Summer School

School may be out, but I've learned a thing or two this summer.  For instance...

Don't stare a big hairy goal in the face.  
It's too intimidating.  Check it out one little piece at a time.  Look at the toes first, then the ankle bone, and before you know it you're at the elbow and the arm pit. (All strange, funny parts that are interesting in unexpected ways.)  That's been my approach for reading every book of the Bible (something I started long ago, but am determined to finish this year).  I'm 73% percent done, and God is teaching me so much about perseverance in the process.

via YoungCatholicWomen.com

Embrace interruptions.  
They come bearing gifts.  Like giggles and hugs.  Heart to heart talks.  Job opportunities.  Glimpses of God.  And my eight-year-old's new love of cribbage, which floods me with memories of playing cards with my grandpa.  The laundry can always wait.

from Whimsy Studios

Check your laundry hoses every five years.
When they go, they go big and they go badly.  A week ago our hot water laundry hose ruptured.  Water sprayed all over the laundry room.  Which, when you are upstairs in bed after a long summer day, sounds just like the washer tub filling.  Which, by the time you find it at 6:57 the next morning, looks like three inches of standing water in the basement.  Which, in your groggy, disbelieving, pre-coffee-stimulated brain, makes you wonder why the previous owners' moved the laundry room to the opposite side of the basement from the floor drain.  It's kind of funny how thousands of dollars of damage and a week (and counting) of inconvenience can be avoided with a $28 pair of braided hoses and five minutes of labor.  

When crisis makes you crazy, pray.
I can handle the flood, the mess, the little bits of loss.  But it's the interminable noise of the 11 industrial fans that has been pushing me over the edge.  That and some pre-menopausal hormonal hullaballoo.  
I am so glad for digital, visual reminders that God is on standby, waiting for my prayers, waiting to carry me through crazy times.

from Lee Younger

from BornToMakeAnImpact@tumblr

I am so glad I can unload my burdens on God, then reload with his saving grace, all in a few prayerful moments.  And when God answers with a neighbor coming by to swoop up two bored and whining kids... Aaaaahhhh.  He IS so very good!

Seek the silver lining.
In response to the aforementioned basement flood, I am so grateful for plastic storage tubs, for shelving units 4" off the floor, for hard wood furniture that doesn't wick up moisture, and for the opportunity to purge our collection of stuff.  We didn't lose much that truly mattered.  And we have so much that many people don't ever get to take for granted.  Running water.  A sturdy roof over our heads.  An abundance of towels.  Helpful family and friends.  The list is endless...

via CreativeTryals.blogspot.com

Thank you, God, for giving me a teachable heart.  And a dry basement.  And inspiration all around. Amen.

I'm linking up with Emily at Chatting at the Sky today.  She is one big slice of my inspiration pie.

When Focus Fades

Did you notice my obsessed ambitious 2013 Bible Reading Plan?

You'd think someone who would go so far as to post her Bible reading plan and a geeky bar chart documenting her progress would be committed to the goal.  Unflagging in her enthusiasm.  Persistent in her follow through.  You'd think she'd probably make it at least six months before any temptations of deep-sixing said goal crossed her mind.

You'd think wrong.

Week three of daily Bible reading and exploring the lesser-read Old Testament texts, and I am flailing.  My focus on being present with God, in his word... it's become rather blurry.

Every day I am tempted by The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest and The Cursing Mommy's Book of Days to push aside my Bible and indulge in more frivolous reading. 

What's a person to do when focus fades?

Pray.
This is where I take a page from Paul's epistle and another from Anne Lammott's book.  "Oh, Lord.  I do those things I don't want to do.  And I don't do the things I aim to do.  Help me, help me, help me get my God-loving focus back."  It's the prayer of admitting I can't do it alone, that I need God's help.
 
Persist.
As it is written in James 1:2-3, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."  If we don't give up but give God the chance to refine our efforts and habits, then our faith can grow.  So I add another prayer: "God, help me to persevere, to push through the hard parts, and to find the joy in the challenge and the promise of a stronger faith beyond it."

Go Public.
God surrounds us with a cloud of witnesses, not to document our shortcomings and botched attempts, but to carry us through life's hard parts and celebrate life's victories with us.  The Big Guy in the Sky reminds me, when I'm tempted to stray away from his word, that there are 15 people who occasionally tune in to my bloggy blathering.  Fifteen people who might actually ask, "Hey, how's that Bible reading going?"  Fifteen people with whom to share glimmers of his goodness whether I succeed or stumble on this journey through Scripture.  A cloud of witnesses to carry me through.

(Perhaps your cloud isn't in the electronic cloud.  They can be family.  Friends.  Neighbors.  Your personal Board of Directors.  The point is invite them along on your journey and allow God to work his wonders through them.)

So with prayers, persistence, and a smidgen of the public invisibly watching over my shoulder, I settled in to read Joshua this morning.  That's when this little nugget grabbed me. 

"Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy."  And Joshua did so.
Joshua 5:15

That's how God made his presence known, when he made sure persistence paid off.

"The place where you stand, dear Liz, is holy."

Huh?  I've been procrastinating and unfocused and flailing.  How is that holy ground?

I swear I heard God clear his throat.  "Ahem."  Soft and patient, yet pointed.  Okay, so possibly that was my dog trying to cough up a fur ball.  But let's not rule out the mysterious ways in which God works.

