Balancing Act

 

Watching my granddaughter learn to walk has reminded me of how important balance is if we want to move forward.

From very early in her new life, her legs have been yearning and churning to move!  Try to change her diaper if you don't believe me.  If you're not careful, those flailing feet can do some damage!!

She wants to move.  As she grows and matures, she has moved from reclined kicking, to creeping and crawling, to the much anticipated wobbly walking.

I love to watch how focused she is as she goes from a stationary sit to a straddled stand.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  She plants her feet so that she has a wide base.  Then she slowly reaches out with her arms as she strives for steadiness.  Then slowly and deliberately she engages her leg muscles as she begins to stand upright.

TA DA!

But she is not satisfied with merely standing still.  She wants to move!  She has places to go and things to explore. 

It occurred to me that whether we are talking about physically walking or spiritually walking, we all want/should/need to move forward.  Physically speaking, when someone cannot walk, it is recognized as a handicap and special provisions are made.  Spiritually speaking, as long as we are alive God expects us to grow, mature, and move forward.  If we are not walking and moving forward in our spiritual maturity, what is blocking our growth?

To help us with this one, let's take this spiritual/physical thing a step further.

In the church culture, we talk about being reborn.  Therefore, at the beginning of our walk as a born-again believer, we are mere infants.  We need someone to bottlefeed us, so to speak. 

Unfortunately, this is where some believers are satisfied to stop and, even more unfortunate, some churches are satisfied with leaving their newest additions.

Think about that--parents who are willing to bring new infants into existence, but don't want to help the newbies grow up.  "I just want more babies!" 

Why would anyone want to do that?! 

Well, let's admit it.  Babies are cute.  Plus, those who have helped babies grow into adults know that babies are demanding, but sometimes changing a messy diaper is an easier and less painful parenting task than watching a maturing child make messy mistakes.

Helping an offspring mature requires time, energy, and financial resources.  It takes more energy to practise walking with a toddler or to chase after a careening bicycle than it does to corral the kid in a crib.  An education is expensive.  And let's face it walking, pedaling, and learning take a lot of time for both the student and the teacher.

The same can be said of spiritual babies. 

In order to properly care for spiritual babies, there need to be spiritual parents to help them grow during the different levels of maturity.  We don't leave the birthing room expecting our physical offspring to walk, and we shouldn't expect our spiritual babes to come out of the baptismal ready to hit the road running. 

Yet helping the new believer mature may require more time, energy, and financial resources than some want to invest.

Continuing with my analogy, the natural progression is for physical children to progress from fully dependant to fully independant individuals over the course of time.  Personally, I don't want my children to be infants forever.  Although I was happy to provide feeding and diaper changing services to them as newborns, I am glad I don't have to provide those same services for my adult children.

Which brings me back to the issue of balance. 

Just as a society needs procreation to continue, a church needs both infants and adults to be healthy and growing.  Only mature oldies?  The church ceases to exist as its numbers naturally decrease as they become deceased.  Only aged immatures?  Many monster messes with no one to clean them up!

If your church invests in growth, get involved.  And don't just learn for learning's sake.  Use what you learn, for goodness sake!  Grow up and then invest in the youngsters around you.  And then help them grow so that they can  help others grow.  (Don't even get me started on the joys of being a grandparent!!!)

If your church doesn't offer opportunities to grow...maybe it's time to make a change.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.    Ephesians 4:14-15

Legendary Wedding

Some dream about them--those to come as well as those that have passed. Some avoid them.  Some refuse to participate in them.  Some want to be a part of them. Some want to redefine them. Some want theirs to finally come...or finally be over. 

Weddings usually illicit some kind of emotional reaction.

Well, the other day I was thinking about weddings.  A specific wedding as a matter of fact.  I was studying ancient Jewish weddings.  The Bible is full of them.  Jesus performed His first miracle at a wedding--against His wishes I might add.  (The fact that He did it because His mother asked Him too is pretty cool in this mother's opinion!)

But that wasn't the wedding that had caught my attention.  It was the "Wedding of the Lamb" in Revelation that had me thinking about weddings.

I was studying an old tradition, when I found a new thought. 

When I found this new thought I couldn't help but share it with my husband and son.  Obviously from the reception I received when I told them I wanted to tell them what I had found, weddings were not high on their priority list.  And weddings may not occupy your mind today. 

