Tag: bible

The Trail of Life

- dannalundstrom

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Yesterday our family set out on what was supposed to be a short hike.  It turned into four-miles.  I realize for a lot of you that is short.  Not for me, especially in muddy, rocky, uphill terrain, with altitude as a contributing barrier.

As I was struggling through a large uphill span of our hike, I was noticing all the ways nature mimics life.  The trials of that riddled trail were a parable of life.  There are times in life when we are sucking air just to survive, and there are times we are enjoying the view.

Struggles are often long and appear as if they will never end.  Giving up or giving in becomes an attractive option.  Fears are frequent and real.  The bends and turns are prone to placing us in barren places rather than beautiful spaces.  We have this great hope, though, that a great joy awaits, so we pick ourselves up and continue walking.

When we experience those moments where we catch our breath and enjoy the beauty around us, we appreciate them more because we know the effort and intention it took to get there.  The experience gives us a fresh supply of endurance for our trek knowing those encounters are just preludes to something greater.

The walk goes on.  We cycle through stages on a spectrum somewhere between worn and wonderful.  It is within the worn corners we grow in determination and perseverance.  In the wonderful places, we cultivate grateful hearts, and our eyes begin to see the fountains of grace poured into our pilgrimage.

Life is a necessary combination of both, the broken and beautiful so that we remain steadfast with our eye on the ultimate reward ahead-Home.

Yesterday for me, the grand reward was the sight of our car.  As we walk the path of our eternal home, though, knowing for certain the joy that awaits us is sustenance for the trails of our hike.

Keep walking friends.  If you believe the Bible to be true, there is unimaginable and everlasting gratification at the end of your journey.

Hebrews 12:1~Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

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It is About Relationship not Religion

- dannalundstrom

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A religion is defined by rules, a relationship by righteousness. Religion focuses on practices; a relationship focuses on purpose. A religion nurtures obligations; a relationship nourishes obedience. Guidelines are the foundations of religion. Grace is the foundation of a relationship. Religion is typically acquired from childhood; relationships tend to be acquiesced from crisis. It was when I met pain that I lost the details of a religion and gained the depth of a relationship. That made all the difference!
1 John 5:20~ And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

Free to Be Inadequate

- dannalundstrom

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I do not just want to read my Bible.   I want to reap my Bible.   I do not just want to go to church.   I want to be the church.   I do not just want to explore my Bible.   I want to encounter God in my Bible.   I do not want to just understand truth.   I want to stand under truth.   I am not adequate because I read my Bible, encounter God or stand under truth.   I am free to be inadequate because I know the gospel.   Thank you Jesus for completing me.

The Sights and Sounds of Rest

- dannalundstrom

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I open my eyes and it’s 8:00 AM. I squint a little harder, surely I must not see right? I walk out onto the balcony, life giving reading material and breakfast in hand. As I sit trying to read, nature keeps stealing my attention. There is a gentle, but commanding breeze that is stirring up a chorus among the trees. Their leaves swish and sway in a harmony that beacons a deep exhale.There is a lizard with a bright blue tail gingerly exploring the deck. The water is calm and flowing like silk. The air is cool and feels fresh and crisp as it dances around me. There are birds chirping, signaling the start of a new day. They chirp and pause, chirp and pause as if they are in deep, connected conversation.

These are the sights and sounds of rest. These are the sights and sounds of peace, telling me it’s time to unplug and step off of the treadmill of the daily grind, and rest. It seems like such an easy invitation, so why is it so hard? It feels so natural yet so incongruent. It’s inviting and it’s awkward at the same time. It’s seemingly effortless but it takes focused intention.

Why? Why is that four letter, little word, rest, so hard? For me, I don’t live in that place near as much as I would like to, yet it is what we were created for. Rest in our minds; rest in our hearts and rest in our realities. Some realities are hard to rest in, and in those spaces I find myself fighting, fighting to make life work. Fighting to see the expectations I have created come to be, rather than be shattered before my eyes. Fighting to understand the realities of those that don’t seem fair and surely don’t make sense. It’s here I have to remind myself that expectations are the thieves of souls, as much as trying to understand HE who I am only called to know and trust, not comprehend.

So as the trees are singing a song of rest, and the harmony and chorus of nature is beckoning me, I hear a faint summons in my soul, asking me to lay it down. Lay it all down, and rest. As I listen to that calming voice, I am reminded of one of my favorite verses that always provokes a deep breath and a sense of calm within me: For now we see only a reflection in a mirror, then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.~1 Corinthians 13:12. I am fully known, and I am fully loved-that is rest!

Mana For My Moment

- dannalundstrom

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Sometimes God’s acknowledgements are just too sweet not to share for His glory. I woke up feeling exhausted and weary this morning. Just after praying I blindly opened my Bible after asking that my eyes land in a place of mana for the moment. Portions of my prayer were this: …refresh me through you word, Father. Get my heart and mind vertical with you before I attempt to engage a horizontal world. Show me your glory today. Let me be still before you. Help me be like a CHILD before you today; dependent, unassuming and and trusting. Thank you for loving me as a needy, inadequate child. Show up for me today and let me know you are in this moment. This picture was His little God-incidence for me today! How sweet He is!

May I Never Forget You, 2014

- dannalundstrom

As the sun sets on another year, I am thinking about the things, the hard things, that I would have never chosen in 2014, but they chose me. They brought much grief but were always accompanied by gratitude.

Our years are made of days, some ordinary and some extraordinary. Those days, the ordinary and the extraordinary, occasionally conquer but also create us. They sometimes shatter us but subsequently sharpen us. We experience triumphs, and we endure tragedies. Some days break us only to build us. Days can be messy but NOT without meaning. Refinement and restoration marry well with an available heart.

