April 28, 2018

God Controls Life and Death

The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. – 1 Samuel 2:6

I had done all that I could. It was in God’s hands. That was my last prayer of the night. Whether the little calf lived or died was up to God.

The calf died. I found it early this morning. It hadn’t been dead long. The calf was barely past newborn. She simply failed to thrive and nothing I did helped. Her mama was beyond distraught. There was nothing I could do.

My cousin tells me I get too attached to the cows. He’s right. I know that. But I’ve never reached the point where I can detach and not care. I hope I never do.

We’d like to think we can control the outcome of just about everything. But the truth is we can only do our best and trust God with the rest. That’s true for everyone, including doctors. They do their best and still sometimes death comes.

It’s easy to see God’s power in life and in death. We can’t restore a life that has gone. But God is in control, sitting on His throne, in everything we do. Look around. Can’t you see the evidence of Him? God is everywhere. We need only open our eyes and look.

I take comfort in His Presence on this long hard day, one that followed several long, hard days. When a calf is sick, everything else gets pushed to the back so that I can do all I can to try and save her life.

The same is true with people. When someone you love is sick, suddenly your schedule, your entire life, gets shifted around. Priorities change. Your life becomes hospitals and rehab and home health and doctor appointments. You become well-versed in language you’d never heard before. You pick up on the slightest changes. You have to. Life and death are unforgiving task masters.

I know not everyone sees it this way. Some people barely change anything. They are content to sit back and let someone else do the day to day tasks. They aren’t interested in keeping an all-night vigil or days spent loading and unloading a wheelchair and helping someone get from appointment to appointment.

It’s sad what they miss. There is pain and frustration, inconvenience and loss of income. There are a million different tasks waiting every single day. Juggling becomes a lifestyle. It’s just how it is.

But there is joy too. There is honor in caring for someone you love when they can no longer do it for themselves. There is a painful satisfaction that comes when the day is done and you know that you did all you could. No one can take that from you.

I wanted that little calf to live. She was beautiful and sweet and I wanted her to grow up and have babies of her own. God had a different plan. I’ve come to accept that sometimes death comes no matter how hard we try to prevent it. God is in control. I love and trust His Holy Name. On sad days like this, that really is all that matters.

April 26, 2018

God Reaches Out

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, LORD supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.

– Psalm 94:18-19

Some days are just hard. Do you know what I mean? A child gets sick. Nothing major but it sure does rearrange your day. The grass needs mowing – again. A vehicle breaks down and you’re faced with an unexpected bill. The list goes on and on.

It’s nothing major. It feels selfish to whine about it all. A little girl is in Birmingham fighting for her life. A dear man in Florida is grieving his constant companion and facing a void he isn’t prepared to face. Another man lost his job and desperation creeps in. How will he provide for his family? There are things that put ordinary challenges into perspective.

Life just feels overwhelming sometimes. There is so much to do. The hours seem few and the labor feels long. I am tired. How about you? Do you ever find yourself just getting through the days, afraid to look beyond because you can’t see anything different? That’s scary. Will it always be this way?

Our joy comes from the Lord. The Bible says so and I believe what it says. I feel guilty. Where is my joy? The birds are chirping outside my window this morning. I have bird houses and bird feeders everywhere it seems. My Mother loved to watch the birds and now I do too. On good days, a red bird brightens the day. A visitor from heaven is what they say.

Today is another beautiful day. The sun shines brightly. Not too hot and not too cold. The kind of perfect day we’ll be dreaming of when summer comes our way. It is hot here in the South. Humid hot. So perfect days are a treasure. Why am I sad?

Every day I awake and soldier on. I imagine you do as well. There are animals to tend and chores to do. There is a living to be made. I don’t know how to rest anymore. How about you? Is your day so filled with obligations and activities that there is no time to sit, to think, to contemplate, to simply enjoy the day that God has given to us?

We are busy. All of us are. Children have school and activities seven days each week. Their parents are right there in the middle of it all. Those who are retired find themselves busier than ever before. There is no end in sight. We fill our days and nights with things that seem necessary and yet we wonder why we are so empty inside.

God told us to rest. We will, we promise. As soon as all the chores are done, as soon as the children are grown, as soon as we enter another season of life. But each season brings its own challenges and we find that we don’t rest there either. We have forgotten what it means to be still before God. We don’t know how to embrace the small things because we’re so focused on getting through yet another day.