But will you humor me and let me share my thought?

In the Jewish tradition, the person who shows the most joy at a wedding is the groom. Now, before your mind starts jumping to conclusions about why he is so joyous...just rest on the fact that the groom is the most joyous participant.  In the Jewish community this fact was even labeled legendary according to what I read.

Now consider that God often refers to believers as the church.  He is also the one that has orchestrated the final preparations for this wedding feast in heaven. The church is the bride at this final wedding feast. She will be beautifully adorned.  Radiant. 

And Jesus Christ is the groom.

So here is the new thought that had me so excited I just had to tell you--you may be way ahead of me and have already thought this, but it was new to me:

I have often let my mind run wild with Mercy Me and Amy Grant as I sang with them I Can Only Imagine.  But not once in my wildest imagination, did I ever picture Jesus being more demonstratively joyous about my being there than I was about finally reaching that holy of holies heavenly alter. 

...as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 62:5b

I have a shovel...

Metter, Georgia.  I lived in Georgia for five years and didn't really know where it was exactly.  I knew when I drove from Savannah to Indiana, that before reaching Macon I passed a sign that pointed to Metter.  But I had never been there.  Yet after we moved to Iowa, I was drawn to Metter.  After one of our return trips to visit family in southern Georgia, we specifically planned our trip to include a brief stop there.

Why?  Because I wanted to visit the Guido Gardens.  Michael Guido's story intrigued me and inspired me.  He has a prospering ministry in the little rural town of Metter and I wanted to see it for myself.  I knew of him because of his radio ministry and his "Seeds from the Sower" broadcasts. 

But when I visited the gardens, I found out that it was much more.  Their ministry has a wide variety of media components.  In addition to radio, they also have TV, print, and internet capabilities. They have educational programs to train others to spread the good news of the gospel. It has a worldwide outreach. 

I have heard many wonderful truths from the message seeds planted by this sower.  But the message that drew me to the gardens that day was one not publicized by the Guido media, but one I had heard when Michael Guido and his wife were interviewed.  The reporter asked the Guidos how they managed to build the expensive equipment-filled studios and their beautiful garden.  That answer is what drew me to Metter.
The answer to that question appears on their website as follows:

At the start of their ministry, Dr. and Mrs. Guido committed themselves to rely exclusively on God for all of their needs; never asking for money or selling items to raise it.

Dr. Guido went on to explain that when they had a need, any need, big or small, they would post it on a bulletin board and the staff would pray for it.  If they needed a shovel, they asked God to provide a shovel.  The stories of how God provided blew me away!  After posting and praying for the needed item, someone would contact them wanting to donate that particular item.  "I have a shovel..."

God, help me be that kind of person.

Master Craftsman

A few months ago I told you about my antique rocking chair.  The one I sat on and broke.  Yeah, that one.  Well, yesterday my family presented it to me as a Mother's Day gift.  Restored.  Whole.  Stable. Beautiful.

When it broke, I didn't know how to fix it.  To me it appeared beyond repair.  Unable to bear throwing it in the trash, I stored the broken pieces in the attic.

But my husband had another idea.  He took the chair to a craftsman for repair.  And in the hands of a master, my shattered chair was restored to its former beauty and is even stronger than it was before the crash.

God does the same with our personal disasters.  What may appear beyond repair to the human eye, is a miracle waiting to happen in the hands of the Master.  Romans 8:28 says "God causes all things to work together for good."  In the Revelation 21:5 He says "I am making all things new."

Notice that both of these say "ALL THINGS".  So don't even think for a minute that He can't fix the mess you have created in your own life.  I've created a few messes in my life, but I am not without hope. 

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8

Yes, my God is all that!

Dimes in the Darndest Places

I love to travel, but I hate to travel alone.  Sometimes, however, I just have to. 
And this was one of those times.



I had just had the most wonderful January weekend with my husband in the Seattle area. We had just snowshoe hiked on Mt. Rainier, witnessed glaciers, travelled to the top of the Space Needle, and shopped in the Pike Place Market.

Monday morning came and he had to get to work and I had to return home.  Alone. I had an appointment on Tuesday afternoon and my flight was scheduled to arrive late Monday night.  It was raining in Seattle when I departed, but that is nothing new.

