Being bold

God calls us to be different,
not in a weird sort of way,
but bold in loving Him
by being bold in loving others,
gracious,
and kind.
It is not just being responsive
                     to obvious need,
but seeking out opportunities.

How can I love others today?
LORD, give me a heart
                   to know how.
Even now.
Even here.
Even that person.

Love them back.

Let the redeemed of the LORD
                          say so.
     
                       Psalm 107.2

Let the redeemed of the LORD
                          reveal so.

What does being redeemed look like?

Not just being nice,
     but loving boldly.
Because you can.

A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another;
    even as I have loved you,
that you also love one another.
By this
all men will know
that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.

                     John 13. 34-35

Unexpected finds on the side of the road

I have learned as I drive through wooded areas to keep my eyes alert to all that is around me.  The trees often form an arch over the roadway, and particularly this time of year, it appears as if I am driving through a cathedral.  And the other day, I saw a mama black bear and her two cubs meandering alongside the road, off in the trees, eating their way through the forest.

The unexpected appeared on my path this week also in another way.  One of our daughters is 24 weeks pregnant, and as of last week, she is confined to bed rest for the duration of her pregnancy.  I am now in Nashville, helping her out, keeping our fourteen-month-old grandson out of trouble.

And so, God places something else on my radar, not what I expected, but in His purposes.  And in this too, He will redeem and fulfill in unexpected ways.

It may have been a change in my plans,
         but not in His.

Eyes open,
    hands ready,
        heart on the alert.

God delights in providing the unexpected
     and redeeming impossible situations.
And sometimes,
             He uses you to do it.

What has God put on YOUR radar,
      who has He put on your path?


...do whatever your hand finds to do,
               for God is with you.

                          1 Samual 10.7

He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land
    into springs of water.

                       Psalm 107.35

Praying my way through

When we pray,

God almost always directs

               in unexpected ways,

not that doors open before us,

    but that my heart is open to His will,

    not mine.

That is when I can see passages

               all around me.

His ways are higher,

deeper,

sometimes a broad highway

                     full speed ahead,

more often a quiet pathway,

following a scarlet thread

     woven in a way,

     in places,

              I can never imagine.

“This way, walk in it,”

           a hidden passageway

    only He could know,

which all along

      I have been traveling toward.

The destination is not the answer,

        but to be found in Him.

The Path We Least Expect

Those quiet walkways,
       those ordinary days,
are most often
           the most profound of all.


He leads me besides still waters.
He restores my soul.

                     Psalm 23. 2-3

Making Sense

I spent several days with our fourteen-month-old grandson Adrian last week, developing my relationship with him and getting to know him a little bit better.  He loves sitting on his floor, “reading” books.  Indeed, he opens his thick-paged books and studies the pages as intently as an undergraduate before a final exam.  It is as if he is memorizing each picture, and then he turns the page to study yet another.

“You wonder what is going on in that little mind of his,” our daughter remarked one morning as Adrian was “reading” at the breakfast table.

Adrian recognizes common objects in his storybooks, pointing to the pictures and identifying a few verbally:  ball, book, dog, cat, and flower.  He looks at the pictures. the written words now appearing to him as mere lines across the page, that which doesn’t make sense to him at all. 

He learns gradually by seeing pictures and hearing the rhythms and tones and rhymes of the voice reading to him.  Bit by bit, he will make a connection between the text and the spoken word.  (And as his cousins Maggie and Howie do, he too will eventually correct Gramma when she skips even one little word.)

It is not that those scribbles on the page don’t make sense.  It is just far beyond his toddler capabilities to comprehend at this point.  He hasn’t yet made those vital connections.

Someday he will understand.

And someday,

     so will we.

In Scripture,

I have always understood

   the “sacrifice of thanksgiving”  to mean

praising God even before the outcome is obvious,

    because He is good,

          even when we don’t comprehend

                                                               YET.

Thank God for the things

    you may never understand

    on this side of life.

It is not that God will unravel the mysteries,

taking apart the who,

what,

where,

when,

why,

and how,

but God will reveal

       that they are  seamlessly connected

                                              after all.

He is redeeming them

                                 even now.

This is how one should regard us,

as servants of Christ

and stewards

     of the mysteries of God.

             1 Corinthians 4.1