by Stacey | Apr 18, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Our world is a mess. Atheist or believer, this is our common ground. We are cohabitants in a land that contains the potential for great good and horrific evil.
Each person has the potential for good and evil. God gave us the powerful gift of choice. Each person must choose which force will rise as victor. For centuries, the vast majority have chosen wrong.
Where is God?
It is okay to question God, but it is wrong to question His goodness and holy character. Bring your questions with the understanding that God is beyond our understanding. Ask in humility, knowing God is the authority. None of our questions are too hard for God (Kevin Weeks).
In biblical times, God has used the most wicked people to show his people how far they had strayed. Evil appeared to win. Sound familiar? Does it raise an important question? Why doesn’t God stop bad things from happening?
That’s not fair.
If God were fair every single person would be condemned to die. There is none righteous, not one. Yet God offers us hope in Jesus. Yes, all evil deserves punishment. Evil acts like the recent bombing and school killings deserve, and I hope they receive, the full consequences of their choices under the law.
However, I too deserve punishment. I too, have sinned. I too deserve to fall under the full weight of God’s punishment. If God were fair, I would. I am thankful that God is not fair. The unfairness of His grace, love and justice come together in forgiveness through Christ.
Everyone has dirty hands in this messy world.
How do I trust God when the world has turned upside down?
Remember that God came. I do not cope with mankind’s bent toward destruction alone. God came. He came for me, in the person of Jesus. He came for you. He offers deliverance from sin. What matters most is not wrapped up in this life, but is wrapped up in the life to come. This life is unfair, but the next one is not.
What is the point?
I am not here to find satisfaction or fair treatment in the world, as it is now. I forfeit a wonderful encounter with an all-powerful God by searching, as if it were my due, for those things.
I am here to bring glory to God. In all circumstances. In all times. That can happen only if I pray for God to work as if it is His glory that really matters. Because, it is His glory that really matters. It is God’s glory on the line. His goodness. His character. I must pray that He will be glorified in me, regardless of the circumstances.
“If you have a God great enough and powerful enough to be mad at because he doesn’t stop your suffering, you also have a God who’s great enough and powerful enough to have reasons that you can’t understand. You can’t have it both ways (Timothy Keller, King’s Cross).”
by Stacey | Mar 21, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Before we know it Easter weekend will be here. Families will gather. Meals shared. Eggs hidden and found. Our family celebrates with a mixture of activities. Our kids search the basement for candy eggs, we share a special family meal, and use the our very special tablecloth.
We attend a church service on Good Friday. It is somber, sad, and reverent. It’s when we focus on the ultimate act of sacrifice. Christ’s death. Nailed to a cross because he claimed to be God. Not a god, THE GOD.
As a mother, my mind drifts to Mary and a sermon I heard long ago about this very moment in her life. This moment of pain, watching her first-born son stretch his arms out accepting the nails.
For nine hours Jesus hung until he breathed his last.
Mary is silent. She does not claim that Jesus was the result of a one-night stand or the product of a premature frolic with Joseph. She does not stand at the foot of his cross and deny his claim to be the Son of God because she knew.
Jesus was who He claimed to be, the Son of God.
And now he was dead.
I can’t help but wonder what Jesus’ friends thought as all this played out. Did they see walls when Jesus finally breathed his last? Did they have long-term plans for Jesus’ political future only to have them shattered? Did they truly understand his mission on earth? If this is Good Friday, what is so good about it?
When the apostles feared swords, Jesus offered healing (Luke 22:49-51). When they saw failure, Jesus saw fulfillment (Luke 24:13-35). When they saw death and destruction, the God of hope stepped in and changed everything.
Why is Good Friday good? Because Jesus’ death is the beginning of the new covenant between God and his people. The covenant we are under today. The covenant that God will honor because He always keeps His word.
That, my dear friends, is good.
*Artwork by Jonathan Weeks
by Stacey | Mar 14, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
I registered for a 1/2 marathon, something I never thought I would do. That’s 13 miles or 21.1 KM. It involves a schedule of exercise three times a week, one of those times consisting of a walk longer than ever before.
And they just keep getting longer.
This new way of life began mid-January. I started on schedule, actually, ahead of schedule. My type A personality began a few weeks early.
Then – holidays arrived. A blissful week in the hot sun on a sandy shore. A week without training. I wasn’t concerned since I started early. I could easily finish my training schedule while taking a week off. But I didn’t account for the loss of momentum and how it would affect me.
Upon our return I didn’t want to carve out 1.5 plus hours three times a week to devote to training. Not even a little bit. But lucky for me, I’m training with three other women who believe in me more than I believe in myself. They won’t let me stay on the couch. They share their success and struggles and we cheer each other onward. I have no doubts that in June we will cross the finish line together.
Tonight, as I was back on the treadmill for 9 KM, Beth Moore’s words came to mind. “When it comes to Scripture memorization, think marathon – not sprint.”
Interesting.
While I was on holidays fitness wasn’t the only priority to suffer. I am now officially two weeks behind on the Romans Project. And because it has been so long since I have recited the verses in Romans chapter one, I’m losing the verses I once knew. The past few days/weeks out of routine have tempted me to give in and give up.
