I love my hiking boots.  Problem is, I don’t get to wear them too often.  Hiking in Florida doesn’t really require trail-gripping, mountain-friendly footwear.  But a trek or a snowstorm in New Jersey might, so I dug them out of the back of my closet while packing for my recent holiday travels.

The soles still had mud and grass on them from some prior adventure the year before.  But when I scraped the mud off, I saw a shiny spot.  Looked like a tack was pushed into the bottom of the boot.

It wasn’t a tack.

I had to get a pair of pliers to pull it out.  It kept coming and coming, and when it was finally free, it turned out to be a 2” nail.  A rusty one at that.  It was so impressive I had to take a picture of it.  I literally shuddered when I realized what kind of damage it could have done to my foot if it had gone straight through.  And I had remained blissfully unaware of that potential past danger for almost a year.

 

It made me wonder how many other times God has intervened and protected me while I just went about my day, totally ignorant of His watchful eye and His safeguarding angels.  It made me a little bit more aware of how many things I have to be thankful for – things I might never even know about.

God could have chosen to teach me some other lesson on the day I stepped on that nail – a lesson involving a lot of pain and probably a tetanus shot and maybe even something worse. But instead, almost a year later, standing in my bedroom with a pair of pliers and a 2″ nail and a look of complete surprise on my face, He reminded me that He’s always looking out for me.

Even when I am blissfully unaware.

For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.               Psalm 91:11

The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. Psalm 34:7

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. Genesis 28:15

(originally posted 1/10/11, but without the impressive picture – some lessons are worth reviewing again!)

Sometimes you just need to step off the ledge.

I suppose this is a lesson in “be careful what you pray for”.  Remember that retreat I went on last Fall?  The one where I wrote about how good it is to get away with God, to be able to listen to His voice and just spend time with Him?  I talked to Him about some things in my life I wanted  to work on, some things that I wanted Him to open doors of opportunity for.

So now, it appears that He has.  And it feels more like a scary ledge than a welcoming door.

I feel a bit like Moses.  God brought him up to a mountain and told him that He wanted him to do something that was totally beyond his paygrade.  “Hey Moses, I’m going to send you to Pharoah and you’ll be the one to bring My people out of Egypt.”(Exodus 3:10-12, my paraphrase, of course). Now when God tells you He wants you to do something, the proper response is, “Sure, Lord.”  But Moses wasn’t quite there yet.

“Who am I that you think I’m qualified to take this on?”

Oh Moses.  Oh Sharon.  When God speaks and opens doors and pushes you to the edge of a ledge, He has every intention of being on the other side.  But being the lover of faith that He is, sometimes He wants us to turn the knob or take the leap without actually seeing Him on the other side.  Yet.

God doesn’t answer Moses’ question directly.  I love that.  It reminds me that God doesn’t always have to answer all of my very specific questions either, as much as that completely annoys me.  I’m the type of person who wants everything laid out ahead of time. I want to know what I’m getting into so that I can be prepared for any scenario that might unfold.   So while Moses is waiting for some detailed explanation of his qualifications, all God says is, “I’m going to be with you.  And you’ll know this when you’ve done what I asked you to do, and you’re back on this mountain to serve Me”.

Wait – we have to step off the ledge and THEN we’ll know we did the right thing?  We can’t have all the guarantees ahead of time?

And that, my friends, is faith.

My ledges are nothing like being called to save a people group from the hands of a crazy Pharoah.  They aren’t anything dangerous or world-changing. And they have nothing to do with my paygrade. But they’re my ledges and they’re scary to me.  And I want to ask God why He thinks I’m qualified and I want guarantees wrapped up in pretty packages.  But what He’s asking for is my faith.  And what He’s giving me is an assurance that He’s going to be with me.

Sometimes you just need to step off the ledge.

Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.  Exodus 4:12

Teach me to do Your will, for you are my God!  Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground! Psalm 143:10

Fear not, for I am with you.  Be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Isaiah 41:10

 

 

 

I’m putting myself on notice.

Actually, the more I think about that phrase, the weirder it sounds, but I’m going with it anyway.  I am going to try to notice more.

