prayer block

  November 18, 2011 - 3:51 pm |
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Have you ever had writer’s block? You know, that point when putting together a paper when you know what you are supposed to be writing, and you know you need to do it, but you just can’t seem to find the words?

How about prayer block? Have you ever had that? You know, that point when you are speaking to God, and you know you need His help and guidance, but you just can’t seem to find the words?

I suffer from prayer block regularly.

Thankfully, there are a few solutions to this problem.

The first solution to prayer block is a simple one: to remember that it is okay. When we can’t find the words, God still knows what is on our hearts, and He knows what is needed. Romans 8:26-27 says,

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

But that is not the only answer. For even though God doesn’t need to hear our words, sometimes we do. Prayer is not only us speaking to God, it is also God speaking to us- that may happen in the silence or it may happen through our own words. As we speak words of prayer, the truth of them sinks into our hearts and allows God to work.

So one place I go in times of prayer block is to history. I look at prayers that Christians have uttered through the ages; prayers that have offered comfort, hope, healing, and guidance.

 My favorite of such prayers is the Prayer of St. Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled,
as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen

I love this prayer because it is both deep and simple. And it is applicable to so much of life.

Lord, in my home, when behavior problems have everyone on edge, let me sow love and joy. Help me give more and die to myself. Make me an instrument of Your peace.

Lord, in the super-charged political climate, let me seek to understand and console. Help me be a source of hope and light. Make me and instrument of Your peace.

Lord, in the coming holiday season, when stress and consumerism can be at their peak, let me sow faith, hope, light, and joy in my relationships. Make me an instrument of Your peace.

Even as I write these words, they are speaking to my heart. I need this prayer right now. So I will pray it, knowing God can work through them to bring change to me and to those around me. This may be the answer to my current prayer block.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

walking on the ledge

  November 15, 2011 - 11:57 pm |
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It is time to leave. I gather my sons to exit the building and walk back to the car. I am in a hurry to get to the next building, to the next item on my to-do list, to the next thing on my schedule. But my son is not rushed; he wants to make the most of the journey. So he does not go directly toward the car. Instead, he walks toward the garden bed. He is not going there to admire the flowers, for sadly, it is a time of year when they are no longer in bloom. No, he is walking toward the wonder of… the ledge.

The ledge- I see nothing spectacular in it. I see it as a structure built next to the garden to keep in the dirt. My son sees it as an opportunity for adventure- a chance to walk on a different path than the boring old sidewalk. It is a path that requires more from him- more balance, more dodging of obstacles, more risk of injury if he falls. But he knows, instinctually, that something which requires more from him will also give him more in return. He knows the ledge will give him a feeling of adventure, a sense of accomplishment, and a fresh perspective.

When I ask my son if he would walk on the ledge if I wasn’t there, he responds with nervous laughter. He may not need me to hold his hand anymore, but he does want to know that I am nearby. My presence gives him the security to take a risk.

God’s presence is meant to give me that same security.

Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd (John 10). He leads us to green pastures. But in order to get there, we have to leave the security of the pen. Following Jesus means taking the road less traveled. There may be parts of the journey that are dangerous. There may be parts that are rocky or difficult. But we are with the Shepherd. We need not fear.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me. – Psalm 23:4

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10). Our lives have purpose and meaning beyond our imagination. Our Father gives us gifts and asks us to use them. Jesus gives us transformation stories and asks us to share them. The Holy Spirit gives us guidance to make a change and asks us to trust Him. These are risky choices. But steps of faith are adventures worth taking.

I once heard Erwin McManus say, “Christ did not come simply to free us from death, but to free us from the fear of death… so that we can live a life worth living.”

Go ahead. Walk on the ledge.

becoming conscious

  November 12, 2011 - 2:22 pm |
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Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. – Romans 3:20

This verse reminds me of something I have noticed on Pinterest lately. (In case you do not know, Pinterest is a place to bookmark Internet sites in a visually interesting way. Sites are saved through pictures put on virtual bulletin boards. You can create boards about anything you want- fashion, recipes, party planning, craft ideas… It also has a social media component, so you can see what friends, and even strangers, are pinning.)

