Are these new verses to you? Not likely. Many of us have these verses memorized, and we even classify these as all-time favorites. These words are truth, but it is difficult for us to really live them out.
All in Faith/Trust
Running a Good Race: not in vain
Is cross-country skiing on your bucket list by chance? Then the perfect place for you is in Stowe Vermont at the Trapp Family Lodge—yes, the Sound of Music von Trapps settled in Stowe in 1942, having fled Austria in 1938. Need I say—there is an art to cross-country skiing, and the surface of the skis is integral. If you don’t have the proper wax for the snow conditions, or that magic built-in fish scale grip pattern, you are in for a grueling workout. Our fearless leader set a good pace; the rest of us slipped as much back as forward, glad for the summit and the prize—a cookie.
Running a Good Race: in step with the Spirit
As I sat on a bench at the end of the trail that beautiful summer morning, a distant hot air balloon floated into view over the Wasatch. The rays of sunrise capturing its brilliant colors penetrated my solitude. My spirit soared, just a little, above the mundane.
HIGHER CHOICE
It astounds me that Apostle Peter wrote these words while in prison in Rome eighteen months before he was sentenced to be executed. The fifth ruler of the Roman Empire, Nero, was unsurpassed in his cruel behavior. Surely Peter knew his death was imminent when he wrote the New Testament letters.
YEAR OF TURMOIL—2020
Negative emotions are hard to shake off now. Impatience, worry, fear, fatigue, depression and anxiety are real. Many of us are starting to look inward too much.
I know this to be true because I am feeling these feelings right now!
Three Women of Faith
Rahab the prostitute, seen in Joshua 2 and 6, is identified as a woman of faith in Hebrews 11:31. If Rahab were asked, “How would you define faith?” I think she might say something like this:
Faith comes from hearing about God and believing in Him. My people and I were told of how the God of Israel parted the Red Sea, delivering His people. We heard how Yahweh empowered His people to defeat mighty nations. When I heard these stories, I knew they were true. My faith was born. Later when two Israeli spies came to my door, I knew I had to act on my faith in God and protect them, even at risk to my own life. That’s what faith is. It’s acting upon your beliefs, it’s standing alone, and it’s moving forward as God leads, even when risks are involved. It’s being willing to lay down your life in order to follow the one true Lord.
Scars
My oldest daughter adopted a puppy a few weeks before her wedding. That puppy and I bonded during the weeks she stayed with us. When the newlyweds came back for their first visit, Darcy was beyond excited to see me. She ran around and around my feet, wrapping her retractable leash around my ankles. Before I could remove the leash, Darcy took off running, causing deep burns around both of my ankles. In time my ankles healed, but the scars remain. When I happen to focus on those scars, I think of “that day” and that dog.
Seeing Jesus
The hospice nurse called. Mother was close to the end. In spite of Covid, I was allowed into the nursing home to be with her. My brother joined me, and for three days we sat with Mother. Initially, she responded with her eyes to our words, but soon, her eyes were set. She could hear us, but it seemed she saw nothing—until her final moments.
Sense Out of Suffering
Day after day, week after week, year after year I went to the nursing home to visit my mother. We couldn’t carry on a conversation, because the affect of dementia left her unable to speak. For years, she was unable to walk; and eventually, she was unable to move anything except her head. Some days I knew Mother was “there.” I knew she understood me and wanted to respond, but her illness prevented communication.
He Fights for You
Eighty-Nine days.
Days that my 94-year old father was isolated in his assisted living apartment due to COVID-19 restrictions.
We planned to drive 900 miles in late June to see Dad, but he called me and explained, “You should cancel your trip. You won’t be allowed to visit me, except by phone through my window.”
The Trust
As I started writing this week, I mentioned that I wanted to wait to tell my story. I wanted to wait until I could write the ending. I wanted the story to have the ending that I believe was coming, the ending I was hoping for. I trust that God is going to do great things in the life of my daughter. I trust that He is working all things out. But again I am faced with the truth that the story that I would write for her may not be His story.
The Virus
The fall progressed. I had begun weaving her future story in my mind as we waited for the spring track and field season. She was going to have the comeback of the year. The stuff you see in movies. We were ready and waiting to see this play out.
For My Good
It was a bitter disappointment. My daughter had worked hard and felt like she’d demonstrated necessary skills to advance to the higher-level orchestra. But instead, she saw her closest musician-buddies move ahead, leaving her further back than before.
Called to BE Free: on the vine
By the end of May the Covid threat was lessening, so when aunt ‘Chelle called to recruit blueberry pickers, grandson #3 and I jumped at the chance. It was a gorgeous day. Didn’t matter that we had to drive twenty minutes. Didn’t matter that they had to take our temperature. We were free, our masks were off, and the blueberries were plentiful. Armed with the secret to efficiency—attach your pail to your belt so you can use both hands—we found a row to ourselves.
Called to BE Free: through the Spirit
Paul was on a roll: Mark my words! (5:2), you foolish Galatians! (3:1). They were in Christ by faith; so are we. They were set free by Christ for freedom (5:1); so are we. They were called to be free (5:13), as are we. High time we, along with those Galatians, put our own personal exclamation marks on Paul’s words.
Called to BE Free: in Jesus’ yoke
Ladies, I have to admit—it’s the being free in this world of ours with its expectations that gets tricky. And way back then, a mere fifteen or so years from the cross, Paul’s friends in Galatia were being burdened by the rule-making of the religious zealots. Considering that God’s concept of freedom in Eden with its one rule had spiraled down to the 613 Torah plus multi oral laws by Jesus’ time, it was not surprising. Faith was too easy. Let’s add a little circumcision here, some dietary restrictions there, a few of the old feast days. Then you will be saved for sure.
Called to BE Free: within God’s boundary lines
Ladies, to be free it is imperative we grasp the very essence of our gift of freedom from the Father who called you by the grace of Christ (Galatians 1:6).
When the Holy Spirit Prays
I enjoy sunsets from a pink chair in the shade of an ancient Pine. I prop my feet up on rusty barbed wire that runs straight through that tree. A deep gash spans ten feet up the side of this warrior Pine—damage from a lightning strike. Even though the wound is deep, bark has grown over it allowing the tree to survive. Nevertheless, I sense the tree’s groaning from the wound and the wires. Paul sensed this also when he wrote that creation will one day be set free from the bondage of corruption. Until then, all creation is “groaning together with labor pains” (Romans 8:22 CSV).
But this Doesn’t Make Sense, Lord!
Jeremiah, the prophet, only recorded two prayers in his book of prophecy. I especially enjoyed studying the occasion for one of those two prayers. God had asked him to do something that appeared incredibly illogical. Jeremiah obeyed, then wrote down his prayer. He began with a reminder to himself that the God who made the heavens and the earth could, obviously, do anything. Jeremiah then stated his question to God, “The Babylonians are outside the walls of Jerusalem and about to destroy everything and take us captive. Why, then, did you have me purchase this piece of property with silver near Jerusalem and record the transaction on a sealed scroll with witnesses?”
What’s a Parent to do?
I’ve begun a different type of journey-through-the-Bible. I’m studying each of the 222 prayers. Imagine, of all the prayers spoken through the ages, God selected these specific ones to record. I’m focusing on the types of things people prayed for and how God responded. It’s a rich and rewarding pilgrimage.ho