This is most likely a repeat, but I’m too tired for original thought, so I’m posting something from Henri Nouwen that spoke volumes to me about the importance of community and how we together reflect God and make Him visible in the world:
“A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.
That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: ‘I make God visible.’ But others who see us together can say: ‘They make God visible.’ Community is where humility and glory touch.”
I think stained glass window work essentially the same way. They are made up of bits of broken glass that only make sense when fitted together into a whole. We are that mosaic and that stained glass window that tells the story of God’s love for His people. That’s why community matters so much.
“To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair” (Isaiah 61:3, NLT).
On my weekly Radnor Lake hike, I saw something that took a minute to register. There were these beautiful yellow flowers growing out of a pond of green scum. If I knew anything about botany, I could tell you what kind of flowers or maybe what kind of green scum was covering the pond.
I do know that what stuck me is that out of something I perceived as ugly grew something that I saw was beautiful. But isn’t that just God’s way?
The prophet Isaiah speaks about God bringing beauty from ashes. I honestly can’t think of anything more hopeless than ashes. Ashes are what’s left after the destruction of fire. There’s literally nothing left to restore.
But God can take these ashes and turn them into something beautiful the same way He could take a valley of dry bones and make them into a living army.
I heard a pastor say once that what seems impossible for us isn’t even remotely difficult for God. That means even the most hopeless of circumstances can be transformed into the most amazing outcomes. He can make miracles from mud (just ask the blind man Jesus healed).
It’s easy to forget God’s goodness when you’re staring at a pile of the ashes that are what’s left of your life. But God can turn even those into something beautiful, something better than before, something that will always be a reminder of God’s faithful love for you.
A professor gave a balloon to every student, who had to inflate it, write their name on it and throw it in the hallway. The professor then mixed all the balloons. The students were then given 5 minutes to find their own balloon. Despite a hectic search, no one found their balloon.
At that point, the professor told the students to take the first balloon that they found and hand it to the person whose name was written on it. Within 5 minutes, everyone had their own balloon.
The professor said to the students: ‘These balloons are like happiness. We will never find it if everyone is looking for their own. But if we care about other people’s happiness, we’ll find ours too'” (William Groce).
I think that’s what the goal of evangelism and missions really is. It’s to help people find true joy and happiness in Jesus. The purpose of this Christian life is to glorify God, love Jesus, and love others. In other words, you get fulfillment when you help others find theirs.
Jesus said it to the effect that if you work to save your own life, you lose it, but if you lose it by giving it away for others, you actually gain it in the end. The best way to rediscover joy is selfless service and helping others find joy.
This is most likely a repeat, but it’s worth reading again. It’s from The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers that is one of the best books I have ever read outside of the Bible:
“O God of Grace, Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute, and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul, clothing me with bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness. But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness. I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for thou dost always justify the ungodly; I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me, and thou art always bringing forth the best robe. Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun. Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace” (The Valley of Vision – A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, Edited by Arthur Bennett).
I read the following a few days ago and it blew my mind, especially when I got to the end and read the payoff. It’s a bit long, but worth the effort because the answers are so spot on:
“Why did God create evil? The answer struck me to the core of my soul!
A professor at the university asked his students the following question:
– Everything that exists was created by God?
One student bravely answered:
– Yes, created by God.
– Did God create everything? – a professor asked.
‘Yes, sir,’ replied the student.
The professor asked :
– If God created everything, then God created evil, since it exists. And according to the principle that our deeds define ourselves, then God is evil.
The student became silent after hearing such an answer. The professor was very pleased with himself. He boasted to students for proving once again that faith in God is a myth.
Another student raised his hand and said:
– Can I ask you a question, professor?
‘Of course,’ replied the professor.
A student got up and asked:
– Professor, is cold a thing?
– What kind of question? Of course it exists. Have you ever been cold?
Students laughed at the young man’s question. The young man answered:
– Actually, sir, cold doesn’t exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is actually the absence of heat. A person or object can be studied on whether it has or transmits energy.
