Sometimes I kid my work partner that he is off his game when things don’t go the way we plan. It doesn’t happen often, but pointing it out helps us understand something we don’t like is happening. Usually we joke about it. He tells me if he is off his game, then I must be off mine.
Currently I am off my Christmas game. Presents still need to be bought, cards need to be mailed, and lots more. I am so behind.
Christmas is my favorite season and it is about to be over before I even prepare for it. The thing that keeps me calm is music. One of my favorites this season is the Christmas Song by Dave Matthews.
I love the words to this song and the beat. As I was listening this week, I thought about Jesus. I mean He knew when he breathed life into Adam that eventually the focus would turn to Him. (And rightly so because He came to save us.) He knew that people would write songs about his life.
I wonder if terms like “less than golden,” “daddy-o” and “jokers” gave Him a giggle. They make me giggle because of the songwriter’s method of telling the story. He uses a vernacular that I am familiar with.
I am not saying the song is biblical, but I do like the theme. I love the idea of showering Him with love while He lay in the hay. I disagree that the blood spilled is of the children all around. I know the blood spilled is of the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Yet that doesn’t limit the song for me. Because as God tries to explain to us what He does for us, we don’t always get it right.
But Jesus loves us. So much that He was willing to come be with us. We will never know the full extent of His love.
Even though I may be off my game, I love being reminded of the trip Jesus made to earth to shower me with love.
So I have this song stuck in my head, but I only know 2 words. It makes me giggle.
So I walked into my mechanic’s office and explained the problems with the car. He answered by breaking out in song. I could not help but laugh as he continued to sing through my distress. After he sang a little, he looked at me and laughed.
The best part was he reminded me of where my source and help comes from. As I stood ready to talk business. He reminded me that God was my protector and has control of our lives. He reminded me that nothing happens in our lives without God.
Now he did roll his eyes at me for wanting him to do the repairs the same day. ( I got there two hours before he closed.) He also continued to sing.
A couple of days later, as he was going over the repairs with me, we talked about family. He said family gatherings are about love and respect for each other. He gave me a hug, a kiss and wished me Merry Christmas.
I paid for car repairs, but got a whole lot more.
As you are meeting with your family and friends this holiday season, and getting caught up in the festivities, remember to love and respect one another. When things start going to the contrary, just sing.
This week I got to languish in God’s grace. Sometimes we mistake God’s grace as a nuisance because it doesn’t look like what we think it should look like. While I was getting a good picture of the High Holy God I serve during this week’s bible lessons, I experienced His grace in several settings.
My favorite experience was that worship comes from your heart. Many days we feel like Peter with a sword in his hand promising to follow the Lord to death. Yet when it comes to worship in any place at any time, we are more like Peter running from the crowd denying we know Jesus. I mean there are some places you just can’t worship Jesus. (wink)
God sends people into our lives to teach us about His grace. It seldom looks the way we expect it. It is never the people we expect. It always teaches us about His character. His goal is to make us look more like Christ and less like us.
When things don’t look the way we plan it, we figure everything is wrong instead of God had other plans. We tend to ignore the souls God has placed in our path and try to do things on our own. We miss the blessing.
I mean if anyone could have worked on his own, Christ could. But He chose 12 guys to work with Him. He knew what would happen if those men allowed God to work through them.
What is God calling you to do that is outside of your plan? Are you willing to miss His grace to work your plan?
This year I have watched His grace do incredible things in my life. It is purifying me.
2015 is going down as one of the hardest years of my life. It has also been one of the most powerful years of my life.
This week in the study of Revelation we are looking at our view of God. Many of us think of God as some better version of ourselves. Why else would we be so flippant in how we approach Him and refer to Him? We think of Him as a buddy or friend.
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to listen to some teaching by Francis Chan which approached this subject. I spent some time in Revelation 4 and gave great thought to who this was I am praying to. To be just a black girl about it, “What does He look like?” ( I mean wool like hair? Does that mean He black?)
