“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” 1 John 3:18 NLT
I love what Katie Davis says, “Not that he apologizes for the hard and the hurt but that he enters in.” We can’t always fix it. We can’t always erase it. But we can show up and maybe ease it, even for just a bit. We can sit. We can cry. We can pray. We can enter in. This is love in action.
Lip speak…good ideas…to-do lists…plans…even our dreams. Without actions what are they worth? Not much really…
I confess, I am an idea generator. I love talking and planning and dreaming about “someday.” But lately something has been happening to my heart, it’s a desire to do something, an urgency for action. But at the same time my dreams, plans, and to-dos, these things that I talk about doing, have begun changing radically. And these words from David in Psalm 39 were like throwing gasoline on a fire.
“Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered – how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath. We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.”
Can I just tell you how many days I have felt like a shadow? Rushing around only to sit down at the end of the day and wonder what actually got accomplished? To be fair, dinner does need to be made, the laundry absolutely needs done, and as much as I would love to just live in a paper-plate-no-dishes-to-be-done-ever-again-house it isn’t a real expectation. Raising a family is a lot of work, and very important work too! But recently, my heart has begun to bear a new burden. The imprint of a new heartache has begun to take shape.
In March of this year I began praying in a different way. I began asking God what He wanted for me, or from me instead of consistently the other way around. This is a terrifying prayer when you realize that he has begun to move, that you heart is actually being changed. It’s a terrifying realization when you accept that you would be willing to walk away from your current life, answering the call of “not my will, but thine, be done.” Because these are not my dreams, these are God’s dreams for me. It’s when you look around and realize that there is so much that you haven’t seen before when viewed through the eyes of Jesus. It’s when you realize the discontentment you, your husband, and children have been fighting could be for a bigger purpose and you pray for their eyes to be opened to all that you are now seeing. You begin to pray that their hearts find rhythm with yours, a beat of love, because there is so much evil in the world, so much hurt, and you can’t save everyone but what if it’s just one? Even just one would be worth it. Andy Stanley said, “Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.”
Current conditions on the Greece-Macedonia border are cold and rainy. Due to the situation on Lesvos in Greece, Samaritan’s Purse predicts that approximately 20,000 refugees will attempt to cross the border in the next few days. Infants are wrapped in plastic bags to protect them from the rain. Clothing is inadequate even for current temperatures, much less dropping temperatures that will follow in the next few weeks. Soon it will not be possible for people to sleep outdoors as they will be at significant risk of hypothermia, particularly infants, young children, and the elderly. (Samaritan’s Purse Responding to Refugee Crisis in Europe, 9/10/15)
Children are being wrapped in plastic bags to be kept dry and warm while we debate which coat to wear. It’s so much easier to stick your head in the sand (I am great at this) and to pretend that if you don’t know it’s happening it isn’t. However, a lack of knowledge does not alter the reality of the situation. If you have the stomach and desire, Ann VosKamp shares her experiences from her trip to Iraq in this post from May, 2015. It broke my heart, sickened me, and has impacted me in ways I can’t even put into words. Basically, it has haunted me since I read it 4 months ago – consider yourself warned.
This is but a drop in the bucket and it’s not just “out in the world”, it’s in our cities, our neighborhoods, in our very own backyards.
“When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father.” (Ephesians 3:14) And I feel compelled by an urgency. I have to move beyond my good intentions to a life marked by action. I don’t want my busy rushing to end in nothing.
And all of a sudden this afternoon I found myself singing an old Garth Brooks song,
This heart still believes
That love and mercy still exist
While all the hatreds rage
And so many say
“That love is all but pointless,
In madness such as this
“It’s like trying to stop a fire
With the moisture from a kiss”
And I hear them saying,
“You’ll never change things
And no matter what you do
It’s still the same thing”
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so, this world will know
That it will not change me
(The Change, Garth Brooks)
Let’s start more than a conversation, let’s start a movement. Shout to the world that you will not be changed, that you will not ignore the hurt, that Jesus through us, in love and mercy, will prevail. Find your passion, grab hold of it, and use it to make a difference, if only just in one life! It’s scary amazing what God can do with a willing body!
This was the prayer that Abide delivered to my phone this morning. It was amazingly appropriate…
Dear Jesus Christ,
I want to be a part of what you are doing in the world today. I believe you want to use me right now. I want to return to my first love, to you. I want to be your hands and feet this very second. Help me to believe and live by my convictions with every beat of my heart today. In your merciful name. Amen
Here I am. Send me.