I have noticed an interesting board cropping up with a lot of pinners. It is called different things “inspiration” or “by New Years” or “I WILL look like this.” On these boards, women pin pictures of thin, beautiful, and buff women. Women with negligible body fat and six pack abs. Women whom they aspire to look like some day.

I find this habit confusing.

I do not find these kinds of pictures inspiring at all. In fact, I find them depressing. Because I know that I will never look like those women. Unless a magic fairy comes down to speed up my metabolism, change my body type, and Photoshop me every time someone takes a picture, these images are not realistic goals. They don’t make me want to work out- they make me want to wolf down a whole bag of Oreos. Because if that is my goal, and I can never get there, why even try?

That is also how some people may feel when they look at God’s standards for living. I have felt that way myself. Keep a restful day of Sabbath once a week? Impossible- I have too much work to do. Honor my mother and father? But what about when they do ___ or ___. Does that really apply when I am an adult? I can’t do that. Love my neighbor as myself? But my neighbor is a jerk. How is that realistic?

When looking at God’s laws, we might be tempted to throw our hands up in the air, claim defeat, and gobble down that bag of Oreos we are not supposed to have. And, according to this verse, that’s actually exactly what the law was designed to do.

Because though the six pack abs fairy does not exist, our Savior does. Read how the Message translation puts the verses that follow the one quoted above.

But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him… Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners… and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. – Romans 3:21-24

Our God is a gift-giver. He gave us the law to show us that we cannot achieve holiness on our own. Then He gave us His Son to make it happen for us. We are not stuck. We are not defeated. We do not need to give up and gorge on the Oreos. All we need to do is believe. The gift of grace is free. Once we realize we need it, all we need to do is accept it.

Now, instead of being overwhelmed by my own sinfulness, I am overwhelmed by God’s love. I could never thank Him enough. I think this song states that truth beautifully.

Beautiful God/ Laying Your majesty aside/ You reached out in love to show me life/ Lifted from darkness into light…/ And I find myself here on my knees again/ Caught up in grace like an avalanche/ Nothing compares to this love love love/ Burning in my heart

a good day

  November 8, 2011 - 5:47 pm |
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“Now THAT was a good day.”

When do you utter those words?

For me, it is a day when I crossed lots of things off my to-do list. Add to that a day with nice weather, well-behaved children, a clean home, a workout, a cup of coffee, and chocolate, and I would call it GREAT.

In general, I have discovered that my standard of a good day is if it (a) makes me feel happy (b) is easy (c) gets me closer to a goal or (d) all of the above.

I wonder sometimes if I am using the wrong standard of evaluation. What if I used Philippians 2:1-4?

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make

my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Or maybe Romans 12:12-13?

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

If those verses are my standard of what a good day looks like, then…

  •  When I set aside my to-do list in order to help someone else, it is a good day.
  • When I invite someone into my somewhat messy home, elevating community over outward appearances, it is a good day.
  • When my children are throwing temper tantrums and I show them unconditional love, it is a good day.
  • When someone wrongs me, and I choose to forgive them, it is a good day.

I find hope when I use the words of the Bible as my standard of what a “good” day means. It still means the things listed at the top of this post are good. Because when those things happen, I am appreciating God’s blessings and who He made me to be. But it also means many other things are good as well- hard things that, in my own strength, I may have put in the “bad day” category.

It is hard to be patient with strong-willed children. It is hard to submit to a difficult boss. It is hard to get past something that has hurt us. It is hard to give up our agendas in order to follow through on something God has put on our hearts.

These things are hard. They make for hard days. However, an easy day and a good day are not necessarily the same thing. If easy is our standard of good, then our standard is too low. We are eternal beings created by a good God for a good purpose. Our days are gifts from that good God. Sometimes they are a gift for our present, and sometimes they are a gift for our future. When we can let go of our own agendas, and appreciate that truth, we can go to bed more often uttering the words,

 “Now THAT was a good day.”

you mean, that was meant for me?