To be honest, the images in Revelation 4 scared me. I have prayed for Him to help me understand what He wants me to know about these passages. As I think about facing this mighty powerful God and all of those creatures, it makes my current circumstances seem like nothing. I can face a mountain of earthly circumstances in order to NOT have to face a creature with eyes in the front and back of it’s head who also has six wings. (feathers freak me out) And that is how He works. He takes our circumstances and uses it for His glory.
When Isaiah was mourning the loss of his king, Uzziah, The Lord revealed to him what the real King looked like on his throne with train of his robe filling the whole temple.(Isaiah 6) The Lord met the elders of Israel in the desert and John on the island of Patmos (Revelation 4). What they thought were awful circumstances, changed as they focused on the Creator and not His creation.
Their circumstances took them to the throne of God. My circumstances have taken me to the throne of God.(I have not physically been there) I have watched Him do more than I can imagine in my life this year (Ephesians 3:20). But now, I think about WHO is doing this for me and HOW He loves me unconditionally.
This week we have seen terrorism in France and wonder what will we do to combat such a powerful foe. People are angry and frighten by cowards who kill in the dark. The truth is the cowards are mortal and will die as will their mission. I have read how the story ends. We win. Don’t allow mortal men to cripple you with fear.
Let me tell you, there is a God who sits high and looks low (Psalms 113:5-6). He is not a better version of us (Isaiah 55:8). He is immortal and will judge everyone (James 4:12).
What I have learned in difficult times is that worship can get you through anything. You have to focus on what can really help you. A relationship with Jesus Christ. He can heal any wound any man can make.
I was sick all week, to the point of losing my voice, but the Lord saw me through. He took care of everything. He writes scriptures on my heart through His actions. When I didn’t have another ounce of energy, He gave me more than I could ask or hope for (Ephesian 3:20). He deserves all the worship I can I give.
One evening in BSF we were singing Worthy of Worship. I wondered if we would sing this in heaven. (And yes I want to be in the choir for that one). I can think of instances when He has been Father, Creator, Savior, Sustainer and more.
In Secrets of the Vine by Bruce Wilkerson, he distinguishes between pruning and discipline, one brings pain, while the other brings relief.
One of the things I am learning about the pruning is that it gives God permission to free you from things that have been binding you. Most of the time we don’t even know they are binding us.
If God has moved people out of your life, let them stay. If they come to mind, pray over them. Don’t call them.
As I have come to appreciate what God has done, I am learning who was there to strengthen me, and who has been draining. He will teach you the same if you allow Him.
If God has changed some situations. Trust Him. Like the vine dresser, He is preparing you for growth. Don’t try to rush back into similar type situations. Appreciate where God has you.
You can’t grow into the person God wants you to be if things and people are sapping up your strength. Wilkerson said we need to appreciate this process and not fight against God. Trust Him.
Keep moving forward.
Although she was just trying to make a living, her life was an adventure. She spied on cheating spouses and caught bail jumpers. She never imagined the bad guys would chase her.
I know lots of people going through struggles and difficult times right now. What I have learned from my own struggles is that God is using these adversities to strip things from me that keep me from being what He’s created me to be.
As I reflect on many of the struggles I have had this year, I have a new found freedom. It is a blessing. There is nothing like peace that comes from heaven. It will not go away when the heat turns up in your life. People will look at you funny, like why are you not freaking out about this? When you know the One who controls all things, and you spend time with Him daily, you trust Him.
Sometimes God is trying to get you out of situations or away from people that poison your spirit. Many of us fight it because we have grown dependent on those people or situations. God has to wrench these things from us and it hurts because we have been holding on to them so tightly. God is our only source and He wants us to know it.
We will stay with a job until it destroys our health. We will stay with people who destroy our self esteem. We are physically broken, mentally broken, spiritually broken, yet we want God to do something great in our lives. We are not giving Him anything to work with. We continually fight against the good that God has for us because we do not understand it. When He rips these things from us, we are sad and depressed, but it usually for the best.
