Hope in Who We Are

Welcome to Unseen today. This may be a post that someone needs to read because there have been numerous technical difficulties this morning. Today's post is about worth. It is popular to talk about self worth, but living unseen can erode our sense of self worth. Read on for a solution.

Hope in Who we Are

Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished onto us, that we should be called the children of God. That is what we are.1 John 3:1

There is an old folk tale about a man named Johnny Lingo. He was a very respected man on a Polynesian island. When the time came for Johnny Lingo to marry, he surprised the villagers by choosing to marry a plain looking girl. He surprised them even more by offering much more for her dowry than anyone expected. The traditional dowry was one cow, and two for a really valuable woman. Johnny Lingo paid 8 cows. Then he and his bride went away for several months. When they returned, the islanders were amazed at the girl’s grace and presence, and a smile that transformed her plain face. Because of Johnny Lingo’s love, she had become an 8 cow wife. They asked Johnny Lingo about the change. He replied that he had loved her since they were children and that he loved who she was, not how she looked.

Think about what Jesus paid for us. Much more than 8 cows, He left the glory of heaven and came to earth. He lived separated from the presence of God for 33 years. Then He paid for us with his life. Why? Because God has loved us with an everlasting love. (Jer 33:3) Not only that , he loved us before we ever knew. Romans says that God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

We need to allow God’s love for us and his belief in who we are to transform us. The enemy will tell us we are worth maybe a chicken or a sheep, but God says otherwise.

He says that we are worth Heaven’s best. Let’s let his love change us into the People he sees in us.

Consider the birds

Welcom back to Unseen. Hope your new year is off to a good start.  If you're like me, a new year often brings new anxieties.  This year it had to do with restoration and how to make that go faster, work and writing projects, including how to market my book (Help me Find the Stairs) and how to start my next publication project (Grace Notes). Sorry. That was a shameless plug. Anxiety can eat us up. Jesus invites us to consider the birds of the air. Here are some of the lessons I have learned as it have done just that.

Consider the Birds

Consider the birds of the air. They do not toil or spin or gather into barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Luke 12:24 

I do a lot of driving with my job, sometimes through bleak West Texas landscape. Sometimes I wonder if I have passed the same cactus more than once. To keep my mind occupied I often watch the birds. Here are some things that I have learned from watching them.

            Each bird’s body and beak is uniquely suited to its individual needs. From the hummingbirds amazingly fast wings to the design of the pelican’s beak and the woodpecker, God has designed each bird specifically to do the task it was created in the environment in which it exists. Birds instinctively understand this and do not try to do tasks they are not designed for. No oriole envies a pelican and flies to the ocean to catch fish. They are content with what God has given them.  We too have been uniquely designed by God to do His work. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do His good work, which He prepared for us beforehand.”  Too often, though, we envy those in public ministry or those who seem to have easier lives. Like the birds we need to be content with where God has put us in ministry and the blessing He has given us.

            One of the most fascinating things I see with birds is the way they fly in formation. Aeronautics researchers learned that the V-formation that geese and other birds use is incredibly efficient. Flying together, they can fly faster and longer than they ever could alone. The draft takes the pressure off the individual geese to make it easier to fly. Also, after flying in the front for a while, the lead birds peel off and go to the back of the pack. They take advantage of the draft and recover their strength.  What a lot we need to learn from this. Ephesians 6:2 says, “Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” By “flying together” we can take strength from each other. And when we are spiritually exhausted we can retreat and let others take the load. Instead, many times we tend to isolate ourselves in trouble and not accept help from those who love us. We put on a happy face and say we are just fine. We need to stay in fellowship and give and receive support.

            Finally, like we saw in Matthew, birds are not anxious. They don’t sit in their nests wondering what they are going to eat that day. One of my many hats at the nursing home was to go with one of the residents to fill up the bird feeders. We would start at the bird feeders close to the front door and go all the way around the buildings. Apparently the birds had a pretty good communication system. By the time we got to the third or fourth feeder, they were perched on the roof or in the trees waiting for us. One bold little fellow would sit on the bird feeder and chatter at us.

            Is that the way we are? Do we wait expectantly to see how God is going to meet our needs?  If you do, you are doing better than I am. My car is down today, which gives me time to write but also causes me angst. What is wrong with it? How much is it going to cost? How long is it going to take? What if I have to miss a day of work? What if we can’t get to the preliminary meeting for high school classes? Then if I am not careful it will snowball on me and I am worried about summer and graduation next year and what will happen if ...  I actually caught myself worrying what my eyesight was going to be when I am 80 if it is this bad now. Yep, I need to take a lesson from the birds

            God has gifted us with His creation. It is ours to enjoy and it is ours to learn from. 

