Deep Breath, Right Direction

I have thought a lot about Psalm 23. We went over it in Bible study recently and it was mentioned again on Sunday morning at church. I looked it up in the message and I just love the way the first three verses are translated. It says, “God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. “

What tenderness and care we are given from our good and great “Shepherd”. We are in need of nothing, because He satisfies us, in a way only He can, that we are to want no more. The part of the passage that gives me goose bumps is “True to your word, you let me CATCH MY BREATH and send me in the RIGHT DIRECTION.” What a great illustration of the love of Christ. We all have those days, where they are overwhelming and stressful, and the next person to approach us might just get the effect of the day we have. In those moments we think if we could just take a second and catch our breath that we would be able to continue despite the madness. Where do you run to catch your breath? Do you run to the first person who will listen? Do you scream and fuss out of anger? Do you slam your fist on your desk and moan? Do you think if only you could get a hold of the person who upset you could give them “what they deserve”? I know sometimes I do, especially with people who are upset over the phone and call me at work to complain about something I don’t even have control over, yet I am put on the front line? The fact is, God is True to HIS WORD. He lets us catch our breath. There isn’t even a running requirement. He’s just there to let us catch our breath. I’m guilty of all of the above, but know that it would just be easier to bask in the “air” God gives us. To say, “Okay God, you are IN CONTROL.”

Now what about that “right direction” part of the passage. There are days, when I know and feel that I am where God wants me to be, but there are those days, when I don’t feel like I am where I am supposed to be in my walk with Him. Some days my walk with Christ can feel like a treadmill. I don’t know about you, but if you walk or run on a treadmill, it’s not really something one really desires to do. I mean think about it, who really wants to get up early and run? Okay, maybe those crazy people who really enjoy exercising, but I will be honest when the alarm says it’s 5:45 and time to get up to go to the gym, it’s not all rainbows and skittles, yet I'm still part of the crazies because I do that every once in awhile! Like a treadmill my walk with Christ can feel very repetitive. Going at the same pace, not deviating from the path, trying to do what’s right, over and over and over and over and over again. Some days my walk with Christ can feel like every 5 minutes there is another hurdle to jump over. Trying to trust God with everything, giving Him control once again over those things, that I surrendered to Him before. Some days my walk with Christ can feel like shoveling snow. When you start out and you can finally see a path that you created, just to realize that some of the snow (not all of it) blew back to make the path a little unclear. And other days my walk with Christ can feel like a GPS, saying “turn left, drive 5 miles to destination on right”(YOU MADE IT). But it’s not about the “feeling” of where our walk with Him may or may not be, rather knowing the TRUTH of GOD’s WORD…that HE LET’S US CATCH OUR BREATH, and SENDS US IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION…whether we “feel” like it or not. So whatever your “treadmill-like, snow hurdle GPS”  walk might be in, remember where your breath and direction come from!

Regaining Wonder

According to Webster wonder means to be filled with admiration, amazement, or awe; marvel. In working with children in the past I find that they have a higher awe factor than adults. For instance, take the 4^th of July. Have you ever sat outside and watched fireworks with a group of friends? Did they bring their children? Think about how the children reacted? The adults? Having 11 nieces  and nephews (and 1 on the way), the typical reaction of a child when they see fireworks is complete amazement. They say WOW to about everyone that is set off; that is if they are not traumatized by the loudness they produce and run screaming in the opposite direction. I will be honest, even though I adore children about the 10^th one that goes off, I’m usually annoyed with the ooohs and ahhhs for each one. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy watching fireworks and I’m sure you do as well, but a child regains WONDER come every firework every year. They find something in each one to AWE over. Whether it’s the vibrant colors, kaleidoscopic design, or the noises that can vibrate the very ground you stand on, children love fireworks. For some adults, the colors become dull, the designs become redundant, and they can’t stand the noise.