The self-reliant use tallies of good and bad days to calculate the success of their year. It is perspective and the pursuit of
meaning amidst days, broken and beautiful, that the surrendered use to measure theirs. May I always evaluate my years from a position of surrender.

2014 has felt like a year of wandering in the Psalms for me. I have been desperate, and I have been dependent. I have lamented and I have praised. The year cultivated both difficult and defining memories. It was pretty, and it was painful.

2014 was a reminder that the goal of life is not happiness, because it is not happiness that brokers comfortable homes; but joy outside of circumstances found in a Savior that breeds content hearts.

I am reflecting on all the fragments of 2014, the brutal and the beautiful, and placing them within the context of Romans 8:28 today.~And we know that God causes everything to work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

I see much purpose born from the pain of some of the challenges of 2014. I can find meaning in much of the messiness, but there are other situations, however, I am still waiting. I am aware as Deuteronomy 29:29 tells me, I may never understand. Some things are only to be know by The Lord.

There are circumstances that are unthinkable, unfair and how could God be working right from something so wrong? I am reminded that it is here that I must exercise extravagant faith, not in circumstances I see but in a creator I trust.

It is here, in the stuck places, I have to put away all the “whys” and rest in Who. I do not say this lightly because this is a difficult assignment, but God does not call us to simple, rather to surrender.

We can view life through cynical-glasses or Savior-glasses. It is a choice-a very crucial one. 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011… They all had obstacles that shook and shaped me; not to my final destination but towards my desired direction.

It has been those dreaded moments, the broken ones, that have rendered the sweetest fruit. So while some are saying so long 2014, I cannot wait to forget you; I am saying I hope I always remember you.

There is so much meaning born within the parameters of messy. Jesus, our Savior, was born in the most unclean of environments. Isn’t it beautiful how the sloppiest of circumstances can become sacred. (Luke 2) Isn’t it sweet how pain can usher so much purpose. Jesus was crucified and suffered a painful death with a purpose to secure the salvation of a sinner like me. (Isaiah 53:11)

Thank you 2014 for all the ways you have pruned and protected me. Thank you for all the sorrow that stretched me. Growth really is most fertile when planted in the soil of grief. Thank you for the tears of pain and the tears of joy. Thank you for the portraits of beauty and the scribbles of brokenness. Mostly 2014, thank you for forging me deeper into relationship with my Savior.

Welcome 2015. I know your landscape will be one indigenous of peaks and valleys. I also know it is my triumphs over your tribulations that are for my growth and God’s glory. What a blessing to enter a new year given the grace to understand that.

Happy New Year to all. May you be rich enough to embrace prosperity and rattled enough to experience your Savior.

Daily Prayer For Living Beyond Feelings

- dannalundstrom

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There are many substitutes for feeling good Father.  Positive feelings and “being happy” become states of entitlement where we begin to believe we should always abide.  Train us to remember that feelings are fluid and fallible, disqualifying them as credible sources of truth or qualified indicators for making decisions.   It is an eternal joy; which is not circumstantial;  that is sustaining Father because it originates from You.  Joy accentuates us in times of abundance and anchors us in seasons of affliction.  We draw joy and happiness from different wells Father.  That sometimes becomes confusing in a world betrayed by the deception of “happily ever after.”  The bible says the joy of The Lord is our strength, (Nehemiah 8:10).  Assist us in living free of the entanglement of feelings and emotions and strengthen us in persevering joy.  Amen.

Oh How He Loves Us

- dannalundstrom

I picked up my Bible this morning feeling weary.  World events, daily challenges, people I love that are hurting; it all takes a toll.  I asked God before opening his word, to let my eyes fall on what I needed to see this morning.  Also, that He would equip me with the grace to not just see, but to understand and subsequently live.

With one providentially designed flip of my Bible, my eyes landed on 2 Corinthians 4:10~ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Wow, I love that! It is in no other place than our suffering that the glory, power, faithfulness and love of Jesus can be illuminated so profoundly and with such clarity.  This may sound counterintuitive to you, but I find honor in the fact that we have the opportunity through or tribulations to reflect the image of Jesus to others.

His reflection does not mean pasting on a fake smile every day, and saying God is in control.  It does not mean we say to our friends, “I’m doing fine;” when that is not the case.  Sometimes it means remembering life is hard, and I am human, but I have hope in a Savior who shares in my struggles. He collects every tear and gently stores them in a bottle.   He sees scars inside us that only are visible to Him, and soothes them with a balm that He singularly possesses.

Living as I say I believe means remembering that although God may appear quiet at times, I trust His understanding, not mine. God answers every prayer the moment we voice them with one of three answers; yes, no or wait.  Remembering that and being open to His wisdom, and not bound to my expectations is an ingredient to peace.

Life may lead us down many dirt roads, but with Jesus we never travel those dusty roads alone.  It is on those very paths He reveals Himself to us, and our faith and trust in Him become stronger and real.
Oh, how He loves us!  His love is too deep for us to know easy all the time.  That would only give us a strong foothold in self-sufficiency.

He loves us enough that He wants us to seek and know him in an intimate relationship.  I would never arrive there if everything were always easy.  I don’t enjoy trials.  When my mind is redirected to their primary purpose, though; how can I not be grateful?

This life is not eternal.  It is just our prelude to Heaven.  It is our warm up, our training camp, our one and only run through before we enter Heaven’s gates.  If we are lucky; at some point in this life we authentically mature to a degree where our soul’s deepest desire is nothing this life can afford us.  Our deepest longing becomes to know a Savior with such a thirst that our hearts song is;  come Lord Jesus come so that I may see your face.  My journey is teaching me that we arrive at this destination through the experential character of a loving Father whose faithfulness and glory shine brightest through our darkest days.