smile}}

I grew up in church where “talking back” to the pastor as he preached was not only welcomed, if there weren’t enough people doing it, the pastor might chide:

“Can I get an ‘amen’?”  or

“It’s getting awfully quiet in here.  Somebody say ‘Amen or Oh, me.'”

“Amen” is supposed to be sort of a wonderful, “Yes!  So be it, Lord!”  Oh, if only that were the only way we church-peeps used it.  *sigh…

Even as a really young girl, I noticed that an awful lot of the people saying “Amen!” were sort of the least joyful, meanie-face-type of Christians.

AMEN the amen corner

Doesn’t this awesome photo just remind you of the fire and brimstone preacher in “Cold Comfort Farm” screaming out “There’ll be no butter in hell, I tell ya!!”???  If it doesn’t, you must watch the movie.  Then it will.

If the preaching was against gossiping or people not going to church, there’d be this “amen section” of people you didn’t want to cross.  The preacher would wind up, powerfully make his proclamation and then the sourest faces in the front three rows of pews would raise their determined noses into the air and shout “Amen!  Amen!!!” with pretty much the same fervor as two guys chest-bumping in victory and grunting loudly at a football game where their team just scored a touchdown.

Even at 5 or 6 years old, I could tell, that with at least some of those people, they felt they were past reproach and in an exclusive club, telling-it-like-it-is, above whatever the sin of the day was.  {{Did I mention I began my judgementalism early?}}  Anyway – some people seemed less about ‘amening’ the truth of the Word of God or even being an encouragement to the pastor that he was right-on than in making sure other people in here better hear this ‘cuz they need it!!!  The problem with this method of “helpful discipleship” is that no one in the sanctuary is quite sure who the recipient/or group of recipients was to be, so the enemy-of-our-souls sorta uses it to crush everybody there with accusation.  Poo.

amen outdoor church

When I got old enough to want to amen something, I knew down deep that I jumped pretty harshly on sermon points that, in reality, exposed my own weaknesses – but not at myself {because there was this view-blocking log in my eye} – more at other people who had them too {people with those little specs Jesus talked about}.  Maybe amening loudly would make everyone else think I was way above it.  If I nodded my head and looked all pious – everyone else would know I had conquered and was above them spiritually speaking.  {{Right.}}

Amen prepare to meet god

These days, most churches don’t have a real old fashioned out-loud-amen section.  But a quick scan of Facebook the past few weeks and I have seen actual posts, not limited to, but including these:

News Flash: The earth revolves around the sun.  This might upset people who think the world still revolves around them.

I’m not judging you, God is.

I’m currently correcting some crap problems in my life.  If you don’t hear from me, you’re probably one of them.

It’s a Facebook status, not a diary.  Learn the difference.

Oh, it’s snowing outside.  I better update my Facebook status for all my friends who don’t have windows.

If you don’t like the life I am leading then quit reading my posts.

If you are a Republican {or Democrat, or Christian, or not a Christian, or any number of possible labels} we aren’t friends.  I will be unfriending you.

The mean-spirited Amen-section is alive and well.  On internet profiles everywhere (and I am sure, sometimes even on this blog, true confessions).  And oh, don’t you just KNOW each of those comments is directed at somebody specific?  But since we don’t know who, 127 people will run for cover.

We have seen the enemy – it is us {church-peeps}.

Thank-You, Lord, that we are growing in grace and learning to say Amen!  So be it! to You, to Your Word, to Your ways.  Thank-you for churches that let us participate with shouts of hallelujah and applause becuase we are so grateful we cannot contain it.  May we keep learning and keep growing in grace.  AMEN!  And the Amen-corner said “~~~~”

Can I get a witness?

NOTE TO READERS:  I actually grew up in the 60s and 70s and not in sepia-tone.  We actually had colored photos and didn’t dress like pilgrims or Civil War-era people.  Just FYI.

A Tale of Two Seeds

1 Christ is All, 2 Mi Familia, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, Stuff I Actually Think

Finally – it is going to live and grow to be and do that for which it was created.

Poor little plant.  I almost yanked it out and threw it away last week.  But it has apparently finally established.  It got its’ first flower yesterday, already dropped.  Soon it will give me a beautiful baby-zucchini.

zucchini seedlings

In the nick of time, too, for last Tuesday, I went ahead and started 2 new zuch-plants and they already sprouted and got their first real leaves.  They are raring and ready to be planted wherever, and though it is a bit late for warm-weather plants to be just getting started, they grow so fast in current conditions.  If we have a mild fall, I could be eating fresh zucchini for months.

