In the midst of what can seem like ever increasing storms across the earth it may well seem that everything is being shaken. Storms assail every area of the globe including the little plot where each of us may live and they have come in many forms leaving us weary and wondering when it will end.

For some the longing for an end, a solution has been delayed too long. The persons, companies, political leaders, doctors, governments, clergy, and others in a list whom they believed and trusted have disappointed them. As a result, some have chosen to leave this life by his or her own hand for lack of hope. Others have chosen to escape by any means possible and others still continue to try to “live in a dream world” as if nothing is really all that bad.

Our tolerance for living in the midst of uncertainty was never very great and it has diminished in recent years. We assume we are waiting on someone or something to “make it all better” for us, but what if we have it backwards? What if God is waiting on us to awaken from our stupor created from being caught up in this life so we can discover He is waiting on us?

Waiting on us? How can that be?

We have exhausted ourselves looking for solutions from other frail mortals like us, talking to each other, listening to news we either want to hear or that those who dispense the “news” want us to hear. Over time we have been fed with things that have eroded our hope and even if believing in God, have failed to talk with Him as much as others and not sought to quiet the “noise” of all around us so we can hear Him.

One day recently as I was caught up in too many things that were weighing me down, I sensed a clear whisper in my heart that brought clarity to the path I seek. It was a verse the Lord brought to mind and echoed through every part of my being as He brought it to mind.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses,  but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

Psalm 20:7 (NIV)

Perhaps the Lord is trying to awaken us to our temptation to do that in this current time. News sources have been conflicting, experts’ opinions have varied, and each has created a swirling melee inside of us that seems to be unable to be relieved.

Perhaps the Lord is trying to awaken us to see the unseen warfare that is intensifying around the world, to be alert to the evil that is drawing our attention off course and dividing us within and without. Shut up from a pandemic for several years that did not relent its pursuit of us, we may have missed what has been nibbling at the hope we have and the foundation we are to stand on.

We are missing the bigger perspective. Maybe if we could see more of the whole thing, the pattern might become clearer. Then we might see that the upheaval is not just in our own neighborhood or nation but is widespread in different places around the earth. In the midst of it the warning of Isaiah comes to mind:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Isaiah 5:20 (NIV)

Have we gotten turned around to a point where we have confused evil and good, light and darkness, ascribing those words to one human as compared to another, one cause compared to another? The Bible points to the truth that in “the last days” such confusion will exist on the earth. Only God knows when “the last” of “the last days” will be accomplished, but we are nearer than we once were and our wearied hearts, minds, and spirits remind us of the words echoing through J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy of The Lord of the Rings that call us to be on the alert, to stand, and not to be seduced by the ring of power that we believe will give us what we need.

Centuries upon centuries prove that power always pulls humankind off course and works corruption as it seduces us to believe we will use it for good (or that others will). It has been so since one of the chief angels of heaven lusted for power and caused the fallen world we live in but were never designed for.

Our eyes must be trained to focus on the spiritual while being alert to the world we live in that assails us each moment. It requires discipline to shut off those things, people, programs, news, and more that detract us from the position we are called to stand in based on biblical principles and values rather than use a secularized lens to which we may have succumbed.

In the end justice will prevail because God’s righteousness will require it.

It is not time for “business as usual” in any of our lives. We are called to endure, to stand, to discern when to be silent and when to speak and to remember the words of Psalm 37 which begins as follows:

“Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; ² for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.”

Psalm 37:1-2 (NIV)

But I would encourage you to read it in total because of the way it harnesses us to the truth on which we need to stand. Many verses later this priceless Psalm ends with these two verses:

“The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;  he is their stronghold in time of trouble. ⁴⁰ The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.”

Psalm 37: 39-40 (NIV)

God started the story.

He knows the ending because He has written it and He and those who trust in Him win.

Whatever branch of the family faith tree we reside in, most of us hear that we need to follow God. It’s portrayed as a key point of obedience and something of value to God. As such it can be easy for us to skip over the truth: it’s vital to us.

