Category: Devotions

Habakkuk 3:19 “Though the cherry trees don’t blossom and the strawberries don’t ripen, Though the apples are worm-eaten and the wheat fields stunted, Though the sheep pens are sheepless and the cattle barns empty, I’m singing joyful praise to GOD. I’m turning cartwheels of joy to my Savior God. Counting on GOD’s Rule to prevail, I take heart and gain strength. I run like a deer. I feel like I’m king of the mountain! (For congregational use, with a full orchestra.)”

I don’t think of myself as a pessimistic person. I am usually the one in the group that finds something good about the situation and laughs in the midst of life gone amuck, however the first part is this verse sometimes can suck the last part of the verse into a vortex that changes my focus. The thoughts and don’t moments in life. A cherry tree without its blossoms is a useless tree. If there are no cherry blossoms there is no fruit and no beauty. A cherry blossom is absolutely breathtaking. Strawberries aren’t worth much is they never ripen. Try eating a green on and you will find out quickly it’s not a luscious fruit delight! The verse continues to depress us. Wormy apples, what fields with no crop, empty animal pens and quiet barns. I enjoyed as a kid walking into the barn before milking. The cows were glad to see you, there was a comfortable smell that made the heart relax and feel good about the moment. But an empty barn meant no cows, no milk, which meant NO money. But the word though means regardless of we can. Regardless of , though, things don’t seem to be the way we want, we will praise him. Not just praise but turn cartwheels. On a good day when I was 10, I could not do a cartwheel. Yet, my heart can flip around like a yo-yo on a string regardless of what my orchard, my garden or my barn holds. Our culture emphasizes why we have and what it looks like we have. Though, regardless, I will praise. I will take heart. I will have hope that tomorrow will have meaning regardless of what things around me look like. The leaves can fall off the tree, worms eat the plants and the fences be broken and the barn door open, yet because of the God I serve who rules, I can do cartwheels for God…. love that idea now if I could only live it.

I love this book. It’s a simple book actually very simple. I love this book for many reasons but one of the biggest is I grabbed it running through Heathrow early in the morning coming back from Uganda. Sometimes simple things have so much meaning. It’s also my prayer book. I tore out some pages awhile back. Those pages were confession pages. In our culture of churches, we don’t use confession. Perhaps because we are afraid of what it had become but I think more because of what it might become. For an addict, confession is the first step to recovery. For the Christian, confession is commanded. It’s one of those commands we put on the warming burner in back of the stove. If I confess, if someone else hears my confession, they may think less of me. If someone knows what I am struggling with, it’s a reflection on me. That’s what I somehow believed growing up. Whether taught by commission or omission, our churches did not confess. “Fess up” was a common thing said when I was a kid. In other words admit you screwed up. Usually punishment followed. We bring that into church. Punishment follows confession. That’s not Bible. The Bible seems to indicate that confession makes one stronger, more like Christ and frees from the power of what caused you to sin. Admit it, pray for each other and walk on. ” Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Psalm 32:5 So why did I throw out my confession pages? So I don’t go back and be reminded. I do that well. Confession is a drive through car wash. There are many signs in a car wash that tell you not to back up. Go straight ahead. Confession reminds me to keep walking ahead. Don’t look back at the dirt on the floor in the car wash, look forward to the clean car as you drive ahead… it’s good to confess, it’s good to write it down and then it’s good to drive ahead and be reminded of the clean heart of forgiveness!

I paddled across the lake with the realization that I did not bring an anchor. The wind was seemingly subtle but the waves were anything but. If the boat got sideways we spun quickly around if I quit paddling and tried to fish. Eventually I settled in against the reeds and shoreline to fish. I finally landed a fish; both the word landed and fish used loosely. It was an evening on the lake filled with memories. On the way up north we got the news Mr Jim Gillespie had passed. They had become dear friends when the kids were younger and we loved them both. Memories of picnics at our place, walking each morning in the mall them McDonald’s for coffee. Not to forget the many times Jim would bring his canoe out to store it over the winter at the farm and tell us he didn’t get it in the water. One spring when he called to say he was coming out to pick it up, we quickly put it in the swimming pool so he could at least say it had been in water that season. Eventually he let us buy it and bring it to the cabin. I always think of him when I look at the green scanoe and we watch a bunch of people take off in the water and it goes gliding across the lake.

