Get Ready to Fly

The little caterpillar was cute and fuzzy, but more
importantly, he persisted; he had a purpose.

He Wouldn't Give Up

As I walked down to our mailbox a few days ago, I noticed a small caterpillar crawling along over the rocks. The wind was gusting up to about 30 miles an hour that day, but the little caterpillar kept crawling along.

At times, the wind actually picked the lightweight, fuzzy little guy up and he skittered several feet across the road. Every time the wind lifted him up, when he hit the ground, he just kept crawling in the same direction. Nothing seemed to bother him. He just kept going.

If the little caterpillar stopped crawling because it was too windy, he certainly would have died there on that barren road, which was utterly devoid of food or shelter. Instead, he kept crawling, moving toward some unseen, and likely unknown, destination. 

Like the caterpillar, we often don't know what's up ahead for us. But unlike the caterpillar, we tend to fret and worry, sometimes to the point that we stop moving at all.

But the simple truth of the matter is that if we stop, we are being disobedient. We are also circumventing God's good plan for us.

God has a plan and a purpose for me and for you! Jeremiah 29:11 says: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

We must remember that in addition to having a purpose for us, Christ is behind us, beside us, and before us. He surrounds us with his love - even in the wind - no, especially, in the wind. We must remind ourselves of the great destiny that is ours, in a Kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12).

I don't know about you, but knowing Christ, knowing that He is with me to the end of the age, knowing that His word is true and unchanging, and knowing that somehow, He can make all things work together for good, gives me calm assurance - even when the wind blows so hard that it picks me up and sets me down in a place that I wasn't expecting. (Matthew 28:20, Matthew 24:35, Romans 8:28 )

On Our Way to Something Beautiful

We may be bucking the wind now, but we must remind ourselves that we are on a path of purpose.
You see, like the caterpillar on its way to becoming a butterfly - we are on our way to something beautiful.
Keep crawling and get ready to fly.

One Hundred Times Return

You've got to put the seed
in the ground before you can expect
a harvest.

What if I told you about an investment you could make that would yield one hundred times your original investment? Maybe even more? Well, if you believed me, you would be asking me for more details and signing the papers. This post tells you exactly how to do that, but let me be clear; we are not talking about finance.

We are talking about LIFE. 

Spring is the season when farmers kick things into high gear. The fields are black and the soil is warming up. It is time to get the seed into the ground if there is going to be a harvest come fall.

I grew up on a farm, so the topic of spring seeding is near and dear to my heart, one that I have spent countless hours thinking about while out on the tractor.

Consider the farmer with thirty bushels of wheat seed stored in his shed. It is perfectly good grain that could be used for feed, or ground into flour and then made into bread. However, that same wheat could be used to plant about fifteen acres and in about four months, yield sixty-five bushels per acre, or 975 bushels. 

Once a farmer puts that wheat in the ground, there is no turning back. It is no longer fit to be eaten. It can't be fed to livestock or ground into flour now.  You couldn't gather it back up if you wanted to. The grain - as grain - is ruined. But give it some time, and those fifteen acres of soil turn green and then gold. Thirty bushels become 975 bushels. Is it worth risking the thirty bushels? You bet.

Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives." (John 12:24 NLT) 

Jesus was speaking of His own death, but the same is true for every one of His followers. Unless we "are planted in the soil and die" we will never grow a crop, never reach our full potential.

Death comes before resurrection.

It isn't physical death I am talking about here. Unless I die to my self - my own desires, ambitions, and human pride - I will never know what it is to yield a supernatural harvest - thirty times, sixty times, even a hundred times the initial cost. 

There is nothing more painful to talk about than death to self. Instinct drives us to protect ourselves at all costs. I would be lying if I did not admit that I have struggled with the concept of dying to self many, many times.

I remember as a young person, hearing old people in the church talk about dying to the old flesh. It all sounded so ugly. What were they talking about? 

I love my self. I try to be good. I am not a bad person. I. I. I....

C.S. Lewis is one of my very favorite authors. He probably makes the strongest case for dying to self: 

"Give up your self, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in." 

(Mere Christianity, page 190-191)

I don't think I can say it any better than that. 

  

Is dying to your self worth the sacrifice? Absolutely. It is the best investment you can possibly make.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/57845872@N08/14069888049">PhoTones Works #5196</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">(license)</a>

The Power of the Seed

A package of seeds is a package of possibilities.

As I write the title of this blog post, I can't help but think that it is a bit odd to talk about "the power of the seed."

How powerful can a seed be?

When I think of power, my mind conjures up images of marching armies, tanks, maybe even nuclear bombs. Maybe I've watched too many war movies.