God asks us to follow Him as a means of protection and provision, but from Eden onward we have been plagued with wandering off on our own paths. We’ve looked at his admonition to follow as restrictive, holding us back from good things we don’t want to miss. Isn’t that the same lie the serpent whispered to Eve in Eden?

All these years later, we still believe that might be true far more often than we want to admit or even realize sometimes. It’s that nature we inherited when Adam and Eve first decided to go their own way wondering if God was withholding something good from them.

Following Him has always been about love and less about limits. Limits were a means of expressing his love so we would not be harmed and discover his goodness.

Ever since Eden God has been trying to get that key point across to us and it is one of the things we hear Jesus say in the New Testament, “Follow me.”

It can be easy to suggest we aren’t sure where He wants us to go. We don’t have a neon sign lighting the way nor a voice like Charlton Heston in the movie, The Ten Commandments. We also don’t have what led the way for the Israelites after they left Egypt and built the tabernacle − a cloud that lifted above the tabernacle when it was time to move and fire that burned in the cloud when it moved by night.

So many thousands of years later, do we still need a cloud? Did we learn nothing from that story we read in the Old Testament in Exodus?

We see a clear picture of how often the story makes clear that it is never a good idea to follow your own path if God is there to lead. Over and over again the story of God written in the Bible shows us our role with Him is that of a follower if we choose Him as ours. His path demonstrated that He was a good leader full of reward and blessing if we followed.

The Old Testament is filled with visible symbols that point to an invisible God, but when He came to earth as Jesus He “showed us a better way” and He wanted to indwell our hearts rather than light a fire in a cloud above. He desired an intimate relationship with us that got broken in Eden.

The earthly ministry of Jesus gave us a living picture of God so we would be clear on the truth and when He ascended into heaven after his resurrection, his plan was not to leave us without help. He exhorted the disciples to look for and wait for the Holy Spirit who would make Jesus manifest in our hearts and whose leading and nudges would show us how and where to follow.

That requires us to listen. The Holy Spirit’s voice isn’t loud and demanding, but quiet. He gives us prompts to encourage us on the path we are to take, the words we are to say. To hear Him means to come close and invite Him to be close − it’s the only way we can hear Him.

How do we know it is Him you might ask? I think the best answer is to come to know God’s story well by reading the Bible regularly and without jumping passages or portions. That way when we sense that nudge we can compare that to what we already know of Him in the Bible. If it sounds like, looks like, etc. Him, then we grow in confidence. That can help us come to grips with this God, this Jesus, and know we should not be caught off-guard by the surprising way He may take us.

Isaiah illuminates that truth in Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV):

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Following God is sure to be an adventure and on the journey we will come to know Him better and He will help us to discover things about ourselves we will be sure to miss without Him. It will never be boring.

Do we really need a cloud (or want one)?

As I write this, I wonder what your gut-level reaction is when you read the word authority. It tends to be a word we are not neutral about. The reasons for our reactions can be many and certainly include what we have experienced with authority in our lives. One way or another we come face-to-face with authority very early in our homes with our parents and their surrogates. Soon afterward we connect with authority with our teachers, principals, coaches, and others in a school setting.

Beyond that, there are authorities that govern how we live our lives. Those are as basic as stopping at a stop sign or a red light and go on from there.

It doesn’t seem to take long until we can easily chafe at authority. We really don’t want to be limited by its restraints. More than ever we live in a time when we want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. Beneath that, our Western culture encourages that in subtle and not so subtle ways.

Sometimes our difficulty with authority can come from not only our experience, but also our confusion of authority with authoritarianism. Authoritarianism means the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. Authority has more than one or two definitions, but prominent ones include 1) the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience; 2) a person or organization having power or control; and 3) the power to influence others.

People born into a Western culture and tradition have rejected painful experiences with authority and usually decided it is more noble and better to think for ourselves. As a result, in this postmodern age, we tend to discredit and distrust authority.

Our path to this place may be understandable, but it leads to a faulty conclusion and anarchy.  The world and we are not set up to function well without some levels of authority. Our bad experiences with authority or authoritarianism cause us to believe that our rejection of authority is justified. It implies we have accepted an “all-or-nothing” type of conceptualization. Instead of rejecting bad uses of authority or authoritarianism as bad, we fall prey to deciding authority in any form is bad.

