​Retirement from teaching has brought so many beautiful things to my days, the greatest being time with grandkids and the second thing that I have truly enjoyed is reading.  I went to the library for the first time in more than twenty years looking for books to read for fun.  Not books for an article I was writing, a class I was teaching or a talk I was preparing for but books simply for the pleasure of reading.  I forgot what it felt like to get lost in a book and turn page after page not worrying about papers to grade or lessons to plan and it’s been delightful.  I’ve been reading from a series of Christian fiction books that connect Scripture to real people and time periods and events.  One was literally the book of Tobit set in the California gold rush days.  Another series followed a group of Roman, Jewish and Greek characters living about thirty years after the death of Jesus.  It’s amazing how so many of the places and events from both the Old and New Testament come to life through these fictitious folks.  The story revolves around the characters who are new Christians and the ways they are working to tell the story and bring others to the love of Jesus.  Their courage and passion is inspiring and I often finish a chapter thinking I have so much discipleship to gain.
The people in the story live with a peace and a faith that blows my mind.  They face persecution and death with such joy knowing choosing to follow Jesus is everything.  Many times lately I’ve had the thought, sure I’m faithful when things are going well, but I often fall asleep wondering how my faith would look if I really faced hardship.  It doesn’t take me long to be honest and admit I probably wouldn’t be the towering pillar of strength and courage I might imagine I’d be.  The Lord is really using these stories to make me think and pray.  In the middle of these thoughts a few Sundays ago we heard the words from Paul to the Corinthians at Mass where he urged and encouraged the early Christians to bear up against their struggle and “light affliction”.  For the early Christians, light affliction included things like floggings, public humiliation, prison time, starvation, slavery or a trip to the arena with lions and other wild animals.  They referred to all of this as light and momentary because they longed for the Glory of God.  Their love of Jesus totally washed away their fear and they would be held in the dungeons below the arena for days or weeks waiting and all the while they were singing songs of praise and spreading the works of the Lord to every guard or prisoner they could.  I’m pretty sure I’d be curled up in a corner!
 
St. Paul also encouraged the Corinthians to live with a spirit of joy, peace and forgiveness in the midst of affliction.  I don’t know about you but if I’m being “afflicted” I’m usually trying to think about how to make it go away not about how to be joyful and forgiving.  St. Paul’s words are for us too, even today.  It’s probably a really good thing I wasn’t one of the first Christians; thank goodness God knew that and didn’t create me to live then.  It would be easy for me to think about all this and feel like a lousy disciple because I couldn’t do what they did or that my life today is such a piece of cake compared to theirs, but the truth is, God has a different plan for me.  I got stuck comparing afflictions and that never works out well.  I think I was missing the point!  God doesn’t love us more if our afflictions and struggles are bigger or harder.  We don’t “get a better seat” in heaven if we’ve slugged our way through a really messy life.  His love is the same…the reward is the same but it’s about  HOW we include him in our affliction and not HOW BIG the affliction is.  Scripture promises we will have trouble but what do we do with it when it comes? Let’s be honest, we never invite it or desire it, but it shows up…that’s life. Sometimes the trouble is gigantic and sometimes it’s a mole hill we turn into  a mountain.   Instead of growling at it or hiding from it or blaming 5 dozen people for it. we need to face it for what it is…a chance to trust, a chance to hope, a chance to grow and above all else…offering and inviting Jesus into our affliction is how we bring Glory to God and get to heaven.  One of the book characters again and again says, “Lord, whatever pleases you, allow me to be a part of it.”  I think my prayer would add, “Just drag me through it because you know what’s going on and what lies on the other side of this affliction that I’m trowin a fit about!” When one of the characters was sent into the arena with hungry lions, she said, “Lord, send the hungriest lion my way so I can call out your name and come home to you.”  Thank goodness there are no lions in my life so perhaps I’ll start with “Lord, send the ridiculous drivers, or the cranky person, or the car repair, or the broken washer, or the illness, or the squabbling kids, or the ungrateful boss so I can call out your name and use this affliction to grow closer to heaven.”
 
