Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Only One Life

Today, for whatever reason, two lines of a poem that my dad used to recite came into my mind. It went like this, " Only one life, twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last"! I have very vivid memories of daddy reciting this again and again and a slightly blurry memory of it on a plaque that mom had hung somewhere in the house. Now that was an easy 50 or more years ago and here it is popping up in my head once more! When this happens I ALWAYS want to take a closer look! Upon some Internet investigation ( I am fondly called the "Google" queen by my children) I found the poem. The poem is called " Only One Life Twill Soon Be Passed" by C.T. Studd. It beautifully paints a picture in words of what our lives should look like! "Give me Father a purpose deep. . ." speaks volumns of why we live, depressed, defeated lives. We need a purpose! Most of us, if we were totally truthful, would say that our lives on a daily basis most probably revolve around some shallow, self-serving purpose that brings us to a place of emptiness in the end. We work long hours to earn more money to buy the things that we truly don't need! We rent storage buildings to store the excess of items that we just can't seem to part with! And we waste hours on our cell phones or "Facebooking" on our computers playing games that will only pull us back into wasting more time the next day! NO PURPOSE! That is an endless highway to nowhere that will only leave us craving to get to the " happily ever after" place that doesn't even exist on that road. Another line reads: "And from the world now let me turn". . . . .lovingly directs us to turn away from the shallow things that the world tempts us with or offers to us served on a silver platter! Just how do we lay all of those things down and turn our attentions toward the things that we need to do that DO matter? It won't happen overnight but it CAN happen. You didn't get to this place in one day but you can stop and turn around and go the other direction before its too late! First, you need to ask God to forgive you and then ask him to help lead you in the right direction, the direction he has been pulling you in all along but you have grown numb and resistant to. We truly have become a wicked people that have turned to our own ways, self-centered and selfish! This is our wake up call I believe!  I'll make this more personal if I may, " Only YOUR life, it will soon be past, ONLY what YOU do for Christ will last"! Lay it down (your own stuff and agenda) and make a difference in someone else's life from now on. It is NOT about us and the self gratification that we can experience ( the world will lie to you with that philosophy) it is about Christ and him working through you to change the lives of others. So, "thank you" daddy for reciting that poem and "thank you daddy God" for inspiring Mr. C.T. Studd to write it so that it could ring in my ears the heavenly tune of repentance and renewal! You revealed to a poet what truly was important and now I share it so that it can come full circle to you! The poem ends with these lines, " And when I am dying how happy I'll be, if the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee"! 

insight insert: Have you found yourself caught up on the carousel of the mundane and self serving? I know I've been on that carnival ride and found that I grew more weary riding it! Get off!!! It's time to realize that this life that we have been given is short and comes to a halt way more quickly than we know. Examine your daily "doings" and ask yourself, "are these things being done for anyone else's good or for my own good? Are my daily tasks to bring joy and encouragement to others lives or is what I am doing just bringing joy and satisfaction to myself?" Don't get me wrong, we all need times of rest and relaxation to refuel and go on but that is not what I am speaking of. The daily majority of your time routines that eat away at your time and are of no earthly or Godly benefit whatsoever good is what I refer to! This week, look at your life through a much larger magnifying glass than you would normally use and allow the Spirit of the Living God to show you what mundane carousel to step off of. Now, tune in and hear what he has to tell you and move on it! You only have one life!

Scripture: Ephesians 5: 15-17. "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of The Lord is".

Psalm 39:4-5 " O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few hand breadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all of mankind stands as a mere breath!"

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Crazy Quilt of Our Life

Recently a dear dear friend was talking to me about making quilts. She is an avid quilter and has many quilting projects just waiting to spring to life and wrap their corners of artistic love around someone’s heart. 
In our conversation I shared that there was a quilting expo in the town very close to where I lived and suggested that she should come and we could go together to see the beautiful and very professional side of this art. Surprisingly she told me that she doesn’t like going to those shows and expos because they remind her how very inadequate her work is next to the quilts in the professional arenas. Well I was taken back a bit by her response but after she explained I could understand how she may have arrived at such a conclusion.
She told me that while she loved making quilts, cutting out triangles, squares and circles, she could never perfectly line up the corners and the points so that they looked flawless. Her hand quilting stitches weren’t perfectly the same length and stitch spaces weren’t quite consistent. When she would go to the expos and look at the perfection and the high quality of the show quilts it only proved to make her feel very “less than” in her talent. 
As I was thinking about her feelings and the parking spot where she had parked her final thoughts and opinions I was deeply concerned. I have seen some of her projects of love that she has stitched and shaped and given life to and I have to tell you that by professional standards that they would most probably never be placed in the arena or the expo center venue. But  I can also tell you this, by the standards of quilters that have traversed the landscape of this country and have stitched pieces of their hearts and pieces of their old tattered calico skirts and homespun shirts, well, her quilts speak “home” and “hearth” to me. Their imperfections remind me of how very imperfect I am and we all are. The stitches and their “unevenness”remind me also of the uneven paths that we all have been called to tred. Sometimes those paths are easy and sometimes not so very easy! With her long and short stitches you see the times when she may very well have gotten sleepy as she stitched into the wee hours of the night just to finish her project. The points of her stars may not have been sharp and the bars of her log cabin squares may not have been perfectly symmetrical but neither are our lives. We search too often for pure perfection and all that is required is our best ability. It says in the book of books, “ my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Our weaknesses, our imperfections and our edges that do not line up quite right are all of the things that shape who we are. We can give it our best ability and newsflash. . . . . .we will never become perfect. Wiser and more skillful, yes, but never perfect! That description was reserved exclusively for the Lord of Lords. God gives us grace so we must also give ourselves some grace, some room to fail and get back up and try again. Those times when we fall and get back up are the times that prove to build character and strength. We learn to live our eneven, patched worked lives moving from strength to strength. In the end it produces in us a beautiful pieced and stitched together work of art called “our life”. 

