Faith Reflections

Walking in the Clouds

Diann and I are enjoying time with our daughter Julie and her family, who live in Mexico.   Their home is Refuge Ranch, located on a mountain at about 7,000 feet altitude.  It’s supposed to be the dry season, but we’ve had several days of nearly non-stop rain.  What is really strange is that it has been with very thick fog and wind.  That’s right, fog with wind!  My experience has always been that with fog the air is generally still, but not here!  We are sometimes at cloud level and so we were these past several days, with the clouds blowing past us, right where we were!

When it wasn’t acutally raining I took a walk on the horse trails behind Refuge Ranch, in the thick, blowing fog.  I was walking in the clouds!

Not only was there the rain, fog, and wind but 40 hours of this time was spent without electricity!  It was cold, dark, and wet.  It was an effort to keep our spirits up!

But then, starting yesterday, the sun came up just to the right of Popo the volcano and it was clear and warm the last two days.  We got through our time in the clouds! 

Most of life is a mixed bag.  I sense many envy the fact that we can spend time with family that lives on a mountain side in Mexico.  Yes, it’s great, some of the time.  You have to get used to the altitude, the air’s a lot thinner.  Then there’s the effort of flying to a foreign country, going through customs and immigration.  It’s not exactly like going on a cruise or a pre-packaged trip.  No, it’s not for the faint of heart!

But that’s how life is in general, isn’t it?  It’s a mixed bag.  Things don’t always go the way we want.  You have to take the bad with the good.  But in the long run, especially when you have a faith in God, you’re glad you didn’t let yourself become faint of heart!  The fog eventually gives way to sun!

“Just Trust Me”

Just yesterday I visited elderly person adjusting to life in a nursing home ask me, “Why?”  She wants to know why she ended up there.  Of course, I didn’t have an answer, at least not one she would want to here (that she’s getting old and can’t live on her own, for instance).

It’s human nature to want to know why things happen the way they do.  If a person doesn’t believe in God then the question’s not asked because there’s no ultimate meaning as to why things happen, they just happen.  But if you believe in God — a God who is all powerful, all wise, and all loving — then there’s times we’d like to know why He allows things to happen the way they do.

I like what the proverb writer said.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Sometimes we have to tell a small child “Just trust me” when it’s too hard to explain why you’ve got to wake them up at 5 am to go to Grandma’s house or why the mean man in the white coat is poking with a sharp, painful needle.  God has the big picture in mind that we are incapable of grasping.  This is where trust comes in.  The way through life tends to go better (“straight paths” is how the proverbial writer puts it) when we don’t spend so much time and effort questioning God but trusting Him.

The Gift of a Question

One of the ways to get the most out of today is to go about handing out the gift of a good question to the people we meet. Questions can make wonderful gifts for at least a couple of reasons.

First, our questions show the person we’re interested in them or concerned about them. “How did the doctor’s appointment go? “Is today going better for you than yesterday?” “How did your weekend go?” “You look a little down today. Anything bothering you?” Everyone wants to feel important, that they are of value, and questions do that.

Second, our questions can help them better understand what their grappling with or even help them have a better understanding of themselves. “So, what do you think you might do next?” “If you had to prioritize the options you just listed, which would be number one?” It’s called the Socratic Method, the process of asking probing questions by which we help a person uncover some truth or insight that has been there all the time but that they haven’t been able to see until we started asking questions.

Jesus often asked questions. For instance, He asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

Not all questions are created equal. Just as people can give a dumb gift, an inappropriate gift, or too personal a gift; we can ask dumb, inappropriate or too personal a question. Questions, like other gifts, must be chosen carefully.

The human tendency is to want to talk more than listen. The Lord gave us one mouth and two ears — perhaps He’s suggesting we do twice as much listening as talking! Asking questions is one of the best ways to better keep that balance.

There’s numerous benefits for us when we give the gift of a question. We tend to learn more when we listen than when we talk. People will also want to be around us because being asked questions is an invitation to talk, and most everyone likes to talk.

Questions make great gifts, and they cost us so little to give, just a little time and attention to whom we give the gift. The opportunities to give the gift of a question abound. Let’s watch for a potential recipient!

Waiting for Spring

The accompanying photo is one I took while on Christmas vacation in my home state of Iowa.  I was driving the back roads of Iowa when I came upon this birdhouse on a field fence.  I waded through the snow in the ditch and photographed it because it reminded me how we wait for spring.  I’ve added it to my collection on www.iStockphoto.com (click on this link to go to where I sell my pictures).

The parents who used this birdhouse last year and will likely come back this year are probably “snowbirds” and have migrated to a warmer climate.  Or perhaps they’re in the area, but just trying to get through winter until it’s time to start a new nest for a new family.