Absolute zero (-460 degrees Fahrenheit) is a complete absence of heat. All matter becomes inert and unable to react at this temperature. Cold does not exist. We created this word to describe what we feel in the absence of heat.
A student continued:
– Professor, does darkness exist?
— Of course it exists.
– You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness also does not exist. Darkness is actually the absence of light. We can study the light but not the darkness. We can use Newton’s prism to spread white light across multiple colors and explore the different wavelengths of each color. You can’t measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into the world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you tell how dark a certain space is? You measure how much light is presented. Isn’t it so? Darkness is a term man uses to describe what happens in the absence of light.
In the end, the young man asked the professor:
– Sir, does evil exist?
This time it was uncertain, the professor answered:
– Of course, as I said before. We see him every day. Cruelty, numerous crimes and violence throughout the world. These examples are nothing but a manifestation of evil.
To this, the student answered:
– Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist for itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is like darkness and cold—a man-made word to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not faith or love, which exist as light and warmth. Evil is the result of the absence of Divine love in the human heart. It’s the kind of cold that comes when there is no heat, or the kind of darkness that comes when there’s no light.
“Robert Robinson had been saved out of a tempestuous life of sin through George Whitfield’s ministry in England. Shortly after that, at the age of twenty-three, Robinson wrote the hymn, ‘Come, Thou Fount. Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing, Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise’.
Sadly, Robinson wandered far from those streams and like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the distant country of carnality. Until one day—he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman engrossed in her book. She ran across a verse she thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it. ‘Prone to wander— Lord, I feel it— Prone to leave the God I love’. Bursting into tears Robinson said, ‘Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.’
Although greatly surprised, she reassured him that the ‘streams of mercy’ mentioned in his song still flowed. Mr. Robinson was deeply touched. Turning his ‘wandering heart’ to the Lord, he was restored to full fellowship” (Kenneth W. Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories).
I love a good back story, especially when it comes to how hymns were composed. It’s no coincidence that the very words Robert Robinson penned were exactly the words he needed to hear when he had wandered from his faith. God used his own words to speak to him and woo him back.
God still speaks to us in a variety of ways, but primarily through His word. I think so many of us — me included — will go through the day with our Bibles closed and wonder why we haven’t heard from God.
I remember when I got my very first Bible as a first grader, the pastor wrote in the inside of the cover, “This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”
How true that has been. We need God’s word and God’s people around us to help us find the way back when we’ve wandered. We may be prone to wander, but God is always faithful to bring His wayward child back.
“Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One Who is leading. It is a life of faith, not of intellect and reason, but a life of knowing Who makes us ‘go.’ The root of faith is the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest snares is the idea that God is sure to lead us to success.
The final stage in the life of faith is attainment of character. There are many passing transfigurations of character; when we pray we feel the blessing of God enwrapping us and for the time being we are changed, then we get back to the ordinary days and ways and the glory vanishes. The life of faith is not a life of mounting up with wings, but a life of walking and not fainting. It is not a question of sanctification; but of something infinitely further on than sanctification, of faith that has been tried and proved and has stood the test. Abraham is not a type of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith, a tried faith built on a real God. ‘Abraham believed God’ (Oswald Chambers).
I heard a sermon today that talked about trusting beyond knowing. Basically, the idea is that faith goes beyond understanding. If I knew everything and saw the whole picture, I wouldn’t need faith.
But the life of faith is one where you only see the next step in front of you, not the entire path. You have to take that first step in order to see the next one. There is no magic word or secret formula that will allow you to skip the difficult parts or to forego being obedient in the present.
There’s no guarantee that being faithful will always lead to prosperity and blessing. Sometimes, the path of obedience leads through the valley of the shadow of death. But the promise we have is that our Shepherd is with us when we go down that road. His rod and staff will comfort us.