So I share here with my friend to look at the beautiful quilts. Look at all the perfect corners and straight and consistent stitches. See how beautifully the color choices are and how they take your breath away. But my dear friend here is a final “factoid” for you to remember. I can most probably guarantee you that if you looked at each very closely you would still find imperfections and if you spoke to the quilter they would probably share the areas where they had to make “do-overs” because the corners didn’t line up. There was most likely a price to pay for their beautiful creations so don’t look at what you see as perfection and think there were no errors. Your “ errors” tell the story of how imperfect we all really are and your quilts when complete declare, “I Persevered till the end”and that’s what saves us and declares His glory in us. What a beautiful quilt every time, stitched with love and pieced together with grace!  Now THATS a show quilt!

Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Followspot

You know, I think I’ve finally narrowed down my life’s job description if you will. I really have! I’m serious here! I believe my purpose or job description would be “followspot operaror”. If you are not familiar with this particular job then here’s the description. 
FOLLOWSPOT OPERATOR: Person who operates the followspot (spotlight) which follows someone on the stage. This job takes a great deal of practice. A historic term for these spotlights is “limes” and they were operated by a “lime operator”. The first followspots used
Limelight as the light source. The phrase “being in the limelight” refers to being in a followspot beam. 
So, I am a ‘followspot operator’! My job and purpose is though, not to cast the spotlight on myself or anyone else but to shine it on God! There! You probably knew I was going there but please just follow me a bit further if you will.
Today in my church service they were singing a worship song that said, “ show us, show us your glory. Show us, show us your glory Lord”. Well, my brain went to “what exactly is the glory of God anyway?” So here’s the abbreviated version. 
The glory of God could be defined as ”the radiance of His holiness, His Worth and His valuable perfections. 
So, it is our job for us to think and to act as to make Him look as glorious as He is! To make His glory visible. We are to live so that others would be able to say, “God Is Glorious” not “Jeannie is glorious”. It is my purpose or job description to “spotlight” his holiness and great worth and perfection through my life without being in the “limelight”. I am to be the “followspot operator” and follow him, keeping Him in the spotlight as He is of course the main character on this beautiful stage of Creation. 
It says in Matthew 5:16, “In the same way let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”. 

It is all about God being glorified! He’s the one who’s to be in the spotlight and not us!  We are the “followspot operators” and we need to operate that spotlight to make Him look glorious and trustworthy and shine the light on His infinite worth. “Holy Holy Holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory”. 

Monday, March 5, 2018

Morning Glories

Just before the sun peaks over our horizons, the morning brings us a quiet, pristine sort of calm. Did you ever wonder what it would be like if the day could remain like that all the way through to the sunset in the evening? What if the days' quiet were never broken by the crowing rooster, the whistles of trains, the dogs barking, the roar of traffic on the expressway or simply the ring of a cell phone. Sweet bliss you may say. . . Heaven come down!!! We all need to dream about the refreshment of quiet from time to time and actually take time to drink it in here and there but it's in the busyness and the workplaces of our day that we actually learn and grow. You really can learn lessons from the customer who was rude and chews you out! You really can glean from the mistakes you made in your checkbook. . . . And. . . You really CAN grow from the death of someone very close to you! Life's enrichments always come with a cost but the value of the experience is almost always priceless! The customer who was rude may have caused you to become determined to show kindness to others regardless of the situation. The error in your checkbook may make you more acutely aware of your expenditures and teach you a hard lesson in frugality but one you will hopefully be better for. That loved one who passed away may be the hardest lesson ever, but it probably made you very aware of enjoying every minute you have with those you love and those that are still within arms reach. The lessons that are "lived" are the bricks that form who we are and who we become. If our day never had any trials or challenges it would be glorious for a while but we would never be prepared for that pothole in the road or that car at a standstill around the curve. The "glories of the morning" are always there early but the glorious gift of the day. . . . Well. . . It holds treasures that can't be bought!

Insight Insert:  Have you been meaning to write a letter to someone and you have procrastinated doing it? Have you been meaning to call that special person, maybe a dear old friend or family member but it became very convenient to shelf it somewhere in your mind? Are those "thank you" notes that need to be sent out still lying on the table? What keeps you from doing these things and possibly many others? Time? Possibly! Or maybe you feel that it's been so long since you meant to do that thing that it would be an embarrassment to you now to carry through with it! This is your week! Now is the time! I don't even think I will have to tell you how good you will feel after you have done it either! Now, go, seize the day and enjoy the glorious feeling that God intended you to experience.


Scripture:  Jeremiah 29:11.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, pans to give you hope and a future. NIV