Road Construction, Preparing the Way of the Lord

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'
Luke 3:4-6

 The day after Christmas I took a walk down a twisting little dirt path near my home. The path winds through an open field where tall grass grows and the Colorado foothills and high mountain peaks frame a magnificent view to the west. As I walked, I listened to my favorite jazz/gospel version of The Messiah. As I listened to the triumphant sounds of the song about a voice crying in the wilderness my soul filled with gratitude. 

"Wilderness" and "desert" are my favorite metaphors for difficult seasons in life. We all have them. No one exits this world without experiencing some pain. Though difficult, seasons of life spent in the wilderness can be gifts in disguise. 

As I walked and sang along with The Messiah I realized that for me, time in the wilderness prepared the way of the Lord for me.  God has done so much road construction in me. He chose to prepare the way for himself through the desolate wilderness of divorce and single parenting, and the rough places of step-parenting. And I am so grateful that he has. Even if given the chance, I wouldn't trade the gift of intimacy with him he gives me in the wilderness for the easy life I had planned for myself.

I wish that "every valley shall be filled and ... the rough places shall become level" meant removing all the pain and difficulty from my life. Unfortunately, I don't think that is what it means. That would contradict much other teaching in scripture. But he doesn't leave any of us desolate in the wilderness forever.  He speaks tenderly to us there. He plants vineyards and makes fountains and turns the wilderness into a oasis of hope.

As I walked along I couldn't help contrasting this Christmas to Christmases that have come before. I have spent many lonely Christmases, having kissed my kids goodbye on Christmas morning so that they could go celebrate with their dad. This year when my kids and step-kids were with their other parents, I treasured quiet moments with a handsome husband who loves me. For years, divorce seemed to have robbed me of the traditions that once made the holidays bright. This year, I celebrated with newer traditions my family and I have developed over the years. After my remarriage, the first holidays as a new blending family together were tense, we weren't all comfortable with the tremendous changes that followed putting two broken families together. This year, there was a lot of laughter and ease instead.

There is still have far to go, and I know that there will be more desert times along my path, but God is with me. He is so good to me. He speaks tenderly to me, and gives me vineyards in the desert and makes my valley of trouble a door of hope (from Hosea 2:15).

Immanuel. God With Us.

"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means God with us)." Matthew 1:23

I love the word Immanuel. In one word it sums up life.

Immanuel. God with us.

Life is not about living for God. It is about living with God.

I am not sure why humans like to make simple things complicated, but we seem to. We endlessly define and quantify right behavior, but trying to live a good life above all else is not Christian. Every other religion defines right behavior and encourages followers to live good lives. Christianity is different.

God himself came to us. That is Christmas. Jesus paid the highest price possible in order to make it possible for us to be with him with no barrier in between. Because of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection we get to live life with him. All we have to do is accept the Christmas present God gave us.

Immanuel. God with us.

When we have accepted life with him, we will want to live like lovers committed to a life together. Lovers want to be near their beloved. Lovers want to please their beloved.

God is with us and we want to be as close to him as we can.

Immanuel! God with us!

Merry, Merry Christmas!
 

His Name Shall Be...Prince of Peace

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. 

Isaiah 9:6

During the Christmas season I sing about silence and peace, but rush around in noise and turmoil. It strikes me that I need to remember that the baby in the manger was also the Prince of Peace.

In contrast to the words of Silent Night, Jesus entered a world that was anything but serene. Politically, Israel was an occupied country with corrupt men in charge. Many of the men in power in religious circles had primarily their own interests at heart. Additionally, there were the daily pressures of relationships and physical survival.   

Have you ever noticed that Jesus' daily life was not easy? Sometimes there was nothing to eat, or hoards of people were vying for his attention, death was imminent because their fishing boat was getting swamped by huge waves, or evil men were looking for ways to entrap and execute him. Jesus never seemed hurried or stressed, even when his disciples were panicking for entirely valid reasons. Jesus lived as an oasis of serenity in the midst of tumult. Jesus seemed to see beyond and beneath what the disciples saw. He knew whose hands held the world, and his daily existence. He relied on his Father in heaven in everything big and small, and calmly walked through his days as a man, and at the same time as the Prince of Peace.

