When my grandchildren, Sarah and Tucker, were about 5 and 7 years old, they visited us with their parents. We hadn't seen them in awhile. Our house was unfamiliar to them as we had moved recently. I noticed their interactions with their parents and was very touched. Whenever they would do anything--something for which they sought approval or something they thought might elicit correction--they would look up from what they were doing and without even speaking would search out their parents' faces for approval or direction. It was a sweet connection of complete trust and a desire to please everytime they sought eye contact with their mom or dad.
It occurred to me that this is the kind of connection God is hoping for with us when he asks us to seek his face.
Psalm 105:4
Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Contentment
So many things war against our contentment. Why do we so easily focus on what we do not have instead of focussing on what we do have? Certainly our own natures notice and, sometimes, keep account of perceived deficiencies in our lives. Perhaps, greater than that is the culture in which we live, and the comparisons we make with those who have what we wish we had. The sins of envy and covetousness surely play a role here.
Paul's remarkable statement of contentment while in terrible prison conditions (and unjustly incarcerated, too) is both an inspiration and a challenge: "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." (Philippians 4:11).
I was compelled to ponder again the idea of contentment while in South Africa last year where I met a man from Malawi. Malawi is the 4th poorest nation in the world. The man was asked: "What is it like to live in poverty?" His reply: "We didnt know we were poor until the UN came in and told us we were impoverished."
Who has the enviable life: the one with the simple, peaceful life with little or the hectic, stressful life with much?
Paul's remarkable statement of contentment while in terrible prison conditions (and unjustly incarcerated, too) is both an inspiration and a challenge: "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." (Philippians 4:11).
I was compelled to ponder again the idea of contentment while in South Africa last year where I met a man from Malawi. Malawi is the 4th poorest nation in the world. The man was asked: "What is it like to live in poverty?" His reply: "We didnt know we were poor until the UN came in and told us we were impoverished."
Who has the enviable life: the one with the simple, peaceful life with little or the hectic, stressful life with much?
Monday, April 2, 2012
Nevertheless
I Chronicles 11:4, 5
"David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem....The Jebusites who lived there said to David, 'You will not get in here.' Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David."
How much we need a nevertheless kind of faith! Naysayers will abound in life. We live in a negative-thinking world. So many of our dreams of ways to serve God can meet with scepticism. Even our own hearts can sabotage our best intentions. But we will fail to see miracles in our lives if we heed every caution that wars against our faith.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had a nevertheless kind of faith: "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king, but even [nevertheless] if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17, 18)
To be honest, this kind of faith is not always my default when I am faced with a challenging situation. I am often likely to weigh the odds against me before I decide whether to proceed or conceed. In sharing my faith, I can judge whether someone has too many walls up to be open. Sometimes when I have a particularly difficult conversation to initiate, I decide in advance that it won't do any good and battle with whether to go ahead anyway. Acknowledging obstacles is not the enemy of faith, giving in to them is. God is always bigger than any obstacle and the only valid quetion to ask ourselves is, "Is it within the will of God?" not "Will it turn out the way I want it to?"
"In my alarm I said, 'I am cut off from your sight!' Yet ( KJV says, 'nevertheless' instead of 'yet)' you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help." (Psalm 31:22)
"David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem....The Jebusites who lived there said to David, 'You will not get in here.' Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David."
How much we need a nevertheless kind of faith! Naysayers will abound in life. We live in a negative-thinking world. So many of our dreams of ways to serve God can meet with scepticism. Even our own hearts can sabotage our best intentions. But we will fail to see miracles in our lives if we heed every caution that wars against our faith.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had a nevertheless kind of faith: "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king, but even [nevertheless] if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17, 18)
To be honest, this kind of faith is not always my default when I am faced with a challenging situation. I am often likely to weigh the odds against me before I decide whether to proceed or conceed. In sharing my faith, I can judge whether someone has too many walls up to be open. Sometimes when I have a particularly difficult conversation to initiate, I decide in advance that it won't do any good and battle with whether to go ahead anyway. Acknowledging obstacles is not the enemy of faith, giving in to them is. God is always bigger than any obstacle and the only valid quetion to ask ourselves is, "Is it within the will of God?" not "Will it turn out the way I want it to?"
"In my alarm I said, 'I am cut off from your sight!' Yet ( KJV says, 'nevertheless' instead of 'yet)' you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help." (Psalm 31:22)
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