Tag Archives: The Message

Day Sixty-Six: Talking Transparently with God

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READ: Read the passage slowly, noticing the raw way Job communicates about God.

JOB 19:13-27
(13-20) “God alienated my family from me; everyone who knows me avoids me. My relatives and friends have all left; houseguests forget I ever existed. The servant girls treat me like a bum off the street, look at me like they’ve never seen me before. I call my attendant and he ignores me, ignores me even though I plead with him. My wife can’t stand to be around me anymore. I’m repulsive to my family. Even street urchins despise me; when I come out, they taunt and jeer. Everyone I’ve ever been close to abhors me; my dearest loved ones reject me. I’m nothing but a bag of bones; my life hangs by a thread.
(21-22) “Oh, friends, dear friends, take pity on me. God has come down hard on me! Do you have to be hard on me, too? Don’t you ever tire of abusing me?
(23-27) “If only my words were written in a book – better yet, chiseled in stone! Still, I know that God lives – the One who gives me back my life – and eventually he’ll take his stand on earth. And I’ll see him – even though I get skinned alive! – see God myself, with my very own eyes. Oh, how I long for that day!”

THINK: As you read Job’s honest description of his situation–what it’s really like–what word or phrase gives voice to some of your own thoughts, feelings, and desires? Perhaps one of Job’s statements bring to mind something in your life that’s weighing on you or confuses you.

In all honesty, I have to admit that I have never felt this kind of rejection. However, I have been put in the position , in our current situation, in which I can see that, did my husband and I not have the relationships that we do, it very well could happen. Not only that; it often does to most people. And, to be even more painfully honest, what’s worse is, I would have been one of the people that would – most likely – ostracize someone who was in the position we are in now.
How easy it is to judge when we’ve not been made to see where we need compassion!
To put a more positive spin on things: I think I’d have to say that this realization has been one of the best things to come out of what we’re going through. Being forced to walk a path that I never thought I’d have to walk because I have been obedient. But not just that: my kids are being forced to walk it as well. This is something my husband and I have discussed at length. If this is something we have to pay for because of sins in our past; FINE. But why make our kids pay the price as well. We are living under the New Covenant. There is not supposed to be any more of this: the sins of the Father are visited on the children to the 3rd and 4th generation.
But see how, even in that statement, I made the same kind of judgment that Job’s friends were making. For the majority of the time I’ve been alive, I have always equated suffering with wrong-doing, with punishment for sin (whether I remembered the sin or not). I’ve always figured that if I was suffering, I was being punished, which means I MUST HAVE done something wrong. So, imagine my shock when, my husband and I were obedient to what we felt like the Lord was calling us to do, and then things did not go the way they are “supposed to”. Then, the confusion is only compounded by the idea that we could pay a price for this for the rest of our lives.
I am thankful for the blessing of friends who have not behaved toward me as Job’s friends behaved toward him. But I am humbled by the knowledge that I have, far too many times, been one of Job’s friends – whether I said the words out loud or not.

PRAY: Talk to God about the feelings and thoughts that surface. Be as open as Job as you share them with him. You might write them out to him or just talk to him like a friend – one you’re in conflict with, but one who wants to work through that conflict with you.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you that, with you, nothing is wasted! Thank you that, even in the midst of hard times, you continue to work all things for our benefit. Thank you for the assurance in Scripture that says you have a plan to prosper us, and not to harm us. Thank you for making all things beautiful in their time.
For those who are reading this, who are in the midst of a painful set of circumstances, and can’t understand why, I pray for peace and comfort. I pray You would give them glimpses of the work you are doing that they might be able to make enough sense out of what’s going on to keep going. I pray that You would show them where you’re molding them and shaping them, transforming them more into the likeness of Your Son.
For anyone reading this who has been falsely accused and is suffering persecution, for their spouses, for their children and other loved ones: I pray that you would offer them the assurance that these circumstances have nothing to do with how pleased with them You are. Living in a fallen world, in a world filled with sin, sometimes it’s easy to feel like You have abandoned us at our moments of deepest need. Lord, I pray that you would give each of these people the peace that you have not forsaken them, that you are not deaf to their cries, that you are hearing their prayers, and that they have been answered, though they just cannot see the answer yet. I pray for a renewed sense of hope for good things to come. I pray that their relationships with you would be strengthened, taken to a level deeper than they thought they could ever go.
I pray for fresh insights into the nature of your character. I pray that what seem to be like paradoxes in your character would be cleared up as they come to see that you are both just and merciful, that you do not wish that we would suffer but that you have allowed it in order that you might be glorified.
I pray for “AHA” moments: moments where we realize the truth of something we have known with our heads for so long has finally sunken in, finally taken hold, and we are now able to walk with a sense of peace that we have never had before, and with a deeper understanding of how you work in our lives.
Finally, Lord, I want to thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank you that we do not have a high priest who cannot identify with us in our suffering. Thank you that we have a representative before Your Throne who knows how badly pain feels because He has felt it. Thank you that we have an ambassador who knows what betrayal feels like because He has felt it. Thank you for descending to Earth, in bodily form, to live as a man, so that you can know how it feels to be here. Thank you for the hope that offers, because, sometimes, just knowing that someone else has been through what we are going through and they made it, is enough to help us keep going. Thank you for those moments when you allow us to see that we are not as far away from you as we feel. Thank you for those times when you show us just a glimpse of what you working out of us and working into us. Thank you for those times when, we get to see the front of the tapestry of our lives, instead of just the knotted back.
And for those times during the refining process when we do not have to sit in the fire, or have to be banged on, I thank you for rest.
In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen

LIVE: As you go through the rest of your day, pay close attention to thoughts and feelings (similar to or different from those in your prayer time) that arise in relation to events, conversations, and experiences. Tell God about them as they come up, so you’re carrying on an extended dialogue with him all day long.
At the end of the day, take a few moments to remember what happened, in particular what it was like to talk to God throughout the day’s circumstances.