It was a beautiful day in West Palm Beach yesterday.  Bright blue skies. Sixty nine degrees. Breezy, but not windy.  Delightful. The kind of day that warrants a walk.  So I hung the little “Be Back in 5 Minutes” sign on my office door and took a quick stroll outside.  In spite of it being my first day back at work after the holiday break, I was in a particularly good mood.

And that’s when I started to notice.

I noticed the freshly manicured landscaping around the campus. I noticed the flowering shrubs and the trees that the students love to hang hammocks in.  I noticed the turkey vultures soaring in circles high overhead.  (I realize that by bringing up turkey vultures I run the risk of ruining the moment, but they are pretty to watch.  From a distance.)  Then I noticed the pattern of the paving stones on the sidewalks.  And the swaying palm fronds.  And the noise of a train in the distance. And a whole lot of other things I’d miss if I wasn’t being intentional.

And standing over it all, I noticed the cross.

It’s the cross on top of our university campus chapel.  Of course I see it all the time, but today I really saw it.  God’s here.  He’s over all these little details. The things that usually seem so inconsequential to us are part of His world, part of His plan.  It’s so easy for me to go about my day, oblivious to His presence. Oblivious to His watchful care.

But if I take the time, I see it.  I feel it.  I know it.

The “perfect day” scenario made it easy to appreciate the beauty and the rhythm of the world outside my office door. The “perfect day” made for a pretty picture of the cross.  But the cross is there on the gray and gloomy days as well. I just need to look for it. To look for Him.

So I’m putting myself on notice.

This is my Father’s world, and to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.  (Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901)

Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing. Isaiah 40:26

 

 

We’re in that strange time between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

The big gift-giving, feasting and family gathering day is over.  The radio stations have stopped playing holiday music and the after-Christmas sales are already in full swing.  New Year’s Eve plans are being made.  New calendars are being bought. 2016 is right around the corner.

 

But we’re in between.

I started to think of this in-between time differently this year.  What if we prepared better for the new year by recognizing that Christmas  has made all the difference?  Because a Child was born, because a Son was given, because we have a Wonderful Counselor and a Prince of Peace, we can face the New Year  with comfort and joy.

The in-between week gives us the time to let that sink in.  Instead of feeling sad that Christmas is over and the routines of our lives will soon start in again, we should keep celebrating.  We should keep thinking about the One born to reign in us forever, the One born to set the captives free.

Wrap yourself in the wonder that is the in-between.  Christmas promises that 2016 will be all in God’s hand.

My times are in Your hand.  Psalm 31:15

…the eyes of the Lord are ever on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.  Deuteronomy 11:12

“I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End”, says the Lord, “who is, and was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  Revelation 1:8

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices.  My flesh will also rest in hope.  Psalm 16:9

 

They are a pretty important part of the holidays.  We string the lights.  Hang the lights.  Drive around to see the lights.

They’re on the houses, on the storefronts, on wreaths and doors and lampposts.  We make a big deal out of tree lightings.  Here in West Palm Beach we have a light show every night on the big tree at the waterfront, and lights strung from both sides of the city streets form a twinkling canopy over the road.

Early one morning last week as I plugged in the little white lights I have strung around a mirror in my living room, I wondered why.

Why did lights become such a big thing at Christmas?

 

“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”  (John 8:12)

We have lights at Christmas because of Jesus.  Most people don’t recognize that. It never crosses their minds when they are standing on ladders with tangles of bulbs and extension cords, that what they are really doing is heralding the coming of the Light of the World.

When it was so very dark, He came in the night.  A bright star announced Him.  An even brighter host of angels filled the black sky with their “glory in the highest” song.

Tonight when you plug in your trees and your lampposts and your wreaths, when you drive past decorated homes and businesses and shopping centers, when twinkling things make you look and smile, remember this.

We have lights at Christmas because of Jesus.

 

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who dwelled in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.                       Isaiah 9:2

Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.  Isaiah 60:1

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.  Ephesians 5:8

 

 

 

I thought I was just frustrated and having a bad day at work. But I realized it went much deeper than that.  What I was actually longing for was for Jesus to come back and make all things new.

That might sound overly dramatic, but let me explain.

It’s been a wacky few years in my office.  There have been about a dozen personnel changes over the past 24 months.  People coming and going, job changes, administrative changes, scheduling issues and a fair amount of stress.  So several weeks ago when it was just one…more…thing… I felt like I had been pushed to the edge of my sanity (now that’s being dramatic).  And I sighed, looked out the window and thought to myself, “I just want everything to be right again.”

