The Eternal “Why?”

May14

This post is a part of my 10-minute Tuesday series. I take a one-word prompt and write for 10 minutes without heavy editing and see what happens. Heresy? Hopefully not! Just realize that things are not necessarily fully thought through. Consider it food for thought.

When my kids turned 3, they all entered the “why?” stage. Any answer they were given or thing they were told always prompted the question, “Why?” from them. Not wanting to squelch curiosity, I would answer as much as I could, but eventually I would grow weary of it and say, “Just because!”

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Somehow, “why?” is a question we want answered all the way through our lives. It’s something we challenge God with often. And it’s not something that we get an answer to very often. “Why do I have to go to bed now?” turns into “Why is this happening to me?” Why do I have to suffer? Why is my child dealing with cancer? Why did you let my husband die?

Unlike us, God does not grow weary of our questions, but on the other hand, He doesn’t choose to answer our “whys” very often either.

Maybe “why?” isn’t actually the right question. Maybe we need to be asking, “How can I know You better through this?” What can I learn about You? How am I going to walk with You through this? How are You going to reveal yourself to me?

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I don’t think God cares that we ask, I just don’t think He owes us an explanation. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I don’t think that’s quite the equivalent of “because I’m the mom, that’s why,” but there is a strong element of trust that needs to go into our life with the Lord. We know from Romans that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romas 8:28). As C.S. Lewis said, “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

For our good and His glory. That’s why.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

May10

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt without heavy editing and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “practice.”

Everyone has heard the saying, “practice makes perfect.” Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s a lie.

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Let’s say you are learning to play the piano. You have a piece of sheet music in front of you, but you have never actually heard the piece before. So you do your best, practicing and practicing to memorize the music.

Then a music teacher comes along and asks you to play the piece you’ve been working on. So you pull out that music you’ve been practicing and, lo and behold, you find out you’ve been playing parts of it incorrectly the whole time!

So did all your practice make that piece perfect? No. So, I am thinking the saying needs to be “perfect practice makes perfect.” You really need to know that what you’re practicing is the right thing.

My sister in law and her husband just divorced after more than 30 years of marriage. One of their main problems was that neither of them knew how to communicate. She would point out things that he was doing wrong; he would acknowledge that and work to change his ways. After awhile, he would think, Huh, I must be doing OK because she hasn’t said anything. Meanwhile, she’s seeing him slide back into old habits and think, He’s just doing things the way he always did them, so he must not care! Why even bother saying anything?

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The problem was that he had been practicing imperfectly. And he didn’t have anyone around to show him where he was going wrong. If you take two broken people who spent too many years playing the piece the wrong way, and only one of them wants to put the work into learning the music correctly, well, giving up is inevitable.

Coaching—in music, in sports, in life, in marriage—is essential.

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Dust to Dust

Apr30

This post is a part of my 10-Minute Tuesday series, but with a twist. I am not stopping at the 10-minute mark, but I am using a one-word prompt. Today, in honor of the new “Avengers: Endgame” movie, my word is “dusted.”

Don’t worry. Even though I’ve seen the new Avengers movie, this post will not contain any spoilers. If, however, you haven’t seen “Infinity War” or “Captain Marvel,” you may want to come back later.

My family and I are big Marvel fans. We own all the movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and somehow my kids have gotten me to go to the last few pretty close to opening weekend. When we know one is coming, we put it on the calendar and await the day.

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We knew “Infinity War” would be a hard one to watch, and we were right. It’s terrifying to watch a war unfold that you believe can’t be won by the good guys. Marvel threw every super hero into the mix, and no one could stand up to Thanos. He was that powerful. And with all the infinity stones in hand, he seemed unstoppable.

Before Nick Fury blew away as so many dust particles, he used his little communicator to send a message. For fans of the Marvel comics, that symbol on his screen spelled hope: Captain Marvel. Surely we were saved.

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But still we walked away from “Infinity War” with a heavy heart. Half our heroes were decimated by one snap of Thanos’ fingers, and though we wanted to believe they weren’t all dead—we knew there were other Marvel movies coming, after all—we didn’t know who we’d eventually have to say good bye to. It was just too much.

The entrance of Captain Marvel in her solo movie introduced us to a warrior who had come into her own. She realized who she was. She stopped listening to the lies being told to her. She finally allowed all the power that was hers for the taking to shine through.

And we believed that she would be the one to finally help defeat Thanos.

Thanos made his choice to destroy half of all living creatures in the universe seem like he was doing everyone a favor. Resources were limited. There were just too many people on every planet to sustain it. So he made himself supreme and took it upon himself to decide who lives and who dies.

The chosen were dusted. The rest were left to mourn.

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Sometimes, there doesn’t seem to be a solution to all the evil that is in the world. You might solve one problem, but then another crops up to take its place. There will always be another villain. The poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized, they will always be among us because someone will always want to be the conqueror.

Inherent in all of us is the knowledge that nobody should have the right to decide with one snap who lives and who’s dusted. I haven’t heard of anyone applauding Thanos. He didn’t choose to wipe out only the “bad guys.” The criminals. The sociopaths. The psychopaths. His decision was seemingly without thought. It was obviously without remorse. He really didn’t care who lived or died, or he would have just taken out all the Avengers. Why let any of them live?

Deep down inside, we want things to be fair. We want justice. We want good to triumph. Wouldn’t it be great if we could know the end of the story while we’re still watching? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that Good wins in the end?

Here’s a life spoiler alert: He does.

 

photo credits: comicbook.com, mcucosmic.com, wallpapersden.com

Just One Touch

Apr26

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for 5 minutes on a prompt without any heavy editing and see what happens. Today’s prompt is “touch.”

All she thought she needed was to touch the hem of His robe. She knew that He had healed others and she had waited a long, long time for God to heal her from her affliction.

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The crowds pressed in, but she pushed through and reached out her hand.

Just a touch.

Just His robe.

That would be enough.

And it was. She knew as soon as she touched him that she was healed. She felt the effects in her body.

And He felt the effects in His. “Somebody touched Me,” He said to His disciples.

The disciples shrugged it off. The crowds were tight around them. Of course someone touched Him. How could they not.

But He knew it was different. He knew that someone with faith had purposely reached out to Him, longing to be healed.

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He stopped, He saw the woman, and He reached out to her. “And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace'” Luke 8:47-48.

Jesus sees you. Reach out in faith. He doesn’t always bring physical healing, we know that. But He will always bring peace.

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Do The Next Thing

Apr19

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for just 5 minutes without heavy editing on a one-word prompt. Today we talk about the word “next.” 

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed fairly easily. I can look at all the things I have to do, all the things that are coming up, and stress about what that’s going to look like to my low-energy body. And I have a heart rhythm issue that rears its ugly head when I am stressed. This week had that over-stressed potential.

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My husband has been gone this week, my daughter and mother in law, who lives with us, have both been sick, and life still had to go on. I still had to have food in the house. I still had to care for my 15-month-old grandson most of those days.

And then our water heater went out.

And I have 36 people coming for Easter.

And my oldest is graduating from college in a couple of weeks.

And now I’ve got the cold my daughter had, albeit a light version.

So how do I maintain peace and not let the stress, well, stress me out?

Just do the next thing. Don’t look too far down the road. Just take the next step.

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And I breathe deeply, letting the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

It’s oh so necessary.

Especially when I just now got a text that my husband’s flight home this afternoon has been cancelled.

Breathe in peace. Breathe out stress. Breathe in peace. Breathe out stress.

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