I succumb to turmoil like the disciples did.  I would like to be like Jesus instead, unfazed by hurry, and worry, acutely aware that both the details of my daily existence and sweeping events of my world are in the hands of the Prince of Peace.

The Truth About the Barn

Oh Holy Spirit descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there thy cheerful beams. St. Augustine

My family had horses when I was growing up, and so I spent a good bit of time in a barn. I think it is a shame that so few of us in our urban culture spend regular time in a barn. In stories, Christmas stories in particular, barns are charming rustic places filled with light, snowy white sheep and the smell of sweet hay.

Real barns aren't like that unless they are empty, or have been thoroughly cleaned withing the past 15 minutes. Barns are shadowy, dusty, muddy, mucky places. They smell like manure and animal flesh.

The smell of manure, whether it is fresh and steaming or has been sitting around in piles for a while turning into fertilizer, isn't really pleasant, at least it isn't pleasant for people whose noses are used to the stink.

More often than not, this world in general, and many individual lives being lived in it, look and smell like a neglected barn.

The place where the holy God dwells is, by contrast, dazzlingly beautiful, brilliantly bright and absolutely pure.   The miracle of Christmas is that the pure, brilliant, holy light of heaven, in the person of the son of God himself, invaded the stinking darkness of the stable and transformed it.

That is what I celebrate during this season. I celebrate that God himself not only invaded a stable centuries ago with his light, but also, miraculously invaded the stinking stable of my life and of my very soul with his holy light and transformed it into the dwelling place of God himself.

The People who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. Isa 9:2

Tales of the Restoration: The Day My Restoration Began

In my last blog I recommended remembering who God is, and what he has promised, as a foundational step for rebuilding a broken life.

I want to illustrate with just one example from my own life. It was an encounter with God so powerful and so private, that I don't believe I have ever shared it before. I hesitate to share it even now because the impact of this encounter with God and the power of His words to me has never diminished.

I choose to share it even though I feel a bit shaky about it, because I hope that God is going to direct these words to a reader who needs them. I hope that hearing about what God did for me, will awaken a desire in you for an equally powerful, though uniquely designed for you, encounter with the God who loves you.

Years ago, I was devastated after my husband sought solace in other arms. I felt abandoned, unloved, unlovely, utterly alone, and tremendously afraid. One day, when my heart felt like lead and my eyes were so swollen and red from crying that I could hardly see, I pulled out my Bible, looking for comfort, not sure where to turn.

My eyes fell on the following words in Isaiah 54:6, "For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off" says your God.

That's me! I thought. I am a wife of youth. I am a wife deserted and grieved in spirit.

My eyes scanned up a few verses to get the context. Verse 4 says:
"Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called."

My eyes then fell on Isaiah 62:2-4, another passage I didn't remember ever reading before. "You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord...You shall no more be termed Forsaken...but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her...for the Lord delights in you."

I felt chills run up and down my body. Every word seemed to have been whispered quietly, tenderly, intimately, from God's mouth to my ear. I was fearful, ashamed, and confounded. Here, in words that directly related to my situation, God was tenderly applying His healing touch to the my most deeply wounded places.

Then I stopped. Could it be possible? Could God mean these words for me, even thought they were originally written thousands of years ago in a very different context? The words "husband" and "wife" were meant metaphorically to refer to God and his people. Could it be possible that He really meant them for me as well?

I ached and yearned for it to be true, but precisely because I needed God's intimate reassurance so much, I doubted it.

Then I was reminded of truths I had learned over the years;  God was silencing the voice of the Deceiver in my head. The Jews were God's people. He was their God. Based on New Testament teachings God has called his church, including gentiles, into close relationship with him. In John 17 he said that he no longer called his disciples servants, but instead he called them friends. He even uses the terms "bride" and "bridegroom" to describe his relationship with us, his people.

I stopped to absorb the impact of this reality. I chewed and swallowed it, and let it become part of me as nourishing food becomes part of me.

I was not meant to be defined from that low point forward as an abandoned wife. I was meant to be defined as beloved by God himself. God himself delights in me!

