Peace... be still...

Have you ever had a day like that day on the lake?   

"On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are dying?”

He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?”

They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”  Mark:35-41

It was one of those days when everything was going wrong, but the guy you really wanted sympathy from, didn't even notice there was a problem!  Fear is a great and terrible force.  It motivates us to make all kinds of decisions.  Decisions we will most likely regret when we come back to our senses.

Our one weapon against fear is the knowledge of who Jesus really is, who we are in relation to him... and the power he possesses.  Can you imagine?  One minute your are in a panic!  The next... you find out who Jesus really is and all you can do is worship.

Love is patient... and kind

John 13:25 "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  We used to sing a song, the chorus is simply, "they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love.  

There was a day when I could no longer in good conscience sing that song.  Will they know we are Christians by our love?  What does that look like?  How do we love one another?  I mean in a way that would be noticed as different and noteworthy?

I know for me, I have been most touched when I have experienced kindness.  I remember a day when a woman sat down with me and asked, I mean really asked me to tell my story.  I started at the top, describing all the mistakes and mishaps that had brought me to a more real and vibrant relationship with my God.  I noticed, as I was describing a particularly painful part of my story a small tear making it's way down her cheek.  It touched me... deeply.  At that point in my life, I don't remember anyone ever having compassion for my pain.  I felt cared for, maybe mothered.  

That one moment of kindness and compassion still effects me today.  Even now I marvel that she took the time.  That she listened with her heart engaged and wept with me.  It takes patience... the ability to give up your time to actively listen.  It takes time.  But more than anything it is a choice to be kind

Oswald Chambers- My Utmost for His Highest June 25

I have a friend who has lost herself in the sorrow of losing a child.  It is hard to watch.  I know what it is like to lose your moorings.  It is tough to breathe much less move forward.  But what Oswald Chambers has written is so true!  Sorrow has the potential to tenderize our hearts or harden them.  It is our choice.   I am thinking of Psalms 22:24 "For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
    Neither has he hidden his face from him;  but when he cried to him, he heard."  That doesn't mean God will stop the pain.  Pain has purpose, like a mother who allows a doctor to stitch up her child's wound... God hears and understand our cries... and cares

Receiving Yourself in the Fires of Sorrow

…what shall I say? “Father, save Me from this hour”? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” —John 12:27-28

As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.

We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, sorrow, and suffering are, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness, but it does not always make that person better. Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me. You cannot find or receive yourself through success, because you lose your head over pride. And you cannot receive yourself through the monotony of your daily life, because you give in to complaining. The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow. Why it should be this way is immaterial. The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience. You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you. But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away. If you will receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, God will make you nourishment for other people.

Racoon 1- Chickens 1 taking stalk of your surroundings

 I have recently acquired a "chicken door".  Our delivery man was very curious when my box arrived.  The label said, "Ladies first chicken door."  He couldn't imagine what that could mean.  I assured him it was what it said... a door for chickens.  He had never heard of such a thing.

It's sort of like a doggy door only it opens by itself at dawn and closes at dusk which eliminates your need to be out there to tuck your birds in at night. and keeps them safe from predators that stalk the coop at night.    Well, mostly.  I had one bird who was a bit of a night owl.  She would not go in before the door closed and if we didn't find her, scoop hr up and slip her in, then she was out all night fending for herself.  The thing is.  She was not a very bright bird and would just sit by the coop on the ground all night with no attempt to protect herself.  It was on one of those nights when we lost our bird to a visiting raccoon.  It wasn't much of a trick for him to catch her,  she was literally a sitting duck! (well, chicken)

Today we finally caught the raccoon that has been terrorizing my chicken coop.   He was the biggest raccoon I have ever seen!  He probably got that big by eating so many of our chicken eggs...  and our crazy chicken.  