The 2 seeds tale, though…

This plant:

zucchini uprooted

And this plant:

zucchini, deeply rooted

were started at the same time.  And this is how they look today.  The top one is still so little, finally just getting nice, healthy-looking leaves.  The other has already been giving me beautiful fruit and thriving and growing and making happy, even though, quite by accident, it ended up in the sunflower patch, a place really too shady for it to have grown up so full and free.

What has made the difference?

They were planted the same day.  They are from the same seed package.  They germinated within hours of one another.  But one is healthy and strong and happy and fruitful.  It got planted in some rich soil, mounded up behind some shrubbery where I was placing the sunflower seedlings.  It established itself early, got strong and took root and reached high to find the sun.  It apparently made friends with the flowers and created a nice little ground cover for various perennials round about.  All the plants there are quite relationally content and mutually encouraging, all growing well.

But the little one – a different path.

First, I left it in the egg carton in which I started it too long.  It was “born” healthy.  It germinated quickly and grew well and had lovely leaves and all the potential.  But I ran out of space and needed to wait until some of the cold-weather crops were finished so I could plop it into the 9 square feet of space it would need to become everything it was meant to be.

So, while it grew as much as possible, the roots ran out of room.  The soil couldn’t support them and it dried out quickly between the daily waterings.  The leaves reached out for sunshine, but became leggy and long, un-planted in a deep-rich-soil place.  It tried to get what it needed, but became scraggly and “anemic,” yellowing leaves betraying a gardener’s neglect.

Realizing I needed to do something until the garden square had space, I got some good potting soil and planted it in terra-cotta container.  Some color returned – it started to look a little stronger.  It was there for a few weeks, still very small compared to the deeply rooted plant across the yard.  But alive, if you could call it that – in temporary quarters, unable to fulfill its’ purpose…

When finally I had begun to remove the cold-weather crops from the garden square, I pulled the squash-plant from its’ pot and placed it into the side of the garden where, as it grew, more plants would be leaving to create space, but it just sat there.  It did nothing, but look deathly ill.  It was yellow and stringy and lifeless.  The leaves sprawled onto the ground.  I surrounded it with soft straw to blanket and give warmth.  I brewed compost tea and watered it carefully. I watched and waited and waited and watched.

And it seemed hopeless.  So, I decided to plant new seedlings for replacement.

But in the same week, the conditions have changed and in the hot sunbeams of the day and the afternoon rains from the skies, the roots have finally trusted the space and plunged deep into the rich soil and have tasted the healing tea and established.  And being firmly established, this zucchini plant will now be everything it was created to be and do all it was created to do.

zuch seedlings

The lesson from this tale:

Rootlessness will stunt all growth.  Being uprooted and moved and moved and moved will keep a plant {{or a person}}, from thriving.  They’ll be anemic and taxed beyond their ability for having tried so hard to stay alive in spite of poor soil and growing conditions.  So then, even when they are planted safely, they may not respond for a while.  Their roots may not recognize the safe place yet, the true home.  It will take some time.  Hot sun will be needed, and pure rain.  Extra nutrients would be good and space and ~ time.  It will absolutely take time – this cannot be rushed.

So even though I didn’t do right by this plant and almost killed it in the uprooting, it is now establishing, planted by the waters of good care, and when the other zucchinis have finished producing and run their course, this one will still be going – because it will be fulfilling its’ destiny, everything it was created to be and to do.  Just a little later than “normal.”

The great hope:  If you have been moved around, neglected and uprooted repeatedly, if you are weak from lack of nutrients and care, it is not too late to be everything God imagined when He created you and here is my prayer:

rooted and established

In other news…

I wrote this in my journal in February (when he was just one month old):

Malakai is thriving.  Growing.  Getting healthy and robust.  Love is causing life.

kai 8.13.13

He hasn’t started crawling yet (though he does creep about) but that is because, at barely 7 months, he wishes to begin running.  He loves being up on his feet, high-stepping it whenever anyone will help him go.  He is happy and healthy and whole.  His roots are planted deep into the good soil of a loving family and home.  And being rooted and established in a safe place will always cause him to thrive.

God isn’t interested in…

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think

I am realizing how much our “tribe” {us “Christian people”} throw little quotes and sayings around about God, giving them all the veracity of actual scripture, when in fact, they merely began as someone’s interpretation and probably had a catchy rhythm for some sermon or another.  And sometimes, they may have been re-stated as a scriptural explanation flat-out wrong.

There is one that has been bugging me.  A lot.  And I am not saying it wasn’t a point in purity and truth at some point.  I am just saying I have heard it in various ways over many years, usually it’s used to shrug-off and dismiss a fellow believer who is going through a very hard time:

“Well, God isn’t interested in your comfort, He is interested in your character.”

Or – “God isn’t concerned with your comfort, He wants to build your character.”