The snow covered birdhouse is empty and waiting to be used again.  I’m waiting for spring too!  Waiting seems to be part of life, and not just waiting for nicer weather.  I guess the subject’s fresh on my mind because I’m working on my weekend message for the worship services, and it’s all about accepting God’s pacing for our lives.  As one great Christian pastor and hymn writer put it, “The problem is that I’m in a hurry and God’s not.”

I really want to live at God’s pacing for my life, even though I often find it frustrating.  After all, it wouldn’t be smart to try to ignore His pacing!

But I also don’t want to waste the time God has me waiting. That bird couple who will inhabit the birdhouse this spring are somewhere doing something while they wait, probably singing! I too want to wait well!

Grounded in the Ordinary

I saw part of an interview last evening that Diane Sawyer did with President Obama.  He talked of spending about an hour shooting hoops with his daughter Sasha, showing her how to improve her basketball game.  He said it was “therapeutic” and that it helped keep him grounded.

Gandhi, the spiritual leader and social crusader of India, was often working at a spinning wheel.  Among other reasons I’ve heard that he said it helped keep him grounded.

I’m always amazed at how many famous and wealthy movie stars will buy a vineyard, buy a restaurant, or invent their own salad dressing.  Apparently the rarefied atmosphere of fame and fortune isn’t enough, or maybe too much, that those who’ve made it to the “top” find the need to come down from the mountain and enjoy the valley of the ordinary along with the rest of us.

Monday, after an active weekend of speaking at our three services, I used my day off to haul wood I had previously cut from the woods to the woodpile, cleaned off my workbench in the garage and repaired my chainsaw.  Though I have to admit I had not looked forward to those tasks, I found them to be therapeutic.

As we face the ordinariness of life perhaps we should take a second look. Ordinary can be good, very good! I remind myself that Jesus Himself spent only 10% of His life on earth in active ministry as an itinerant preacher (about 3 years out of about 30). The rest he spent growing up and working as a carpenter. We can, if we choose, determine to find the ordinariness of our day to be outstanding, to see the holy in the ho hum.

Cold Reception

I staged the accompanying picture to communicate a point.  It wasn’t all fun doing so, either.  It was really cold on this particular winter day in Iowa.  I hurried outside, wiped the snow off the bench, sat down, and posed.  I told my photographer, my wife Diann, to hurry up and take the picture!  I think we got this acceptable shot on the third try!

I’m trying to explain to the guy on the bench the truth that can be found in the Bible.  I’m not trying to give him a snow job, mind you!  I just want him to understand what’s the message of this book.  He’s smiling but, in reality, is giving me a cold reception.  I wish the message I’m communicating would melt his heart!  Ok, enough with the puns.  I just couldn’t help myself!

I happen to think there’s nothing more important in all of existence than God.  Logic compels me to believe that, because He’s all encompassing, pervasive throughout all of existence, that my whole life should be arranged around Him, and that this is the best way for anyone and everyone to live.

Of course, I can’t force this perspective, what I firmly believe to be ultimate truth, on anyone (and I wouldn’t want to force it on them even if I could).  Still, this does not prevent me but actually compels me to what to lovingly try and convince others that life should be lived for God.  If I really care about them, and really believe God to be God, then I’m going to want this best of all worlds for them, an intimate, obedient relationship to Him.

This is the main reason I write a blog.  You really don’t need to know how I slept last night or what I ate for breakfast.  I do believe, however, it’s important for me to communicate that there’s nothing more important than being in relationship with THE ONE.  Thanks for listening, for not giving me a cold reception

Picket Fence Perspective

It must have made the angels laugh, and it was at my expense. It was years ago when I was an Iowa farm boy doing my chores. Carrying out my daily task to water the livestock on the other side of the approximately five foot tall wooden picket fence, I decided to heft the five gallon pail of water up by the handle and attempt to put it over the fence. The base of the pail caught on the top of the fence. Realizing I wasn’t going to get it over, I pulled the pail back toward me. The bottom lip of the pail caught on the fence, tipped toward me, pouring its contents down the front of me.

No one had seen the incident, but my imagination allowed me to view it from other than my own perspective. I found it funny, and laughed. I suspect any angelic being assigned to me, or any in the vicinity of the farmyard, must have had a good laugh as well. We can take ourselves too seriously, and in the process miss the nearest opportunity for comedic relief!

By taking ourselves too seriously we also set ourselves up for taking on more of the burdens of the world than God assigns us. We are responsible for some things but not all things. It doesn’t all depend on us.

