Our weeks are often a mixture of assorted tasks and projects sprinkled with time with family and friends and seasoned with God’s grace. In the midst of the week, we may often not sense a clear revelation of God’s plan or purpose as we go about doing those things right in front of us.

Sometimes we miss it because we are not looking for it.

Sometimes we miss it because it is right in front of us and our eyes skip right over it.

Sometimes we miss it because the internal chatter that goes on nearly continuously has distracted us from subtle ways He is speaking or moving.

Sometimes we miss it because it is not the message or response we desire.

Other times we see the Lord’s hand so clearly, it is like rays of sun piercing through the clouds and grabbing our attention and awe. We are clear on His purpose and His intervention with us is as obvious as the HOLLYWOOD sign on the California hillside that most of us would recognize.

Recently I had a mishmash week where different parts of my life and world seemed to collide and left me feeling less steady without any particular reason. If I wanted to go down rabbit trails looking for reasons, I could do that but it would still not change the sense of being less oriented.

Perhaps it was just the reality of life, a life far from Eden where I was intended to live.

If I turn my reflections to the many trips to the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Alberta, Canada, the scene changes. These are places I love because I seem to sense the Lord’s presence in the midst of His creation so very clearly.

In those places the magnificence of the mountain ranges, peak upon peak frosted with snow, the gurgling sound of streams racing over rocks, and the stunning teal shades of glacial lakes cannot help but humble me as I view what surrounds me. The rocky trails through cedars, aspens, fir, spruce, and narrow leaf cottonwood arouse my senses with fragrance and symmetry that I somehow miss as I walk in my neighborhood or gaze at the trees in my backyard. All of these things are giving me the BIG HD picture and surround sound experience.

These trips have also illuminated something else. As I have looked through the lens of my camera, I have discovered small splashes of color tucked into sandy arid soil and mountain crevasses. These varying hues from small flowers of assorted shades and types are not always noticed or seen when so many large things capture my attention.

Yet, these are the very things that bring a smile to my face as they show the paradox of creation in the midst of the granite peaks surrounding me. They remind me to watch for small things, small surprises and delights planted throughout this world.

My children used to tease me about stopping so often to take yet another flower picture, trying to capture something of the wonder I felt as I discovered it. I seemed to be the catalyst for slowing the pace on the trail, as I would glimpse a columbine, wild strawberry, lupine or berry that I could not recognize.

Barbara Brown Taylor brought these reflections into sharper focus as she wrote these words in Gospel Medicine,

 “Sometimes the work of God’s hand is so evident that you can see it a mile away and sometimes you have to dust for fingerprints.”

Be looking for Him this week.  He’s there.  He’s here.

Discover Him.  He wants you to know Him.

You may find Him in places you would never expect.

(All photos taken by Pam Ecrement)

When I was growing up one of the TV shows my parents often would watch was one called “Who Do You Trust?” It aired back in the late 1950’s for a brief time as a popular game show. The original host was Edgar Bergen, but he was later replaced by Johnny Carson.

Three couples would participate on the show. The host would interview them and then pose a question to the man and ask whether he trusted the woman to answer it accurately or whether he trusted himself to have the right answer.

Since the answer to the question was worth money and determined how long the couple would be able to play the game, it was crucial to think through who might be the one who knew the correct answer. This was made more difficult since the couples were not necessarily husband and wife.

It was fascinating to see the game unfold and how the person discerned who was the person who could be trusted to give the correct answer.

Even though it was simply a game, the truth is that the question seems to be far more commonplace today than it was when the show aired. Life seemed simpler back then or at least we believed it was. Hearing stories of deception would occur, but not at the speed of a text or a tweet.

Whether we are looking at labels in the grocery store or listening to ads on everything from cars and mortgages to cruise liners and automobiles or beyond, the flood of information often leaves us scratching our heads. I often hear the sentence, “You don’t know who to trust!” and in many instances that is true.

Lack of responsibility, reliability, and truth telling has resulted in most of us learning from experience to check out competitors before choosing a product or service. We have learned to get “second opinions” before accepting the first diagnosis or recommendation from medical personnel.

All this doubt creeps into our spiritual lives as well when Christian leaders express opinions or thoughts that appear contradictory with our understanding of scripture. Some are exposed after being caught in an indiscretion.