 

At the time, I didn’t realize how Biblical that longing was.

As I thought about my mini-meltdown later, God reminded me that every time we’re frustrated and stressed over situations that could be better, what we’re really longing for is restoration – the restoration of all things.  We long for everything on this earth to be right again, to be like it was before our sin messed it up, to be like it was in the beginning when God said, “It is good”.

Sometimes it’s more than just silly work drama. The Christmas season itself can stir up that sense of longing for “rightness” even more. Our holiday celebrations may be missing people we love.  Our futures may be uncertain, our worlds turned upside down in spite of the joy of the season.

But Jesus is coming back someday, and for those who have put their faith in Him, everything will be made right.  No more frustration.  No more stress.  No more disappointment and discouragement.  No more unanswered questions.

Restored.

And He that sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new”. Revelation 21:15

We just don’t know when that will be. We might make it to heaven first, or we might be here to see it in person. But either way, that’s why we need to keep hanging on, persevering through the hard times, clinging to the promise that everything that threatens to defeat us or break our hearts or test the limits of our sanity will be made absolutely new.

When we find ourselves in those situations where we long for life to be made right again and good again, including the situations we tend to over-dramatize, we need to let them remind us that everything WILL indeed be made right. Someday. In ways far beyond our comprehension.

Perfectly and joyfully right.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.  Isaiah 43:19

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:  Isaiah 40:4

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  Hebrews 10:23

For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.  Psalm 107:9

 

 

It doesn’t feel like Christmas.  No, really.  I’m not just talking about the “oh the year just flew by so quickly and I’m not ready for December” kind of not feeling like Christmas.

Just a few days ago it was 82 degrees outside, with a heat index of 88.  EIGHTY EIGHT, my friends.   Someone asked me why we don’t have ugly Christmas sweater parties around here.  Um, need I say more?

And so we fake our way through it, with pretend snow and plastic evergreen trees in our living rooms.   We walk under little white lights strung along palm tree fronds. We have a tree lighting downtown – with a Christmas tree carved out of sand. We wear holiday tee-shirts instead of the ugly sweaters.  And we crank up the air conditioning so the cookies baking in the oven don’t melt us in the process. Nope. It doesn’t feel like Christmas, at least for those of us who grew up north of the Florida state line.

But what exactly SHOULD Christmas feel like?

I try to imagine the nip in the air, the scarves, the boots, the crunching snow in the parking lots of the shopping centers, the frost on the windowpanes, the crackling fires, the gifts stacked under the real Christmas trees with the real pine smell.

But if I’m going to be honest, that’s not what Christmas should feel like either.

The Bible doesn’t say, “And this shall be a sign unto you, when the temperature dips and the frost covers the ground, you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes…”.

Feeling like Christmas has absolutely nothing to do with the weather.  Or the lights.  Or the clothing.

Feeling like Christmas is a sense of expectation and longing and joy and celebration.  It’s feeling like the best promise ever made to anyone ever before is about to be fulfilled.

Because it has.

In this season of Advent, I need to keep remembering that.  I need to keep remembering that Christmas is not what the world has led me to believe it is. It’s so much more than temperatures and traditions. It’s about our rescue by a King who masqueraded as a baby so that He could fulfill the best promise ever made.

It may be 82 degrees outside, but I think it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

 

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.  Matthew 1:21-23

 

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Isaiah 9:6

 

 

Sometimes the best picking is down the road.  But you need to keep walking.

That’s the lesson my family learned on a recent apple-picking adventure up north.  We don’t do much apple-picking here in South Florida, so I missed out.  But I got the pictures and even got a few of the apples my littlest nephews picked especially for me when I went home for Thanksgiving.

The orchard had lots of trees and lots of different apples.  And it appeared that the orchard also had lots of people who had already picked over the trees closest to the road.  You know, the easy ones.  The fruit that’s right there as soon as you get on the path.  The low-hanging stuff that doesn’t require a lot of work, or a lot of walking, or a lot of time.

