Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Clutching Toys






Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I snapped up a plastic refrigerator sack of little toy animals for my grandson Neeham (Nehemiah), who is two years old. This $3.75 was one of my best purchases because Neeham invariably digs into the bag and comes us with a clutch of animals to play with and to carry around wherever he goes in our house.

Though the fistful of toys may be Neehan’s version of a security blanket, it does present some problems:

First, he cannot pick up anything else, not even more dinosaurs, snakes, fish or crabs (this is the sea-animal bag). If he tries, some inevitably drop to the floor though he attempts to retrieve them (leaving another turtle that doesn’t quite make it). This is a source of frustration to Neeham, who sometimes resorts to (dare I name it?) temper tantrums.

Next, it is impossible to pull a coat over Neeham’s full and clenched fist. We attempt to pry the little fingers open, explaining that we are just putting his coat on and that he can have the toys back. “No,” he protests. “Mine!” In fact, I am reminded by this repeated drama by our front door that the wearing of winter coats is more of an adult’s concern than it is a two-year-old’s.

Last, this greedy security habit of my grandson’s is fast depleting the plastic bag of water-loving miniatures. Of course, again, this is more my concern than it is Neeham’s. Supply and demand is an adult’s prerogative. Little children don’t worry about what they will play with when the source of toys is gone.

How often God attempts to pray open our clutched fists. He has something richer to give us, something to warm us against the cold, something more exciting to put in our hands to replace the snakes and other creepy-crawly creatures.

Yet, our proprietorship is firmly established. “Mine!” we announce, clutching more tightly and clenching our fists to our chest. But the truth is, we’ve become too old to carry “dinosaurs” in our hands. We need to move beyond the childlike stages of spiritual maturity. Better pay attention to the Grandma at the front door. My lifelong experience in clutching things too tightly is that if we don’t let go of our well-loved playthings when God asks them of us, we may force Him to find a harsher means to convince us that we best let go.

So. What is it you are clutching in your tiny fists? Is God asking you to let go? He needs to pull on that winter coat to protect you from the blows and windstorms of misfortune. He can see into your future and has a reason for asking for your fistful of clutched toys. This secret I have also learned (hold it to your heart): Our Heavenly Grandparent never takes away something from us without replacing it (eventually) with something better.

Pay attention.

I spy God!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Parenting Us, How GOD does it


If God is our Father, how does He help us grow and mature as His children? David and Karen Mains explore the answer with you in the refreshing Bible study Parenting Us: How God Does It.
More than just a guide, this dynamic learning resource stands apart from other Bible studies because the exercises are creatively designed to involve the imagination and emotions as well as the intellect. You'll explore God's parenting methods in Scripture and learn about the enormous, healing strength that is available to the Christian who not only understands God as their Heavenly Parent but also lives and acts in the center of that truth.
"Each one of us must experience a childlike dependency transference if we are to achieve spiritual maturity," writes author Karen Mains. "We must learn to detach our child-like trust from our human mom and dad and attach it to the One who can be both mother and father to us eternally."
This 12-week study will help you do just that. All your group needs for a 12-week experience in the family life of God is included. Begin your journey toward knowing and understanding a Loving Father by ordering Parenting Us: How God Does It today!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

What's the spiritual temperature of your home?

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord," thundered Joshua centuries ago. We hear his words, applaud them, and long to follow in his footsteps. So why is it that thousands of us seem so disatisfied with the spiritual condition of our own homes?

Part of our problem, says David and Karen Mains, is that we're not sure what spiritual leadership looks like. We have problems fleshing it out because we can't see it.

Living, Loving, Leading, offers a tangible, "seeable" model for encouraging your family's spiritual development. Join David and Karen as they suggest some helpful, biblical ideas for raising the spiritual temperature of your home. Walk with them as they describe their own struggles and triumphs, and as they search for workable solutions to the crucial question, "How can we become the spiritual leaders of our family that God wants us to be?" Can you afford to wait any longer?

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Hungry For You

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

As is my habit, at the New Year I review the journal I am in working on and the one before it. It is easy to forget one’s life. I made entrances in the columns of the prayers that have been answered, and I enter into that full and replete feeling at the record of God’s interaction in my everyday life.

I came upon this chorus I had copied in case I needed it for my writing. I record it here because it was the prayer for last year and the year before and the year before that. I record it in case you need a prayer for 2012. It is a good prayer.



“We Are Hungry”

Lord, I want more of You.
Living water rain down on me.
Lord, I need more of You.
Living breath of life, come fill me up.

