The Other "If"

Yesterday we examined what it looks like to have your life revolve around the "if only's" of life.

But "if only" has an equally misbehaving twin. It is another "if" that also threatens to pull you down, keep you from running on your path, and paralyze you on the spot. "What if...?" It is the element of fear. "What if_______?" (Again, fill in the blank). "What if I never get married? What if I can't have kids? What if God sends me to _____, or keeps me in ________? What if I lose my job? What if my car gives out? What if I can't think of the answer? Or get cancer?" Again, the list goes on and on. At times, these fears seem like impatient preschool children lined up on my side of the bed just waiting for me to open one eye. Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, MOM!!! What if, what if, what if, and THEN, what if? The end of the world as we know it, I imagine.

Again, this problem can be readily traced back to the beginning of time, actually back to the Fall. We live in a fallen world. It is out of balance, wrong side up. And we should be aware that we wear an enormous bulls-eye. When the serpent can't tempt us (if only...?), he makes us fear him and fear the unknown (what if...?). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil made us all too aware of evil and our vulnerability to it. The fruit was not sweet after all.

What does God have to say about fear? "Fear not, I am your shield" (Genesis 15.1), "Fear not, stand firm..." (Exodus 14.13), "Fear not, but let your hands be strong" (Zechariah 8.13), "Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My victorious right hand" (Isaiah 41.10) Just look up FEAR in your Bible's concordance, and be amazed at how God strengthened His people throughout the ages, even those who were the great leaders of the faith. Even us today.

And as you peruse these verses and grasp hold of them, note that God is not saying, "Come on, now, you can do it, believe in yourself." Not at all. In EVERY example, God is revealing His own power. That is the difference between positive thinking and the reality of the presence of God. The "unknown" is, after all, known to Him. ("Even the darkness is not dark to You." Psalm 139.12) He is doing a work in your life that is beyond what you could ever ask or think. (Ephesians 3.20, Habakkuk 1.5)

Everyone has a worldview, a lens through which they view the world. To believe in the presence of God and His strength is not just a "good way of looking at things." It is Biblical worldview which emanates from reality, the core of who God is and who we are in Him. It is not a positive perspective on life. It is Biblical worldview, and it pervades EVERYTHING in your life. Not just how you look at life, but how you live.

What do others see in you? Grumbling and fear? Or the reality of God?
"For I will be to her a wall of fire round about, says the LORD, and I will be the glory within her." (Zechariah 2.5)

Press on!

If only…..?

It is beginning of the year when our thoughts turn naturally to how things can be different in our lives.  Unfortunately, too many get caught in the game of “if only….”  Actually a lot of people are really good playing that game.  “If only I was__________(fill in the blank), THEN I would be happy.”  For those who are single, “if only I was married.”  And the list goes on.  “If only I weighed twenty pounds less, if only I had straight hair, if only I had curly hair, if only I lived in New York, if only I drove a snazzy car, if only I was taller or shorter, if only I had a better boss, if only it wasn’t so cold here, if only it wasn’t so hot”.  People complain about the weather (wherever you live), the traffic, the schools, the crime, their spouses, their kids, the dog.

     If only’s paralyze you for what you need to be doing right now.

     If only’s keep you from seeing God’s faithfulness today.

     If only’s question God’s goodness.

     If only is as old as the garden of Eden.  “If only I eat the fruit, then I will be God.”  Eve set us on an elusive trail to seek personal happiness without God.  If only is conditional on external circumstances.  NOTHING is ever right or perfect.  The Bible calls it “grumbling.”  Even as the persecuted Israelites fled Pharoah’s army, they cried outloud, “if only we had never left Egypt”.  “We’re thirsty”.  God gave them water.  “We’re hungry”.  God gave them manna every morning.  All they had to do was pick it up off the ground.  And even, “we’re tired of manna”.  And God gave them quail.  On and on and on.  Yep, sounds like whining to me.

     Paul states in the book of Philippians, “Not that I complain of want, for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content.  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want.  I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4. 11-13)  He actually wrote these words from prison.

     Contentment comes from the reality of God at the core of who you are.  It is motivated by a source of strength, not by personal desperation.  And for those who have committed their lives to something beyond themselves through Christ, “if only” takes a different spin.  Instead of “if only” being a cry of discontent, it is a shout of restoration.  Because we live in a fallen world – we all recognize that – we should be seeking restoration of the world, turning things right side up.  In that case, “if only” has nothing to do with an elusive quest of an empty life,  but everything to do with a redeemed heart.

Only in Chicago

There are a few things that I have learned about living in Chicago this past month.

Observation 1:  One of the first stores that I entered upon arriving in late November was a display of mittens that have an ice scraper already attached.  It seemed absurd to me at the time, almost comical, until last week when our daughter Laura’s car was completely encased in ice and snow after sitting overnight in our driveway. 

