A Cold Cup of Water...

Matthew 10:38-42 (The Message)  

If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me. “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”

The weight of a baby on her lap, a feeling so foreign to her now, but one that would have been so common, so craved-after by any loving grandmother.  Baby coos and smiles gone unnoticed...met with blank stares.  These are not the days I imagined would be.  These are not the feelings I imagined feeling as I watched my children interacting with my mom...    

Mom has been in a steady decline this past year, and as we prepare for this next stage, of enlisting help for her in the form of a memory care home, I am grieving.  I never knew grieving could last for so long and have so many levels and stages.  I never knew sorrow could come and go so many times in one day, be evoked by so many simple memories...

Something my mom always taught me, even as a young child, was to look for ways to show kindness to others.  Wow, does that simple message carry some real weight to it in light of all the anger and bitterness I see around me these days.  What a different world it would be if people could look around and see others the way God sees them...as beautiful creatures, perfectly created in His image.   

I remember on days when my dad would be out working hard in the yard on some project, my mom would tell me to fill up a cup of water, with lots of ice in it, and carry it out to him.  I remember him, pausing from what he was doing to take a long drink of that water and the satisfied look on his face afterwards.  

"Go all the way with Me"...Jesus is urging me.  Go ALL the way and see what I will do to redeem even this seemingly hopeless situation. Go all the way, not just worrying about yourself, your own needs and desires and hurts, but looking to the needs of others.  One step toward making a hurting world a little bit better is offering a thirsty neighbor a cold cup of water...

Take your hurts, your disappointments, your sorrows and don't linger on them.  Grow from them, learn from them, use them to gain a new perspective about what others have gone through and are going through even now.  

God is good, even when the circumstances we find ourselves in are not.  Being able to smile and offer hope and encouragement to others, even in the midst of my struggles is yet another way I can extend out a cold cup of water.  

God help me, help anyone reading this today who is struggling to know you in an intimate and real way.  Meet us in our places of deepest hurt and pain and fill us to overflowing with your Living Water.  Help me not to live my life in a way that focuses only on self-preservation, personal comfort, seeking out things that make me temporarily "happy."  Be my strength, for the joy of the Lord IS my strength.  Be my hope, for this world leaves me sadly lacking of things to place my hope in.  Be my joy, reminding me to count it all joy when I face trials of many kinds.  I thank you Jesus, for coming to earth to show me the way, and for walking this road beside me every day.  Amen.

Eternal Beauty...

I remember the first time I walked into a new beauty store in the mall, Sephora.  Being a pretty minimalistic person for most of my life, I just could not fathom the quantity of products, nor the cost to buy even just a few.  Is this what it would take for me to be "beautiful" I wondered.  I was absolutely dazzled by the array of beauty products, all lined up on brightly lit shelves.  As I meandered up and down the rows of the store, my mind was blown away.  How was it possible that there were so many items necessary to make a person more beautiful?  And really, none of it would make a permanent change on the person wearing it, but only serve to mask imperfections that would grow more and more with time...  

Aren't we all, in some way, seeking more beauty in our lives?

Perhaps you don't see it that way, but stop to think about it for just a minute and you soon realize it to be true.  We choose beautiful destinations to go on vacation, work on beautiful remodeling or landscaping projects for our homes and yards, purchase beautiful new clothing or jewelry...  The thing is, we can't resist beauty.  It is worshiped above everything else, but the beauty here on earth will only disappoint us again and again...it won't last and will only break or tarnish or get lost or die off.  It's all just a cover-up, for the reality of our brokenness.  

Everything that we see around us will fade away, like a brilliant summer bloom.  But there is a beauty that will last...

Today I thought about the things we cherish and hold dear and how they can, in the blink of an eye, be taken away from us.  I thought about beauty I have experienced...the beauty of my childhood, my memories, my husband and children, and the beauty I hope for...a beauty that will last even beyond all of these things.

Every form of beauty I can think of here on this earth is of a temporary nature.  None of it will last, all of it fades away.  But not so with God!  No, in Him we can find an eternal beauty, a love that is constant and unfailing, a glory that outshines even the blackest night we can imagine.  