Take a few moments today to go outside and look up at the birds. Remember that they are uniquely equipped to survive, they draw strength from each other and they wait patiently and expectantly for what God will do. Then strive to be like them.

Chosen

    As the first order of business today I want to honor one of the great unseen heroines in my life, Jimmie Gomez. From the day I met her in 1985 I felt like she was my own personal cheerleader.  When I saw her after being away from Abilene for several years, she was in a wheelchair as a victim of post polio syndrome. She had a phone call ministry from her wheelchair and could pray with the best of them.  As one friend described, "She had the 'red line' to her Daddy's phone."  She encouraged me in my school and in my writing and planned to be a guest blogger here on Unseen. She was very instrumental in praying my child out of the pit. She loved him and believed in him when not many people did.  He loved her too and when he was angry at God and church he always loved seeing her. Now that he is out of the pit, he is committed to praying for Jimmie's grandson who is trying to get out of the same pit. Isn't that just like God?  Now read on for ideas about being chosen by God.

Chosen

You did not choose me, but I chose you that you may go and bear fruit and that your fruit may endure. John 15:16

When I was growing up, I felt like I had a sign on my forehead that said: ALMOST GOOD ENOUGH BUT NOT QUITE. It was more than not being part of the in crowd.  I grew to hate PE, especially if we picked teams.   I was almost always among the last three to be chosen. Academic teams were a completely different story, but the pattern started early of focusing on what I couldn’t do rather than what I could do. As I got older, I tried out for teams and groups, and many times I almost made it. All district choir. All district band. Homecoming Court. There were nine girls in my ninth grade class and eight spots on the Homecoming Court. I was the one sitting in the bleachers. It was the same story with cheerleading tryouts. I had a very rational response. I grew to hate cheerleaders. Interviews, when I made it to the top two or three and didn’t make the final cut, added to the feeling.  None of these experiences by themselves were that bad, but the sum of them left me with deep wounds. I felt like I would always fall short, no matter what I tried. This conflicted with the message that if I tried hard enough I could get anything I wanted and do anything I wanted. I was confused and frustrated.  I coped by trying to never hope so I would not be disappointed. Would you like to guess how well that worked out?

            Even growing up knowing God, I was shocked when I found what Jesus said in John 15:16. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you that you might go and bear fruit and your fruit should endure.” This verse began the slow process of setting me free.

            Maybe you are like me. Maybe you have wounds from rejection. Maybe you don’t see why anyone would choose you, much less the God who created heaven and earth. It is the truth, though. He assures us over and over that we are His beloved and His chosen. Isaiah 43:1 says that He calls us by name. Imagine being at an event where the governor is speaking. When he announces the team to manage a new project, He calls your name. He doesn’t just say, “I want the short lady with the short blond hair.” He says, “I want Susan on my team. I have work for her to do.” What an honor that would be, and that is what God did for each of us. He told Jeremiah that he chose him and consecrated him (set him apart) to be a prophet before he was born. You, like Jeremiah, were made on purpose. Ephesians 2:10 says God had good works prepared in advance for us to do. Finally 1 Peter 2 tells us that “We are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and a peculiar people so that we should show forth the praises of God, who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

            Knowing the truth of our destiny, it is vital that we get that truth into our spirits. We have walked around long enough in hurt, fear and rejection. If the enemy can keep us there we will not do the works that God prepared in advance and we will not show forth the praises of God. The enemy will shine the light on our rejections and replay our hurts in our minds like DVDs. We can choose to take hold of the spotlight and shine it instead on God’s acceptance and show others how to do the same.

            One final note: once, on a retreat, I was dealing with rejection that I felt. I had an image of my hand and it was bleeding from many places, like pin pricks. Then I saw Jesus nail scarred hand superimposed on mine. He said, “What is their rejection compared to my acceptance.” Good question.

Dive!Dive!

It's definitely the Christmas season.  There is a tiny bit of snow on the ground and last night Charlie Brown's Christmas was on TV. Living unseen can tempt us to focus on our concerns and get our eyes off of God and his purposes. Read on to find out how I learned to reach for what God has and who He is.

