Monday Morning Memo: Life's Roller Coasters

I used to love riding roller coasters.  I lived my jr. high years and part of my high school years close to Disneyland in California…so I had the opportunity to ride some of the biggest and best and I loved every minute of it.

 

Fast forward 45 years…and you couldn’t pay me enough money to ride one today.  After five back surgeries, just the thought of riding one makes me cringe because I would probably end up either in traction or on a surgery table if I even survived!  The cost just isn’t worth the momentary thrill.

 

The problem is that I am realizing these days that I don’t have to actually be on a rollercoaster to feel like I am on one.  Life can, at times, be a ride with enough twists and turns to make me wonder what is just over the next hill, all while having a knot in the pit of my stomach.  This is exactly how I am currently feeling.

 

My dear, 94-year-old mother-in-law was put under the care of hospice a week ago.  The weeks leading up to that decision and the days since then have felt like a ride on which I don’t want to be.  One day feels like the calm of going up a hill…and the next day feels like we are spiraling downward and there is no bottom.  And the most devastating realization is that when this particular “ride” is over…I, along with our family, will have a hole in our midst that will never be filled.

 

Change hurts.  Loss hurts.  And this kind of hurt doesn’t have an easy fix or an easy solution and no matter what tomorrow or the next day brings…my life will never be the same.  It won’t be a ride where there is an ending…because this ride will influence every day for the rest of my life.

 

I was reading in the 17^th chapter of Numbers this past week, where the people of Israel were once again grumbling and causing dissention.  So, God told Moses to have the people bring him twelve wooden staffs.  There was to be one staff from each of Israel’s tribes and he was to write each leader’s name on his particular staff.  These staffs were then supposed to be put in the Tabernacle in front of the Ark which contained the tablets of the Covenant.  God told Moses that the staff of the man He would choose to lead the people would have buds sprout on it as a sign.

 

When Moses went into the Tabernacle of the Covenant the next day, he found Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted…but it had also budded, blossomed and produced ripe almonds!  All over night!

 

While I’m sure God wanted the people of Israel to see who He had chosen to lead…I can’t help but believe He also wanted to make sure Moses and Aaron knew that He had their backs.  He knew what they needed and was more than capable of handling any situation they faced.  When trouble arose…when the rollercoasters of life came their way, God could use it to teach them…to guide them…to work within them to help them look more and more like Him.  It would have been a miracle for the people to see that Aaron’s staff had budded overnight…but they also witnessed that it had blossomed and produced almonds.  You see, God was capable of doing more than they could even imagine.  

 

Just as God used this time of trouble for Moses, Aaron and the people of Israel to witness what He was capable of…maybe God is using this particular time for me to witness His ability to see me through every twist and turn that comes my way.  Fortunately, He can see my tomorrow and my mother-in-law’s tomorrow, and He already knows what each of us will need to fulfill His perfect plan…and yes, that might just include another roller coaster ride.

 

Maybe you are also feeling like you are on a “ride” right now that will never end.  Maybe your days are spent wondering what is going to be just over the next hill…and you have a knot in the pit of your stomach.  I want to urge you today to keep your eyes on God…knowing that He has your back.  He can see you through and accomplish more on your journey than you can even imagine.  It may not be a ride that makes sense and it may include some changes and maybe even some loss…but through it all…He promises to guide and direct you at every turn.

 

As I stated, the cost of riding a roller coaster today…just isn’t worth the momentary thrill for me.  But I am confident that the cost of riding life’s roller coaster with God…will be worth every second.

 

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, 

“I am the light of the world. If you follow me, 

you won’t have to walk in darkness, 

because you will have the light that leads to life.”

John 8:12

Monday Morning Memo: Now is the Time

There were three ministers who went to a convention and were all sharing one room. The first pastor said, "Let's confess our secret sins one to another. 
I'll start. My secret sin is I don’t take time to pray for my church
members, but my members think I am a prayer warrior.”





The second pastor said, "My secret sin is that I just hate working and
preparing the sermons. I copy all my sermons from those given by other
pastors." 



 

The third pastor said, "My secret sin is gossiping and, oh boy, I just
can't wait to get out of this room!"

 

We laugh at that, but if we are honest, we probably all have had secret sins in our life.  Sins that may haunt us…sins that may still control us…even sins for which we have asked for forgiveness, but still have an impact on our daily lives. 