We are hungry, we are hungry,
We are hungry for more of You.
We are thirsty, Oh, Jesus,
We are thirsty for more of You.

Lord, I want more of You.
Holy Spirit, rain down on me.
Lord, I need more of You.
Living breath of life, come fill me up.

We are hungry, we are hungry,
We are hungry for more of You.
We are thirsty, Oh, Jesus,
We are thirsty for more of You.

We lift our holy hands up.
We want to touch You
We lift our vices, higher
And higher and higher to You.

We are hungry, we are hungry,
We are hungry for more of You.
We are thirsty, Oh, Jesus,
We are thirsty for more of You.

I spy God!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Some Thoughts on my Sixty-Ninth Birthday


Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:


Turning 69 today, with a husband who is 75, has forced an unending round of discussions on the aging process. We are determined to traverse these years left to us as well as possible.

I do not want to bore people with a litany of aches and ills. I do not want to hear myself saying (as so many of my aged friends say), “It’s no fun growing old.”

David and I want to age with grace, laughing through the years that come, accepting the physical and mental disabilities as a gift to keep our human demise before our eyes in a way that is anticipatory, not morbid.

So when I self-diagnosed the numbness and pain in my feet that activates whenever I wear the wrong shoes as Morton’s neuroma, I acquiesced to the fact that aging inevitably brings its own physical limitations. “It is what it is,” I remind myself.

A day getting the house ready and cooking for guests causes me to hobble around like I have a couple of marbles taped to the pad of my foot beneath my second and third toes—on both feet. High heels, obviously, are out.

“Aren’t you ever going to wear heels again?” asked David. No, I explained, I would not be wearing heels probably ever again. “Just pray that I don’t end up wearing a pair of orthopedic shoes.”

Obviously, I am responsible for the care of my feet. So, I make sure that any shoe I wear is ultra-comfortable, and doesn’t—in any way—pinch my toes. I buy padded lifts and slip them into shoes and I never, never walk far unless I am wearing a good pair of walking shoes that absorbs the impact of flesh on pavement. I have learned to be careful when trekking over uneven terrain.

This summer, on a 50th Wedding Anniversary trip to Italy, observing all the above precautions, we walked miles every day without the Morton’s neuroma acting up, crippling me and forcing me to spend a day in a hotel room off-itinerary. Maybe the ugly orthopedic shoes aren’t such a sure thing after all.

The other morning, however, during a prayer time, I had a totally unexpected thought. Why didn’t I use the stepping-on-marbles like pain as a reminder of the wounds of Christ? Why, when I was forced to take off a shoe because of aching feet, didn’t I intentionally remember that nails were pounded through His feet as He was impaled to the Cross. Certainly, as He pressed down against them in order to force His torso upward so His cramped lungs could suck in air, the nail-holes tore and worried the flesh and ligaments. Why didn’t I transform this minor discomfort on my own aging process into an intercessory remembrance of how Christ suffered and of how others suffer in the world?

So I have been attempting to do this work. Unlike St. Francis and other remarkable saints, I have never prayed for the stigmata, actual wounds in the flesh that come from intense and close identification with His death and suffering, but I can do this. I can look at this sometime discomfort as a gift.

Perhaps I have discovered a path forward to deal better with the inevitable signs of old age that will bring me joy in the process of physical decline.



God is in all things, even these thoughts on my 69th birthday.

I spy God!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Life in Christ

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:



I have been reading John Stott’s beautiful book Life in Christ, which includes replications of many of the grand master’s paintings of Jesus. Stott, who died a few months ago, was a great theologian and an exemplary Christian leader. This book is an ongoing exposition of all the Scriptures that have to do with the topic of “life in Christ.” One quote, which I read New Year’s Eve day, struck me. It was written by J. C. Ryle, the Bishop of Liverpool from 1850-1900. Life in Christ consists of Christ saying to us, “Abide in me. Cling to me. Stick fast to me. Live the life of close and intimate communion with me. Get nearer and nearer to me. Roll every burden on me. Cast your whole weight on me. Never let go your hold on me for a moment.”

The next morning, early, I checked my e-mail to find a note from a good friend. We had been having an ongoing conversation about my not pursuing my creative writing at this stage in my life. He chided me on allowing the not-so-important to divert me from what was most important. I disagreed with him about what was important and what was not important. It was, if not a heated exchange, a warm one.

So I shot him an e-mail showing him what I was doing regarding what I felt was important and he felt was not-so-important and assured him I was writing quite a bit (although just not for publication).

My first e-mail early on New Year’s Day was from this friend. And the dialogue continued with him asking the often-discussed question of how multi-gifted folk decide exactly where they devote their energies. “I guess the only way to know is to live a life that grows increasingly closer and closer to Christ.”

