Thanksgiving Thoughts

"Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged."    Colossians 3:18-21

     Did you watch much television as a child?  I did.  I can remember watching programs like "Ozzie and Harriet", "The Patty Duke Show", and "Leave It To Beaver".  I guess that "Ozzie and Harriet" was probably my very favorite program.  I knew that they were a real family and so I thought that they were typical of all families.  

        Growing up I wondered why my family couldn't be more like that.  I thought my family to be lacking.  I wanted my family to be more like the television families that I watched each week.  But they weren't.  I wasted many a year hoping for changes that I could not bring.  I did try.  It just didn't work.  As I grew I learned that television was make believe, and that even the Nelson's weren't really as happy as the family they portrayed on their show.  There was no "happy family".  But I looked at my classmates, and later at my co-workers and saw people who wanted to spend time with their families.  They enjoyed being with each other.  It was kind of cool, but totally new to me.  I had spent most of my adult life running from my family. 

        At age 30 I had to move back my hometown to help my mother who had been confined to a wheelchair following some back surgery.  I never left.  For 20 years I stayed with them and helped out around the house, but inside,  I was aching to be free from there.   We weren't a close family and there was no love lost when I moved out.  But God works.  In some mighty strange ways.   Not that His ways are strange, but that they are strange to us because we are of the world.  At the time I left my parents home, I felt God was calling me to go.  My mother, feeling abandoned, told me she was disowning me.  "Never come back" she said. I was devastated.  I was upset to be told not to go back to a place where I had not wanted to be... go figure...  

       But God is just so amazing.  Over time He worked... on my mother... on me... on other members of my family.... I listened to Him.  I tried to be there to support my family even though they didn't want me there...  eventually God softened their hearts so that they invited me back into their lives.  He softened my heart so that for the first time I actually wanted to be there...  Everyone in my family noticed the difference and we didn't even have to say a word.

   

       This year I am spending the Thanksgiving Holiday with my family.  I am really looking forward to it.  This will possibly be the last time that we are all there together as my father's health has been going downhill pretty steadily.  But God's timing is so perfect that it is only by His grace that we are able to have this time together.  I think that it will probably be our happiest Thanksgiving ever.  And for the first time, we will all be thankful for it.  Praise be to God.  Nothing is impossible if it is His will.  It's got to make you wonder...

        Dear Lord, please use this example of how You have worked in my life to give someone hope where maybe they have given up.  I have seen you do the impossible.  Please let my friends know that You are there.  You are real.  And if You want something to happen, it will. Please impress upon them the importance of being in Your word.  Of taking the time to listen for Your direction in their lives.  And give them the confidence to realize it is You, and to do as You have directed.  Please bless my friends as You have blessed me.  Thank You Lord, Thank You...

His Grace Is Enough

"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen." Galatians 6:18

As we move into the Thanksgiving season; I find myself constantly humming the song "Your Grace Is Enough". I am reminded of all of the things that I have to be grateful for this year. Only this year is different from the others. This year I know that I know that I know that everything that I have has come by the grace of God.

I will be (God willing) traveling to Philadelphia next week to spend the holiday with my family. We tried this last year and it was a near disaster. At the time, I promised myself that I would never do that again. But God has the ability to make things right. He alone has the power to heal broken relationships that you and I could never do on our own. This year I joyfully look forward to the trip, hopeful that it will be a time of family togetherness like we have never experienced before.

Thinking back, I realize that just six months ago I was afraid of my father, and now I am afraid for him. My mother had disowned me, and now invites me to spend more time with her. My sister wouldn't even speak to me, we now exchange emails and recently we went out for a cup of coffee together. My other sisters now end their telephone calls by saying "I love you". Had you asked me six months ago... I would have said "No way! That is just impossible. It could never happen!". But alas God is good. Very good. That does not mean that everything is "hunky dory" but it is so much better than I could have ever hoped for that I am indeed very very grateful. And I realize that it is only by God's grace that it is possible. It's got to make you wonder...

Dear Lord, please use the example how Your grace has worked in my life to show my friends just how much You love us. This story is not so much about me and my life as it is about how You have showered me with Your grace and Your love. Please help me and my friends to continue to give You our problems and to let You take care of them as only You can do. And help us to realize that "Your grace is enough..."

"Let God and Let Go..."

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6.

Do you speak Christianese? My Pastor says that most people who were raised up in the church speak a special language called Christianese. It consists of sayings like "Saved by the blood of the lamb" and "Filled with the Holy Spirit". He reminded us recently that when talking with those who weren't raised in the church that we might want to consider NOT using Christianese. Having not been raised in the church myself, I thought that was an excellent piece of advice.

I was not raised in the church. My family didn't even believe in God. As a child, I snuck out to go to church when I could and I had gone to church off and on for many years as an adult. But with no regularity, and with no real "teaching". I definately did not speak "Christianese". I can speak "Christianese" to a degree; but even today, I still find many terms difficult to grasp and understand.

At one point, not that long ago, I was in the midst of struggling with a lifetime of hurts and problems. I had been trying to learn to deal with them, and had asked God to help. My friends in the church kept telling me to "Let God and Let Go..." I had no idea what they were talking about. It wasn't until many months later, having taken the time to really listen to what God was telling me rather than what my friends were saying, that I began to understand the meaning of "Let God and Let Go".

