Waiting on God

BOOKS, LIVE IT!

I bumped into a tired old paperback on a neglected couch-side shelf this week.  Its yellowing pages and faded cover picture a man kneeling at a stool, head in hands.  Its title is Waiting on God, by Andrew Murray.  Flipping it open I scanned a few lines and realized this was the book I needed though it wasn’t the one I had actually been looking for.

It is not merely a book on prayer but on its correlative: waiting.  I appreciate Murray’s distinguishing the two.  He says “there may be much praying with but very little waiting on God. In praying we are often occupied with ourselves, with our own needs, and our own efforts in the presentation of them.  [Yes! This is precisely my experience!; something’s missing] He goes on: In waiting upon God, the first thought is of the God upon whom we wait…”

Have you ever noticed how God inexplicably supplies just what you need when you need it? It was no ‘fluke’ that I happened upon this old book I had yet to read.  I couldn’t even remember at first where I had come by it.  But  I have been frustrated with my ‘prayer life’ for a long time.  It has been an ongoing plea: ‘Lord, teach me to pray.’  I see the need; there’s no want of opportunity to intercede!  And since communication is a backbone of relationship, obviously prayer  is basic to a  believer’s life. Why then the disparity between what I know to be true and the way I pray?

Could it be I have not learned the value of waiting on God?  Seems everywhere I turn of late I find a lesson on waiting.  I read  King Saul’s story this week—you remember the incident where his impetuousness lost him the kingdom?  His enemies were gathering on his borders in formidable numbers—“like the sand on the seashore”.  His own troops numbered mere hundreds and had neither sword nor spear to face 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops! (I Sam.13) Desperately Saul waited for Samuel to come and officiate at the burnt offerings and peace offerings.  He needed God on his side!  Unfortunately he had the wrong idea about God.  He viewed the sacrificial system as a sort of good-luck charm—a means of gaining God’s favor and guaranteeing victory.  Do I sometimes view prayer this way?

And when Samuel didn’t show up punctually, Saul panicked and took charge of offering the sacrifice himself in clear violation of God’s standards. His desperation revealed a heart out of sync with God’s heart.

Did he think all depended on him to do something?

Did he not realize that ‘the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake’.  (I Sam.12:22)  His calling was to ‘fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all [his] heart’ (I Sam.12:24) but fear of his enemies outranked his fear of God. So he failed to wait to see how God would choose to act. His kingship was revoked.

When we face impossible situations and impending crises our hearts’ devotion becomes transparent.  Have you been there? I have.  Panic!   Unless we have learned to wait for God, and in these times to know His heart, we will be unprepared in crisis to trust Him and fear Him only…We will be tempted to run ahead and do something, anything! to save ourselves (or whoever needs saving!).

In panic we will tend to use prayer like a magic bullet—devoid of faith, driven by fear, offering words, demands, desperate pleas, but not trust.  Meanwhile God’s spirit whispers: “In quietness and in trust shall be your strength…” Is.30:15  And He waits to be gracious to us…He waits for us to wait for Him. Is.30:18

I’ve been struck lately by Jesus’ words:  Without me you can do nothing.  Nothing.  What is the use of worry, of scurry, of meticulous ordering of my days—all belying my supposed dependence on Him.  Unless I’m actively depending on Christ, abiding in Him, waiting on His direction I accomplish NOTHING.  It may look like a something but He says it is nothing.

The stuff of waiting revolves around two deep convictions:

1) a deep sense of personal helplessness to accomplish anything of eternal value

2) a perfect confidence that God is willing and able to do beyond all that I could ask or even think! (Murray, p.20-21)

Without these I will be good at ‘busy’ but not so great at ‘wait’.  Busy implies significance, being needed, being ‘somebody’.  It’s a classic way of conforming to the world.

Waiting implies dependence, being in need, and being ‘nothing without Him’.  It demonstrates I am not in control but He is.

I think that as we age this becomes more evident.  Our bodies no longer do our bidding as they once did.  We begin to need aids:  seeing aids, hearing aids, walking aids, sleeping aids… As the outer man fades the inner man is given opportunity to grow strong, to deepen its dependence on the God who has sustained us all along.  Before I lose all my faculties I would like to learn to wait on God.