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Day Sixty-Seven: Empty Comfort

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READ: As you read the passage, consider what might have been comforting for Job and what might have left him more hurt than before.

Job 22:1-11
Once again, Eliphaz the Temanite took up this theme:
“Are any of us strong enough to give God a hand, or smart enough to give him advice? So what if you were righteous – would God Almighty even notice? Even if you gave a perfect performance, do you think he’d applaud? Do you think it’s because he cares about your purity that he’s disciplining you, putting you on the spot? Hardly! It’s because you’re a first-class moral failure, because there’s no end to your sins. When people came to you for help, you took the shirts off their backs, exploited their helplessness. You wouldn’t so much as give a drink to the thirsty, or food, not even a scrap, to the hungry. And there you sat, strong and honored by everyone, surrounded by immense wealth! You turned poor widows away from your door; heartless, you crushed orphans. Now you’re the one trapped in terror, paralyzed by fear. Suddenly the tables have turned! How do you like living in the dark, sightless, up to your neck in flood waters?”

THINK:
Have there been times when you wished people would refrain from giving you perfectly packaged and Christian cliches in an attempt to console you? “Pray harder.” “You’ll have to persevere.” “Oh, God’s just working on you.” “Search for the sin in your life and get rid of it.” “Obey God.” Maybe you didn’t know what you wanted in your suffering, but that definitely was’t it. Sometimes true comfort comes through silence and a hug.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar don’t offer comfort, but instead attempt to convince Job of his sins. This time it’s the social sin of neglecting the poor, hungry, and the naked – none of which Job is guilty of.
Who are the people you interact with on a regular basis who are suffering emotional, mental, spiritual, or physical pain?
What are some ways you can appropriately comfort them in their pain?

PRAY: Who are hurting people in your life? Pray for them, submitting to God’s guidance for how to best serve and minister to them.

LIVE: Consider a friend or acquaintance who needs comfort. Prayerfully approach a suffering individual, asking God to keep you from being someone who merely offers trite words that fall short.

I wrote about this very thing just a couple of days ago, being silent when you don’t have anything helpful to say. I have been guilty of this more times than I’d like to admit. I haven’t done it on purpose. What happens is that I just get so uncomfortable with the pain of the person sitting in front of me that I just ant it go away. I’ve wanted to be able to say something, anything to help them make some sense of a senseless situation. Or maybe, I just wanted to feel like I had done something more than just sit there. Or worse, often, I just wanted to stop feeling uncomfortable myself? How arrogant! The sad fact is, whether my intention was to do harm or not, I have done some harm.

For that realization, I have to say that this situation we’ve been living through has been a blessing. Another blessing is that I can even say that. This time a year ago, I’d have never been able to say that anything about this was a blessing. I had found a good thing or two that happened as a result of being allowed to go through our ordeal. But, to say that the whole thing is a blessing: NO! Not a year ago. Not almost 2 years ago now.

Yesterday, I was faced with a friend whose husband has been sick for a very long time.
He is currently in hospice care, and has been once before. He’s been close to “going home” many times. My friend was pretty certain that all she wanted for her man was peace and the healing that being called home to Heaven could bring. Yesterday, she had to tell me that he is getting close to the end. As prepared as this woman has been saying she is, when she stood before me yesterday, she was a mess. She and I did not get to know each other until after our situation started, and ever since, she has been a source of inspirational comfort for me many times. She understands suffering and has not had trite words to offer me. Yesterday, because of what I’ve had to go through, I was able to stand in front of her and have more than trite words of Scripture taken out of context and Christian cliches to offer her. It was no less painful standing before her, watching her heart break, but I didn’t feel like I just needed to make it go away because I was uncomfortable. I was able to look at her, allow her to feel her pain, allow her to be the most important person to me right at that moment, and respect what she was going through and how she was feeling, without feeling the need to minimize it or make sense of it.

I have known since this whole thing started that everything I would go through would help me when I started working as a counselor, but I had no idea it would help me to become a better friend too. Even if that’s all I get from this, if it keeps me from being one of Job’s friends to one of my friends, what a gift that would be to those who I call friend!

Day Sixty-Five: The Mystery of a Mighty God

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READ: Read the passage. In Job’s response to his recent tragedy, notice the powerful feelings that underlie his words: fear, anger, grief, and hope.

JOB 9:2-4, 14-23
(2-4) “The question is, ‘How can mere mortals get right with God?’ If we wanted to bring our cases before him, what would chance would we have? Not one in a thousand! God’s wisdom is deep, God’s power so immense, who could take him on and come out in one piece?
(14-20) “So now could I ever argue with him, construct a defense that would influence God? Even though I’m innocent, I could never prove it; I can only throw myself on the Judge’s mercy. If I called on God and he himself answered me, then, and only then, would I believe that he’d heard me. As it is, he knocks me about from pillar to post, beating me up, black-and-blue, for no good reason. He won’t even let me catch my breath, piles bitterness upon bitterness. If it’s a question of who’s stronger, he wins, hands down! If it’s a question of justice, who’ll serve him the subpoena? Even though innocent, anything I say incriminates me; blameless as I am, my defense just makes me sound worse.
(21-23) “Believe me, I’m blameless. I don’t understand whats going on. I hate my life! Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude that God destroys the good right along with the bad. When calamity hits and brings sudden death, he folds his arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.”

THINK: What phrase in Job’s lament stands out to you? Spend time meditating on it. Mentally chew it the way you would chew a piece of gum–repeat it to yourself, pausing each time to see where it leads your mind and emotions.

