Seeking Fame or the Father?

     John 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.
     These are John the Baptist's words as his followers and disciples started to leave him and began instead to follow Jesus.  Several of John's friends had noticed this seemingly distressing trend and, in so many words, essentially confronted him: "Have you noticed they're leaving you for Jesus?  Don't you care?  This Jesus is taking over your powerful, famous work and pretty soon you'll be a has been.  What are you going to do about it?"
     John responds that "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.  You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him.  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.  The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.  Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.  He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:27-30)
     Man, this is so counter-cultural!  This is so counter-pride, counter-competitiveness, counter-self-absorption!  This is so contrary to my selfishness and pride!   Everywhere we turn, we are encouraged to be number 1, to have our needs met, to bulk up our self-esteem, to achieve and accomplish and conquer.  And clearly, we are a culture that worships fame and fortune--especially fame. Even if you become infamous, any fame--no matter how ill-conceived or foolishly earned--seems to be better than the alternative of anonymity. We have an entire industry built on following people who are famous merely for being famous.  Seriously, why on earth is anyone in the least bit interested in the Kardashians?   Or that tanning mom or the Octomom.  Good grief.
     Lest I appear in the least bit virtuous here, believe me, I'm not.  I have to fight it tooth and nail, and those sickening sins of pride and selfishness far too frequently rear their hideous head in my life.  O how I hate it in myself!  We all are so prone to wanting to be made much of---or having our children and loved ones made much of--rather than seeking to decrease and Christ to increase.  What a lifelong battle it is for each of us, and what a beautiful example John the Baptist provides for constantly seeking to magnify Christ and minimize self.  
     But, incredibly, in such a reversal--where we make much of our Savior and make less of ourselves--we find completeness of joy (John 3:29).  It's so true, when we are all wrapped up in ourselves, we make a mighty small package.  Such small selfish packages make for small people, small joy, small contentment, small usefulness to the Kingdom.  I don't care how much the world lauds fame and fortune and all that mess--they never satisfy and always ultimately steal peace and joy.
     The other day a friend sent me an article about the most recent "American Idol" winner.  (Now if you think about it, there's a name for you, isn't it? Yes, we certainly do make fame an "idol.")   I confess, I have almost never watched the show, but apparently this year's winner seemed at a loss for words or much of a reaction when he won. He looked stunned and in shock.  They handed him his guitar to sing and play his song in celebration while all the fireworks rocketed and the confetti fell around him.  He only sang a few lines before breaking down in tears and rushing to embrace his family.  He simply couldn't begin to fathom or process what had just happened to him, and to his credit, he was not embracing idolatry and fame and sudden, wild success as the greatest thing in the universe.
     As one writer succinctly expressed it: "The  human soul was not made for fame."
     So true, for fame is far too small and mean a thing to deserve to steal the soul's delight and worship. Likewise for selfishness or greed or pride or materialism.  While appearing to promise much, they deliver little but a barren soul and an empty heart.
     John the Baptist would surely agree, for he knew our souls were designed to magnify and make much of our Lord and to make less of ourselves.  And in that increasing of Him and decreasing of me, we find joy and satisfaction and peace and contentment--the abundant, eternal life.  
     "Our souls were not made for fame.  Our souls were made for the Famous One.  O God, save us from ourselves."  
     Our souls were made for the truly Great and Glorious One, and only in Him will we find our true heart's home.  Not in fame.  Not in fortune. Not in success.  Not in self.  Not in promotion.  Not in achievement.  Not in accolades.  But in Him and Him alone.  O Lord, save us from ourselves and our selfishness and pride and instead help us to seek You and Your glory and Your greatness.   To the God of all that is good and great be all the glory forever.

