Faithful

Faithful

For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does.
Psalm 33:4

Here we are in mid-March and still no job. Back in November, when I first posted about the job situation, (We are OK) I felt confident and sure of God’s faithfulness and care in our need. I knew that He would see us through this crisis and that His plan for us was greater than anything we ever could have imagined.

And I have to admit that I hoped He would accomplish it quickly. I know that given today’s climate in corporate America, our search is relatively short. Layoffs are all too common these days at Jim’s level; in fact one colleague told him that very few executives get through an entire career without at least one layoff, particularly those who work for large public corporations.

So recently I have asked myself this question: I was sure, confident and faithful in November — am I still sure and confident when our prayers haven’t been answered as soon as we would have liked? I was sure when, by earthly standards, we were secure in our nice six-month severance package. Am I still sure when it’s now only a three-month severance package? Do I still trust Him?

The answer is — a qualified yes. Not a qualified yes because I doubt Him, but because I doubt me. Because I still freak out from time to time. When I think of this situation in earthly terms, I am insecure, because here on earth that security is measured in dollars, in my house, my car, my stuff. Stuff that could be gone in the blink of an eye anyway.

But despite my human frailty and weakness, the answer really is, yes, I am still sure, confident and faithful. Because I know that my real security is not in dollars, houses, cars, stuff — thank goodness because, frankly, we don’t have a lot of really great stuff.

My security is in God and His kingdom, and I’m up for whatever challenge He presents me with. Worst case — I lose all the stuff, and it really is just stuff. Just look what I get to keep: beautiful sunsets and sunrises, the love of my family, God’s grace and forgiveness poured out on me anew each day, and a place in eternity with Him. So I’m thinking, yes, I do still trust. What else can I do?

It is Well

It is Well

river


Jim took this photo on the Little Red River in Arkansas, near Heber Springs and Greers Ferry Lake.

Over the weekend I had a conversation that took me back 14 years to the sudden and unexpected death of my father. Although time has helped to heal the pain of loss, I could feel it again acutely as I heard this person speak of their own grief. Daddy was a man of strong Christian faith and loved the story of the hymn It is Well With My Soul, the lyrics of which were written in 1873 by Horatio Spafford. A wealthy businessman, Spafford was financially ruined in the Chicago fire of 1871. A short time after the fire, his four daughters were lost in a shipwreck while crossing the Atlantic; he received a telegraph from his wife that stated simply, saved alone.

Several weeks later as Spafford himself traveled through the same waters that had claimed the lives of his daughters, he wrote these words:

When peace, like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and hath shed his own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

At my father’s memorial service, my husband and brother-in-law read Spafford’s story and the church choir sang the hymn, with Daddy’s robe and stole marking his usual spot in the bass section of the choir loft. Although I knew many dark days of grief awaited me, I was comforted by the hope of those words. As I rest in Christ, the peace like a river attends me, and even in the midst of earthly anguish, stress, worry and care, it truly is well with my soul.

What is the Return Policy on Spiritual Gifts?

What is the Return Policy on Spiritual Gifts?


Several years ago, in our Sunday School class, we took a spiritual gifts inventory. There were several pages of questions and none had quick or easy answers. I tried to answer as honestly as possible and anxiously awaited the results. I looked forward to discovering my gift — maybe I would be a great teacher or leader or evangelist who brings many people to Christ. Maybe I would be a servant like Mother Theresa.

The next week we returned to class and received the results of our spiritual gift inventories. I learned that my primary gift was hospitality. Yuck. That sounded silly, trivial and shallow. Having parties for God. I didn’t want hospitality, I wanted teaching, evangelism, mercy — something else — anything else sounded more spiritual than hospitality. In fact, not everyone even agrees that hospitality is in fact a spiritual gift.

At first I considered it a joke at my expense; that I could not possibly have the spiritual depth to have a real gift. But as I learned more about it, I realized that it was not so trivial as it had at first seemed.

I think that I didn’t recognize it as a gift because it has always come easy to me to welcome people into my home and my heart. I don’t care about the condition of my house; we once hosted a Sunday School party with bare sheetrock on the walls because we hadn’t gotten around to painting after stripping wallpaper. I was so excited by the idea of hosting the gathering that I didn’t care what anyone thought of my house.

But I have come to appreciate the deeper meaning of my gift. For the past few years, it has opened the door to relationships with many of my kids’ friends that I would not have known otherwise. Having them at my house gives me opportunities to talk to them, listen to them and interact on a deeper level than just seeing them waving from the carpool line.

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. I Corinthians 12:4-6

So I see that it is God’s gift at work in me as I host them in my home, feed them, love them and hear about their joys and their sorrows and the inevitable trials of youth. They have been sent to me to receive what I have been gifted to pass along. I have learned to be grateful for my gift as I am happiest and most fulfilled when I am sharing it.

The same God who gave me the ability to enjoy a group of boisterous teenagers gave Mother Theresa the ability to minister to the poor, Billy Graham the ability to preach and that incredible voice to Art Garfunkel. Many gifts, one Spirit.

Wait.

