Repairing Joy

My car needed some repairs that would take basically all day. The shop is maybe a mile up the road from my apartment. So I resolved to walk to get my car when it was ready.

The walk took 15 minutes at a stroll pace. 
The sun was bright at 98 degrees.
The road was full at the height of rush hour on a Monday afternoon.
I grabbed my water and started out the door.

At first, my mind wandered to a current circumstance. I barely even noticed the road right in front of me. I fought the temptation to not be present, to let my thoughts carry me off to deal with something I clearly couldn't actually deal with at that time. I wanted to see and feel and be there in the walk.

So I looked around. Trees. Grass. Sunlight. Cars. Drivers' faces. Mostly looking at their phones. Or the road. Some even looking at me. Some trying not to. One man waved. Not in the Hey-girl-can-I-get-yo-numba kind of way. But in the I-want-to-encourage-you-in-your-journey kind of way. Another tried to let me cross in front of his car. I waited for the light, thank you very much!

I wondered what they thought. Did they feel pity because of the temperature outside of A/C-filled cars? Did they worry that I was too close to the road? How old did they perceive me to be?

I started to think how grateful I was that I did have a car, one I was just going to pick up. It was costing a lot of money, but it ran well. Even better, after the repairs. I did have air conditioning. I didn't have to walk around from place to place. I didn't really have to walk then. I surely could have called a friend if I thought it necessary.

Then I started to think how grateful I was for the walk. So many blessings and evidences of God's grace were visible in that walk. At the most basic, I could walk. It was no real hassle for me to carry my able body the 1-2 miles across the busy highway. The shop was so close. They fixed my car - did exactly what they said they would. The weather was beautiful. God kept me safe. God provided all the money needed to get the repairs and able eyes and hands that saw problems and addressed them. And when I picked my car up, the man blessed me, pointing my eyes right back to the God who was worthy and deserving of all the thanks.

It's easy for us to see circumstances like car trouble as frustrations come to steal our joy - and resources. But that's not how God sees them. God says that He works everything for our good, those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. That purpose is making us Christlike. The devil would like to deceive us into believing our only logical responses to difficulty and annoyance are complaining, worrying or anger. But God says something different. God says we should count our tests and trials as joy. Joy that will make us perfect and complete through a cultivation of steadfastness.

God is good, and His steadfast love endures forever. Forever doesn't stop when we need car repairs. 

What are you allowing to frustrate you? 
How can you take hold of the joy Jesus already purchased for us at the cross? 
What other truths of God's word are you allowing the devil to discount through difficulty?

Stand firm on the Word, Jesus Himself. And rejoice. Again, I say rejoice. We have the victory in Christ. He has overcome the world and through Him, we are more than conquerors.

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

God's steadfast love endures forever is the refrain in all 26 verses of Psalm 136. But how do we know? What proof does the psalmist give?

God is good. He is the God of gods and Lord of all lords.
God is powerful.
God serves us in mighty, even miraculous ways.
God is the Creator. He made things with understanding, with care and divine forethought. Everything is on purpose - the land, the water, the lights, the darkness.
God works justice for His people.
God delivers, redeems, protects, guides, and governs His people.
God removes unrighteous rulers.
God rewards His children and gives them an inheritance.
God considers our frame, our weakness and iniquity, and still He rescues us. He sent His Son to live perfectly for us, to die in our place, and to raise to give us freedom. He has rescued us from our biggest foes - sin, death, the devil. 
God gives us all that we need.

All these God did for the Israelites. Yet the refrain says, his steadfast love endures forever. So we can be sure He is still and will continue to do these things for us as well.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Best Dad Ever!

"Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
sing to his name, for it is pleasant!
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,
Israel as his own possession."

Psalm 135:3-4

The Lord has chosen us! That is great reason to give Him praise. Adoption is so beautiful because there was no pre-existing responsibility or duty. God didn't have to chose to love and save us and call us His own. He did that on His own accord. And now we, His children, get all the benefits of sonship. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good!

Happy Father's Day!

God's Grace in Community

On May 31, 2014, I moved my apartment into storage.
On June 6, 2014, I moved the final bits of my classroom into storage.
On June 7, 2014, I boarded a plane to Tulsa, OK, the first leg of my journey away from my Charlotte home.

I left many things in Charlotte - clothes, shoes, a hooded dryer (I should try to get that back), teaching supplies, books, files, a job. Temporarily, I left my TV, laserjet printer and my car. Some I've gotten back, some I knew I was leaving for good.

I also left community. The hardest thing to leave. Beautiful Christian community. 

Community that knows, accepts and loves you anyway - a knowledge built over years.
Community that wants you around and sees all the good God has placed in you and is uncovering day by day. 
Community that aids in the sometimes painful process of peeling away the filth to get to the gold. Community that celebrates you publicly on special occasions and quietly for the simple acts of faithful service, or just being yourself. 
Community that sees your strengths and spurs you on towards great works.
Community that serves you and rallies around to meet your needs.
Community that prays for you and over you - the best gift.
Community that comforts you, holding your hand, talking you through and just being there. With you. In it.
Community that walks with you through decision making and encourages the wisdom and direction God has given.
Community that invites you over and comes to see you.
Community that laughs with you. Then cries with you.
Community that has not just gotten to know you, but has let you into their lives for mutual upbuilding.
Community that never wants to see you go, but pushes you to walk in the path God has ordered.
Community that hugs you tight, then sends you on your way, expecting a fruitful report.

I had this community from my work relationships, friendships, but most strongly from my church. God gave me this beautiful gift that I didn't even know I needed. In fact, I had never experienced such grace. 