Memorial Day

     Happy Memorial Day!  What a debt we owe to those who have gone before us to secure our freedom.  Lord, forgive us for how often we take for granted those hard-won freedoms.   John Adams once declared, "Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom.  I hope you will make good use of it."  O Lord, keep us grateful and make us worthy!
     I often think back to my daddy who served as the gunnery officer on a destroyer for four years during World War II.  He saw action at about every major naval battle and saw death and destruction on a level we cannot begin to imagine.  Daddy earned a bronze star for his bravery, yet, when he died, we found that illustrious medal hidden in the top of his sock drawer.  My brother explained at his funeral that Daddy had it there so that everyday when he opened his drawer to get his socks, he was reminded of all the brave servicemen and dear friends who lost their lives in the war.  These innumerable souls who gave their best, their all, for their nation and for our freedom never had the opportunity to live out their lives and fulfill their hopes and dreams.  So everyday Daddy surely felt that he needed to live that day to the best of his ability, to make a difference in this world, and to thereby honor the sacred memory of those who gave their lives so that we might live.
     Right at this very moment our nation has brave men and women all over the world serving and fighting to safeguard our freedom.  They face hardships, sacrifices, discomfort, dangers, and death.  And here we sit in air conditioned comfort, contemplating what the traffic might be like at the beach or the weather might be like in the mountains or what we might cook on the grill for a Memorial Day cookout or how we will enjoy our day off on monday.  Yet the smallest inconveniences irritate us and the simplest everyday (but o so wonderful) blessings showered upon us pass by utterly unnoticed.  Shame on us.  Shame on our ingratitude and indifference and inaction.
     As John Adams exhorted us so many years ago, might we consider afresh the exorbitant price paid by earlier generations and by those in harm's way today... and might we be filled with gratitude.  How I pray that we will prove worthy of those sacrifices by our efforts to make this nation greater and stronger and freer and nobler for the generations following us.  Help us to be thankful and faithful, Father.
     To our great God be the glory forever.  
   

Unutterable Muddiness of Mud

      I love these words written by John Piper about why he loves G.K.Chesteron (and I agree wholeheartedly!):

• "We both marvel that we are swimming in the same boundless sea of wonders called the universe.

• We both are amazed not by sharp noses or flat noses, but that humans have noses at all.

• We both think it is just as likely that the reason the sun rises every morning is not because of some so-called “law,” but because God says, “Do it again.” And that he says it more like a delighted child than a dour chief.

• We both believe logic and imagination are totally compatible and that neither will be useful without the other.

• We both believe that the magic of the universe must have meaning, and meaning must have someone to mean it.

• We both believe that the glories of this world are like goods rescued from some primordial ruin — a ruin whose evidences are everywhere. 

• And we both believe that paradox is woven into the nature of the universe, and that resisting it drives a person mad. “Poets don’t go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. . . . The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits.”

These and a hundred other happy, world-opening agreements keep me coming back, because nobody says them better than Chesterton. Like C. S. Lewis, he sees more wonder in an ordinary day than most of us see in a hundred miracles. I will keep coming back to anyone who helps me see and be astonished at what is in front of my face — anyone who can help heal me from the disease of 'seeing they do not see.'"


     Can I just add a hearty "Amen?!"  Might we never get over the astounding wonder of this world created by a majestic, omnipotent God who loves to delight His children and who rejoices in color and variety and beauty even more than we do (in our best moments).  
     I'll never forget a quote I heard when I was in high school.  Way back then--in the dark ages--I had never heard of G.K. Chesterton, but our wonderful minister, Dr. Bauman, loved to quote him.  The quote Dr.Bauman referred to by Chesteron reminded me of Piper's observations.  Chesterton wrote:  "I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do.  The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me; the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud."  
     Isn't it funny the things we remember?  Those words, especially "the unutterable muddiness of mud," have stuck with me all these long years.  I can't remember names of good friends or passwords or how to do the most basic function on my computer that my child has just explained to me... but I can still recall the way Chesterton's words resonated with me.   
     Perhaps that is one of the greatest delights of having children: rediscovering the wonder and "fierce pleasure in things being themselves."  A bubble, a bowl, a balloon, a bird, a bottle--each a cause for ceaseless celebration and careful observation.  And how sad when we lose that joy, that wonder in the ordinary: the remarkable, the ordinary--but actually miraculous for those with eyes to see--things and people placed in our paths.  They are infused with supernatural glory if we could but train our hearts to see behind each of them the God of all glory.  He is the God behind it all: the God of crimson sunsets, the God of leaping deer, the God of laughing friends, the God of singing streams, the God of waving tree branches, the God of baby smiles and coos, the God of symphony and song,  the God of sweet wrinkled faces of the aged, the God of water, fire, steel and  muddy mud.  
     And He is the God of a rough wooden cross and an empty stone tomb.
     What a God.  What a Creator.  What a Savior.  
     Rejoice in His creation.  Rejoice in His gifts.  Rejoice in Him.  In Him you will never lack for reasons to be amazed and to celebrate.  To God be the glory.  


