Be the Church

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I just read a news report about a Houston father, husband and police officer that was gunned down while pumping gas into his patrol car.  More violence against our people from our people.  The division is disheartening.

In the article, the District Attorney was exhorting people to drop qualifiers and recognize that ALL lives matter.  While I agree with her 100 percent, this is not a strong enough argument to change or stop the violence.  People don’t need to be convinced; they need to be converted.  Only light can extinguish darkness.  Jesus is light.

All lives matter is a slogan.  Jesus is a Savior.  Slogans may change headlines, but they will not change hearts.  

I fear Christians are becoming too quiet and thus being drowned out by the noise of the world.  Being the church is more important than being at church.  All lives do matter, but changing lives masters more.  Let us not be divided by our color; let us be defined by our character!  Rise!  Be the church.

The Power of Thorns

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What “thorns” are you living with today?   We all have at least one.   The thing we pray and pray that God will take away.   Sometimes He does, and sometimes He does not.   Maybe it is a chronic illness, a prodigal child, a broken relationship, a deep loss, addiction, or simply life did not turn out as we planned on many fronts.   Even the Apostle Paul lived with a “thorn” in his side.   He prayed to The Lord for the thorn to be removed, but He did not.

Paul demonstrates for us in 2 Corinthians 12 that it is possible to live with a “thorn” in our sides and still reflect the character of a loving God.   Whatever “thorn” you are living with today, maybe there are many, there is power in your “thorn.”   They afford us access to greater amounts of grace.   “Thorns” are the seeds that grow virtue, build character, perseverance, humility, empathy and so much more.  

We may never understand why God removes some “thorns” from our lives and not others.   Psalm 131:1 says, I do not concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp.   Asking why is futile. Resting in what is for now, is faith.

Father, I confess the “thorns” in my side sometimes steer me down a path of unbelief and away from you. Enable me to remember and practice their power that leads me down a path towards You.   Help us all remember today that the condition of our heart is always more important than the conditions of our life. Amen.

The Sweetest Fruit

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When I was a child, we had a ditch that ran alongside and behind our property. It was a ditch, but from the perspective of my childhood imagination it was a rocky, dangerous ravine. The ditch, formidable as it was or was not, did have some steep, slippery spots. I would often fall and slide into the murky, water that sometimes housed water moccasins. Snakes terrified me, so I was hesitant to be too adventurous.

In the summertime, berries would grow on vines along that ditch. I distinctly remember that the biggest, most shiny and sweetest berries were in the most challenging spots to maneuver. I was a fearful child, so I didn’t venture to those places often, but when I did; oh to taste such sweet fruit! It could not compare to the berries growing in the flatter, less intimidating topography. Although I can remember being very afraid to pursue those berries, I knew the reward that was waiting for me, so I would muster the courage from time to time. I can still hear how loud my heart would beat. I can feel how fast it would race as if it would break out of my chest. My breathing would be fast and heavy, and I would be sweating but I would risk it all because I had experienced, and come to know the superior taste of the sweeter berries.

Life is a lot like the scary parts of that ditch, and the fruit experienced at its most precarious locations. We sometimes find ourselves in places where we risk falling, getting scraped and cut, and often that does happen. Life has a way of cutting us up, but God has a way of carving us from our slips and falls.

As I look back now, the sweetest and most nourishing fruit has been acquired in the most treacherous places. Sure, life is good when I am living on level land, but oh to taste the fruit of growth that only happens when we are in the ravenous ravines. It is here where we gain the sweetest rewards. Unlike capturing the berries, we may not immediately taste the sweetness of life’s valleys.

As I came to know the nature of those dangerous berries by taste, though, so I have come to know the character of God also through experience. If we are looking for God not just in the safe places but in the scary ones, too; if we know His faithfulness, we have confidence what joy awaits us. Experiencing God is what gives us the endurance and the strength to persevere through all the ditches we fall into throughout life. Also, knowing Him gives us the courage to get up and keep pursuing life, not from a position of safety but surrender. God enables us to walk victoriously through life’s intimidating places. Psalm 18:33 promises us this: He makes me as surefooted as a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights.

The fruit found in our most perilous places yields the greatest growth and the sweetest victories. If you are walking a rocky road right now, be encouraged. Dirt roads are paved with fertile soil.

Patchwork People

 

This is a patchwork quit that was made for me by a very special lady who now quilts, sews, bedazzles everything, and likely plays cards in Heaven. She made one for everyone she loved. I love this quilt, and many days I find refuge under it from cold, exhaustion or just the weight of what the day has supplied. It is warm and insulating, and when blanketed in it, I feel safe, secure, and like I am reminiscing with happy places, and some sad places of years gone by.

I was laying under this quilt with Macey last night, as she was telling me a story. A story that was a piece of her, and letting it go set a little part of her heart free. As she talked I began noticing each distinct square of the quilt. They are all individual. Not one is the exact same. Some may resemble, but each one has it’s own unique character. Each square, if it could talk, I imagine would tell a story.

People are a lot like patchwork quilts.  Everyone has a story.  Some very tragic, some triumphant, many perpetually present.  No two people’s stories are exactly identical, and no two people come through a story with the same experience to tell.  We all reflect an individual character that like a patchwork quilt was carefully handpicked, each and every part, and delicately sewn together to make up who we are.  Those parts of us, along with the roads we travel in life make up our stories, our own unique quilts.  Our stories, like patchwork quilts, are meant to be shared, and given away for the benefit of others.  It is in their revealing that we not only give, but gain comfort,  protection, freedom, connection, healing and friendship.  2 Corinthians 1:4 ~He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

It is the painful stories, the ones that scar our souls, that are often kept hidden under all the make shift patchwork quilts we can acquire.  The detriment of this is that it is those very stories, the ones we want to hide, that possess just as much potential, if not more, than the ones we are eager to tell.  The real tragedy is not bound to the story itself, but the concealing of it, which leaves us hostage to its control.

Our lives are a series of stories, that if we cut apart and sewed together, would make a beautiful patchwork quilt.  Some squares would be prettier than others, but they would all be necessary to complete the quilt.  One thing is for sure, each square of our quilt embodies a valuable story full of precious life lessons.  Those stories, like patchwork quilts, were not meant to be hidden away in dark places where they become collectors of dust, rendered useless by the dark room they inhabit.  They were intended for connecting in order to create something beautiful.

In setting our stories free, we set ourselves free.  Even our darkest experiences manifest beams of light waiting to be turned into, and told as a testimony.  All darkness is impenetrable by light.  It is only the presence of light that makes it possible to visualize the beauty that the darkness conceals.

Courage is sometimes having the strength to let your light shine through darkness, and tell your truth so to create community with others and healing communion with your soul.  It is there in that community and communion that we can begin to let our lights shine, and sew our patchwork quilts free in order that they may tell the tale of our beautifully, broken journey.  A journey that holds so much pain and poise, graces and grievances, wins and losses.

Like a lighthouse on a lonely, battered island, hidden by the fog and rain of a heavy storm, our stories are persistently lit, and beckoning us toward the light.  No one lights a lamp, and then hides it or puts it under a basket.  Instead a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house.~Luke 11:33   You don’t have to share it with the world, but share it with your people-your safe community. It will be told one way or another, by healthy or unhealthy means, so set yourself free.