God’s not beyond getting small

“Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20

I heard something today and the gist of it was, true love always involves some kind of sacrifice. Like what God Himself did on the cross. He wasn’t below getting small. We are getting to the time of the year when we celebrate that. God getting small.

God doing something radical like becoming a baby in a manger.

That’s what I love about the God we serve. There is nothing He wouldn’t do to show His love for us. When we call on Him in prayer, He answers. And sometimes, His deliverance is immediate. Like the other day. It was my last day with my family and something had happened the precious night that was distressing. My sleep was fitful and I tossed and turned, my only comfort the trains that passed in the night. I have always loved to hear trains in the night.

In the morning, I was still ticked. My anger flared anew. It was a choice I had to make and I didn’t want my last day there to be wasted. I wanted love to win out. I needed peace, and yet I drew the covers over my head not wanting to face the day. Defiant.

Anger seeks a target and sometimes it has unintended victims. I didn’t want that pall over the day. I had a choice to make.

So I prayed there in the dark. And just like that, it was gone like a vapor. The Lord was with me under those covers and He heard my prayer in the dark. He made Himself small in those quiet moments before dawn, all of a sudden.

It was resurrection Morning.

And time after time, day after day. It’s Easter all over again.

That’s the God I love.

Thoughts at week’s end

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3

There is a day set aside for all activity and clamor to cease. Sunday is a day to take a deep breath, look back on the week and breathe a prayer of thanks that God got you through it all. That’s what I did this morning. I think it’s important to have one day singled out where we: “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

We live in a loud brash world, and each day it crashes in on us. Yet throughout the workweek there are those moments of peace that come. One night on my way home I was sitting at a stop light waiting for the green, when overhead there came a flock of Canadian geese. I watched as the lead goose took his place at the front. I watched their perfect flight formation and I marveled at how God has created them to do that. What is it about nature that makes us stare in astonishment at times? It’s as if the whole world stops for a moment.

Or maybe that’s just me. Nature has always brought me a strong sense of wonder, but that wonder only creates in me a powerful sense of God Himself. Some people just marvel at nature and stop there. While that is possible, I believe we miss something huge when we don’t then turn that marveling into Worship and Praise to the God who created it all.

How hard is it to imagine eternity when you are standing at the edge of the ocean? I believe God gives us these moments in order to point the way to something even bigger, even more perfect. I can just hear Him say, “If you think there is beauty here, just wait until you see what I have prepared for you in Heaven!

Now, all the noise, all the rushing, all the driving, all the phones are silent.

Today, I receive God again here in the place of pausing. Once again, He has brought me through another challenging week as He always does.

Selah.

Today I fly out to California to see my family. I am looking forward to the moment I see those faces, and one very excited girl……..her “Aunt Nori” is coming.

No more goodbyes

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4

When the girl at the airport hears the announcement that her plane is starting to board, she turns to the boy who is seeing her off. “I guess this is goodbye,” she says.

The noise of the traffic almost drowns out the sound of the word, but the shape of it lingers on the old man’s lips. He tries to look vigorous and resourceful as he holds out his hand to the other old man. “Goodbye.” This time they say it so nearly in unison that it makes them both smile.

The poignancy of “Goodbye.” Frederick Buechner captures the tragedy and sadness of it beautifully in today’s reading from “Listening to Your Life.” I remembered this one as soon as I flipped the page, because at some point I had circled the date on it. It always rocks me to the core, because this is the essence of what it means to feel the sorrow of the fall.

We were never meant for death or any kind of goodbyes for that matter. He never desired it or designed us for it. That all came when we presumed to know better and went for that one forbidden thing He knew would separate ourselves from Him forever. And this of course, is the whole reason Jesus came. That we might be able to banish that word from our experience and vocabulary forever. In His great mercy, He has given us a second chance to trust His love.

The swift passage of time startles me into the realization that I don’t have much of it left. I am ready to be done with coming and going. Regularly, I have to board a plane and leave one home for another. I have done it for years now, and it only gets harder. I pray that God will grant me this one wish. Because goodbyes are like a little bit of hell, over and over again. Selfishly, I want everyone in one place. There, I said it.

And yet, it would be wrong to describe the sorrow of goodbye without the Heavenly joy of the greetings I cherish on arrival. If I never have to board a plane again, I will always remember the hopeful joy in their faces, the shriek of delight at seeing me grinning my way down that escalator jostling my luggage. The arms held open……..Yes, that right there is a little bit of the sweetness of Heaven.

And always someone on each end to welcome me home.

The Table

Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:25

There’s a place I know, maybe you’ve been there too. And centered in that place, there’s something we all gather around regularly though not nearly as much as we used to. If I close my eyes I can hear chairs scraping back and the clink of spoons stirring sugar or cream. I can hear dishes rattling and greetings of welcome. Mind you, it’s not the actual table that makes the magic happen, it’s the incredible women around it. Maybe what you have is a rickety old card table with wobbly legs, or one well used with scars from years of dinners served and children’s crayons gone astray. Maybe it’s even one that’s polished and reserved for the best company. It’s not the table that matters anyway.