     

The Logos

     "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son the Father, full of grace and truth."  (John 1:1,14)
     How many times have I written about these verses in the past few weeks?  And yet, I am drawn back to them again and again, like a moth to a flame.  Surely we cannot begin to exhaust their depth and mystery and richness and life-transforming beauty!  In our crazy busy, ever-changing world, He is the Alpha and Omega.  He truly is the beginning and the end.  And all the in-between.  All the little pieces of our often fractured lives come together in perfect wholeness in Him.
     The Greek word John used here for "Word" is "Logos."  But while many of us know that, what I didn't realize is that "Logos" in the Greek means "the reason for life."  What is the reason or purpose of life?  Why do you get up in the morning?  We all must have a purpose, an ultimate point to our lives or life truly does become one rushing madness toward an abyss of meaninglessness and hopelessness.  Tragically, how much of the world lives that very way--busy, constantly connected by phone or twitter or whatever the latest technology happens to be, ever seeking... but ultimately empty and striving after the wind.  I always think back to Sister Carrie, by Theodore Dreiser--at the end of the book, there she is: empty and endlessly rocking in her rocking chair by the window,  never content, never still, never satisfied.
     The Greek philosophical schools debated this very issue with great enthusiasm--what is the Logos--i.e. the purpose, the reason for life?  By Jesus' day, the prevailing wisdom at these Greek schools was that there was no Logos.  There simply was no ultimate purpose or reason for life.  Does that sound familiar?  Sort of like our day, wouldn't you say?
     And then the apostle John comes along and like a clarion call writes the astounding words: "In the beginning was the Logos"--in the beginning was the Reason for Life.. and the Reason for Life was with God and the Reason for Life was God... And the Reason for Life became flesh and dwelt among us.   The Reason for Life was not a concept or an idea or a philosophical construct.  The Logos, the reason for life was, and is, a Person!
     And that Person is God.  And He is the Beginning and the End.  And even though He is sovereign, omnipotent God, He became a man and dwelt among us and lived in our neighborhoods.  He ate food like we eat, suffered sickness like we suffer, endured temptation like we endure (only He never gave in and never sinned).  He laughed like we laugh and cried like we cry.  He enjoyed friendships and sunsets and family dinners and stories and shady trees in the hot sun, all like we enjoy.  He crawled and skipped and walked and ran and grew weary and slept just like we do.  
     And He, fully man, fully human, exactly like us, was and is God--the Logos, the Reason for Life.
     And we can know Him--the Reason for Life, the infinite eternal God--personally, fully, joyfully.
     And when we ask Him to be our Lord and Savior, He--the Logos, the Reason for all of Life--will come to live within us--redeeming us, sanctifying us, renewing us, strengthening us, transforming us.  Might we never get over the wonder, the astounding glorious truth, that the Logos, the Reason for our Life and all of Life, is the Lord Jesus.  He is Emmanuel, God with us, God in us, God for us, God before us, God behind us, God beside us, God--the Alpha and Omega.  Jesus--our beginning, our end, our in-between, our all in all.
     Today, might we rest in the security and the joy that Jesus, the Logos, is the Reason for Life, our Reason for Life.  Wherever we might go, He has already been.  Whatever we might face, He has already faced.  Whatever challenges we might encounter, He has already encountered and conquered them.. and He has all the answers.  Whatever temptations or sorrows or disappointments we might endure, He has already endured... and defeated and triumphed over resoundingly.  And in His mighty Name, in our Logos, we find our salvation, our hope, our joy, our peace, our power, our passion, our purpose.
     "And the Reason for Life became flesh and dwelt among us"--and His Name is Jesus.  Might we live in Him, our Logos, and bring Him glory in all we think and say and do and are.  To the Word, the Logos, the Reason for Life, be all the glory forever.

