Saturday's Scribbles

Hello Friends!

On this beautiful warm Saturday I am pondering relationships.  God has created us for relationships with Him, Jesus, Holy Spirit and others.  God really wants a close relationship with His kids.  He beckons us through His Word, through His whispers, through His endless love.  In any healthy relationship, we talk and we listen.  We love and we receive love.  We give and we receive.  This is what God wants.......for us with Him.

In our skin on skin relationships we practice all the above...and one more important one?  We forgive and we are forgiven.  We are responsible for doing life really well together within our families, our friends, our community, and the world at large.  How we treat the clerk at the store, the person driving the car next to us, those who look different than us, the one who shares our bed, the people in our home, our church, impacts all and it impacts our relationship with God.  Big time.

I started writing down thoughts about relationships yesterday morning and then last night we had friends over to break bread and fellowship together.  Always beautiful.  Always insightful.  This morning I realized that this couple really practices what I was writing above.  They desire and seek a close relationship with God and they intentionally "work" at relationships within the church and community.  They do life well, seeing the best in each other and other people, expecting miracles, and "pitching their tent in the land of hope".  They are 10 years younger than us but I "want to be like them when I grow up".

"I saw God before me

 all the time. 

 Nothing can shake me; 

He's right by my side.  

I'm glad from the inside out, ecstatic; 

I have pitched my tent in the land of hope."

Acts 2:26

Psalm 16

The Message

This week brought the death of two more police officers in the Des Moines IA area.  Our son wears the uniform there and it hit close to home as I wrote about HERE.  How the storms hit as the officers did their jobs while stunned by the death of a family member.  And what hurts our son hurts us and what hurts our officers hurts us all.  What hurts each person hurts the world.  We stop the hurt when we reach out and embrace another in respect and love.

I confess that Joel and I have had to work hard at keeping our tent pitched in the land of hope this past year.  At times the winds have blown hard, weapons have formed against us, and the good soil where we have pitched our tent has turned to sand..  Or so it seems.  So where do we turn when things get so darn complicated or our dreams disintegrate.  Where do we turn when confusion reigns and our tent is shaking, threatened to be swept away in the storms.

We turn our faces upward.  We turn our face and our focus on that One who gave us the land of hope through the Sacrifice.  Jesus.  We don't close our eyes to God's promises.  We shelter right in under His wings knowing God is right by our side.  Nothing can shake us.  Well, as humans we may feel shaken, true.....but we, like David seek God's calming presence.  We seek more of a relationship with God ~ seeing Him before us at all times.

We need God and He loves having a relationship with us.  We need family.  We need friends.  We need our neighbors, our community, our police, our state, our country, our world.  We need to reach out and touch the One and the ones who we know and don't know.  We help others keep their "tents" from landing in hopelessness.  We love on each other and open our hearts to be loved, to understand. To do life, well like our dear friends.  And most importantly we remember with God beside us we cannot be shaken.  We will not be shaken.  For we have pitched our tent in the land of Hope.

Radical Grace In Parenting

"This parenting gig is an experiment in radical grace

and the work of every parent is
 to fully give (love) to the child. 

And it’s the work of every child
to fully forgive the parents."

Ann Voskamp

Our oldest son has a great sense of humor.  He banters with us during phone conversations and yesterday's short call was no different.    I was talking to him about his dad being "obsessed" with figuring out his newly purchased refurbished laptop.  He was spending hours to get everything the way he wanted it...feeling some sense of control I expect.  I went to bed with him on the laptop....I woke up to him downstairs on the laptop!  I expect even if it takes 50 hours, he will be bonding with that piece of technology until he feels he has mastered it.  This is typical when he is dealing with something new.

