Author: marettej

So many times I have gotten that statement: here’s what I want you to do. I have preached that sermon more than a few times. It’s the statement combined with a list. My speech or my list usually does not include the next word however: “God helping you.” Usually my speech would go like, this is your problem, it’s your responsibility, you didn’t do it when I asked before so now this is what I want you to do.

Paul gives us a list of what God would like us to do and then gives us that line that changes it all; God helping you. It seems so simple the way it is stated. Take your everyday life and live it with Jesus being your hands and heart! The stuff you do normally, make it be an offering to God that makes him smile and people relax. Then he adds specifics like your sleeping, your eating, going to work and walking around life. That about sums its up. That’s pretty much a normal day. We sleep, we eat, we work and we walk around trying to figure out what we were doing so we can finish it. I am sitting in the new to me green comfy chair in the corner. I see an envelope that is ready to be shipped, a puzzle that needs finishing, prayer list great needs to be gone through, and menus that need to be planned for the week. I see my journal which tells me what I have planned for the week and I see it’s all “walking around life” stuff. Sometimes I don’t think of it as a living sacrifice. Sometimes I don’t see it as anything good just stuff I have to do. And yet there is so much fun in the walking around life. I sat at a hockey game yesterday, picked up a new to meet huge Christmas tree for next year, painted, made cookies, did dishes, played with a dog and watched a couple very good football games. I was Just walking around life. Step by step I am being Jesus with skin to those I meet. Isn’t hard, it isn’t easy: but it’s what I am supposed to be doing to lay an offering at the feet of Jesus. The kicker is the statement, ” God helping you.” So off I go to be more that what I could normally be cuz I have that statement at the end of the directions. It’s beyond Mix well. It’s better than stir for 10 minutes and kneed gently. It takes the work off my heart and puts it on Gods shoulders. I can handle that!

I wasn’t privileged to grow up eating oatmeal for breakfast. In fact we didn’t even have pancakes for breakfast! That was Saturday lunch. I have grown to almost enjoy oatmeal: almost. If it has sugar in it or stuff on it I can eat it and savor the fact that I won’t be hungry until lunch. I might want food but I can live without food till lunch.

There are times in life I have learned that I have to simply pretend I like oatmeal. It’s not always oatmeal sometimes it’s people, incidents, misunderstandings, angry words spoken to me or lies. Sometimes it’s people causing me to change my direction because they don’t want to do the right thing. I just have to pretend it’s oatmeal and wait till lunch for something better to happen!

Years end. The count down to the new year. The new Year where people try to stay up late and either succeed or epic failure happens. There is nothing magical about New Year’s Eve or actually New Year’s Day but we make it a special time to look ahead or reflect back. Good or bad, our culture revels in reflection and anticipation. I hesitate at both. Reflection gives us a chance to relive: much of which we shouldn’t waste as much energy as we do. Anticipating usually gives us false security that something could happen and leads us to false conclusions. Tomorrow may not be better, it could be worse. Tomorrow may not be the answer to your questions, but be the start to another long run down a short path.

Years end. The count down to the new year. What if we lived each day just for the day itself? What if tomorrow didn’t matter and yesterday hadn’t happened? What if we simply enjoyed the day for what God has allowed and placed in our hand the moment.

We get caught up in the past. Photo albums clutter our coffee tables. Scrapbooks give us pages of stuff to wade through, not always good and not always bad. What brings the change of emotion into the equation is our grip on what was and our fear of what could be. We want to change what was or hold it dearly. We want to know the future or plan it on detail. That in itself is where we get hung up.

“Thy goodness has been with me through a twisting wilderness, in retreat helping me to advance, when beaten back making sure headway. Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead; I will hoist sail and draw up anchor, with thee as the blessed pilot if my future as of my past.” (Puritan book of prayers)

Happy New Year, for whatever it holds may not be happy and may not be a new adventure book it will be what God has allowed and it will be possible with Christ.

” I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,

With thee, O Father as my harbor, thee O Son, at my helm, Thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.” (Puritan book of prayers)

Advent: this week our focus is on peace. It’s quiet in the house. For empty nesters we have a full house especially today. Two just left for work, one will get up soon and head for school and three are sleeping on the couch: friends passing through. The corn stove is sending out heat and that comforting clicking sound which reminds me it’s still working if the warmth I don’t immediately feel. The outside world I don’t sense. It’s below zero outside. The wind is blowing. I am warm and peaceful because of the protection I have. I love the Puritan prayer. This phrase especially for today: “fill me with peace, that no disquieting worldly gales may ruffle the calm surface of my soul. “.

