Category: Devotions

I thought I looked ok. But then, he said, you have something on your neck. Well. It was a combination of grass, dirt, suntan lotion and sweat. I had begun the day mowing. It was a bit windy. No rain they said..only a small chance toward the end of the day. I mowed, and the grass clippings flew from the mower to the wind and back in my face. Not just once, not just twice, but all morning. I sneezed, I coughed and I sneezed a few more times. Grass clippings combined with dust will do that to you. I will never forget when someone in the family while on a trip had some ice left in their cup so they thought they would just toss the ice out their window while driving down the road. What they hadn’t banked on was the back seat of the car had their window opened the ice came right in the back window. We often don’t realize what happens when we throw something into the wind. Not just the physical reaction. It our words, our thoughts, our reactions and our body language. We don’t realize how the wind of life takes it. I thought I disguised my dislike of something. Obviously I didn’t do a very good job. I though I had held my tongue. Someone heard my under the breath muttering. It’s hard to be like Jesus and just let it go. It’s hard to simply let the wind blow and not be affected. I can’t always mow so the wind blows the grass clippings. I can’t always avoid conflict. What I can do it make sure that I let the wind blow and not keep my mouth open so I catch whatever is thrown my way. I can turn my back. I can as. I have as possible be with the wind. I can step aside and simply let good handle the chaff and not get caught up in the messes others make. I can make a choice not to spit in the wind. I can make a choice to let it go… and as far as the chance of rain…we got an inch of that chance in a very short time. Heavy downpours, hail and wind gusts blowing anything was wasn’t tied down. It was too late to button down the hatches as my grandma used to say,, so I watched the wind blow…and in an odd way, it was very beautiful….

There have been moments in life when time stands still. It seems as if one has frozen the clock. You want it to last forever, you want it to be precious and priceless and hold it closely and yet you know it will slip through your fingers just as sand in an hourglass. Perhaps it’s the birth of a child, or the slow death of a parent, the ecstasy of a winning moment or the sting of loss. Time seems to just hang for a bit…not long enough and yet seemingly forever.

John 8…

I wonder if that’s how the women who was caught in adulatory felt. They pulled her through the streets at dawn, we all want to know where the other guilty party was, and threw her before Jesus. She had a name; her name wasn’t used.she was brought into the temple and thrown down in front of Jesus. That was a rude disruption. They kept interruptions Jesus, trying to make a scene, demand an answer and Jesus didn’t fall for their tricks…however, to the women while Jesus was writing in the sand, time stood still. It seemed forever before Jesus calmly responded, the men walked away and it was just the two of them. Sometimes I feel that way. Time has stood still and everyone is standing watching as I feel caught in the middle and Jesus is just doodling. To me it feels like doodling. When we are caught in the middle, time seems to take forever to get around the dial of the clock and move on. She seemed to handle the timeless moment better than I do. It doesn’t say how she reacted. She just waited for Jesus to make his move. She was guilty, she was made a spectacle of , she had been wronged, she had been forcibly taken against her will from awkward to more awkward and all she did was wait for Jesus to make the next move. I need to try to pull that off more in my life. I need to be willing to let the crowd amble away, dissipate and let time stand still while Jesus doodles. Sometimes I want him to write real words. I want to know the words and I want to understand what’s going on, but this women grasped the importance of just letting time stand still until Jesus, the creator of time, made his move. For her, I am sure it was an eternity. For me, waiting is an eternity and then some. May I find the grace to simple let Jesus doodle in the sand until he feels its time to speak and make his next move. And may I not worry about my accusers but keep my eyes on Jesus while time is standing still.

A picture is worth 1,000 words… and yet the story behind the picture often takes 10,000 to adequately explain. That’s life. We think we know what’s happening and then we find out , “The rest of the story”.  I was reminded of this when I was listening to the Bible this a.m. Technology is frustrating to me, however, it does have it’s redeeming value when one knows how to figure it out! So, I did figure out that I could be read the Bible from Bible-Gateway App. Wonderful; with the exception that I would like to hear a cowboy reading it not a deep bass voice with  a thick brogue. My second preference would be British Accent. My thought is that God has a British accent.. just saying.  So I am listening this morning to Ecclesiastes and I hear, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm along?  Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”  Ecc. 4:9-12.

In the picture above one had been trying to get the one on the ground to do something.  Wasn’t working. Then along comes his friend…
There are many times in life when, along comes a friend. God meant for us to walk along side others life; those along come a friend moments.  In Acts there were many “Along came a friend” moments but none so evident as the Ethiopian in Chapter 8.  There have been times when I have been the Ethiopian and there have been times when I have been Philip (along came a friend). There were moments when I had no clue why I was where I was at the time I was, similar to Philip just being told to go along the road toward Jerusalem.  We have to be willing to see God leading to be the willing Philip just aimlessly wandering along and then he saw the chariot and caught the words coming out of his mouth before he even had a clue what he was saying, “Do you understand what you are reading?” Of course we all know the rest of the story. What we don’t know are the fears, the “i have no clue what or where you want me to go Lord” thoughts from Philip. We don’t know the look on the Ethiopians face when he suddenly sees a God levitating along side his chariot. What we do know is that God used that “along came a friend” moment to bless someone.