 

If you have time, read John 4:1-42, which tells the story of the Samaritan woman.  This is a fascinating encounter to me.  Here was a woman with a very sordid past and her sins weren’t secret.  Everyone in her community knew her to be promiscuous and I’m sure the tongues of the townspeople were kept busy talking about this sinner.  She wouldn’t have been one of the “in” crowd with the other women because more than likely, she may have slept with some of their husbands.  She would have been an outcast.  

 

So why in the world would Jesus choose to speak to this despised woman at the well?  If you read this text, you will see that He planned this encounter. Jesus chose this time, this place, and this woman to be a part of a setting where He would, for the first time ever, formally and explicitly unveil his true identity as the Messiah.  I would have thought He would have done that for the first time before a large crowd, like a Billy Graham crusade, to have a much greater impact.  Instead, He selected this sinful, promiscuous woman to be the first to hear it.  To me, that is amazing.

 

He told her…because He knew of her past.  He told her…because He knew she needed a Messiah.  He told her…because He knew she would tell others.  Because of her willingness to tell others about the Messiah, because of her willingness to be vulnerable and confess to others about her sinful past, many came to know Him as their Lord and Savior.  Jesus knew this area was on the verge of accepting this Living Water that He was offering.  That’s why He told his disciples that the field was ready for harvest there in Samaria.  And because of one woman’s willingness to spread the word, many were saved.  Notice these people told the woman they no longer were just taking her word for it that Jesus was the Messiah.  They had heard it for themselves and now believed.  You see, too often we think we need to do the saving.  We don’t!  We just need to be willing to tell those we see about our Jesus, about what He has done for us, and the Holy Spirit will make sure they see it for themselves.

 

You know, this woman could have wallowed in her sin, feeling like she was not worthy of accepting the Living Water.  Obviously, she wasn’t proud of what she had done and the sins she had committed.  She could have continued in this sinful life, feeling like she could never be forgiven for all she had done.  I think it is easy for some of us to do that too.  We’ve done things in our past which we aren’t proud of, and even though we know that Jesus says He will forgive us of those sins, we continue to hold on to them, feeling shame and embarrassment.  That is Satan making sure we don’t live a victorious life in Christ.  He wants to keep us down and discouraged.  

 

What an impact this despised, sinful, outcast woman ended up having on eternity!  If she could be used to make a difference, don’t you think you and I can be too?  Jesus can take us, with all our failures, with all our sins – secret and not so secret – cleanse us and allow us to be a living vessel for Him.  What an honor and what a privilege.  Now is the time to quit wallowing in our past and feeling that there isn’t any hope.  There IS hope in our Messiah!

 

Then they said to the woman, 

“Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, 

but because we have heard him ourselves. 

Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John 4:42

Monday Morning Memo: Until Then

I’ve been thinking about heaven a lot lately.  With my aunt passing away last month…it was another reminder that more and more of the generation before us are being called “home”.  While we grieve over the loss of each family member…it is such a comfort to know they are now in the presence of Jesus…worshipping and praising Him for all of eternity.

These days remind me of the song, “When We All Get to Heaven”. I don’t know about you, but that song gives me chills every time I sing it. It’s almost like having a mini mountaintop experience as I think about how wonderful it will be when I join those who have gone before me and see my Jesus face to face. The problem is that just like all other mountaintop experiences, sooner or later, I have to come down off that “high” and go back to living in the day-to-day trenches. Yes, it is going to be magnificent when we all get to heaven; but how in the world am I supposed to get through each day until my time to enter heaven is here? 

I think verse 3 in this song answers that question.  It says: 

Let us then be true and faithful, 

Trusting, serving every day; 

Just one glimpse of Him in glory 

Will the toils of life repay.

In the meantime...while we wait...we are to trust and serve. It sounds so simple, but is sometimes so hard. For some reason, our “self” often gets in the way and we struggle with just simply trusting Him. 

It never ceases to amaze me that I allowed a man, whom I had never met before the first appointment, to open up my back and work on my spinal column. Not just once...but five different times! I trusted him to do this because he had a framed piece of paper on the wall saying he was qualified. But I serve a God who created the entire universe, formed me in my mother’s womb, who knows my yesterday, my today and my tomorrow and I struggle to trust Him and take Him at His Word. His qualifications far outweigh a framed piece of paper, but trusting and serving Him doesn’t always come easy. 

I love how The Message translates Proverbs 3:5-7, “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil!”   We all need to take these verses to heart. Where we usually get in trouble is when we put our focus on trying to figure everything out on our own, instead of just trusting Him from the bottom of our heart. I think instead of listening...we are often talking; telling Him what we think we should do and as a result our spirit becomes unsettled and the trenches seem to collapse in around us. 

