Examining My Heart

Seeing a huge group of teens laughing, having fun, eating, playing, singing…that was a good way to spend the evening.  Now the mess to clean up after, not so much, but I don’t even mind, it was a joy to experience the smiles and hugs and love that filled the back yard and the house.  I don’t even miss the sleep that I missed.  Plus, my daughter has this boyfriend who makes it a priority to help around the house and make things easier on us.  I think he enjoys the food so much that he wants to make sure I don’t stop feeding him .  I’m still thinking about a nickname for him.

After yesterday’s tragedy in Connecticut, it was a joy to see a bunch of happy kids.  I didn’t hear about the shooting until I got home yesterday evening.  It was a day of rushing around and fighting Christmas crowds and traffic, preparing for that group of kids.  I’m blessed to have had that experience, especially in light of the loss so many parents and children were experiencing yesterday and in the weeks to come.

In the midst of all the chatter, the conversation turned to the shooting and I heard something that gave me a moment for pause.  One of the boys in the group said that he just couldn’t feel anything about it because it seems that there is a school shooting every week.

I know that there aren’t that number of shootings, however, what he said struck me.  I felt pain in my heart, I lifted up prayers for comfort for this community, and then…well, I guess I know what he was talking about.  It seems that we face so much tragedy each day that it is desensitizing us.  Sure, I saw all the posts on Facebook, I know that it was something that everyone gave pause to, but I wonder how many of us are like this young man? Unable to feel anything about it because it happens so much.  Isn’t that a tragedy in itself?

I often question my heart and how I respond to the evil that is roaming this earth and then wise friends remind me that all I can do is pray for those effected, but that I still have a life to live, children to raise, a Savior to serve.  So giving pause to examine my heart this morning, making sure I am not being desensitized to the evil in this world, and remembering the hope that I have been given and learning how to spread that hope to others.

 

Tall Tales or Beethoven

Hearing about tall tales in literature and reading them are totally different things.  Watching the Disney cartoons are just great, reading them, not as much greatness.  I love literature, I want Berry to love it too, but this assignment of reading about exaggerated details of real people , not so much our cup of tea.

I think we would both prefer to read the real history and yet I know that I have to teach the literary devices that are included in this unit.  Thankfully it is a very short unit and we will be finished with it before Christmas break, never to revisit it again.

The part of today’s lesson that brought tears to my eyes and great memories of hymns from the past, listening to Beethoven‘s 9th Symphony, and reading the words from the hymn written to accompany it.  Beethoven finished this symphony in 1824 and eighty-three years later, Henry Van Dyke wrote the hymn that I grew up singing.  Traditionally sung around Christmas it is definitely a year round anthem of praise to our Creator.  Van Dyke was encouraging Christians to not lose faith.  Science was questioning creation and many were falling under the spell.  Beethoven wrote this symphony after losing his hearing completely and it is one of his most accomplished works.  Science would indeed declare that this was a near impossibility and yet…

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life.

 

Following the Ten

I’m just going to put this out there and hope that if you have read my blog for a while you know my heart and  can know that I am on a journey just like any of you and this is helping me to become closer to God.

Over our Thanksgiving trip I had great conversations about grace and love.  We can become victims of our religious upbringing, and it can stifle our growth, and then something like this conversation can reveal the heart of the matter and free us of stuff that we have hung on to.

Think about the bible and all the things that it records, then think about what Jesus said it ALL boils down to.  All of the law boils down to this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.”  I know that many things in the bible are dictated by the culture of the time.   I also know that the bible in its entirety was inspired by God.  It was inspired into imperfect men.  The only part of the bible written by God’s finger, the 10 commandments.  Not that we can’t pull the beneficial from the entire bible, because we know that it is ALL a benefit to us, however, I want to focus on the 10 and the one the 10 boil down to.

1. You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.

2. You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain[that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4. [Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes].

5. Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.

6. You shall not commit murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not witness falsely against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Now, if you take those ten commandments and follow them earnestly, and then you take Jesus’ command to  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27, you will be doing what you need to do to live the best life that you can live.  The overflow of just that, will be placing God first and loving ALL the people around you.