What sets this table apart from others is that Jesus is always the guest of honor. And at His table there’s always room for one more. At this table love and grace are served up in healthy portions; they flow as freely as the coffee and tea. At this table you never have to worry about saying the wrong thing. This is a table where Jesus is. I know it, because I have seen Him there, reflected in the easy laughter and love on each face.

Another thing about this table is that you never have to worry you’ll be given that “look” you know the one I mean, the one I call the “up and down.” I bet you have been the recipient of this a time or too, and yes, sometimes in church. It’s like they’re trying to decide whether you’re suitable enough to join their congregation. No, at this table there is room for imperfection, in fact it is encouraged. More often than not, conversation will flow around what was done wrong during the past week than what was done right.

Sometimes things stay on track and all the questions in the study are answered, but sometimes people get to talking and laughing about something that happened during the week and they only get to question 3. And then, sometimes a deep need is sensed and someone has an opportunity to unload the burden they walked in with. Here at this table, a hurting soul is never ignored and burdens carried in need never be carried out.

When we hold our heartaches and cares up to the Light in prayer together they become small in the shadow of the Cross.

These women I know, and maybe you know them too, are not just church ladies as they might be described somewhere else. These are warriors, Disciples, followers of the Way. They’ve looked death, destruction, illness, and heartache in the face and haven’t backed down. They take risks and are not afraid to go out into their world to take the love of God to others. They knock on the doors of strangers because that’s what Jesus would have them do.

They are the backbones of their families, often putting themselves last and thinking nothing of it. They are far from perfect and will be the first to tell you that, but they’ll also tell you about their Father who is.

This table is a place where for an hour or so a week, Heaven touches down to earth and no one leaves quite the same as when they came in. And no one ever goes away empty.

This post is dedicated to my Mom’s Bible study, those faithful ladies, all of whom I am honored to call my friends, my sisters. I love you all and I love you Mom for introducing me to women’s Bible studies and the tables past and present. They will remain with me forever. This post is also dedicated to strong women everywhere who carry the love of Christ wherever they go, no matter what the cost. Jesus loves you and is honored by your lives the way He always honored women when He was down here on earth. I don’t think it was an accident that He chose Mary to be the first to see Him after the resurrection. He values you and me!

A very Present help……..

God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Psalm 46:1-3

The Holy Spirit loves us with a love that is so fierce, so deep we can scarcely imagine it. How else can you explain His willingness to come and take up residence inside us? Voluntarily. It’s beyond humbling.

He lives quietly and sorrowfully day after day as He sees how I fritter away time and opportunity and douse my hours with endless fear and worry. And still, He’s there to celebrate my little joys as well. What a gentleman God is. Big enough to keep the universe in motion with less than a thought, and yet small enough to fill up the hollowed out places inside me.

He watches and waits as I churn myself up inside with everything that doesn’t matter and some things that do but that I can’t fix anyway and then He takes the leftover space in my heart, my mind. It’s this backwards kind of living that gets us every time. Some things have seeped in though.

I know that starting the day seeking Him first always works. And I know that He will never leave me, that’s a promise He will never break. And that’s good to know in the wee hours of the morning when I can’t sleep.

Thank you Lord, for being there as you always are at 2 AM. I am not sure why You selected that time, but I have come to think of it as Ours. All this time I have been blaming the cat and it’s been You. Maybe that’s the only time you can really get my full attention. And thank you for letting me fall back asleep afterwards.

I think maybe you spend our whole lives trying to get us to get just this one lesson:

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;

Amen. I think it may be starting to sink in………

There remains a Sabbath rest……….

“There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the One who has entered His rest has Himself also rested from His works, as God did from His.” Hebrews 4:9,10

The chair creaked as I settled into it in the dim light of early morning. The first line of my prayer was a grateful sigh. There are times when sighs can be prayers. The end of the week once more and I wondered again at how I got here so fast. Settling into sabbath…..I gazed down the trail of years, wondered and wandered along the halls of my memories.

As I wandered, images and sounds came softly, floating over and through and then emotions along with them following close behind. “A Mighty Fortress” was the theme song of the little claymation cartoon I used to watch on Sunday mornings before church, Davy and Goliath.

I hear the echo of our voices in the upper room where we had children’s church and then after, Sunday lunch at Helwigs, Chicken on a Bun. And my Grandma sighing out loud and crinkling her Reeds wrappers while the Pastor is speaking, and my Mom being so embarrassed.

I remembered the way the light slanted the shadows as we walked to Sunday evening service on warm summer nights. And there was choir practice and the rustle of robes coming off hangers and the silence right after we all stood as one and waited for those first notes from the piano.

Service upon service……all through the years. All through the denominations, each one I loved in different ways. I hear the rustling of onion-skin pages as we all found our places as one. I find myself sometimes missing those days before iPads and iPhones in church.

As the candle flickers in the corner, these are the Holy gifts I unwrap one by one.

And someday, I will unwrap these days too.

This is Sabbath rest right here and now.