PRAY: Keeping your phrase in mind, picture God in the room with you. How do you relate to his presence? Maybe you sit in reverence at his power, wisdom, and justice, realizing you’ve forgotten or minimized those qualities lately. Maybe you feel anguish like Job. Maybe you open up to your desire for a rescuer, for Christ’s mercy.
At the end of this time, recall what this experience held for you. Write down for future reference anything that seemed significant.

LIVE: During the next week, before your begin your times of prayerful reading, recall your picture of God in the room. Recollect who he was to you and retain this image of him in your mind during each prayer time. Let that aspect of God mingle with the God you relate to during the week.

Such powerful words Job uses here. There was a time when I would have thought that talking this way to the Creator would have been tantamount to heresy, to begging God to strike me down. There have been times when I have felt this way that I’m not sure, had I said what I really wanted to say, that He wouldn’t have struck me down. But, the longer I walk through this life, and the more hardships I see and live through, the more convinced I become that being just this honest with God, yet not disrespectful of His Power and Glory and Majesty, are precisely what He wants from me. After all, would I not be this honest with my earthly father? If I had been as hurt and betrayed as Job felt, wouldn’t I spill my guts to my earthly father, in hopes that he’d be able to help me, or comfort me. Of course, I would. And if I would be this honest with my earthly father, when he can’t possibly know what I’m thinking, why wouldn’t I be this honest with my Heavenly Father when He already knows it all anyway.

Likewise, if I was going to a physician or a counselor, wouldn’t I also share all that I could, in hopes of finding a cure, or receiving some sort of help or therapy or advice that would lead me out of the darkness I was in? And yet, how often do I refuse to go to God?

But…that’s not what strikes me about this passage. What sticks with me here is how Job accuses God of being aloof from the despair of the innocent. I don’t know that I can even count the number of times I’ve felt that way since our mess started. Like God was just sitting up there on his throne on high, completely untouched by all the heartache and pain down here, particularly mine.

I’m not sure that aloof is the right word. At least, not now. But, it’s precisely the word I’d have used as recently as about 6 months ago. I don’t believe that God is aloof. I think that he is saddened by the fact that His Creation lives with the effects of sin, every day. I think it pains him when those who were created in his image have to suffer. But, because He is God, He can take those hard times and touch circumstances and use them to transform us more into the image of Christ and to do so in such a way that it is utterly unmistakable that HE is the one doing the work!

I heard something in class today, that helps me keep this in perspective. I’ve known it all along I guess, but had forgotten somewhere along the way.
Christ suffered here on earth, what makes us think we won’t.
Something else I believe: if there’s no God, then there is no hope that any of the suffering we experience will ever make any sense or ever come to any good use.
Where I am now is at the point that I am choosing every day to have faith that God is telling me the truth. I am choosing every day to picture God, sitting in the room with me, telling me He understands that what I’m going through is hard, but also that I can do it. I will make it through this. I picture Him telling me that He wants me to trust Him with all my ugliness since He’s already seen it, and loves me anyway. I picture Him asking me to share with Him those thoughts very thoughts that would make me sound just like Job does in this passage, and trust that He is not going to kick me out of the kingdom or tell me that I can’t come Home when He calls me. I picture Him asking me to believe Him, to believe in Him and to have Faith that I can believe the Bible is true when it says He loves me and does not show partiality. I picture Him saying to Satan, “Have you seen my servant, Patty? Look at her.” Then, I picture Satan looking at him, saying, “well, of course, you’ve protected her for her whole life. Why wouldn’t she love you. Take her life away from her. Take her husband away from her. Then see if she doesn’t turn her back on you.” I picture the same scenario with my husband in Job’s place, with my children in Job’s place. Then, I pray for strength to carry on, trusting that God will not leave us or forsake us, and that He will trade our ashes for beauty, one day. It has been promised, and I will choose to trust it daily, until I can learn to rest in it.

Day Sixty-Four: Giving Comfort

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READ:  Read the passage aloud slowly, keeping in mind that Eliphaz from Teman is speaking to his friend Job, who has just experienced the death of his children and the loss of all he had.

JOB 5:17-21

(17-19)  “So, what a blessing when God steps in and corrects you!  Mind you, don’t despise the discipline of the Almighty God!  True, he wounds, but he also dresses the wound; the same hand that hurts you, heals you.  From one disaster after another he delivers you; no matter what the calamity, the evil can’t touch you–

(20-21)  “In famine, he’ll keep you from starving; in war, from being gutted by the sword.  You’ll be protected from vicious gossip and live fearless through any catastrophe.

THINK:  Read the passage again and put yourself in the place of Job, who listened to these words.  How do they fall on your ear?

Read the passage again and put yourself in the place of Eliphaz.  What feelings and attitudes fill you as you speak these words?

  1. What makes a comforter really helpful? Is telling the truth enough?
  2. What did Job need from Eliphaz?
  3. What might be in the heart of a person who preaches at someone who is so far down?

PRAY:  Ask the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to give you what is needed to truly comfort despairing people.  If you want guidance for your prayer, ask the Comforter to give you tools to help people in trouble go to him.  Ask him to give you tools to draw them out to say to him whatever they need to express.  Plead with the Comforter to make you his messenger, to prevent you from moralizing and giving advice.

LIVE:  Rest your mind on someone who is in deep trouble.  Pray only the word PEACE for them–no suggestions, no fixing, no rescuing.  Just trusting.

I have been Eliphaz so many times in my life I cannot even count.  Maybe that sounds weird coming from a counselor.  Maybe it just sounds insecure.  It ought to.  Because for myself, I can say that when I have sounded like Eliphaz it has been because I have been extremely insecure.  It has happened most often when someone is sitting in front of me telling me a sad story of something that has happened in his (or her) life, and I’ve wanted to say something so desperately to make sense out of all of it.  As if I could.  I’ve wanted to make it better.  I’ve wanted to be comforting but never felt like I had words enough to express my deep sorrow.

