Sunday, February 22, 2015

A Love Letter to God

If I wrote a love letter to God
I wouldn't know where to start
But my pen would not stop moving
I would use the biggest words I know

Do I start at the beginning
on the day that I was born?
Or do I start before the beginning
when I was knitted together
in my mother's womb?

I could go further back still
for even before I existed as body

I existed as His thought

From the foundations of the earth
the notion of me
twinkled in His eye

He whispered my name as He made
space and sky
Serengeti and seagull

The more I write my love letter to God I see
It's becoming His love letter to me

My pen cannot compare to His hand
My mind to His might
Nor my creation to His Creation

God!  Do you hear me say:
I see it!
Your love, your life-giving
and light-giving

In feathers and flight
Ice and island
Brain and bone

All creation a correspondence

So what can be my love letter to you?
I cannot match you!

Ah...my love letter to God is simple
It's found in not matching Your creation,
but in seeing it:

The sunrise, the Son, the sacrifice

I see your love letter
This letter is clear:
the 'x', the 't'
3 nails, a holy tree

So my love letter is to simply read yours
With eyes, brain, ears, and lips

But to go further still
and read it with my soul

And write it on my heart.



Saturday, February 14, 2015

The One Who Loves You More

To be perfectly honest, I'm a take-it or leave-it kind of gal when it comes to Valentine's Day.  Now I certainly love celebrating love, but I am not a big fan of hype.  And Valentine's Day never quite lives up to what is anticipated as things with much hype tend to do.  (I'm serious.  Think about this past New Year's Eve.  Expectation:  glitter, champagne, fancy clothes.  Reality:  Cheetos, Ryan Seacrest, and your footie pajamas.  Bed by 9:30.)

While I may not put much stock in Valentine's Day, I do put much value in being loved.  Don't you feel it in your chest, in that space above your heart? The desire to be loved?  Not just respected or admired (although these things are of the utmost importance, too), but to be loved?

I'm not just talking about romantic love.  Love comes in many forms - from parents, friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, children, and spouses.  When you feel someone love you with pure, unapologetic abandon - this is a beautiful thing that answers a need in your soul.

There's a reason love makes us feel so good.  Genesis 2:18 tells us that God made Eve for Adam because it "wasn't good for man to be alone."  Jesus commanded us in John 15:12 that we are to "love one another" as He loved us. And, my goodness, let's not forget I John 4:8:  "God is love."  Simple - you feel love, you feel God Himself.

The love humankind has for each other is God come down to dwell with us, in us.  My dear grandmother, who will be 97 this month, lives the most authentic relationship with Jesus I have ever seen or may ever see in my life.  A few years ago she dreamed she was in heaven.  While there in her dream she said, "I felt love flowing through my veins."

Love, my friends, is the language of heaven.

And God speaks this language to us now every time our heart thumps with emotion at those He has sweetly placed in our lives.  This is something to be treasured.  But if we think this serves as our fill of love we are sorely mistaken and missing another, more valuable treasure.

My mother tells a story of the day my second son was born.  She still had not arrived at the hospital when I was being wheeled into the OR for a c-section. She recalls crying in the car and whispering to God, "But she's my baby.  I should be there.  I'm her mother."

Jesus tenderly whispered back, "But I'm her Savior.  I love her more."

I think of my husband.  He woke up three times with our crying two-year-old last night.  Why?  Because he wanted me to be able to sleep.  That's love.

But there is One who loves more.

Can you picture your mother?  She packed your lunches and probably still calls you every day.  She prayed over you with tears during your most trying times. That's love.

But there is One who loves more.

How about your dad?  My father-in-law once drove an hour and fifteen minutes to help my sister-in-law hang a shower curtain rod in her new apartment. That's love.

But there is One who loves more.

Think about your dearest friends.  My friend Jennifer will ask me if I need help for an upcoming event before I can even think to ask.  That's love.

But there is One who loves more.

And what about our precious children?  Whether they share our last name or are only ours during school hours or Sunday school time.  A hug from a peanut butter and jelly covered five-year-old?  That's love.

