I confess that I suck when it comes to appreciating what I have. I tend to yearn and envy over what others have that I wish I had. I grumble about all that I’d like to have that I think I need and still don’t have.
But gratitude, as I read recently, makes what you have enough. Joy makes your days full.
It can be a rude awakening when you see others who would give anything for those little things you take for granted– shelter, clothing, food, access to clean water, family, friends.
There are people who would do just about anything to have one of your bad days. Think about that. Your worst days are still better than what a lot of people would consider one of their good days.
Sometimes, what we take for granted gets taken, and only then do we fully appreciate what we had. So maybe start a daily habit of giving thanks for all the good things in your life, including those seemingly insignificant and minute things. Usually, those end up being the best things.
I’m asking the question again. I keep bringing it up because there’s nothing more soul-crushing than unforgiveness and bitterness (and conversely, nothing is more freeing than forgiveness and grace).
You need to forgive because
God forgave you. What anyone else has done to do or will ever do to you pales in comparison of how much you have rebelled against God. Jesus told a parable likening it to a man who had his $1 million debt forgiven but wouldn’t forgive his fellow man over a $100 debt.
One day you will need someone else’s forgiveness. We live in a beautiful but broken world and are ourselves broken and flawed people. You will screw up and hurt others, whether you mean to or not, and will need plenty of forgiveness before you leave this earth.
Carrying around the fruits of unforgiveness is toxic to your soul. The bitterness and anger you direct at someone else only ends up eating away at your own soul.
It is never easy but always worth it. Just about anything worthwhile and lasting is difficult. God never promised easy, but He promised that all things that seem impossible are possible through Him.
Once again, who do you need to forgive (even if it’s you)? From whom do you need to seek forgiveness?
For all those who are versed in all things Doctor Who, you know who I am referring to. It’s the companion of the Doctor by the name of Martha Jones, played by the lovely Freema Agyeman.
That’s where I am in my second time through Doctor Who.
Martha gets a bad rap for being the companion who pines unrequitedly after the Doctor, who still only has eyes for his first companion, Rose Tyler. I know, I know. It sounds like a bad plot line from a cheesy 80’s soap opera, but trust me, it’s much better than it sounds.
It’s unrequited love with killer robots, traveling through space and time, and assorted other creatures, both good and evil.
Does the new series have the same magic as the classic series? Probably not. Is it a good way to escape from the current climate of panic and pandemic? Absolutely.
“Humility is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing done to us, to feel nothing against us. It is to be at rest when nobody praises us and when we are blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where we can go in and shut the door and kneel to our Father in secret, and be at peace when all around is trouble” (Andrew Murray).
Humility is not being a doormat for everyone to walk on. Humility isn’t having an extremely low self-esteem.
As I heard it said before, humility isn’t thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.
It’s having a proper view of yourself, both who you are apart from the grace of God and who God says you are.
Humility isn’t synonymous with weakness. It is strength under control and harnessed for a purpose.
To be humble is to be at peace when all around is trouble. It is having a certain hope in a sea of hopelessness and uncertainty.
Lord, may we ever come to you in secret and find secret strength there. May we ever kneel before you to rise to your calling on our lives. May we live every moment for an audience of One, You. Amen.
“Thank God for mothers! Mothers provide the most powerful influence on a child’s life, and are the most important role models for positive change in our society. When people are in trouble, or know that they are dying, the first person they think of is their mother. When children start going wrong ways a mother’s prayer is powerful. Mothers remind us that there is a loving God above us who will take good care of everyone, especially children. Whenever a tragedy occurs – no matter where in the world this happens – you will always find mothers both weeping for the dead and bringing comfort and security to the living” (Johann Christoph Arnold, The Glue of Society).
First off, I understand not everyone in the world has the best mother. But for many of you, these words ring true.
You are who you are because of your mother. I am who I am because of my mother.
Be sure to let your mother know. If you can’t be there in person with your mother, then pick up the phone and call her. Don’t text. Don’t instant message. Make an actual phone call. Or better yet, do one of those Skype or Zoom calls where you can both see each other.
The very fact that God chose to be born into the world through a woman whom He would call mother elevates the position of motherhood and dignifies the worth of every woman who has ever been called Mother.
