Within the Lines

Darkness & Light

Our eyes are naturally drawn to the light.  Too often, tho, I find my inner gaze to be more drawn to darkness than light.
  
     While I like happy things and love to laugh (often), I tend toward being a glass-half-empty sort of person.  If someone asks how my day went, I would usually say "great!",  but then feel it necessary --in the name of balance and fairness-- to inform them of the few not-so-great things.  In a desire to problem-solve, I tend to dwell on the things that are wrong, saving exulting in the good till all problems are fixed.  I come home from a gathering more aware of the problems needing prayer, than the benefits needing praise.  And, in a desire to stay informed, I spend way too much time in Fox Online news, the majority of which is NOT good and uplifting.

     So, when God brought to mind the picture of me going outside to gaze at the dark, ignoring the stars, I was -happily- convicted. 

Who Is My Enemy?

Caing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, ran a Phnom Penh torture center and admits responsibility for 12,000-14,000 deaths (as written about in World Magazine, May 17/24 issue, by Marvin Olasky).  Many would struggle to forgive him and, certainly, to call him "brother" rather than "enemy".  Pastor Christopher LaPel only recently discovered that the kind and gentle man he'd baptized was responsible for the deaths of his (LaPel's) parents, brother and sister.  LaPel says, "If Jesus can change Eav, he can change anyone."

Perhaps this is why Jesus said, "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."  Our enemies can be those, like Eav, who persecute and torment us, or maybe just the one who irritates us at work.  Sometimes our friends become our enemies, some days our husbands or kids feel like our enemies.  God knows how easily we can feel that someone is our enemy; we classify as enemy anyone that hurts us.  We don't look into the heart, or the future, like He is able to do.

However, I've recently begun to wonder if there's a distinction between an enemy of ours and an enemy of God's.  We are to pray for and love our enemies, but there are rare times when God indicates He doesn't want me to pray for someone.  They, so far, have never been enemies of mine; just someone I've heard of or know thru someone else.  As I pray, I am told, in no uncertain terms, that I am not to pray for this person, and just in case I doubt, it's usually accompanied suddenly by a complete inability to form thoughts or words to pray.  It does seem as tho He expects different actions from us toward an enemy of ours and an enemy of His.  I see evidence even in the stories of the Old Testament that this may be true.  Of course, this requires care that we don't determine someone to be God's enemy based on our own understanding.

So, have you experienced this?  Do you think maybe there might be a difference in God's expectations of us toward our enemies and His?

Sabbath Praise

I am so thankful God provided and demonstrated a Sabbath rest for us.  A couple of years ago, or so, my husband and I decided -- for a whole variety of reasons I can't completely remember right now -- we wanted to be more committed to resting on Sunday.  Occasionally, it's hard, either because we work harder Friday and Saturday to finish some project or because we have to leave something undone; mostly, tho, it's a blessing.  This month, it's been a wonderful blessing! 

We were so exhausted after working hard almost non-stop all week (happily exhausted... having gotten the garden partly in and tunnelled, trees and blueberries planted for in-laws next door, the seed-starting table cleaned up and taken down, more windows cleaned, weeding started, the goat lean-to cleaned out, a garden path reset, and a larger fenced area added for the goats, among other things), today was marvelous medicine.  We went on a family bike-ride, about 5-ish miles, stopping to spend time by a lake, watching a loon, throwing rocks, and talking of what we are thankful for and blessed by.  Lunch was eaten while we piled on a couch watching a sweet movie, August Rush. (have you seen it?)  Then off to 2 hours of rest, reading, prayer.  Supper was easy, get-your-own cold cereal.  More rest.  Went to bed without looking at a single list or making any plans for the week; letting tomorrow take care of itself. 

Thank you, God, for the Sabbath.

3rd and final installment of Elizabeth Elliot's, Meeting God Alone:

Another source of assistance for me has been the great hymns of the Church, such as "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven," "New Every Morning Is the Love," "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," and ''O Worship the King." The third stanza of that last one delights me. It must delight God when I sing it to him:

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

That's praise. By putting into words things on earth for which we thank him, we are training ourselves to be ever more aware of such things as we live our lives. It is easy otherwise to be oblivious of the thousand evidences of his care. Have you thought of thanking God for light and air, because in them his care breathes and shines?

Hymns often combine praise and petition, which are appropriate for that time alone with God. The beautiful morning hymn "Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun" has these stanzas:

All praise to Thee, who safe hast kept,
And hast refreshed me while I slept.
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
I may of endless light partake.
Direct, control, suggest, this day,
All I design, or do, or say;
That all my powers, with all their might,
In Thy sole glory may unite.

