Life That Is Light

Jan31

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

 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:-5, ESV).

In Him was life. And that life was the light of all mankind.

When I focus on Jesus, I have life. When I focus on other things, well, sometimes that life can get sucked out of me.

Like, recently, well actually for a long time now, meal planning and grocery shopping have sucked the life out of me. Why do they want dinner

If it was just me in the house, my eating-out budget would be way bigger than my grocery budget. Just sayin’.

Part of my angst with this issue is that I have to prepare different varieties of each meal because my husband is a vegetarian for health reasons, and my daughter, though she eats most things I make, is still a bit picky. So I can go through recipes and think, ooh, that looks good! and then realize, nope, has meat. Or nope, she doesn’t like pork chops.

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Now some of you might be thinking, don’t cater to the pickiness! And I try not to, but I also want to make things that people are going to like. Why purposely make something like pork chops if I’m the only one gonna eat ’em?

But doing the planning and then going to the grocery store, yeah, life sucking.

But maybe I’m looking at it with wrong eyes. How did Jesus approach food? How did he handle the physical needs of those around Him?

Well, I would like to have faith that my refrigerator would just refill itself like the baskets of loaves and fishes, but I don’t think that’s what God wants for me.

Keep my eyes on Jesus. Do what He has called me to do without grumbling and complaining.

But can I say that I’m happy I’m going on a retreat this weekend and don’t have to cook?

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2020’s Direction? Be a Blessing

Jan10

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for just 5 minutes on a one-word prompt and see what happens. Today’s word is “direction.”

Each year for the past 3 years I have asked God to give me a word for the new year, something that can help focus my attention on something I need to improve, or something He just wants me to be intentional about. First it was “obey,” then it was “trust,” last year it was “let go,” and this year, the direction He has given me seems to be the word “blessing.”

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What I am garnering in talking to Him about this is that He doesn’t want for me to just focus on all the blessings that He so generously has given me, but rather on being a blessing to others. I see that as sometimes happening in very practical ways.

For instance, I order health and home products from an online company and a couple of friends usually add to my order. This month, I used some reward points to get an item for free. The free item ended up working out best to be the one my friend ordered. So instead of just equaling out the cost and both of us saving, I made the decision to give her the benefit of the free item all her own.

Might not seem like that big of a deal, right? In a sense we’ve both earned the points because we both order, though my portion is usually bigger than hers. But I actually struggled with the decision for a few minutes, until God reminded me of the word He had given me just a few days before. I repeated it to myself, something I figure I’m going to be saying often, over and over: “Be a blessing.”

(Adding just a few minutes past the prescribed 5): The working definition I’m going with for “blessing” is this: To bring people closer to God by providing for a physical, emotional or spiritual need. That’s not a dictionary definition. It’s not one I’ve read anywhere, but it seems to be one that works with what I have learned about blessings. It’s not just the #blessed that people post online about all the things that they have; it has more to do with our relationship with God.

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I will be looking for opportunities to be a blessing this year, and I will also be looking to see how God is drawing me closer to Him through those around me.

Happy New Year!

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Darkness Dispelled

Dec13

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

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-5 ESV).

It’s Christmas time, obviously. I love it, and I don’t love it so much in some aspects. I hate the commercialism. I love the lights and the pretty decorations. I hate that sacred songs are used to try to sell stuff. Although I do know that many “sacred” songs were taken from old bar songs and other not-so-sacred arenas.

I also know that we have taken other celebrations from the secular, and even pagan, into our stable of Christian holidays. And I’m really OK with that, for the most part, because I know that when God came into my life, He changed me. He brought His light and it dispelled the darkness.

So taking something that was once used for pagan rituals and making it new follows the gospel narrative, does it not? So when what once was a bar song becomes remade into a hymn of praise to God, I think God smiles.

Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Transformation, that’s what it’s all about.

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So Jesus, coming into the world and bringing the light of life to a dark and musty home for animals, transforms everything He touches. The dirty become clean, the broken become beautiful, the dark become infused with light.

That’s the gospel. That’s the message of Christmas. That’s what the beautiful lights represents.

Darkness is dispelled.

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To Not Know But Be Known

Nov15

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

It seems that we humans like to have things explained. We want to know the why of things. I recently lost one of my beautiful koi to unknown causes. I just went out one morning to the small pond in my front yard, and the water level was extremely low, and one of the two remaining koi I have was dead.

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There didn’t appear to be any reason whatsoever.

My husband has had ulcerative colitis for almost 30 years. They don’t know why. The origin is unknown.

I have another friend who collapsed one morning and was taken to the ER. They have no idea why it happened.

It’s very frustrating to be on the questioning end of the unknown. No amount of researching or exploring seems to be able to answer our questions.

It’s frustrating with the sudden death of animals, and it’s frustrating with medical situations. We don’t like to settle for not knowing, but sometimes, we just have to. But thanks be to God, we can also accept being completely known by Him.

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Wait For It

Oct25

This post is a part of the Five Minute Friday link up. We write for 5 minutes on a one-word prompt and see what happens. Today’s word is “Wait.” 

out to canaanMy 17-year-old daughter, my husband, and I are reading aloud each night from Jan Karon’s wonderful Mitford series. We’re right now on Out to Canaan and one of the big themes in this particular book is “wait.”

Under nefarious circumstances, several different real estate investment firms from Florida are trying to swoop in and buy up properties in the small, North Carolina town of Mitford. All these properties are meaningful to the town’s beloved Episcopal priest, Father Timothy Kavanagh.

When the mansion of a wealthy deceased parishioner, dear to the town—and Father Tim—needs to be sold and an investment company wants to come in and build a spa, Father Tim says he wants to wait 30 days before making a decision on the way-under-value offer.

When the local bakery owned by a dear friend is for sale because she thinks she needs to move to Tennessee, and she’s unsettled about the whole thing, Father Tim advises her to wait on an offer that is way below her asking price, but the only offer that’s come in.

And then, to top it all off, when his very own parsonage goes on the market because he is retiring—in a year!—a full-price, cash offer causes him great concern, especially when they want an answer immediately. He says he wants no action taken for 10 days.

At this point in the book—we’re on chapter 18—we know what happens with 2 of the 3, but we’re still waiting to hear about the 3rd. I don’t want to give any spoilers, so I’ll just say, waiting is not easy, especially when you’re being pressed for action. Sometimes we just want to jump at what’s right in front of us. But waiting, especially when God is asking us to, is always the best thing to do.

IMG_1858Think about Abraham and Sarah. They got anxious about seeing God’s promise fulfilled, so they took things into their own hands. That did not end up well. (See Genesis 16 for the full story.)

Waiting is hard. There’s no doubt about it. But waiting on God is always good.

On that note, I highly recommend Rebecca Brewster Stevenson’s wonderful book Wait: Thoughts and Practice in Waiting on God. 

 

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