Wait.

boat-water-sunset


Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
Psalm 145:13-16

I hate to wait. I hate to wait in line, I hate to wait on the phone. When I was young, I hated to wait for Christmas morning. I knew there was really good stuff under the tree and I didn’t want to wait for it. I wanted it now. I am 48 years old and I still hate to wait. When I call someone, I want them to answer — if they don’t answer, I want them to call me back soon. If there are more than two people ahead of me in line at the grocery store, I dash over to the self-check line and probably take three times as long to look up the little number code for ginger root — all because I hate to wait. My beautiful Macintosh G5 tower has dual processors and 2.5 GB of RAM, but when it takes more than 15 seconds to open a 90MB Photoshop file, I get impatient.

So as we are nearing the end of January with no job offer, I grow tired of waiting. I had hoped that we would have an offer by mid-December, and that Jim would begin his new job by the beginning of 2007. Then Elizabeth could go back to college to begin the spring semester, Sara Ann would know where she will finish high school and we could all start the new year with things settled.

But look at verse 15 in the Psalm: the proper time. It does not say by January 1, 2007. It does not say, whenever you feel that the time is right. It especially does not say, when you get tired of waiting and begin to lose patience.

No — it says, “The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.”

That really hit me between the eyes tonight. We were talking at the dinner table about how — even though we have peace about the job, we have faith, we know that God is in control and that He has it figured out, we are tired of waiting! Like Christmas morning, I know that what He has in store for us will be exciting, but I want to open it now.

I get so frustrated with my kids when they get hungry while I’m making dinner and they start raiding the pantry. As i work to prepare good, healthy, satisfying food that will nourish their bodies, they grab junk food to snack on in their impatience to wait. I have thought about the meal we will share at our table, I have carefully selected it especially for them, tailored it to their individual tastes; yet they settle for the crap in the pantry rather than wait for what I have prepared for them.

So I think now that my prayer will be that I will have patience to wait for the goodness He is at work preparing for us right now. Not to take matters into my own hands and settle for junk, but to wait for the real blessings that await me at His table.

We are OK

We are OK


It was nearly two weeks ago that Jim was informed that his position will be eliminated as of 12/31. He works for an international Fortune 500 company, with sales of $26 billion, that has seen more than its share of downsizing and outsourcing over the past several years. So while not entirely unexpected, the confirmation of our concerns over the past few months was nevertheless a blow.

Through the years, our family has been extravagantly blessed — we will celebrate 20 years of marriage later this month; 20 years of commitment, love, friendship and a shared sense of calling to our highest mission — the spiritual growth and development of our two girls. God has used us in spite of our many weaknesses, mistakes and failures to shape them into bright, beautiful, gifted, fun-loving and (usually!) delightful human beings whose hearts belong first and foremost to Him.

He has comforted us in the loss of those we have deeply loved and guided us through uncertain and anxious times. We have trusted Him with major decisions, serious illnesses and the daily stress, anxiety and worries that accompany life with teenage girls. We trust that in this transition He will be faithful as He has been before.

— My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

When things are going well, we have the illusion of strength and security. It is not until we encounter a situation that is completely outside our control that we are forced to acknowledge that we are truly powerless. Nothing has really changed except our own mindset; we are not any less secure than we were when things were going smoothly; the only difference is that we now realize it! So — now that we have been reminded that we are weak, we can boast in our weakness and find peace and comfort in His strength.

Because we know that His grace is sufficient, we can choose to be free from worry about the future. That doesn’t mean that there is no fear or stress, or that there aren’t tears, discouragement and frustration; it doesn’t even mean that, knowing His goodness and faithfulness, we always do choose to be free from worry. There are good days and bad days.

What I do know for certain, though, is that, as I like to tell my kids, God’s plans for us have already been put into place. He had it figured out before we were born. He has answered the questions, done the deal, dotted every i and crossed every t. And He will reveal His plan to us on His timetable, not on our own. We are not called to understand His timing, just to trust Him and to do our best with the gifts He has given us.

Last week we heard a sermon from Sam, our former senior pastor. He preached from Daniel 3, (which is also what I’ve been studying in my Thursday morning Bible study) the story of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The three men were thrown into the furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar because they would not worship the king’s idol. They could have avoided their fate by one simple act: bowing down to the idol. But they refused to take the easy way out; though they faced an agonizing death, they allowed themselves to be bound and faced the furnace. Here is what they said:

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

They knew that God was able to deliver them from death; but they trusted Him even if he chose not to. And we all know the end of the story; they survived the furnace without even the smell of smoke on their clothing (v.27). We also know that there was a fourth man in the fire with them, whom many Bible experts believe to be Jesus. And the three men went on to prosper as they never had before and the king decreed that all would worship the one true God.

Sam said it so much better than I ever could, but the point is that Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego trusted completely, even to the point of death, not knowing if God would deliver them or not. What blessings would they have missed if they had sought to save their lives and avoid the furnace? The nation would have continued to worship a worthless statue and the three probably would not have been promoted to the lofty positions they achieved.

So, maybe we are in the furnace now. But we are not alone. There is a “fourth man” right here with us. And although it’s scary, I really don’t like heat at all, and an easy way out could be really nice right now, there will be blessings on the other side that are immeasurably more satisfying than earthly security.

Please pray for us; pray for patience, strength, guidance. But don’t worry about us — there really is no need — we are already rejoicing in the good that will come from this trial as we trust in His perfect will.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11