Then, my life went sideways.  I had plenty of people to talk to, plenty of people willing to listen, who actually cared when they asked me how I felt.  And the people who helped me the most were the ones who had no idea what to say, and said so.  Or, they said nothing at all.  They didn’t try to make sense of my life for me.  They didn’t offer me trite passages of Scripture, taken out of context.

But, then, there were people who did have something to offer.  You know who they were?  The people who had truly suffered in their lives.  The comfort they offered, through a well-timed passage of scripture that helped them while they were suffering:  that was golden!  But…to be honest, I don’t even remember most of those scriptures.  What I remember most was the overwhelming sense of being heard and understood.  I had been comforted with the comfort they had received when they most needed it.  Their spirits ministered to mine in my deepest hour (or hours) of need.  It was in those moments that I felt most loved!

It was in those moments, too, that I learned the benefits and blessings and comfort of just sitting with someone who is hurting.  Of being willing to hear anything that needed to be said.  Of being willing to sit in the uncomfortable silence if there weren’t words enough to express the hurt.

I don’t think I will ever know all the whys concerning our situation.  Finally, I’m getting to the point that I don’t feel it will be necessary.  What I do know is that this situation could not have been better timed in my education as a Christian counselor and Marriage and Family Therapist.  Before this thing happened in my family’s life, I had serious doubts.  I doubted if I was pursuing the right line of education.  I doubted if I would ever be able to help anybody.  I didn’t doubt enough to quit.  But then…I don’t quit.  By the time you have as much money invested in something as I have in this, you don’t quit.  Even if you don’t do anything with it, you don’t quit.  Even when life knocks you sideways and you feel like you have no business trying to finish something as “high-falootin'” as a Master’s Degree, you don’t quit.

So, I didn’t quit.  And now, here I am, in the last of my classes, and – because of this thing that has happened in my life – I am certain that I have pursued the right line of work.  Not only am I certain that I am in the right degree field, but I am convinced that I did not actually choose it.

In fact, the last time I was here at Liberty, taking the first two of my four intensives, people asked me why I chose the Marriage and Family program instead of the License Professional Counselor program.  The only answer I could give:  I didn’t, actually.  It chose me.  In the first place, I had no idea there was such a thing as a Licensed Professional Counseling program when I first signed on at Liberty.  But, I knew that I wanted to help families.  My husband and I had both lived through our own parents’ divorces, and we were making it, so I also wanted to be able to offer my services to struggling couples.  So…the first person I talked to suggested the Marriage and Family program and that’s what I took.  It was just as simple, and unplanned, as that.

And now…here I am.  And once I decided to stop whining about the valley God decided to lead me through, I began to see the beauty all around me.  It seems weird to say it, and I don’t know quite how to explain it, but I have come to see beauty in the midst of suffering.  Or, in the vulnerability and the sweetness of the depth of relationships that suffering can have if you let God do His Work.

Don’t get me wrong.  The process of suffering is ugly.  It hurts and it doesn’t make sense most of the time.  But, if you can look past what’s on the surface, look past the walls people are putting up, and sit with them long enough to trust that you are safe, you will start to see the real person underneath.  You will come to a place of being able to love that person as God loves them.  And you will see their true beauty.  With some people it happens faster than with others.  But, fortunately, when you grow up with people who’ve been deeply hurt, you learn really quickly not to let walls and angry barks scare you away.  You learn to stick with it, because you know, deep down in your soul, that every person is worth listening to.  BUT, you have to get over yourself, and your urge to fix them.  They don’t need fixing!  They need to be heard.  They need to know that someone values them the way their Creator does.

THAT’S WHAT TRUE COMFORT LOOKS LIKE.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for coming down out of heaven to make a way for us to be able to get there.  Thank you that you made a way for us to have peace on this earth, even in the midst of trials and suffering.

Thank you that you do not leave us alone until your work is completed.  Thank you for your patience.

I pray, now, for those who are hurting today.  I pray that you would comfort them.  I pray that you would send them people to comfort them and hold them, and let them be as ugly as they need to be.  But, most of all, I pray for them peace.  I don’t know all the answers.  Nobody does, but you.  So, only You can offer the peace that passes all understanding.  For all the hurting in the world, for anyone reading this that desperately needs your Comfort right now, please rain it down upon them right now.  Make it unmistakably obvious.  Make it tangible even.

Thank you for loving us!

In Jesus’ Name I pray,

Amen.

Day Sixty-Three: Reflections on Week Nine

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Admittedly, it’s been longer than 9 weeks since I started writing out these devotionals.  Life happens and things like quiet time and bible study, far too often, get pushed to the side.  One would think that I’d have figured out that self-preservation doesn’t work if I’m not actually taking care to preserve myself by way of keeping my sanity a priority, but…….

So, anyway.  Here we are at Week 9.  I’m wrapping up the third of my 4 intensives.  This one has dealt with group counseling.  And ya know, you just can’t get a feel for what counseling is going to be like until you do it – both the participation and the facilitation – and this week, I’ve done both.

What I’ve come away with has been pretty remarkable.

Before I begin with the reflection part, let me give some background.  I have actually been enrolled in this class before.  Last summer.  However, when I signed up, the person on the other end of the phone did not tell me that a month would be enough time to get all the work done IF I was trying to take another intensive as well – which I was.  So, after 3 weeks of trying to bust my tail to get all the work done, I decided that I needed to withdraw from both of the courses.  I believe this was the Sovereign Hand of God leading this decision.  My husband had just been sent away and the kids and I had just moved to our new residence.  I was trying to unpack and wrap up work for 3 other classes I was taking.  I was overwhelmed, stressed, emotional and – pretty much – just running on autopilot.  All I was trying to do was push through to get the work done.  I wasn’t really learning it.  And my wounds were still so fresh that, had I come to the class last summer, I would not have been able to participate the way that I have this year.  Everything would’ve been about me, and I would’ve brought the group atmosphere WAAAAAY down.