As I began to read Andrew Murray’s book I came upon a card marking someone’s place.   It bore my Dad’s handwriting, as he struggled to untangle the spelling of a familiar word…he was likely in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s when he read this book.  (Yes, that’s where I’d gotten it. I’d tucked it in my suitcase on my last visit–a sampling from Dad’s bookcase.)  The card he used as a bookmark and ruler for underlining was an ad for woodworking patterns—for a tractor and a model T,  for a familiar looking loader and a dump truck.  Dad made these things.  Now he lives in a care home, incapacitated and unable to communicate, waiting on God to issue his call home. He can do little else.

Dare I?

–LS

“From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a god besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” Is.64:4

[the verse by my kitchen sink]:
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly…but I, by your great love, can come into your house, in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple.” Ps.5:3,7

[my bookmark]:
“My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him.  He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved.  In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God.”  Ps.62:5-7

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If you have a few minutes more, consider this profound foreword to Andrew Murray’s book, Waiting on God:

Wait Thou Only Upon God

“Wait only upon God”; my soul, be still,
And let thy God unfold His perfect will,
Thou fain would’st follow Him throughout this year,
Thou fain with listening heart his voice would’st hear,
Thou fain would’st be a passive instrument
Possessed by God, and ever Spirit-sent
Upon His service sweet—then be thou still,
For only thus can He in thee fulfill
His heart’s desire. Oh, hinder not His hand
From fashioning the vessel He hath planned.
“Be silent unto God,” and thou shalt know
The quiet, holy calm He doth bestow
On those who wait on him; so shalt thou bear
His presence, and His life and light e’en where
The night is darkest, and thine earthly days
Shall show His love, and sound His glorious praise.
And He will work with hand unfettered, free,
His high and holy purposes through thee.
First on thee must that hand of power be turned,
Till in His love’s strong fire thy dross is burned,
And thou come forth a vessel for thy Lord,
So frail and empty, yet, since He hath poured
Into thine emptiness His life, His love,
Henceforth through thee the power of God shall move
And He will work for thee. Stand still and see
The victories thy God will gain for thee;
So silent, yet so irresistible,
Thy God shall do the thing impossible.

Oh, question not henceforth what thou canst do;
Thou canst do nought. But He will carry through
The work where human energy had failed
Where all thy best endeavors had availed
Thee nothing. Then, my soul, wait and be still;
Thy God shall work for thee his perfect will.
Thou wilt take no less, His best shall be
Thy portion now and through eternity.

–Freda Hanbury

in Waiting on God by Andrew Murray

From Fisherman to Follower

LIVE IT!

P1130294Home now from Texas, reflecting on our time there (visiting Rachel and attending a conference at Capernwray’s His Hill school), collecting my thoughts…catching my breath for the “Christmas season”.

It will be a very different one this year.  The familiar tunes playing in my ear this afternoon have a melancholy pull—reminding me of Christmases past when so much of what I did to ‘get ready’ for Christmas was about the kids under my roof…This year everyone will not be coming home for the holidays.  I will need sustaining joy not bound to circumstances!

Isn’t this the Christmas story in a nutshell?

I bring you good tidings of great joy!  Unto you is born this day a Saviour— Christ the Lord—Jesus, my joy.*  The life I now live I live by faith in this One who died for me so that He could live in me… This was the theme of the conference really—Jesus, our life—who calls us to Himself so that He can be our life.

We were reminded that in Jesus we have everything needed to live the Christian life.  The call to follow Him is a call to that will ultimately transform us into His likeness as He lives out His life in us. Through the life of Peter we looked at the process by which this transformation takes place.  How did Peter get from being a mere fisherman to being a committed follower of Christ–one of those who turned the world upside down wherever he went?

The first message in the series** was taken from the calling of the first disciples in Luke 5.  We looked at six stages that characterize hearing God’s call to  transformation.

It begins with being in the place of wanting to hear it.  When the temporary satisfaction that distractions give is removed our ears are opened to hear what Jesus is saying. This is a good place to be.  The crowd was ‘pressing in on him to hear the word of God…’

Secondly, we will hear the call of God when we realize it’s about Him and not primarily about what He does for me.  “There is a profound danger of being more impressed with the activity of God than the person of Christ.”  God calls us not primarily for what we will do or what He will do through us, but in order that we might know Him.  Our calling is first and foremost to know Him.

