To Voskamp's thousand

“You can’t handle the truth!”  That was Jack’s line, with the burning glare and that unrelenting arrogance.  Today I revise Jack’s words on account of something Ann Voskamp says.  In Chapter 1 of One Thousand Gifts, she talks about the sin of ingratitude.  God told Adam he was free to eat from any tree in the garden, except for one.  And Adam chose that one.  So we wonder, why did he allow himself to be lured to the forbidden?  With an abundance that pleased the eye and also the health of the body, why?  It’s like the time I had a shoulder ache.  The pain worsened and worsened and eventually preoccupied my every thought, and I pleaded for the Lord to take it away.  Then one day it was gone.  And with it also disappeared my fervency of prayer.  The Lord had illustrated for me how He brings good from bad and how without the bad pain, I wandered away.  Generally people don’t handle the good very well.  Jack would say, “You can’t handle the good!”  Our provisions are set, our worries should be none, yet we carelessly wander away from the Lord, so He sometimes allows a point of pain to re-center our need of Him.  Our eyes reopen to the realization of our nakedness, our insufficiency on our own, our personal lack.  Hence the importance to be thankful.  Let us not slide away.  May we not require the Lord to illustrate again with pain.  How many times do we relive the fall of Genesis 3?

Coffeehouse catastrophe?

Aaahhhhhh!  What did I say?!#*  I panicked.  Two friends invited the new barista to come to church, but what inadvertent words had slipped out of my mouth?  We like to arrive the coffeehouse early to see what's going on and maybe talk a little before we play.  This time I heard the barista call my name, and his finger pointed to the calendar listing our names for music that night.  But there was also another name.  And a silent gasp fluttered across my throat.  Really it came when I imagined friends rushing across town to join us, and I felt bad they might enter the door and realize they rushed for nothing because we weren’t even playing yet.  The barista offered to ask the other guitarist to reschedule, but my husband reassured, “Don’t worry.  Let him play; then we’ll take a turn.”  So we spent the next minutes greeting friends and explaining, and honestly we enjoyed the longer-than-usual time to visit at the start.  I remember saying aloud, “Maybe the Lord has something in this.”  We sang a favorite Matt Maher tune, and the night filled fast with fun and energy.  And still we were glad to have those somber and thought-provoking moments that good songs and stories bring.  But now it was Saturday morning, and my brain was in a different gear.  I was nervous to recall that gasp when the barista told me.  Was there any part of me that conveyed anger at the situation?  Any facial expression or words I regret?  How often does adversity reveal the truth of our faith?  When I said “Maybe the Lord has something in this,” I hadn’t imagined He had a lesson in humility presenting personally to me.  So I prayed.  And I prayed again.  “Lord, I ask that nothing about my reaction last night dissuade our new barista from this invitation to church.  If there was any hint of anger or any grimace of frustration on my face, let him not remember it.  May he remember Your name and know Your presence above all.”  Philippians 4:4-7 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again;  Rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  May He guide us to consider Him and others before ourselves.  And how I thank Him for standing in the gap on my account.  