The plea is for peace that is abiding and gentle yet strong and unyielding. If you watch the winds blow during a storm nothing is safe. Tree limbs, trees, any garbage or trash lying around fly all over. And yet watch a bird sitting on a tree branch. They just sit there while the winds thrash about. God created them with feet that hold on, feathers that deflect the wind and they look rather unruffled! Lord let me show that calm when all in my life blows across the field. Fill me with that peace. That peace that holds on and let’s people see you instead of the storm!

Being lonely is one of the oddest feelings. For some, it’s a relief from the busyness of people. For others it’s a calm amongst the storms that seem to assault one’s heart. Some people are lonely and obvious. Others are lonely and they look like they are having the time of their live. Our heart has a way of being vulnerable to only those we feel will understand.

What I have learned about loneliness is no one really wants to be but few know how to decipher being alone and loneliness. I love being alone. I don’t like to be lonely. Being alone is having your presence be on a higher level than those around you. We can be alone in a crowd. We can be lonely with many people surrounding us.

This past few months I walked with friends as they faced cancer and ultimately death. I spent  being with them so they weren’t alone or lonely. Was I always active and talking? For once, no and I realize some of you find that hard to believe. Was I doing, visiting, bonding and embracing togetherness? No, I was there. Sometimes just being there gives others the option to embrace being alone or avoid being lonely.

I learned many years ago, being a friend to someone gives them the power to use from your heart what they need. Sometimes I need a laughing friend. Other times a quiet friend. Often I need a friend to bounce ideas off their soul. Yet, other times it’s the knowledge that they are there and nothing else matters.  Often we can’t repair the hole in the dike we are all standing beside but just the presence of another helps you handle getting your feet wet and bailing water goes better with another hand to hold a pail.

I have also found it doesn’t matter if you want to be where God places you, when you put your want somewhere because you love people, God makes the rest easier.  Change my life plans? Yes- we have put life on hold in the past month. Was it easy? Yes! Did I like it? Not necessarily did I ever ask myself if I liked what we were going through. Because I could love someone and walk with them, it didn’t matter if I liked it or not. Love is action and being with people is more important than wanting to be. There were many people who should have stepped up who didn’t. They didn’t want to! And then there were people who stepped in the gap and simply lived life alongside the ones going through the valley.

As I debriefed in my brain the past couple days of all we have processed in the past few months, I found myself crying; in Hobby Lobby no less. Why Hobby Lobby? Because they have these neat signs that say things that weren’t just words: they were the actions I had lived out.  I found myself laughing at something that wasn’t funny to normal people. We laughed because in the  midst of struggle, one’s mind does odd things. One makes a goofy comment and the rest dissolve into giggles on the floor. You have all been a part of inside jokes. We have a lot of them. Those who chose to not love in action, just look and wonder. I believe those are God moments. There are moments where God gives a smile because the  heart can’t take anymore sorrow.

The sun came up Friday morning. I looked out the window after a couple hours of sleep in my bed and thought, ‘it’s over’. Actually, it’s just begun. Valley’s we walk through and come out the other side to the meadow.  Beyond the meadow is a beautiful mountain waiting to be climbed.  When one walks with another through life incident, it’s not a stop walking moment because it’s over, but a keep walking together lifestyle. The time is coming, and it will come, that I will have the life-stopping heart moment.  It’s happened in the past. It’s moments like these I look back and see the hands of friends who reached out and kept me putting one foot in front of the other. I see their encouraging notes, read their letters that I saved and remember that it’s not about me, it’s about the life God has given us all to live. “There encourage one another and build each other up” 1 Thess. 5:11.

Sometimes that means sleeping on couches, standing by hospital beds, running errands, eating left over pizza and simply quietly being in the room. Sometimes it means singing, cleaning, cooking, driving, listening or playing cards. This walking through life with each other is an adventure. Looking back at the past two months, I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s right where God asked me to be.  Now, it’s your turn to look around at where you are and where God may be asking you to be. Don’t second guess, don’t think about it: when God says go and love your neighbor, it means action! You will be blessed beyond what you can even imagine.