A Matter of Perspective

“The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!”—Henry Ward Beecher

Friday morning was beautiful despite a sky blanketed in sooty gray clouds. What made it beautiful, for me, was my perspective.

My morning started with a routine visit to the doctor’s office, and while my doctor is delightful, going to see her twice a year is not at the top of my list of favorite activities. En route to see her, though, I pondered how much God has improved my health since Jan. 2012 and I began to worship Him. I sang hymns and praise songs throughout the half-hour drive and was bubbling over with joy by the time I arrived for my appointment. Thankfully, I received a good report and remarkably, in less than an hour, I was headed home.

As I drove, I glanced up at the gray sky again and behind the clouds I could see glimpses of a clear blue autumn sky and an occasional sunbeam. All the way home I smiled with gratitude for  the many blessings God had given me, not just that day, but time and time again.

Psalm 92:1-3: “It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.”

The Dead Come to Life

“Only with You, the dead come to life.” –Jonathan Thulin

Zombies are taking over! They’re everywhere these days. Commercials, movies, video games. The word zombie, which is often translated as “walking dead,” supposedly comes from voodoo and indicates a corpse that has been brought back to life by an evil supernatural power. It’s the opposite of the Old Testament story in which God calls Ezekiel to prophesy to a valley of dry bones. (Ezekiel 37: 1-14)

After the Spirit leads Ezekiel to the valley, the Lord asks him: “Son of Man, can these bones live?” In great faith, Ezekiel replies in acknowledgement of God’s unparalleled authority and unlimited power: “Sovereign Lord, You alone know.”  Ezekiel obeys God and as he speaks to the skeletons, he watches muscle and skin cover the bones. Then breath fills them and they come to life. These skeletons represent the nation of Israel but Paul tells us we were all once part of the “living dead.”

“But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5) By this definition, there are still millions of walking dead among us. But thankfully, there’s a good God just waiting to bring them back to life.

From East to West

Several weeks ago as I traveled to work, a giant luminous full moon shone ahead of me in the western sky. Behind me I glimpsed the eastern sky which glowed with incandescent rose and heather-colored clouds as a pale sun peeked up from the horizon. I pondered how I was bookended by two points of the compass, the same two points the psalmist uses in Psalm 103:12: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.”

In theory, east and west will always be separate; you cannot travel so far west that you are traveling east or vice-versa. So the psalmist is explaining that God in His mercy has taken our sins and their penalties so far away from us that we can never run into them again. In verse 11, the psalmist tells us it is God’s inexhaustible love which motivates this action: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.”

When we revere God, truly worship Him, and accept His atoning sacrifice, He rewards us with a love so full of mercy, grace, and compassion that we can hardly fathom it. The next time you feel the weight of sins you’ve already confessed and repented of, remember these verses from the Psalms as well as the words of the prophet Isaiah: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.” (Isaiah 43:25)

Time for a Time Out

Lately, I’ve been a little cranky and last Sunday I discovered the reason. I haven’t been “keeping the Sabbath.” While the phrase sounds antiquated and may bring up images of sour-faced, black-clad Puritans, the concept is both timeless and timely. Here’s how I got off track: I simply neglected to set aside Sunday as a day of rest.  I became overwhelmed with too many projects and a seeming lack of time and found myself working on Sundays.

Now I am not a Pharisee who refuses to cook or clean on Sunday though I do try to reserve the other days of the week for the heaviest chores as well as errands. But I try to frame Sunday as a day only for church, family and friends. So including work on my Sabbath roster led to a shift in priorities for the day.

After facing the facts, I have decided I need to rearrange my schedule and reclaim my Sabbath. Like an out-of-sorts toddler, I have placed myself in time-out. While many folks use Sunday as just another day of the week, God set it aside as a special time for us to regenerate and to worship. My new game plan is to try to take time out each Sunday to redeem my day of rest and all the benefits it provides.