These two “nudges” reminded me of the set of cassettes that is stored in my book shelf that holds lectures dedicated to the topic of spiritual growth. They are recordings of the teachings of an Indian Christian spiritual leader, Brother Zac Poonen, and are profound in their emphasis that we must live a life in Christ.

Three nudges is more than enough. Obviously, this is to be the theme of my spiritual journey for this New Year. Since we no longer have a cassette player in the car, I will have to be intentional about listening to these 15 cassette teachings. The only place we have a cassette player is the small study at home where I often read the Scripture, pray and write in my journal. I have dubbed this place “the listening room.”

I just pulled down the Zac Poonen cassettes, and after I send these blogs off to my editor, I will carry these tapes down to the listening room, where I suspect I will be spending much time this year. I have much to learn about a life in Christ.

I spy God!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Write it Down


Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:


Because we had such a wonderful Christmas season with our extended family—adult offspring and grandchildren—I was sure I would be filled with wonderful memories of how God had met us during these holy days.

Why!—the house was all decorated three weeks before Christmas! I had time to enjoy the music and the Christmas lights and my beautiful Noel banner hung on the summer trellis outside our front door. We attended concerts in the city, shared a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at my daughter’s, spent two days together in a timeshare in rural Illinois, went to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago with the grandchildren, and ended our week with a sing-along around my son’s piano following an appetizer supper.

Even so, those specific details eluded me—why?—I hadn’t taken the time to journal. With everything going on, I had let the recording of God’s daily work in my life pass so when I sat down at the computer to recount His goodness for this blog, my recall—filled with Christmas and the start-up of this new year and the schemes crowding my mind of how to become more efficient (a lifelong pursuit)—was just flushed away. I could not remember the intricacies of God’s goodness over the past two weeks!

David, my husband, read this psalm yesterday in the morning office. It was a reminder to me that if I am going to be faithful in going on the daily God Hunt, I must keep a written record of all the ways He has intervened in my ordinary life. And, I must keep that record every day. The God Hunt must be an intentional action on my part, not just an “Oh, by-the-way…” byproduct of life.

Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him, and speak of all his marvelous works.
Glory in his holy Name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Search for the Lord and his strength, continually seek his face.
Remember the marvels he has done,
his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.
He has always been mindful of his covenant,
the promise he made for a thousand generations.
The covenant he made with Abraham, the oath that he swore to Isaac,
Which he established as a statute for Jacob,
An everlasting covenant for Israel.

—Psalm 105:1-5, 8-10

A journal is key to remembering God’s marvelous works; when God works in your life (and in my life), write it down.

I spy God!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

WoW!

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:


Christmas starts for different people at different points. Some don’t feel like Christmas has begun until they have attended a concert of Handel’s Messiah. Others feel that Christmas starts when the tree is up, decorated and the lights are plugged in.

For me Christmas starts when the house is decorated—all three floors—the trees are up and lit and the Christmas table is set. Doing all this is no small chore since David and I have traditionally divided the holiday chores between us. He does the gift-buying and wrapping, he plans and purchases tickets for outstanding events. I decorate the house and plan the menu. I shop and cook. My husband does the kitchen clean up after the meal.
Also, any cards that get sent to friends are taken care of by David also.

This is a pretty good division of Christmas labor—at least, it works for us. It does mean that what rooms get decorated or not depends completely upon my schedule, strength and gumption.

This year, after three or four days of straight work, the house looked and felt like December magazine photos. I cannot say how many times I went up and down the attic steps, but the charley-horse cramps I felt at night indicated I’d taxed my physical abilities.

However, all this work was made worth it when my granddaughter Eliana dropped past (along with her Mom and Dad and little brother). “WOW!” she exclaimed, looking at the tree lights, and the nativity sets. “WOW!” The basement also received her acclamation. Eliana “WOW”-ed her way through my entire house.

I have to admit that not only was this slightly funny—was she “WOW!”-ing because she thought that was the appropriate thing to do? Or, was it because this was really a “WOW!”-ful experience for her?—but it made me feel really good that I had gone to all the work of filling the house with all the traditional Christmas things I dragged from the attic boxes.

I wonder if, like Eliana, I have been saying “WOW!” enough to God. Have I really let the deepest meanings of Christmas penetrate my heart and psyche once again? Have I been overwhelmed, filled with awe and struck by the beauty of it all? There have been exquisite moments, but have I made a point of “WOW”-ing all over the place?

Christ has come. God is with us. Christ is coming again. WOW!

I spy God!