Back to School

You are a tall, burning candle.
The light of Christ radiates from your heart. Your heart that has resisted conforming to the world.
Instead, you are TRANSFORMED! The true “trans” generation!

Transformation inevitable as
Your eyes take in the words of Scripture,
Your mind wrestles with their import,
Your heart pushes against the call to submit to your Creator,
Resisting the bowed will and the humble heart.

He respects your struggle.
He won’t coerce.
He waits.
He quietly loves you.

And you at last catch a glimpse of His beauty.
A spark of His love ignites your soul.
You submit and
Transformation glows
In the core of your being.

You are not your own.
Bought with a price,
And are therefore more authentically you than the shell that the world wants to shape.

So, you walk the school hallways
As a light,
Shattering darkness.

You see people from the calm assurance of one who is deeply loved – every fiber of your essence.
And you genuinely love those He brings your way.
In hallways,
In classrooms,
During lunchtime,
Walking out of the building.

You are a tall, burning candle
Pushing back darkness,
Showing the Way,
Wafting the alluring fragrance of life and hope.

May your heart be open to those around you.
May school be your place of growing,
Stretching your brain,
Your courage,
Your comfort.

As you stand tall and unashamed,
Full of compassion and truth,
A flame illuminating the Way.

Strong Women

I am a strong woman.

 

I heard recently that with my particular body type, the hormones and chemicals that are my make-up, I am like a Warrior Princess. Like an Amazonian woman. I am Wonder Woman!

 

That struck me as true.

 

Physically, I can do hard stuff. I can run far. I can lift heavy things. I can fast for a long time. I can push myself to get things done.

 

My personality is robust!

 

I love meeting new people. I am happy to go places alone. I am fine with talking to people that have different views. I am resilient.

 

So, reading that I am a Warrior Princess set off a cascade of emotion and thought. It felt like a relief! I realize that I default to holding back. To keeping myself at bay. To holding myself in check as much as I can. 

 

It’s not bad to keep myself in check, but it may also be good to embrace the strength itself. Rather than regret my strength of character, how can I make it available to the stuff God calls me to do?

 

All these bubbling thoughts have unexpectedly crept into my daily living. 

 

I notice that I am a bit more impatient. A bit more prone to boldly speaking my mind. 

 

Even if God created me to be Wonder Woman, something seems amiss with the way I exude my “strength.” In fact, it doesn’t seem strong at all. It seems weak.

 

“Be completely humble and gentle….” Ephesians 4:2

 

There is the true strength I need!!

 

The strength of God Himself to do what flies against my very nature! Human nature, actually. 

 

Even though I’m Wonder Woman in a way, I am simply a woman. All my good strength comes directly from Him. Therefore, “in humility value others above yourselves.” Philippians 2:3 

 

Jesus is ultimate Strength! He is God! He is also ultimate Humility. He left the rightful vestiges of power and put on human flesh to suffer torture and death. 

 

And gentleness!! 

According to the Baker’s Bible Dictionary biblical gentleness means: “Sensitivity of disposition and kindness of behavior, founded on strength and prompted by love.”

 

The gentleness of Jesus!! He is the Lion and the Lamb! He has ultimate strength, but also unmatched restraint and kindness. 

 

An example of the gentle power of Jesus: “Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly? But if I did, how would the Scriptures be fulfilled that describe what must happen now?” Matthew 26:53-54

 

May I be strong like Jesus!! Completely humble and gentle.

 

So, as I navigate the nuances of my daily life, I embrace my inner Amazonian princess!! I am glad to remember that I can do hard things. I can be strong. 

 

But, when my strength becomes weak, impatient, and insensitive, I grab that tiny scrap of Scripture: “Be completely humble and gentle.”

 

I remember Jesus- the amazing power of God to restrain His limitless strength by being so gentle with people like me.

 

Lord, make me like You.

 

Yes, I am a strong woman. By the power of Christ in me, I am strong enough to be completely humble and gentle.

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It Is Well

Though the money runs out before the paycheck comes in…. It is well with my soul.

Though political and social upheaval unsettle my world and even my mind…. It is well with my soul.

Though just the right job that suits my passions and my strengths eludes me…. It is well with my soul.

Though the corn dog casserole flips upside down onto the kitchen floor just in time for dinner…. It is well with my soul.

Though my unconscious, unrelenting commitment to self over others brings relational brokenness …. It is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul.

On the deepest level.

God fills the emptiness.

He imbues with deep, eternal purpose that which seems meaningless and futile.

He Himself pulses peace in the heartbreak of grief.

He radiates brilliant beauty in drab, dirty, darkness.

He supplies unnatural hope when it seems there is no way out.

He inundates abundance over the mean and meager.

When there is nothing left in me He blasts His mighty strength through my feeble weakness.

When anger wells up and threatens to lay waste, His arrows of humility and wisdom level my pride.

When daily living seems like endless drudgery, I light a candle. The single, brilliant white flame reminds me that He is right here. I can hardly avert my gaze. Relief and deep comfort.

May I continue to serve faithfully and gladly by the power of Your presence.

And so.

It is well with my soul.

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What’s Better Than Blessings?

It’s all about Him, really.

Which is a relief.

Our souls ache to worship. So it’s funny that when I stumble onto the immovable truth that it’s all about Him, I’m often surprised.

I remember reading Psalm 66:8 which says, “Bless our God, O peoples.” Except that I literally glanced at the words and thought they said, “Bless our people, O God.” I’m so used to asking for God’s blessing, and I don’t think of blessing Him.

Sometimes I ache for words to be a part of my being. I wish I could swallow them and they would radiate from my inner being into every fiber.

Ephesians 3:20-21 is like that for me.