God or the gaps?

     "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of darkness, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
     So begins one of my favorite books, A Tale of Two Cities,  by one of my favorite authors, Charles Dickens.
     And how often do his brilliant words describe our world and our lives... and our days.  Or, for example, my day today.  We are all blessed beyond measure but yet we all face disappointments and struggles and sorrows.  Each and every day we can often say, "it is the best of times, it is the worst of times."  But the question is, where is our focus?  Are we focused upon our blessings and the God of all our blessings or are we fixated upon our limitations and failings and faults?
     How often I seem to brush past God's blessings and instead am preoccupied by life's bruisings.  All that I have can be lost in the little that I lack.  O forgive me Father!
     Today I grew so discouraged by all that I have to do and how far behind I am in about every area of my life: from laundry folding to Bible study to clutter patrol to training of children to various projects for school to... well, trust me, the list goes on and on. Sigh.  And when life gets overwhelming, it's so easy to grow worried and discouraged.   Surely the two most unproductive and unhelpful emotions we ever experience (and just as surely two that especially seem to assail us mothers--we worry about our children and grow discouraged about ourselves as moms).  Worry and discouragement--boy, they can ruin a perfectly beautiful day, can't they?  And suddenly that which was the "best of times" becomes, in an instant, the "worst of times."
     My husband shared with me something he had heard from Tim Keller--Worry is thinking that we know what we need and that God will somehow not come thru.  Amen!  Aren't we all prone to thinking that somehow, deep down, we really do have the best plan, and surely, if God really loves us, He will go along with and bless our plan.   We worry, however, that He will not bless our seemingly perfect plan or will not come thru in someway or that His plan is actually painful and disappointing and second (or third or fourth) best.  Perhaps we even wonder if God might be holding out on us.  But if we, if I, really love God and trust Him and recognize that He is the ONLY ONE with ALL the power, ALL the wisdom, ALL the ability, ALL the love, ALL the grace, ALL the knowledge then, of course, His plans will be best, pleasing and perfect.  Can I not trust Him and His ways?  I remember hearing a fellow share a long time ago that God's will is what we would choose IF we knew what God knew--i.e. God's will is what we would choose if we had ALL the facts.
     Let's face it, we don't have all the facts.  We just think or assume we do--but, boy, we don't.  Never have.  Never will.  That day won't arrive until we see Jesus face to face, so until that time, we have the choice: worry and wring our hands and live each day anxious and fretful or trust and rest in the peace that He has it all under control and His plans and ways are best.  Best for us, best for those we love.  That's where the rubber meets the road--trusting when we cannot see, trusting when we do not know or understand, but placing our trust in Him who is totally trustworthy and perfectly faithful.  Our faith is "the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
     I said it the other day, but to weaken the grip of worry, worship the God of glory.  Focus on Him and not on fretting or failings.  Thank Him for His manifold goodness in our lives rather than focusing upon the gaps in our lives.  And that's how we break the grip of discouragement as well-- faith and focus.  Faith in Him and His ultimately good and perfect plans, and focus upon Him and His daily and constant goodness and grace and glory in our lives.
      So today, I choose to focus on Him and His goodness rather than worry over the gaps.  We all have a ridiculous abundance of blessings for which to be thankful!  God's mercy and goodness and grace in my life exceeds anything I could ever begin to deserve or imagine.  Thank You, Lord for:
     -Salvation--to paraphrase Tim Keller, I am so so so much more sinful than I could imagine (and, O, how my sin and selfishness breaks my heart)  BUT I am so infinitely much more loved than I ever dared to hope or dream.  No words can describe the wonder and glory of His infinite, eternal, beautiful grace.
     -Grace--what can I say, I have to praise Him for it again and again!  May it be my song for all the days of my life.  And might His grace be reflected--by the power of He who lives within me--in my daily actions and attitudes.  More grace, Lord, more grace!
     -Family--grace again!  My husband, my 5 five precious children, my siblings, my parents, my legacy of faith from generations long passed.  Yesterday, we went to see my oldest daughter graduate from a Fellows program, and I wept in gratitude at the wonderful godly young woman she has become.  Thank You, Lord, for the incredible challenge and privilege and joy of being a mother.
     -Creation--beauty, wonder, glory!  The stunning blue sky, the startling green grass, the morning song of the mocking bird, the brilliant red cardinal, the cool morning air, the sweet scent of the honeysuckle, the peaceful evening chorus of the crickets, the flash of the lightening bug.  And we get to see and hear and smell it all day after day after day!  Priceless. Incredible.
     --Friends.  Church.  Sports and watching my children play and compete.  Reading.  Hot baths.  Hot tea.  Chocolate.  Finishing a task.  Hugs.  Laughter.  Dogs happily hanging out the windows of passing cars.  Hot water (we lost ours last week--whew, hot water is a blessing!).  Clean sheets.  Chocolate cake... or chocolate ice cream... or chocolate cookies.... hmm, I'm sensing a theme here.  Learning something new.  Walking in the fresh air with good old Moses.  Hearing the voice of a loved one.  Looking at old pictures of loved ones who have gone on to heaven.  Home.
     --Seeing the Savior's reflection in each and every blessing and whispering a grateful "Thanks."  Today, might we choose to focus upon God, not the gaps, and thank Him for the myriad blessings we have rather than the little we lack.  And to the God who's forever faithful and trustworthy, whose plans are perfect, and whose blessings are bountiful beyond all imagining, be all the glory.

