Seeing

We like to see. When driving, we like to see what is ahead of us.



We like to go to high hills and see far off places unseen from the low ground. We vacation near the ocean or a lake where we can see far, often beyond the horizon. We like the known, we like seeing. I was recently visiting my friend and her ten-month-old baby. Even the baby likes seeing. Mom is her life and she likes when mom is in view.

But what happens when we can't see? What about when our windshield gets hit with snow? What about when we are walking through the woods, not knowing where the clearing will be? What happens when the baby can no longer see her mom? Often times, we get worried. We drive slower and more cautiously. We don't want to hit other cars. We wonder if we are walking in circles. The baby wonders what her future will be like without mom, where will she get her next meal, who will rock her to sleep? We like seeing, there is comfort in seeing, in the known.

Its similar to our relationship with God. When I can see the path He has laid out for me, when I can see His hand working in my life, I feel safe and comfortable. But when life is a mess and I feel like I can't catch a breath, I worry, I wander, I cry, I wonder where God is and if He's coming back. But it is in the times I can't see that my faith and trust grow stronger. They are beneficial times though I wouldn't always call them good.

Are you in a time of seeing or a time of blurry vision?

The Bug

Today I saw a bug diligently attempting to get through my window to the plant on the other side. The bug was so focused on the great looking plant it had very little hope of getting to, it completely ignored the vast forest of leaves, trees, and flowers behind it.

Life is often like this. We are the bugs, vainly attempting to reach a great looking goal, when all along, God has a whole forest of better goals behind us.

What are you focusing so diligently on that you are missing the forest God has for you?

Waiting and the End Results

I've been learning a little life lesson recently. I'll start with the metaphor: ice skating of course :-). In my ice skating lessons, I've been learning 3-turns. I'll admit, they should be easy, but for me, I'm feeling rather uncoordinated and having a hard time with them. The thing about 3-turns is you can't force them. To do a 3-turn, you skate forward on one foot, turn your body to face backwards and your foot will turn on a dime so you are now going backwards. The thing that gets me is focusing on the end result. I focus so much on turning my foot...I want to do a 3-turn. But my teacher constantly reminds me, I need to just let it happen. I need to turn my body first (my head, my arms, my shoulder, etc) until last-but-not-least my little foot just has to turn.

We heard a sermon at church this past weekend along the same lines. It was Bill Hybels' sermon on "Holy Discontent". He talks about how something might bug you, a pssion God has given you, and it bugs you and irritates you until you can't stand it anymore. You get so annoyed that you simply must do something. Many times people focus on the doing something part and do not consider the passions God has given them. They think they will just start volunteering somewhere or helping people, which isn't bad, but God maybe giving them an even bigger dream if they stop being busy for a moment and look to Him.

Just like doing 3-turns, there are so many things in life that are exciting and we want to be at the end results, but many times, its not just about the end results, its about waiting patiently and growing in the meantime, its about things God wants to teach us so that we may better enjoy and understand the end results.

Being Dizzy

I was hanging out in the lobby of a church with some friends this past week when their darling preschool-aged daughter started running in a circle. Around and around and around she went with enthusiasm and joy. She simply said, "Run!!!", inviting us to join in. So I joined her in her circular treck, carefully "running" the six foot radius circle. I kept myself directly across from her, keeping my eyes on her. As we ran more laps, I noticed I wasn't getting dizzy at all. As long as I kept my eyes on her, everything on the balance end was fine. But the moment I looked anywhere else, even a few glances to her left or right, I would slowly become dizzy. Even if I took a second to see where I was going, I would get dizzy. It reminded me of God. The Bible often talks about life as being a long race to be run with endurance and focus. When we look at God, follow Him, and keep focused on Him, we don't get "dizzy". But as soon as something else draws our attention or we look at the step in front of us out of fear of where He is taking us, we get incredibly "dizzy". Its hard to walk straight or even stand when you are dizzy. So many things vie for our attention. So many seemingly good things can draw us away from God and trusting that He has the best plan: friends, books, activities, etc. Keep focused so you don't get dizzy.

I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.
-Psalm 16:2 NIV

Pain

Tonight was my first night of ice skating lessons. I'm super excited about the lessons and am enjoying it thoroughly. I joined mostly to get exercise and become a better skater. My teacher helped me learn some new skills to work on and congratulated me for passing a few of them already! (I'm already to a Beta level). After my lessons were over and I was back at home on my couch I realized: My legs are in pain! My fingers are in pain (I scraped some skin off pulling my laces tight)! And it got me to thinking...I'm rather excited about this pain! Yes, it hurts (I hope I can walk tomorrow), but its good. I know I am working my muscles and my body is getting stronger. It hurts, but its worth it.

It a lot like life...there is a lot of pain in life. Most of it is good in the end because it shows that we are "working our muscles", that we are growing (maybe spiritually, emotionally, socially, etc). Where there is physical pain, physical growth or strength often follows. The bad (fat) goes away and reveals a stronger, healthier body. In life, when there is pain, bad stuff is often released to reveal a stronger, healthier life.

Now, sometimes physical pain is due to a poor move...slipping and falling may cause you to break your arm (which is painful) but that pain doesn't help you grow...it is due to you doing something wrong. Sometimes pain in our life is because we aren't following God. We have turned away and because of that are experiencing pain. When we turn back to God, our pain may go away or become the first type of pain I talked about.

We have been conditioned to think that pain is bad, but that is not always the case. Pain can be good. Thank you, God, for pain!