Now, for what I’ve learned.   We just cannot go through life on our own. This is not really a new revelation.  It’s something I’ve heard many times before.  But what I realized this past week is that there is a life the group develops that is uniquely its own.  Learning that – seeing it first hand – and pairing it with the knowledge that we have been designed to be in relationships, adds an element to group counseling that makes it very different from individual counseling.  It’s a very rewarding experience, and I am thankful NOW that Liberty has required these intensives as part of their degree completion plans.  My education would not have been complete without them.

But, what if we take this lesson beyond the scope of my classes and counseling.  What if we extend it to the real world and how we do life here on this earth.

What if we were intentional about our relationships?  What if we sought to be the best version of ourselves in all of our relationships instead of just letting things happen with whomever may cross out paths?  What would our lives be like if we really prioritized the most important relationships in our lives?  What might that look like?  How would our relationships with our spouses, our children, our parents, our friends change?

What if we started by prioritizing our relationships with The Lord first?

What if we took the command to love him with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength seriously?  Is it possible that the whole “loving our neighbors as ourselves” might be just a little easier?  And even if it wasn’t, wouldn’t it make choosing to stick with those relationships a little easier?  Because, then, we’d be staying for a different reason!

One thing we’d learn really quickly is just how much we truly value life.  We’d see just how seriously we take the notion that ALL MEN are created in the image of God.  You.  Me.  The homeless guy on the street.  The sex offender.  The terrorist.  Yeah!  All those folks!  I am no better than my fellow man.  BUT…by that same token, I am also no worse.  And comparing myself to any standard other than that of Christ is holding myself up to a faulty measure, and I will come away with a warped sense of my own worth and yours.

I think I could probably go on, but I am going to try to put into practice some wise words I read earlier today:

Once you’ve made your point, stop talking.

Day Sixty-One: Justice Served

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READ:  Take some times before your begin to sit in silence.  Let your thoughts settle.  Now, read the passage once silently.

ESTHER 7:3-10

(3)  Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor in your eyes, O King, and if it please the king, give me my life, and give my people their lives.

(4)  “We’ve been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed–sold to be massacred, eliminated.  If we had just been sold into slavery, I wouldn’t even have brought it up; our troubles wouldn’t have been worth bothering the king over.”

(5)  King Xerxes exploded, “Who?  Where is he?  This is monstrous!”

(6) “An enemy.  An adversary.  This evil Haman,” said Esther.

Haman was terror-stricken before the king and queen.

(7-8) The king, raging, left his wine and stalked out into the palace garden.  Haman stood there pleading with Queen Esther for his life–he could see that the king was finished with him and that he was doomed.  As the king came back from the palace garden into the banquet hall, Haman was groveling at the couch on which Esther reclined.  The king roared out, “Will he even molest the queen while I’m just around the corner!”

When that word left the king’s mouth, all the blood drained from Haman’s face.

(9) Harbona, one of the eunuchs attending the king, spoke up:  “Look over there!  There’s the gallows that Haman had built for Mordecai, who saved the king’s life.  It’s right next to Haman’s house–seventy-five feet high!”

The king said, “Hang him on it!”

(10) So Haman was hanged on the very gallows that he had built for Mordecai.  And the king’s hot anger cooled.

THINK:  Read this story of justice being served again, this time aloud.  Listen specifically for a word or a phrase that touches your heart in some way.  When you finish reading, close your eyes.  Recall the word and sit quietly, mulling it over.  After a few minutes, write the word down.  Don’t explain it or say more about it; just note it.

PRAY:  Read the passage aloud again, this time looking for a person or an action that accentuates your internal picture of God’s justice or heightens your understanding of how he governs the world.  Perhaps it will be Haman’s response to his fate or King Xerxes’ authoritative command.  How is this depiction of God’s justice meaningful to you today?  Again sit in silence.  Briefly note what comes to you.

LIVE:  Read the text one final time.  This time, listen for what God, through the text, is inviting your to do or become.  Perhaps he is offering a new perspective on how he cares when unjust things happen to you, just at King Xerxes was outraged to discover the threat to Esther’s people.  Or maybe you sense that God is calling you to take a stand for justice in a particular situation, like Esther did.  Write down what you are being invited to do.

MY TURN:

I’ve read this story many times, and I admit that I always feel a little bit guilty at how satisfying it is to see Haman get his come-uppance.  But this time, the word that stood out to me was “Monstrous.”  I know God’s timing is not my timing, so things happen with him when they are supposed to happen to achieve His greatest Glory.  The problem that has created for me, at times, however, is that sometimes it can look like God does not really look at injustice as monstrous.  Most times what it ends up looking like, to me, is like He’s choosing to ignore my pleas for justice because it isn’t delivered as swiftly as I’d like, or according to my terms.  From there, it’s all too easy for The Enemy to get his foot in the door and start with his lies about how this apparent unwillingness on the part of God to answer my prayers must mean that He doesn’t really care about me as much as the Bible would lead me to believe; that, maybe, the Bible is true for everyone but me.

What do you think?  Is it just possible, then, that this is why we are cautioned to take captive every thought, holding it up to the light of scripture to see if it holds true, so that we can demolish every argument that sets itself up against the knowledge of scriptures (2 Corinthians 10:5)?

I know I’ve spent a lot of time since April 2011 wondering just how much God really cares about the injustices that have happened to me and my family.  I’ve come to this conclusion.  Because we live in a fallen world, injustices are going to happen.  The world is full of people who just want what they want.  Most of the time, it’s nothing person when they get what they want at the expense of someone else.  Most of the time, they simply were not thinking about how their actions would affect anyone else.  One thing I’ve always known, but have finally started to truly plumb the depths of is the idea that there is nothing I can do that will have NO impact on somebody else (well, except for choosing which pair of socks I’m going to wear today).  We were created to be in relationships.  As a result, everything we do will have an effect on someone else, because it can’t NOT.  And though I might have to play some weird, far-fetched game of “Six Degrees of Separation” to be able to figure out exactly how or if George Clooney’s recent marriage has affected my life, if it has at all, God already knows it.  In fact, He would have anticipated it.  My part:  to come alongside Him, in agreement, and allow Him to do in my life whatever it is He is needs to do in my.

