Category: Devotions

Grateful, thankful, appreciative: words that come into our conversations this time of year. 1 Thess. 5:16-18. ” pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Sure , yup and ok.

I am at the end of writing a book and I have had to make some changes. It’s called editing . I would like to edit some of the Bible. Especially when it comes to this verse. Like editing out the word -all. I can give thanks in some and maybe the majority but all? You have got to be kidding? Seriously God all? Really, like love your neighbor. Another verse to edit slightly. Why is it so hard to include all? Because I don’t want to. Because I am hurt. Because there are flaws in what God asks me to thank him for. So until I find the edit button, I feebly try to find the being glad for the things that stick me in the heart, that make me cry and that force me to look outside of myself…

I am working on my Bible study lesson for Tuesday. We are concluding a study of Ecclesiastes 3 and the fourteen challenges of life. The “to be’s or not to be’s” of life. It’s been an interesting study. We buried one of our own during the week on a time to be born and a time to die. The ladies were all nervous about the birth part as most of them are well past child bearing and none of them really wanted to be a Sarah and Abraham.

We are toward the end; to mend or not to mend. When the cost of the needles one breaks exceeds the cost of the new jeans, I don’t mend. That is my line in the sand. If I break enough needles seeing through layers of patches, and they always rip them out in the knee, then I can buy new jeans. Sewing machine needles are costly. If only the rest of life were that simple. But what if we really did a balance scale for the moments in life we pause? What if? Put it on the balance scale. When? Put it on the balance scale.

In my research for the next phrase, a time to speak up and a time to shut up, I found a book and it posed some interesting questions. The cost and purpose of silence, how to ask good questions and how to overcome the pressure to remain silent. They are really good thoughts, but now to act upon them. There is a cost of being silent. There is also a cost of speaking up at the wrong time even if we say the right thing. How do I know? Well, I usually know when the room goes silent and I think to myself, “I actually said that out loud didn’t I”.

Timing, as in Ecc. 3 is everything. God doesn’t expect us to get it right every time, but he does give us some really good guidelines for a better than average batting percentage.

So I am telling the ladies these things this week. And if they read this, they may just stay home from Bible Study… who knows.

1. A good answer changes with people and circumstances. Each of us process things differently. The right answer is always the right answer. When to give that answer changes. When to let someone discover that answer by themselves, when to love on them first, then answer, or when to simply pray and let God deliver.

2. There are times when no matter what you say it’s wrong. Not that Its wrong, but the heart to receive it isn’t ready. So, zip it. Clam up. Count to ten. Take a hike. Make cookies… do anything but get drawn into a verbal boxing match…. Jesus drew in the sand… he didn’t talk until everyone was gone. We don’t have how many awkward minutes went by, but there were quite a few. Don’t worry about silence.. sometimes it is golden.

3. If you haven’t prayed about it, keep quiet. If you haven’t lived through it, swallow those words. If you just don’t like the quiet, so what. Sometimes we speak because we think someone has to say something. A hug, a smile, holding a hand, or simply just being in the room, is priceless compared to words that are simply words with little thought out meaning.

4. And lastly, telling the truth can be deadly. Pick your war carefully but remember, Jesus was blasted for his words. And have was God. Don’t back down from the truth but be prepared to pay the price. Choosing words carefully and timing your approach is what we struggle our whole life to figure out. And when we get it all figured out, our memory is leaving us and therefore we forget what wonderful words we had…or wake up when they come to our mind at 3 a.m. when it doesn’t matter anymore.

You are all welcome at Bible Study Tuesday. For some of you it’s a long drive, but we will open the Bible and read… and then choose our words carefully while we determine which pair of jeans are worth mending and which will go in the craft bin….

It’s 2 am and I am wide awake. I look outside and see snow and semi trucks and combines. There is no mosquito net above me. The windows are closed and it’s so quiet. I lay down last night at the beginning of the football game and woke up enough to walk upstairs. That’s all I remember.

Experiences in life are meant to have an impact in your life. Some are to make you smile. Others are to make you grimace. Still others you marvel at and say, ” bring it on one more time”, and still there are a few you will emphatically say, ” hope I never do that again.”

I have no clue where the past 10 days went so quickly. I smiled. I grimaced, I marveled and I thought to myself, ” nope, don’t need to repeat that moment in time.” I smiled from the joy and cried inside. I hugged children with runny noses, and had a little boy gently stroke my very white leg as he tried to imagine what my leg was I am sure. And now that it’s over and my job of finishing this book I started is at hand, I have so many mixed emotions. I may never go back. That’s totally possible. I may do it ” more than a few more times. “. I will sponsor another child. I will have mixed emotions when I watch our culture children focus on so many things that are so meaningless. I will shed a tear when I think of those girls who at age 13 were struggling with things in their life, I have never had to deal with… I will go through the thousand plus photos and laugh at the smiles, the goggles, and the photo bombers. I will look at the faces and know the stories. I will write, I will pray and I will cry. Those things I know. But what about my faith? I have made life about so many more things than simply faith. That’s all they have. Rice and beans maketh not a McDonalds meal. All the children know is it is hot and fills their tummy. I worry too much about me. Actually I love to rice and beans, but am I content to eat it every day?

It’s 2 a.m. and I am wide awake. I feel cleansed from a hot bath. There is no smell of debris, coal burning or boda’s screeching on the road beside the house. I have a pile of catalogues on the table telling me what I can’t live without and I look at them and think, how aimless and empty. For stuff is simply stuff and words are simply words. Until, you pack a suitcase with stuff and listen to the words of hearts far from your normal world, your world will simply be that: your world. We let ourselves be taken to A place in Gods world where the most important thing was life, love and we will never be the same. That’s how it should be. There should be things in life that change your heart to focus more on God. There should be moments you can’t anticipate and settings you can’t stage. It should be things that shake you up and challenge your heart. And if you chose to let God book your ticket and move your heart, you won’t wake up the same person. Uganda was an amazing experience; and now to finish the book so others can read and live the streets of Kampala, open the gates of FNC and let others see God working.

So,,,, I was like Moses today. I was in a basket on the Nile…okay it was a boat on the Nile but I was on the Nile. The longest river in Africa the Nile weaves its way down to Lake Victoria, or weaves its way up from Lake Victoria. We road along watching the birds and the very large rodents… guess they are called chameleons or geckos or lizards. We watched men fishing with nets, women washing clothes, a young man washing his hair with a plastic bag and children playing in the river. I didn’t see a queen, didn’t see a basket nor did I catch a fish and thankfully the rapids didn’t upset our long boat but, I sensed the presence of something perhaps only Africa’s can teach us. There is joy in life. Perhaps joy because there is little left. Perhaps joy because with food and clothing they are content. Perhaps because the joy in people is contagious and the feeling of loving Jesus is more real than we see in our world. We have so many other things to get in our way to distract us. We miss the beauty because our eyes are focused on the ground. We miss the smile because our heart is troubled. We miss a lot of things… but mostly we miss the joy. Africa reminds me of the joy. Simply the joy of living and life is worth the living just because HE lives. Take a moment today and find your joy…. or book a trip to Africa…

We lost a moment in time. Actually we flew from Houston to Amsterdam and lost about 6 hours. We sit and wait for another flight… watching those around us try anything to get comfortable in a strange place

As much as one wants to, one can’t be comfortable where one does not belong. We try but it just never gets quite like where one calls home and yet, we sure can try to make it work while we are in no mans land losing time. Only in a first world country do we worry about those things.