There are many things that catch me off guard.  I am beginning to wonder if I, like that chicken have forgotten that there are dangers lurking.  That I have a God in heaven whom I serve and an enemy that wants to find opportunity to catch me unaware.  Hmmm

I'm thinking  of Luke 12:35 - 40

“Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

The Chosen

 I have been watching the tv series called, "The Chosen".   When I watch, I am amazed at all the things I have never thought about.  It's clear from the scriptures that Jesus traveled about from place to place.  But, where did he sleep?  Where did the disciples sleep?  Did they get along?  Did they know each other before?  What was Jesus able to just say, "follow me!" and the disciples do it?  What was happening in their lives before they left everything.  The tv series called, "The Chosen" can't really answer those questions but it does offer suggestions as to how things might have been.  The thing that stand out to me is how much Jesus was different from His peers, how much ths life stuck out like a sore thumb.  We get a bit of a clue that he was radical in his beliefs and the ractice of His faith. 

There is a line in the show,  Jesus is asking Matthew to follow Him and Simon Petter steps in and tries to explain that Matthew was a tax collector.  He was different, because he betrayed his own people.  Jesus turns to Peter and says, "Get used to different"  I wonder, if Jesus came today, would we choke on His teachings?  Or, would we be so attracted to the truth He was giving that we could not make any other choice but to follow Him.

Peter and the Waves... and fear

I grew up around boats.  In my teenage years, I helped crew a boat through the Queen Anne straight and up through the San Juan Islands along the western coast of Canada.  Through the islands, the water was calm but there were a few crossings where we met with the open sea where waves were more than thirty feet high.  That meant that we road a wave way up to the peak, and then we were swallowed up, completely surrounded by water on all sides as we sank into the valley between waves.  As a child, I was fascinated but as an experienced seaman, my grandfather was in earnest of crossing the straight safely.  

Because of my experience, I have a different picture of Jesus and Peter out on the Sea of Galilee.  I can see Peter losing sight of Jesus and only being able to see walls of water all around him.  We sometimes fault Peter for having so little faith. But if you were in his shoes, a well seasoned fisherman who knows the dangers well, perhaps his fear would make more sense.  

Fear... isn't that what separates us from everything good?  I don't mean the kind of fear that teaches you not to get too close to a snake or a cliff.  That is respect... not fear.  Fear is irrational... and unreasonable.   Paul calls it "the spirit of fear" (2 Timothy 1:7).  He describes us as being in bondage to it (Romans 8:15).  Fear is the enemy.  If you want to know Satan's agenda for you... consider your deepest fears.  He is driving you by them... driving you away from God's call in your life.  Driving you from the good and towards what is evil.  Fear is like a cattle prod, it's very effective and evil at it's core.  

This is why we are called to take courage.  Like in 1 Chronicles 22:13 "Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed."  Because fear will drive you away from God.

When evil reigns

I was reading in Psalms 110 and wondered.  It feels like a promise of death and destruction and I wondered, "How is this about a loving God full of mercies?  I wonder if many of the psalms of David are a yearning for justice.  I remember a time when I longed for justice.  My life was in the crosshairs of a man who needed to be more powerful than hmmm... me maybe?... or God?.  I pleaded to God for justice... but in this life, justice will not come.  

 Proverbs 28:5  says, "Evil men do not understand justice" Has there ever been a time when that was more true than now?  Actually, as I think about it, yes, there has been.  Many times oppressors have come and invaded land and crushed people.  People groan under the power of evil.  

I wonder, what is the goal of evil?  Is it only about bringing chaos or is there a deeper agenda?  I wonder if the end goal is to cause us all to lose our courage?  I find it interesting that in Revelations 21:8 ("But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”) cowardice is mentioned in the same list with the murderers and sexually immoral.  That can certainly put me in my place.

Satan is subtle if nothing else isn't he?  We can look so "good" on the outside but if fear is ruling our decisions... we are in deeper trouble than we think!  

So where do we turn?  And what do we do?  Listening... I am reminded of Peter in Matthew 14:22-33  when Peter climbed out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus.  At first he leaped out of the boat and walked with Jesus on the water,  But then, for a moment, fear took over, as he realized he was doing the impossible.  His only hope then was to cry out to Jesus for rescue.  

Is it time for us to do the same?