P.E. in heaven!

As we were driving along in the car the other day, Peter (my 8 year old) out of the blue declared, "I can't wait to get to heaven 'cause we won't have to do any schoolwork." (We had just spent about an hour struggling with spelling homework!) He went on, "But don't even talk to me about P.E.! P.E. is going to be amazing in heaven!" Can you guess what he tells me everyday was his favorite part of the day?! Yep, we know heaven is going to be incredible and so it must include lots of P.E.!

When we daily ponder heaven, it puts everything else in our lives in perspective. When Peter shared this, I was reminded of an illustration I heard several years ago. The great old preacher, John Newton wrote: "Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way. What a fool we would think him if we saw him ringing his hands and blubbering out all the remaining mile, 'My carriage is broken! My carriage is broken!'"

And yet how often is this my foolish attitude! I have the infinite joys of heaven just before me, and I am blubbering "My energy is broken! or My parenting is broken! or My finances are broken!..." I have God's unbreakable Word that tells me He loves me and cares for me and guides me and strengthens me and renews me, but I am blubbering about my broken carriage--and the city is only a few minutes away! John Piper put it this way: "Picture this life as a journey on your way to receive a spectacular inheritance. It will protect you from idolatry and make all your burdens lighter, and quell all your murmurings."

Lord, forgive all my murmurings, my love of things and comfort and ease, my failure to be truly and continually and overwhelmingly thankful for the abundant life You graciously offer us now and the infinite and eternal joys of heaven in the future. It's less than a mile to the city...and all that fabulous P.E.! To God be all the glory!

When God says no

Sometimes God answers no to our most fervent requests. Physical healing, restoration of a relationship, fulfillment of long cherished dreams or desires, victory or success in a sporting event or school subject or business opportunity. We all love to joyfully share the affirmative answers to prayer--that is when God answers them the way we want them answered--and we are quick to give Him all the praise and glory.

But how about when His answer is no? Are we quick to thank Him and tell others about how great and sovereign and omnipotent He is?

I don't even need to answer that--at least when it comes to yours truly.

But God's no answers are just as sovereign and gracious and worthy of our faith and gratitude. Why? Because He is God, that's why. Because even when I can't see it or understand it, He sees fully and knows absolutely everything, and He knows what is best, pleasing and perfect. Because He loves us more than we could ever even begin to imagine, and so, like a loving parent, He always always always wants the very best for us. Because His Word promises us over and over again that He works all things together for good and that all His plans for us are good, and He loves us with an everlasting love.

Yet how quickly we forget! I am so often like a spoiled child with the "what have You done for me lately?" attitude. I can't see past my own nose to the bigger, beautiful picture He has spread out in front of me. How often I settle for infinitely less than He longs to give me, because I am so insistent that my way is the best way.

No, I will never understand horrific earthquakes and genocide and cancer. But I just have to trust that my Savior does, and what a glorious day that will be when He reveals His mysterious purposes behind all of the pain and suffering and we will truly understand for the first time.

But in the meantime, I choose to thank Him for His "no's," even when I don't always feel like it. I do it in faith and trust based on my knowledge of my Savior. I do it, because, just as I read last night in Streams in the Desert, "This thing is from Me." (I Kings 12:24). "My child, I have a message for you today; let me whisper it in your ear, that it may gild with glory any storm clouds which may arise, and smooth the rough places upon which you may have to tread. It is short, only five words, but let them sink into your inmost soul; use them as a pillow upon which to rest your weary head. 'This thing is from Me.'"

Nothing happens to any of us unless and until it passes through our loving, all knowing Heavenly Father. That's all I need to know--this thing is from Him so I can trust that somehow, someway it will be to my greater good and His greater glory.

I just read today's Caring Bridge entry from the husband of a mom about my age who is dying of cancer. Hospice has been called in, and her time on this earth is short. He writes: "It is a peaceful time, and we have been spending our time at home with footrubs, singing from various friends and family members, listening to praise hymns and Chris Rice CD's and trying to walk with the Lord each day that He provides us. He has told us not to worry about tomorrow; He will guide us with His perfect guidance and He in fact is holding our right hand as we go on this journey through life. We know that He leads us to Glory in eternity, and there is nothing that can separate us from His presence...[He thanks everyone for all their prayers and kindness] They are all being answered. We are prepared for each new day and what it is that God has in store for us. Rain, sleet, snow or shine, each day is a blessing because He knows His plan for our lives and it is GOOD!"

