Blog

That is the hope, right? We all want the next year to be a good one, full of health, happiness, love and great things. We tell each other “Happy New Year,” almost with the determination of a blessing, hoping that if we say it with enough enthusiasm it will come true.

The reality, as we know if we have lived very long on this planet at all, is that this year will have ups and downs just like other years have. We can make goals and plans and resolutions, which are all good. However, we know that life can interrupt and change these as we go. The longer I live, the more I am trying to let go of carving my plans in granite. I would like to be able to be a little more relaxed when the unexpected happens and I have to change course. As a problem arises, sometimes like a big wave in front of me, I would like the ability to go with the flow. In fact, I could even say that my goal for this year is to learn how to surf!

The ocean has actually always scared me. Thinking about all the things under the surface that might want to eat me and thinking about floundering around in that vast expanse of water has always kept me on the shore. However, surfers overcome those fears by learning how to stay on top and move with the water.

Life can be the same way. I can allow my fears of what might be lurking just out of sight keep me floundering day to day, or I can trust in my mighty God to take care of it like He promises in the Bible that He will, and I can learn to ride the waves. One of the craziest things about surfers is the bigger the waves, the happier they are. Could you and I really get to a place in life where we laugh with joy as the problems get bigger because we KNOW that our God is going to overcome them? Could this be the year that we surf through life with confidence that with God all things are possible? Now that is the kind of new year I could heartily wish us all.

“With God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

I know, after yesterday, the last thing anyone wants to think about is food! However, I have been thinking about the fruit of the Spirit lately. I happened to be reading through the book of Galatians recently and I noticed for the first time that the word “fruit” is singular.

Up until now I had thought of the list in Galatians as just that, a list. Or maybe a staircase, first we are given love, then joy, then peace and so on. Moving step by step on our journey with Jesus. The problem with this thinking, as I discovered the other day, is that it can still lean into the works category of thinking, and it is also incorrect!

The significance of the word being “fruit” instead of “fruits” is that when we do accept Jesus into our lives we are given the seeds of all of this fruit right away, not one by one. In my incorrect thinking, I thought we acquired them step by step as we grew in our understanding of God, the Bible etc., all of which are works-based. In actuality the Holy Spirit does all the planting, watering and growing. We just need to be willing and not hinder His work in our lives and yield to His leading.

So back to the fruit salad. Fruit salad is one dish, but it is made up of several types of fruit, all different. When we eat it, sometimes there might be more banana in a bite or more grapes. I think the fruit of the Spirit is the same, it is one, but as we need a quality such as gentleness, that is what the Spirit will develop in us or have bubble to the surface.

So just as we are still full from our Thanksgiving feasts from yesterday, my prayer for us is that we will also be full of the Holy Spirit and that the fruit of the Spirit will continue to grow in our lives.

The New York stock exchange’s trading pit has nothing on viciousness compared with my living room the day after Halloween. I had thought that the children would have all slept in after being up so late the night before and because they had a day off from school. Nope. They were up bright and early, ready to trade.

The older ones were running the trading for the most part. I’m not sure how well the younger ones faired, but I guess it really doesn’t matter as they will eat just about anything with sugar in it! As brutal as all this may sound, the children thoroughly enjoy it and everyone eats far more candy than is good for them.

It did make me think though. As excited as my kids were to receive all the candy, they were not satisfied with just enjoying their own candy. The candy in their siblings’ bags looked a little better. Aren’t we as adults the same way? Instead of enjoying my life and the blessings God has given me, my eyes are on someone else and the blessings they appear to have.

We even have sayings to illustrate this point: “Keeping up with the Jones’.” And, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” There are several problems with this. As I said, it keeps me from truly appreciating all that I have. Also, we don’t ever really know what is going on in someone else’s life. Things look good on the surface sometimes, but there might be some big struggles underneath. Another thing, if I am not grateful for what God has given me, how can I share it with others? God does not usually give us gifts just for us to keep all to ourselves.

So while my children enjoy trading candy, I think I will focus on being thankful for what I have been given. God has chosen to give these gifts to me, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

“Don’t be deceived…Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:16-17

I think this phrase holds a negative connotation for most of us, as it was the title of a thriller-type movie back in the day. But what is underneath doesn’t necessarily have to be scary.