Isn’t that alliteration just peachy-preachy?  So catchy.  So, Obviously-those-people-weren’t-maturing-fast-enough-like-myself-so-God-wants-them-to-suffer-so-no-one-should-show-compassion-because-God-wants-it-this-way-and-couldn’t-care-less-about-their-pain-until-they-get-as-right-as-me.

Grrrr.  But seriously – I have seen it, had it thrown at me, and sadly, probably thought it or said it, too, about others in crisis.  Maybe it made me feel a little more spiritually superior when I couldn’t explain why something bad was happening to a perfectly normal human.

It has also been said these ways:

“God doesn’t care about your character, he cares about your heart.”

Which also doesn’t really work, either, does it?  Oh yes, He looks at the heart, but the condition of your heart is at the center of your character and maturity.  Pure heart = pure character, I’d say.

“God isn’t interested in our comfort, He is interested in our healing.”

Which – well, isn’t being healed the ultimate in comfort?  Doesn’t that actually prove He IS, in fact, interested in our comfort?

I am not talking about comfort in the sense that I get everything I want at the exact moment I want it.  It isn’t about plumping my pillow to exactly the way I like so I can feel comfortable.  It is about needing comfort for gut-wrenching pain sometimes, for things that have gone very wrong relationally or circumstantially despite our best efforts.

We can’t dismiss the fact that we are living in a fallen world and horrible things happen to amazingly good, redeemed people.  It rains on the just and the unjust.  Your heart can be broken to bits whether you have trusted in Jesus as your Savior or not.  And while I wholly believe and am filled with hope at the thought that God doesn’t waste our pain, I think we are often too mean-spirited and so unlike the Father when we the hard things people face without the compassion we have been shown.  We are judgemental and sanctimonious when we can stand back, arms folded, and decree: Well, obviously, God doesn’t care whether you’re hurting or not.  He wants to see you have some character, doggone it, so get over it and be miserable.

Good news:

Even the Apostle Paul went through perilous, awful, times of despair and trouble – while he was doing God’s will!   So at least we are in good company.  2 Corinthians chapter one begins with him recounting the turbulence in his path:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us (verses 8-10)

It gets better:

But guess what else?  Verses 3-7 introduce us to a God we rarely hear preached about except at funerals.  But He is not just comforting people who lose some one through death – he is the God of all comfort for the things we face in life!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.   If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.   And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Did you see that?  Being comforted, receiving comfort actually produces patient endurance in suffering.  We become able to bear so much more when we are comforted.  It doesn’t make us sissies, it makes us stronger, warriors to end.

God won’t waste your pain.  That quote I can get into, because the Word says here that we get to share the comfort we received from God with others.  But to say God isn’t interested in our comfort?  Just that I be recklessly used and abused and hurt and troubled and if I jump every hoop correctly maybe I will finally prove I am good enough?  Pppphst! 

Oh, He is who the Word says He is.  He is the Father (the beginning) of compassion.  He is the God of all comfort.    And I have news for you: He comforts us in ALL our troubles so we have something to give to others who are troubled.  He comforts us as we suffer like Christ so we can also share in the abounding comfort of Christ.  If we are suffering, troubled, distressed, we are comforted from God our Father and it flows through us and over us and around us as we comfort those nearby.

showing comfort

The picture I got of this was my childhood roller-skating experiences.  I spent two years of my life (3 – 5) on metal roller skates and I fell a lot and have the scars on these knees to prove it.  I can remember running in, bloodied knees, again and again and my mom did not once say, “Well, that is what you get and you’re going to keep getting until you determine to skate better.”  My mom would always pull out the mercuricome antiseptic and band aids and a sudsy washcloth and soothe me with understanding.  She comforted me when I fell.  I think we are all smart enough to understand what comfort is.  It is care.  It is concern.  It is served with compassion.  It doesn’t necessarily fix anything, but oh it soothes the brokenness and helps us endure to the end…

So, there.

God IS interested in your comfort because He wants you to have what it takes to endure to the end – no matter what life and circumstances bring.

“And yet what more could He have said about it than He has said: ‘As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted.’ Notice the as and so in this passage: ‘As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.’ It is real comforting that is meant here; the sort of comforting that a child feels when it is ‘dandled on its mother’s knees, and borne on her sides’…” ~Hannah Whitehall Smith (1832-1911), The God of All Comfort

“The LORD comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.” Isaiah 49.13 NIV

“Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.”  Matthew 5.4

Dare to be Disciplined

1 Christ is All, 4 Home & Garden/Food & Seasons, , , ,

I heard Joyce Meyer say this 20 years ago:

Jesus said if you don’t bear fruit, you’ll be pruned.  And He said if you do bear fruit, you’ll be pruned so you’ll bear more fruit.  So, I figure, you’re pruned if you do and pruned if you don’t – so you may as well let the Lord prune you.