Matt's response had me laughing.  "So that is where I get it.  Hmmmm  That is what I will tell my kids.  Don't blame me, blame your grandparents!"  He went on to say, "I have come to it late in life, but this blaming the parents is not such a bad thing!"  (giggle)

I can giggle at this, not because we were such great parents, but because I know he forgives us for the mistakes we made as his parents.  That is important, not so much for us, although it feels great, but for himself.  Unforgiveness sucks the life out of people.  Whether we are dealing with parents, others or even ourselves.  Unforgiveness and the blame game may be reasonable and understandable, but it is not Spiritual.  Forgetting might not be an option, but forgiving would be a necessity.  For healing.  For yourself and in obedience to God.  He knows what He is doing, trust Him. 

And laugh.....the way our son has laughed at those traits he picked up from mom and dad and the many mistakes we made....The way he speaks, with a twinkle in his eye, of using his parents as a buffer with his own kids.  Coming from a place of grace.

"Laugh that you lived and dance that you dared

and inhale that it all happened —

and it all was grace."

Ann Voskamp

What Rises To The Surface?

While in South Dakota my sister Jan retold a story I had heard before about our dad.  My uncle Carl was the sheriff of Deadwood SD back in the fifties.  I remember him as a stern, no nonsense kind of man.  Sometimes he would deputize his brother Bill, our dad, to ride along with him and help out.  As the story goes, our Uncle stopped some kids one night for mischief.  He was going to bring down the arm of the law on them but my dad, a softie at heart, talked him out of it.  "Oh, Carley," he said.  "They are just kids...let them go."

 Law and grace.

I heard another story about an upscale church where everyone dressed to the hilt on Sunday.  One Sunday a man came into the church wearing jeans, old boots, and a denim shirt.  He sat up front listening intently to the sermon.  Later the pastor received several notes speaking to the man's attire.  The next week the man returned so the pastor told him he needed to pray about how he should dress for services at the church.  The third week the man came back, dressed the same....shirt, jeans, and well worn boots.  The pastor confronted him saying, "I thought you were going to ask Jesus what you should wear here!"  The man in the jeans replied, "I did.  But He told me He had never been here so He did not know what the dress code was!"  Ouch!

Law and grace.

Joel told me a true story about a farmer who invited a new family to go to church on Sunday.  When the family arrived for services, the youngest boy told the farmer he had new jeans to wear!  The farmer quietly spoke to his own family telling them to go change out of their Sunday best into some clean jeans.  He did not want the new family to feel uncomfortable their first week at services.

Grace.

Law and grace.  We definitely need both, and especially when it comes to keeping others safe, but too often we let the rules of man get in the way of the Living Grace that came to earth.  Jesus.  Remember the Samaritan woman?  Remember the healing He did on the Sabbath?  Grace.  So much grace and love.

I watch online the services and conferences that take place in Bethel church out in Redding CA.   One (of many) things that impresses Joel and I about this Redding church is that they preach so much grace. They teach, speak, live, and breath love and grace.  For real. Their focus in on bringing others to Christ.

We watch another ministry online and they speak grace, too, but they also criticize how others worship, and call the "seminary" the "cemetery".  They are very Biblically sound, but they also speak against others or make fun of other denominations.  Both speak Biblical truths and both are conservative in their thinking, but in our opinion, only one leaves their critical spirit at the foot of the cross. 

Law and grace.

It is often difficult to find the balance needed.  The law was fulfilled with Jesus and we have a new covenant to live by.  Yet Jesus gave us laws to follow too.  We need law laced with grace or grace laced with law!  We are tempted to judge, to let our critical spirit rise to the surface.  It is so easy to look down on others instead of up at Jesus.  Oh, Lord, let the love of Christ rise to the surface in us.  Hear our prayer..... and remind us to ask ourselves what rises to the surface?

"Gracing"

"Why do we keep holding each other to a standard of perfection

instead of letting us all be held by the arms of grace. 

Perfectionism is a slow death by self."

Ann Voskamp

Company is coming.  As sometimes happens when company is coming, I can be found looking around my home with a critical eye. Our home holds a mix of eclectic pieces out of necessity more than planning.  Most everything was purchased or given to us over ten years ago.  Furniture doesn't pall match, the fireplace is covered with plastic and tape (a result of it not functioning properly), oak, maple, and pine wood in different stains and styles are everywhere and our kitchen is original to the house.  Alas, in my company-is-coming eyes, it all falls short of acceptable. Or if I am honest is it "perfection" that I .am looking for.