Last night I caught the fish. A little fish in a big lake. That’s us in life. If you figure the lake is 150 acres, 10-12 feet deep in some places, 4-6′ deep everywhere that little fish is pretty insignificant in life. And yet, that fish is important. Either that fish will grow to become a beautiful bass of which someone will catch later or it will be food for another fish to live and grow. That fish although insignificant has a part that needs to be lived out. Big lake, little fish; still important in the scheme of life. I think often that I am just a little fish in a big world. We listened to stories of aunt Shirley and it reminded me that she made every inch of use of her little fish life in this big world. Her neighbors, her friends, church people and family gained from her simply being content to be a little fish in a big lake. She didn’t want to be a big fish, just the kind of fish God made her. We all seem to think that we could be something else better than what we are. I can imagine that little fish wanted to be a northern, or a sunny or a crappie; who wants to be a minnow that’s small and chased by everyone? I would love to be taller, thinner, smarter, richer, have more friends or be in a different lake. Yet, God put me, a little fish in my lake to be the best little fish I could be for as long as He needs me to be that little fish. I can’t think about what others do, I need to remove myself from the comparison game and be content with the lake and the job of my day to day world. Mr. Jim was that way. He was the best Mr Jim he could be while he was here in our lives. Aunt Shirley was all in, in the lake God put her in for as long as he gave her life.

So wherever your lake is and whatever size fish God has made you to be, just be it really well. I will come back in a week or so and take the green boat out and laugh at the many memories of Jim and Joan Gillespie and be so thankful God put them swimming in my lake so I could be blessed with friendship and a pretty nice green scanoe!

I love highlighters. They jump out of the drawer and right into my hand. I have lots of yellow and a few green and blue and a pink one. I highlight a lot. Highlighting something intends for it to jump off the page and grab you. So if and when I highlight something it needs to be a wow factor! Sometimes I look back at what I have highlight and I wonder how sleep deprived I was at the time. And then other times when I open my Bible the highlighted text is just what I needed. Today, I opened my Bible to where I am reading in the New Testament and all I could see through very tired eyes was “You’re the message.”

There are lots of other words on the page but that jumps out right off the page with yellow neon highlighter. It’s been a long month of May. It’s been hospital time for most of the month. It started with grandpa May 1 and ended with aunt Shirley passing May 25. I was there. Seems like the highlighter spend a lot of time on the page. We are what people are. We are the message. Lots of things went on the back burner this month but the obvious message was family matters. That’s was the message it sent. Shirley has no children; never married but the nurses that helped care for her were amazed at the amount of people coming and going. It sent a message. Perhaps it was the fun we had, the laughter, the dedication, the picture on the white board; all of it sent a message. I had the honor of being there with her when she passed. It sent a message. There were many places I could have been but I changed plans to help was her home. Many others made the trek to see her, left their normal lives and their being there night and day left a message. Loving someone trumps other plans.

Our actions send messages. Sometimes the message isn’t one we wanted sent. Other times it’s the flat out simple truth that isn’t missed by others. 1 Thess. 1 reminds us that we are sending a message about what God has done in our lives… it’s going out; be sure it’s the one you are intending to send. And for goodness sake go buy highlighters. They are so much fun!

It’s that time of year when the apple blossoms come shooting out of the trees. At first they seem to be still and quietly ignore spring and then two days ago they shot out of the tips of the branches like fireworks at the lake on the 4th of July.

I mowed by them last week and it seemed the tree was still dormant. Yesterday I drove under them and took in a deep breath of unexplainable joy. There is something about apple blossoms and lilacs that just make you smile from the inside out. And yet, today wasn’t really a day with much to smile about. I stood at the grave once again as my friends loved husband was laid to rest. We celebrated his life in the cold chill of February. Today we gave him the proper military salute and said once again, “Chuck we will meet you on the other side.” And if that wasn’t enough, an aunt is in ICU with traumatic brain injury from a fall. Just doesn’t seem like today is a day to giggle and shout. It’s days like today we need to find the apple blossoms and breath deeply. We need to find a lilac tree and bury our face (making sure there are NO bees or wasps hiding) and just forget life. Lilacs have a way of making me smell God. I guess maybe you have never smelled God. Think about the smell of cinnamon rolls, a baby after their bath, the fresh mown grass (sorry allergy folks), hay freshly baled, chocolate chip cookies coming out of the oven or wisteria blooming in the hedge.

There are days you have to just walk away from the things that strangle your heart and go find somewhere to smell God. Apple tree blossoms are a really good place to start.