Observation 2:  There are certain appliances that we consider necessary to home life here:  a stove, a furnace, and above anything else, a snowblower.  You don’t even need a fridge.  Just set the stuff outside.

Observation 3:  The weather is not part of the daily news.  It IS the news.

Observation 4:  One afternoon I went outside to run some errands.  It seemed relatively warm.  The thermometer on my car said that it was 36 degrees.  Later, I noticed that was the exact same temperature inside my refrigerator.

Observation 5:  Twenty-two degrees is not all the same.  The way it feels depends on a myriad of factors, including wind velocity, presence of the sun, whether you have gloves, how far your car is parked from the entrance of the store, and what coat you are wearing.  The right clothing makes all the difference.

Observation 6:  Along the same lines, people in Chicago appear more robust.  This has nothing to do with body weight.  It has everything to do with how many layers they are wearing.  Fashion is cast aside.  When one of Hannah’s friends moved to Chicago from sunny California, her mother told her, “Face it.  No matter what you wear, you are not going to look cute.”  Being warm takes precedence.  Hannah reports of girls on the Northwestern campus wearing full length goose down coats who look like caterpillars walking around.  Bill and I saw a woman in a festive strapless party dress at a Christmas party.  Everyone felt so sorry for her.  The rest of us had sweaters on, and I suspect, some with long underwear as well.  Being cold (or warm) is not so much based on the temperature as on what you are wearing.

Observation 7:  Is it cold?  I purchased a pair of heavy black tights to wear under my slacks.  I haven’t worn tights since third grade.  I also uncovered in the move a couple of turtlenecks that I haven’t worn since we lived in Iowa City ten years ago.  Not exactly a fashion statement, but beginning to sound like a good idea.

Observation 8:  Why do people stick out their windshield wipers when they park their cars outside?  To keep the blades from freezing to the glass.  And to make scraping the windshield easier.

Observation 9:  Believe it or not, I received a type of tire chains (or crampons) for the bottom of my running shoes as a Christmas present.  These are along the same lines as the snow chains that my dad would put on the tires in the winter when I was a little girl.  Actually, they operate a lot like the spikes the guys who climb Everest clamp on the bottom of their boots.  They make the pavement a lot less slippery to run on during a snowfall.  I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

Observation 10:  Yes, they plow and salt the streets to melt the ice, but under 12 degrees, road salt no longer has any effect.  You can buy specially formulated salt at Home Depot to get you down to about zero.

Observation 11:  I went to the hardware store to get a couple of door mats.  The woman at the store pointed out to me that I didn’t need outdoor mats, but ones to place inside the door for people to step onto.  “Anything outside will be iced over anyway and won’t do you any good,” she said.

Observation 12:  Just about every furnace that we saw when we were looking at houses has a humidifier attached to it to condition the dry winter air.  After living in thick-as-soup air in Memphis, it seemed really bizarre to need to actually ADD humidity.

Observation 13:  Basic rule for survival in a Chicago winter:  a chapstick in every pocket.

But before you think that all is absurd living in the Northland:

During a recent snowfall, I watched some neighbor children sledding on the empty lot next to us.  They were outside playing in the snow for at least two to three hours.  I could hear their laughter ringing in the air.  Snow gives kids the permission to be kids.  To play.  To play outside, even in the cold.  I have seen tough teenagers suddenly become kids again, just because of the snow, sledding all afternoon.  And having fun.  I rarely see kids really having fun anymore.  But on that snowy day, I heard laughter in the air.

Also during another snowfall, my daughter Beth saw one of her neighbors out front of his house building a tiny snowman.  By the time Beth returned from her errand, he had completed an entire family of snowmen in their front yard.  All by himself.  He has a child, but she is only three months old.  Again, snow brings out the kid in all of us.  Her neighbor, by the way, is a former NFL player.

I awoke early one morning.  The snowstorm had ceased.  The air was silent.   I was transfixed by the beauty of the whiteness.  I may be a newcomer yet, but I was awestruck by the wonder of it all.  Cold, yes it is.  But also amazing.  

Click Here

This is my top recommendation for a goal this year.  Even if this is your ONLY goal this year,

it will change your life.

Write to me a year from now and tell me the difference it made.

Email me now and let me know if you are jumping in.

You have choices.

 

http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101

or the Bill Wells’ four chapters a day plan.  Or one of your own choosing.

 

The question that you ask yourself every day, Did I read God’s Word today?

This is, as Bryan Loritts would say, “the very words of God.”  And through your daily reading,

He will transform your life.

 

“More to be desired are they than gold,

even much fine gold,

sweeter also than honey

               and drippings of the honeycomb.

Moreover by them is Your servant warned,

                         in keeping them there is great reward.”

                                                              Psalm 19. 10-11

Press on!

Best Reads of 2009

A few weeks ago, I read an article in the New York Times about its top book picks in 2009.  As a result, I have asked several people around me for their own top picks, the best books that they have read this past year.  I have been negligent in posting my own.  I keep a running list of the books that I read – and that list is buried somewhere in one of the many unpacked boxes in our new house.  So, based on my (often faulty) memory, here is my list of top ten.