Lord, this week, may the good things, even though they may be less in number, shine brighter in our lives than the frustrations and struggles that we find ourselves facing.
This was my prayer on Tuesday morning as I drove home after dropping the kids at school. My heart was heavy for my husband and kids, each with their plate full and feeling the burden of frustration as we launched headlong into another week. I didn’t think it was an outstanding prayer at the time, just an honest plea on their behalf. I didn’t realize how God would turn it into a lesson later in the week.
This morning the alarm greeted me and our puppy’s shrill barks beckoned me to rise and shine. Another day was waiting. Maybe you can relate to the way this morning wound itself out…
All I wanted to get my morning started was a cup of coffee but first I had to take care of The Puppy. Our Old English Sheepdog, Beezus, is just 10 weeks old and we are still adjusting to life with a puppy. (In hindsight we should have named her Sham-Wow, for we are finding out that with all of her “fluff” she soaks up the accidents she has in her crate overnight, looks awful and smells even worse. Needless to say, we found out over the weekend that she has a bladder infection so she can’t help it, and although she is getting better, this morning she was definitely in need of a bath before anything else got done. She’s lucky she’s so cute!)
Through teamwork, my husband and I got the bath and the coffee started. He finished puppy bathtime and I moved onto making breakfast and lunch and waking two sleepy teenagers. I could hear and smell the coffee brewing (we have a coffee station in the utility room) from the kitchen as I went about the morning routine. When I went to grab the pot and fill our two waiting cups I realized that coffee and grounds had found their way all over the utility room counter, floor, and everything that had been moved away from the utiltiy-sink-bathzone to the other side of the room into the unfortunate-coffee-overflow-zone. In my haste I hadn’t gotten the pot all the way under the basket and so we had a mess. I did triage and had about 3/4 of it cleaned up, rescuing the things that needed saved from the staining, soaking coffee before needing to move onto the next morning task.
Coffee Plan B. We would just use the Keurig to make our morning brew, one cup at a time. My husband took this task over while we two-stepped around the kitchen, each trying to stay out of the other’s way. He brewed the first cup, added the cream, and the coffee curdled. Apparently, the vinegar that I had used to flush the Keurig yesterday hadn’t gotten rinsed thoroughly out. (I thought I was being on top of things…clean the Keurig – check. Ruin the next cup of coffee – check.) I was past wanting coffee at this point to needing coffee.
Coffee Plan C. As I moved to the gathering of the sports items part of the morning (game uniforms, football apparel, and pre-game snacks) my husband moved back to the coffee pot, cleaned the rest of the mess up and made a new fresh pot, ensuring it would drain properly this time. God love that man!
As my family headed out the door, I sat down with my much delayed first cup of coffee (ahhhh…) and I remembered my prayer from Tuesday morning and thought, yep there’s the frustration I was praying about. Then God prodded my memory to each of my family members and the little shiny pieces of good that each of them had shared with me already this week. Each courtesy of God moving in their lives.
Phil – coming back from his second trip to the West Coast in 10 days. (He has spent more time there than at home lately and was coming off of his worst trip ever.) This was the text I got as he boarded his plane to come home. “One empty seat on this flight, and it’s next to me in the exit row. Sometimes Lady Luck smiles on me.”
Ty – Tuesday’s forecast was 90 with bright sun and plenty of humidity. This means football practice is especially awful and Ty was dreading it. When I picked him up afterwards this is what he had to say. “It wasn’t that bad. It was an answer to prayer actually. Literally, an answer to prayer. I prayed that we would be able to practice in shorts instead of our pants and we did. I prayed that we would get a pass on Lombardi’s (these are just strait torture) and we did. I even got some breaks on scout team.”
Mae – my steady as she goes trooper. There isn’t much that throws her. She is my still waters run deep kid and every now and then I get a peek into what is going on in her brilliant, creative mind. On Tuesday night she had to write a magazine article on prayer that she had me proofread. These are her words. “Why should you pray? You should pray because you grow in knowing God. You shouldn’t pray just because you need something, you should pray to thank God and praise him for being awesome.”
Shiny pieces of good, outshining the struggle, even if they are tiny and in the minority.
Answered prayer, mine and theirs.
And I read these words from Isaiah…
“I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them.” (Isaiah 42:16)
God’s promise for my family and for me. As I sat with my coffee I was reminded of all of these things and couldn’t help praising God for being awesome.
What’s your shiny good this week?
Run and Be Still 