Lessons from the Dog

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Ps 34:8

                My silly little dog is a treasure. He is always glad to see me when I come in, even if nobody else is. If I am feeling sad or scared in the middle of the night, he hardly ever fusses about being picked up and cuddled. As little as he is, I have no doubt that he would tear up someone who tried to hurt me.  He loves to go for walks. I was saying, “I’m going to take the dog on a ‘you-know-what,’” so he wouldn’t flip out when I said walk. Now he knows what a “you-know-what” is and starts flipping out when I say that. One day we went on a “you-know-what.” It was summer time in West Texas, and it had been miserably hot. (That may be redundant.) We had had a thunderstorm which had cooled it down some, and we took the opportunity to get outside. As we walked along, I guess Benji’s little feet got hot. When we crossed a street about halfway through our route, there was a puddle about two feet across. He stepped into the puddle. I expected him to take a drink and then keep going, but he had other ideas. He lay down in the middle of the puddle with all four feet stretched out. I laughed and so did several people driving by.  I tried to get him to come on, but he had the brakes on. I finally managed to get him out of the puddle and walked home with a pile of soaking wet puppy dog.

                While I was minding my own business laughing at the dog, God showed me something. Many times when I come to worship or have quiet time with God, I am tempted to just stick to the edges. I may read my devotional books but not really focus. I may sing but not think about what I am singing. I may even sit on the end of the pew and be tempted to leave early. I have told my friends before to let me sit on the inside so it will be harder for me to bail out. Sometimes it is busy-ness and sometimes it is feelings of unworthiness or guilt. What I want is to be like my dog. I want to plunge into God’s presence and revel in it. One thing I need to do more of is just sit in God’s presence and be still and listen.  That is not a natural thing in our culture, but we need it.

God is never too busy for you and is always available. He wants you to share your hurts, your fears, your joys and triumphs with Him. The psalmist says, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked” (Ps. 84:10). We also read, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalms 34:8) Hebrews tells us that through Christ we can come boldly before the throne of grace. (4:16)

                If you need friends like mine who will help you into the presence of God and not let you skip out on it, I pray that you will find them. Let’s desire the presence of God so much that nothing can keep us away. Whether you meet Him in your prayer closet or in your worship service, meet with Him. He loves you to the very core of your being and sent Jesus to die for you so that you could be His child.

               

Red Rover

Welcome to Unseen today.  We are in the middle of the holiday season. I am willing to bet that as people who live unseen, you have experienced some hurt this holiday.  We are challenged to be thankful, but life is full of pain and it is easy to feel alone in our pain. Today's post is about ways to deal with that feeling.

 

RED ROVER, RED ROVER

Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:3

Remember the old playground game, Red Rover? You divided into teams and team members locked arms. Then one team would call out, “Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Stacy come over!” Stacy would break from the ranks of her team’s line and run as hard as she could toward the other team’s line. She would try to aim for what she felt was a weak link. If she broke through the line, she could take one of the players for her team. If she did not break through, she joined the team that called her, and her team lost a member. The best strategy for keeping a player from breaking through your line was simply to hold on tight to the people on either side of you.

            What we need in the church today is the same kind of determination to hold on to the people on either side of us.  Our enemy is trying desperately to take some of our friends and family off our “team.”  This week in our ladies’ class there were several prayer requests that made me realize how much we are under attack. A young woman was grieving on the anniversary of her daughter’s death. Mothers were struggling with children in addiction. Several had serious health concerns. One of my husband’s oldest friends was killed in a robbery. How can we help each other through things like this? We need to hold on tightly to each other. Just as in the game a player looks for the weakest link, the enemy hits us at our weakest point. We need to be in fellowship so we are not fighting alone.
            The Bible describes the church as a body. 1 Corinthians describes the way the body is supposed to work together as well as some ways that it should not work. It can be tempting to say to our fellow believers, “I have no need of you. I am fine on my own.”  This is a lie from the enemy who wants us to be disconnected. We are encouraged in Rom 12:15 to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Then in Galatians 6:2 we are told to bear one another’s burdens. Many other passages have advice on how to relate to one another. A common theme is that we must stand together.  
            Unlike Red Rover, we are not in a game. We are in a war, and we need to fight together. The unity of believers, empowered by God and his spirit, will be a key factor in the victory. Our ladies have begun to learn this. Our unity is not because of our similarity to one another. We have a wide age span, different financial situations, different ethnic backgrounds and we came to God from some very different places. Our unity comes from being devoted to the same Lord. While I, who came to God from the third pew, may not be able to understand my sister who came to God down the road of addiction and abuse, I can stand with her and draw strength from her.
            Stand together and hold tight to each other. We can’t let our marriages, our children, or our Christian families to be pulled back to the other side.

Lord, Help us to fight together and to fight with you.

A New Pair of Glasses

Welcome to Unseen this week. Adjusting to full time work has been challenging and exciting. I hope to be back to weekly posts soon as I get my time schedule back on track. With Thanksgiving coming up, we are hearing about gratitude. Read on for my perspective.