Beyond our hospital team

Team-building.  It can be good.  My group of hospital volunteers set out last month to improve ourselves via team-building.  An effort toward considering the other person first—whether patient, visitor, staff member, or fellow volunteer.  We walk in someone else’s shoes, so to say, and thoughtfully view from their perspective.  And on this particular Wednesday, a seemingly small gesture had profound effect.  Session 1 asked us to wear a blindfold and let our partner guide our steps.  I imagined my partner holding my arm or my hand and walking alongside.  But that’s not what happened.  I stood behind my partner, and she took my left hand to place it atop her left shoulder and my right hand to place atop her right.  So simple, but what a difference.  This way, my feet would step only where both her feet had already trod.  I didn’t worry about her forgetting to warn me about anything because her whole body was step-for-step directly ahead.  We weren’t walking different parts of any aisle.  She would meet obstacles before I would.  She would withstand the brunt of any collisions.  Any turn she would encounter first.  Jesus says in John 8:12, “…Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  And the Lord illustrated this for me with new meaning.  As a cancer patient finds comfort in a cancer survivor, as a rehab resident is encouraged by a recovered addict, as a fearful young mom heeds wisdom from her older neighbor, we find confidence in knowing Jesus walks before us, after us, and along both sides.  Never will He abandon or forget to guide.  Nowhere will He not provide for our need.  He saves us today, tomorrow, and the next day, and ultimately He saves His children from the eternal torment of death.  He's protected me countless times that I haven't realized until much later.  And on this day at the hospital, I love how He revealed Himself within the ordinary day, how He entered my thinking, how He enlightened our team-building for the grander scale of life itself.  May we ask to sense His presence.  May we know the joy of having Him lead.  There’s no inch of this earth beyond His reach.

Worldwide VEVO

I hear people say they want to be part of something bigger than themselves.  I understand that.  I was inspired when my husband turned on Netflix and watched a VEVO production in another language.  I heard words sounding like levantaré, clamaré, palabra, nunca, and siempre in Spanish and wondered if the language was Portuguese.  I found myself pausing to ponder something I tend to overlook.  This world becomes narrow and self-centered if I let it.  These foreign words I kept hearing represent people who shouldn’t be foreign to me.  These worshipers know my same Jesus.  Because the words resembled what I know in Spanish, I supposed I knew the essence of their song.  Certainly Jesus knows their language.  Those who sang had experienced Him in their land.  He loves them and saves them from the same Satan who torments me.  And if you’re reading this today from outside the United States, just apply the idea in reverse.  Across the ocean from where you sit, there’s a girl named Linda who experiences Jesus saving her daily from Satan, saving her daily from the evil of other humans and from her own independence.  We all wear the same shoes of temptation, yet Jesus resides in the hearts of His children everywhere, and how I'm thankful to be reminded of the size of that "everywhere."  Dialing up this blog, you've been reading recently alongside people from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, and Venezuela.  That means life is connected.  I kneel to pray at the same time someone kneels in China.  You sing at the same time someone sings in Ukraine.  When someone cries to the Lord in Romania, when someone prays in Sweden, it’s quite possible the Lord has led someone in Japan or Venezuela to do the same, even as He calls us to pray for each other sometimes without ever having met face to face.  Titus 2:11 says, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.”  Our God is big.  I pray you know Him as your Savior.  Salvation through Him depends not on any government system or any family history.  Jesus Christ saves upon our individual asking, and His door is always open.  I’m blessed to share this site with you, my brothers and sisters.  You’re in my prayers.

Jesus, my monologue

Last week I traveled to the Valley.  In Texas, that’s the southernmost portion of the Texas/Mexico border.  There God gave a particular blessing that's continued to amaze me.  Never had I experienced Him in quite this way.  The trip began with a sore throat, a runny nose, and nasal congestion—a common trio in our neck of the woods.  Coughing came, and soon I could hardly breathe without a rattle in my chest.  Ability to sleep was minimal.  By our fifth day when my theatre group had its 3 final performances, the rattle had become a rumble.  I managed to stand but very weak of energy.  All those waking hours through the night, I asked the Lord to cover and protect my body, to provide, to sustain, to prevent me from coughing.  For me to cough once would likely set in motion a whole chain of coughs and certainly a disruption to our theatre story.  I asked the Lord, “How will this work?  How will I perform this monologue?”  Quite possibly this portion could feel a lifetime beyond its actual 7 minutes.  And then it was showtime.  Turning the corner on the backdrop, I entered center stage and saw the children.  Finishing the rhythm-and-rhyme section, I could feel a cough approaching.  Yet it passed.  The next sentence, it returned.  Then it passed again.  The fluctuation I knew was the Lord preventing me to cough, and all the while my heart leaped in amazement to realize this effectual tug-of-war over my throat.  Next came the singing section.  The upper note felt a bit muffled, but I noticed no stir in the audience and still no cough.  The raging battle was coming to quell.  Such a physical experience with the Lord I’d not had before, not in this 1-on-1 way.  And amazingly the monologue finished without incident.  The Lord won.  A testament to how He answers prayer and compels His will to completion.  Just as He breathed life into Adam in Genesis 2, so He was my breath this day.  Back home, a doctor diagnosed me with acute bronchitis, and as I stared at my antibiotic and steroid, I relived my monologue.  I remembered the question “How will this work?”  In this case, the answer didn’t reveal until I stepped out into the open.  The Lord supplied my air.  He kept my airway open.  He was my monologue. 