Do you find yourself in a place of deep longing for beauty?  Do you yearn for something you know will really comfort and satisfy your soul?  People are quick to blame God when things don't turn out the way they had hoped, when life gets hard and the things you thought you could count on disappear like a wisp of smoke.  I visualize a Savior, hanging on the bloody cross, body beaten beyond recognition, dying for the sins of others, and I can't think of anything more beautiful.  Why would He EVER want to do this...for me? I have done nothing to deserve His love, His forgiveness, the blessings He pours out on me day in and day out.  I take SO MUCH for granted.

As we long for beauty, I pray you might know Him and the beauty He offers to us, a beauty that will never fade.  I pray that you might see Him in a whole new light, that you might grasp the hope He offers to us in this broken and hurting world.  I pray you might desire something more lasting than the here and now, and come to believe in the truth of His Word and all of the promises He has given to us.  I speak to you from a place of very great pain, but I can still say with confidence, peace and certainty that God is GOOD, that He is worth our pursuit, and that He is the ONE we can put all of our trust and hope in....  and that is a truly beautiful thing.

Put It Into Practice...

 How do I find peace in a hurting world?

I sat on the back deck the other morning, watching  my kids ice skate.  They laughed and hollered at each other as they glided around our backyard rink together.  I was excited to see the progress that 4-year-old Eva had made.  Just a few weeks earlier she had barely been able to skate, hanging on to the plastic walker Derrick constructed for dear life, and falling frequently.  Now, she skated with confidence and even had the strength to pull older brother Lawson around on a sled!  I was amazed...but that is what practice will do.  Anything that we apply ourselves to, with practice, becomes easier for us in time...

A few weeks back, just before New Year's Day, a dear friend of mine challenged me to find a verse that would be my verse for 2021.  Initially I thought this would take weeks of reflection and prayer, but very quickly, God showed me my verse for this year, as I read it again and again in my studies...

Philippians 4:8-9
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

As I think about that verse this morning, I reflect on how we need to "put into practice" the things that are excellent.  We need to do something with our faith in order for it to really make an impact on our lives.  I can't just listen to a sermon on Sunday and then walk away and not think about God or read the Bible again for the rest of the week.  That makes no impact on my life, and does nothing to shape or change me or my character.  I have to put it into practice!

A while back I was telling Sienna how I played the flute and the piano for many years.  She was intrigued by this and asked me if I still knew how to play the flute and could show her.  I went up to my bedroom closet and pulled out my flute that I hadn't used for at least 17 years and showed it to her.  The beautiful silver instrument gleamed as I slide it together.  It felt so familiar to me and as I held it up to my lips, and though I was able to eek out a few rough notes, I quickly realized I had forgotten completely how to play.  

I was sad, thinking about that flute sitting in my closet, capable of so much beauty, yet worthless if I don't take the time to practice it often.  Faith is the same way, you know.  If we read the Bible but don't put into practice the things we read about, we will make no progress, it will not transform us as it is capable of doing, and our walk will be stagnant and stunted.

I think back again to Eva, gliding so confidently around the ice rink after being virtually unable to skate at the start of this winter.  I have a Bible sitting on my nightstand and another on my bookshelf downstairs.  This book contains everything I need to live a life of meaning, of purpose, and of beauty.  This book sets down guidelines for me to follow if I want to live my life to the fullest and have an eternity of joy to look forward to.  It is my instruction manual for life, but it is completely useless if I don't take the time to read it and really understand what is written in it and put it into practice.  No, it will not be easy.  It will require a lot of hard work on my part, learning and re-learning, and putting into practice the things that I observe.  It will be a humbling process as, again and again, I will have to submit my will and my way to God and ask Him to lead and guide me, in His way and in His timing.

The four preceding verses in Philippians chapter 4 are:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Many of us are aching for peace right now.  We are weary from all that has transpired over the past year, longing for life to "return to normal," longing for less discord and more harmony in our world.  In Jesus, we have access to a peace that "transcends all understanding."  But first, action is required on our part.  We have to talk to God, not just asking Him to give us peace, but "putting into practice" the things that we have studied in His word.  You may have spent most of your life up until now looking for ways to find peace, searching out every other avenue, but with no lasting results.  Will you turn to Him today?  Will you ask Him to help you find peace in 2021 through a close relationship with Him.  And if you already have this relationship with Him, will you ask Him to take it to a whole new level, giving you confidence to walk out into a hurting world with your head held high and share about your joy and your peace with others around you?