And that’s why they needed a sign to tell people that there was still good picking ahead.  If the sign wasn’t there, it would have been easy for the customers to get discouraged over the lack of options.  It would have  been easy to sigh and complain when the ground was littered with “not so good” bruised and damaged apples, when what they really wanted was a luscious, crisp, drip-down-your-chin piece of heaven.

But that sign gave them hope.  It meant, “Don’t stop here!  Don’t get discouraged! The best is yet to come!”.  They just had to keep walking to find it.

And so it is with life.

We look around and see that our options are limited.  Sometimes it seems like the best opportunities have already been snatched up by others.  We may be tempted to give up, discouraged and disheartened that our life adventure turned out to be unproductive and disappointing. Maybe we’ll even settle for “not so good” because we don’t believe anything better will come along.

But there are signs for us too!  God tells us that there are good things yet to come if we stay on His path.  He promises to give us a future and a hope and drip-down-your-chin blessings.  If we focus on what we don’t have or how hard the path is sometimes or how we think we’re too late for the good stuff, we’re basically saying we don’t believe His promises.  And that’s sad.

Look for the signs. God’s signs. They say, “Don’t stop here!  Don’t get discouraged! The best is yet to come!”.

Yes, indeed. His very best may be just ahead.

 

There is hope in your future, says the LORD,  Jeremiah 31:17

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.  Psalm 16:11

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!  Psalm 34:8

But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.  Proverbs 4:18

For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.      Psalm 107:9

 

 

…for gold and pink sunrises

…for cooler temperatures

…for friends who understand that not everyone comes as a couple

…for good coffee

…for airplanes that take me back “home”

…for a church that has become my family when I’m so far from my own

…for hugs from six nephews, big and small

…for the people in my life who challenge my thinking

…for college students who inspire me

…for holidays

…for laughter

…for family

…for hope

…for the God who knows me, loves me and blessed me beyond measure

Thankful.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him and bless His name.  Psalm 100:4

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.  Psalm 103:2

Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.  Amen.  Revelation 7:2

 

Is it really a good idea to document your whole life?

Is it good/bad/creepy/entirely too introspective that when I had a memory last night I knew immediately where to go on the journal shelf in my bedroom, pull out the volume from November 2004, open it up, and read all about it?

Yes, I did say “journal shelf”.  Because in full disclosure…

This is my journal shelf.  And that’s only starting with 1996.  Because the spiral bound notebooks I used prior to that are in a box.  Under my bed.  Suffice it to say, I journal.  A lot.  Random thoughts, prayers, quiet time notes, rants. That’s pretty much my whole adult life documented there. And I’ve thought seriously about making sure they get buried with me when I die.

But back to the question at hand.  Is it a good idea to document your life?

I think it is. And it’s not just because I do it. I think it’s good to remember, to read back through the great times and the not-so great times.  It’s good to see God’s faithfulness when I was on spiritual mountaintops and when I was trudging through dry valleys.

That memory last night that made me go looking for the old journal?  This time of year always makes me think of when I got some bad news about a friend who had wandered away from God.  My heart got hurt in the process and I struggled to make sense of it.  That journal documents the questions, the sadness, the concern. It doesn’t document the restoration.  I’m still praying for that.  But reading through it, and seeing those other 30 journals on the shelf, I realized that God has been faithful to me.  In this situation, and a zillion others.

It would be easy to forget that if I hadn’t written it all down.  Memories fade after awhile.  The details get fuzzy.  Today, this snippet of time, is so easily forgotten. And maybe God’s presence in it is easily forgotten, too.  We move on.  We get engaged in other things.  But if we never take the time to remember how God has gotten us through the past, how will we know to trust Him in the future?

Jeremiah writes, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you”.  (30:2)

And so, I do. I write them in a book. God has spoken to me through His word, through the wise counsel  of the people He’s put into my life, through His kind provision and sometimes even through His merciful withholding.  And because I’ve documented it, I see it.  I know it.  I believe it.

Thirty-plus journals on a shelf in my bedroom may be on the extreme end of things, but I need to keep them there to remind myself of this:

Documenting how He’s been faithful in my past makes it easier to trust Him with my future.

And that is definitely a good thing.

Your faithfulness endures to all generations.  Psalm 119:90

Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.  Psalm 105:5

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.  Psalm 103:2

I will remember the works of the Lord.  Psalms 77:11

Bind them on the tablet of your heart.  Proverbs 7:3