Maybe that is how you are feeling today. Maybe your circumstances feel overwhelming, and you have yourself worked up into a lather because you aren’t in control. Possibly you think you know it all and that if God would just do what you think He should do...everything would work out. Let me ask you a question; how’s that working for you? If I had a guess, I would say it probably isn’t going well. Why? Because you are not allowing Him to have complete control; letting Him keep you on the right track. 

Oh, what a day it will be when we all get to heaven. But until then...we are to trust. Until then...we are to serve. Until then...our focus needs to be upward for that first glimpse of our Jesus which will erase all memories of the trenches. That my friend will be a mountaintop experience which will never end! 

Monday Morning Memo: Ta Da!

I’m sure you are all familiar with the song we sung as we were growing up:

Jesus loves the little children

All the children in the world

Red and yellow black and white

They are precious in His sight

Jesus loves the little children of the world.

 

It’s hard for me, as an adult, to think of myself as being “precious” to God.  That word was for when I was young and much more innocent.   But in studying the Bible, I came across two verses which jumped off the page at me.   Psalm 72:14 (NLT) reads, “He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious to him.”  Isaiah 43:4 (NLT) says “Others were given in exchange for you.  I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me.  You are honored, and I love you.”

 

Me?  Precious?  With all my faults and failures?  Yep, His book doesn’t lie.  And yes, YOU are precious to Him too.  It doesn’t matter what your past has been like, how many times you have made the wrong decision, or how inept you may feel at living your life for Him.  God loves you more than you can even fathom and YOU are precious in His sight.

 

Do you know what else I found out?  Not only are you and I precious to God, we are His masterpiece!  Isn’t that amazing?  I don’t know about you, but most of the time I don’t feel worthy of being called “precious” and I sure don’t feel like a masterpiece.  But I am and so are you.  Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

 

If you are like me, you are your own worst critic.  Often wishing you had done something just a little better, wondering why you can’t do things as well as that person you work with, or questioning why in the world your parenting skills often look like a comedy routine.  I’m going to share advice with you that I felt God sharing with me: Ease up on yourself.  Quit knocking yourself down as if you have no worth.  Trust me.  When God made you…He said Ta-Da!  Why?  Because you are His precious masterpiece and He doesn’t make no junk!

Monday Morning Memo: Yielded and Still

Yes, I’m one of those people.  I love the newer choruses and songs we sing on Sunday morning.  I love how they speak to me and lead me into the worship of my Savior.

But, I also love the old hymns.  I love the words and the harmonizing sounds as we lift our voices in praise.   I love how words that were written many, many years ago can still speak to me.  I also love to read the stories behind the words because many of them have a powerful effect on me. 

One of the hymns that speaks to me is “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”.  The words are:

Have Thine own way, Lord 

Have Thine own way. 

Thou art the Potter
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me 

After thy will 

While I am waiting 

Yielded and still. 

If you google the title of this hymn…you will find the story of why it was written in 1902: 

“In 1902, Adelaide A. Pollard, a hymn writer, was hoping to go to Africa as a missionary but found herself unable to raise the needed funds to make the journey. Greatly discouraged, she attended a prayer service one evening and as she sat there, she overheard an elderly woman say, "It really doesn't matter what you do with us, Lord, just have your own way with our lives." The elderly woman inspired Pollard and she contemplated the story of the potter from Jeremiah 18:3 and, upon her return home that evening, wrote all four stanzas before retiring for the night.” 

What powerful words the elderly woman shared that night. But, if I’m honest, reading those words is much easier than living them…because it is sometimes hard for me to allow God to have complete control of my life. I often think I know best and so I find myself trying to change using my own power and my own strength and I fall flat on my face. But in reading the words to this song recently, I had what you might call an AH-HA moment. Because, even though I have sung this hymn many times, I realized it doesn’t say that the Lord should mold me and make me while I’m running around trying to change on my own. He is to mold me and make me...while I wait, yield and am still. OUCH. MY responsibility is to yield; HIS responsibility is to do the work in me. MY responsibility is to get to the place where I can honestly say it really doesn’t matter what He does with my life; He can have complete control to change me anyway He sees fit...while I wait, yield and am still. 

Are you feeling tired, frustrated and burned out because you are trying to change on your own? Maybe today you just need to wait, yield and be still and let HIM do the work. I think you just might be amazed as to what HE can accomplish when HE has complete control! 