The enemy uses this context mightily to his advantage and our detriment.

He plants seeds of doubt about trustworthiness in the lives of some who have given us no reason to doubt them.

He can even cause us to doubt the Lord.

The prize is when he either convinces us we are totally trustworthy or totally untrustworthy in discerning the truth.

I think the key starting point is to look at the source of information, but even then we may not have all the information needed to be certain.

This has all gotten worse in recent months and shows no signs of improving. Why?

You guessed it! The political landscape of not only our nation, but every other nation on the earth seems to be tumbling into chaos. The result seems to include increasing conflict and division, fear and uncertainty, disheartenment and discouragement, and more.

Who do you trust?

Perhaps the message in all of this for those of us who are believers is to recognize that we are first and foremost citizens of another kingdom, a kingdom that supersedes all others past, present, and future. The “head” of that kingdom possesses all knowledge and wisdom, all power and authority, and is absolutely trustworthy while totally outside of our control.

His story in the Bible shows how He uses every nation to bring about His purposes and often to call His people back to Him. That isn’t always pretty. It is often not easy. Clearly His ways are often not ours and beyond our understanding.

The key question?

Do I trust Him?

As I have been considering this, my daily reading included Proverbs 16. The last verse of that chapter speaks volumes to this season of uncertainty.

In the ESV translation it reads as follows:

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.” Proverbs 16:33

Of course, we are not really using lots these days to make our decisions even though we know it was common in the stories in the Bible. That caused me to look at a modern rendering of the same verse.

“Make your motions and cast your votes, but God has the final say.” Proverbs 16:33 The Message

Does that mean we adopt a “que sera, sera” response?

I don’t think so. I think we are still called to pray, to seek the Lord’s direction, to learn what we are able to learn.

But in the end, the answer to the question, “Who do you trust?” is not about any person, male or female.

The answer is whether or not I trust the One who knows everything including what may be secret or hidden from my view.

Who do I trust?

We live during a time when much of the communication that happens in the lives of individuals, businesses, countries, and every other relational connection is often binary in nature insisting that one is right and the other wrong. In the midst of the shouting, it can sometimes be missed that what is being shouted is a preference or a view instead of a moral principle or value. If we want to say both are wrong, might we also say the old axiom – “two wrongs don’t make a right”?

Some of you might not have heard of that adage but for others of you it may bring a smile as you recall the first time you heard it expressed and what you understood it to mean.

The first time it is credited with use in the United States was in a letter written in 1783 by one of the Founding Fathers of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence. He was a civic leader in Philadelphia where he worked as a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, and educator. The letter is quoted as written: “Two wrongs don’t make one right: Two wrongs won’t right a wrong.”

Certainly, it would seem in looking at the life of David in 1 and 2 Samuel it would seem that he did not get the message of that adage that came much later than his lifetime. If he had, he might have thought differently about having Uriah killed to cover up his sin of sleeping with his wife, Bathsheba. He hoped the result would be hiding the sin he committed in the first place by committing a second, but Nathan made it clear to him this was not the case when he came to tell him a story that caused David to recognize the truth of his sin not only against Bathsheba and Uriah but also against God.

But this would not be the only time David struggled with difficulty confronting sin. The complexity of multiple wives and their offspring gave David challenges as a parent on more than one occasion and expose another area of his failing. The child conceived between Bathsheba and David originally dies because of the sin but later another child, Absalom, is conceived with a different wife who becomes David’s favorite son. How often we see the issues in the biblical stories that involve a “favorite.” It makes one reconsider a desire to be preferred in that way perhaps.

We read of David’s great sorrow about the murder of Absalom in 2 Samuel 18. His anguish is palpable, but despite the desire of Absalom to usurp the throne do we recall the incident that got this vengeance in his heart started?

“David’s lament over Absalom had its immediate source in the rape of Absalom’s beautiful sister, Tamar, eleven years earlier. Amnon, who was a half-brother to Absalom and Tamar, was infatuated with Tamar; and after a period of pining and planning, he raped her. When Absalom learned of the rape, he was outraged and determined to avenge his sister’s honor. But he didn’t lose his temper: he plotted coolly and carefully. When the plot was in place, he brutally murdered Amnon (2 Sam. 13:1-29).”