This week I began looking at the poison people in my life. If you are one of those people hanging on, watching, not adding anything to my life, your days in my life are numbered. If I have asked you for something and you have ignored me, your days in my life are numbered.
As long as we live in peace, you don’t have to like me. Today’s bible verse confirmed it “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24. Some of the folk who are struggling are trying to keep those many companions and wondering why their lives are in ruin. Focus on the one who will stick closer than a brother. Stop worrying about your haters and think on the one who loves you.
One of my morning readings is The Secret of the Vine by Bruce Wilkerson. God is constantly pruning vines in your life to see that you continue to be fruitful. Stop second guessing God’s decisions. If He has ushered some people out of your life, let them go.
Stop allowing people to drain you and not put anything back. When God cuts them off. Let them stay cut off. Test every person in your life for what they are adding. Even God gets rid of branches that don’t produce anything good.
I am not going back to the way I used to be. I am not going to let people poison me by not valuing the vessel God is molding. I am going to trust the God who leads me. He knows what I need.
God is creating something beautiful and I am going to value it.
One of the things I love about my life is Netflix. I get to watch episodes of entire series consecutively. I get a good sense of what the production was about and what they are saying. I am very fond of European television series because it gives me insight into how people in other parts of the world think, see themselves and view the world.
The sad thing is that some people don’t think that television reflect the society it caters to. I believe it does. The shows that are at the top of the ratings ladder speak to our values as a society. Some times I cringe at what the rest of the world thinks of us North Americans. But we are what we are.
I am currently into the British series, Inspector George Gently, which is set in the 1960s in Northern England dealing with crime. Yet it spends a fair amount of time dealing with 1960s society and its norms. But I think what the story does well is deal with the culture. It shows the old guard and the new guard. Of course it has the gift of history. As I watch it, I think this was the culture I was born into, this tug of war between good and better. Not so much the English part, but this changing of the guard.
An Ah ha moment came to me as I watched a scene where the two war veterans (WWII) looked at the young hippie protesters and then at each other. One asked “Was the sacrifice worth it?”
They were asking if the sacrifice of fighting a war so they could continue to live free was worth the cost of having to listen to the young people disrespect everything they fought for. After all, they could only protest freely because the Allies won the war. (right) The young people shouting out disrespectful words didn’t understand they were standing on the shoulders of people who died to give them the right. I was born during a time when people hated each other. They segregated themselves from each other to continue to facilitate that hate.
50 years later, here we are again. We tell our younger generation that they do not appreciate what was sacrificed to give them the rights they have today. They stand on the shoulders of dead civil rights workers and disrespect the process. They do not understand.
It gives me a giggle to think that we are repeating a cycle that happened when I was born.
The problem is that we did not teach the next generation from when they were babies, that it is a right that someone died for so that you can go to school and receive an education for free, you can own property and not BE property. We have depended on someone else to teach the next generation our family and ethnic heritage and those folks have not done a good job.
As Joel Barker said, when a paradigm shifts, we all go back to 0. Some people just don’t realize they are at 0. As I was watching this TV series, it reminded me we are back at 0. Racism is getting worse. Violence is getting worse. Hatred is like a coke commercial. You see it everywhere.
Our history is going to be the thing that saves us. We will have to remember the love that overcomes this type of hate. We will have to remember what it looks like, what it acts like. It wasn’t Malcolm’s militancy, it was Martin’s love. Love overcomes all kinds of hate.
In the Bible God told Israel to teach their children all of the things He had done for them. He wanted them to know the stories. He wanted the children to know the type of obstacles their people had overcome through His mighty power. The stories showed His faithfulness and His love.
If you retrace our history, you will see the lives of men and women who sacrificed for the good of others. I thank all the men and women who have gone to war to preserve our freedom. It is one of the greatest gifts on this planet. I want to live a life worthy of their sacrifice. Not just the white ones, or the black ones or the brown ones. All of them. They gave up something they cannot get back.