Years ago, when I read the story of Esther, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that Esther was put on this Earth at precisely the time she was because the job she had to do was hers to do.  I figured:  Anyone could do that job.  Why would Mordecai say that perhaps she was put there for such a time as this?  It could’ve been any other Hebrew girl.  While it’s true that God could’ve chosen anybody to play this role, He chose Esther.  That’s all that matters.  Though he could’ve picked anyone to walk the path that I’m walking (and several people have walked a similar path before me), He chose me for this and this for me.  So, for such a time as this, I have been created.  I need to trust that God knew what he was doing and that He knows what He is doing.  He has a plan.  All I have to do is let Him work it and be available when He calls me.  The injustice that has occurred to me and my family:  I’ll let Him worry about that until He shows me the next step.

Day Fifty-Nine: Just Such a Time

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READ:  As you read this story, imagine how you might feel if you were Esther:  You were chosen to be queen by a king who doesn’t know of your ethnicity, and now you’re hearing word of a political plot that will wipe out your people and your family.

ESTHER 4:7-14

(7-8) Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him.  He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews.  Mordecai also gave him a copy of the bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead  with him for her people.

(9-11) Hathach came back and told Esther everything Mordecai had said.  Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message:  “Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited:  death.  The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live.  And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.”

(12-14) When Hathach told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai sent her this message:  “Don’t think that just because you live in the king’s house you’re the one Jew who will get out of this alive.  If you persist in staying silent at a time like this, help and deliverance will arrive for the Jews from someplace else; but you and your family will be wiped out.  Who knows?  Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this.”

THINK:  Focus your attention on either Esther’s fear of putting her life on the line for her people or Mordecai’s challenge to her in the face of her fear.  Meditatively read that part of the passage again.  Picture the speaker, including the situation from which the words are spoken.  Select one word or phrase to contemplate during your prayer time.

PRAY:  Prayerfully ponder a word or phrase from Mordecai or Esther and identify a memory that relates.  Maybe at one time you were called on to do something courageous–big or small–but couldn’t bring yourself to do it.  Or maybe you wonder why God would allow Esther to bear such a heavy responsibility.  Perhaps you were recently helped because someone took a stand for you.

Invite God the Father into your meditation.  Try not to analyze or push toward solutions.  Just notice what comes up and show it to him, as a child might show Daddy a favorite toy that’s broken or tell him about a fascinating discovery.

LIVE:  Take some time now to rest with the Father.  If you have more to say in your conversation with him about Esther’s dilemma, continue it.  If you have other subjects you’d like to talk to him about, do so.  But if you want to just sit in the presence of your loving Father, go ahead.

Dear Lord Jesus, I don’t know where to begin with this.  There are so many thoughts running through my head, and none of them seem to go together.  So…I will just offer up a prayer of peace and protection for all the people around the world that you know are suffering under the weight of fear of having to act courageously today.  Lord, we usually know when you are calling us to do something that we do not want to do.  We usually know when you are asking us because there is this overwhelming sense of not being able to get out from under the request.  For people who are struggling tonight, Lord, who know what you have called them to do but who are worried or anxious at the outcome, I pray for strength and courage.  Your word says to “fear not” and to “be anxious for nothing” but, sometimes, Lord, that is a tall order.  We know that you are the creator of the universe and that you know our comings and goings and the beginning from the end and that there is nothing you have asked us to do that you are unable to strengthen us to do, and there is nowhere you have asked us to go, that you have not already prepared the way.  We know that you only give us enough light for the step we’re on, or for the step you want us to move to.  In a world full of pre-planning, that kind of faith is hard.  Please be patient with us, Lord.  For we trust you, but we need help remembering that we can.  Sometimes we need help remembering that knowing you can help us is not always associated with knowing you will.  Help us to recall those times in the past when we have been afraid, but you met us there and guided us, so that we can take that next step in faith.  Help us to remember that we have, indeed, been created for such a time as this, for each and every step you call us to make.

In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Day Fifty-Eight: Zeal for Righteousness

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READ:  Nehemiah 13:7-13

(7-9) I arrived in Jerusalem and learned of the wrong that Eliashib had done in turning over to him a room in the courts of The Temple of God.  I was angry, really angry, and threw everything in the room out into the street, all of Tobiah’s stuff.  Then I ordered that they ceremonially cleanse the room.  Only then did I put back the worship vessels of The Temple of God, along with the Grain-Offerings and the incense.

(10-13) And then I learned that the Levites hadn’t been given their regular food allotments.  So the Levites and singers who led the services of worship had all left and gone back to their farms.  I called the officials on the carpet, “Why has The Temple of God been abandoned?”  I got everyone back again and put them back on their jobs so that all Judah was again bringing in the tithe of grain, wine, and oil to the storerooms.  I put Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and a Levite named Pedaiah in charge of the storerooms.  I made Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, their right-hand man.  These men had a reputation for honesty and hardwork.  They were responsible for distributing the rations to their brothers.

THINK:  In these earlier days, what do you notice about the way of life God required his people to abide by?  Why do you think this was important to him?  What do you think their relationship with God was like?  How might it be different from your relationship with him?

Stuffy.  Stifled.  Strict.  Oppressive.  Distinct.  Sanctified.  Disciplined.  Conspicuous.  Maybe a bit peculiar.  Do any of these describe the way you feel when you think about how God has asked His people to conduct themselves?  It’s not any wonder that so many people have a view of God as rule-driven and a relationship with Him as being no fun.  I know, in my own life, having had a hard time trusting the truth from the Bible about how God thinks about me, these words just amplified the thoughts and feelings that I would never measure up, that I would never be able to be good enough, or to do enough good to deserve what His Son did to save Creation from an eternity in Hell.