Just like fireworks, our faith can lose its spark, shape, and joy if we’re not careful. (Maybe that’s why the scriptures say that “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” The message says it best, “These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.” Mark 10:13-31) How many times have you heard that same guilt-tripping sermon about (insert sermon topic of choice here)? How many Sunday mornings do you roll out of bed, and find your comfy normal spot? How many times have you sang the same worship song, that seems to have lost its meaning? Let’s face it, our faith can become stagnant over time, if we don’t learn, grow, and do all for the glory of Him and for His Kingdom! So why the burnout? Why the lack of spiritual energy? Is it really all those “church” related issues or are those the easiest target to cast blame? I remember growing up and fighting with my sister, and when it came time to confess who “started” it, the first thing that flew out of my mouth was always, “SHE DID IT”! Cause let's face it, it was her fault most of the time...Just Kidding...Sometimes I can get like that when I find myself searching for that “wonder” and “awe”…when in reality I have no one to blame but myself.

So how does one regain that wonder?

In reading Beauty Will Save the World I have discovered what it means to regain wonder in our Lord. Brian Zahnd writes, “We wonder at two things-the beautiful and the mysterious. A life stripped of beauty and mystery is a life barren of wonder, and a life without wonder is a kind of deep poverty.” The author depicts the incarnation of Jesus as a beautiful and mysterious wonder. It’s the idea that the Word, the idea, the reason, the reflection , the meditation, the self-understanding of God became HUMAN! He says, “The tragedy of growing up is not that we put aside childishness, but that we lose the capacity for childlike wonder. As children we dream of finding our own real-life adventure…the loss of wonder is what we experience as boredom, and boredom is a real problem.” I think sometimes we lose the wonder because instead of just looking at something amazing and saying “how awesome”, we try to figure it out or put reason behind its existence. Why does the sun produce such color schemes? How did this gigantic hole become The Grand Canyon? We try to rationalize what we visualize. However, when we focus on the incarnation we find it’s “an eternal fountain of mystery and wonder. And in the mystery and wonder of the incarnation… is found the BEAUTY that SAVES the WORLD.”

In thinking through the incarnation and what it’s wonder I ran across the Lord’s Prayer in The Message version, and I love it, and wanted to share with you what it says…

Matthew 6:9-13

Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what's best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You're in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You're ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.

What wonder in a simple prayer, prayed by our Father. So this week when you’ve got the “spiritual blahs” remember the WONDER of God. Dig deep into HIS WORD…and just reach out your hand. The beauty is, all you have to do is reach…He will secure your hand in HIS, and bring you into His arms!

The Wave of Blogs Come and Go...

My 2x4 came to me this week in the form of the beatitudes. These are the 9 teachings that get the heart of what Jesus taught that day on the Mount! I love this passage in the bible, Jesus is specifically speaking to his disciples, however right at the beginning of the passage it talks about how Jesus saw the crowds, which we are led to believe that this teaching was not only meant for the disciples, but rather those who were not yet “followers” of Christ. Coincidence? I think not! But whoever Christ was teaching at that moment is not as important as what he was teaching. As you look over each one of the beatitudes, they stand out on their own, each with something to “be” and the result of becoming it. The more I read them the more it stuck out to me that they might be individual attributes of Christ, but they all work together…because Christ is and breathes all of them. If this who Christ is, then shouldn’t we look at all of them as a whole?

Matthew 5:3-12

1.       Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2.       Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

3.       Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

4.       Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled

5.       Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

6.       Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

7.       Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God.

8.       Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

9.       Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Anyway, it’s hard for me to think that we can “be” one of them without the others. How can we be merciful without a pure heart? How can we allow others to persecute us, if we are not meek peacemakers? How can we hunger and thirst for righteousness without being poor in spirit? I think we can strive to be better at each one of these, but we will never fully “be” poor in spirit, if we are not pure in heart or a peacemaker, or merciful. We will never “be” one without the others. I don’t mean this to be discouraging, rather I want to be encouraging as to what we should strive to become in our daily walks with Christ.

Which one do you have to strive after more than others? Being at the end of your rope, yet maintaining an attitude because with less of you, there is more of Him? Losing someone that you loved, so you can be embraced by the one who loves you the most? Being content with no more or no less, so you can be proud of what you have that is priceless? Relying on your nourishment to come from the best source, so you can please Him in all you do? Caring for others, so you can know Christ cares for you? Setting right your inside world, so you can see the outside world through God’s perspective? Agreeing to disagree, rather than taking sides so you can discover the “you” God created you to be? Saying Yes to Him amongst trials, so others can see who they need? Being blessed when others throw you under the bus, because the truth is slowly being shown to them and it brings them discomfort?