Next, Jesus got right into Peter’s boat. If we are to be transformed by God’s call on our lives we must let him enter into our world, our very identity, all that matters most to us.  It is here that we most need Him to make Himself at home.

At this point, our own bankruptcy becomes evident:  “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!” (Lk.5:5)  We must come to the realization that without Him we can do nothing of consequence.  And we must submit ourselves to His direction, not our own best notions.

At this point in Peter’s story, he obediently lets down his nets into deep water and a net-breaking catch results.  Peter is overwhelmed by Christ’s greatness and broken before Him.  “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” is Peter’s response.  He is convicted of his own unworthiness to have Jesus in his boat.  Until we come to the point of seeing how good we are NOT, we will not know the dependence on God necessary to transformation.  Not until we take our hands off ourselves and our abilities and put all we are and have at God’s disposal will we know the transformation to which we are called.

And finally, as the boats come to land, Peter and his fishing partners, James and John, leave everything to follow Jesus.  The call of God to transformation is more than the passion of a moment of revelation.  It requires a day-by day commitment to put all we are at His disposal and follow Him wherever He leads us.  These fishermen have turned their backs on all they claimed their own.  They have become followers of Christ and are being transformed into fishers of men. They will never be the same.  They have responded to God’s call.  This is the path of great joy!

Unto us is born this day a Savior—He is Christ the Lord!  Let us be among those who leave our nets and follow this One who came to be our very life!

–LS

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. (Col. 3:3-4 KJV)

May I add this link to a whimsical, fresh and ultimately exhilarating rendition of what the angels announced.  It’s The Piano Guys latest.  Enjoy!(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n543eKIdbUI&feature=em-subs_digest)

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*And speaking of Jesus, the Joy of the world, I discovered Jerry Benjamin this morning in his excellent message entitled: “Christ is Our Joy”.   I commend  it to you no matter what your circumstances this advent season ( ;

**These notes are taken from Peter Thomas’ first message in the series: “From Fisherman to Follower”, presented at the His Hill Thanksgiving Conference, 2013 in Comfort, TX.  P1130295

Peter is the son of Ian Thomas, founder of Capernwray Missionary Fellowship of Torchbearers.  Through Bible schools and conference centers worldwide its mission is to:  “proclaim the transforming presence of Jesus Christ through Biblical teaching and practical training, equipping men and women for service in His Church worldwide.”

Its various schools worldwide (one of which is His Hill, where our daughter is attending this year!) provide practical Christian education to develop personal spiritual growth, prepare people for an effective church life, and teach a working knowledge of the Bible.

Small Starts

Jots and Tittles

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I am learning something about free time.

It is not the missing magic ingredient that will automatically free us to make all our long-held dreams and ambitions come true.

“If only I had time I would…”

Really?

What uncharted amounts of ‘free’ time do is call our bluff.

Perhaps you know how it is… When the kids are young we long for time to ourselves… just a little more time than we have. Then they get a little older and more self-sufficient but life somehow isn’t any less busy. And we wish we had time from what we are doing, to get to things that we aren’t doing—whether it be that shoebox of photos we want to put in albums, or that book we’d read if only, or maybe that book we’d write if we had half a chance! Or maybe we just want some ‘down’ time to relax and rejuvenate. We could pray more, play more or develop our artistic bents if only there were time…right?

Well, then the kids all up and move away leaving a void of space and time. Time to pursue our dreams, to do all those things we’ve waited to have time for. And surprise! It takes more than mere time to get down to them.

For me, one of those things I figured time would free me to do is writing. But it’s been comically difficult to devote swaths of time to it now that the time has arrived on my doorstep!

As a writer to writers has said: “…the greased slide to writer’s block is a huge batch of time earmarked: ‘Now write.’ “  (*Cameron,13)

This is SO true! Have you read the adorably illustrated children’s picture book: “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”? [You can have it read to you here]  Here is an exaggerated depiction of the unforeseen string of consequences that can flow from the simple offering of a cookie. For me, that cookie has been time. And if you give a would-be-writer unlimited time, beware. A host of other activities may eat it right up! Here’s what may happen:

First, she will notice it’s practically lunch time (where did the whole morning fly anyway?!) and she really shouldn’t try writing on an empty stomach… While she’s making short work of chronic leftovers she will realize how cold she is. She decides to warm up with her 3 minute weight-lifting routine, aww…why not do some lunges while you’re at it? More fun with music… Oh and look here, a whole exercise routine on You-Tube, and it’s ‘Christian’. Fun!