A Seed To Plant:  Make a list of your current afflictions and talk to the Father about how to include him in them.
 
Blessings on your day!

I’ve always loved this verse from Psalm 119, and I associate it with that picture of a sandal footed man carrying a lantern walking down a dark path.  The thing about that lamp though, is that it really only lights up the next step and not much beyond it.  The lamp is great, but it doesn’t illuminate the whole journey…it just gives enough light to do the next thing.  God is that light for us but like the lamp, he only reveals the next step, and we have to trust him with the rest but there are so many times I think I’d be a better disciple if I knew what was coming so I could prepare and make a plan. 
 
Sometimes our human nature wants to plan, organize and prepare.  We like to have choices and weigh our options, usually looking for things that are most comfortable and convenient.  Those things chip away at our surrender and trust and make it more difficult to be overwhelmed by the loving care of the Father.  We pick straightforward and He chooses loops and sidetracks which always contain surprises.  We pick what’s good for us and He gives us tricky and yucky and sad in order to draw us close to his love and protection.  We pick predictable while He picks surprising.  We pick comfortable and He picks bold and uncomfortable.  He does all these things because He knows what we need beyond the next step, and He knows how we need to be formed so we can take that step.
Twelve years ago, He led me to write the first Joyful Words post and He’s been leading me ever since.  Each post is literally like that lamp just showing the next post and not beyond.  I don’t have a file of pre-written future blogs; I just trust Him to send me what He wants typed always hoping I’m careful to use His words trusting they will be the message one of His beloved needs to hear.  A dozen years is a long time to do something you never planned to do in the first place but as long as the Holy Spirit keeps sending words, I’ll keep typing them. As I prepare to write the 12th year of posts, I decided to do a little googling and discovered that the number 12 in Scripture is symbolic of perfection, entirety and order.  I giggled thinking this blog is not those three things but maybe He can use my perfectly imperfect words to touch a heart.  The blogs don’t contain His entire message and teaching but hopefully He’ll help me pick a piece that speaks encouragement and truth.  As far as order goes, I hope the posts are a weekly reminder about putting God first in the order of our days. The googling also reminded me that there were 12 tribes of Israel, 12 gates and 12 foundations to the New Jerusalem, and there were 12 Apostles.   That’s a lot of important twelves! Again and again, He reminds us he is the gate, the foundation, the leader and the way the truth and the light.  Thanks to the number twelve for some great reminders.
 
As each blog anniversary rolls around, I wonder how much longer He’ll ask me to write, and I realize the answer is much like the lamp that just shows the next step. As I begin writing for the twelfth year my understanding with the Holy Spirit remains the same; I’ll keep writing as long as people keep reading.  Hopefully we can all grab a thought or two that can help us take that next good step.
 
A Seed To Plant:  Spend some time praying with this scripture verse and the image of illuminating the next good step.
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Blessings on your day!
 

​Do any of you have a person in your life that is brutally honest with you?  You know, that person who will tell you just like it is and is not one bit afraid to call the kettle black!  This type of person has an amazing ability to leave you breathless with one quick sentence.  The outcome is often the same…we stop, steam a bit, and then take some time to realize they just spoke a truth.   We may not like the sound of it but it turns out very often to be something we need to hear.  I heard a story several years ago about a person just like this. 

The story goes like this; a wife told her husband that she wanted to take part in a new Bible study group at the church on Tuesday nights.  He replied “another one? “ “Yeah” she snapped, “You got a problem with that Mr. I go bowling and hunting and fishing and never go to church with my wife on Sunday?”  The husband smiled and said, “I wouldn’t mind at all if you went to another Bible study, but I don’t see any evidence that you’ve used anything you’ve learned at the last 12 Bible studies you’ve already gone to.”  Ouch!  There was that one honest line that left her breathless!  After four days of not talking, no cooking, sleeping on the couch and no communication what-so-ever, she realized he was right!  She hadn’t changed one bit despite all the time, energy and resources she’d invested in her former studies.  On day 5 she got up the courage to look him in the eyes and tell him he was right!  She surprised her husband even further when she told him she wanted to make a deal with him.  She said she would be willing to spend her time reviewing all the materials she already had instead of going to another Bible study if he would agree to go to church with her if he began to see her using what she had learned.