Now I know the depths of the truth of those thoughts and feelings, but I also know that they are exactly the reason Christ had to come and die on the cross.  The truth is:  if any one person could ever be good enough to live this life and not need Jesus as a sacrifice, then God would not have had to send Him.  Because if one person could do it, then everyone would have to have within themselves the ability to save themselves.  And we simply do not.  We are not able to save ourselves.  Period.

But what does that have to do with the question asked above, about why God requires His people to abide by so many rules?  If we are going to call ourselves His people, should there not be something markedly different about our lives, so that others living around us can see that we are different.  Even if that difference just looks odd or peculiar or conspicuous, at first.  And wouldn’t the fact that we do look odd, different, peculiar or conspicuous give us that many more opportunities to share the reason for our faith, to share the reason why we have chosen – on faith – to walk this absurd-looking path, that shouldn’t logically work, but seems to anyway?

We are called to be in the world, but not of the world.  What that means to me is that while we are here our lives should look different enough to make people wonder what in the world it is that makes us have so much peace and joy when the world is in a tailspin of chaos and agony and fear.  IN the world, but not OF the world.

But beyond that, God is holy.  If we are going to call ourselves His children, if we hope for Him to call us His children, we have to live our lives by the rules that He has set.  Who are we to question God’s “because I said so”?  If we know anything about God, it is that nothing happens without a reason.  Our inability to see the reason or to understand His motives shouldn’t matter.  Just like with our own children, who do not always get to know the why, for a myriad of reasons, neither do we.  And just like with our own children, who sometimes eventually reach an age where they are mature enough to handle hearing the reasoning behind the instruction, we also SOMETIMES reach a maturity level where God will reveal to us His behind-the-scenes work.  Then, what was so confusing or frustrating, becomes so perfectly clear that we wonder at why we ever questioned Him in the first place.

PRAY:  Become aware of God’s presence with you now.  Share your thoughts with him, including what you noticed about your own relationship with him.  Let this lead you into silent prayer, pondering what’s happened in your life since you last talked with him and whether there is anything you need to clear up.  Listen for what he might be saying in response to you.  If you don’t sense him saying anything directly, be open to other ways he might try to communicate with you (such as through other people or recent experiences).

Dear Lord, You are omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.  You alone can claim this.  You alone know the beginning from the end, and You Alone will decide what and when I get to know the ins and outs of even my own life.  Forgive me when I have failed to trust your sovereignty.  Forgive me when I have smirked at your holiness.  Forgive me when I have abused your grace by sinning and then just asking for your forgiveness with no real desire to repent and turn away from the actions you consider abhorrent.  I thank you that you remember that I am just dust.  I thank you that you saw me in all my sinfulness, knowing that I would let you down over and over and over again, and still decided that there was something in me worth saving.  Thank you that you love your creation so very much and that you are not willing that any should perish.

Abba Father, I do not know  why you have led my family to this fight we find ourselves in right now, but what I do know is you are leading us through it.  I know that every hard thing I have ever gone through has strengthened me for where I am right now.  And I know that all the hard things I am going through now are strengthening me for fights still to come.

Lord, when I think of our situation now, I envision an arrow that has been shot at a target.  An arrow does not have to try to find the target on its own.  Never once have I seen an arrow, in the air, wondering where it was supposed to go.  Help me to remember that you are the perfect archer, and you hit all the targets you aim at, and you nail the target every time.  It is humbling that you would pick me to be an arrow.  I desperately want to hit the target at which you have aimed me.

Some targets are closer and the path has been a straighter, faster shot.  Some targets are farther away, and you have had to aim higher to get a good trajectory and account for the wind, so the path takes longer than I want.  I can see the target.  I know where I am supposed to go.  I desperately want to get there, but I have to take the path that has been set for me.    Forgive me for doubting you in my frustration at how long the path is taking.  Help me to remember that I have hit every target you have selected for me, and for which I have allowed you to use me.  Your purposes will always be satisfied.  Some people will choose to be used by you.  Others will not.  Help me to remember, that when I am brave enough to allow myself to be used by you, Your Will is going to be accomplished.  Remind me of that when I start to feel like the path is taking too long.  I will arrive precisely on time for Your Agenda to be satisfied.  Never too soon.  Never too late.

And Dear Lord, help me to remember, when I cannot see the target, that you do not shoot an arrow just to shoot an arrow. Your Word does not return to you void.  Therefore, if you have sent it out into the world, it will happen.  By the same token, if you have fired me as an arrow, you will hit your mark.

All this I pray in Your Son’s Precious and Holy Name, Amen.

LIVE:  Think about the passion Nehemiah demonstrates for honoring God.  What would your life look like with more passion?  How might you honor God with your lifestyle the way Nehemiah desires to honor God?  Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. …Love others as well as you love yourself”  (Matthew 22:37, 29).  With this command in mind, think of one small new habit you could cultivate that would honor God in a particular area of your life.”

Day Fifty: Shout From the Mountaintops

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READ:  1 Chronicles 16:23-29

(or the extended passage of 1 Chronicles 16:7-36, also known as “David’s Psalm of Thanksgiving)

          Read the passage slowly, keeping in mind that “Shout Bravo!” here means something like “give credit to.”

 

(23-27) Sing to God, everyone and everything!

     Get out his salvation news every day!

Publish his glory among the godless nations,

     his wonders to all races and religions.

And why?  Because God is great–well worth praising!

     No god or goddess comes close in honor.

All the popular gods are stuff and nonsense,

     but God made the cosmos!

Splendor and majesty flow out of him,

     strength and joy fill his place.