We , or rather I, like to know more particulars that, “go find a road and start walking”.  I like details.  Walking into the unknown can be a bit scary. And yet, God is using us in his kingdom to simply fulfill “along came a friend” moments for others.  We don’t get it, we don’t know where it will take us and sometimes as often as it starts it seems to end but to be where God wants us at the right time to meet a need, we need to be willing to walk, run, skip, hop and be ready when someone needs that moment when “along came a friend”.

It will always make me a bit nervous when I feel God leading me somewhere I don’t understand. It will always make my heart rate jump, my legs get a bit queasy and the white of my eyes bulge, but I know what it feels like when I am over the top and
“along came a friend”. I will swallow my fears, calm my heart rate and just step out in faith that God will never lead me where He is not ready to provide what I need. Where God guides- God provides.. So step out and be there for the moment when “along came a friend.”

We spend so much of our lives trying to be like someone.  I remember when I was a kid who I wanted to grow up and be like. I thought she was the coolest person ever.  Could I ever be like her? No, but I could dream. When I began playing music, I had certain musicians I wanted to like. I wanted to play like them, do runs like they could, transpose on the spot and play without music. I wanted to be like them, but to be like someone usually takes some work, some effort and there are times, it doesn’t work. I can’t, regardless of how much effort I put into it, be like someone else.

And then, there are moments in life when we seize the moment to do something and it gives others a glimpse into our heart. For actually, when we open our hearts and love people that’s the best way to be like them. Love is the common denominator that bring us together. Being like Jesus, each one of us individually, tends to lead us to be more like each other because we have a common identifying marker.

I am not a bird person. Bird people know that birds are all different. They notice the wings, the colors, the beaks, the feet, the mannerisms about them thus all put together they see the birds as unique and different. I can tell a cardinal and a blue-jay but beyond that, they are just birds. Just like when my husband asks me what kind of car someone has, I say it’s white or blue. That wasn’t the question but that’s how I look at things such as cars…and tractors.

So we went to Africa. Now when you look at Africans and look at us, there is a distinct different in what we look like. We are pale, and  can’t dance! However, when in Africa, become like the Africans. So we jumped in with both feet. I held babies, loved on kids, took tons of pictures, played along with the guitar, laughed when I could understand the jokes, talked in simple English I never could get Shona- and tried to be like them in what limited manner I could. That all changed Saturday afternoon. We were sitting during a fashion show. These women take the fabric and create dresses, shoes, bags and strut their stuff on stage. From the older ladies to the young, from the creative to the simple it was such a cool thing to watch them model, strut, wave, throw kisses and in the midst of it I simply turned to my friend and said, “we should do that with that extra material”. Now, I was only kidding. We were not going to  sew a dress in 30 seconds, although the women with me were quilters so I already felt fabrically challenged.  One thing led to another and before we knew it we were draped, fitted, arranged and we were parading down the runway to model. It was silly- it was actually kind of dumb, but these 4 American women stepped into their turf and became one of them… in our very simple and feeble attempt to become like them.  The screaming, the laughing, the cheering, the hooting; well we were African! We were one of them. We had somehow in our feeble attempt to become like that, jumped into their heart. They already liked us. They already had become friends but suddenly we became like them…

Jesus, stepped down from heaven and entered our fashion show. Except he raised the bar slightly when he came down from heaven to become one of us.   We didn’t do anything unique, but we entered the stage as white Americans and left the stage as white Africans. Our hearts had brought us together in a way we couldn’t understand.  We still kept holding babies, talking in broken English and loving on the ladies but suddenly we were just a bit closer sisters and dearer Christians hearts.. And all it took was making a fool of ourselves. There are people waiting for you to get out of your comfort zone and do something to try to be like them for just a moment.  They are waiting for you to put your heart close enough to theirs so the  beats meet.  Once the hearts meet, God will do the rest!

It happens. Being Disappointed that is. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. We start young dealing with disappointment. It’s the birthday invitation that everyone else in class got and you didn’t. It’s the envelope in the mail that looked like a wonderful surprise and it turned out to be bad news. It’s the unwrapping of a gift and you look inside the box and wonder what to say, how to be thankful and where can you regift it?

We live with disappointment. We’re not the only ones; in the Bible often we find men and women of God facing life and being disappointed in things that happened or didn’t happen. Abraham changed his story and had Sarah say she was his sister; the disappointment when Abimelek found out Sarah was his wife. Disappointed because she was beautiful, and that he hadn’t been told the truth. The reality of Naomi and the disappointment in her heart as her husband died and then her sons and left her in a foreign land. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be a oxen cart full of grand-kids coming to Grandma Naomi’s house for Sabbath and playing with the cousins. You can imagine every step of the walk back home reminded her of the disappointment life had brought her.  She named herself,  Mara. Ruth 1:20 reminds us ” ²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.”

That’s what disappointment does; it makes us bitter. Even those who seem to float over disappointment have to admit there is a sour taste in the mouth for a bit, a pain in the heart and a tear in the eye when disappointment opens the door and walks in.  Handling our disappointment with God’s hands on our heart is the challenge.  God will not allow something into our lives that hasn’t gone through his hands first.  God makes sure that it’s not more than we can handle, although in the middle of disappointment we would probably argue with God big time! God also knows that when we walk on the other side of the river of disappointment, we will look back and see where he was either leading us or carrying us. We are never in our disappointments alone. God also reminds us in James to confess our faults to one another.