But there is One who loves more.

These precious people God has placed in our lives are just the ultimate, aren't they?  Joy-inducing, heart-bursting, honest-to-goodness gifts.

But none of them left a heavenly throne, suffered at the hands of evil, and overcame death for you.

See, Jesus loves you more.

Revelation 19:11 tells us the story of "the Rider on the white horse."  He is dressed in white and leads the armies of heaven.  He comes to earth to vanquish evil and wipe away the tears of His people.  He is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Maybe you've been fortunate enough to receive the love of spouses, mothers, fathers, friends, and children.  Praise God for those blessings!

But maybe you've been hurt by lack of love.  Suffered the loss of a mother or a child.  Never knew your father.  Were betrayed by your best friend.

Friend, if that latter category is familiar, boy do I have good news.

You see, that Rider on the white horse?  Our precious Jesus?  Revelation also gives Him another name:

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, 
whose rider is called Faithful and True.     
(emphasis mine)

And there He is, the One who loves you most.  And He is not confined to things we humans are:  to death, abandonment, loneliness, loss, betrayal.  Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38).  Nothing.  Because His love is limitless and carries no trace of human weakness.  His law?  It's pure love (2 John 1:6).  

In His perfection He has committed Himself to you.  He has named Himself for you - "Faithful and True to (insert-your-name-here)".  

And your name?  My friend, it's engraved on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49:16).  

So let's celebrate the people whom God has placed in our lives.  Let's love them and appreciate them.  But in a place of honor, held high in our hearts, let's celebrate Jesus. 

Because He loves you more.


Oh, Faithful and True:

Let us remember that Your love is Perfect.  Let us remember that You will never leave us nor forsake us.  Why?  Because it is against Your very nature.  It is impossible for You to let go of what You have claimed.  Let us return Your love in the best ways we can:  by recognizing it and showing obedience to Your Law.  The Law that just happens to be love, too.

Lord, may it be so.




Monday, February 9, 2015

Choose This Day

The first few years of my teaching career were spent in first grade.  I stapled the word 'choices' in large letters above the chalkboard to emphasize to my precious students they had a choice in how their day went.  Now, these choices amounted to finishing their seat work, sharing with their friends, and not biting themselves. (True story.  There were teethmarks.  And an adamant denial.) These choices may not seem like a big deal in the great scheme of life, but to a six year old these choices were life.

I love the idea of choices still today, long after my days of teaching first grade have passed.  As adults we too are inundated with choices every day.  A choice to face life and react to its surprises on our own terms.  A sampling of your day to day choices:

Soy or skim?  (Umm...whole?  With whipped cream?)
Leggings or jeans?  (Leggings.  Keep your rump covered, by all means, though.)
Loafers or boots?  (Usually loafers.  What can I say?  I would live in a J. Crew catalog if I could.)
Highway or scenic route?  (I live in the country.  Here I have no choice:  always scenic route.  These scenes usually involve cows.)
Salad or burger for lunch?  (I am a teacher, so this choice confuses me.  What is this thing called "lunch break?"  I must learn more...)
Deal or no deal?  (No deal!  The big money is hiding in your briefcase!)

You get the idea.

All of these little choices during a day are coupled with ones of far greater importance.  Such as:

Will I respond with kindness to those around me?
Will I greet challenges with a positive attitude?
Will I speak truth in love?
Will I fight for what's right?

See, all of these choices say less about who we are and more about who we serve.  And I want all of my choices to reflect Jesus - the One I serve.

Friends, let's get real today - we are sinners.  We are imperfect and have the capacity for a laundry list of evil: unkindness, lies, laziness, and the like.  We makes choices throughout our day knowing they are not godly.  We choose to call our sin a "mistake" or our "imperfection" or explain it away with But-I-Go-To-Church! entitlement.  You can dress it up however you'd like, put a bow on it, and take it to the county fair, but it's still sin.

So, my question to you today is this:

Are you still clinging to a sin, but claiming God?  Do you still knowingly make choices in your life that are in direct disagreement with God's Word, but choose to explain it away somehow?