It looks almost cruel.  And I am not even done yet.  Every year in July I have to do it.  I don’t want to do it and I think of every possible excuse.

For two weeks now I have known I needed to cut back the petunias and some of the other annuals.  Each day I’d think: I just can’t right now because they are so beautiful and flowering like crazy.  I will wait until they aren’t flowering so much.

But during this time of the summer, they are in their glory.  They are fruitful, they are going to flower.  They are flowering like crazy and they are going to keep up the pace until suddenly  – they can’t anymore.  Because it is what they do.  It is what they were created to do.  It makes them happy.

petunias in the trash can

But if they don’t get pruned, a month from now they’ll be long and leggy and weak and start to go to seed.  Their leaves will yellow, tired out from the heat and from producing so quickly, so profusely.  They won’t go into the next season healthier and fuller and stronger because they will have spread themselves completely thin just being their beautiful selves.

I finally just have to be courageous and pick up the flower-heavy handfuls of leaves and stems and soft petals and lop them off quickly, no looking back.  Pruning has to happen.  Pruning has to happen.  I meant to say that twice.

By pruning them now, in the height of their glory, I am actually securing a future for them with more leaves to take in more sunshine, roots that plunge more deeply for the trauma.  I am making sure that a month from now, there will be twice as much flowering, healthier, stronger plants filling my pots.  The fragrance will be deeper and sweeter, rather than barely perceptible from an over-expenditure of energy now.

pruned petunias

The pruning is necessary for the good of the flower.  It isn’t cruel.  It is my love for these spicy, ambrosial, purple petunias (and the others) that causes me to finally take the cutting edge to them.  It is my care and because I know the future for them.  Four weeks from now, 3 maybe, they will not only have recovered, they will be amazing.

I cannot help but see the application.  I have been pruned and I struggle to believe it is not a punishment for doing the very thing I was created to be and to do.  It stinks.  I never like it.  But…It is strengenthing me for what is next.  Dang it feels cruel and unneeded and what the heck – so many things, beautiful offerings, are in the garbage can.  I probably will never like it as it comes around seasonally, again and again in life.

But I caught a glimpse as I threw a handful of my treasured, silly little annuals in the trash today: This is for you, this will make everything better.

My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline,
    but don’t be crushed by it either.
It’s the child he loves that he disciplines;
    the child he embraces, he also corrects. Hebrews 12.5-6

Prune away, Lord, prune away.

 

 

Song for a Sunday // Let me be SINGING when the evening comes

1 Christ is All, 5 Songs I am Singing, Stuff I Actually Think, , ,

Matt Redman is the greatest hymnist of our day.  If the Lord tarries, the church will be singing his songs a hundred years from now.  They will last.

He just writes the best lyrics, ancient truth with fresh words.


My favorite line:

Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes.

I am watching Kai this early Sunday morning while his parents lead worship at two services in Loveland.  The drive over was magical.  The sun rose like a ball of pink and orange fire and I let it consume my rear-view mirror and nearly blind me to be lit up by it.  Ahead of me were crystal-clear, generously snow-capped mountains (yes, it is majesty) and on each side of the road, steamy-fog was rising rapidly, dancing wildly and burning off in the blaze of morning glory.

Kai and I are sitting in the morning sun now, singing…singing…singing to the bird-chip sounds.

It’s easy to sing in the new light of day.

But the song – It is like a prayer: whatever happens today, Lord, whatever obstacles I face, whatever pain I encounter, whatever hardship, whatever doesn’t go like I thought it should; all the good, the bad and the ugly I see, I say to my own soul {my mind-my will-my emotions} Bless the Lord, oh my soul.  And even if I am limping to get there, Let me be singing {still} when the evening comes.  Amen!

My Happy Places

1 Christ is All, Stuff I Actually Think

In no particular order…

1.

On a deck at the top of the hill where the river runs wild and loud as the hummingbirds dance ~ while I sing my head off.  Peaceful Valley, Colorado.  The Powers’ family cabin.

peaceful vally, colorado

2.

The meadow in my (recurring) dreams, tall, soft green grass, yellow dandelions grow free and bright ( a place where they are not known as weeds) and I am about four, twirling and dancing and running around.  And the sun is shining warm, and I am aware that God is smiling at me, and so pleased.

the picture gavin took of averi at family reunion in estes park

3.

In the house on any given night when the family all gathers and the room roars with love and laughter and the sound of the grandbebes’ little feet traipsing merrily up-and-down the stairs and gift-wrap paper-wad fights break out and people say nice things to each other and good memories are recalled and released for future times.

4.

In the early, dark morning when Dave puts his hand on me and I know he is praying over my life and my heart, a surge of peace blankets my soul.

Where are your happy places?