I don’t know how the story ended, but I have a hunch!  St. James used some very simple words in this verse, words many of us, just like the lady in the story are challenged by; being doers of the word and not just hearers.  I may aspire to be the town’s greatest cook and I may buy cookbook after cookbook, and I might discuss cooking and recipes with others but none of that will really make me a great cook!  I have to DO it…I have to roll up my sleeves, dig into the words and put them into action!  I have to take a risk and be willing to get messy and goof it up a few times before I get it right!  God doesn’t want to hear what we know; he wants to SEE what we know.  Easier said than done for sure but now is the time to dig in and be a DOER of the word!

A seed to plant: Read James Chapter 1 and pick two things that hit your heart.  Write down how you will “DO” those two things this week!

Blessings on your day!

I’m sorry for the “delay” in todays post but it seems “delay” has been the word of the week.  As I type, I’m sitting in an airport waiting again.  I’ve logged 20 hours of airport waiting since Monday afternoon and it’s been full of lessons.  I’ve been booked, re-booked, stand by assigned and bumped off a plane because the storm we were heading into required two passengers had to leave the flight and I was picked.  It’s been such a strange trip and my quick “there and back the next day” to Knoxville has taken on a design of its own.
 
I went to Knoxville to present a retreat on the theme of “Being Formed by the Father” which focused on the scripture image of the potter and his clay.  One entire section of the retreat focused on being patient while the Lord was molding, shaping, and then re-forming us.  It is a process that constantly allows us to be made into the person we were created to be.  This waiting is part of the process that the Father uses to mold and change us so we can become more focused on Him and less focused on the world. Sometimes it’s as if the potters wheel stops spinning and we need to be still where we are and soak in the struggles, blessings and the lessons.  It might be easy to look at these seasons of waiting on the Lord as a delay and we might be tempted to think the Lord needs to hurry up and change things, but we have to remind ourselves that the clay never leaves the potters hands and the Lord is truly doing something during the “delay”.  God is so fancy because this whole trip has been a giant lesson in “practice what you teach”!
 
I’ve had plenty of opportunities to live out this thought in the last few days. My prayer has been to use the unexpected delays and changes to practice peace, joy and trust. Honestly, it’s been a grace-filled time. I’ve realized a few things; all things work for good but they don’t always work for our convenience.  If we ask for patience and peace, He will most assuredly give us opportunities to practice them.  When we expect the potter to mold us into His design instead of our preference, He will and He does it in some very fancy ways.  As I stood in the re-book line late last night after being removed from the flight, I took a minute and offered my three big hiccups (one being where will I sleep) in prayer and one by one each was resolved.  I trusted Him to put all things in order and He did.  The surprise at the end of a long wait was a customer service agent who handed me a Starbucks gift card and a travel voucher with a thank you for not yelling at her. She looked like it had been a very long day with lots of yelling.  There were so many people to pray for who were put in difficult situations by the delays and many times I heard peoples story and I silently prayed that the Lord would intervene with His peace and more than once I heard a ticket agent say with great surprise in their voice, “Wait, something just opened up on that flight, I can get you there.” The delays gave me so many chances to see Him working.
I’m hoping to be home by the end of this day but if I’m not, I’ll remind myself that I can offer the trials and delays for the good of someone else because a delay gives us an opportunity to think about Him and what He might be inviting us to see, do, hear or learn.  I’m currently watching a mama teach her toddler how to sing the ABC song and it’s cracking me up, I’m pretty sure that little guy is gearing up to give a concert at gate G13 and I’m glad I have a good seat!  And on a really happy note, I’ve got a Starbucks gift card to use.
 
A Seed To Plant:  What seems to be on “delay” in your life right now and how can you invite the Father into the wait or the re-route?
 
Blessings on your day!