Whatever one it may be, it is my prayer that God would reveal to you how to strive towards it with faithfulness.

I leave you with this to ponder… feel free to backfire thoughts or comments to this!!!...to any of it really!

There is only one or two accounts I can recall when Jesus sought someone out personally or arrived at a place with a specific visitor in mind. All the other times, the crowds saw Him and what He was doing and followed Him. Maybe with the intent to learn, maybe to just simply watch what He was doing. But my question is, what made them follow Him in the first place? It must have been His radical way of living, and his actions that caused people to take a step back and observe or take a step forward and follow. One way or the other, it seems to be the way Christ lived that attracted people to Himself. How do you live that makes people take a step back to observe how you live, or take that step forward like you have and follow Christ?

The One True Light...

A couple nights ago I was laying in bed, it was dark and I saw a small light on my ceiling. I’ve lived there since May of last year and I have never noticed it before, and I couldn’t think of what it could be. My first thought was that there was a small hole in my ceiling coming through the floor above me. Sounds crazy, but on our first floor, there are tiny holes that you can see light coming through the basement. I wasn’t quite sure how a hole could possibly be in my ceiling, but that’s what I thought. It was cold and I didn’t want to get out of bed, so I laid there convincing myself that I could leave it be and let my curiosity rest till morning. WRONG! Well, we all know how curiosity gets the best of us, especially for someone who would probably lay there all night thinking of the many possibilities of this mysterious light. So I decided to brave the cold, hop out of bed and take a closer look. With my overhead light still off, even getting closer to the so called hole I couldn’t tell what it was, and now I had to convince myself to turn on the bright light after getting used to the darkness. You’re probably thinking “Okay, Chelsea get on with it already”. Anyway, I decided I didn’t want to know what it was so I got back in bed and went to sleep…

JUST KIDDING…I turned the light on, and low and behold, it was the little light on my smoke detector.

Why do I share this story with you? Simply because just like this smoke detector light and having to turn on the overhead light to reveal the truth of the object, it’s much like our own lives. Except that God is the overhead light through which the truth is revealed. 1 John 1:5 says, “⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.”  Sometimes we have to convince ourselves to take initiative and hop out of bed, but God is there with us just waiting for us to embrace the light he offers.

Science shows that there are three functions of light. It reveals, measures, and energizes. It allows us to see everything that is around us, it measures distances, angles and speed, and it summons us from our slumber as it rises. It glorifies, intensifies, and fulfills the earth every morning as it slowly replaces the moon. Just like physical light, God is light –ONLY BETTER! Through Him the truth is revealed, we can measure our lives with His character through His light, and He gives us the energy to push through and embrace each and every day. God wants us to have a daily dependence on Him.

Mark Batterson wrote, “We want a one-week or one-month or one-year supply of God’s provision, but God wants us to drop to our knees every day in raw dependence on Him. And God knows that if He provided too much too soon, we’d lose our spiritual hunger. He knows we’d stop trusting in our Provider and start trusting in the provision.”

1 John says that “in him there is no darkness AT ALL”.

Darkness conceals, but light reveals! What is God revealing to you?

Walls

I don’t know about you, but the Lord is blessing me in so many ways! Part of God’s blessing came through a phone call with a friend this week. As I began to think about what she was saying on the phone I was reminded of new things, not necessarily myself personally, but new things in general. The start of a new year. A new relationship. A new found confidence. A new look. A new challenge. A new hope. We can get such gratification out of new things. In fact some people can’t wait for something new. (Especially if they know it’s coming). The crazy thing is, a new year only comes every 365 days. A new relationship may be hard to come by. Confidence, may never find its way into our lives. A new look may only come around once in a while, and we may never accept the new challenges in front of us. And hope, one must first find through the belief in God.