  November 2, 2011 - 5:56 pm |
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The problem with writing a blog is that I have to read the words I write.

A number of my posts are written because I have learned a lesson that has helped me, and I feel inspired to write about it. Other times, I write about something, and realize afterwards that it is a lesson I have not yet learned.  In actuality, even the posts that fall into the former category also fall into the later. I am a work in progress.

Such was the case with a post from a few weeks ago, titled Slow to Obey. In that post, I wondered in what areas of my life I was being slow to obey God, and missing out on the blessings He had for me on the other side. In the time since that post, I have realized a glaring area of pokiness in my life: baptism.

I have never been baptized as an adult. Depending on your theology, that may not be an area of disobedience for you, but because of my theology, it was for me. As I read the New Testament, I see people choosing baptism in response to hearing and accepting the Gospel message. I have come to believe that one should be baptized after believing in Jesus, in obedience to His command (Matt 28:19) and as a symbol of the new life available through Him (Col 2:9-15). *

The reason I haven’t been baptized is what really makes this point clear. I did not like how it would make me look. My theology of baptism came into focus after I was working at a church. It felt awkward to me to get baptized so late in the game, so I avoided it.

However, I am avoiding it no longer. This Sunday, November 6, 2011, I will be baptized. I’m excited to finally follow through on something I have been thinking about for a long time.

As part of the service, my story will be read: the story of how I came to faith, why I follow Jesus, and why I want to be baptized now. I invite you to be my digital witness by reading my story here. I hope it encourages you and reminds you of what a wonderful God we serve.

People who know me may be surprised that I am getting baptized today. Not because I do not follow Christ, but because I have followed Him for so long. Here is my story.

I grew up going to church, as much out of expectation and tradition as out of belief. While there, I did come to understand that I was a sinner, and that Christ died for me. However, much of what I learned seemed distant. I was taught the doctrine of our denomination, but not the life-giving potential of faith.

When I was ten, my parents divorced. The circumstances around their split left me feeling rejected. Throughout my adolescence, I tried to cope with this in different ways. At first, I was angry, becoming the detested person I thought I was. Then, I tried to earn love, either through achievement or through molding to what others wanted me to be. I realize now that I was looking for the love and worth that only God can provide.

My freshman year of college, I began attending a Christian campus group and a Bible-believing church. I was getting on the right path. Still, my search for worth was pointed at God’s community, not at God Himself.

The following summer, I was a counselor at a camp with no fellow believers. I made poor choices, and returned to school with doubts and regrets. Meanwhile, my Christian roommate returned to school on fire for God. I was faced with the choice of two paths. Did I want to be a church-goer or Christ-follower? What would bring the hope, love, and life change I had been searching for? At that time, I decided that if faith in Jesus meant anything, then it meant everything.

I gave Christ authority over my life, and many things changed. I joined a Bible study. I volunteered with the church youth group. I changed my major from engineering to social work. I began dating a wonderful Christian man who later became my husband. Eventually, God then took me from volunteering at church, to working at church, to going to seminary, and finally, to becoming a children’s pastor.

Throughout that time, I began to wrestle with my theology of baptism. I had been baptized as an infant, and at first, did not feel convicted to get “re-baptized” as an adult. But then I came to believe baptism is something people should choose to do after placing their faith in Jesus. I felt a nudge to be baptized again. Yet, the timing felt problematic. I was already a pastor. How would it look for me to say I want to be baptized now? Hadn’t my friends and family already seen my desire to follow Christ through my life choices? What more would baptism add?

For a long time, the awkwardness of the situation kept me from moving forward. But then Pastor Craig told the story of his own baptism, which happened after he became a pastor. He took away my last excuse. I realized that my slowness had become disobedience.

I want to be baptized to demonstrate that I love Jesus more than anything else: more than family traditions and more than outward appearances. My family has just gone through a major transition: a new community, a new job for my husband, and a new role for me as a stay at home mom. Through this baptism, I want demonstrate my desire to follow Christ with the next leg of my journey, just as I have with the last.

Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” I pray that today’s baptism will be a reminder to others and to me that my life is my living sacrifice to a loving God.

I pray that you, like me, will remember that it’s never too late to follow through on something God has placed on your heart.  

* For a great little resource on the theology and history of baptism, check out the booklet created by Blackhawk Church.

mud pies and eternity

  October 30, 2011 - 10:24 pm |
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“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

This quote is from C.S. Lewis’ essay, The Weight of Glory, published in 1941. It is one of my favorite quotes. I love it because it points to how much more there is to our human condition than what we see around us. We are fooled by instant gratification when the reward offered by eternal living is so much greater. It is an essay about heaven and glory that I re-read recently, longing to fill my head with more timeless ideas and writing than I usually seek out from my time on the computer. Here are some reflections on some of my favorite quotes from it.

“To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

“Look at me, Mommy!” I hear this many times a day. When learning to swim, when building something with Legos, or even when simply sitting on the couch, my son is desperate for my attention. He wants me to notice him. He wants me to be proud of him. Could it be that the childlike desire to make someone proud actually points to the eternal? To a God who delights in us? Who, at the end of days, longs to says to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant?” What joy can be found when we focus on the activities He has told us to do, knowing that it makes Him proud?

“We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it…. When human souls have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch.”

There is so much breath-taking beauty to be found in nature. I can gaze at sunsets, oceans, trees, flowers, mountains, and stars to the point that I become oblivious to what else is going on around me. When that gaze is broken, I have a sense of sadness. I want the beauty to last. I take pictures to try to remember and make it something I can carry with me. Could it be that this appreciation of beauty, this desire to gaze at it, helps me understand what glory is? That the beauty of nature is a reflection of the glory of its Creator in the same way that we are meant to reflect His glory? Will I one day be as beautiful as a sunset?

“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours… Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

I can have compassion on someone going through difficult life circumstances once I know his or her story. But when someone brings 20 items into the 10 item check out or is rude to me on a customer service line or asks me for money when I am in a hurry to get somewhere, I can easily forget that they are a person. What a challenge to remember that each person on this earth is an eternal being, with the potential of splendor beyond my imagination. How can that change the way I interact with others in the simplest of life circumstances?

I am inspired by C.S. Lewis’ words. I encourage you to grab a cup of coffee and read this essay in its entirety (It’s only 9 pages). If you’re like me, you may have to re-read sentences and paragraphs a few times to really understand them. My brain is not used to its’ theological yet poetic phrasing. But it is worth muddling through.

If you read it, I would love to hear from you. What did you find thought-provoking? Anything you disagreed with? Any favorite quotes?

double standards

  October 27, 2011 - 3:00 pm |
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Double standards. Don’t you hate them?

Like people who run a red light because they are running late, but then get mad when another driver cuts them off to make a right turn. Or the wife who spends a lot of time on Facebook one day while she’s home with the kids during the day, but then gets mad at her husband for being on the computer instead of playing with the kids when he gets home from work. Or the ministry leader who stresses to others how important it is to spend time reading the Bible, but then struggles to keep that discipline in her own life.

… Oh wait, all those examples were about me.

That’s why I felt so convicted when, as I am working my way through the book of Romans, I read this:

You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? -Romans 2:1-4 (New Living Translation)

We tend to mess up the concepts of righteous judgment and kind grace in two ways: first in how we apply them to people and second in how we apply them to God.

With people, we tend to apply God’s judgment to others and His grace to ourselves. We forget what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:

Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. – Matthew 7:3-5

With God, we tend to think that His judgment and His grace are opposite responses to obedience. But that’s not true. God is able to hold seemingly paradoxical characteristics in perfect harmony.

God does not say, “I am a Righteous Judge, therefore I will make you obey me.”
He also does not say “I am a Kind Grace-Giver, therefore don’t worry about obeying me.”

God says, “I am a Righteous Judge. I do not have double standards. You can trust that my ways are good, and worth following. I am also a Kind Grace-Giver. You can trust that I will forgive you when you mess up. And when that happens, the kindness I have shown you should lead you to try again, as a way of showing Me gratitude and love. It should also lead you to show that kindness and grace to others, trusting Me, the Righteous Judge to bring justice when the time is right.”

