Same God

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.  Hebrews 13:8

I’ve seen enough in my life to know that tomorrow is uncertain. We like to think we know what tomorrow brings but every tragic or miraculous event in history started out as just an ordinary day. We plan it out as if we know and more than likely we’ll be correct in our assumptions, but really, we don’t know. I’ve heard it said that the only constant in life is change. Try as hard as we might, we can’t always predict or control how or when it happens. However, there is another constant and it never changes. The future, filled with the anguish and delight of the human condition, may be unpredictable but our God remains the same and therein lies our greatest hope in facing whatever tomorrow may bring.

 God has proven himself repeatedly not only in the pages of the Bible but in the days and years of my life. The God who created the universe in the first chapter of Genesis and caused David to lie down in green pastures in Psalm 23, who sent his Son to be born of Mary and who died on a cross and rose again for humanity’s salvation is the same God who gave me life, who placed in me the determination to overcome abuse and who held the pieces of my heart together when my son died. He is the same God who saw me through a pandemic and who recently led me to a new chapter in my career and who resides in my heart now, guiding me through this adventure called life into the future and all it brings.

When it comes to God, there’s no need for “new and improved.” There’s no new formula or next generation widget that can enhance the perfection, the majesty, the power and the love that is the unchanging God we serve. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, next week, next year, but I do know that the same God who saw me through yesterday will carry me through tomorrow.

3 Wishes and a Realization

 Be careful what you wish for. You may just get it. It’s the moral of many fables and fairy tales that teach us that wishes fulfilled too often come with unforeseen and unwanted twists and consequences. There are three times in my life that I remember experiencing the reality of this warning. In my early 20s, before I knew Jesus, I was a young mother in an abusive relationship and we never had enough money to meet even our basic needs. I remember writing a wish list in my journal of all the things I wanted that once I had, I would consider myself successful and happy. They were simple things really; a house of my own, two cars, one for me and one for him, and us making enough money to be able to pay the bills on time and maybe even take a vacation to the beach one year. Several years later, I had a kinder, more supportive husband and all of the things on my list, even the beach vacation, and still I wasn’t happy. Those things didn’t fulfill me the way I thought they would. I had everything I thought I wanted and still I was empty. I would find out later that only God can fill the need I was trying to satisfy with all the stuff.

Around the same time, one of my hobbies was quilting. I knew two types of quilters—those who had sewing rooms and those who envied those who had sewing rooms. Like those who didn’t, I had plans to turn my child’s bedroom into my very own sewing room someday. After my son’s untimely death, I did turn his room into my sewing room but it was bittersweet and every time some quilter expressed her envy over my sewing room, I felt a little sad.

Last week I was telling someone about how active and social my mother was when I was a child. My mother was involved in everything and knew at least one person everywhere we went. Then 23 years ago she and my dad moved away from her friend network and she became more of a hermit over the years withdrawing to the point of not even wanting to go out with me. When my family moved her into assisted living, we were hopeful she would make new friends and get involved in activities again but, try as hard as we might, we couldn’t convince her to get involved. She was stubborn and willful and only wanted to be alone in her room. Now Alzheimer’s has taken her memory and changed her personality, made her more pliable and susceptible to suggestion so she is joining in on activities just the way we had hoped. But I can’t help thinking that she isn’t really the strong, iron-willed, stubborn woman I’ve known and looked up to all my life.

In contemplating all of this I’ve come to the conclusion that achieving my desires may bring some joy for a time but they can never satisfy my soul or make me complete. The unforeseen costs and consequences of the fulfilled desire may also taint the joy I derive so maybe being content with the many blessings I already have is the key to the happiness I’m looking for. Even if I get everything I ever wanted in this life, it’s not going to fill the emptiness in my soul and any happiness it may bring will only be fleeting without God at the center of my life. Without God, no matter how many wishes come true for me in life, I will never be truly happy or satisfied. There will always be something else I crave. So maybe if I’m wishing for anything other than a deeper relationship with God, I’m wishing for the wrong thing.

That's What Love Is

What Can I Say about Love?

Love is a choice, 
a way of life, 
a sacrifice. 
It's a connection that can't be broken, 
a purpose, 
a light.
It's not about me and all about you.
It's your strength in my weakness.
It's a treasure 
and truth.
Love knows and accepts me 
for who I am
and inspires me to be better,
to be more, 
it's why I wake 
and what my heart beats for.
It's our greatest desire,
a need to give and receive.
It's a sharing, 
a gift, 
between you and me.
It's not just a feeling that warms our hearts
though warming it does
Love is going without that I may give
Love gives its own life that its beloved may live
Whatever you think love is
It's so much more
when our love is His
our lives redeemed,
our minds renewed, 
and our hearts restored.