“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,

and in His word I put my hope.”

Psalm 130:5

Monday Morning Memo: The Bookends of Life

I had the privilege of speaking at my 94-year-old aunt’s funeral this past weekend.  On January 14th, she took her last breath on earth and her first breath in heaven.  While we weren’t ready to let her go…she was so ready to meet her Jesus.

Aunt Gerry had planned some of the details for her funeral…so we had some information with which to begin.  I was not at all surprised she wanted Psalm 8 included in the service.  It is the only praise chapter which is addressed entirely to the Lord.  

The first verse brings us straight into the presence of the LORD: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!” That presence is maintained throughout the chapter, right down to the repetition of the same line in the final verse. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”  This phrase puts “bookends” around this chapter as it reminds us to whom we are addressing.  This… is how Aunt Gerry lived her life…with the majesty of our God as the bookends of her life.  She knew that her Lord was the Almighty God.  She knew the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the same God she so faithfully served.  She knew there was no one greater than her Jesus and she served Him with everything she had within her.

Gerry served as a missionary nurse in Africa for 37 years and in everything she did, she always wanted God to be glorified, not her.  She knew how important each person was to her Jesus and she wanted to make sure everyone knew about His great love for them.

Gerry is in heaven today, not because she was a good woman, even though she was an amazing woman. Even Gerry wasn’t good enough to earn a place in Heaven.

-Nobody is that good.

-Nobody has ever lived a perfect life but Jesus Christ.

The Bible tells us that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

But you see, Gerry was forgiven. And she is in Heaven today because she opened her heart to receive Jesus as her Savior and Lord.

She is in Heaven because she trusted in the cross and in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Likewise, you and I will go to Heaven too if we put our trust in Him.  Aunt Gerry didn’t just talk the talk…she walked the talk…and each of us can have that same vital relationship and have the majesty of our God as the bookends of our life.

I once heard the story of a young girl who walked through a cemetery every night because it was the shortest route to her house. When asked why she had no fear of passing through the graveyard she responded, “The reason I’m not afraid?  My home is just on the other side.”

Saturday, we gathered to celebrate the life of a woman who had made her way home over to the other side and is now walking the streets of gold.  I so want to make her proud as I learn from her example and serve the Lord…our Lord…whose name is majestic in all the earth.

Monday Morning Memo: Let's Get Running!

At any given time in my home…I usually have technology within my reach.  Whether it be my laptop, my iPhone or my watch…I am able to connect with the world wide web fairly easily.  They are all amazing products when you consider how much information can be accessed from such small devices.

 

I remember the computer that was used in the company I worked for after I graduated from high school (yes, this was back in the dark ages!).  The computer almost filled an entire room because it was so big; and it couldn’t do near what my small devices can do now.  It just blows my mind to think of how far technology has come because there were people who had the vision; people who didn’t dwell on their failures – but learned from them and kept “keeping on” until each hurdle was jumped and they had success.

 

What if they would have just been happy with that huge computer they first introduced?  What if the designers would have given up when they hit their first “speed bump”, thinking it would be so much easier and take less effort to just be happy with what they had?  Think of all the wonderful devices we wouldn’t have today if that would have been their attitude.

 

This can also apply to our lives.  God has such amazing, incredible experiences He wants us to encounter, but unfortunately, we are often satisfied to just stay where we are. We hit a speed bump and we immediately back off, mope about our failure, and decide it just takes too much effort to move forward.  I often wonder how many times there is something amazing waiting for us, but we never experience it because we’ve planted ourselves in our recliner watching the world go by...because that is where we feel “safe”.

 

There is a saying I have shared many times in my speaking.  It reads: “Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming – Wow, what a ride!” I don’t know about you, but I can feel my heart beating and my blood pumping just reading these words!  

 

This is how I want to live my life.  I want to experience everything God has for me, because when I stand before Him, I so desperately want Him to say, “Welcome my good and faithful servant.  Wow, what a ride you had!”  

 

So why don’t you join me?  Put your helmet on, strap on your boots, and let’s continue moving forward on the journey God has planned for us.  We will probably make mistakes and yes, we will more than likely hit a few speed bumps, but that won’t stop us. Remember, our “Tour Guide” knows the way, He never gets lost, and our final destination has streets of gold!!  Now THAT ought to get your blood pumping!!!

 

And if you still aren’t convinced…..read what it says in Hebrews 12:1-3 in The Message: 

“Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!”

 

Let’s get running!!!