We should be wiser.

At a deeper level we often miss that the struggle with authority began in the Garden of Eden. God was clearly the authority and offered our relatives, Adam and Eve, a paradise with one caveat: one tree was forbidden. They appeared to accept that authority until the fallen angel, Lucifer, created doubt and encouraged them to think for themselves. Clearly, that didn’t work out very well for them OR us!

More than ever before in this postmodern Western culture, we need to press in to truly know who the authority of the Bible is and how He governs with love, grace, and mercy. The enemy is counting on deterring us from trusting the Lord and His authority. Lucifer still uses his old devices to create doubt. We can be tempted to believe his whispers and the voices of men and women around us who are not wisely informed. It can be easier when some of our brothers and sisters or religious authorities have also disappointed or wounded us, failing their responsibility to lead and guide as He would.

I once heard a pastor offer very wise counsel at the end of his sermon: “Don’t take my word for what I have shared. Go home and read the Bible for yourself and test to see if my words line up.” Those are sound words. Do we? He was pointing to the Bible as the authority we can and should trust.

God’s Word is the compass, the map, to lead and guide us safely home to Him. Never has it been more important to trust it more than the headlines or nightly news. His Word gives us the interpretation of what those things we see and hear mean. They show us that day-by-day His return is getting closer. Knowing Him has never been more important.

When I look into His Word, I find myself standing on tiptoe in anticipation of that day.

Maranatha!!!!

Photo by Pam Ecrement

A few years ago I sent an anniversary card to some friends of ours. Sending cards is an old-fashioned tradition I still love and I add important dates to my calendar to remind me. (That gives me credit for remembering that I honestly don’t deserve.)

After putting the card in the mail, I bumped into these friends while out and made mention of their anniversary coming up. They were very sweet, but reminded me their anniversary was another month and day than I thought.

After I got home I checked my contact list and saw that I had the correct date there, but when I looked at the calendar I realized I had only noticed their names on the date and hadn’t checked why. It wasn’t their anniversary, but a reminder they were to leave on a mission trip that day.

It was a silly mistake and one that was easy to laugh about, but not all of my mistakes are that way. I have made some mistakes in my lifetime that were far more costly.

A funny one our family jokes about now and also was costly happened when we were heading out on a vacation trip. It was one of those we had anticipated for a long time. Our kids were tucked in the back seat shortly after 5AM and with everything seemingly stowed away, we headed out as the kids fell asleep again in the back seat. Several hours later we stopped at the last plaza in our state and aroused the kids to get out and stretch and enjoy doughnuts and orange juice we had brought with us.

As we were all shivering, I walked around the back of our car where the trunk was still open. As I casually looked inside I didn’t see the clothes that were on hangers that my husband and I would need for most of the 10-day trip. I walked over to my husband and asked where he had put them.

It was then that he realized they were still hanging in the hall closet at home. We had traveled three hours by then and faced the dilemma of what to do. We could keep going and try to buy clothes on the way or turn around and go get the clothes. Ugh!! We were groaning over the lack of a better set of choices.

We realized that finding clothes would cost us in time we didn’t want to waste and also fray a budget already stretched tight. The cost of driving back seemed like the least costly option even though it meant driving back three hours in the direction we had just come from. There was a caveat that we called my parents who met us at the entrance to the turnpike we had first entered that saved us a little bit of time.

We picked up the clothes and headed back on the road again trying to handle our frustration at the cost in mileage and time. We stopped at the same plaza for lunch where we had enjoyed doughnuts earlier. It was a mistake we never made again on our many vacation trips.

“The thing about mistakes is, they become valuable when you learn from them.” 

Lisa Wingate in The Sea Keeper’s Daughter

Mistakes.

We all make them and hate it when we do. Maybe it’s because of the cost of some of them to others or us. Maybe it’s because it spotlights a flaw. The cause doesn’t change the feelings we have when we make them even though they do become valuable if we learn from them.