I love how the Message translation writes Romans 2:4,

God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.

He knew

  October 24, 2011 - 10:04 pm |
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Anyone who knows me knows that I love conversation. I particularly love to hear how God is working in someone’s life. I am moved when I hear accounts of an active and loving God intersecting with a broken and hurting humanity.

So today, I want to tell you a story from my life. This is the story of biblical truths moving from the knowledge of my brain to the recesses of my heart.

The story begins on a Monday, a little more than five years ago. I went in for a regular check up, 31 weeks into my first pregnancy. I felt fine, but the tests revealed that my body was not fine. I was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia, affecting my blood pressure, my kidneys, and likely, the placenta. I was sent to the hospital. My mind was racing. My emotions were in turmoil. This wasn’t the way things were supposed to go.

I had a lot of back and forth in the following days. To the hospital to get steroid shots that would help the baby’s lung development. Back home to follow the unclear instructions of “bed rest.” Back to the hospital with a skull-splintering headache. As I was monitored, sometimes things were fine. The baby’s heart rate was normal, and my blood pressure was high but not dangerous. Other times, the baby’s heart rate dropped, or my blood pressure spiked to life-threatening numbers.

So, on Sunday, six days after I went in for that regular check-up, eight weeks before my due date, the doctors induced labor. But then, another setback: the baby’s heart rate was dropping with every contraction. Not knowing how long labor would take, a c-section was needed. They warned me of the risks. My pre-eclampsia had progressed into HELLP syndrome. I was in danger of having a seizure. I would have to be put on a magnesium sulfate IV for 24 hours after the surgery.

Still whirling with the emotions and reality of the situation, I asked my husband to remind me of the meanings of the names we had chosen. I wanted to feel like something was in our control. But then, he looked them up, and found that Cameron, the name at the top of our boy list, meant “bent nose.” I was annoyed. Really? It didn’t mean armor-bearer? Or child of God? Did we have time to pick a different name? Would anything go right? This felt like the last straw.

Just a little while later, a tiny 3 pound boy was born. A baby boy with a healthy set of lungs… and a bent nose. It appears that his hand had been pressed against his face in the womb.

After the birth, my husband followed the baby to the NICU, while I waited for post-op. As I lay there by myself, I started to weep. They were not tears of anxiety or anger or sadness. They were tears of joy. All I could think was, “Bent nose! Bent nose! His name is Cameron!”

My entire week had been filled with uncertainty. I didn’t know my birth experience would be this way. I didn’t know it would be full of complications. I didn’t know how it would turn out.

But God knew.

God knew this birth story before it happened. He knew my son would be born with a bent nose. He knew his name was Cameron.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.  –Psalm 139:16

The next 24 hours are a blur. I went in and out of consciousness and nausea as the effects of the magnesium sulfate flowed through my body. But in the midst of it all, I had a peace that surpassed understanding. I knew that God was there in the NICU, watching over Cameron. And I knew He was there in the hospital room, watching over me.

Cameron spent 19 days in the NICU. There were many difficult times in those weeks, not the least of which was coming home from the hospital without my baby in my arms. But I learned about trust. I felt God’s presence. I understood God’s faithfulness.

So, as I celebrated Cameron’s birthday just a few days ago, I celebrated for more than one reason. I celebrated not only his life, but his birth, and how that birth changed me. His birthday is the anniversary of my heart being taken over by Psalm 46:1.

God is my refuge and strength, my ever-present help in trouble.

getting paged

  October 20, 2011 - 1:26 pm |
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I got paged at the gym today before my workout was done.

This wasn’t a surprise. It was a time of day I knew my son would not be likely to last the length of my normal workout. In fact, when I dropped off my older son in the gym play area, I told him to play with what he most wanted to play with first, in case we got called away early. Likewise, I made the choice to do cardio first, since I did strength training yesterday- to make sure I could get some in.

So why did I go? If I knew I would get called away, was it really worth it?