The Wishing Well

I was at the mall today with my friend's eight-year-old daughter. She kept asking me if I could buy her a ride on the indoor carousel, a slushie, a necklace, something! The thought of bringing a kid to a mall and leaving with nothing defines torture in my mind. If you don't wish to spend money, don't go to the mall. I'm also lenient in giving children a small amount of money since they have no form of income. So, I gave her $5 and told her she could use it however she'd like, but that was all she was getting. This made her choose. Soon, the money was gone. As she drank her slushie and jealously watched the children on the carousel, she asked me for the few pennies she had left. I gave them to her and she threw one in the fountain. "What did you wish for?" I asked. "That you would give me more money," she replied. I laughed. It reminds me of what we sometimes do with God. God gives us gifts that we think of as mere pennies. We toss them away and say, "No God, give me better blessings." We overlook and are ungrateful for the blessings He graciously gives us. Afterall, He doesn't have to give us anything at all.

Hey, Where'd My Pen Go?

Have you ever dropped something and never found it again, wondering how that could be? Perhaps its due to a small black hole created by this machine: I recently read this article about the Large Hydron Collider. Apparently there is concern about this machine, whether it will destroy the planet through the black holes it could create, and what the practical benefit to every day life is. Its a little sci-fi to think black holes could possibly (but probably not) be part of our everyday life. It seems quite humorous! I can just see my children fighting "Mom! He threw my doll in the black hole again!" This could be the new "death penalty"...just throw them in the black hole! Murder mysteries would get really weird as criminals could easily do away with the evidence. But before we get all weirded out by black holes and such, this statement in the article struck me, "Some theorists say the idea would explain why gravity is so much weaker than the universe's other fundamental forces — for example, why a simple magnet can match the entire Earth's gravitational force pulling on a paper clip. " Amazing! Our earth with its amazing pull to keep you and me stuck to the earth and cause things to fall towards it can be interrupted by a single magnet! I feel a Mystery Box coming up!!! In the Bible, Jesus says, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain be moved and it will move. A magnet is kind of like our modern day mustard seed. If you have faith as small as a magnet, you can say to this paper clip, be moved and your little faith can overpower the earth's gravitational pull and change the forces surrounding the magnet! Its amazing! What an amazing little object. I'm continually in awe of God and the magnificent world He created.

Risk

"A ship at harbor is safe, but that's not what ships were built for..."

Opening the mystery box yesterday morning, I saw our cabin and the many activities we do there. It got me to thinking...some days at the cabin I prefer to relax and pretend to be reading or tanning. Other days (like yesterday) I prefer to be on the boat and let my semi-athletic side show. Yesterday I waterskiied for the second time in my life! I got some mileage this time which was good. Later I went again, this time going in and out of the wake, something I never thought I'd be able to do! Then, on the next round, I surprised everyone (except myself). While floating in the water getting ready to go, I check to see which ski was for saloming (skiing on one ski). I got up, went in and out of the wake, and the dropped one!!! I stayed up for a few feet, but then bit it. Bummer. While skiing, thoughts would flash through my brain...memories of injuries I've heard of or my friends have done, but I had to push those aside. Today I woke up sore, but have determined, it was worth it!

Skiing is kind of like taking risks in life. You might be constantly thinking of the bad things that could happen, but you have to focus on and maybe even emphasize the good! And yes, sometimes things go wrong or hurt. You could sit in your house and never do anything. You'd probably be safer, but you'd miss out on so much. Plus sitting in your house is not what God made you for.

Life is like a box...a Mystery Box

Every summer my old church has a tradition where a child is given a box to be filled with an item and brought back the next Sunday to be the topic of the children's sermon. The pastor calls the children up for the children's sermon and opens the box for the first time in front of everyone. He or she must then give a short object lesson on the surprise item. Sometimes it is easy (like when I graciously filled the box with Life Savers for the first mystery box of the summer) and sometimes it is hard (like when a child brings their beloved stuffed lizard toy...at least I think it was a lizard?). It is amazing what everyday items can teach us about God and His love for us.

Today I realized that life is like a mystery box...similar to the box of chocolates talked about in Forrest Gump, you never know what you are going to get, but you know that through it you can learn something about God. Every morning as we open our eyes, we open our mystery box to see the items God has placed for us to figure out more about Him. Its a surprise and just like my church's box, it can be a slam dunk to see God or very difficult.

My mystery box today contained tires. Slowly, over time, my steering wheel has begun shaking at high speeds. At first it only shook a little and only when I was speeding :-/ But recently it has started shaking significantly and most of my highway time. So I though I'd get it checked out. The mechanic knew right away it was probably a balance issue and he was right. My tires were off by 1 ounce and 1/2 ounce! It is amazing what little weight made such a big difference in my driving. So, what did I learn about God? Well, sin creeps into our lives slowly over time. At first it might not seem like a big deal, but all of the sudden we realize it has affected our lives more than we thought! We need to get re-balanced with God. Even a little sin can throw off our balance and make a huge difference. The funny thing is, now that my tires are re-balanced and corrected, I realize what great driving I was missing out on! My ride is so smooth now! Only when we look to the correct way and our Pure God do we realize how off our balance is! We realize what we're missing out on.

Now its interesting to note, my drive became smoother because my tires were balanced, but its still not always easy to drive. I still have to avoid pot holes, inattentive drivers, and you never know what else might be on the road. Its similar to when people become Christ followers. Some people think if you follow Christ your life will become easy..."easy" by the worlds standards. It just becomes easier in the way having my tires balanced makes driving easier. I still have to deal with the crap on the road and Christians still have to deal with the crap that comes with life, but being in balance, being a Christian gives one a "comforter". It is easier, not by the world's standards, but in a different way. More later maybe...