While I would not recommend a steady diet limited to this random Bible study method, I still believe that God was speaking directly to me that day. He was tenderly speaking the truth to me in a words that were so clear that I could hear and understand them even in my broken down state. He was taking the damage done by my abandonment and using it to redefine me, to rename me.

Over the years, those words from the Lord have not only sustained me, they have transformed me into a different person. My identity comes from a God who meets the aching need of my female soul by reassuring me that I am beautiful, delightful, and loved no matter what messages to the contrary I may be getting from the harsh desert environment of this world.

My prayer for you, dear reader, is that the God who loves you will speak to you in ways specifically chosen so that you can hear His voice clearly.  I pray that you will know who He is, and what He has promised you.

Tales of the Restoration Part X: Power and Promise for Rebuilding

No matter how badly your life needs rebuilding, you have a God who has both the resources and the commitment to take the rubble and use it to build something truly beautiful. 


Some time back, as I was praying about the restoration of broken people, broken families, and broken lives, my own included, I noticed startling similarities between the way Nehemiah begins his prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11 and the way the apostle Peter, centuries later, begins his book 2 Peter 1:3 -4.
Both begin by reminding us of God's power. Compare "Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God..." in Nehemiah, with "His divine power...his own glory and goodness." in 2 Peter.

Both Nehemiah and Peter move on to remember the way God treats us:

Nehemiah: "who keeps covenant an steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments."

2 Peter: "(he) has given us everything needed for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us...his precious and very great promises.

So, taking our cues from both Nehemiah and Peter, one key to rebuilding in life is knowledge of God. Start by acknowledging who he is.

I recommend reading this list from the two passages very slowly. Pause after each word. Think about it, create a mental picture, connect it to something tangible.

Start with power. What is the most powerful thing you can think of? A hurricane? A tidal wave? gravity? God is far more powerful. Now take your time as you move through the rest of the list. 

• power
• glory
• goodness
• great
• awesome

Now, that you have an inkling of how really big God is, continue by slowly focusing on how he relates to us.

• calling
• keeping covenant/promises
• steadfast love
• giving everything needed for life

Now take a deep breath and relax. You are in good hands.

You Are Here

Lamentations 3:19 says, "Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me." 

During the journey through life we all encounter stretches that are full of "wormwood and gall". It is right and good to be realistic about this. Author Larry Crabb calls it "the red dot", like finding the "you are here" red dot on a map in a shopping mall. You have know where you are before you can find a route to where you need to go. Likewise, it is healthy to realistically assess your situation and honestly own your feelings about it. Some people try to skip this step. They usually waste a lot of time wandering around, not knowing exactly where they are or where they are going.

Once we have figured out where we are, it is time to intentionally move our attention to something, or rather someone else.

"but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end..." Lamentations 3:21-22

We can focus on our own afflictions and wanderings, or we can focus on "the steadfast love of the Lord".

The need for forgiveness in particular seems to often keep us glued to the red dot. Some people rehearse the wrongs done to them over and over. They refuse to forgive. Other people rehearse the ways they have done wrong and refuse to forgive themselves. Either way, the focus on themselves, instead of on the "steadfast love of the Lord" keeps them glued to the red dot. 

"Hold not our sins against us,

but hold us up against our sins,

so that the thought of you

when it wakens in our soul

should not remind us of what we have committed,

but of what you did forgive,

not of how we went astray,

but of how you did save us."

Soren Kierkegaard

A Good Story

I love good stories. I become so absorbed in them that I almost enter the world of the story and live it along with the characters. Almost. The difference is that I can close the book, or turn off Netflix and exit the story anytime I like.

Our lives are like stories, only in life we don't have a pause button we can use to take a break and go get popcorn. The difficulties in our own lives are somehow not nearly as enjoyable as the conflicts in the lives of characters on the page or the screen.

Our difficulties are not pointless though.

The Author has a reason for allowing them, even when we can't fathom what it is. We can fight with him and tell him that we don't like how this story is going, or we can hold on tight and wait for the next twist in the story line. Either way it is best if we eventually trust that he is writing a really good story.

The worse your problems are, the better your story is going to be. Really.