So celebrate your mothers– not just on this one day, but on every day God allows you to have your mother with you in this world.
“Scarcity and broken relationships aren’t about God finding out what I am made of-God knows what I am made of–it’s the other way around. In or out of friendship, in scarcity or abundance or just enough, my life is about finding out what God is made of” (Brennan Manning).
These circumstances aren’t for God to find out who you are and what you are capable of handling. He knows that already.
These times are for you to find out what God is made of– how faithful, how true, how trustworthy this God is.
I first saw this in an email. It’s interesting how all sorts of quotes and Bible verses have taken on a whole new level of meaning during these times of pandemic and self quarantining.
This one is by one of my favorites, Max Lucado. He has a way of speaking truths that at first glance appear simple, but in retrospect become more and more profound.
Let his words sink in deep. You will get through this!
“Sometimes God takes His time. One-hundred and twenty years to prepare Noah for the flood. Eighty years to prepare Moses for his work. God called young David to be king, but returned him to the sheep pasture. He called Paul to be an apostle and then isolated him in Arabia for fourteen years. How long will God take with you? His history is redeemed, not in minutes, but in lifetimes. We fear the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the pain will never leave. Will this sky ever brighten? This load ever lighten?
Life in the pit stinks. Yet for all its rottenness, doesn’t it do this much? Doesn’t it force us to look upward? The Bible promises, at the right time, in God’s hands, intended evil becomes eventual good. You will get through this!
Psalm 27:14 ‘Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.'” (Max Lucado).
“The earthly-minded person thinks and imagines that when he prays, the important thing – the thing he must concentrate upon – is that God should hear what he is praying for. And yet in the true, eternal sense it is just the reverse: the true relation in prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears – who hears what God is asking for” (Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations).
I have been guilty of treating the Almighty God like a celestial vending machine. I insert my prayer and hope for the spiritual blessing equivalent of a Kit Kat or a Mello Yello. My prayers tend to be one-sided with me reading off my laundry list of wants and wishes.
I wonder often why I never seem to hear from God.
Perhaps He is speaking, but I haven’t cultivated the discipline of listening. Maybe I haven’t learned how to quiet and still my mind for the still small voice that can easily be drowned out by all the noises both without and within.
Oswald Chambers, writer of the classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest, once said something to the effect of how prayer doesn’t change things, but prayer changes me and I change things.
I do think that prayer often changes my perspective on my circumstances rather than changing my circumstances. Maybe that’s when I can finally get to the place where I can hear the questions God is asking me.
“Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:5-8, NLT).
This is not a post about how a psychic that enjoys telling jokes is a happy medium. Haha.
It’s more about the current situation with the coronavirus.
One one hand, you have people that want to keep everything shut down indefinitely so that everyone will be safe. On the other, you have those who want to completely open up the economy so that businesses won’t all close and everyone will still have jobs and a paycheck.
I don’t think it has to be an extreme either/or. I feel like we can find a happy medium that allows for safety as well as economic security. You and I can only control our responses and how we feel is the right way to live in the middle of a pandemic, not everyone else’s.
When it comes to politics, I’ve noticed that we again like to gravitate toward extremes. The tendency is toward extreme left or right, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican.
In this culture, there is no room for debate. Anyone who disagrees with your beliefs or voices an opinion contrary to your is now automatically not only wrong, but stupid and evil. They are immediately what is wrong with America. If this is you, then you have become an idolater, putting politics in place of God Almighty.
Again, there’s a happy medium. There’s a place where we can share ideas without fear of personal attacks and name-calling. There’s a forum where we can learn to see value even in the thoughts and ideas of thoes with whom we disagree.
Maybe even there’s a chance we could stop drinking the red or blue koolaid and actually vote for people rather than parties. You know there’s more than two political parties out there, right?
St. Francis once prayed, “Help me not so much seek to be understood as to understand.”
When you understand what Jesus said about actually loving your enemies and praying for your persecutors, everything changes. When you know that the Truth is ultimately not exclusive to the left or the right but in fact exists in the person of Jesus, you seek to argue less and love more.
You begin to see that there are more viewpoints than your own. You realize that wisdom comes from learning how to speak the truth in love and hold your convictions with humility.
May we focus more and more on living truth, celebrating beauty, and having servant hearts in these uncertain days.