 

1.  The Bible.  Someone told me that the Bible didn’t count, but as yet, it was my most consistent reading over the course of the year.  I would encourage you to read it through in 2010.  There is something amazing in grasping it in its entirety.  Its depth never ceases to astonish me.  I can email you a “schedule” if you are interested.  That helps me to stay consistent.

2.  Once A Runner and Again to Carthage, both by John L. Parker.  The first book was originally self-published in 1978 and sold out of the back of the author’s car at running races.  In 2007, it ranked as the number one most-sought-after out-of-print book in the United States.  It was just reprinted this year.  Again to Carthage is its sequel.  If you were ever a high school or college athlete (which I never was), you would appreciate these books.  If you run, the writing in the race sequences is powerful.  If you rather just sit on the couch and read about sweat, it will help you understand the mindset of those with worn-out running shoes and fading dreams.

3.  Home by Marilynne Robinson, newly published and the winner of many writing awards, including the coveted Orange Award in the United Kingdom which sent the Brits into an uproar that an American would win THEIR own trophy.  I read this book first, although its predecessor and companion piece is Gilead, which won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 2005.  Actually, both books dwell on the same situation, seen from two very different perspectives.  When Gilead first came out, I had a hard time jumping in.  Home pulled me in instantly, and then I went back and read Gilead.  I was then able to appreciate it.  I also re-read Marilynne’s first book Housekeeping, her first novel published in 1980 which was nominated for the Pulitzer, an amazing feat for a first-time novelist.  Her writing  in itself is profound.  She is on the permanent faculty at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop.  I met her there when we lived in Iowa City, long before I realized who I was meeting.

4.  Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel. I have read A LOT of parenting books through the years.  This one stands far and above the rest.  I taught this book in a small group Bible study for young moms last summer.  We learned a lot about parenting  based on grace rather than performance, but the deepest discussions revolved around learning about ourselves, our backgrounds,  and how we can live grace-filled lives.  Highly recommended.

5.  Transforming Leadership by Leighton Ford.  Everyone is interested nowadays in leadership books.  I felt that this book should have been titled Transforming Servanthood, but then, who would have read it?  Published in 1991, it does not relay information about successful models of leadership, but the transforming servanthood model of Jesus Christ.  This book was on a prescribed reading list for a course that I was taking.  I did not want to read it.  It surprised me.

6.  On the same vein, Transforming Discipleship by Greg Ogden.  How many small group Bible studies have you participated in through the years?  And what can you remember from them?  How did they change you?  This book is based on the premise that information without transformation is a waste of time.  Ogden believes in the transforming power of a small group.    The key word here is “transformation.”

7.  Decades ago, Flannery O’Connor took the literary world by storm.  A single woman living with lupus on a peacock farm in Georgia, she wrote with a rare giftedness that did not mince words.  In Mystery and Manners, many of her unpublished essays and talks have been gathered together.  The underlying theme throughout this little book is the grace of God and the power of story.  I have something underlined on just about every page.

8.  At the University of Memphis, I had the privilege to hear author Elizabeth Strout read aloud portions of her new book Olive Kitteridge.   It is a witty book of short stories that are interwoven.  The common thread is the character Olive Kitteridge.  One’s perceptions about this odd woman remarkably change through the course of the book.  The stories are somewhat reckless and often quite irreverent, but the second story in this book is one of the most powerful testimonies about the sanctity of life that I have read.

9.  I was re-introduced this year to the works of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz who is now deceased.  He is one of the writers that I wonder why I never heard of him before now.  Even though he passed away in 2004, his work is still being published.  I testify that I don’t understand much of his work, but his words are rich.  “One clear stanza can take more weight/ Than a whole wagon of elaborate prose.” (from the preface of A Treatise On Poetry).  The other book of his that I read this year was The Witness of Poetry, a series of lectures in 1981-82 at Harvard.  Not light reading.

10.  The surprise story of the year in many circles was the publication of Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice.  Her writing career was launched with her legendary 1973 publication of Interview with the Vampire and the remainder of her vampire series.  Her fiction was dark and gothic.  This memoir focuses on Anne Rice’s return to Christianity after decades of hardcore atheism.  One of the most poignant passages that I remember was her stating “I missed God.”   She had walked away from the faith, and the reality of His absence in her life took her breath away.  No one stands beyond the grace of God.  The most spiritually thirsty people you know may be the least obvious.

 

This list includes books of all genres and worldviews.  It is in the revealing of human nature that we see our shortcomings.  Even a false worldview reveals what is really Truth, and even more firmly establishes the validity and consistency of a Biblical worldview.  Read everything with that lens.  As Flannery O’Connor states, fiction “should reinforce our sense of the supernatural by grounding it in concrete, observable reality.”

 

I’d love to see YOUR list.   Merry Christmas.