Everyone has pains and struggles. We ask God to take them away. God doesn't want us to suffer. We are His children after all. But just as we sometimes have to let our children make mistakes and suffer the consequences, so He too sometimes lets us go through hard times in order to learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes we suffer at the hands of others. We didn't necessarily "do something wrong" and we aren't necessarily the ones who will need to learn something. But sometimes God allows us to suffer so that someone else might learn from it. Sometimes in our suffering, others will be moved by our faith in God, not so much by what we say and do, but maybe by what we don't say or do...

I held onto my lifetime of pain. I kept it close to my heart. I didn't share it... but at one point God made it clear to me that it was time to share it... I began to slowly share with a few trusted friends. I didn't really understand at that time how God worked. I tried to give my burden to my friends, hoping that they would take the pain away. But they are only human and they have their own burdens to bear. They kept saying "Let Go and Let God..." and I didn't understand...

Months later a very dear friend came to me and said that they could no longer help me to bear my burden because it was just too much for them, They told me that I must give it to God and let Him take it. I still didn't understand. I had been praying for God to take my pain away. But what I didn't realize at the time was that I was offering it to God, and then very quickly pulling it right back close to my heart. I was not really "giving" it to Him at all.

Kind of like how my nephew Joey once had a toy that he didn't play with anymore. When another child picked up the toy and began to play with it, Joey ran over pushed the child to the ground, yanked the toy from the child's hand and placed it back in the toy box. Joey didn't want the toy. But he was not ready to give it up yet.

We hold onto our pain. We want to let it go but we still hold it close to our hearts. "Letting God and Letting Go" means that we actually GIVE our pain and suffering to God and we really let Him take it away. When we are willing to do that. To really let go of the pain. God WILL take it away. He will fill the part of you that is hurting with His love. It will still take some time to heal. But it WILL HEAL. One day you will realize that God DID take the pain away.

It took me a long time to learn the meaning of the phrase "Let Go and Let God". So now I am inclined to speak to others in much simpler language. To explain things in a way that they can understand. To only use "Christianese" with those who "speak the language" and to be more aware of whom I am talking to. Using terms that people don't understand, can be a stumbling block. It can delay the very thing you are hoping and praying for in a new Christian... My relationship with my dear friend suffered because I tried to unload my problems on them. I am thankful for their good advice now, but got frustrated and upset with them at the time because I just didn't understand. But God is so great. All powerful. And able to handle all of our problems. He handled my problems once I actually let Him have them. It's got to make you wonder...

Dear Lord, please help my friends and I to be more aware of the background of the people with whom we share your love. Help us to speak to them in ways that they will be able to understand and relate to. Guide our thoughts and our tongues as we deal with others on a daily basis. And thank you for your insight and wisdom, and for always being there for us.

God and the Verizon Guy

"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. " Jeremiah 29: 12-13

I was watching television the other day and the Verizon commercial came on. You know the one. The geeky Verizon Guy saying "Can you hear me now?" Yep. That's the one. Anyway, I was watching the commercial when suddenly I realized that the Verizon guy reminded me of God. Yeah right, you say, but wait... The Verizon guy seems to be everywhere and he is always asking "Can you hear me now?" And he is surrounded by an army of people who follow him and are there to help you to hear him better. Who else do we know like that.... Yeah, now you're thinking... God is always around. He talks to us all the time. He has an army of people who follow Him who are there to support us as we try to hear Him better.

The bible says that if we really seek God we will find Him. Think about it. Lots of people talk to God, or at least ask Him questions. Especially people who don't even really believe that He is out there. Something bad happens and they ask "why?" but they never seem to really listen for an answer. The bible says that if they would choose to really listen, that they would hear the answer. When we take time to be with God we call it quiet time. But a lot of the time we use that time to talk to God. Do we take the time to sit back and listen? Don't we usually hear the answers to our questions or at least some direction for our lives if we wait and listen for it? Yes. God speaks to us when we quiet down and listen for His voice. The voice is soft, sometimes it is very hard to hear. But it IS there, and when we hear it, we know we have heard it. Sometimes it is about us, but often it is not.

God sometimes guides us to pray for a certain person or situation. Sometimes He instructs us to do something that we hadn't even considered as an option or He may ask us to avoid something that we had planned to do. We need to quiet down our lives and our minds and spend some serious time just listening for whatever God wants to tell us. And if we aren't sure, we can run it by one of the "soldiers from the army of God", our sisters and brothers in the Lord, and they can help us to discern the validity of the message. That is one of the benefits of good fellowship.

So now having thought about it a bit, can't you also see how the Verizon guy is a reminder of how God is always there for us. And now won't the commercials be a reminder to really quiet down and listen for the "still small voice of God" in our lives. It's got to make you wonder...

Dear Lord, please help my friends and I to spend more time listening for Your voice and help us to recognize the voice as Yours. I pray that we seek You with everything that we are and that as the bible says You will make Yourself known to us... And please help those family members and friends who don't really believe that You are there, help them to actually listen for You when they are asking You the "why" questions. Let them seek You, and listen for Your voice, and may it make a difference in their lives as it has in ours.