 

(26-29) Should Bravo! To God, families of the peoples,

     in awe of the Glory, in awe of the Strength:  Bravo!

Shout Bravo! To his famous Name,

     lift high an offering and enter his presence!

Stand resplendent in his robes of holiness!

 

          Read the passage aloud again, but do it this time as if you are speaking convincingly, first to “everyone and everything” (verse 23 addresses the entire planet, including the vegetation and animals of the earth), then to all the “families of the peoples” (verse 28, all nations, all tribes, all classes of people).

 

THINK:  Read the passage again silently and ponder the following:

  1. Consider the words you most relish. What phrase did you particularly enjoy saying as you read the passage dramatically?

The part of this psalm that I most enjoy saying is:  “…God made the cosmos.  Splendor and majesty flow out of him, strength and joy fill his place.”

  1. What would you most want the earth to know or understand about God?

What I most want the earth to know or understand about God is that the salvation that Christ will bring when He comes again will be for the entire earth, not just for mankind, but for the rest of creation as well.

  1. What would you most want the families of the earth to know or understand about God?

What I most want the people of the earth to know is that there is no god or goddess that could come close in honor, to include ourselves. 

 

PRAY:  Being by asking God to lead you in your prayer.  Wait for him.  Once you get started, you may wish to say something like, “O God, I’m so glad you are…” and finish with ideas from this psalm.

 

O God, I’m so glad you are merciful to us when we fall.  I am glad that you hear our prayers even when we do not deserve your kindness.  Your kindness do not just extend to us, they extend to the whole earth.  Everywhere we turn, there is something remarkable and beautiful and terrific to look at and appreciate.  May we give your creation the respect it deserves, but never more than the Creator.

 

LIVE:  If you could shout this psalm from anywhere in the world, where would that be?  (It might be on a specific mountaintop or by a certain waterfall or even before an international group, such as the United Nations.)  Picture yourself saying these verses from your heart in that setting, without embarrassment or any other reservation.  Rest in your boldness.

 

The weather has been so nice today, that we opened the windows and doors to let the fresh air in.  It’s dark now, and I still have my windows open, and I can hear crickets and tree frogs outside.  It’s such a soothing sound that my son has even made a “playlist” of crickets and rain on a nature sounds app I have on my iPad.  The thing is:  the window has been open for so long and I’ve gotten busy doing other things so that I had practically forgotten about having my windows open or being able to hear the crickets.  Perhaps that’s why God says to “Be still and know that He is God.”  He’s there.  He’s talking.  But with our busy-ness of life, we get so used to the noise around us that we forget to pay attention to His voice.  How about we all slow down a notch or two, throttle down, and see if we can’t hear God whispering to us in the stillness and quiet.

Day Forty-Nine: Reflections on Week 7

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There are a lot of things going through my mind as I start this not the least of which is that there is no way I am ever going to be able to pay back everyone for the kindnesses my family and I have received over the last 3 years.  There are two main reasons for this.  ONE:  even if I had been keeping track of all the monetary kindness I have been shown, there is plenty that I haven’t known of, and even more that nobody would ever cop to because of the desire to remain anonymous.  TWO:  many of the gifts and kindnesses I have received are priceless and, as such, I couldn’t even begin to assign a dollar value, or even hope to repay the favor exactly.  For how does one place a price-tag on a well-timed sermon that is just what you need right when you need it?  How does one place a dollar value on a hug from a friend? 

 

Nobody is asking me to pay them back.  That’s not where I’m going with this at all.  No, what I’m thinking about has more to do with the my inability to ever fully repay a debt when I cannot even comprehend its breadth.  Sounds a little like having one’s sins paid for by someone who never knew sin, who was perfect. 

 

The friends and church family who have helped me out so much, who have been there for me in ways I will likely never be able to comprehend, in many ways, I feel I owe my life to them.  Maybe not literally, but figuratively for sure.  There was nothing I could’ve done to deserve their kindness.  They just felt compelled to bless me and my family out of their own blessings.  As a friend of mine said today, “What?  It’s not ours anyway.  We’re just giving it back to God.”  Knowing that is the truth, but really experiencing the truth of it are two TOTALLY different things.  And if I feel like I could never repay these people for their kindness, and like I owe them a debt of gratitude for just making my life possible for the time being, how much more do I owe Christ who has, most assuredly, given His very life for me and, with his sacrifice, has paid my way into Heaven by paying off debts I didn’t even know I owed.  Is my obedience enough?  Is my praise enough?  My worship?  I could be cliché and say that I would pledge my undying devotion to Him, but I’m human, and that’d be a lie.  The truth is that my devotion will wane.  It has many times in the past, and likely it will in the future because I forget just how much I’ve been given and forgiven.  Then, something will happen that will remind me, and once again, I will be “on fire” for Jesus again.  Until the next time. 

 

Why is it always like this?  Because, far too often, I forget to remind myself of what all God has done for me.  I get bogged down in the busy-ness and daily-ness of life, and I forget to remind myself of the gospel of Jesus Christ that says I was a sinner and I needed a Savior. 

 

I can even take it one step farther.  Given all that I have received so freely from a God that I could never repay, how could I hold onto that gift so selfishly?  I did nothing to deserve it.  I could never earn it.  And yet, I benefit from the blessing of that gift everyday.  Yet, when it comes time to share with others, I balk.  I let fear stand in the way.  Where’s the undying devotion then?  Where is my obedience?  My praise?  My worship of the God that made my very life possible? 

 

Well…guess what?!  This week the county fair starts.  Our church has an evangelism booth at said fair.  I’ve worked the fear a couple of times, and have always let fear stand in the way of my saying anything substantial to passers-by, or even to those who stop.  Perhaps there is a reason I am having these thoughts and feelings on the eve of the week that I am scheduled for two shifts at that booth………..