I think so. I was able to have almost twenty minutes of a cardio workout. That is an investment in my physical health that will pay back. And, that means I was able to have twenty minutes by myself, listening to worship music. That is an investment in my spiritual health that will pay back.

Knowing the time would be short didn’t cause me avoid going. It caused me to make the most of the opportunity.

In small group this week, we looked at the Parable of the Talents from Matthew 25. In it, Jesus emphasizes that we are to invest what God has given us (money, time, talents) in the things of His kingdom, because when He returns, He will call us to account for what we have done. Since we do not know when that time will be, we need to invest now. We need to be ready.

One person in our group pointed out something I hadn’t noticed before: the servants who chose to invest all made a double return on their investment. Jesus could have shared a story in which the return was not as large, and in it show a master who praised the servant for taking the risk anyway. But He didn’t. Why?

There is no risk in the investment of what we have for kingdom purposes. There is a guaranteed return on our investment.

That doesn’t mean the return will be what we want it to be. When we choose to give money, God may provide for us in unexpected ways, or He may use that investment to teach us how to live on less. When we choose to invest our talents, God may influence the world in major ways through what we do, or He may use that investment to teach us humility and dependence on Him.

We do not know how long we have on this earth. We do not know how long we will be in our current jobs, communities, or circles of friends. We need to live knowing that we might get paged away. We need to invest our money, time, and talents into the things of God that have a guaranteed return on investment.

Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. – Ephesians 5:15-16a

How are you making the most of your current opportunities?

slow to obey

  October 14, 2011 - 11:45 am |
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credit: randomhouse.com

My son is a dawdler. When we are getting ready to go somewhere, putting on clothes feels like climbing Mount Everest. It takes all the weapons in our parenting arsenal to strategize solutions to this problem: consequences, rewards, timers, playing, nagging, begging…

Perpetual pokiness leads to frequent frustration.

Sometimes the leisurely pace is innocent. Sometimes it is a deliberate disobedience. He thinks, “If I am on my way to do something, then it counts as obeying, right?” Wrong. We’ve told him many times that one of the ways he shows us respect is by being “quick to obey.”

One of the reasons this behavior annoys me is because I know what my son is missing out on as a result of his choice. I know that if he was quick to obey the command to get dressed, he would have time to play before school. I know that if he was quick to obey the command to eat dinner, he would have time to go for a bike ride before bed.

When my son is slow to obey, he misses out on the blessings waiting on the other side.

This scenario has made me wonder about my own pokiness. Where in my life am I being slow to obey God?

There are things that God has made clear to me about how I should live. His instructions can come to me through prayer, His Word, or the insight of trusted friends- or maybe a combination of those things. There are many times, though, when I am slow to follow God’s instructions.

Why?

Sometimes I am slow to obey because of lack of clarity. I know He has called me to use me to change my path. But what does that mean? Do I make the change now or is he preparing me to change in the future?

Sometimes I am slow to obey because of lack of trust. I know He has given me gifts. I know He has called me to use those gifts to serve others, bless the world, and glorify Him. But can I really do THAT? ____ (fill in the blank) seems too far out of my capacity.

Sometimes I am slow to obey because of lack of desire. I know he has called me to give up my resources to help those in need. But I really want a new pair of boots. He’s not requiring that big of a sacrifice, right?

I wonder if God is like a parent, saying to me, “My child, when you are slow to obey, you are missing out on the blessings I have for you on the other side. The only person you are hurting is you.”

So what do I do?

Take the next step. Whether it is clarity, trust, or desire holding me back, my next step is to do something. If it is lack of clarity, perhaps my next step is to contact a friend and ask for advice. If it is lack of trust, perhaps my next step is look for a one time opportunity to do something I am nervous to do, and watch how God comes through. Then, when it comes time to do something longer-term, it might not seem so difficult. If it lack of desire holding me back, perhaps the next step is to give or change anyway. Sometimes the desire comes after the choice, not before.

If God has called me to do something, then I am able to do it. 2 Corinthians 9:8 says,

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Amen.