Another hard day. When does it get easy? It doesn’t. Not words you wanted to read. Truth is neither pleasant not inspiring but it is necessary. We alone make the choice to slow down, to say no, to take time to be with God in quiet stillness. We can rush along at the world’s pace or we can slow down and rest in God’s embrace. Our choice. We’re all slipping away in our busyness. Reach out to Him. God is waiting to grasp your hand and bring you safely to a place of rest.

April 26, 2016

Life Detours Plans

In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps

 -- Proverbs 16:9

It was going to be a busy day at the start of a really busy week. I wasn’t sure how I could possibly fit everything in but I had a plan.

Well, you know how it is with plans.

The doctors appointment ran late, then there was lunch and a surprise stop. But another doctors appointment never materialized. That freed up time for work. Which I was doing. Until I heard it.

You know what I’m talking about. In my case, it was the dogs barking ferociously. This wasn’t one of those chasing a squirrel barks. This was much bigger and I knew something was dreadfully wrong.

I threw down my wire cutters and ran. Sammy had killed the copperhead snake before I arrived. I cut the snake’s head off to be sure. After a quick check, I raced to the vet with Sammy. And there went my afternoon.

I am not complaining. It could have been much, much worse. He’s going to be fine. I am thankful.

But here’s the thing: We all make plans for our days. We do. Even if it’s as simple as get up, have a cup of coffee and head to the beach. We make plans as though somehow we know what’s going to happen. We don’t.

I’m a big planner. I always have been. And I get frustrated when those plans get derailed. But this is life and life isn’t about plans. It’s about living our moments to the fullest and following God with all our hearts.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our “to do” list that we forget to enjoy the process. Did you notice the sunset yesterday? Did you see the beautiful flowers blooming this spring? Did you throw a ball with your dog? Did you read a book to your child?

When did we get so busy that we can’t enjoy our moments? When did we fill our days with so many tasks that we forget to enjoy the journey? When did we stop realizing it’s about loving God and loving people?

Sometimes life takes us on a detour to remind us of what’s important. Pay attention to the lesson.

April 6, 2016

Enjoy This Season

4 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” -- Jeremiah 29:4-9

Where did the day go? I had plans and, once again, what I planned didn’t come to pass because of the many things I didn’t plan that came up along the way. Do you ever travel that road? It can be so frustrating!

But God always gives us what we need and I needed these verses from Jeremiah. I’ve read them before, of course, but this time the writer pointed out that this is what God told His people BEFORE He told them about the good plans He had for them.

Why is that so significant? Because God was telling His people to plant gardens where they were going to be in exile for 70 years. THEN came the good plans.

I am not good at waiting. I’ve said that many times before. Yet sometimes we don’t have a choice. God puts us where He wants us and tells us to stay until it’s time to move on.

At that point, we can choose how we handle where He’s placed us. Do we let our hearts fill with bitterness and impatience or do we open ourselves up to serve and be His hands and feet where we are? The choice belongs to us.

Waiting isn’t passive. It’s active and full of things to do. I think that’s where we sometimes get off track. We think that waiting means we allow our lives to become stagnant and that’s not what it means at all.

We all have seasons in our lives. There are seasons for being children, for advanced learning, for marriage and children and working day after day. I am in the season of caregiving. I cherish this time, yet it is stressful and emotional.

What season are you in? Did you plan it or did life intervene? And are you okay with it? That’s a big one. Learning to be okay where you are, planting a garden and watching it grow and bloom, makes the seasons seem worthwhile.

God has good plans for us. It just may take a while to see them come to fruition. Enjoy the journey.

March 12, 2016

God Directs Our Steps

In their hearts humans plan their course,
but the Lord establishes their steps.

-- Proverbs 16:9

Last night at dinner I heard a young man of maybe 15 telling his family about a friend from school. The young man was in love with his girlfriend of three weeks. He already had their future planned, right down to where they would live and how many children they would have.

Now this young man thought his friend was nuts. How can he know after only three weeks, he asked his family. Answer: He can’t.

I don’t know your age or where you are in life, but those young dreams seem so long ago. I had such plans. It all seems so silly now but at the time I knew with everything in me that those dreams would come true.

Life has a way of taking you down a road you never planned, to a destination you never would have chosen. Very few people end up where they planned to go. I’ve learned that along the way. It is a bittersweet lesson, if you know what I mean.

One thing I have learned is that God knows best and that His will always prevails. That’s a good thing. I have thanked Him many times for prayer requests He denied. I also have thanked Him for those times He gave me more than I could ever have imagined.

