March 16, 2012 It's all about perspective

Ephesians 4:18  Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

I love walking the beach, looking for story-starters, bits of flotsam and jetsam that turn into lines of a poem or find their way into a story or an essay.  I came home from a birthday trip to Connecticut today with a little box full of story starters, along with a couple of pieces of wood too large to fit in my little plastic box.

It was a freakishly warm March, yes March, day, and we wandered the beach, just above the water’s edge where the wet sand was easier to walk on.  Though the cloudless sky was a brilliant blue, my eyes were directed at my feet searching for unique shells or sea glass or …just one of the treasures I am going to tell you about here. 

Just under the lip of a hillock of sand, I saw an oval object, smooth like an egg, it looked, but dark, perhaps the darkness of having emerged recently from a stray tidal wave.  Anyway, I picked it up, and the surface, bumps polished smooth by endless thrashing about in the waves weighed comfortably in my hand.  Half the size of an egg, it lay there, heavy for its size until I could resist it no more, and it went among the “saved for later” souvenirs.

Thursday morning, I spilled my treasures out into the light, and there it lay, a pale pink surface, speckled with tiny black bits, and in a child’s language, covered with diamonds. Now I know they were not diamonds, but  tiny reflective surfaces catching and spinning back at me glittery silvery light

As I thought about it, this verse came to mind, Having their understanding darkened.  When I picked the stone up Wednesday, mu understanding was darkened, maybe by my sunglasses, but I sure didn’t see the beauty that waited for me.  On Thursday, I wondered too what other beauty I miss because of the blindness of my heart; as Paul puts it in the same passage, v. 20, “But ye have not so learned Christ.”

Two things came to mind – when have I missed beauty because I chose my way, ignoring the Spirit who poked at me to go in another direction. AND when have I missed beauty because I took no time to think something through, when I jumped to a conclusion based on old news or past prejudices. Like the rock I almost tossed back, I wonder how many people I have tossed back, missing the beauty and light God wanted to show me through them.

March 11, 2012 Simplicity

Eph. 4: 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with this hands that he may have something to give him who has need.

 I don’t know how many times I have skimmed over this verse assuming it had little to offer me since I am not a thief, or at least those were my thoughts.  I have been working my way through a little book called Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit  by Paula Huston, and the verse calls me to task now.

I can hear you thinking, not more about Lent, but this book is so practical, easy to understand and practice, and for me, terribly convicting.  Each chapter has a different application of a Lenten Practice, something very easy to do, and very different each day. Because the book is so simple and quick to read, I have been reading a week’s worth each night, the same week’s worth each week.

Consequently, I have had time to think through the challenges each week. Among the challenges were to live on a very limited diet –rice and beans – for one day. Another was to wear your oldest clothes for a full day, and a third was to sleep on the floor for one night. The point was not to suffer, but to identify with the suffering.

 All of that brings me back to the verse for today: I am not so sure that Paul meant it solely for thieves. Perhaps it was meant also for those of us who are unknowingly thieves, stealing from the poor by having so much, so much above what we need, and doing so thoughtlessly, ignorantly. It is not that I think we are to live like Francis of Assissi  or Poor Clare or others of our forbearers in the faith who were intentional about living it poverty. I think God loves to bless us, to entrust us with wealth, but I think also we forget our bounty is a trust – to be shared.

 Just how I am going to work all of this out in my life practically, I do not know, but I do know I do not want to live as a thief.

March 7, 2012 Lenten Thoughts

John 7: 37-38  One the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of the heart will flow living waters.

I have been thinking a lot about Lent lately, what it means, and especially what it means to give up something for Lent, why someone should do that, make a sacrifice of some kind for Lent.  As I thought about all these things, I came to a couple of conclusions:

·         Like anything we do, it has value as it glorifies God

·         That brings to mind the importance of our motivation or reason for what we do

·          And finally, that brings us to the attitude behind what we do and its importance

In reference to Lent, I think the tradition of giving up something for Lent is a good one, if you remember that the purpose for this sacrifice is not to show God how good we are, but to make space to think about Him, to notice Him, to worship Him. The bottom line is that “sacrifice” is really a gift God wants to give to us.

This year I chose to give up something that I enjoy doing, a hobby sort of thing that I spent time attending most every day. I have found that which I gave up had an inordinate place in my life, occupying more time thinking about it and attending to it than it should have. The flip side of that is the freedom I feel now. Every time it comes to mind, I feel a sense of release, of discovering “found time” that I can now give to God, to draw near to Him.  This space I have discovered is amazing, like a walk along a beach or a creek I can wade in on a hot summer day or a respite on a bench alongside a quiet lake .

God is so beautiful, so loving, so forgiving, so accepting, receiving me and loving me unconditionally despite all the junk painted over me. This space God has show me is hallowed ground, and now I am all about finding more of this ground.

So I want to talk more about this tomorrow, but for today, check out this site:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/20/lent-2012_n_1263583.html  Scroll down until you come to an article entitled A Lenten Examination of Ourselves – Another Look at Confession. 

Thanks to my daughter Amy who directed me in this site.  This is an easy – short sentences in simple language – to read article, but also a hard-to-read article in that I didn’t make it very far before being seriously convicted.  Now I know I need to tuck this article into my pocket to think about during some of that “found time.”

March 6, 2012 The Poor Widow and Me

Mark 12:43-44 (Jesus) called his disciples to him and said, "I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given, For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has."


I always read that story as though I had come in at the end of the movie - amazing lady who gave the last of her means to Jesus trusting Him to meet her needs. What faith! What an amazing woman, she didn't have much so it wouldn't take much to meet her needs. That's a confession of my own shallowness.

What I missed was the rest of the movie, the life of faith that had preceded the end of the show, that made the end of the show a natural conclusion to this episode. She must have lived a life of total dedication and faith to even be able to do this. This sacrifice is just the natural consequence of her life of surrender.

The point I finally understood today is that it is only as we yield ourselves wholly to God, in complete faith for every moment - that He is there, that He is good, and that He loves me, that I will know the kind of freedom she modeled. Stuff does not matter. Position does not matter. Recognition does not matter. The only thing that does matter is that God loves me and I get to love Him back by just enjoying Him.

These words from my devotional today put it so beautifully: It is only as we yield ourselves to Him in complete faith and trust that we can experience true oneness with the Father, true freedom in Christ, and true, abundant, joy-filled living. (Cheri Fuller)


When my attitude and character are not marked by joy, I have to play back some of my own movie, to see what I have allowed to get in the way of complete yieldedness, what I have allowed to be an excuse for my own willfulness.

So, today, I am grateful to sit at God's feet and be reminded that when I am not experiencing joy, it is no one's fault but my own.