I wrote this poem 14 years ago. It's one of my favorites and with Valentines Day being this week, I thought it most appropriate to share today. It was my attempt to define the most precious and seemingly allusive treasure we have. 
Love is amazing. It’s what we want most and it’ll cost us dearly for there can be no love without total abandonment to utter vulnerability. Too often, doubt and fear fools us into presenting a facade to shield against pain and grief. If I am blessed enough to receive love and am not wholly authentic then it’s not actually me who is receiving the love, but the inauthentic imposter I'm hiding behind. 
The bible says that God is love and we know love because he demonstrated for us what love is. He has consistently shown us his love in scripture from Genesis through Revelation and will continue to do so in our everyday lives. His love is constant even in our doubt or defiance. Even if we try to hide behind the walls of our facades, he knows and sees the true, insecure, broken people we are and loves us wholly as we are. That's what love is.

Lent is Coming

This year Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day fall on the same day next week. I know this might seem a little early but what better way to prepare for Lent and celebrate love than to reflect on the greatest act of love the world has ever seen.

Meet Me in the Easter Story
Meet me in the Upper Room where
in the strength of our untested conviction
we were so sure that
we could never betray the Lord.
But Jesus knew.
And still He washed our feet.
Knowing, he shared his body and blood
in the bread and wine,
giving a new command:
to love.
Love with compassion and service,
in humility and sincerity,
with patience and mercy.
Love completely and unreservedly.
Love selflessly and boldly.
LOVE.
Love as He loves.
But we were too busy pointing fingers,
seeking the guilty
and boasting of our own greatness
to see the sinner,
the betrayer within.
How wrong we were even as we went with Him
to the garden.
 
Meet me at Gethsemane where
we would not even give an hour.
Did not sit with Him
in His anguish,
this Jesus we love.
“Pray that God will deliver you
from the trials and temptations about to come” He said
as He went off alone to pray.
His soul overwhelmed with sorrow,
pleading for another way,
pleading for His very life
yet choosing God’s will
over His own desire
while carelessly we dreamed beneath the olive trees.
Meet me in the darkness where
we raised a sword
and then ran away.
Cowering at a distance in the night
to satisfy our curiosity
too afraid to stand with
He who calls us friend.
 “I do not know him” we say.
“I do not know him.”
“I DO NOT KNOW HIM!”
And the rooster crows our sin.
 
Meet me at the Cross where
beaten and bloody beyond recognition
our Beloved has carried
the staggering weight of His own death,
the sin of the world,
our sin,
upon His flesh-torn back.
Hollow screams of pain
shrieking out the emptiness
of God’s justice crushing down upon Him.
Him who was sinless and had no stain.
A holy sacrifice.
A sacrifice of love.
With His last breath the earth shakes,
rocks split,
tombs open
and the temple curtain tears.
Oh, Father forgive us for we did not know.
 
Meet me at the Empty Tomb where
guards foolishly believe they secured
the hollowed out chamber of a rock
that cannot hold its Maker.
The very earth shakes as death
loses its grip upon
the Son of God
and the heavy stone rolls away
exposing an empty grave.
Mourning women meet brilliant angels
who comfort their fears and announce:
“He is not here!
He is risen!
Come and see.
Then go and tell.”
Duck your head with me as we enter
the echo chamber that holds only
strips of linen
and a neatly folded, empty burial cloth
laid there in the tomb
by the Savior
who no longer needs it.
 
Meet me in the garden outside the tomb,
in Galilee and Emmaus.
Where we know Him when we hear
His voice speak our name.
On the road home defeated when
the Word of God ignites a fire in our hearts
and the breaking of bread
opens our eyes to His presence.
Where our doubts are assuaged as
we touch and feel,
when we see and believe.
Where we recognize Him in miraculous provision
and welcome the glorious peace He gives.
In the moment of our restoration:
“Do you love Me the most?
Then value who and what I love.
Do you truly love Me?
Then care for those I love.
Do you love Me?
Then zealously nurture those I love.”
 
Meet me where you are
for where we are together
He also is
and waits for us.