Well, there, that warmed things up. Oh, wait, this is actually elliptical exercise day. May as well get that out of the way now so the writing will be uninterrupted. Maybe just do a shorter workout than usual. It’ll only take 10 minutes. But the music is rousing; why cut it short? A half hour later it’s time for a shower–a quick one of course. (Are you kidding? Who takes quick showers? Water is in endless supply in our locale. What we don’t use flows out to sea. We live with the rain; long showers are a dividend.)

…OK, there. All ready to settle down and write, right?

Well, then up pops a ‘should’…she really should phone the kids and see how they’re doing. It’ll be quick. Minutes tick by. No worries. They’re free. Good phone plan. All caught up with the ‘mama’; better talk to each of the grandkids too… Finally, ‘Bye,bye’.

There.

Oh, what’s this? New email message? These smart phones are so handy. Ah, and a notification. Hmm… ought to re-schedule that get-together for a different day. Monday’s a holiday. Hmmm better do that now before I forget.

And so goes the would-be-writer’s afternoon. This is evidenced in the fading daylight coming in the study window. But maybe there’s still time to tap out a few words at the computer…Hmm…best get a snack first; all that exercise, you know. What’s something quick? How ’bout a frozen waffle with Nutella? Gotta toast it…………….then the spreading with luscious gooey chocolaty goodness…Mmm. But it’s still rather dry. Better get a glass of milk to go with it.

Now we can get started, at last. Wait. Messy fingers. And while she’s in the kitchen rinsing fingers she realizes it’s almost time to start dinner and she really should make something special from scratch, since she has all the time in the world…right?

And behold. All that vast expanse of fertile time just waiting to be turned into timeless words has vanished! What happened?

Truth is it’s a daunting thing to come face to face with opportunity to do what you’ve only dreamed of having time for. Dreams tend to preserve ideals that can’t stand the light of day. To imagine doing something, to wonder if you might be able… is quite different from pulling it off. Procrastination is just the outward symptom of a greater malady.

So, if you’re waiting for an elusive quantity of time to present itself so that you can accomplish great things hitherto only dreamed of, may I make a few suggestions based on my experience?

  • Don’t wait. Start now with any 15 minute chunk you can scavenge from some dusty corner of your busy day. Then take a tiny imperfect faltering step in the right direction. It sure beats standing still.
  • Start small. Set a measurable clear daily objective.

“A small daily task if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” –Anthony Trollope

This thought inspired me to make a 30 day grid on watercolor paper of the month of November, and into each tiny square to daily plunk a momento in watercolors. In this way I’ve broken the stalemate of wanting to begin but not knowing quite what or how.

  • Don’t require a perfect product. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first… You have to start somewhere! My little squares of color, my scribbled pages of journaling, my roughly composed essays…are not finished products in themselves. But neither does the pianist expect to play in the concert hall without hours of daily practice spread over months and years. Once you are willing to do a thing poorly you will find you have time to begin. Or as Julia Cameron says in an essay of advice to writers:

” We have time to write the minute we are willing to write badly.” (The Right to Write, Cameron, p.16)

  • Do create arbitrary deadlines, occasions for which to accomplish a thing. That’s what a weekly blog deadline does for me. As Friday draws near, ideas condense and writing happens because it must. It becomes a priority. Birthdays and holidays make great occasions for which to create that personalized ‘something’ that will get your creative juices flowing. But don’t insist that it be perfect. Give who you are at present. It really is the thought that counts.
  • Be patient with yourself. Consider how long it takes an infant to become an athlete… First he must learn to stand and then to take those first faltering steps that most surely will end in a fall. Many falls. Many messes will happen before a beautiful creation is accomplished. Becoming proficient requires practice. Practice looks immature, silly, and yes, messy. Somehow babies manage to always be ‘cute’ whether toddling unsteadily, plopping unceremoniously, or scribbling indecipherably. But not so the rest of us. We must be prepared to look silly, to produce work below our own standard of acceptability, to be learners.