Tamale treasure

Timing.  Sometimes it’s everything.  We invited some friends for dinner one weekend, and their text said maybe Saturday would work best.  Days passed, and we didn’t hear again.  Saturday arrived, and I assumed something disallowed them to come, so I asked the Lord to show us how to spend the day.  My husband suggested driving to La Vernia, which is a little town less than an hour outside San Antonio, just to get away from the city.  The idea seemed good for our beautiful sunny day, though I still lamented not seeing our friends.  Suddenly my husband’s eyes lit up, “Hey! You know what we’re going to drive by, don’t you?  Ruben’s!”  This was huge.  Actually it was almost earth-shattering because Ruben’s is our all-time favorite tamale place.  But a glance at the clock showed it was already after 2:00, and the likelihood of us arriving Ruben’s before they closed was almost nil.  But we opted to try.  Amazingly we arrived at 2:50, they close at 3:00, and here comes my smiling husband returning to the car with 4 dozen of those delectable tamales.  But 4 dozen, really?  That’s a lot for just 2 people, but thank you, Lord, for the availability.  The rest of the way to La Vernia, we had a hefty tamale aroma wafting from the back seat to the front.  Constant salivating led me to wonder if we should grab some plastic forks and stop at a picnic table to take care of that first dozen.  Turns out we ate at Mr. Tim’s Country Kitchen, and we were grateful to rest our eyes on the cows grazing in the backyard pasture to give us that slow-down respite we had hoped for.  Walking back to the car, I noticed a text from our friends asking what time they should come for dinner.  Uh-oh.  What happened?  Whatever the mix-up, we'd still love to see them, but how could this work?  How could I cook them dinner when we were still out of town?  Then that tamale smell wafted to the front seat again, and suddenly I knew why the Lord gave us 4 dozen tamales.  Better than any meal I could cook, we’d now be serving straight from Ruben’s!  And how thrilling to recount our steps and see the Lord having orchestrated the day.  Not only would we get to see our friends, not only did we get to enjoy a scenic drive, but we also had been handed a very generous portion of one of the tastiest batches of tamales this earth has ever beheld, which was especially amazing, given it was holiday time when people wait in line for hours and hours, even sometimes learning too late that Ruben’s already sold out.  We had enough to give extra tamales for take-home too.  From sad to happy to giddily thrilled, a whole party was happening in my heart—confetti, those pointy party hats, and even the silly honking horns!  How I love the Lord.  His impeccable timing often lets me know He’s there.