My most precious friend, how God longs to bless you.  Bless you with freedom and relief, healing and true love.  But do your choices block your blessing?  

Do you keep God from giving His best to you because you won't give your best to Him?

In the book of Joshua, Joshua himself calls for repentance among the Israelites. He reminds them of God's blessings and fulfilled promises.  He then asks in confusion why they are still hanging onto things that are bad for them.  Things like false gods and false promises.  He shouts, "Choose this day whom you will serve!"  He suggests they serve the gods from across the Euphrates or the gods of the Amorites:  illuminating that these gods were not real and could promise no security.  

What follows is one of the most often quoted verses of the Bible.  A verse that may very well be hanging in your home above the mantle or at your front door.  Joshua makes his clear choice:  "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

Jesus Himself said He's not interested in lukewarm believers.  In Revelation 3:14-16 Jesus says He would rather followers be hot or cold than somewhere in the middle.  Either be with Him or not, make a choice.  Choose a side.  He says those who don't fully commit to Him will be "spit out."  Yikes.


He doesn't leave it at that, though.  There's a sweet and merciful message that follows in Revelation 3:19-20.  Jesus says:

I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.
(emphasis mine)

The reason Jesus speaks to us in such harsh tones is because He desperately wants us to choose Him.  

I want, no, I need you to hear me:  you are loved.  Valued.  Worthy.  Precious.

But if you are not repenting then Jesus is calling you to do so now.  He's not calling you to perfection.  He's asking you to allow Him to cover you in His perfection.  And this can be done with repentance:  confessing our sin, calling it a sin, and asking for help in turning from it.  Hosea 12:6 says, "By the help of your God, return!"  

Precious child, return.  Let go of the choices that keep you from claiming your place at God's table.

Choices.  I'm here to say I've made some sinful choices in my life.  In my past choices I have turned my back on God, on my family.  My past choices asked, no, mandated, that I turn my back on the Bible. 

My choices were sin and I lived in the thick of it and pretended I wasn't.

But I also made a choice to repent.  And on that day of repentance I found healing and love and safety.  And that day awaits you, too.  

Jesus disciplines you because He loves you.  I scold my own children for disobedience not because I dislike them, but because I long to keep them safe and teach them good things.  An undisciplined child is an unloved child - and my friend, you are loved beyond measure.

Jesus,

How thankful we are for your love!  Your patience!  Your mercy!  But you waste no words when you tell us to turn from our sin.  Richard Sibbes said that there is more mercy in you than sin in us.  Let us hold fast to this fact and come to you confessing, knowing you have loved us with "an everlasting love and call us to you with loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3)."  In that loving-kindness, Lord, call us to repentance.  Let us choose this day who we will serve.  And dear Jesus, let our choice be you.

Lord, may it be so.





Monday, February 2, 2015

Take These Chances

Like any teenager of the 90s I have a special place in my heart for Dave Matthews Band.  I have to admit that my heart feels its age, however, when I turn to the Lite FM station and hear "Crash Into Me."  I'm such a grown up that the music of my youth has been relagated to the speakers of grocery stores and elevators.

Maybe you aren't a big Dave Matthews fan, but I'm sure you've been sitting in the waiting room of your dentist's office and heard the lyrics "Take these chances...." from the song "Ants Marching."  And then you want to sing along, but you're not exactly sure how that line finishes up.  Or you're like me and you don't care and you just sing random sounds.  Well, let's clear up this missing-lyrics mystery:

 Take these chances
Place them in a box until a 
quieter time
Lights down, you up and die

I hear this song and, by golly, give me a pair of Docs, a dELiA*s catalog, and an episode of teen angst in My So Called Life.  Here I come, 1995!

This song, this gem of 90s alt rock, serves to call us out of the mundane.  It tells us not to miss out on the beautiful stuff in life while we're busy living, well...life.

You know who would have loved this song?  Another great musician, another Dave.  King David to be exact.  And King David was a go-getter.  He saw the beauty of the world and the greatness of God in it.  