The truth of it is, these “new” things or “new” feelings may only come once a year, once a month, or it may take decades, but there is one thing that we have new! It’s every second, minute, and hour of EVERYDAY! It the gift of life, and every second is an opportunity to make a difference for Christ in the lives of others. Sometimes there are things that stand in the way, we guard ourselves because we are scared of the pain, fear, and rejection that may result. We hide behind these giant walls that we’ve built overtime. Give it enough time and the walls become more permanent, they harden and can come to the point where they filter our relationships with others. These walls tend to make us pick and choose what we share with others based on our relationship with them. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to hide my faith behind anything, or allow hindrances in my relationships with others. So that has been my challenge this week, to look at my relationships and find the walls, and to figure out how to tear them down! J No more filters!

"Just a Touch"

When God created us, he gave us a spine to be able to hold ourselves up. Much like books have a spine to hold the pages together. He gave us a "cover" and a couple of pages to begin our journey but left the other pages blank, so He could draft our stories as we grow in Him. As I think of stories I think about the story I recently read about the woman who had been, "subject to bleeding for 12 years, but no one could heal her." (Luke 8:43).

I have heard this story so many times throughout my life, but it has never had the significance that it rings now. 12 years! WoW!!! If I would subtract the last 12 years of my life I would be 11years old, and to be honest I don't really remember a whole lot of my childhood, but it's been a while since I have been 11, and I don't really remember a whole lot that has happened in the last 12 years of my life. 

12 years of time seems like an eternity, but for people to treat you, like this woman was treated for that long is something I can't grasp. According to Jewish law she was in a state of uncleanliness and a social outcast. No one would talk to her. She tried EVERYTHING she possibly could to be healed from this disease and spent every penny she had, yet every attempt failed. YET, she STILL had faith that if she could get close enough to Jesus that just a touch would heal her. The power of Jesus had healed her, and Christ knew it by just a touch. A moment later Christ calls her out and despite the embarrassment and her past health condition she comes forth proclaiming what He had done for her.

But wait, how does Jesus respond to this? With the most tender words, he says (NLV), "Daughter, your faith has HEALED you."

With just a touch, His daughter (our sister) was healed. And it wasn't a physical touch, it was a faith touch. Christ didn't say because you touched me you are healed...he said by your FAITH.

So is this the answer?

Could it be that simple? 

Could it be just a touch of faith?

100,000 miles and counting...

I remember when I bought my very first car...I probably remember so well because I am still paying for it. But it only had 23,482 miles on it, when I made the commitment to make this 04 Honda Civic (Also known as my "Plain" Jane) a part of my life, that would take me from point A to point B. It will be an even better mile stone when I have the lovely thing paid off, but for now I cherish a moment. I have hit over 100,000 miles... I have put over 76,532 miles on this car since I went to the dealer and drove it home for the first time 5 years ago, that is roughly 19,000 miles a year.

Assuming that each mile was going at a rate of 60mph, that would be 1,147,980 mins a a year. That is approximately 52 miles a day or a total of 317 hours year. Assuming that most of the miles I drove were at 60mph I would have spent about 1,276 hours in my car since I bought it, which would equal about 53 consecutive days. It's hard to believe that I have driven that far in just my car. All math aside, my point is, I have spent so much time in my car. I have traveled to Florida twice, back and forth from college most weekends, back and forth from Goshen to Van Wert several times when I lived with my brother and sister-n-law for the summer, and now back to Van Wert, OH from Harrisburg, PA. Those were the times when I put the most miles on my car. I have laughed, sang so many songs at the top of my lungs, and have even cried. I have left a lot of places in my review mirror as I've said goodbye, and I experience new scenes out my windshield every day. Every day is a brand new adventure.

Every day I trust God will get me and those around me safely from point A to point B. But is our everyday journey just to make it from point A to point B. Our destination or point B shouldn't be our ultimate goal, it should be what we do with the miles and time it takes us to get there. I'm not sure that I spend this time wisely everyday.  I know I haven't used it wisely as I've "yelled" or "honked" at the driver who just cut me off, as I've cursed the red light that turned from green ever so quickly and made me late for a meeting, or the times when I've found myself at an annoying stand still in traffic. All opportunities I was given and blown just as much as the driver behind me honking at me because the light turned green and I didn't notice it as quickly as he did.

I want the journeys I experience to mean just as much as the point B's that I experience, because if I don't love, if I don't serve, if I don't share God's love along the way, what good will it be when I land at yet another point B and haven't used it for His glory?