Sacred Memories

The first time I ever conciously decided to follow Christ was in a bathtub. Yes, there are more glorious places to make that decision, but this is the simple beauty of how the where of my choice to follow Him has affected my life. Almost anytime I take a shower, I think of God.

In college, I had the glorious task of cleaning the dorm kitchen. (I can still smell the cleaning spray I used on the grease splattered stove.) My kitchen-cleaning job was about forty minutes a day, and I usually took that time to pray. I vacuumed and prayed; I scrubbed down the sink and prayed. I recently revisited that kitchen, and I felt like I was returning to hallowed ground.

So much of life is intertwined with memory. For example, the smell of a certain bush at my college can take me back to my life in California or a Chris Rice can make me relive my first couple months in Florida.

I want to consciously overlay my life with memories of God. I want the smells, sights, tastes, and sounds of my ordinary day to be so ingrained with sacred memories that everything I encounter will turn my heart toward Him.

If you don't know the answer, amuse your teacher

Don't Feed the Cats

When I travel I love to go around a place on foot to get a sense of where I am. I have many happy memories of first days: my first days in Bangkok or my first days in Paris. There's just something delightful in soaking in the details of a place (the people on the street, the food for sell, the smells etc.). Monday I realized that I hadn't explored my own neighborhood on foot and so I did. While my neighborhood might not be Bangkok or Paris, it has its interesting points. I found this sign, and I had to laugh about it. I hope the lady who feeds the cats feels special that she has been singled out.

Teacher Nightmares

I have teacher nightmares. They range from the ridiculously trivial like showing up to class in casual clothes (gasp) to experiences that have actually happened (a completely out of control classroom).

Last night I had a nightmare that my class was about ready to start, and I wasn't ready. I was desperately trying to figure out what to teach when I heard word that 19 people had been murdered at a summer camp that I used to work at. In my dream, my reaction was relief, "Oh, it's so tragic that I must cancel class."

I hope you don't take me to be heartless. I do think that the death of 19 people carries a heavier weight than not being ready for class. But really we teachers can be just that desperate!

Hannah: Lessons in Waiting

Saturday for Sabbath School we studied about Hannah. The lesson study focused on how Hannah struggled with her self-worth because she did not have a child (a point I can't argue with), but I wished that the authors had delved a little more into the basic struggle we humans have when our desires are not met.

Year after year Hannah prayed for a son and year after year her rival tormented her. What does it mean to wait and to wait some more and, oh, just when you thought you were done waiting get another full serving of wait? "Hope deferred makes the heart sick. . ."! (Proverbs 13:12).

Hannah is not the only person who had to wait in the Bible. There's Abraham longing for a son, Jacob waiting for his wife and then waiting some more to be free from Laban, Joseph waiting in the prison, the Israelites waiting four hundred years as slaves in Eygpt, Moses working an insignificant job, Jesus waiting in the carpenters shop, and John the Baptist languishing in prison.

I also need to mention the women in the Bible who, like Hannah, had to wait for a child. There's Sarah, Rachel, Ruth (see Ruth 4:13), Samson's mother, and Elizabeth.

If we can derive anything from these stories is that God knows something about waiting. In fact, it seems some of the greatest spiritual success stories are grounded in people who had to wait.

I find that few people get praised for waiting. We wouldn't want to read a romance that ended with and she waited happily everafter. Nor do we often hear testimonies about people who lost their jobs and are still unemployed. And while, as a society, we might be tempted to judge a person who has not been blessed with temporal gifts, who knows we might just be judging a Joseph, a Moses, or a Hannah.

"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." (Deuteronomy 8:1-3)

Lord, make me a good steward of my disappointments; take my waiting and make it yours.

Beauty in Busyness

I have been given a season of busyness. My work never seems to end. I am on an overloaded schedule, and I teach a night class to boot. But even in my busyness I'm trying to not forget the beauty around me. I notice small things: three birds flying in formation over the highway, the sunrise in my rearview mirror, and a sunset over the lake next to my office.

Noticing nature is just one way I praise God. I think it honors him to say, "the creation you have given us is beautiful."


The walk to my office at sunset

Never the Same

One of my friends, a student from mainland China, has recently taken a great liking to onion rings. He really really loves onion rings. The other day we were eating together, and as I looked at his plate full of onion rings, I told him that he was in trouble. He was never going to be the same. He had crossed a culinary line, and there was no going back. Since he has now lived in two different countries, he'll never be satisfied. Wherever he goes, he'll miss something from another country.