I joke about wanting a map with detailed instructions for this life. I like things to be orderly and with a certain routine. Somehow it frees me to be more creative and more productive in my life.

What I have found is that I can’t predict the actions of others. I can’t control what happens around me and that means I really can’t control my own steps. I am forever reacting to the choices of others. Do I resent that? Yes. But I’ve reached an age when I know it’s just part of life.

This young man who dreamed such wonderful dreams will likely learn that life rarely turns out the way we planned. But if we give it over to God and let Him guide our steps we will end up much wiser and happier than we ever could have imagined.

February 11, 2016

Life Is Fleeting

“Show me, Lord, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting my life is." -- Psalm 39:4

I just talked to her a few days ago. She was sick. We were worried about a sinus infection but it was something far worse. Two trips to the ER, an ambulance ride to another town, emergency surgery and she was gone the next day.

It was just so sudden. She’d won the cancer battle -- twice. She was doing great. My mind sees the sparkle in her eyes and the wisdom behind her knowing smile. How can she have gone home before any of us were ready to let her go?

I am so very grateful for the years that I have known her. She taught me so much without ever realizing she was teaching me. I know others would say the same. You see, she didn’t preach at people. She didn’t judge or tell others what to do. (Unless you were one of her children.) She simply lived her life as an example to what true faith should be.

She was steadfast in her friendship. She always had my back. Always. She was so loyal to our family. During those hard, hard days last year, she was there. She came. She stayed. She laughed. She cried with us. She was there.

We shared vegetables and stories. She came numerous times to play cards with my parents. She visited. She listened. She loved. How can she be gone?

I knew her for what seems like forever and, yet, it wasn’t nearly long enough. I grieve for her children and the void that now fills their world. Their Dad, her beloved husband, left years ago because of cancer. They are joined together now, celebrating even as their children grieve.

I am so grateful that I will see her again. So thankful for Jesus and His gift of salvation. How do people who are lost face death? How can they bear the separation and the hopelessness of it all?

I will miss my friend until the day we meet again. My heart is heavy but there is joy is knowing that this goodbye is only temporary. And there is gladness, too, for all that she taught me by how she lived her life.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Jesus’ Light Shines In The Details

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. -- 1 Peter 2:9

Sometimes I really get in a tizzy. There’s just no other way to describe it. Things aren’t going as I planned, are likely careening out of control, and I’m a mess.

Deep breath, I tell myself. My mind races to quote Scripture to myself in the midst of frantic thoughts of doomsday. Not THE doomsday, you understand. Nothing that serious. Just my panicked thoughts of what night happen because my plans have gone awry.

It’s been that kind of year. I make plans and other people’s lives change my plans. It’s just how it is. Most of the time I laugh it off. There’s no point in getting upset about something that can’t be helped and, really, I’m blessed and I know it.

And then there are those days. I’m tired. Burnt out. Crabby. I just don’t feel like dealing with the issues other people are throwing at me. But I have to deal with them anyway.

That leaves me with a choice: Do I show them how put out I feel or do I show them that even in irritating circumstances Jesus’ light still shines within me? Because how we react when things aren’t going the way we want is how people truly see Jesus in our lives.

We don’t just belong to Him when things are going great. And we don’t just belong to Him when we’re sick or facing heartache or some other devastating trouble. We’re His in the details of our lives and that’s where others see Him best.

So in the midst of my tizzy, what are others seeing? A frustrated woman who is upset at the world? Or a woman holding tightly to Jesus while the waves of life knock her around?

And what about you? Surely you didn’t think you’d get a pass on this one. Because we all have meltdowns from time to time. We all tend to forget our manners, forget who we belong to, forget that this moment will pass and that it really isn’t important anyway.

And that’s why I’ve learned to laugh. It isn’t always easy but it helps me keep the little things in perspective. Laughter helps me focus on what matters and how blessed I truly am. I’ve walked that other path and, believe me, these small irritations are nothing much to worry about. I just grab hold of Jesus’ hand knowing He can handle anything that comes my way.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Show God’s Light Through Your Life

This is what the LORD says to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;” -- Amos 5:4

Where are you headed? Do you have a specific destination in mind or are you just sort of drifting? Are you seeking God’s will and purpose for your life or are you just trying to fit in His plan with the life you desire for yourself?

Some members of my Sunday school class get frustrated with me sometimes because I always tell them to stay focused on the light. Keep on the narrow road. Remember what is truly important.