A new Pair of Glasses

Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Romans 12:1

    My dad went through a grueling battle with cancer and Alzheimer's disease.  It was very hard to watch this strong, passionate, independent man be reduced to one who was confused and vulnerable.  We found that we had to find humor where we could to cope with the situation.  There were funny things that happened, too. He loved Braum's ice cream, and wanted my sister to bring some every time she came to see him.  To save money, she bought a ½ gallon carton. She brought him some in a Styrofoam cup and he declared that it was not nearly as good as Braum's ice cream.  He would not believe that it was Braum's, so she went to the car and got a Braum's cup. She washed it out and put the ice cream into it. When he tasted it, he said, “Now, this is the good stuff. It's way better than what you brought me before.”

    Dad, like so many Alzheimer's patients, did not feel that he was confused. He desperately wanted to go back to work.  He was telling me about a test that the doctor had done, apparently to check for cognitive loss. He said that he didn't do that well on the test and the doctor had said he was concerned. Dad insisted that the reason he had not done well on the test was that he could not see the questions very well. He stated that he was going to get new glasses in a few weeks and then he would be fine. He would be able to go back to work then. 

    When Dad told me this, I just shook my head and laughed. Then I thought about what he said. How many times in life do we just need a new perspective, “a new pair of glasses”, to get us through a situation?   It is so easy to complain about the way life is. We see the co-worker who is difficult rather than the blessing of having a job.  We see the amazing amount of food that teenagers eat and miss the

blessing of having teens who are home to eat it.  We see the spouse who has to be asked more than once to take out the trash and miss the blessing of having a spouse who for all their faults has been faithful and loving.

      Proverbs has a lot to say about our perspective in life.  For instance, chapter 15 and verse 16 tells us, Better is a little with contentment than great feasting with strife. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us things that are out of perspective. The beatitudes show us that what we think of as bad, being meek, mourning, or being persecuted, are actually things that will give us blessings.  Later he chastises the Pharisees for tithing mint, dill and cumin, while neglecting the weighty matters of the law, such as love and mercy.

    Christian life requires a new perspective, or a new pair of glasses. The things we are asked to do don't make sense to our natural minds.  Where is the logic in being the greatest by serving others, or in praying for those who persecute us? Romans 12 tell us that we must not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. If you are struggling with a situation, ask God to show you how he sees it. Also, when we talk to each other, let's practice looking for the blessings and not complaining. You never know what you will find.

 

Work in Progress

Welcome back to Unseen. I have started a full time job and have been looking at the changes in my life and my attitudes. Read on to see what I learned.

Work in Progress

            And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit 2Cor. 3:18

            My little boy was very allergic to mosquito bites, and they would swell and itch miserably. He had several bites on his ankles and had scratched them until they bled.  Then the blood dried, effectively gluing the socks to his legs. I did not realize this and when I was getting him undressed that night I pulled his socks off and he howled. He put his little hands on his hips and said, “I wish I had the kind of mother who would take my socks off slow when I have a boo-boo.” Full of remorse, I said, “I am so sorry. Will I do until they can find you a mother like that?” Wiping his eyes, he said, “Yeah. They’re working on that kind of mother but they are not finished with them yet.” God is still not finished with me as a mother.

            Yesterday I was walking to the library to work on proofreading this book. I was a little distracted but my attention was quickly arrested. Our part of West Texas is on the path of the monarch butterfly migration.  Between the sidewalk and the library, probably a hundred gorgeous monarchs flitted in front of me. It was so exciting that I felt like a child. It made me think of the awesomeness of the creator and also of His transforming power. The proud-looking monarchs with their bold orange and black coloring come from a striped caterpillar that bears little resemblance to the adult.  I am so glad that the same God who can make that transformation is at work in me.

            2 Cor. 3:18 says “and we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” I am so glad that God did not leave me as I was when I first came to Him in 1978. I am glad He did not leave me as I was in1994 when I re-dedicated myself to serving Him out of love and gratitude for who He is, not just to follow the rules. He has used situations in my life to draw me closer to him and make me more like Him.  He has shown me His glory in valleys He has brought me through and in people who follow Him. He has taught me things in His word and molded me through service. 

The more time I spend with Him the more He changes me.

            It is easy to get stuck at one level of grace or growth. How do you avoid this? If you want to be

changed into God’s likeness, you have to behold His likeness. Spend time with Him in study and

worship. Spend time with His people. James says, “Come near to God and he will come near to

you” (4:8). If you want more of God, He is willing to meet you.