I knew that God wanted me in Durham, so He would be my provider. Not just physically, but for my spiritual and emotional deficiencies as well. He promises to give me all things I need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ. His plan is to make me like Christ, and He most certainly uses the Church in that sanctifying work.

But I'm moving away from my community.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

But I only know a handful of people in Durham, and half aren't Christians.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

One of my prayers (and the prayers of countless others for me) was that God would send me beautiful Christian community in my new home. A church home. Somewhere to grow, give and serve. Somewhere to be built up and to be challenged. Strong friendships built on the Truth.

I look around one year later and God has answered that prayer far more than I could have imagined. 
Friendships at work. Community group from church. Beautiful random Monday night girls group. And all the other relationships I had before. They never left, never dissolved, just were supplemented. God has truly supplied my needs.

I am so grateful that these relationships aren't superficial. God calls us to bear one another's burdens, to walk in peace, to have brotherly affection for one another. God is a relational God, relating to Himself within the Trinity and with us. He requires us to have a vertical relationship with Him and horizontal relationships with one another. The one thing God called "not good" in creation was when man was alone. And the striking thing about this fact is that man wasn't alone. He had God, right there, in his face, walking in the garden with him. Yet God knew He had created man to be in community with other people also. God's grace is sufficient, but God graces us with relationships. He uses those relationships to conform us to the image of Christ and to prepare us for the perfectly reconciled sin-free relationships we will experience for all eternity with Him. When Proverbs speaks of ironing sharpening iron, it implies that the iron gets close - close enough to press and scrape and refine. 

This first year in Durham has been an interesting one to say the least. God has been doing some refining. God has given me the grace to open my life to key people to aid in this scraping and pressing. 

This is the key. We have to get close. We have to make ourselves vulnerable to other believers so that God can use them to complete His good work in us and in them. We have to be transparent. Is it risky? Of course. But Jesus did a pretty risky thing to bring us into relationship with the Father. In this fallen world, people will hurt us and we will hurt them. That is what takes faith. It takes no faith to guard yourself and your life from everyone while shouting "Jesus is enough!" In fact, in that way you are simply trying to protect yourself and not allowing God to be your protector. You are trying to protect yourself from being close, being known. But how will the iron get sharpened locked carefully away in the closet? Or on display set high on the shelf? Solomon tells us two are better than one and a cord of three strands aren't easily broken. God uses His community to meet our needs and aid in sanctification.

It won't be easy. But it will be fruitful when done in the power of the Lord. God is a god of reconciliation. For that purpose, He sent Christ to reconcile the world to Himself. He has now given us that ministry in evangelism and in our Christian relationships. Jesus tells us to forgive one another. Jesus prays that we would be unified, having one mind. Jesus didn't send us alone. He literally sent His disciples out in pairs. The Holy Spirit has organized the body of Christ as He saw fit, where we all need and rely on each other. 

Community is so incredibly vital for the Christian. We live in an individualistic, independent society, where we think we can do it, make it, handle it all on our own. When we become Christians, we often change that mantra slightly to we can do it, make it, handle it all on our own - with Jesus. But in practice, it's the same. Because Jesus is calling us into relationships and interdependence with one another. The way the world will know we are His is by our love for one another. And love takes closeness and work!

Consider how you can engage more deeply with Christ's body.
How can you be transparent with other believers?
How can you show your gratefulness to the Body God has placed in your life?
How can you take the risk and cast aside any fears of being hurt to embrace the beauty of Christian community?

Thank you God that you don't leave us in that "not good" state, but that You provide exactly what we need in other believers. You are good. We can trust You to protect us, so we don't have to protect ourselves. You are our rock, shield and refuge. Because You have done the great work of reconciling us to God, we can stand in Your power and be reconciled to others. Thank you for Your Church. Thank you for choosing us to be a part of Your Church. May we never take her for granted. Amen.

Casting Out Fear

It's a strangely wet and warm winter day.

Just moments ago, I was sitting in a restaurant brunching alone. Watching. Thinking.

Micah 7 and the pastor reminded me of God's great faithfulness, love and forgiveness. And I was pondering that goodness.

So much goodness. So much grace.
"How can anyone not love Him?" Words from a dear friend just the other day.
"Who is like the Lord?" Words from Micah to the generations.

I sit. I wait. I taste. I thank.

Thank you for the 3 older ladies dressed in their cutest Sunday clothes, eating brunch, drinking Bloody Mary's, praying corporately to you before their meal. 

Thank you for the married couple maintaining eye contact and conversation as they wait for their food.
Thank you for an attentive waiter and a small table in the corner.
Thank you for the slow, light rain and the slate grey sky.
Thank you for the Word being preached and your Spirit alighting our hearts. 
Thank you for solitude.
Thank you for freedom.
Thank you for beauty.

Thank you for creating things to be delighted in. Thank you for being worthy to be delighted in and captivating me with your goodness, your greatness.
Thank you for love.
Thank you for protection.
Thank you for your Speaking Voice.
Thank you for ears to hear.
Thank you for prayer and an open heart.
Thank you for your faithfulness. That I can see all you have done in scripture mirrored in my life. You never change.
Thank you for acceptance.
Thank you for Presence when I'm alone.

Over the past few days, I had been thinking about writing a post about fear. But you know what 1 John 4:18 tells us casts out fear. I suppose right now I'm rolling in it.

Not because anything external has changed. And certainly God nor His love has. Just my focus. Eucharisteo. To remember, to acknowledge. To give thanks.

What else could happen if we, God's chosen children, stop and gaze at the creator of love and all things good and perfect? When we see Him clearly - even in spite of our wretchedness coming into focus - we can't help but worship Him all the more.