It’s not that I don’t care about today or even tomorrow. We are all called to work hard, to provide for ourselves and our families, to do good where we are, to live each moment for Him.

Those who get frustrated are mostly the ones who are working hard to improve themselves financially. They have a good life, want to keep that good life, and resent any notion that maybe that good life shouldn’t be their focus.

I’m not opposed to living well. Obviously. We all want to be financially successful and comfortable. We all want to be able to do what we want to do when we want to do it. That’s just part of being human.

But when those things are our main goal, when we lose sight of God and what His purpose is for our lives, then we’re headed down a road that is destined to swallow us up.

Many of us have suffered, whether through illness, the loss of someone we loved, unemployment, or other things that shake our foundation. And when we emerge on the other side of suffering we come to understand what is truly important. And it isn’t our house, our cars, our bank balance.

What’s important is the people around us as we journey toward God. Because that’s what the light is. God. And that’s where all believers are headed, toward an eternity spent with God. It’s our goal. It’s the main purpose of the journey. It’s the light at the end of a sometimes really dark tunnel.

But the journey isn’t for ourselves. It’s so that we can bring glory and honor to God in all that we do. It’s so that we can show others what it means to have Jesus living inside of us. It’s so that through love and kindness and compassion we can make the world a better place than it would have been had we not made the journey.

So where are you headed? I’m headed toward heaven and an eternity with God. And in the meantime, I want to show the world that Jesus lives inside of me through my words, my actions, and my life.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Reach Out To Others

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, Being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross!

-- Philippians 2:5-8

When you die what do you think people will say about you? Seriously. This is not a Journalism 101 exercise. It’s for real. Because what people say after someone dies probably reflects the very best of that person.

So, what will they say? Maybe that you were a jokester and the life of every party. Maybe that you were a hard worker. Or that you never missed church. Or that you were a good husband or wife, a good father or mother.

What about how you treated others? Will people remember you as kind and compassionate? Will folks think of you as giving and eager to help? Or will they talk about all that money in the bank? Maybe they’ll mention the property you owned or the business you created. Maybe they’ll mention your expensive car or tailored suits.

The truth is we won’t be taking any of those things with us when we go. I know. I’ve heard the joke. You’ve never seen a hearse with a baggage rack. But you also don’t hear a lot of good things about folks who spent their lives only caring about themselves.

Most of us intend to do good things. We want to help. We want to show kindness. We want to see the good in people. We just never get around to it. We’re so busy living out our days that we never, ever make a ripple in this world. It is almost as though we never lived because we never touched the lives God put before us.

The world has so many needs. Just look around. Open your eyes. See the hurting, the lost, the hungry, the neglected. God created us all with different strengths and weaknesses. Everyone has the ability to reach out and touch lives. If only we would.

Sometimes we hold back because we truly don’t believe we have anything to offer. But we’re looking outward at others instead of inward toward what God created us to be. One dear woman visits the sick and dying. She carries food, provides rides, and generously cares for others. To her, she is simply doing what she does. To others, she is the face of Jesus in their darkest moments.

Anybody can offer a kind word. Most folks can bake a casserole or stop by the deli. Others can weed a flowerbed or volunteer at a soup kitchen. Maybe write a note or make a phone call. We each can do our part to make a difference, to reach out, to show others that God cares. Sort of like Jesus did. And how He still does if we truly live our lives as though He lives within us.

What do you think folks will say about you when you die? Strive to live a life that draws others to Christ.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Life Can End Suddenly

LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. -- Psalm 39:4

Today they’re set to bury singer Whitney Houston. It’s a tragic end to a singer whose voice touched many lives. And, perhaps, a lesson to all of us that our days are numbered and that no one is beyond tragedy.

We the public feel somehow that we knew this superstar. We didn’t. It was appalling that some fans were irate that a public funeral wasn’t scheduled. It’s as though they believe that purchasing CD’s and concert tickets entitle them to mourn in the same place, the same way, as family and friends.

Let us not forget that a young girl lost her mother. Her mother. Not a singer standing on a stage before thousands of people. Her mother. No one can feel this loss like that young girl.

And what of her mother? Her brothers? Her extended family and friends? These are the people who watched her grow up, who shared her home, who celebrated her joys and felt her sorrow. How dare any “fan” think they have a right to mourn as those who are close to her.

We live in an unfortunate society where the lines of reality and imagination seem to become more blurry every day. We somehow think we “know” people who grace the covers of magazines or sing their songs on the radio. We don’t. It’s all an image cultivated to make us buy those songs, those magazines.