Enter into Sabbath rest

And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us. Acts 16:13-15

I love the imagery of this verse……I like to think of Paul and Timothy and that group of women praying by the river. And Lydia, a well to do successful business woman, who was receiving those words into her heart. I think of how the Holy Spirit forbade Paul and Timothy to go all those other places but that He sent them there, to Macedonia. And that He chose a woman, Lydia, to be the first convert in Europe.

This morning as my fingers fly over the keyboards…….I pause every now and again to meditate and let my words fall where they may.

Pandora is playing Holy, Holy, Holy by David Nevue in the background. And it is Holy here in this place.

In my quiet place today, I read of where Elijah was taken up to Heaven in the Chariots of Fire, and Elisha, the farmer who took his place performing miracles, healing the Shunammite woman’s son. The son she never thought she would have. She was a wealthy woman too, and offered Elijah food whenever he passed by there. She even went to far as to fix him up a little guest room.

Can you imagine fixing up a guest room for Elijah??

We are rich, my friends. We have all these people, these heroes of the faith. They are all our relatives. These are our heritage, our Heavenly family. And someday in the future, we will all sit by the River of Life basking in the glow of the Lamb, looking forward to a future we could scarcely imagine while here on earth.

I leave you to your own meditation now…………and wherever your feet may take you today, I hope you take your Sabbath rest along with you. Thank God for the week you just passed through, knowing those burdens are behind you. Breathe deep, take in the Peace that passes understanding. We rest in Grace my friends.

I leave you with this little poem by Hafiz, which I just discovered in my travels along the internet.

Once a young woman said to me, “Hafiz, what

is the sign of someone who knows God?”

I became very quiet, and looked deep into her

eyes, then replied

“My dear, they have dropped the knife. Someone

who knows God has dropped the cruel knife

that most so often use upon their tender self

and others.”

Deep calls to deep

Some people think nature calls in a soft voice. I think it shouts quietly. There’s a difference.

What’s it shouting you say?

Things aren’t always what they seem…….like this bloom from a lowly thistle we know as the artichoke plant.

Do you see the bee? I almost missed it, and I took the picture a year ago.

There is a whole universe wrapped up in your back yard.

Just step out the door and open your eyes.

And you will see God.

He is waiting to fill us……so that we may never thirst for anything else. He calls us to the deep end.

It’s easy to tread water when you know you can touch bottom.

He’s calling us to swim further out.

Better yet, just jump.

He has never once failed to catch me.

Tired of treading water in the cesspool of worry?

Stop treading and float, my friends.

I took my troubles to the LORD; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. Psalm 120:1

Craving some Peace today?

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:7

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

What would happen if we all just ceased striving for one day? Left our cars in the driveway. Let the stack of bills sit……let the dust bunnies roll around and settle in the corner. How quiet it would be if we didn’t hear the sound of the washer, if we didn’t hear one car on the street.

What if people put down their weapons of war for just one day and asked themselves what they are truly fighting for? It’s never happened yet but it’s something to think about. The Bible says that in the future there will be such a time, Isaiah’s vision for peace:

People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways,
    and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion;
    his word will go out from Jerusalem.
The Lord will mediate between nations
    and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into plowshares
    and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will no longer fight against nation,
    nor train for war anymore.

We live in a time of continual striving. It’s become our normal, especially in America. Even if our bodies are relaxed and peaceful, our minds are going a million miles an hour. We have to train ourselves to relax because we don’t know how. We have all the drugs in the world to prove it. But only Jesus can give us the kind of peace we truly seek. The peace that satisfies. The peace that remains no matter the circumstance.

I often walk past this little dove. She is sitting in perfect peace amidst all these thorns in the crux of this huge cactus. We live in the world which has much turmoil right now, thorns everywhere we turn. But if we take a deep breath and slow down, peace is possible. We don’t have to fear the thorns. I have watched this Mama dove weather many summer storms but she peers out at me as if to say…..”See, not to worry, I am still here.”

I am praying for peace today, not the kind the world gives, the kind Jesus gives. The kind that settles deep in your heart and lodges there like a calm lake without one ripple. No matter what else is going on in your life, ask the Lord for that peace. He is generous with it. If you find yourself in turmoil today, slow down. Rest easy. Do one thing at a time and focus on only that one thing and then go on to the next. That way you won’t be overwhelmed.

Soon you will find that lake of peace that rests deep in your soul. I leave you with a little Psalm………….

He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth;
He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two;
He burns the chariots with fire.
Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46: 9,10

I give you Buechner……I give you today.

Reading from the devotional book, “Listening to Your Life” by Frederick Buechner:

September 1

It is a moment of light surrounded on all sides with darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it again. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all.

“This is the day that The Lord has made,” say the 118th Psalm. “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life that you’re wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that you’re missing.

All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from them. Today is the only day there is.

Whew…..few writers like that guy. Even when capturing the beauty of the moment, he comes off a little fatalistic, but then again, life is pretty fatalistic. The point is to treasure each day as if it’s the only one you have, for it just may be, and then eternity awaits. Embrace the joy of this new day, because there is always reason to hope…..to dance.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever……….Psalm 118:29

photo taken in Moss Landing, California

Lori's Prayer Closet

"And when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done is secret, will reward you……"Matthew 6:6

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