But above all, don’t ignore that creative God-given bent that burns in your bones to be given time to blossom… Ask God to open your eyes to the time that you have now and to hold your hand as you toddle forth… What’s in your heart to learn / to do someday? Today is a good day to make a small start.

–LS

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. … And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. Ps. 90:12, 17 KJV

“Who dares despise the day of small things…” Zec.4:10

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P.S.  A helpful book on jump starting your creative bent, written from a Biblical perspective, is Janice Elsheimer’s: The Creative Call .
For more information click here. 

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*Cameron, Julia. The Right to Write, Putnam, 1998, p.13

I don’t have the gift of making sandwiches

LIVE IT!

I don’t have the gift of making sandwiches, but that’s ok.  I will bring the cookies and maybe some celery sticks stuffed with Cheese Whiz…

I am late in life coming to terms with oughts and shoulds, confessing who I am and who I am not, realizing what I am designed to do and what I can freely leave undone. Though it is difficult to teach an aging hound new tricks, it is not impossible, with God.  So when the plea went out for generous hearts to make a last-minute luncheon impressive, I quickly texted back before my indecisive, over-thinking oughts and shoulds could kick in: “I’d be glad to bring cookies and some veggies.” And that was it.

I will leave the making of sandwiches to the culinary queens—those ladies that do wonders with cream cheese and thinly sliced cucumbers, and have the savvy to turn cold-cuts and hard-boiled eggs into eye-pleasing, palate-satisfying geometric wonders.  This is not my gift.

Oh, I can ‘do’ sandwiches.  A mother must resort to these at times.  Bread and Jam are great stand-bys when slathered with Carver’s nutritious invention of PB. But I would better glorify God with cookies and Grandma’s cheeze-whiz celery sticks I think.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, about oughts and shoulds, and how they fit in with the works we’ve been designed for from the foundation of the world…(Eph.1:4;2:10)

I’m wrestling with writing and watercolor—those pursuits that I’ve always supposed would blossom and flourish with the simple addition of unlimited time.  And I’m finding that just as all of creation cannot be accounted for by a chance+time formula, so neither can human creativity.  There is a certain something that is innate, God-given and by design.  No amount of time spent ‘getting down to it’ will substitute for that.

But even so we whole-heartedly present our bodies, ‘as-is’,  for God to direct and energize.  And He uses them for His own purposes and glory as He will.

No better illustration comes to mind than the movie Chariots of Fire.  I watched this old favorite again with Jim this week.   We went on a date to see it back in the 80’s when it first hit American theaters.  Its rousing theme never fails to take us back to those days…

The film depicts a sharp contrast of motive in the pursuit of excellence.  It is the story of two British athletes that compete in the 1924 Olympics. One man runs for the glory of God. “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”  The other runs to prove his own worth.  There is little pleasure in it, only compulsion.  “I’m forever in pursuit and I don’t even know what I am chasing.”  Both are world-class athletes.  But only one receives an enduring prize.

That fleet Scotsman, Eric Liddell, convinced that to neglect his gift would be to hold God in contempt, pursues Olympic excellence to honor God. (This is the part of his life covered in the film).  But having gained fame he leaves it all behind to bury himself (literally) in China as a missionary.  He dedicates all He has to God– his running, his preaching,  his teaching,  and the actual laying down of his life for fellow-inmates at a Japanese internment camp. (This is the part not seen in the film.)

Through the film Chariots of Fire this life story has been resurrected for our edification.  This is what it means to run the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.(Heb.12:1,2)  This is what it means to present our bodies a living sacrifice, ‘as is’, for whatever God purposes to do with them. (Rom.12:1,2) This is how we bring God pleasure–by being who He has designed us to be.

We have nothing to prove.  There is no competition.  We run for His glory the race set before us.  And He empowers and equips us individually with all that is required to run it.  That is all.  To do and to die looking unto Jesus with all our life’s energies…this is our calling. 

Will it be a ‘creative call’?  For some.

Will we be lauded and memorialized? God sees. He remembers.  That is enough. If He chooses to use our story to spur others on, so be it.  If not, that is His business.