Intimacy of December

Is latest always greatest?  Is bigger always better? Here’s a story.  Last month we went to some friends’ house on a Saturday afternoon.  Their home was a new music venue for us, yet it was a long-awaited and exciting occasion of joining their fellowship of musicians.  The sun shone, the air was crisp, and the drive held a serenity we loved.  On their porch sat a chiminea that softly slowed our pace from the city, much like a campfire seems to bring time to think.  My husband and I were among the first to arrive, and as everyone soon filed through the door, we discovered much in common beyond music.  We had shared neighborhoods and traversed the same roads near and far.  We spoke English and Spanish and had attended the same churches without knowing the other was there.  I must've donned a permanent smile from all the laughing and amazement, knowing little about the best part still to come.  Then I heard our friend announce that music would begin.  People stirred.  Guitar cases opened.  The djembe took prominent position.  Uncapping my little film bottle of water to soak my oboe reed, I sensed a tinge of nervousness beginning to creep.  Yet we set out in music to worship the Lord.  How would we experience Him?  How would He touch us and impact the moment?  The songwriting, the instrumentals, the storytelling, the prayer—it all came so sweetly.  Such an abundant presence of God inhabited the room, both for us as individuals and as a group.  Neither was it a big church service nor any high-tech event.  On this little parcel of land outside San Antonio, a small group of Believers was given a hugely amazing experience of the Lord transcending the day.  Covered softly in stillness and calm, my heart was full.  The gift was supernatural, like when the priests of the Old Testament couldn’t enter the temple because the glory of the Lord filled it so completely (2 Chronicles 7).  Fast-forward to 2014, and the Lord filled my heart so full that no want for anything more could enter.  For days and weeks, this aura of peace held.  I write here now to offer encouragement for those times when we’re restless.  We try the pretty things like shopping, we follow the flashy ads for movies, and we tout food as if it quells our unrest.  In actuality our solution lies in pausing to worship the One who created us.  The peace comes first through Him.  Consider the intimacy the Lord can bring to the smaller moment, for the most treasured gifts aren’t always in the biggest boxes.