For some reason it took forever for my plane to get off of the ground and into the air.  The flight was running behind and everyone on the plane was stressing about making connections in Atlanta.  The ATL.  I have flown in and out of there enough times to know that delays in Atlanta are almost a given.  I wasn't too worried about it.  I knew I was on the last flight out to Wilmington, but they had had all day to get behind schedule.  However, I breathed a prayer asking for favor with my flight connection.

I arrived in Atlanta with thirty minutes before my flight was to depart.  No problem, I thought.  I know the airport well and was prepared to make a mad dash to my gate.  I jogged as fast as my legs and carry-on bag would allow and arrived at the gate to find...the door closed.  Breathless, I gasped, "What!?!?"  Her reply, "We didn't think you would be able to make it in time."

So me and my carry on made our way to get our prearranged hotel arrangement voucher and a boarding pass for Tuesday morning from the Delta counter.  We stood outside at ground transportation waiting for our shuttle to a hotel I had never heard of.  Other shuttles came and went and returned, but a few of us continued to wait.  We even had the excitement of seeing an unattended bag being confiscated by airport security. 

It was actually colder in Atlanta, Georgia, than it had been the entire weekend in Washington. I had a ski jacket, boots, mittens, etc., all packed in my bag that was sitting snuggly somewhere in the airport.

I cringed as we arrived at the hotel.  It was nearing midnight by now.  I requested a 5 am wakeup call and found the elevator to my room.  The sign on the door said "no smoking" but the guest before me must not have seen it.

I dropped my belongings on the bed and picked up my cell to call my husband.  I was mad at the airline, disgusted with the hotel, concerned about tomorrow's appointment, and tired.  All good excuses to have a good cry about now.

Before speed-dialing my man, I remembered my request for God's favor with my connection.  Why hadn't He granted me favor?  It wasn't because I didn't ask this time. I did.  Now I added the feeling of being ignored to my list of excuses to cry.  But no tears fell.

I was being a big baby.  Big deal.  A night in Atlanta.  So what?  For crying out loud!

I hit the send button on my phone.  My husband answered and I began to tell him about my situation. I spelled it out in great detail...the late arrival, the closed door, the frigid wait. And as I started to plop down on the chair so that I could give a few details about my accommodations, God showed up at my pity party. Even when it wasn't a big deal. There, barely visible in the dimly lit room, was a dime--wedged between the arm and cushion of the chair. The tears began to freely flow at that point.  I interrupted myself as I said, "I found a dime."

My husband knows what dimes mean to me.  When I find a dime, it is a tangible sign from God that He is aware and that He cares.  God may have answered "no" to my prayer for favor with my connection, but that did not mean that I did not have His favor.  He knew right where I was.  And in the midst of my pity party, He said, "I care."

Get out of Jail Free

The conversation began with my son saying, "Do you know what intrigues me?" 

My not-so-intelligent reply, "Uhhh...no." 

"If I were Paul, and in prison, and God sent an earthquake, and the doors opened, and the chains fell off, I'd be thanking God and getttin' outta there!  Why did Paul stay?"

Good question.

It got me thinking...what is it that makes us stay even when we don't have to?  I mean in a good "stay" way.  Not a bad "stay" like when God frees us from our stuff and we continue to lug it around with us as if we are still tied to it.  But the good kind of "stay", like when our circumstances make us want to get outta Dodge, but we don't.

And how do you know when to go and when to stay?  I tend to second guess myself (major understatement!!)  Was it God getting me out of a mess I got myself into and I need to give Him the glory and go, or am I in the perfect will of God and need to stay and finish well?  Even after being beaten with a stick and thrown in jail, Paul didn't seem to waiver on whether to stay or go.  He stayed.

I can't answer for Paul, but for me I'd have to say I go back to my purpose...or rather God's purpose for me.  What has God asked me to do?  Does this offer me an opportunity to do that?  Then I stay.

My Cheating Heart

Look for this book to be released in June by Bethany House .  My story is entitled "My Cheating Heart".  I pray that God will use one of my most shameful life experiences to His glory.  It is worth sharing if I can help someone else avoid the poor choices I made during that time of my life.  I soooo wish I were perfect.  I am sooooooo sure that I am NOT.  This story proves it  : )