This past week was a rough one at my house. As I mentioned in my last post, not only did I have the flu, but we were also dealing with the power outage as I’m sure a lot of you were. As a result, most of the week my home looked like a train wreck. However, the mess was mostly on the surface. Underneath the schoolwork strewn across the table was a Fall colored tablecloth and some pumpkin decorations. The walls still had a bright garland of leaves. And even though there was a pile of laundry waiting to be sorted in the living room, there were still our comfy pillows and my mother’s rocking chair.

I know I can get very caught up in worrying about things lurking just under what I can see. Most of the time I assume that what I can’t see must be something bad. But what if I’m wrong?

What if what I can’t see is how God is working just under the surface, using what looks like a mess to me to do something amazing and wonderful. What if His plans include power outages and the flu and a messy house? And if He is doing that in my life, maybe He is doing it in yours too. Beyond us, maybe He is also working in that stranger who looks grumpy, or different, or even a little scary…on the surface.

In so many situations, only God knows what really lies beneath. God is the one who knows our hearts, intentions, hopes, dreams, fears, worries, and so much more. He is the one we can trust with everything, even what we can’t see.

“The One Who examines the thoughts and emotions is a righteous God.” Psalm 7:9

I have heard the story my whole life, the very earliest performed for me by kind Sunday School teachers on flannel boards. We got a little deeper into the theology behind the tale by the time I was in Junior High and High School, learning about doing what was right even when it was hard and went against the crowd. I have even done an in-depth Bible study on the entire book of Daniel as an adult.

However, in all that time, it never, until about a week ago, occurred to me how I would behave if thrown into a lions’ den. I knew that Daniel had been totally full of faith. He had to have been because he had continued to pray with his windows open even after it became illegal. Even right there is where old Daniel and I might part ways. As faithful as I hope I am, would I really have kept my windows open? “Um, I’m praying on the inside God, you can hear my prayer thoughts…”

But if I were to be thrown into the den, I realized I would most definitely not be as calm as Daniel. I know this because of other experiences in my life. I will have God tell me in some way to trust Him, that He is going to take care of me and the circumstances I am in. Do I joyfully say, “Great God, glad I don’t have to think about that anymore!” No, I tend to continue to fret, thinking through every possible scenario and outcome with some anxiety thrown in for good measure.

And so that is the picture I have of myself in the lions’ den. Instead of cuddling up to a nice furry lion and peacefully sleeping, I would be huddled in the corner continually checking to see if the lions had changed their minds. But what I am really asking is if God has changed His mind.

I am so grateful that God does not change! He is always with us, no matter how sharp those lions’ teeth, how dark the night or how fierce the enemies. It is up to me to choose to believe Him, and even then He promises to help us believe. My goal is to get to the place where I can rest secure wherever I may be, whatever the circumstances of my life might be, even if it is sleeping in the den of lions.

“At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. When he came near the den, he called to Daniel in an anguished voice, ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?’ Daniel answered, ‘O king, live forever! My God sent His angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions.'” Daniel 6:19-22

As many of you know, I am a piano teacher. I have been teaching a long time and one of the things I constantly have to remind my students is that they have to slow down to go fast. At this point I have taught hundreds of students of all levels, ages and abilities and I have yet to meet one who does not try to play a piece too fast right away.

I explain the process of muscle memory, how if you play slowly and deliberately, measure by measure, your muscles will “remember” the notes even while your mind is learning them. I tell them this might feel as though it takes more time, however it will actually take less because they will not have to unlearn the mistakes they allow their finger muscles to learn.

I know this is the same for pretty much all of us in other areas of life too though. I am not sure if it is just an American trait or a human one, but I have yet to meet the person who gets excited about going extremely slow through a learning process. Especially the painful ones.

For whatever reason, this is usually how God chooses to teach us or refine us. I know for myself, when I am going through a stretching and growing time, I get impatient and want to just jump to the end. I will question God about how long the experience or trial is going to last. I will come up with all kinds of ways that He could shorten it for me. But when I finally get through the time, I can usually look back and see some of what God was doing, how He was using the painful circumstances to sand off some of my rough edges and bring me closer to Himself. This has not made me any more excited about hard times, but it has increased my faith that God is faithful to bring me through and that He does work all things for our ultimate good.

And, true confession, I also play piano pieces too fast right away!

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12