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath

    and from doing as you please on my holy day,

if you call the Sabbath a delight

    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,

and if you honor it by not going your own way

    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,

then you will find your joy in the Lord…”  (Isaiah 58:13-14)

Who is the I AM?

When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, God heard their cries and called Moses to become their deliverer. He told Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand he set God’s people free. Moses responded by asking what name he should give the Israelites when they asked what was the name of the God of their fathers.  “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’  This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”  (Exodus 3:14)

Thirty chapters later, Moses tells God: “Now show me Your glory.” It is actually a fairly brazen request that sounds more like a demand; yet it is issued in response to God telling Moses He is well pleased with him. God shows him even greater favor when Moses asks to see His glory for what he is really wanting is to know more of God’s heart and His character. God tells Moses he cannot see His face but that He will hide him and pass in front of him. In the next chapter, He passed in front of Moses and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”(Exodus 34: 6-7)

I have experienced all of this truth God proclaimed of Himself to Moses. When I act like a spoiled child, He patiently tolerates it for a while before He chastises me. I have seen His grace in the way He allows events to unfold in my life and the lives of others and in the beautiful friendships with which He blesses me. I have felt His compassion when I think I cannot endure one more broken heart. His all-encompassing love simply overwhelms me like a tidal wave. And His faithfulness? My life is a testimony to the faithfulness of God who will not let one of His good promises fail. My prayer is that those who do not yet know the true I AM will one day soon experience all of His fullness. 

Choose Life

Deuteronomy 30:19-20: “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life…”

Last Monday in the English composition class I teach, we discussed assisted suicide and euthanasia. Then I saw a tv program about the same topics where an organization was criminally indicted for helping people end their lives. Sadly, they won the case. I can’t comprehend why people in our nation can define hate speech yet they have trouble determining whether someone helped a person commit suicide. And even worse, people won’t weigh in and say such actions are evil.

They point to palliative care and claim it is the same measure. I assure you, it is not. You see, I helped my mother die too. But let me tell you how. I sat on her bed and sang hymns to her. I held a straw to her mouth so she could sip water and juice. I spoon-fed her rainbow sherbet when she could barely swallow.  I held her hand as I listened to her and laughed with her and cried with her. I did not in any way try to help her “exit” this world according to her schedule. Thanks be to God, she would’ve never wanted that.  We  understood God alone is sovereign and He alone gets to determine the length of our days.  Lest you think what about those who kill themselves? There are hundreds of stories where a person turns from suicide at the last minute. With these evil people who “help” them, they have no choice but to die.

God gives us a choice daily and He tells us which choice to make. The Life-Giver will always tell us to choose life. It is the enemy who has come to steal, kill and destroy. There is only one time in history where God condoned choosing death: when His Son who knew no sin willingly laid His life down so that we might have eternal life with Him. My prayer is that people who are so desperate to die, will turn instead to the only One who can truly give them life.

Swimming Lessons

A couple of summers ago I taught myself to tread water for a fair amount of time. It was a huge feat since I nearly drowned at age three and never took swimming lessons. So this summer, I decided to try to improve my pool-flailing (that’s probably the only way to describe my version of swimming). Having spent hours in the pool, I can navigate from one end to the other without gulping mouthfuls of water. But let’s face it, it’s hard to teach yourself something when you have little knowledge to go on and no proper example.

Like me, Mom didn’t grow up swimming nor did she ever take any lessons. But when I was in high school, she began going to a community college pool with my grandmother. She would play around in the shallow end but she never ventured to the deep. Then one day, a complete stranger, an older gentleman who was probably in his 70s, offered to teach Mom to swim. She was very hesitant and told him she was afraid of drowning. He replied, “Oh darlin’, that water will hold you up.” I guess he had an honest face because mom acceded and in no time he had her swimming laps the length of the Olympic-sized pool.

It is amazing how his simple offer and genuine concern affected Mom’s life. Recalling that story was a good reminder how often the smallest gifts we give can make a huge difference in someone’s life. And that the most important gift we give is ourselves and our time.

Galatians 6:10: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”