Convicted by Ann's quote and God's whispers, I had to ask myself ~~Is it really my home I am concerned about?  Or is it approval from others in regards to how they see our house, our nest, us.... me.  How they see me.  Once again I began to recognize that I hold myself and my surroundings to a very high standard for reasons I need to let go of.  Echos of the past that tell me I am not enough. As I am....as I look....as I live.  Seriously, do we give too much value to the expectations of those who judge us by their standards?  Those who are unwilling to see others from a place of grace. 

And if I give value to those who judge, then what do my eyes see when I look at others and their homes.  And is this need for approval that still comes to the surface a part of that perfectionism that is a slow death by self?  Ugh.

It is good to ponder these things. It is good to reject the need for approval when it tries to resurface.  It is good to stare at our reflection and embrace with grace who we see looking back.  It is good to see others through the grace that lives in us.  Jesus holds us in arms of grace.

Today I have been looking around my home and "gracing it" with deep appreciation for the many blessings I have in our eclectic nest.  I like this "gracing".  Recently I heard a pastor share that as a child he was told to pray over a painful wart by "gracing it".  He did and it left.  Praying grace has power!  Can we do the same with the critical eye we hold or receive?  Replace it with grace?

We can if we take God at His Word.  He delights in us.  We are His masterpiece.  We are more than enough with Jesus.  We have all we need.  By grace......

Dancing David

In 2 Samuel chapter 6 we find the story of when the Ark of the Covenant was being moved  to Jerusalem.  When the Ark enters the city, David dances for joy, wearing only what one might call "holy underwear".  He was so excited to be in the presence of the Lord that he dances in what has been described "religious ectasy".  His first wife, Mical, who was King Saul's daughter, criticized and scorned him for parading half naked before others, but David does not listen to her.

This story came to me twice within 24 hours this week.  Twice.  When I get something more than once in a short amount of time,  I have learned to pay attention.  I know I need to ask God to reveal to me what He is trying to say.  This time I did not need to ask, as I already knew. 

You see, the past three days Joel and I have been watching a healing conference online.  Randy Clark and Bill Johnson were speaking on and praying for healing for those who attended.  We wanted to hear them, so we payed a minimal fee to have the three days and 9 sessions live streamed into our home.

At the end of the first session we saw lots of people showing a strong verbal and emotional response to the presence of God and being prayed over.  Joel and I were totally out of  our comfort zone.  On a scale of 1 to 10 we were edging towards the high end as the Holy Spirit released His power over some of those at the conference.  Oh boy.  Was this for us?

Later I emailed a friend who had been to one of these conferences in the past, and she emailed back, sharing her own experience. This helped, but I still found myself judging others because they were making me uncomfortable. Joel and I both talked about this at length, and our words were not always kind.

Joel went back to his office and I went to my computer.  It was at this time that God sent me the verse in 2 Samuel........and then a few hours later while reading Ann Voskamp's blog, the story of David and Michal came up again.  Really?  A second time?  Her words about David's adoration dance resonated with me.  I immediately knew that this was from God. 

Who was I to judge how others expressed the awe they felt as they experienced the presence of God and annointing of the Holy Spirit?  That was between them and God.  While I was being "scolded" by God, Joel had been praying about the feelings that came up during the first session.  He came to me and said,  "I know I need to keep watching this." I agreed.  We needed to see this through.

We are so glad we did.  We learned a great deal during this conference. We expanded our thinking, and responded God's whispering.  We will not be doing any dance of adoration soon, but we are open to what God wants to bless us with.   We also have been reminded of an important message from God... the grace He extends to us is always to be extended to others.  Please don't misunderstand, we do need to listen to God and discern right from wrong in our walk of faith, but we are to live by grace.  Especially when we are out of our comfort zone.  Otherwise we might miss all God has planned for us!