Tips From the Radio

This morning, as I was pulling up the shade, listeners from a Christian radio station were giving tips on how to beat those "dreary winter blues."

"Send note cards," one said. "Start exercising," suggested another. One chipper voice advised, "go to a concert!"

I couldn't help but agree that sometimes, the winter can get long and cold. As I pulled back my curtains, I saw there was indeed another gray, cloudy winter morn.

But those suggestions? I've nothing against a good concert or doing a few crunches--but have we ever tried simply abandoning our self-lives (which indeed often become gray and dreary) in exchange for an adventure with the King?

Lauren and I were commenting on the fact that so many people--including Christians--seem to get stuck in this pattern, of doing the same thing, everyday. Get up, go to work, come home, go to bed. Over, and over, and over! With dark winter days, I must admit it would be easy to get in that sort of rut.

However, I'm determined not to fall into that pattern. The Christ-life can be--and is--a thrilling, exciting, radical love-story between you and your Prince.

"But you don't know what it's like for me," you say. "I have no choice over what I do--I have to go to my job, to my school, drive my kids to their activities, to babysit, to make dinner..."

We may not always have a choice in such things, but we do have choice in the way approach them.

A dreary, dark, life, or a light-filled adventure.

You pick.

Matters of the Heart

I had been babysitting all evening, hoping that watching Dora the Explorer and playing matching games would take my mind off of the mysterious subject that had been ailing me, but to no avail. My heart was unusually heavy, and had been for weeks. Telling the adorable three-year-old good-night, I had snuck off to the basement, where I've spent many a precious hour alone with Jesus and a beautiful shiny black upright.

Now something was very wrong with me, and the sweetness of those hours was nowhere to be found. A million thoughts went through my head, and it felt like a cloud separated my heart from His.

Suddenly, I heard tiny footsteps on the carpeted stairs. A figure appeared, smiling and not speaking a word.

"You're supposed to be in bed!" I tried to scold her, but I usually don't have much luck with that because she's just so darn cute.

"I don't want to go to bed," came the expected reply. She happily joined me as I continued to play.

After a few minutes, she cried, "I can't reach my blocks!" and I stopped playing for a moment in order to assist her with this difficult endeavor.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she chanted as she began building.

"Lauren," He whispered, "that's all I want. I want you to want to be with Me. I want you to ask Me for help. I want you to depend on Me and not think anything of it, because that's the way it's supposed to be. I want you to come to Me as a child would, full of sincere hope and wholehearted praise, not a regimented formula that you think will win you a chance at feeling My presence." 

I glanced behind me at this precious little girl who He has used to teach me so many lessons. Smiling, she played with her blocks, content in the fact that she depended upon me for everything. I hoped that she didn't notice the tears that had begun to stream down my cheeks as I continued to play. Just moments later, I heard her voice again.

"I can't reach my puzzles!"

After that:

"I can't find the letter 'K!'"

As I helped her, He spoke again, poignantly addressing the issue that He understood even when I didn't.

Depend on Me. 

He knows so intimately the cause of anything that may be weighing heavily on your heart at this very moment. For me it had a been an unwillingness to rest in Jesus, but you need to let Him overwhelm you with His love, for it is at His feet that you will find the truest joy, the sweetest peace, and the most passionate love that you could ever long for. When it comes to living the life He has called us to, dependence is the first step to independence.

A Call to Anguish

This video changed my life.

So why doesn't it have 400 million views like Justin Bieber?

Because it doesn't make you comfortable. It's not "feel good."

To be honest, I've had quite enough of "feel good." People who "feel good" all of the time never do anything for anyone else- they never learn to die to self.

It's not about us. Yes, our precious God is deeply, deeply in love with us, but that doesn't mean that we get to step back and say, "Wow, that's great! I hope everyone else understands that, too," because they don't. Most people don't have a clue that God loves them the way He does. I'm just beginning to understand it myself.

So, please, please, please, if you do nothing else today, watch this video. Then go touch someone else with the love of God- it may be ours, but it's ours to share.

Saturday Selections from Our Bookshelf: If

"If the moment I am conscious of the

shadow of self crossing the

threshold,

I do not shut the door,

and in the power of Him who

works in us to will and to do,

keep that door shut,

then I know nothing of Calvary love."

When my Grandmother asked me for a Christmas wish list, I sat at Amazon's website and stared. I, who needed absolutely nothing, was at a complete loss. Somehow, Amy Carmichael crossed my mind, and I decided to search for some of her books. If was near the top of the list, so I decided to add it to mine. 