Jesus & cookies

Today I’m so happy to host Christina Hoehn as guest writer.  I sat in her audience a few weeks ago as she shared these words at a cookie exchange.  Since then, she granted permission for me to post here, and I’ve edited only minimally in hope of you hearing her voice just the way she spoke to us.  The highlighting of verses and ingredients is simply to ease your referencing, in case you share with your group maybe on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve.  Now please allow me to introduce my friend Christina . . . **** You ladies may not know this about me but I love themes. For example if I'm making a meal, I think whats the theme? I'll decide on a picnic theme for example and start planning out the menu, burgers of course... In my world burgers can fit into any theme, I also need fries and fries fit any theme too... at least in my world. Now If I'm planning a party, I definitely need a theme, we'll go with Hawaiian, immediately I think cute little hula skirts, blue umbrellas, tiki torches. You see where I'm going with this. So when I asked to do the devotion for the cookie exchange, I immediately thought what's the theme? Of course it's cookies!!! Cookies...Wow, how in the world do I write a devotion about Jesus and cookies? This one ladies, had me stumped, maybe I could write about manna, that's kinda like a cookie, right? Well, I decided to keep praying and thinking about it for a few more days and as the days past the verse that kept coming back into my mind was PSALM 34:8 – “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” We as Christian ladies know this verse, we memorize this verse, we can quote this verse, in fact a lot of us have this verse up in our kitchens, I know I do, it's right next to my spatulas. But the question I ask is, do we ladies live this verse? Do our lives make others want to taste God? Look at the cookies placed in front of you, how many of you looked at them and thought man that's a good looking cookie, or thought that chunky one, that's the one I wanna try, or, they smell so so good... Insert lip smack right here! Well ladies, we are like that scrumptious cookie sitting right there in that box and everyday people are looking at us and what do they see, what do they smell? Are we big and plump and smell heavenly? Or are we brittle and burnt and taste disgusting? Let's think about that while we talk about what it takes to make a cookie smell and taste so good. We all know that to make a cookie you need ingredients and guess what? Our lives need ingredients too! (1) First we need to pour in our eggs. Eggs hold everything together. COLOSSIANS 1:17 says, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” This verse tells us, God holds everything together. Do people see that in your lives? Do they see God holding you together when things get hard, when you get a bad report from the doctor, when you lose your job, when your struggling with your kids? Are people seeing you run to God or running away from God? Do they see you have your sufficiency and secure in the One who holds all things together? He makes the difference. We need to tell people and show people. It needs to be modeled in our everyday lives. Let us seek out others and tell them what God has done in us. Life will go up and down, the tide goes in and out but God remains the same forever. When we're under His care He holds EVERYTHING together. (2) After eggs, comes some sugar. With sugar you get two things, one you get the taste of sweetness and two, baking in the oven you get the aroma of sweetness. Who doesn't love that? EPHESIANS 5:1-2 says, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” Some key words here are: be imitators of God and walk in love SO THAT we can be a sweet smelling aroma. And I'll add so we can smell like cookies... Personally I'd rather smell like a big juicy steak... But that's a whole other devotion. We need to be loving. We need to love the lost, love the broken, love the weary and love the lonely. We've all been there, we've all walked that road. We all have life lessons that we can share and relate to others with. Somewhere on that path God picked us up, dusted us off and put us back on our feet. It's time for us to help do the same for others, show them the love, someone showed us. When Wes Bentley was here he said something that struck my heart, let me share it with you. He said "take people into your lives, into your families, into your homes, take the oddballs, the ones that aren't so cute, the unloveable ones, look for the ones no one is ministering too." That quote right there sums up love. Our love to the lost world is the sweet sugar in our cookies. (3) Now it's time to add some flour. Adding flour to our mix gives our cookies substance. HEBREWS 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” How does our faith come across to others? Is our faith like that tree that's planted by the water? Strong and solid? Or is our faith like reeds that blow back and forth in the wind? Are we that wishy washy person that can't make up their mind? Our faith should not be blowing around at every thing that comes our way. Stand firm in your faith, stand firm in knowing all that Christ has done in your life. Live a life that shows others the solidity you have in Him. (4) After our flour we pour in a little baking powder, now baking powder helps lighten the dough, but for us it means we help lighten the load for others. GALATIANS 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.” This verse tells us that we should be helping to carry each other's load. What exactly does that mean? Well, it means that we should be available to each other by making time to pray with someone, perhaps grabbing a coffee with a friend or even someone you don't even know, calling someone up to see how they are doing, or sit with a crying friend. It means sacrifice a little of your time to be like Aaron and Hur. Do you remember what they did? In Exodus the children of Israel went into battle against the Amelikites and God had Moses stand there for probably what seemed like an eternity but He had Moses stand there with his arms raised up. As long as his arms were up the Israelites were winning, but as his arms lowered the Amelikites would start to win the battle. Well Aaron and Hur went along side Moses and helped him by holding Moses's arms up, talk about a heavy duty task. They could of easily been like PSH, uh no, it's hot outside and there's flies everywhere and my arms and feet will get tired and I'm a little hungry. But they didn't do that. They stood right next to Moses and battled along side with him. That ladies is an incredible example of lightening each other's loads. Btw, this doesn't mean be a doormat for everybody. Pray, use discernment, and see how God wants to use you. (5) Time to add a pinch of salt. A pinch goes aloooooong way. Two things we know about salt. One its a disinfectant and two it's a preservative. MATTHEW 5:13 says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.” Plain and simple, We need to be salt that rubs up against the broken flesh of this world. We shouldn't be distancing ourselves from people that need us. Ladies we need to be the light that is shining in the dark corners of the world. I heard it once said that "what we need is separation with contact without contamination." Let me say that one more time. What we need is separation WITH contact WITHOUT contamination. What does that mean? It means Be in the world but not of it... Be Set Apart but always be leading others to Him. (6) (7) We have two more key ingredients to add to our mix, vanilla and chocolate chips. I decided to put these two together because vanilla keeps our cookies from being bland and chocolate chips make cookies fun and both point to an exciting and enticing cookie or in our case an exciting and enticing life. PROVERBS 17:22 says, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.” A lot of people live their lives thinking being a Christian is boring. Can you blame them? Look what they see on TV, read in magazines, see in some of our lives. But ladies being a Christian isn't bland or boring. Being a Christian is like those chocolate chips in a cookie, once you bite into it, you wish you had bit into the chocolate sooner. Show the world you CAN be a Christian and have fun, in fact it's like medicine for your body. Let the joy that's overtaken you ooze out onto them because Proverbs tells us a lost soul has dried bones. After all these ingredients have been mixed together our little dough balls get baked in the oven. Now ovens have to produce heat, in order to get beautiful cookies. It's the same for us, our lives are going to face the Refiners fire. But remember this... when the fire in your life is the hottest, stand still, for later on it produces a harvest and then we will be able to say with Job, “When he tested me, I will come forth as gold” (JOB 23:10). So ladies, as we go throughout the day, the week, the month and the year, let us remember to look at the ingredients in our lives and see where we need to add a little more to our mixture because we want to make sure that our lives are Taste and See.. worthy. ****