Adoration should be followed by confession. Sometimes it happens that I can think of nothing that needs confessing. This is usually a sign that I'm not paying attention. I need to read the Bible. If I read it with prayer that the Holy Spirit will open my eyes to this need, I soon remember things done that ought not to have been done and things undone that ought to have been done.

Sometimes I follow confession of sin with confession of faith--that is, with a declaration of what I believe. Any one of the creeds helps here, or these simple words: "Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again. Lord, I believe; help my unbelief."

Then comes intercession, the hardest work in the world--the giving of one's self, time, strength, energy, and attention to the needs of others in a way that no one but God sees, no one but God will do anything about, and no one but God will ever reward you for.

Do you know what to pray for people whom you haven't heard from in a long time? I don't. So I often use the prayers of the New Testament, so all-encompassing, so directed toward things of true and eternal importance, such as Paul's for the Christians in Ephesus: ''…I pray that you, rooted and founded in love yourselves, may be able to grasp…how wide and long and deep and high is the love of Christ" (Ephesians 3:17, 18). Or I use his prayer for the Colossians, "We pray that you will be strengthened from God's boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with joy" (Colossians 1:11). I have included many New Testament prayers in a small booklet entitled "And When You Pray (Good News Publishers).

My own devotional life is very far from being Exhibit A of what it should be. I have tried, throughout most of my life, to maintain a quiet time with God, with many lapses and failures. Occasionally, but only occasionally, it is impossible. Our Heavenly Father knows all about those occasions. He understands perfectly why mothers with small children bring them along when they talk to him.

Nearly always it is possible for most of us, with effort and planning and the will to do his will, to set aside time for God alone. I am sure I have lost out spiritually when I have missed that time. And I can say with the psalmist, "I have found more joy along the path of thy instruction than in any kind of wealth" (Psalms 119:14).

Continuing the teaching, Meeting God Alone, from Elizabeth Elliot...

This is a long dissertation from Elizabeth Elliot, that I find to be very practical and applicable.  I need this instruction so I'm posting it here where I'll hopefully see it regularly.  I will post it in 2 or 3 parts.

Meeting God Alone

A very tall man, wrapped in a steamer rug, kneeling alone by a chair. When I think of my father, who died in 1963, this is often the first image that comes to mind. It was the habit of his life to rise early in the morning--usually between 4:30 and 5:00--to study his Bible and to pray.

We did not often see him during that solitary hour (he purposed to make it solitary), but we were used to seeing him on his knees. He had family prayers every morning after breakfast. We began with a hymn; then he read from the Bible to us; and we all knelt to pray. As we grew older, we were encouraged to pray alone as well.

Few people know what to do with solitude when it is forced upon them; even fewer arrange for solitude regularly. This is not to suggest that we should neglect meeting with other believers for prayer (Hebrews 10:25), but the foundation of our devotional life is our own private relationship with God.

My father, an honest and humble disciple of the Lord Jesus, wanted to follow his example: "Very early in the morning…Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed" (Mark 1:35).

Christians may (and ought to) pray anytime and anywhere, but we cannot well do without a special time and place to be alone with God. Most of us find that early morning is not an easy time to pray. I wonder if there is an easy time.

The simple fact is that early morning is probably the only time when we can be fairly sure of not being interrupted. Where can we go? Into "your closet," was what the Lord said in Matthew 6:6, meaning any place apart from the eyes and the ears of others. Jesus went to the hills, to the wilderness, to a garden; the apostles to the seashore or to an upper room; Peter to a housetop.

We may need to find a literal closet or a bathroom or a parked car. We may walk outdoors and pray. But we must arrange to pray, to be alone with God sometime every day, to talk to him and to listen to what he wants to say to us.

A Real Princess

Remember the story of the Princess and the Pea...

I have discovered that I am a real princess.  I can find the "pea" in every area of life.  Despite a beautiful, blessed life as a loved wife and mother in wonderful, peaceful home, I can manage to ferret out the negatives.

Bug-10 is too bull-headed.

Son-6 is too energetic.

Bee-2 is too fussy.

Husband is too morose.

I am too weak (and ugly).

The house is too big, just like me.

There's too much work, and

it's too boring.

Meals and laundry are too repetitious.

Church is too shallow.

We're too far from town & friends.

We have too much stuff.

We have too little fun.

It's too easy to gain weight, and

too hard to lose.

Life is too monotonous.

Life is too easy.

          and on....

                and on....

I have been so wrong.  Such a pathetic, complaining attitude.  I truly see the majority of my life as almost too blessed, but somehow feel it necessary to sniff out the negative and try to fix it.  So in my effort to have all things perfect, I develop the attitude that nothing is ever good enough. 

God, I don't want to be a miserable "real princess".  Create in me a new heart.  One that is grateful, praising, God-honoring, and blessing.  Help me to joyfully give thanks for the 20 mattresses, rather than foolishly grumbling about the pea.