Category: Devotions

The phone ringing jolted me out of the calm silence. One glance at the number told me that I was needed at the trailer: Grandpas’ trailer. The phone number simply said, “grandpa needs help.” That was the identification we put on the lifeline number. I headed out the door toward the trailer on the run. Coming into the trailer entry way, I called out to see if Grandpa was okay. I could hear laughter as I turned to push the door open. Sitting at the table was Grandpa, and the laughter was obvious: it was Mary, Grandpa’s wife. I didn’t know her well; she died a month after we were married but her laughter was infectious and very identifiable. Grandpa was laughing and making up for 30 plus years of lost time.

The shock in the room was obviously only mine. I watched for what seemed like forever as the scene in front of me unfolded. Gone, forgotten, now sitting at the table visiting and laughing as if it had never happened. Nothing happened? Like 34 years never happened. Like grandchildren, daughter in laws, great grandchildren, and lots of water under the bridge. The bridge Grandma Mary never got to see built. Those thoughts go through my head in a second- and then I said, “did you call Jim. “The lifeline call always goes to Jim, then me then Lori. They were too busy laughing and talking and so lost in the moment, I looked at my cell phone and then started running up toward the shop! Jim doesn’t often, ok almost never, does he hear his text dingee thingee, and more often than that, doesn’t reply. Well, for some odd reason, he had seen the lifeline alert and was on his way, not to be outdone by Lori flying in, the LOJO license plate zipping by us as she turned to go down to the trailer. We got to the open door and stood with wonder as we watched life disappear into an amazing moment of, life come back from where it had stopped.

It was a dream. You might have figured that out by now. Grandpa J passed away almost a year ago. But maybe, it happened like that when those who came to the tomb then saw Jesus in person felt. I can only imagine that’s what it might have felt. The realization that Jesus was alive. The heart skipping a beat, the burden or sorrow being lifted like the pulleys move the big curtains at the theatre.

John 20:15 “Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, “Mary”. She turned toward him and cried in Aramaic, “Rabboni (which means Teacher)”.

The abrupt realization that Jesus was alive must have been quite the moment. Mary was caught in her grief, and instantly went from tears to absolute astonishment! Just as it would be quite the moment if we walked into the trailer and saw Grandma Mary sitting, laughing with Grandpa.

It’s hard for us to think about the dead coming back to life. Very few except in the medical community have seen such miracles. So, allow me to think out loud. To hear my mother in law’s laugh, watch someone walking down the street and realize it’s my father’s walk, or to hear Grandma Campbell whistling. Those moments would take my heart up a notch and I know I won’t see them alive on earth again.

Jesus had told them, I will rise. And he did. And we walk by the wonder with a, just another manic Monday attitude. The difference is also Jesus will never die. If such a wonderful gift comes to my heat as having a loved one brought back to life, the reality is they will die again. Lazarus had to go through it, dying, again! Jesus, is alive, will always be alive and the way I see the morning sunrise, the way I look at a flower, the moments I can’t breathe and then a calmness comes upon my heart, the scripture that comes into my mind: those are the living Jesus, alive and present in my world.

“He is risen- He is risen indeed”, echoed through many corridors yesterday. The question to be reconciled within the heart is, will that still be bouncing off the walls of my week? He is risen doesn’t simply end when we go back to normality! He is risen changes where I find myself walking, what I find myself thinking and who I find myself loving. He is risen goes far beyond the euphoria or the thought of a loved one back in our lives again. It places the God of the universe walking beside us every moment of the day and throughout the dark of the night when we can’t sleep. We will head home from family time full of ham, potatoes, chocolate eggs and jellybeans. We are also heading home full of love, hugs, laughter and talking about the things life has us wound in its web. Regardless of the direction we drive, there is nowhere Jesus will not be with us. “He is risen, he is risen indeed”, aren’t simply 6 words, they are the focus of our hearts lens.

When we slow down enough to see what we are passing by it’s interesting. I flew out of the cities this morning early with Ethel and Louise (crutches) . I will have surgery in a few weeks to scope and scrape (my medical jargon) but until then, we will celebrate Tyler’s seminary graduation and I will go slow. Going slow, is kind of a necessity but it’s kind of nice.. nice and slow.

Our culture is a quick culture. Go fast, go often, go past, move over slow people, use the right lane, set the cruise and don’t look back to see who you have run over. After all, they were in the way!

Jesus is counter culture and asks us to pull over and let people go by not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s when we notice things. I saw things this morning- like the little boy that hadn’t probably seen crutches before. The older woman who had sad eyes. We hear conversation when we slow down and pull back the volume on the world around us. With the air pods, the headsets and the “entertainment in our hand culture”, we just don’t listen to people, we listen to stuff.