"Ahem."

As in, "Dear Liz, it is not your work or your effort that makes the ground holy."

In fact, it's not until I strip away my stuff — my sandals, my socks, my insecurities and frustrations about my mistakes — that I can see God's holiness in my midst.

When I'm all caught up in reading the Bible to satisfy my goal, of course I'm going to lose focus.  First off, I'm forgetting that it's the Spirit who led me down this reading path.  Second, I'm stuck in a "to do" mentality before I even open the Bible.  How can God get through when I'm focused on getting done?  

So here's the lesson I've learned:  When focus fades, let go and let God take over.  Shed the earthly shoes that drag me down crooked paths, and let God make my path straight.  Because when I let him, he always leads me to his holy ground.


I pray that you find some time to focus on God today.  May he fill you with prayer, persistence, and a cloud of witnesses to get you where you need to be spiritually.  May he help you shed your earthly distractions so you can see him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly.

Lent of Living Water

We're a week into Lent. 

Already I feel weak.

I hunger to perfect Lent, to find the most fulfilling way to walk to the cross with Jesus.  I want that closeness with God.  I thirst.

So I have ditched the Diet Coke addiction.  (Coffee, you are safe.  For now...)  I am getting back to drinking more water.  And with every sip of that clean, pure liquid, I am asking God to clean me.  Purify me.  As only he can. 

As I sip this earthly element, I try to immerse myself in God's living water, his living word.  This month it is the promises of Genesis.  This Lent it is the Good News of Mark.  This week it is the compassion of 2 Corinthians.

Source: bing.com via Liz on Pinterest

I bounce around a bit, between Old and New Testaments.  I bounce over the words, searching for the ones that grab my heart, soothe my soul.  

Some days they do.

Today they don't.  

I feel the lack.  I feel my weakness.  Frustration creeps in and crumples my hope.

I have a choice: steep in this stagnation or wait on the word.  Bitterness or patience.  Oh, God, give me the patience.  Help me to find a foothold in your better way.  Fill me with trust that you will transform me in your perfect timing. 

Because Lent is not about me perfecting an earthly habit.  It is about me trusting God's perfect and heavenly plan.  My Lenten habit — your Lenten habit — is only a petition, a platform, for God to do his work in us.  Some days we will try and in the trying we will see God.  Some days we will try but our search will be cloudy.  And other days we will forget.  Fail.  Fall.  But every day God is there to pick us up, to hold us, to help us. 

And when I realize that, that is when an old verse, tucked away in a corner of my mind comes to the surface. 

Psalm 43:5

Why be downcast?  Why be disturbed?  Let those feelings fall away.  Instead, lean into the Lord.  "Put your hope in God."  Relax in his loving hold, his gracious help.  

Today the word was not where I was looking, but where God had planted it.  Just when I give up to weakness, God gives his grace.  That is what I learn from Lent, each and every year.  Because at the end of the twisting, rocky path, there is the glory of Easter morn.

May God's help and hope lead us all the way to the cross.

29 | Making Ends Meet

Something interesting happens when you commit to praying publicly for 31 days.  You start to run out of ideas.  Sure, God doesn't mind if I pray about the same thing over and over again, but you, dear reader, just might!  So if you have a pressing concern pressing on your heart, pass along your prayer request.  I've got three more prayers to go and only one idea brewing...

Dear Lord, 

There seems to be a theme threaded through my October and my year:  making ends meet.  It's a common refrain in our household budget discussions.  It comes up frequently in conversations with close friends.  It's a popular topic throughout the media.  Sometimes I simply want to escape financial responsibility, ignore it, bury my head in the sand.

It's hard, this making ends meet.  It's a heavy weight to bear.  But bear it, we do, Mr. and I.  We are in an okay, albeit tight and careful, place.  For that I am grateful.  Help me to keep that positive perspective.  Help me to be resilient and creative when it comes to managing our resources.  Help me continue to be a cheerful giver, remembering the widow giving her last two coins out of enthusiastic faith and deep, abiding trust.

But that's not what this prayer is really about.  Today I want to lift up all those who have it harder.  God, help out:

• Friends who have taken financial and personal risks to start new businesses they are passionate about.  Bring them customers, clients, and lots of encouragement.  
• Friends who are in transition — between jobs with no assurance what the next job is, or between careers with slim opportunities in the chosen new career.  Give them faith when limbo looms large; give them trust in your answers and your timing.  
• Parents torn between wanting to stay at home with their children but facing the financial need to work outside the home.  Grant them discernment and wisdom to see the best options for their families, and peace with the decisions they make.  
• Friends stuck in homes they struggle to afford, friends struggling to sell their homes in a sluggish market.  Give them patience, perseverance, and a path to smoother finances. 
• Friends burdened with debts that erode their income with interest and their souls with gnawing, nagging worries.  Lift up their heavy hearts, and help them see a way out of their financial struggles.

Lord, you are with us always, in calm waters and storm-torn seas.  Thanks for sticking by us in the struggles we face.  Please do whatever you can for those in dire financial straits.  Give them comfort and peace, resources where they thought they had run dry, and hope for a brighter tomorrow. 

Amen.

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

Philippians 4:19 (ESV)

May you see God's generous supply for all your needs today and every day.