This year my wall calendar has been Nelson Mandela. All year I have been reminded that 27 years in prison shaped his life. When he got out, he could have done anything he wanted. He served his people.
God calls us use whatever gift we have received to serve others. (1 Peter 4:10) He says it won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. Every time you turn on the TV to watch, let it remind you of our culture. Once you are reminded of it, go and do your part to change it. We need to wake up before it gets too late.
Over the past weeks I have had the privilege of photographing couples. I have met young couples and old couples. Some married a few years, while others have been together for decades. Some with children, many without. Their children were grown and gone.
I learned a lot about the condition of their couplehood by the way they looked at each other. While many would have us believe that marriage is something that is on the way out, I have seen something that disagrees with that stance. When people get an idea of what it is really all about, they will embrace the idea.
As a professional photographer, I meet a lot of people. I can snap hundreds of shots in a day. Many people put on their “taking a picture” mask. It is my goal to crack that mask and get to the real person underneath. Some days I am successful, some days not. While trying to crack the mask on folks, I learned something with couples.
After having couples do a few tradition poses for their portraits, I ask them to look at each other. This moment tells me what these two people think about each other. They can hide everything from me and the camera, but when they look into the eyes of their love, truth comes forth. In most cases this is where the giggling starts. He giggles. She giggles. We all laugh. The photo shoot is pretty fun after that.
Now there were some couples who looked at each other and nothing happened. (I am single so it did take a few times for it to register that there was something going on in that marriage.) I just smiled and moved on. I felt sorry for them because they were missing out on what the others had.
The only thing better than taking the photo was watching the couples look at the photos of themselves. I remember one woman repeated over and over “Look at me and (his name).” The sight of their love for each other surprised her. She was overwhelmed by the sight of it.
I don’t get tired of men telling their wives they are beautiful. I do get tired of women blowing it off. I watched a man badger his wife because he thought she was beautiful, but she didn’t value his opinion. Yet, I love watching the love stories play out.
The Lord has allowed me to see all types of stories played out. I have watched a curmudgeon turn to jelly at a glance from his sweetheart and a wife who was ill, reach up and kiss her husband out of love. They all had their role to play in the relationship. The ones that were most secure where the ones that knew what role they played in the relationship.
Moments like these make me wait with anticipation for the man God has for me. I want to giggle at the sight of the man who loves me.
For the first time in my life, I dog sat. This year, I am really stepping out of my comfort zone. I am not a pet person, so I was quite amused by pet behavior. It was new to me and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. The dogs were charming, irritating and funny.
I realized I am not cut out to be a pet person. Pets have too many characteristics of people but none of the reasoning capacity. They were much smarter than I imagined. They opened doors, threw fits and read me like a book.
I got amused watching the dogs interact with each other. Loulah, a Cathoula/Shepherd mix would tease the chihuahua, Roscoe, who was tied down with just a limited area he could roam through. The chihuahua was the newest to the mix and had not adopted all of the house rules, so he had to be limited. Loulah is a sweetie, but she has her moments.
Loulah would get the squeaky squirrel dog toy and take it to Roscoe. She would walk around him, like musical chairs, while he chewed on it and made it squeak. And just when he was comfortable, she would snatch it and run out of his range. She would take it to another room, them after a few seconds would skip back into the room with it, but careful to stay out of Roscoe’s range.
I got a kick out of watching. Roscoe fell for it every time. Loulah definitely enjoyed it.
That is what Satan does to us. He tempts us with something we think we want. We get to chewing on it and comfortable with it, then he snatches it from us and takes it out of our range. When we are good and dumbfounded by it, he skips back in with it between his teeth taunting us with it.
Needless to say, I am not amused when I am tricked by Satan in that way. Unlike, Roscoe, I have God’s word to guide me. Last month’s verse was Psalm 19.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul,
The statues of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
If Satan is taunting or tempting you, there is a place you can go so that you don’t keep falling for it over and over again.
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