AMEN! So when God anwers no, it is really always yes in His perfect plan for each of our days. All our waiting on colleges with answers we don't necessarily like? It's yes in Him! How I love what he wrote--"each day is a blessing because He knows His plan for our lives and it is GOOD!" This from a loving husband watching His beloved wife die from cancer.

So thank You Lord for the yeses and the no's and everything in between! Help us all live our lives every single day with gratitude and joy and peace and trust that You are there, in perfect control, and "this thing is from" You--our loving, omnipotent Papa. To You be all the glory!

Waiting!

Waiting. Who likes to wait? No one (and certainly not me!). At Christmas this year, our annual letter was all about waiting, and how God works and moves and uses our waiting periods. It seemed like nearly every person involved in the Christmas story was waiting--from Mary and Joseph to the shepherds to the wise men to Simeon and Anna to the angels. And aren't we all called to wait?

But the last few days, God has been teaching us a bit more about waiting (and about my own sinfulness!). This is one of those blogs I hope and assume no one will read, but here goes! We have been waiting to hear if our son would get into a particular college yesterday (Jan. 31st). He got all the necessary paperwork in by the early november deadline so it's been almost 3 months of waiting since that time. The date to let everyone know online would be Jan. 31st.

So, starting shortly after midnight, we kept checking the website to see the results. Early the next morning, we kept checking. Every single one of his friends, except one, had heard by that morning (and most with good results). We kept checking, but the website continued to indicate that it was not yet available. Apparently, the website had some kind of malfunction and a small number of students could not yet get their results. So we waited and kept checking.

By the evening, the website malfunction had been cleared up, but there were still 150 students who had still not been reviewed yet. They would be reviewing these last students and let us know in the next couple of days. So we continued to wait.

So here's the confession part: I handled it pretty well until late yesterday afternoon. Then I started to feel pretty frustrated and discouraged, thinking, "why does this kind of thing always seem to happen to us?" "We have waited so long and I'm sick to death of waiting and just want to know something!" I was just generally in a grumpy, self-pitying mood and even got irritated with our dog for taking too long sniffing every blessed tree on our walk!

Of course, I am so thankful that My Lord does not let us stew in our sin and sinful attitudes. As I sat in the bathtub last night, He suddenly brought vividly to my mind the tragic sight of that poor father sharing brokenly about his daughter who had not yet been found in the rubble of Haiti. She had gone with a mission group from her school, and they had initially been told she had been found and had survived. They joyfully flew down to Florida to go meet her, but when they arrived, they were told the first report was incorrect, and they have still not found her. So they wait tearfully.

O Lord Jesus, I wept, forgive me selfishness and shallowness and sinful attitude. Boy, I really flunked that test of waiting. How quickly self-pity and pride and selfishness can swallow us whole if we are not on our guard. What a terrible, sickening sight it is to see how full of sin this heart can be.

But as I've shared so many times before, like John Newton, I cry out: how great a sinner I am and how great a Savior I have! What kind of God would take a spoiled, self-preoccupied, prideful sinner like me and offer complete and total forgiveness and a new start? As the song says, "there is no God like our God!" Those nails should have been mine. That beating belonged to me. That humiliating nakedness and desperate thirst deserved to have been mine. That betrayal and rejection--all mine and not the perfect sinless Creator of the galaxies.

But "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21 Because of my Savior, I can crawl up into the lap of my Abba, my Daddy, and tell him I'm so sorry and know that He loves me totally and forgives me completely. And He truly does make all things new! A God of 2nd and 3rd and 4th chances--unbelievable... but true! We can never fall so greatly or fail so miserably that His grace and love and mercy are not deeper and greater still.

So we are still waiting, but now we wait with joy and peace and patience. Because we are waiting with our Heavenly Father who has forgiven us and redeemed us and filled us. And after all, He's in charge of it all, from the tiniest microscopic cell to the largest galaxy--so what do we have to fear wherever we are waiting? No medical prognosis or relationship struggle or financial strain or seemingly hopeless situation is beyond His promise to use "all things" for His glory and our greater good. And so we wait and declare joyfully, to God be all the glory!