I miss mangosteens (I actually count the months--17 months since I ate a mangosteen last, sigh).
I miss lychees.
I miss hot soy milk served on the streets in the morning.
I miss mangoes and sticky rice.

I miss the markets and the people in them.

What I Have Saved on My Computer

I have a PDF file called "Proud vs. Broken" saved on my computer. Some mornings I turn on my computer and go through the list I have saved and pray it. Here is just an appetizer of the file...I'm posting the link so you can retrieve it yourself. :)

Proud Vs. Broken

Proud people focus on the failures of others.
Broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.

Proud people have a critical, fault-finding spirit; they look at everyone else’s faults with a microscope but their own with a telescope.

Broken people are compassionate; they forgive much because they know how much they have been forgiven.

Proud people are self-righteous; they look down on others.
Broken people esteem all others better than themselves.

Proud people have an independent, self-sufficient spirit.
Broken people have a dependent spirit; they recognize their need for others.

Read the rest at:

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/pdf/uploads/TheHeartGodRevives.pdf

Heaven's Society

I'm a pretty big fan of the social sciences. I fantasize that someday someone will just give me lots of money so I can do things like study economics, geography, history, sociology, anthropology for fun!

Sometimes I like to think about heaven in relationship to social studies. I think about the economics of heaven (I am pretty sure there will be an economy--just a vastly different one), and I think about the sociology of heaven. What will a society look like where the primary impetus of everyone in that society is love? How will it be to live in a place where everyone's interest is in the pleasure of the other people around them?

To live in such a place will be safe and fun and growable (I make up words--but really isn't being loved is one of the greatest ways to grow?)

Sometimes I imagine walking down heaven's main street and seeing the faces there. I imagine how each face will be unique but there will be a kindness blended into each person's features. Maybe there will be even a certain pleasure-to-see-you expressed by each person I see.

When I'm having bad days, when I've encountered a particularly unloving person, I try to think (not always successfully I must add!) about heaven, and I think about how the unkind person might just one day by God's grace be transformed into the most loving person I know on heaven's main street.

One Year Ago

One year ago I was on a plane heading toward Orlando wondering if I was going to get the job I had applied for here and wondering if I did what would happen next.

I've been slowly filling in the details of the life I wondered so much about. I'm blessed by a great community, a job, and friends.

Thank you Father for answered prayers and new chapters in my life!

Beyond Imagination

As a child I took verses like "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20) as a personal challenge. I felt that if I could imagine something wonderful God would have to beat me at it. If I imagined a three bedroom house in heaven, he'd have to make me a five bedroom mansion.

Today I ran across this statement in the writings of Ellen White, "All heaven awaits our demands upon its wisdom and strength."* It made me think of my childhood trying to outimagine God. I want to outdemand (if that is possible) God. Not only do I want to take every challenge of my life to him, but I want to stretch my imagination to ask for great things.

*Patriarchs and Prophets p. 554.

What do I have?

What do I have? I have work today: classes to plan and papers to grade. I have food to eat: cafeteria adventures for lunch and fruit for supper. What do I have? I have mostly an ordinary day. But as I have been sitting here in my office trying to write a to-do list, I've been distracted. It is the best distraction in the world. I'm distracted by two simple questions. One, what do I have today? I have the omnipotent power of God to rest on. Two, what do I have today? I have the love of Christ reaching out and encircling me right now. These two questions and these two answers are the gift for my day. God is mixing himself into ordinariness. I'm blessed!

His Power is Made Exquisite

I woke up feeling spiritually weak and physically tired. This is not exactly the way I want to start a week, but as I got into my car this morning I remembered a verse from 1 Corinthians. "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (12:9). As I thought about the verse, I thought of the word perfect and how sometimes we describe perfect things as exquisite. I changed the text a little to: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made [exquisite] in you."

According to Webster's Online dictionary the word exquisite means to be marked by flawless craftsmanship or by beautiful, ingenious, delicate, or elaborate execution.

My weakness marks the spot where God is working. He is taking my flaws, my very humanness, my dustfulness (for he remembers we are dust!), and He's making something beautiful. The beauty that He will bring out of my weakness is no small thing; it will be a refined excellence that only a master artist can sculpt.