Eugene Peterson

Reading through the passage cited shows you how David played into the scheme of Amnon to get Tamar to come to him under the pretense of being ill and wanting her to prepare him food. Sadly, when David learns of what happens to Tamar, he does nothing and the rage in Absalom simmers hotter. When Absalom murders Amnon, he overlooks this crime by his favorite son as he runs away to exile. Nevertheless, all the wrongs stacking up are multiplied when Absalom is allowed to return to his father’s kingdom, but David won’t see him despite giving him a judicial pardon. The love of his father is withheld and sets in motion the anguish he will experience when Absalom is murdered.

If we are brutally honest, we can possibly recognize a desire of revenge in our own hearts. It may not result in murder upon murder as in this tragic story of the great king of Israel, but it can show up when we do not rejoice in another’s success that we believed should be ours or when one friend appears to prefer another friend over us.

David forgot the grace and forgiveness he had previously received in the way he handled this series of events with his children, and he missed his responsibility in more than one way.

“Sin fed on sin. The rape of Tamar fed into the murder of Amnon, which fed into the hardheartedness of David. Absalom responded to Amnon’s sin by sinning. Then David responded to Absalom’s sin by sinning. Absalom got rid of Amnon by killing him. Then David got rid of Absalom by shunning him. David lost his son Amnon because of the sin of Absalom. David lost his son Absalom by his own sin.”

Eugene Peterson

David recognizes the depth of the consequences of all these multiplying sins when Absalom seizes the kingdom from him, and he is forced to flee once again into the wilderness. It is there, in the wilderness during suffering that he once more sees more clearly and when the battle to retake his kingdom begins, he commands that Absalom should be dealt with gently. But he is brutally stabbed to death by one of David’s generals who knew of the kings’ command and disobeyed it anyway. David had gotten in touch with his love for Absalom in the command to be gentle, but it was too late for the two of them to reconnect as the father and son we see in the New Testament story of “the Prodigal Son.”

These tragic scenes in David’s story remind us of how sins so easily can multiply in any of our lives and the value of keeping short accounts with one another, confronting an issue at the outset, and then seeking repentance, forgiveness, and love. All these years later we too often fail also. And when we do, it demonstrates how much we have yet to learn about the commands to love one another and that it is one of the things we will be judged on.

The words attributed to the letter by Benjamin Rush certainly ring true – “Two wrongs don’t make one right: Two wrongs won’t right a wrong.”

I can almost hear you saying, “Who me?” as you read this title. Then after the question comes those other things so many of us say – “I am just a …” or “I am not…” But if we say that (I can be tempted too.), we are missing the big picture truth.

Today as I was reading a note in my study Bible, I read this fabulous sentence:

“…everyday faithfulness by ordinary people can, by God’s grace, change history forever.”

The note was connected to 1 Samuel 1 and the example was Hannah (future mother of Samuel, the prophet) who was just a wife and a woman dealing with the agony of barrenness crying out to God in the midst of her situation not once or twice but repeatedly.

If you know the story at all you know that God answered and gave her a baby boy, Samuel, who would be a major prophet in Israel and anoint its first two kings, Saul and David. Can you imagine waiting for a child and then dedicating that child back to the Lord after he was weaned? I am sad to say I cannot. Her faithfulness and God’s response results in her taking Samuel to minister in the Lord’s Temple for the rest of his life.

That faithfulness is then rewarded with more children – three sons and two daughters.

Hannah is not the first person you might think of when you reflect on stories in the Bible, but she was a game changer for sure. Her faithfulness changed the course of history. So did the choices of Rahab despite not being a member of the tribe of Israel. She too became a game changer and her life was spared as a result.

It doesn’t take a long time in reading the Bible to discover a lot of the game changers that altered history are not all the big-name folks that immediately come to mind.

Why is that important?

As the world around us is reeling and fear seeks to overwhelm us, sending us shrinking into a corner until a crisis passes, the Lord is looking for ordinary people whose “everyday faithfulness” change history right now. That may not be on the world stage and may receive no accolades, but it matters to the Lord and also to what He may lead you to be during this time.