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

I have learned to pray bold prayers with this verse. Tiny glimpses of “far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” shoot into my brain, and I’m overwhelmed. Actually, when I get a hint of these tiny glimpses, the prayer request itself pales dramatically in comparison to the One I’m praying to.

The ability of God to do abundantly more than I can imagine seems like an aside. It’s sandwiched in the main point. “Now to him.”

The main point is God.

Even my hope to conquer my own pervasive sinfulness and live out of His righteousness isn’t about me.

“Your people shall all be righteous… that I might be glorified.” Isaiah 60:21

We have friends who served the Kurds in Iraq for many years. Well-meaning Americans would sympathize with them about the brutal summer temperatures. Our friends bluntly told them, “We’re not here for the weather.”

“Now to him.”

2 Timothy 2:4 has soaked into the fiber of these friends: “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”

My life is full of “civilian pursuits.” Shopping and cooking and laundry and cleaning. Such good stuff. But may I not be entangled in these pursuits. May they not be an end of themselves.

I long to get all messy in the daily stuff of life with my precious people as I live with and for Him. To summon my energy and heart that I may give my best as I cook breakfast and drive kids to karate and talk to my neighbor.

And I continue to pray for blessing!! He delights in blessing His children! But the true blessing that I long for is Jesus. Empty and pointless are blessings without the beautiful Blesser Himself.

As C.S. Lewis said, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

We were made for more than obtaining blessings! He has made our souls to be caught up in His grand, Kingdom purposes! That we would be part of the blessing. And ultimately that He would be lifted up.

“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us—
so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.”
Psalm 67:1-2

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Am I Efficient or Effective?

There was a day when all the laundry was done. I mean DONE. Everything was washed, dried, folded, and put away, and the baskets were empty.

That had been kind of a pipe dream of mine. The day when all the laundry was done. I got to live the dream! I got to experience the exhilaration and heady joy!

But it didn’t feel like I imagined. There wasn’t complete satisfaction. In fact, there was more than a little echo of emptiness. I was honestly surprised that achieving momentary success in this one overwhelming area didn’t come with more fulfillment.

Stephen Covey once said that efficiency isn’t the goal. Effectiveness is.

I’ve never been a particularly streamlined person. So I regularly get determined bouts of “efficiency.” Just this morning I’ve adopted a new checklist for each of my kids, so they can have a tangible, daily way to mark their school progress. Oh, I do love that. I love tools that make things run more smoothly.

But, in the end, I have to remember that my goal for my kids isn’t a streamlined schedule.

In the end I long for each of my kids to live out their purpose. To know God and to make Him known in their beautifully unique way.

And a checklist on a big index card could be one happy tool to that end. But it’s only a happy tool to the degree that it helps accomplish the main purpose.

So there is value in keeping the house clean, the meals on time and nutritious, and all the homeschool boxes checked daily. But it’s not the main goal.

There are days when the cursive paper isn’t completed, but instead I’ve spent an hour snuggled up with my daughter reading “Little Women.” Part of my hope for this tender girl is that as she grows she will learn to be kind to all sorts of people, even to those who may hurt her. So, as we get lost in the world of our friends the March sisters, we talk about Amy’s amazing feat when she chose to forgive and serve her enemy at the art fair. We marvel at how the four sisters cheerfully gave their Christmas breakfast to a poor family. And this hour deepens Bekah’s resolve to be different from most people and to stand up for kindness.

So, it’s not efficient. We weren’t able to check off the cursive box that day. But it was effective in helping to mold her heart a tiny bit more into the purposes He has for her.

It’s not an easy call, of course. The tools of efficiency are a great boon in helping me to be effective.

But when I’m tossed in the turbulence of self-reproach as my systems come unglued, or maybe worse, when I’m self-satisfied with a smoothly operating machine, I just want to check in with the One who clearly defines what is actually effective in my little world.

May I not squander these precious, formative years of raising my amazing people by simply checking boxes and keeping the laundry basket empty.

May I revel in the many messes and pray that some of them affect progress in important life goals.

May my kids appreciate order and efficiency to the degree that it helps them be God’s.

You Were Made For Eternity

I know you. You get up in the morning and hit the floor running. Lots of responsibility. Nourishing food for the family. Lining up activities that will get the kids off the screens for a little while. Swimming, library, visits with friends, VBS. Keeping their bodies and minds active until school starts again in two more months.

You sound just like me!

And you don’t mind the hustle bustle of the days too much. It’s kind of fun, really. But in your soul you recognize a little ache. A yearning. On behalf of these great kids and your husband and you, really.

There comes the whisper, “You were made for eternity.” And you ache for more substance under girding the pool and the watermelon and evening walks around the block.

“My soul finds rest in God alone.” Psalm 62:1

In the summer craziness it’s hard to find quiet pockets of routine to ground you. That daily half hour to open the Bible and soak in the whispers of God. It seems like just another task on the list until you are there with Him alone as He hydrates your spirit. Back into the fray you go! But with a tinge of quiet power.

And you choose activities with more of an aim at fulfilling the eternal purposes of your family. Or maybe you choose to let go of some activities with that aim.

You read missionary biographies or David Platt as a family. And you pray for people. And, together, you seek His heart for the next step. You sense it’s time to get your hands dirty in service in your community or world. Or you finds ways as a family to give money to a cause that won’t leave your heart. Or you wait expectantly and prayerfully for clear direction.

And the purpose in your heart gives deeper passion and joy to all the other stuff. A vibrant hope surges as you play and plan. A relief to be investing in eternal things. You know that for now and for you, this is what you were made for.

And you hit the pillow at night, thankful to recharge and pour yourself out tomorrow.