Sanctification
The Better Thing
If God offered you an angelic escort throughout your day, would you accept?
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? To have one of God’s powerful, created beings alongside for all things momentous and mundane? Seems to me that would provide a sense of peace and assurance, as well as accountability.
Moses and the Israelites got that offer from God in Exodus 33:
I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
— Exodus 33:2 NIV
In the next verse God explains why (a result of the egregious golden calf incident of Exodus 32):
“Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”
— Exodus 33:3 NIV
God essentially says He’ll spare the Israelites from His wrath by sending an angel powerful enough to rid the land of their enemies instead of going with them Himself. On the surface it doesn’t seem like a bad deal, does it? My pastor recently pointed out, however, that Moses knew better: Read More
Grace Day
It comes every year on May 30th.
My husband’s birthday. I usually plan months in advance, thinking of ways to surprise and bless him, to honor him on the day of his birth. I look forward to celebrating, eager to shower him with affection and anxious for him to unwrap his gifts.
Birthday cake made from favorite candy and toilet paper rolls -- a nod to a marriage-long inside joke.
But he doesn’t share my enthusiasm. For almost as long as we’ve been married, I observe a reluctance to mark the occasion. A cloud-like malaise and general agitation sets in at least a week before his birthday and lingers for days afterwards. It doesn’t seem to correlate specifically with the number of his years; I noted this pattern before he even hit 30.
Instead, it seems to have everything to do with achievement. The passage of another year seems to be an implicit yardstick for how much he has accomplished in his lifetime. Each May 30th measures out not just the number of days and years that have elapsed but rather how much he believes he should have done by now. Read More
His Alone
Two sports. Same season. Vastly different results.
My daughter has been playing basketball in a non-school league, as mentioned in On the Court: Part I and Part II. During exactly the same timeframe, she’s also been competing on her school’s track team. In terms of success, the two experiences have been diametrically different.
In track, she’s been her team’s lead female runner in the 1600M, earning the highest place for the school in each meet even if she didn’t win. On the basketball court, however, her team has suffered excruciating losses, logging 30 and 50 point deficits with nary a win for the entire season. Read More
Falling Fresh
She seemed glazed and disconnected.
As I sat on the edge of her bed, my daughter expressed a lack of desire to spend time in Sunday school, youth group and even small group. Her complaint: boredom.
The same stories.
The same lessons.
The same characters.
Yawn.
She’s right. We read the same passages over and over again. Paul starts to sound like that friend from high school who insists on recounting his adolescent antics at every reunion. The mere mention of Mary and Martha’s disagreement makes me want to go clean my refrigerator. We must have heard the account of Jesus feeding the 5000 once for every person He fed that day. Read More
In the dark. But never alone.
The night must have seemed exceptionally dark.
In Genesis 32, we find Jacob fleeing his uncle Laban and returning to his homeland to face the brother he’d deceived many years prior. He was fearful of this fated reunion, dividing his family and property into groups to prevent losing them all if Esau attacked (Genesis 32:7, 8).
The night before the two shall meet, Jacob separates himself from his family. In the dark of the night he wrestles with a man — who turns out to be God in an angelic, physical body — until the break of day. Jacob’s dark and sleepless night probed my heart this week, exposing the faulty way I’m prone to view my struggles: Read More
On the Court: Part I
My daughter plays basketball.
That, in and of itself, is a pure wonder to me since I still duck and/or scream when a ball is thrown in my general direction. (Go ahead, mock me.) I take delight in watching her play with her team the same way I reveled in her first steps as a toddler: it thrills me.
Being in the gym during a game is, however, an assault on my senses. It’s crowded. Cracked plastic bleachers force me to constantly shift in my seat. The visual stimulus of a rapidly-moving game keeps my eyes darting up and down the court. But it’s the sound that really overwhelms me. Read More
First Light
I wasn’t sure I liked what it said.
My pastor suggested reading Psalm 63 as a daily practice during Lent. I embarked on it with anticipation, certain that I’d have the whole thing memorized by Easter just from reading it consistently. Day in and day out, I was pricked by just the first verse, the first few words:
You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
— Psalm 63:1a NIV
The word earnestly was my sticking point. It seemed to be the critical word in the sentence and yet I was uncertain of its intended meaning. Read More
Sojourning through life
Our image of vacation is distorted.
We fantasize about a glorious adventure or sublime relaxation. But does it usually happen the way the travel websites portray it?
For me, vacation begins with hours of research, sleuthing out the most economical flight and lodging arrangements to fit in our budget. Those hours disappear into the cavernous void of internet searches.
There’s also a bit of stress leading up to our departure, often imposed by my insistence that the house be sparklingly clean before we walk out the door (it’s a thing I have). And the last minute errands to procure whatever ‘necessity’ I’m certain we can’t do without for the coming days.
Those issues were just the beginning of the complications we faced on an trip we took overseas last summer. Read More
Faithful and Just
He had lied. I gently confronted him in a moment of vulnerability and he confessed.
The topic of my son’s lie is essentially irrelevant — most children lie at some point, which means that many of you can relate to a parent’s perspective without my detailing it here.
Earlier in the day, my husband quizzed him about something we suspected he’d done and was met with vehement denial. When I later inquired again, his eyes fell and a quiet confession escaped his lips. We squared the issue and I encouraged him to apologize to his father for the layer of deceit. Read More
Un-Doing
Sometimes I add already completed items to my ‘To Do’ list just to have the satisfaction of striking a line through it.
Perhaps that makes me a productivity addict?
Until recently, I thought this compulsion was benign… just my personality or temperament. God’s been putting the notion of rest in front of me lately and showing me how my drive to ‘do’ has crept into my relationship with Him and my understanding of how He views me. It started with Jeannette Duwe’s post on the Ironing Board. And then He drove the message home in my heart this weekend at a retreat with the youth group. Read More