Birds and Faithfulness

   
     Please say hello to the newest addition to our crew!  Moses, our old black lab, now has some fierce competition!  These little beauties are resting in a tiny nest snuggled in one of our hanging ferns on the little porch outside our kitchen door.  I need to add that this is the door we go in and out of all day long, and their mama truly couldn't have picked a busier spot anywhere outside our house.  They, however, seem utterly unfazed by the frenetic activity swirling around them--even when I stood on a chair and stuck my camera up there to take their picture.  I must add that this has been a bit hard on the fern, as we cannot water it for fear of scaring or drowning our new neighbors--but ferns can be replaced.  The joy of watching God's amazing creation up close is irreplaceable.
     We have absolutely loved hearing and watching them everyday, and we'll all be crushed on that sad day when it's time for them to fly off on their own (gee, sort of like our children, isn't it?  So hard to love  them so much and then lose them to the big, glorious world.).  We can hear them throughout the day chirping every time their hard-working mama comes back from foraging for food.  Their tiny cacophony of chirps periodically provides a joyous chorus to our kitchen.  What a beautiful sound God created in the songs of birds!   Lord, I have to agree--"It was good!"  And to watch these delicate creatures soar through the air and land lightly and perfectly on the slimmest edge of a brick or the leaf of a fern--wow, Lord it was awfully awfully good!
     Not only has their happy singing and chirping brought us much joy, but, there's just nothing like watching the mama bird coming back and forth, over and over again, to feed those three hungry mouths--uhh, well, I guess it would be beaks.  Here's how it goes down multiple times a day:  all is quiet on the western front, and then suddenly, we hear all kinds of excited chirping.   We (that would be whoever is home at the time--except Moses, who seems quite unimpressed) all rush to the window and watch three little beaks/mouths sticking straight up in the air.  All you can see above the leaves of the fern is their beaks/mouths opening and stretched impossibly wide and welcoming--ready for whatever delicacies mama has found for them.  Yum, I'm betting those worms or bugs or whatever it is taste mighty good.  I guess it's a small price to pay for being able to fly over the tree tops--I think I'd eat my weight in worms if I could soar or sing like that.
     As usual, I digress--sorry.
     Here's the thing, don't you wonder what those little guys think when mama disappears?  Their only source of food and comfort and security suddenly vanishes. Surely they have no earthly idea where she's gone.  Do they worry that she is never coming back? Do they fret that they just ate their last meal, and now they are on their own?  Do they talk amongst themselves--"We're in trouble now.  How are we going to find food when we can't even figure out how to get out of our nest?  I told you to ask her how she does it, but, noooo, you just live in a little dream world and now, here we are, all alone, helpless and hungry.  Nobody cares about us.  Mama doesn't love us or she would never leave us like this.  We're doomed... oops, wait wait, here she comes!!!  I just knew she would be back!  Right here, mama, right here!  Down the hatch--I'm hungry!  Feed me first!  No, me first, me first!"
     Do they bother to say thank you before she tirelessly flies off again to find more food for her brood?  I doubt it, but that doesn't deter her one bit.  She just keeps going and coming and feeding all day long, day after day.