Here is the analogy that really struck me.  There are many people who don’t eat pork because they are restricted by their religious code to do so.  They have taken that from the old testament and held on to it.  However, I don’t hold to that because the dream that John was given was that all things were permissible.  That is left to interpretation and if I am wrong I am counting on God’s grace, and if those who hold to it are wrong, they should also count on His grace.  We cannot judge one another on those things that we hold to or don’t.   We also cannot say that in Heaven there will be no homosexuals, no murderers, no liars, no, you fill in the blank.  Yes, they will all be in their forgiven, perfected, selves, but in their former earth suits, this is what they were.  Judgement is only going to push the un-saved farther from us and our goal in life should be to bring all men into relationship with God.  How can we do that when we are bickering over all the messiness of each other?    And so, while the entire bible is definitely good for us, beneficial in all ways, we need to change our focus to ourselves, follow the 10, love each other, love God and give grace in abundance.  I think when we do this we will find that it is easier to embrace one another and to embrace ourselves in light of how God sees us.

Is It Over Yet?

I disappeared from Face Book for about 2 months prior to the elections because I just couldn’t take the back and forth bashing from all sides trying to make their point and those people I love, who claim to have the love of God, in the constant attack mode against whatever side they didn’t take.  Politics destroy our unity as Christians if we allow them to.  Even in our households, where one is a moderate and one an ultra conservative, discussions just can’t be civil when there is political turmoil.  I was relieved when election day was here, and thought it might be safe to tread the social networking waters again, no chance for it to be peaceful.  The losing side is bitter, the winning side is gloating.  Neither side wins in this battle.

However, as we live in this world we can either choose to allow the things of it to bring us down to distress and despair or we can rise above.  We know that God is in charge, we know the end of the story, we know where our future lies, we should be enrobed in peace, no matter who sits in that oval office.  Whether we agree with the current administration or not, we can pray for them, our nation, the people of this world.  We can focus on the love that we are supposed to have for all people, not just those who agree with us.

This morning my husband shared an article with me that really shed a lot of light on something that has floated in my subconscious for a long time.  We have cycles as people, we have patterns that are not easily overcome because our human nature grabs at us and woos us to follow it down dark alley ways and weedy paths.  I’m putting this out there and hope that you can read it and think on it and maybe it will allow you to let all this political mess go.  When we let it go we can focus on the things that are really important to God and I promise, the things that are important to Him are much more worthwhile.

“How Long Do We Have?”
About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in
1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with
the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of
history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations
always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great
courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From
abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to
dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage “

It is believed the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency
and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40
percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental
dependency” phase.”

Indescribable Beauty

This afternoon I saw the type of beauty that the coast of California is famous for.  There are a few spots along my regular drive that deliver on the most spectacular sight that I have ever seen.  I had Casting Crowns album, “Come To The Well” playing loudly from the car stereo.  I came over the hill and then it happened, I was blessed with a sight that made me shiver.  The ocean was sparkling and shimmer with silver light and the bank of clouds that rested over the water was the fluffiest billowing mass I had ever seen.  Usually when I see this billowing mass of clouds it’s a complete covering of the water, however, this afternoon, plenty of the water was showing with it glittering beauty and the clouds.  I could suddenly imagine what the billowing clouds will look like when Jesus returns.  I was awed and then another beautiful thing happened.  The combination of the music, the glorious beauty of God’s creation, and a huge wall came crumbling down.

Awhile back I was hoping to experience things with God in a totally different way, apparently He had different plans, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the way that He wanted to go and so, like many times before, I built a wall and told Him that He couldn’t get past it.  I continued to pray for my friends and family, I continued to believe that He would do things for me, mostly because my more sanctified friends were asking on my behalf.  I didn’t tell my friends about this, I didn’t tell my husband, I didn’t tell anyone.  I was ashamed more than anything else.  How could I turn my back on a God who has been the most generous and forgiving Father to me, the most loving friend?  I guess it was because I was personifying God and I was in a place of thinking that God was going to disappoint me, just like a lot of people do.

I am my own worst enemy.  Today was the first time to listen to this particular Casting Crowns album and wouldn’t you know, right as I was making the discovering of me being my enemy, what song should start playing?  Yep, that’s right, “My Own Worst Enemy”.  Is that God timing or what?  The combination of the beauty in my vision, the words of songs that I needed to hear, it all held me to the accountability of apologizing to my Papa.

Praise God for His grace, His forgiveness, for His Son being the bridge, the intercessor, the lover of my wayward soul.