Think marathon, not sprint cycles through my brain with each step on the treadmill. This is a set back, not the end. I’m in training for something far greater than a medal after 13 miles. I’m after a crown. A well done, my good and faithful servant. A hiding of God’s Word in my heart.
I’m training with a God who believes in me more than I believe in myself. His strength is perfect when I am weak.
So, today is a new day. I pick up where I left off. The verses quickly come back. Fresh motivation surges through my body.
I’m in this for the long haul. It’s a marathon. A race to hide God’s Word in my heart. By His strength I will cross the finish line.
*Kate at her first cross-country meet earlier this year. She is learning to think marathon – in more ways than one.
by Stacey | Mar 7, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
It’s hard to rest. It’s hard for this multi-tasking, type A, homemaking mamma to stop and rest.
Day one of our holiday and I found it hard to be still. I was supposed to be doing something. An article. Editing. Cooking dinner. Folding laundry. I don’t sit. I do.
But I needed rest. And once I embraced the idea of rest –I slept. I slept all night with no little voices asking for water or one more story. I slept in the morning at the beach, in the afternoon at the pool, and at night in the hotel. It was good.
I can’t believe I fought the idea of being still for so long, and I can’t help compare this thought to how I fought resting on the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is a day set aside to worship God. To draw near to Him. To foster family and friend relationships. To rest. Somewhere along the line I slipped into the tread that used Sunday to catch up on laundry, cooking and other work pushed aside all week. About a year ago I noticed this trend and decided the best way to fight it was to tell my daughter my plans. Trust me, she holds me accountable!
She’ll remind me Saturday night after prayers that after we worship God in the morning the whole day is devoted to family and fun. She can’t wait.
Some of the things that have changed for me?
- No laundry is done on Sunday. And guess what – we always have clothes to wear. It turns out I didn’t need that day to catch up.
- We all enjoy some alone time for about an hour and a half. We can do whatever relaxes us and that looks different for each one of us. Some of us read, some nap, play games, or putter outdoors.
- We have a traditional Sunday dinner of a buffet of leftovers, fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, cheese, and anything easily pulled out of the refrigerator or cupboard.
- We watch a family movie over dinner.
- Go to bed and REST. Just the way it was meant to be.
by Stacey | Feb 21, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Unexpected news rocks the world. Certainty floats in the air, uncertain.
How do you pray for God’s will when you fear you won’t bear it? How do you pray for the person who wounded you, for the loved one that walked away, for the criminal that shattered your world?
How do you pray when the hurt is so deep there are no words? With your tears.
The one who created you hears your heart’s cry. He understands your fears, your wounds, and your hopes. He doesn’t need your words as much as He desires your trust in Him. Rest in the one God, the one Lord over everything, and the one who holds the future in His hands.
He is good.
He is wise.
He is just.
He is able.
You can rest on the Rock.
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
First posted April 17th, 2011
by Stacey | Feb 7, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
After reading this bold and painfully honest post a woman wrote to her former self, I pondered what words I might have for sixteen year old me. Would we be friends? Would she even hear what I have to say?
To that 16-year-old girl, forever trying to prove herself, seeking acceptance, and standing at a fork in the road that her young eyes fail to recognize, I say: There’s hope Sweet Sixteen.
You’re going to take the wrong road. A road that will lead you to a day two years later where you weepingly confess to the Lord your wandering heart. A road that changes everything. A road that causes your dad to say, “Honey, it may seem like the end of the world, but it gets better.”
Sweet Sixteen. Dad is right. It gets better.
God in an act of marvelous grace will bring you back to that fork, and this time you will choose differently. God will redeem those lost years wasted on your own strength, on your own wisdom, forging your own way.
It will be ten years before some scars heal. More for others. It will be nearly fifteen years before you settle into yourself and really move forward. But Dad is right. It gets better.
Your sister really is the best friend you’ll ever have. Your brothers of few words are deep thinkers who love completely. Your parents are your biggest cheerleaders and family matters.
All things your young eyes sometimes fail to see.
You’ll marry the most wonderful man and wonder if you’ll ever have children with him. You’ll move away, and come home again. You’ll embrace life, even when it shatters you.
You’ll get back up.
Your mother heart will come to appreciate your Mother’s heart, and all that she quietly did for you. And you’ll do it all for your children -quietly.
You’ll learn life, even your own life, is not really about you. It is so much bigger than that. The thought will both scare you and comfort you in a strange and intimate dance.
You’ll wish you could go back and do things differently, but you eventually accept your past as a piece of you, making you who you are. That drives you to your knees interceding for the three tiny souls entrusted to your care.
Sweet Sixteen. Dad was right. It got better. And the unconditional love he gave you paves a way of acceptance of unconditional love from your heavenly Father.
You don’t know Him as well now as you one day will. Like so many things, you won’t fully appreciate Him when the path is easy, but you will when the path gets hard. And it gets hard.
Sweet Sixteen. Your black and white world will accept some grey -in some things – but not others. You’ll come full circle and discover some things really are black and white after all.
When you come full circle, you’ll embrace the dance, Sweet Sixteen.
punishment. Evil acts like the recent bombing and school killings deserve, and I hope they receive, the full consequences of their choices under the law.