By taking ourselves too seriously we also open ourselves up to unnecessary hurt from others or anger toward them. We may be the victim of their nastiness but we shouldn’t be taking it completely personal. There are undoubtedly other factors at play in their lives. Our worlds may have collided with negative results, but their world includes more than us and it’s very likely the rest of their world has not gone well either.

Karl Barth was a great, world-renowned theologian of Switzerland. One day, in his home city of Basil, he met a stranger. He said to the man, “You are a visitor, yes? And what do you want to see in our city?”

The man replied, “Karl Barth. Do you know him?”

“Oh, yes,” said Barth, “I shave him every morning.”

Eugene Peterson, who tells this story, states, “The man went away satisfied, telling his friends that he had met Barth’s barber.” Peterson writes of Barth that “he never took himself seriously and always took God seriously and therefore was full of cheerfulness, exuberant with blessing.” (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p. 190)

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3) Good advice! We can take too seriously the person we see in the mirror. Life goes better when we don’t!

The Right Tool

Yesterday I did a couple of minor home improvement projects.  I put a piece of trim back on our computer desk and replaced one of those little roller wheels that run in a track to make the garage door work.  In both cases I needed the right tool.  Amazingly, I had it.

I often tell Diann I can’t do a project, or do it well, because I don’t have the right tool.  Sometimes she believes me, sometimes not.  It’s really true, though.  The right tool makes all the difference.

Sometimes people don’t have just  the right tool to do a job so they make their own tool.  The pioneers of this country were good at this.  I’m impressed — making your own tool to do a job you need to do!

I came across a familiar verse from the pen of the apostle Paul this morning.  He wrote, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

It reminds me once again that this is an incomplete world.  God wants to use us as His tool to get some of His work done.  He’s made each of us to be a unique tool of His to do the specialized job He’s had in mind for us to do before day one.  I want to remember this today, that I’m to be a tool in God’s hand.

I can picture in a cartoon (the kind I used to watch as a kid) a hammer running away from the carpenter, saying, “I don’t want to hammer nails today,” or a spatula hiding in the kitchen utensil drawer whispering, “I hope I won’t be found, I don’t feel like getting covered with yukky stuff today.”  Bottom line — I don’t want to do that to God.

Joy in His Creation

The dew drops sparkle on the grass, the morning light reflects an orange glow on the landscape, the birds must think they’re awakening the dawn, the way they sing. I love the morning in God’s creation. In fact, I find joy in His creation anytime of the day or night.

You don’t have to be an outdoors woodsman-type person to experience the joy of what God’s created. Looking out a window or glancing around as you go between house and car can give enough of a glimpse of creation to bring joy into the day.

I’ve been thinking about why God’s creation can bring joy to a person, especially to a person who takes God seriously. Imagine you’re admiring a piece of art (a painting, piece of woodworking, a quilt, whatever). You say to your friend standing by you, “That’s wonderfully made.” First of all, you appreciate it because you know someone had to make it. It didn’t just fall together by some amazing accident. Then your friend says, “I made it.” You appreciate it even more because you know the person who made it, you have a close relationship with that person. Then your friend says, “It’s yours. I made it for you. Enjoy!” Now your joy reaches an even higher level. You enjoy it at a new level because your friend made it for you!

I feel sad for a scientist who doesn’t believe in an intelligent designer of what he studies. Though he can wax eloquent about the deep sea creature or the exploding super nova he has no one to thank for it!

We humans are the grandest part of God’s creation, having been created in His own image. All of creation is for our pleasure and intended to point us to Him. God, in essence, says to us concerning His creation, “Enjoy!”

The psalmist declared, “I sing for joy at the works of your hands.” (Psalm 92:4)

The Little Foxes of Each Day

I recently overheard someone in a coffee shop ranting and raving over something a stranger had said or done. He had not been personally hurt by the encounter in any way, shape or form and yet it obviously was ruining his day.

At first I found myself being judgmental of the person’s response until I had to admit to myself that I too often let little things ruin my day. Sometimes when bigger problems arise I brace myself, focus, and tell myself, “Ok, so I’m going to try and deal with this in a good way.” But it’s the little events, the little annoyances, that trip me up.

Have you ever noticed how people rarely stumble over a regular-sized step that takes them into a building but countless is the number who trip over a raised crack in the sidewalk in front of the building? I guess that’s why we don’t spray orange paint on steps but we do on raised cracks!

“Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (Song of Solomon 2:15) A big bull thrashing about the grapevines would draw immediate attention and action by a vineyard keeper but he might easily miss the foxes’ den that ruins the roots and the play of the young foxes that damage the branches and grapes. We should be watching for the little foxes in our days, the sly foxes of small negative events which, when we let them run wild, ruin our days.

God has bigger plans for us than having us be tripped up by the small aggravations of life. Let’s take the little bumps on the road of life in stride!