Monday, August 31, 2009

What now?

A new season is upon me. I am no longer a stay-at-home mom. A stay-at-home wife yes, but as for mothering, it’s all long-distance now.

We spent last week driving our daughter 22 hours north to her new home, a small Christian college in gorgeous Mid-Atlantic country ,where she will busy herself with new friends, continue to swim competitively and study art. She is experiencing a little of heaven on earth today, and for that I am truly grateful.

But what now for this mom, this leader-learner lady, this former school principal turned Christian writer, Bible teacher and mentor? God only knows, and I take comfort in the fact that He does.

Today, He reminded me that He has plans for me. I love it when God is so obvious, don’t you? And not only obvious, but often humorous! In the past few weeks I’ve been reading The New Eve: Choosing God’s Best for Your Life by Robert Lewis. I took it with me on the trip thinking I’d continue reading, but of course was too busy, or at least too distracted. So this morning when I picked up the book, I hadn’t the foggiest notion of where I had left it last. I opened to my page marker, my latest memory verse index card, and was stopped in my tracks. After shedding tears of joy and sorrow this morning over this change of season, I found myself staring at the next subsection in the book entitled “Married Empty Nester”. Now you tell me that isn’t evidence of God’s living activity! And to think He cared enough to orchestrate such timing! I must wipe away my tears and rejoice in such amazing love.

So what now? God only knows. But I can be assured of this – as long as I continue to pursue Him and His plan, He will continue to show up and guide me along the path. I pray that you, too, recognize God’s living leadership in your life today.

Monday, August 17, 2009

The Greatest Joy

“The greatest joy is knowing God.” This truth greets me every morning on the back porch as I sit on my swing awaiting my dog to return from her morning toddle around the yard. It is engraved in a simple flower pot that a dear friend gave me years ago, which occasionally even has a flower in it, thanks to my loving husband.

Most of us have at best a mere taste of this “greatest joy”. This ultimate joy is not in knowing about God – God is the Big Man in the sky, the one to whom many pay homage on Sundays. It is not in knowing who God is – God is the Almighty, the King, made known to man in the flesh of Jesus Christ. This utmost joy is not even in knowing God’s many attributes – such as love, patience, graciousness, faithfulness, justice and mercy.

No, these ways of knowing are merely academic. Most people with the ability to learn can be taught about God, who He is and what He is like. Just like a math course, knowledge of God at a certain level can be obtained through scholarly study of the curriculum. God’s curriculum is, of course, His Word. But these types of knowledge do not bring the greatest joy.

The maximum joy that we can experience is “knowing”, not knowledge. I know a lot about Erwin McManus these days. He is one of my new favorite authors. His full name is Erwin Raphael McManus and he pastors the Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, California. According to the Wide Awake book jacket, he is an author, speaker, activist, filmmaker and innovator originally from El Salvador. He’s married to Kim. They have two children and a foster daughter. And that’s just a snippet.

From reading his book, I can tell he is all about dreaming and pursuing God-sized dreams. He admits to getting bored easily, having trouble completing things, and losing focus on the finish line. (Does this give you a clue why I might relate so well to him?) He is easily distracted and probably ADHD. (By the way, there is often a direct correlation between ADHD and intellectual giftedness.) Ironically, he has completed more things in half a lifetime than most men in a full one. Most importantly, he loves the one true God in all of His three persons.

I know a lot about Erwin. But I don’t know him from Adam. I only dream of the someday when I will meet him, fellowship with him, and collaborate with him. (How’s that for being an optimist!) Only then can I truly say I know him on some level.

“The greatest joy is knowing God.” Jesus said to His Father, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). We often think of eternal life as simply "forever life". But it is so much more! It is forever joy, a joy that comes from knowing God! And it begins on the day we believe.

Jesus said, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, (the ability to know God, the greatest joy!), and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40). This belief happens now, on earth, while we are yet in the flesh. And God’s promise is that with belief comes eternal life, a forever life of knowing God not just knowing about Him.

Have you truly believed? If so, have you truly embraced this great promise of God – the opportunity to know Him intimately, not just intellectually? This never ending, supernatural fellowship with God is indeed the greatest joy!

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Living Water Well

It is definitely summertime in Texas, where the temps are hovering around 100 degrees. When it gets hot, there are two things we can do: either embrace the heat or avoid it.

If you’re like me, you probably avoid it as much as possible by staying indoors in the cool air-conditioning with a glass of pink lemonade! (Of course, this choice is doing nothing for my tan.) Or if you’re like my in-laws, you may avoid it by vacationing in a cooler place, like the Colorado Mountains. If you stay a month like they do, you can not only avoid the heat, but avoid a high electricity bill, too. Pretty smart!

The other choice we have when it gets hot is to embrace it. Those who do this will usually draw near to a body of water – like a lake, an ocean, or a swimming pool – and have an ice chest of water handy. They know their bodies were not made to endure excessive heat too long. They must keep their temperature down and body hydrated.

There are other kinds of heat that we experience in life. Financial struggles. Relationship issues. Work stress. When we experience such things, guess what. We handle these kinds of heat in the same two ways – by avoiding or embracing.

We often avoid the heat of life by withdrawing, hiding, secluding ourselves from the issue, from family and from friends. If we do this for too long, we may find ourselves lonely and depressed. It then becomes easier to befriend things we shouldn’t, like drugs or alcohol or forbidden fellows.

Another way we avoid the heat of life is to take a vacation like my in-laws in a less heated place. It may be a physical removal from the heated situation, or it may be a running away of sorts, taking an emotional or intellectual vacation from the situation at hand. On occasion this may be exactly what the Great Physician orders. But, making a habit of running to work or to hobbies can be a way of escaping rather than embracing a difficult reality.

Instead, God wants us to embrace the heat we find ourselves in, and trust Him to use it to mold us, like metal in a fire. Regardless of how we got in the hot seat, God can use the heat of the fire to burn away our impurities and soften us, making us more pure and pliable for His beautiful use. God will use those heated times to make us more like Christ if we will embrace the heat in the right way. To embrace the heat of life, just like a hot day, we must surround ourselves with plenty of water, the Living Water.

John 7:37-39 says, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, `From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' "But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

But now Jesus has been glorified, at the resurrection; and just as He promised he left behind His Holy Spirit, the Living Water, to live in those who believe in Him. Jesus said it will flow from within. When we are walking in a right relationship with God, nothing will stand in the way of the Living Water well flowing freely inside us. It bubbles up to overflowing, so that we may drink from it all the time.

In John chapter 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Jesus emphasized we must “drink”. It is an action, and an ongoing one. Even though we are given the deposit of the Holy Spirit, we must choose to drink of His Living Water every day.

On a hot summer day in Texas, a drink of water refreshes our parched mouths, regulates our body temperatures, and replenishes our dehydrated bodies. Similarly, the Living Water – the Holy Spirit of God – will refresh our emotions, regulate our minds and replenish our souls.

When the heat is on, deal with it, embrace it and conquer it by drinking continually from the well of Living Water that God has put inside you!