But far too often, the story of King David overshadows the story of another action-taker:  his wife, Abigail.  Abigail was known for her intelligence and beauty.  In fact, I Samuel 25:3 states flat out, "The woman was smart and good looking."  (Now that's a legacy to leave.  The Bible calling you a beauty with brains!)  Abigail is introduced to us through a story where she is called to save her entire people from David's wrath after her first husband, Nabal, insults David.

David and his men were riding to Nabal's land to slaughter his people, but Abigail's servants ran to her so she could solve the problem.  Why?  Because they knew she was smart enough to come up with a plan and brave enough to put that plan into action.

When Abigail heard of the impending danger, I Samuel 25:18 says, "She lost no time" and came up with a plan to save her people.

Long story short - she did save her people.  David was so impressed with her that sometime later when Nabal died David immediately asked Abigail to be his wife.  She, in turn, quickly said yes.

See the pattern?  We remember David and Abigail because they lived lives worth remembering.  They saw needs, they fulfilled them.  They saw love, they latched onto it.  They heard a call, they answered it.

Abigail's wisdom, fantastic as it was, wasn't worth anything without her willingness to act.

Biblical characters, we are not, but people of action we can be.  Do you see a need?  Do you have a dream, an idea brewing?  Why don't you see it through?

Satan is a champ at telling us lies.  Lies such as, you aren't enough.  Not smart enough.  Not talented enough.  Not strong enough.  Not fill-in-the-blank enough.  He knows exactly which lie he can tell you to keep your dreams in the box that Dave Matthews told us about.

John 10:10 tells us in explicit terms that Satan has come to "steal, kill, and destroy."  Steal your joy, kill your creativity, and destroy the glory that your action-taking could give God.

But do you know what the second part of that verse says?  Our Jesus is talking and he's saying words so sweet they deserve some boldface: 

I have come that they may have life
and have it to the full.

Let's take a minute and explore this word life as it's used in this verse.  In the original text it doesn't simply mean bio or a living organism.  It means zoe - to live!  Salud!  Cheers!  This kind of life means to be alive and present and thriving.  Some versions of this verse have the accompanying adjective "abundantly" or "superfluously" with zoe.  This means so much life and joy and celebration that a person is overflowing with it.  Dancing and singing and joy and you know, LIFE!  

This, my friends, is the kind of living God wants for you.  A life of living creatively, using your gifts, and having a curious heart.  No, not in the name of hedonism or for your own pleasure, but in the name of glorifying God. 

The biggest lie Satan can tell you is that living abundantly is living frivolously. Friend, living with joy and in pursuit of your dreams is a beautiful freedom that has been bought for you through Jesus Christ.  

Abigail's willingness to act saved lives and enriched her own.  Her risk not only led to foreseeable rewards, but unforeseeable ones.  She never imagined her bravery would make her a queen.

So let's be like Abigail.  What in your life is risky, but deserves a leap?  Maybe a call to adoption?  An idea for a business?  Going back to school?  Or simply taking a calligraphy class?

Hear me, friend:  take these chances.  Take these chances for yourself, sure. But truly take them to glorify the Lord.  Your freedom in Him is worthy of doing great things for Him.  Because there is one thing that's better than life and that's His love (Psalm 63:3, written by King David himself).  His love is worth making the most of your life.  

I don't want to be another ant, marching along and never looking at the beautiful opportunities of life, putting my precious chances in a box until a better time awaits.  I want to be like Abigail and bravely dare to say, I'm capable of at least changing my own life, at most changing the world and I'm going to do it now.



God of Abigail,

Thank you for the testimony of her life.  You instilled in her the ability to enact change, to make the most of the now.  Because of Jesus, we too are free to make change, to make something beautiful, to make the world better.  Fulfill the visions you have placed in our hearts.  Always helping us to remember that it's for your glory.  May we too hear the words David said to Abigail, "Praise be to the Lord.  He sent you!"  Precious Lord, since your love is better than life, let me use my life to glorify you.

Lord, may it be so.