Some of us, however, get stuck. We start to believe we are defective because of our mistakes instead of recognizing we are human and prone to make mistakes. When we get stuck in that erroneous pattern of thinking, we paradoxically set ourselves up to more likely make the mistakes we fear. Our overreaction results in messing up.

The peril of getting stuck in “mistake mentality” sets us up to also be tempted to make bad choices. It started in Eden when Cain, the farmer, and Abel, the shepherd, each made a sacrificial offering to the Lord. Abel’s pleased the Lord and Cain’s did not. Cain couldn’t handle the mistake and loss of favor from the Lord. He hated Abel’s favor and chose to murder him because of it.

The temptation to condemn ourselves when we make mistakes of any size plays into the devices of the evil one who nudges us to believe lies about the whole situation. Left unchallenged, we can become prisoners to the lies and miss the extraordinary things God has in store for us.

Our best response to mistakes is to humbly accept we made them and correct anything we can, recognize we can receive grace for them, learn from them, and walk in freedom while still knowing there will be other mistakes ahead.

“How sad, I think now, to live an entire life blinded by the ordinary, when the path to the extraordinary waits just beyond the well-meaning prisons of your own making.” 

Lisa Wingate in The Sea Keeper’s Daughter

As I read in the Word about how the Lord speaks to us, I am reminded over and over again that He speaks in a myriad of ways. He speaks through signs and wonders, through miracles, in a booming voice and in whispers. He clearly speaks through His Word and through circumstances many times.

The Lord speaks to us above all else because He desires to be in loving fellowship with us. Fellowship isn’t just about getting together with someone to eat, but truly about companionship. The very meaning of the word suggests sharing each other’s interests.

The picture that comes to mind is someone who is walking with me through my day. Few lyrics capture this idea better then the hymn, In the Garden:

“I come to the garden alone,

While the dew is still on the roses,

And the voice I hear falling on my ear,

The Son of God discloses…

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own,

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other, has ever, known!

He speaks and the sound of His voice,

Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,

And the melody that he gave to me,

Within my heart is ringing…

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own,

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other, has ever, known!

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other, has ever, known!”

I know this hymn well because it was my mother’s favorite and I recall it being sung often in the small country church where I grew up. The words of this hymn describe perfectly the reality of fellowship with the Lord. I cannot help but think songwriter, C. Austin Miles, knew something about fellowship when the hymn was published in 1912.

Today we are blessed with such a variety of powerful worship music that hymns are sung far less often than they once were. Sadly, some children might grow up without hymns being a part of their heritage and miss some of the powerful words and meaning they convey.

I can recall on more than a few occasions having the words of a hymn be something the Lord used to encourage my heart, lift up my spirit, and get my focus back on track.

Somehow they were able to cut through the noise of daily life and also the filters we can often have that cause us to be unsure of whether or not we are hearing His voice.

Our life experiences can tend to color what we hear so that we might tend to hear His voice as critical, harsh, cold, or unloving. Those experiences make it easier to run from Him than run to Him; but if we recognize the words of the hymn, we see the perfect example of what He desires in fellowship with us.

I love the way Richard Foster describes it. “The quality of God’s voice is one of drawing and encouraging. The spirit of God’s voice is all grace and mercy. And the content of what is being said is always consistent with what God has said before—we have a huge biblical witness upon which to test our leadings.”

If we have not learned the truth about His voice to us, the best news is that His heart continues to pursue us, to experience what it means to soak in the Lord’s love and care for us.

Our challenge as a disciple is to set aside our preconceived notions about whether or not He wants to engage us, our distorted views of what He might say or even think about us, and begin to seek to be present with Him. To quiet our internal noise and the cacophony around us will take discipline and practice, but such commitment will leave no doubt in the Lord’s mind of our desire to fellowship with Him.

Francois Fenelon wrote, “God does not cease speaking, but the noise of the creatures without, and of our passion within, deafens us, and stops our hearing. We must silence every creature; we must silence ourselves, to hear in the deep hush of the whole soul, the ineffable voice of the spouse. We must bend the ear, because it is a gentle and delicate voice, only heard by those who no longer hear anything else.”

May it be so, Lord!