How about the halls of congress, where laws are written and decisions are made that change our lives? Surely these things speak of power. But a seed? Really?

Speaking of the power of a seed goes against most rational thought. A seed is exceptionally small. It is dry and hard, seemingly dead. If it is like most seeds, it is quite lacking in color, appearing to have little or no connection to any living thing.

But, we know from experience that when a seed is placed in the ground, something magical happens. The outer shell softens, breaks open, and from inside the seed something begins to swell. Soon, a tiny sprout emerges. Somehow, that insignificant sprout makes its way toward the surface and it is then that we can see life emerging. It starts with just a leaf or two. It is hard to see what it is going to become, but it is obviously no longer just a seed. It is now something alive and growing.

In Genesis 3:15 we read the account of God speaking to the serpent, following the eating of the forbidden fruit.  God said to the serpent, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

So Satan achieved his short-sighted goal by causing Adam and Eve to sin, and with that one act, bringing sin into a world that had been utterly perfect. Little did he know that at the same time, he had insured his own undoing. The woman's seed, spoken of in Genesis 3, is Christ. The woman was now fated to bear children in pain, but the seed that would be born from woman, many generations later, would crush Satan's head. The resurrection of Christ from the dead defeated Satan, once and for all time.

So, we ask ourselves again: how powerful can a seed be?

The truth is astounding.

With that first sin, God had already planted the seed of our redemption. He had a plan to rescue us that was already set in motion.

Jesus spoke about seeds in more than one parable. He spoke about planting seeds, some of which grew and some which either did not grow, or which died. He spoke about the mustard seed, saying that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

What IS the power of the seed? Given the proper planting and growing conditions, a seed WILL become what it is destined to become. A kernel of wheat will become a wheat plant. A daisy seed will become a daisy.

If you have been born again, the seed of Christ is in you. Do you realize how powerful that is? Much as we worry and fret about our lives, there is a power at work within us that is greater than anything we can imagine.  

Embrace the Joy

Ernie, the three-legged dog who loved to run around me in circles!

I have many fond memories of my little dog, Ernie. One of my favorites was the way he would show his excitement and joie de vivre. (Yes, a dog can show joie de vivre, probably better than a human can, certainly more often!) 

I'm sure Ernie's enthusiasm wasn't extraordinary in the way of dogs, and many dog owners have seen their dogs do this very thing; Ernie would run around me, a tight little circle about 20-30 feet across, as fast as he could go.  When he was done, he would sink down on his front paws, ready to leap either way, hoping to entice me to play with him. 

It made me so happy to see him enjoying himself like that! It always made me smile. Sometimes it made me laugh. It meant even more because Ernie was a three-legged dog.  In reality, this meant he could only circle in one direction.  If he tried to go the other way, he'd fall over, but he seemed completely oblivious to that fact.  He was just happy he could be outside, he could run, and he could be with me.

I know God wants to see us enjoying life with Him in much the same way that I enjoyed watching Ernie.  He wants to see us - his creation - fully enjoying life, time with Him, and running our hearts out. By running our hearts out, I don't mean that we should be busy all the time.  I mean that we should embrace the joy of being fully alive in Him and expressing that joy in being all that God has created us to be.  

This morning, I listened to several oldies but goodies that I grew up with - Christian rock songs from the eighties.  I couldn't help myself - I had to dance! As I enjoyed the music, I thought about Ernie and how God probably enjoyed watching me express my joy, much the same way I enjoyed watching Ernie run around me.

I guess that in some ways, I'm like Ernie.  I have limitations, weaknesses, pains, and yes, even some scars.  But I have found that there is joy in the day if I will only look for it. 

I may not dance every morning, but today, I was reminded that the joy of the Lord truly is my strength. 

I don't want any more gray days. I want days filled with color and joy! I need to look for, and embrace, the Lord's joy every morning.  In so doing, I will make the heart of God glad, and I will be ready for whatever the day may bring.

 "This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (Nehemiah 8:10b NLT)

He's More Than Enough

How can one define enough? In some instances, enough might be a whole lot of something.  At other times, enough might be just a little.

Most of the time more than enough sounds like an impossibility; we can't even get enough, let alone more than enough.

Jesus provided a perfect picture of more than enough when he fed the multitudes (Luke 9). One small boy in the crowd had five loaves and two fish. Jesus took that small meal (which was enough for the boy) and blessing it, He made it more than enough for five thousand. In fact, there were twelve baskets of left overs once everyone had eaten.

The story of the loaves and fishes is such a perfect example of the way God so often works. I have found, over and over, that He wants us to give Him the little we have; in exchange, we get all that He has. 