We have no promise of material reward for our obedience. We do know that God is faithful to be with us and to fight for us and to never leave or forsake us. We know that God will provide for every need and He Himself will be our inheritance and our reward.
“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer” (Corrie ten Boom).
May we sit still and trust our Engineer, no matter where He leads us.
“The more comfortable we are with mystery in our journey, the more rest we will know along the way” (stolen from a friend’s post).
I never thought when I started out on my WordPress journey almost 14 years ago that I would make it this far. Honestly, I had no long term plan when I wrote that first blog post way back in July 2010. I just knew this was a way to get my thoughts out of my head and if not on paper then out into the ether.
I am grateful for every single person who has read my writings over the years. I am blessed to know that people support me in this and in so many other ways. I can say with certainty that my life has not gone the way I expected in these 14 years, and that’s okay.
God knows. I can be comfortable with the mystery in my journey because I know not a bit of it is a mystery to God. He sees the end just as clearly as He sees the beginning. And He sees every little detail in between. I can rest in God’s control over my life.
Does this mean the writing journey is at an end? Hardly. I hope, God willing, to get to 10,000 posts and beyond. I hope that I will keep getting better and better at this and my words will keep blessing as many people as those who have blessed me.
I used to do these random posts where I would go a bit stream of consciousness and write whatever immediately came to mind without any thought out plan or overall theme. It may be time to revisit that because I honestly have no ideas of what to write about.
I’m still loving my new (to me) Jeep. It’s still a bit weird having a car where all the buttons work and with no check engine light glaring at me from the dashboard. I do miss having a CD player, but I’m adjusting, believe it or not. It turns out old dogs and old Jeep drivers can learn new tricks.
I got to see my niece in a church production where she did a turn as Shirley Temple. I was astounded at how amazing she was. She didn’t just say lines and pretend to be Shirley Temple. It was like I forgot I was watching her and felt like I was really watching Shirley Temple. She has the same charismatic stage presence that my sister had at that age (and then some). One day, I will be able to say I knew her when.
I watched a video where they were discussing people in the Christian music industry who had walked away from their faith. I know it happens. I know that I can’t possibly know all that was going through their minds or in their lives when they decided not to believe any more. I can’t imagine me wanting to leave Jesus. I mean where else could I go? Who else has the words of eternal life that give everlasting hope? I know the Bible says that those who fell away went out from us because they were never truly among us, so I have to think that those who can stop being saved were never truly saved to begin with.
I’m grateful that God is faithful when I’m not. I’m glad that my eternal security doesn’t rest with me because I’d have already lost it by now. I’m thankful that good works didn’t save me and good works don’t keep me saved, but it is all Jesus from start to finish. I know that the proof of true faith is obedience, so my life should look different and there should be spiritual fruit, but I also know that if Jesus started this good work in me (and I know He did), then He will indeed finish it one day.
I saw an Instagram post that basically said that sometimes delays are as much of God’s will as those things He allows and those He denies. He declared that when God makes you wait for something, either you are not ready for it or the situation is not ready for you to enter into it. The worst thing God could do is to give you what you want and the exact moment you want it the way you want it.
I’m so there. Being out of work for two months has felt like a delay. Trusting God in the middle of anxiety is difficult, but I’m learning more and more that God is faithful. Instead of pleading with God for a job, I’m thanking God in advance for the job He will provide in His own perfect timing. I’m grateful for the lessons that I can only learn in this season.
As much as I should know this by now, I need to be reminded that my identity isn’t in what I do for a living. My purpose isn’t bound up in going to a work environment for 8 hours a day. Being employed will not complete me any more than finding a spouse or anything else. I am already complete in Christ because of what He’s done for me on the cross. God still looks at me and says, “It is very good.”
God’s delays may feel like denials, but they only come because you’re not ready to receive what God is preparing for you. I don’t mean that a Maserati or a yacht or a super mansion is ready for you if you have the right amount of faith. I mean a future where you step into God’s bigger purposes for you and the world.
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