And as I reorient myself to this life of faith and faithfulness, the clamor of  compulsive ought’s and should’s fades into irrelevance.  My talents or lack thereof are not the point.  For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.  Rom 14:7,8 ESV

But others have said this better than I.  Let me close with a quote from a book I finished recently by Pastor Jud Wilhite:

God challenges us to realize we were not created to be made much of, but to make much of Him. At our core, we’re not created for fame. We’re made to make God famous, designed to love Him with all of our heart, without leaving room for would-be idols . And until we realize God rescued us for His fame and not our own, we’ll miss the ultimate purpose for life, which is Him. We are found when we realize our center is outside ourselves and our achievements, in God Himself.  (Pursued,p.50)

And now I should probably get out that cookie recipe…

–LS

Deliver me from my enemies, O LORD! I have fled to you for refuge. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! Ps. 143:9-10 ESV

Now may the God of peace…equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Heb.13:20-21 ESV

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. … All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.1Cor. 12:4-7, 11 ESV

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil.2:13 KJV

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Wilhite,Jud. Pursued:God’s Divine Obsession with You .  FaithWords: 2013. Kindle Edition.

“He has my heart”

LIVE IT!

The little guy sat among all those adults coloring while the preacher preached. He was only six but his parents thought the whole family should sit in church together– whether they ‘got’ everything that was said or not. So, here he was, coloring as Pastor Roger laid out his theme…

God treasures our sacrificial love. We show we love Him when we give the best that we have… The widow gave her mite. Mary spent her precious bottle of perfume. Cups of water given in His name count too. As the message came to a close its theme was brought home with a pointed question: “Does Jesus have anything of yours in His treasure box?”

Without hesitation, the little fellow looked up from his coloring and responded matter-of-factly: ‘Yes, He has my heart.’  Few heard his little voice. But his mother, sitting beside him, teared up at his words. To her they were precious—an indication that he really understood the transaction he had made with Jesus several weeks previous.

It had happened on the walk to the school bus stop. How she hated to release her tender first-born to the wide cruel world in this way, but at least she could accompany him to the bus stop… She had baby brother in the Snugli and little sister in tow. And as they walked they couldn’t help noticing the majestic billowing clouds on the horizon. It had made her think of Jesus’ promise to return and to whisk away His children to meet Him in the air. And so they talked about that.

Would everyone go? No, only those who had invited Jesus to live in their hearts…Well her firstborn son sure didn’t want to miss out on that. They had stopped and bowed their heads right then and there on that long dusty driveway under the shade of a big blue umbrella and they had done business with God. It was a simple beginning to a relationship with Jesus. But that child knew that Jesus had his heart, and  counted it precious.

That was twenty-three years ago. The little fellow grew up to be a strapping young man—handy and hard-working, daring and doing all manner of things hitherto unheard of in his family. He was a dynamo, that boy. Everything he did was done with intensity. He threw himself into stamp collecting and odd jobs, magic tricks and juggling. He swam competitively and memorized AWANA verses the same way. He composed and performed rap lyrics that echoed long after the performance ended. He wrote unforgettable essays and plays–unforgettably revealing and convicting, that is. And eventually he graduated from high school and moved away to see what in the wide world he had missed in the protective environs of home…

Many things vied for his heart; it was a big one—strong, and eager to live fully. He embraced mistakes as an effective way to learn, and grew wise. All the while his heart was kept in Jesus’ treasure box. Try as he might to give it away to lesser things, the reality of his childhood decision pulled him back. He himself would remind his anxious mother of the reassuring proverb that a child well-trained will not turn away from his upbringing. And his mother watching from afar gradually let out her breath and thanked the Lord for keeping this one’s heart in His treasure chest. And she watched as her son became the devoted husband of a God-fearing and beautiful wife, and the affectionate father to his own little ones.

And as she watched, she prayed… This was her calling. This is her calling still. Her first-born’s 29th birthday is coming up. She is proud of all that he has become and is becoming. She feels privileged to have been called to the role of “mother” to this whole-hearted son. And as she watches God’s hand at work in his life, she stores up all these things in her own treasure box. And one day, when Jesus comes in the clouds to whisk His children away, she will present it to Him in gratitude for letting her share this small part in furthering His Kingdom.

MicahKindergarten
Happy Birthday Son!

I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus!

–LS

Who is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Mt.24:45,46

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart… Lk.2:19

“Thine is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty… all is thine.” I Chr. 29:11