I know you are hearing many ideas being offered about this very thing and they are good. Even so, that place of “everyday faithfulness” you may be called to might look quite different. Right now, we are scattered and divided in so many ways rather than together in one place or another and that opens endless possibilities to the Lord and can help us keep our perspective in alignment.

One small light in a dark place can create an incredible amount of light.

“Everyday faithfulness by ordinary people can, by God’s grace, change history forever.”

God’s listening heart is like no other, but we are being made and shaped into his image. What is the path to developing a listening heart like his?

It can be easy for any of us to say that He is perfect so of course He has a listening heart as described in my previous post (https://pamecrement.com/2021/03/22/not-too-good-to-be-true/). Perhaps that heart stems first of all from being the only one who loves perfectly. There is not one smidgeon of love in Him that is tainted with sin or self. He simply is love. He is omnipresent and yet is never too busy to listen to the heart of any of his creation that calls out to Him.

If He calls us to love, to be like Him, then how do we finite humankind fixed in time and space develop a listening heart? How do we begin since it is evident that we cannot say we are simply born this way or not?

There are many ingredients and no true recipe since He likely adapts the path according to the design of each one of us and his purposes.

One thing on the list would surely be acquainted with suffering. Isaiah 53:3 (ESV) says in part, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…” God gave us a graphic image of his willingness to suffer when He came as Christ and endured a cruel tortuous cross alone. He gave up Himself for us while knowing those disciples then (and now) would often let Him down, stumble, walk away, and not model that perfect love and listening heart He modeled. It was the cross that was the test of obedience.

He chose to be poured out and broken for any and all who would receive Him based on who He is, not who or what they were. He already knew He would pay the price for many more who would betray and reject Him. He learned obedience by first listening and then suffering.

“Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.”

Hebrews 5:8 (NLT)

Christ’s listening heart was shaped through suffering, but first and above all, He listened.

To be like Him, the path for us starts there as well.

Learning to listen to Him moves beyond listening to the preached Word or trying to be obedient to the commands we see there.

We get to know someone best by listening carefully to them. We are not distracted by our environment, our own thoughts, how we want to respond, what we hope to get from the other person, or what we want that other person to think of us. That requires a good bit of practice and dying to self on every level. It means we aren’t first listening so he or she will then listen to what we want to share, but rather selflessly listening to come to know the heart of the other person.

And it starts with our vertical relationship with God. It goes beyond “hearing” the preached Word or reading the Bible. It goes beyond praying to Him and moves us to make the time in prayer a time of relationship development where we don’t do all the talking. We pause and take time to really listen and practice it, so we come to learn to know his voice within our own hearts, minds, and spirits as if He were right there enjoying a conversation with us.

How much do we want to really know Him and his heart? We “hear” Him in multiple ways, but as we speak and pause to listen for that “still small voice” we will come to know Him best. We will know more about the depth of his love and affection for us and that will shape us more into his image and hone obedience.

How precious is the sound of the voice of a child to a parent! How reassuring and comforting the voice of a parent whispering into the ear of a child!

In my little corner of the world those words whispered as I wait are so precious that I do not want to forget them or later be tempted by the enemy to believe He never speaks to me, so my journal contains the conversation between us as a testimony of the vertical relationship we share, and I seek to know Him better.

And the enemy of our souls hates that because he knows how much deeper it will forge the bond of love between us. He knows it will allow me (us) to develop more of a listening heart.

That will allow me to be used on assignment by Him to listen to others, to come to hear his nudge about needs they may not be able to express or feel safe enough to share as well as any they do. Then my heart will look more like his because the time in his Word and listening to his voice will adjust my self focus to HIS focus. That also comes from reading the whole book about Him not just bits and pieces that I find easy. He wants us to know Him on every page from Genesis to Revelation.

A great illustration of that is found in Revelation 10:9 where John is told to take an open book from the angel and eat it. Beyond the rest of that passage, have you considered what God is saying there?

“St John is told not only to take the open book but to eat it. Eating a book takes it all in, assimilating it into the tissues of your life.”

Eugene Peterson in Reversed Thunder

When we have assimilated Him into the tissues of our life, our words and actions will leak in consistent congruent patterns that convey HIS listening heart because we have first listened to Him.