     The Lord has so convicted me by our little bird family.  For are we not those little baby birds--waiting and watching for our Lord to feed us, to teach us, to help us, to do all for us that we could never ever do on our own?  Yet, do we wait patiently and faithfully and trustingly like those baby birds?  When He doesn't answer our prayers just the way we want Him to, how quickly and sinfully we can begin to doubt His love and faithfulness.   When He is seemingly silent, do we think He doesn't care or doesn't see or will not answer or act?
     O how faithless I am, Father, to doubt what I cannot see or do not feel!  Forgive me for the times I doubt Your love when You don't answer my prayers right on my selfish little time schedule.  Forgive us for failing to believe and know that You are doing a thousand different things in any and every situation that we cannot see and do not know.  For You are always always always at work, moving and active in our lives--like that mother bird.  Just because we cannot see You or feel You does not mean You are not orchestrating events behind the scenes in ways we cannot begin to imagine or hope in our wildest dreams. You are forever faithful, and when our hearts grow discouraged and fretful, might we counsel our wills to trust the One who proved His eternal love and faithfulness on the cross.  Might we go to the Word and be fed... feasting like those little open beaks on Your forever faithfulness and love and grace as revealed in Your love letter to us, the Word.  
     Jesus told His disciples "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouses nor barn, and yet God feeds them.  Of how much more value are you than the birds!  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?" (Luke 12:22-26)
     Why, indeed, are we anxious?  And when has your anxiety and fretting helped you or your loved one in any way whatsoever?  Maybe it's time to obey Jesus' words to consider the birds and recall God's faithfulness.
     And He also told them (and us): "Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies?  And not one of them is forgotten before God.  Why even the hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows." (Luke 12:6-7)
      Thank You for birds, Father.  Thank You for all You teach us through Your magnificent creation.  And if You never forget even one tiny insignificant sparrow--or a helpless little baby bird sitting in a nest outside our kitchen--how much more will You never ever ever forget or fail one of us.  You tell us not to fear, and You are faithful beyond all measure, loving beyond all reason, and gracious beyond all imagining.  I think three baby birds resting in a fern outside our window would sing of Your faithfulness, day after day after day.  And if they can sing, then surely mustn't I?  Mustn't you?  
     "Great is Thy faithfulness, O God our Father.  There is no shadow of turning with Thee.  Thou changes not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.  Great is Thy faithfulness!  Great is Thy faithfulness.  Morning by morning, new mercies I see.  All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.  Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!"
     When mama bird disappears, she will always come back... and with blessings and surprises in her wake.  And when Your Heavenly Father seems distant and prayers seem unanswered or hope shattered, trust, know that He is there.  He is moving and active and busy on your behalf, and one day you will see and know and rejoice fully at His glorious faithfulness.  As William Gurnall wrote nearly 400 years ago, "Behind the travail of every affliction is a blessing waiting to be born."  Because behind even the travail resides our loving, omnipotent, sovereign Savior.
     This week, whenever you see a bird, remember: Great is His faithfulness.  Say it out loud!  Let each bird you glimpse be God's tiny gift to remind you of His eternal loving faithfulness.  He will not fail you, not ever;  so feed on Him, and trust even when you cannot see.  To God be all the glory forever and ever.