Maybe we find it easier to become obsessed with someone else’s life than to actually live our own lives. Maybe reading everything about a celebrity, watching interviews, attending events, makes our own rather dull lives seem more glamorous. Maybe we’re focused on someone else because we don’t like ourselves.

We each have our own lives to live. Yes, it’s wonderful to hear the voice of an awesome singer. But it doesn’t change our own lives. Whitney Houston had a brilliant career and a devastating disease. She was a “church girl” who lost sight of her strength. God. We can learn from that.

So let her family and friends bury her. Let them grieve. And let us remember that none of us have the promise of old age. Our days on this earth are numbered -- and we don’t know that number. So live each day to give God glory, with your eyes clearly focused on what

Saturday, November 19, 2011

One Instant Destroys Plans

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

-- James 4:14-15

We are a people who make a lot of plans. We’re always planning to go somewhere or do something. We plan when we are to wake up and when we are to go to sleep. We fill our days with scheduled activities, whether it‘s school or a job, golf or shopping, kids‘ soccer games or a movie. We sure are an organized bunch of folks.

Until the day we wake up and realize that all those plans were worthless. Because sometimes when we’re just out living our lives, something happens that shatters everything we knew as reality. We are faced with a new world, a new order to our days, a new disorder to our lives.

Yesterday I learned that a former co-worker suffered a massive heart attack. He’s lying in a hospital bed in ICU and the doctors don’t expect him to make it. Another young woman was in a car wreck and airlifted to a hospital three hours away. A close friend had a freak motorcycle wreck that has left her with leg and hand injuries she’ll be dealing with for months.

They all had plans. Those plans didn’t include lengthy hospital stays or death. A recent widow noted her first anniversary without her husband. They’d planned to return to the site of their honeymoon 29 years before. They hadn’t planned to be separated so soon in life. They had too much to do and too much laughter to share.

We all make plans. It’s what life is all about. What would we be without hopes and dreams, schedules and destinations? But James was right when he told her to understand that God’s will could alter those plans in a heartbeat.

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to us. But God has given us all free will to choose to our own paths. Sometimes our bodies have heart attacks or develop cancer. Sometimes our vehicles crash, either from our errors, the errors of someone else or just a slick spot in the road. Sometimes the people we love are suddenly gone, suddenly facing a catastrophic illness, or suddenly in dire need.

We can either step up and help, or sit back and watch. We can either alter our plans and put people first, or stand there and let needs go unmet. We can either do what Jesus called us to do, or decide that our faith doesn’t extend from good intentions to good deeds.

Sooner or later everyone encounters a moment when everything they had planned lies destroyed. We’re fortunate if God uses those around us to hold us up until we can stand alone again. And if we’re especially blessed if we’re the ones God calls to help our family and friends through the crisis that destroyed all their plans.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

How You Finish Is What Matters

"The end of the matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride."

-- Ecclesiastes 7:8

So many times we think that we messed up somewhere along the way. We're not where we expected to be in life. We've made mistakes. We've failed at marriage or career or just life in general. Here we are and it truly is not where we ever expected to be.

This verse reminds us that we can still chart a different course. We can still live a different life. We can head toward a better tomorrow. It matters more how we end up than how we began. It matters more what our heart is today than what it was yesterday or all the days before.

Be patience with yourself. Let the past remain where it is. Learn from it, surely, but don't continue to dwell on what you cannot change. Look forward and head toward the light. Re-evaluate your priorities. Spend time with God. Reach out and embrace the people around you, especially those you might not normally relate to,

Your life isn't over while you still live. What matters is how you finish. And that you do day by day, doing good where you can. Living the life you always planned to live, step by step, with a thankful heart and a grateful smile. Who knows? Maybe you're exactly where you're supposed to be.

Find Rest in HIm

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." -- Matthew 11:28-30

Life really gets out of hand sometimes. Commitments bind us into knots of tension. Illness, whether our own or that of a loved one, sends our carefully ordered lives into a topsy-turvy mess of emotions. Cars break down. Dishwashers overflow. Laundry piles up -- again.

As the bumper sticker saying goes, life happens. It's such a relief to know God is there, calmly waiting as we struggle to control the turmoil around us. As we sink further and further under the weight of overwhelming tension and despair, we reach out, He takes hold, lifting us up and securing us tighly to His side. For He is strong, though we are weak. He is all-knowing, though we are filled with uncertainty. He is a safe harbour amidst the turmoil. In Him we find peace and rest no matter what life brings.