I may be tempted to do that but I can’t walk with crutches and hold my phone watching a movie at the same time. Perhaps it’s better said “I don’t want to do that”. I want to look in people’s eyes. I want to smile at the dad holding that newborn so gently as if she was a china doll so he knows I think he’s awesome. I want to see the little girl grabbing at her daddy’s hand and talking non-stop. If I wasn’t listening, I might miss the sound of the moving sidewalk, and they do make noises. I almost kissed the rubber belt as it carried me much farther with less work on my part. Some were walking fast on the moving sidewalk. Others were standing like me, to the right like the sign says, and watching people and smiling. I didn’t have my ear buds in. I had my ear-God in.

I began to Pray for people whom I passed. I prayed for people that were looking unhappy. I smiled at the many faces that now without masks one can engage easier. We might be total strangers, but yet, for a moment, being kind and noticing the existence of another is what kindness is all about.

Jesus did that well. He noticed people. He listened to the world going on around him. He engaged in conversation in the oddest of places. No, not an airport or an airplane but if they existed in his day, he would have. He would have helped carry my bag, like a gal did in Minneapolis. He would have pushed the wheelchair transports and asked them where they were going. (No- I didn’t take a ride) He would have smiled at the mom calling, “Finley, focus, 1,2, 3. ” Jesus would have unplugged as they say in our culture and listened to where he could just say a word, or plant a seed, or pick up on a conversation or… You get it- Jesus slowed the world down and got on it’s speed to love us.

And Jesus would have probably given an extra boost of speed to the gal who just ran by trying to make her flight. FYI- if you are going to the airport, and are going to be late, wear shoes that you can run in. Well, except for me. I have the right shoes, just waiting for Jesus and Dr. Jared to work their magic.

Take time today to notice things our culture hurries by. Even if it’s just a flower, or a cloud, or another heart. When we slow down, it’s amazing what we will hear!

Integrity

It’s called anticipation. I am sitting here waiting for a perfect picture of the sunrise. I kind of do that- I love to take hold of a chance to get the perfect picture. There is a lot of waiting involved. Waiting for the right time, waiting for the right color, waiting for a cloud to move, waiting for morning actually, so the sun does comes up and waiting for mother nature.

But when it comes, when that perfect moment happens, when the light is just right and the sun peeks its head over the trees on the east side of the lake, it’s a beautiful moment. Often times I capture it; Perfectly. Then there are times when I look at whats in front of me and what shows up on my camera and know that this is a moment for the heart. I can’t capture its beauty in any other way except in my heart. I have to be ok with times like that also. I have to be okay with knowing the beauty is there, I just can’t capture it.

We know those time happen in life too. It’s not just the physical things that wow us but there are moments when as much as we would like, to grasp the glory of the moment will only remain in the heart. It’s also one of those times when we try to explain it to someone else and in the end we resort to, “you just had to be there.” That sometimes is in a moment, a joke, or an event. There is something sacred about just taking it in and knowing that’s the beauty you will only hold as a memory.

Psalm 111:1-2 “Praise the LORD. I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly. 2 Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.”

Sometimes I may be at fault for anticipating the works of the Lord more than delighting in them. In our culture we want to move on to the next glory. We anticipate well, we get all excited and then when it’s there, we take a quick picture and say “what’s next?” When does the sun come up tomorrow?

“They are pondered by all who delight in them” goes a bit beyond the moment. Most of the time, we don’t ponder. We don’t sit still long enough to ponder. We are a people that move. After all, we have to be productive and accomplish and move on! Moving means we are making ourselves useful on the planet and after all Jesus did say “go”. We get so caught up with going that we don’t relish where we are so when we get where we are going, we tend to say, “is this all there is?” Pondering changes our focus on where we are going to where we are now. Where we are now, the sunrise in the morning, the crisp snow along the deck, and yes, the cold air coming in through the walls lets me see the lines in the sky, the streaks of color that change as the sun moves upward in the sky, the simple way the sun reflects off the snow and the trees making shadows as the sun changes it’s position in the early morning. We miss all that if we hurry on to say, “that’s over what’s next?”

There is an unspoken beauty when holding a baby. We all fight for the chance to hold a sleeping baby for many reasons. I used to love the fact that when I wanted quiet time, find a baby to snuggle. People will come over to talk, see I have a baby and it’s sleeping, and either back away or just marvel with me. We used to watch our firstborn sleep. We would look at her face, marvel over her hands, the way she changed her mouth and suddenly would smirk, then go back to relaxed calm. We didn’t’ want to hurry the moment, we knew it would go there on its own. Do that with life. I am sitting here, it’s been about 20 minutes and the sun is almost shooting over the ridge. I am wrapped up in a quilt, waiting. I am pondering. I am thinking. I am praying. According to the weather app, the sun rose ten minutes ago. But it hasn’t peaked over the ridge yet. We also worry when someone else gets the sunrise before us. Hayward, Wisconsin can see the sun. They are 20 miles east of me. It’s okay- because anticipating brings a joy and I can ponder that joy while I wait for my moment. Remind yourself when you are in “the moment” to stay in the moment a bit longer and ponder. Time moves quickly: don’t past delighting in the works of the Lord.