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What Do You Know?

May4

Several years ago, when Morgan was only about 4 or 5, her oldest brother went to a birthday party at a park. While they were there, the boys fished in the little lake for minnows. Justin caught one and put it in a little plastic bottle of water to bring home to show us. After showing it to me, he left it on the counter for Dad to see when he got home.

When David arrived, Justin went to get the bottle to show him his prize.

But where was the bottle?

What you need to know now is that young Morgan was in the habit of drinking from whatever cup or bottle she happened to see sitting around.

Morgan!

Sure enough, there in her room was the bottle. Apparently, she had drunk from it. Upon closer inspection, we saw that the fish was dead.

Eww.

Come to find out that the bottle had been full of the clean bottled water, and Justin had put the fish into it. The fish couldn’t survive in that environment, but at least Morgan hadn’t drunk the pond water.

I prayed for God’s mercy on a child’s foolishness, and watched for signs of some dread disease over the next several days. Thankfully, all was well.

My point is this: Sometimes we do things out of ignorance, not knowing that we’re hurting someone else or doing anything wrong. That doesn’t make us innocent, just as Morgan had no less drunk that water, but God’s mercy is great.

When I go clothes shopping or use my iPhone or watch something on TV, I don’t know all that has gone into getting that product into my hands. Has everyone been paid a fair wage for the work they’ve done to make that product? Has the CEO of the company been above board in his tax reporting or hiring practices? Are people anywhere at any time suffering so that I can watch my HDTV?

These are unanswered questions. I can’t follow the manufacturing trail for each and every product I use. Nor can I know the private lives of the executives of the companies from which I buy. I trust that God sees the suffering of the innocent. I don’t purposely buy or use things that have been brought to me by ill-gotten means. But there is evil in the world, and we have dedicated our lives to bringing the gospel into dark places. I just can’t know it all. In order to do that, I’d have to go back to the ways of my ancestors; living off the land I plow and plant, making my own clothes after weaving my own cloth after picking my own cotton. No electricity, no electronics, nothing that did not come by my own hand.

That just isn’t realistic in this day and age.

Pray for the persecuted. Bring the gospel to the lost. Listen to the voice and heart of God.

There is justice in the end. Now there’s something we can know.

Thankful today for:

249. mercy

250. 18 more days of school

251. knowing what’s for dinner

252. a playdate for my girl

253. a surprise in the mail from a friend

254. Facebook posts that make me laugh

500 Hats

May2

Bartholomew Cubbins has nothing on me.

You remember the story:  a poor boy was accused of not taking off his hat as the king went by. Highly offended, the king demanded that Bartholomew remove his hat. Thing was, Bartholomew thought he had. He reached up to his head, and lo and behold, there was a hat there. Bemused, he took the hat off again, and bowed to the king. What’s this? His hat was still on his head! Taken away to the castle to be disciplined for his insolence, Bartholomew kept taking off hats only to find more hats appearing each one the same as the next.

Nobody could figure out what was going on, least of all Bartholomew. But those hats saved him from having his head chopped off, because the executioner could not, by rule, cut off any head with a hat still atop.  Finally it was decided that he would be taken to the highest tower, and pushed to his death by the spoiled Grand Duke, son of the king. But when he stepped through the stairwell onto the roof, this is what happened:

“But when Bartholomew stepped up on the wall, they gasped in amazement. He was wearing the most beautiful hat that had ever been seen in the Kingdom of Didd. It had a ruby larger than any the King himself had ever owned. It had ostrich plumes, and cockatoo plumes, and mockingbird plumes, and paradise plumes. Beside such a hat even the King’s Crown seemed like nothing.” (The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, by Dr. Seuss.)

Sometimes I feel like young Barty. I’m ready to take off the hat I’m wearing–mom, wife, teacher, copy editor–only to find that I’ve got another one waiting underneath it: friend, sister, daughter-in-law, employee. The list is endless, just like Barty’s hats.

Those hats often leave me exhausted, feeling like I’m facing the executioner, not meaning to be trying to do things on my own, but somehow ending up that way.

But on my way to being pushed off the parapet by life itself, I reach back for one more hat; the most glorious one, the one that will save my life: Daughter of the King. Ah. Rest for my soul.

Isn’t it a beautiful thing?

Thankful today for:

243. my position in Christ

244. convenient grocery stores

245. the Starbucks gift cards I still have left from my birthday

246. sunshine

247. my husband being home

248. haircut day

The Truth is in the Fiction

Apr28

I just finished reading Jan Karon’s Home to Holly Springs, the first in the Father Tim series of novels. My husband first got me interested in these special books, of which this is a kind of “prequel,” which take place in a Blowing Rock-esque town in western North Carolina. He grew up around there, and I can hear his kin in the language of the people Karon paints.

I had a friend on Goodreads call the books “comfortable.” I agree. They are a place of calm in a busy world.

Anyway, this conversation between Father Tim and his new friend, T, at Tim’s childhood home in Mississippi struck me.  I don’t want to give anything away in case anyone wants to read the book, so I’ll just say that Tim is facing something very difficult, and T questions him about it.

“How does knowin’ God help you out in a case like this?”

“I believe He has a purpose for everything. I believe He’ll bring good out of this, maybe even a way I won’t like very much. It’s His call, not mine.”

“Seems like any God a’tall would want you down here bustin a gut, not leavin’ it all up to Him.”

“Seems like. But it doesn’t work that way. We’ve got to let Him do the heavy lifting. We’ve got to grunt, that’s for sure, but we’ve got to let Him lift. The challenge is to trust Him. Right now, I’m trusting Him. Running a little scared, but trusting Him.”

Amen.

Thankful today for:

234. air conditioning

235. Sunday morning

236. only two more nights alone

“Mirror, Mirror”

Apr21

I saw “Mirror, Mirror” (a different telling of the Snow White story) with Morgan last night. I enjoyed it. I’ve always liked Julia Roberts, and I think she did a great job in the role of wicked stepmother. But the take-away I got was this: “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30). I’m going to keep drilling that into my daughter, beautiful though she is on the outside. That won’t last, baby; cultivate the inside. It’s so much more important.

Thankful today for:

213. time with my daughter

214. my boys enjoying a guys retreat with the youth–doing guy things

215. a new recipe to try


Five Lessons From Hermit Crabs

Apr16

Having recently added hermit crabs to our household menagerie, I’ve learned a few things about life from them. Here they are:

1. Just because I burrow under and keep to myself for a season, it doesn’t mean I’m depressed or sad or anything of the sort. It just means I need some time to myself.

2. Molting requires a feeling of safety. If I’m not comfortable with you, I will not be shedding my “skin” (it’s actually an exoskeleton in a crab). That takes way too much vulnerability.

3. You can’t judge me by my name. Hermits have a reputation of wanting to be left alone, but hermit crabs actually like the company of  other crabs. Just because I call myself a Californian, or a mom, or a wife, or a writer, or a Christian, you can’t let your preconceived notions color who you think I am. Get to know me, why don’t you?

4. Sometimes I make a mess of things, but that’s just the way I am. I don’t mean any harm.

5. If you see me hanging on for dear life, don’t just stand there, have the trampoline ready! But don’t try to rescue me; sometimes I get in tight spots just to see what will happen. That’s a faith adventure!

Thankful today for:

194. sleeping in my own bed

195. a no-homework week

196. hand lotion

197. caffeine free diet Dr. Pepper

198. talented photographers

199. creative friends

200. my back porch

201. text messaging

202. ministry partners

203. time