When I was a young woman, my siblings and I had a Christian rock group. Our goal was to lift up Christ and draw people to Him. We were pretty devoted and gave up all other ambitions in pursuit of ministry. 

One of our biggest hurdles was that we did not have our own sound system.This placed some serious restrictions on our ministry. We prayed and prayed that God would give us a sound system.  One day, after chores, I was walking across the yard, asking God (once again) for a sound system. God reminded me of David and his five, smooth stones - the same stones David took to meet Goliath. 

"What do you have in your hand," God said to me that morning. All of a sudden, I realized that I could sell my horse and the money could be used to buy a sound system. My sister and my father also sold their horses and we had enough money to purchase the sound system.

I won't lie to you; it was a sacrifice. I loved my horse. 

Did I ever regret giving up my horse for the Lord?  Absolutely not. God took the little that I had and poured out blessing on me, a thousand times more than what I had given Him. He took enough and gave back more than enough.

Let's take this even deeper.

Sometimes we hold ourselves, or pieces of ourselves, back from God. We love the self we have come to be and do not want to give all of ourselves over to God. We hold a little something back.

What we fail to see is that God has something so much greater, so much better, even so much more us, than the thing we are hanging on to. 

It's a little bit like a trapeze artist. Unless he lets go of the bar he is swinging on, he can't grasp the next bar that takes him even higher.

When we  stop hanging on so tightly to what we have, we can embrace the abundance - the more than enough - that God has for us.

A Sabbath of Rest

God asks us to come away and rest.

Have you ever felt that you weren't good enough? I know I sure have.

The Bible tells us that all our righteousness is about as good as filthy rags. That tells me that no matter how hard I try, no matter how hard I work at it, I'll never be good enough in my own power. Romans tells us that all of us have sinned and fallen short of His glory.

In the fourth chapter of Hebrews we read: "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. (Hebrews 4:9-10 NIV) 

What is the author really getting at? Is he talking about resting on Sundays? While resting on Sunday is a really good thing, I think he's talking about something much deeper in this verse.  He's talking about resting from our labor, our effort, our striving to attain, to be good enough. 

Several years ago, I had a dream that I went to heaven. It was a place of beauty beyond compare. I was awestruck and completely overwhelmed by all that God had prepared for me. I could not stop weeping because I felt so unworthy. 

An angel asked me, "why are you crying?" I told him it was because I felt so unworthy. 

I knew the life I had lived, and the many ways and times I had let God down. To think that God would reward me with this beautiful place in heaven and an eternity to be with Him was simply beyond my comprehension. It was way beyond anything that I could ever have expected in light of the life that I had lived.

Don't get me wrong. I wasn't what anyone would consider a major sinner, but like most of us, every day there were things that I had done that I shouldn't have, attitudes that weren't right, opportunities to do something for God that I had simply ignored. Certainly, I had done nothing to deserve such a great reward.

"I'm so unworthy," I said to the angel in my dream. 

"Of course you're not worthy!" the angel exclaimed. "No one is."

No one is worthy. Not Mother Teresa, Billy Graham, or the Pope, himself. That really hit me. 

Suddenly, I saw that it really wasn't about me or what I had done, been, or hadn't been. It was all about God, His mercy, His love, and the work that He did on the cross for me.

This is the Sabbath rest that God has prepared for us: to rest from our labors and our continual striving to be good enough. 

God loved us when we were unlovely.

Right standing with God comes only through Christ and His shed blood. 

He, Himself, is our Sabbath rest. We have only to accept Him and His finished work on the cross. 

New Every Morning

There's a whole lot of hoopla around a new year.  If you watched the ball drop in Time's Square or any of the other new year's events around the country, you probably saw a lot of joy and celebration.

I think one of the reasons that people love a new year is that it can represent a new beginning - a chance to start again.  It's a time when many people make resolutions to do something differently or break a bad habit. 

As Christians, we don't have to wait for the beginning of a new year.  The scripture tells us that his mercies are "new every morning." (Lamentations 3:23 ESV)

While we've heard about God's mercy and the enormity of his power to forgive, sometimes we have a hard time actually accepting it and walking in that forgiveness.

To not accept God's forgiveness - to believe that our sin is too great - is to make our sin more powerful than God.  If we say that God can't forgive our sin, whatever it is, in effect, we are saying - God is not powerful enough, God is not great enough, God does not have enough grace for us. 

It's worth looking at the whole of Lamentations 3:23, as well as the verse before it.

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

If we will only see it, only accept it - God is powerful enough, God is great enough, and God does have enough grace for each of us and for every sin. Like God Himself, the love of God is steadfast, unchanging, never ending.

Lord, help us to never diminish you and your power to forgive our sin, however great.