If you've never heard of Amy Carmichael, she was a missionary in India for fifty-six years. At a young age she left everything behind to follow the call of Christ, rescuing orphans from temple prostitution and beginning a community for them that still exists today. What I admire most about Amy was that she was completely dead to self and alive to Christ- she was in love with Jesus, and she let Him be everything in her life. That was what set her apart to Him, and why her life was such a beautiful picture of selflessness. 

If is an incredibly short book. In fact, I read the whole thing in less than an hour. Still, it's life-changing. Amy's beautiful, short descriptions of what Calvary love really is are powerful and full of bold truth- she's not afraid of being honest. 

Since there are too many wonderful things about this book to tell you about in one little post, I'll just finish this off with a quote that sums up Amy's walk with Christ and her implicit trust in Him.

"Trust Me, My child," He says. "Trust Me with a humbler heart and fuller abandon to My will than ever thou didst before. Trust Me to pour My love trough thee, as minute suceeds minute. And if thou shouldst be conscious of anything hindering the flow, do not hurt My love by going away from Me in discouragement, for nothing can hurt love so much as that. Draw all the closer to Me; come, flee unto Me to hide thee, even from thyself. Tell Me about the trouble. Trust Me to turn My hand upon thee and throughly to remove the boulder that has choked thy riverbed, and take away all the sand that has silted up the channel. I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. I will perfect that which concerneth thee. Fear thou not, O child of My love; fear not."  

Perspective

Have you ever thought about looking at your surroundings in a different way? I love to do just that. If you ever catch me just staring off in the distance, it's probably because I'm thinking about perspective.

I suppose it began as a kid, when imagination was so real, it was almost reality. With perspective, I imagined what is was like to be a pioneer, an Indian, or a sailor on a ship.

While I'm no longer in the habit of playing the roles of Laura Ingalls, Swift Foot, or Captian Hook, I still love perspective. It's such a pleasure to look at things in a different way.

Yet, with all that said, I so often forget to even take a glimpse at things through the eyes of our Lord. Not sure how? Open your Bible--and get a look at your King's heart.

From my perspective, everything seems so uncertain. Perhaps from your perspective, it seems as though things won't work out, or that your little "vacation" from your study in the Word doesn't really matter.

Oh, but what a keen perspective our God has! The journey of our life? Well, God wrote the story. Our straying from Him? He knows our thoughts, every moment.

Our King made the pearl-like bumps on a starfish, the music of birds, the tallest mountain, the mightiest miracles, the spots on a ladybug, --and details like that--big or small, simply give me thrill.

And it is He who longs for us to surrender ourselves to Him.

If we live with that perspective, what a life we shall live!

The Power of Testimony

I've met some interesting people over the last few years and, as a direct result, have come into contact with so many questions and stories and thoughts to ponder. So many people are searching for something (or, should I say, Someone) who has been right beside them all along.

"Well, how do you know He exists?"
"Why is there pain and suffering?"
"Why doesn't He feel close to me?"
"Why?"
"Why?"
"Why?"

It would be easy to give a generic, Christianese answer. "Because God is love, and...He loves us...and...Jesus died on the cross...and..." but that really doesn't cut it when someone has heard and believed that their whole life long and things have never gotten any better.

I was on the phone the other day with a dear sister in Christ, and she brought to my attention a story that is so powerful it knocks the socks off of every cliche "Christian" answer I could possibly give. And it's true. And it didn't happen 2,000 years ago.

There was a man who had been in a severe accident that severed his entire body in half.

Ouch.

Anyway, He should've been dead- no one had ever survived such an accident. But there were angels at the scene- the man saw them- and he was brought to the hospital, still alive.

The doctors told him that his small intenstine was missing, and, because of this, he was going to die. There was no way for his body to digest anything, and he couldn't receive the nutrients he needed any other way.

Meanwhile, a man in a different state felt God tell him to get on a plane and fly to this hospital and pray for a specific man who he knew absolutely nothing about. The man obeyed, and flew to the hospital, finding the dying man God had spoken of. He laid hands on him and prayed.

The man lying on his deathbed began to feel something in his abdomen- his small intestine instantly grew back. The x-rays proved it.

You can't tell me there's no God. And you can't tell me that He doesn't heal people anymore, because it's simply not true. Next time you need an "answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have," (1 Peter 3:15) just remember the power of testimony.

A New Year

Oh God, my times are in you hand: look with favor, I pray, on your servant, as I begin another year. Grant that I may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen my trust in your goodness all the days of my life; through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

-The Book of Common Prayer