Radiant at Chick-fil-A

Question:  How does the Lord’s light shine through people?  Answer:  Visit Chick-fil-A.  One Saturday afternoon, the Lord introduced me to a man.  My husband and I entered the restaurant while this man talked at the door with some ladies.  Such contagious laughter drew me to glance a second time, and instantly I noticed his smile that beamed so far and so wide.  Even more, he seemed to honestly care for these ladies in a way that intrigued me.  Minutes later I saw the man more closely when he approached our table to offer a drink refill.  My husband handed him the single cup we shared, yet the man returned with 2 cups.  “My boss says people are important,” he grinned.  In that moment, my whole body paused to recognize the wisdom in his words.  Therein lay the reason his smile radiated so brightly.  So truly joyful was he in the moment and so content in his manner that I soon realized my eyes releasing tears, and I wondered why.  His thoughtful interaction with people and the ease with which he moved about—he portrayed a genuine love of life that lifted me out of our more commonly cynical world.  I regularly ask the Lord to impart to me His love of people.  I don’t know exactly what that love always looks like, but meeting this man gave me a good glimpse.  The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:6, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  And  I welcome His light to shine in my heart, both for my sake and for the sake of those I meet.  I sit to imagine what God’s glory looked like to shine over Bethlehem all those years ago.  A star that led people to know the purest of love.  A star that shines still now in the hearts of men.  May He shine His light upon you today.  May He shine through you.  Merry Christmas.

Heirloom Project

“Lord, why am I in a quilting group?  What’s my purpose?”  As much as I loved my new friends and as much as I now looked forward to Mondays, I still wondered what God had in store.  Then came this email.  My friend from Israel who ministers to Holocaust survivors sent a link to her Heirloom Project.  Anyone who makes handcrafts may donate their wares to a survivor, in turn providing a new heirloom the survivor can pass to their coming generations in replacement of what was lost in the Holocaust.  What was at the top of the Heirloom Project’s list of possible handcrafts?  Quilting.  So I wondered, “Lord, do you want me to make a quilt to send to Israel?”  Less than a week later, I’m at a friend’s house.  She’s a seamstress, so I share with her my adventure into quilting.  Suddenly her eyes light up, and she tells me to follow her to the attic.  She opens a box filled with quilting squares just waiting to be finished.  All these smaller squares were sewn by her mom’s friends who have now passed away, yet their handiwork lives on.  They need only to be incorporated into the larger size of the finished quilt.  The whole set of circumstances boggles my mind.  First the invitation to join the quilting group, which seemed such a foreign idea in the beginning.  Then the email from Israel.  Then the quilting squares in the attic.  To think how the Lord lined everything up so perfectly.  And no longer am I just hanging out with friends while they quilt.  No longer am I just the ironing girl who neatens everyone’s sewing seams.  I've now graduated to sitting at a machine to sew.  Our last meeting was my trial run.  With constant coaching and laughter mixed in, some somewhat straight stitching actually fastened 2 pieces of fabric!  We laughed away my initial apprehension when I stitched the wrong pieces together!  From hardly ever threading a needle to now having fun at the machine, the Lord has begun a work that I want to finish.  Experiencing His intricate planning leaves me in awe once again.