The Light

     "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1)
     What profound, unsearchable words about The Word.  The beginning--the beginning before there was a beginning, before time and space.  Before days and hours and moments.  Before sun and light and air--God was and is, eternally present, eternally powerful, eternally the great I Am.  You just can't even put your mind around it, can you?
     When our minds are in turmoil or our world seems crazy, He is there, from the very beginning, from before the beginning, and He is here right this very moment. Whatever you are dealing with, wherever you are, He is here, He is there--perfect, present, powerful.  Not diminished one iota, not one bit weaker or less miraculously active and omnipotent than He was when He created the vast heavens and the miraculous earth.  Not one jot or tittle different or debilitated in any way from when He became flesh and dwelt among us and revealed God's glory to a desperate world. (John 1:14)
     He was and is and forever will be the Light of the World.  "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:4-5)  Have you noticed that even the tiniest, weakest light can overcome darkness?  Seriously, I was talking with one of my children about this the other day.  Even a flickering, faltering little candle when lit in a dark room chases back the darkness.  Sure, it may not light up the whole room, but when even the teensiest light is lit, darkness flees!  Darkness is mighty dark--it amazes me sometimes when we lose electricity how dark it really is.  But light a candle, turn on a flashlight, and that light overcomes the darkness.  Light will always overcome darkness... every single time.
     And He is the Light of the world that shines in a dark world, in our dark worlds, and the darkness will never ever overcome Him.  He proved that at the cross... and the empty tomb.
     So why do we live as if He cannot overcome the dark places in our lives?
     When I worry and wring my hands over whatever is currently occupying the dark places in my life, I'm forgetting who He is and what He has done and what He is doing and what He will do.  But if I will just allow His light to penetrate the darkness of my fear, of my pride, of my selfishness, well, then, darkness flees.  Christ will always prevail, for He is Lord, but we have to keep Him on the throne in our hearts and our lives. That means worshipping Him.  That means renewing our minds in the Word, His Word.  That means making much of Him rather than much of me and my little worries.
      To weaken the grip of worry, worship the God of glory.
      The more we magnify God, the more we minimize fear.
      And the more we focus upon how great our God is, the more we will experience His peace and hope and joy in glorious abundance.   The more we let in His light, for He is the Light and His Word is light, the more that darkness of fear--fear of failure, fear of pain, fear of loss--flees from our lives.  Sure, we and our loved ones will still fail.  We will still experience loss and pain.  But the fear, that deadly paralyzing enemy of fear, will be destroyed as the Light overwhelms it and gives us peace and power and joy in the midst of it all.
     I love what Ann Voscamp wrote: "Why be afraid of anything--when our God is using everything?"  Our God is sovereign and omnipotent, and everything, everything, everything passes through His all-powerful hands.  His nail-scarred hands of perfect love and grace.  So if He allows it, He will use it for our good and His glory.  And His light will overcome the darkness.  Well then, "why be afraid--when our God is using everything?!"
     Lord, help us this day to renew our minds in Your Word, for Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths.  (Ps.119:105) O how we need Your Light!  Light our paths, Lord.  Help us to trust You even when the way ahead seems dark.  Because You are there already and Your light will always always always overcome the darkness.  Might we this day weaken the grip of worry as we worship the God of glory.   And to the Light of the World, the God of glory, be all the glory.