Life on the Bumpy Road #1

It always amazes me how full our lives get. We live in a culture frantic to keep up with “The List,” the Joneses, our needs, the kids, the high expectations. After a mission trip to a very laid back culture in 2008, I became even more aware of how my personality and culture repeatedly drives me toward my calendar and steady doses of urgent matters.

I feel justified but frequently frustrated to find myself staying up late into the evenings because there are so many “worthy” and urgent things on my plate. You know what I mean. Your list looks different than mine but we all have one that challenges us. I have a child with severe disabilities, three teenagers and a graduation coming up, a husband prone to life-threatening infection due to a chronic health condition, a vulnerable back that requires me to make a simple work-out regimen a regular part of most days, a non-profit ministry to run, and our family is now into eight months of unemployment. For Larry and I, it’s a crazy pace to keep up.

I stumbled onto this verse the other day and it brought me, once again, a good reminder about where I place my priorities — and TRUST.

It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. PSALM 127:2

To me, this verse begs the question: “How much do you trust God, Lisa?”

It is good to be continually evaluating priorities and pruning out of my life anything that keeps me from bearing the best possible fruit. John 15 has been a great guide for me. Jesus said (with my emphasis):

“Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit….the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”

First and foremost, I must take time to remain firmly rooted in the relationship that anchors and nourishes me. Then I have to periodically cut some things loose or life just keeps adding more and more. A life without regular pruning is an unreasonable and undoable way to live.

God created the whole universe and life itself and then He RESTED. God provided enough manna for the Israelites in the desert each day for six days of the week but commanded them not to try to save any for the next day. He expected them to trust Him to supply enough, one day at a time. But on the last day of the week, he would give them enough for two days so that they could rest for a day. On every other day of the week, if they tried to save any manna, it would spoil by morning. But at the end of the week, God kept the manna fresh overnight so that they could stop gathering and just enjoy His provision and each other.

I suggest here that we’re all being stretched to consider how much we trust our God who repeatedly urges us to rest in Him and to take breaks from our toil. If we have our priorities straight and are working on them in a focused manner while plugged into a relationship with our Savior, has He not promised to honor our best effort and make that enough?

There will always be more work to be done, more time to be given to a worthy cause, more people to help, more emails to read and more great stuff to plug the kids into. I see marriages and families being ripped apart every day and the slow, subtle deterioration started, at least in part, because folks were so stretched doing good and valuable things like ministry and community service and countless activities for their kids while their marriages were getting the last dregs of their energy and passion. You know what? Satan LOVES that!

Let us receive the gift of rest from a holy God who is always sufficient — and we are not. He doesn’t allow us to be entirely self-sufficient because if we were, we wouldn’t need to trust in Him.

Do you trust Him enough to let some things go?

It's "Marriage Prayer Friday!"

By God’s design, marriages have the power to bear children. Sometimes those children are biologically born and sometimes they are spiritually born. Please join us today in praying for marriages that are spiritually fruitful.

A prayer for your own marriage—

FATHER GOD, thank you for the opportunities you have provided for my marriage to bear children in both physical and spiritual ways. Help me to never measure my own value by the number of children I have or by how well behaved my children are. Prevent me from parenting out of fear or pride about my children’s morality. Keep me focused squarely on what matters most, their relationship with You. Strengthen my marriage to be one that compels people — my children and others — toward deeper faith in Christ. AMEN

Something to pray for a friend's marriage—

FATHER GOD, thank you for creating marriage as Your instrument for bearing children in both physical and spiritual ways. Please help my married friends to make the spiritual health of their children of utmost importance. Keep them from any temptation to parent their children out of fear or pride. Strengthen my friends' relationships with their spouses so that their marriages compel people — their own children and others too — toward deeper faith in Christ. AMEN

Are you in the midst of a STORM?

On a bright, sunny Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem, whole-heartedly welcomed by the people and hailed as a conquering king.

Within a few days, He had been betrayed by one of His closest friends (and abandoned by the rest), handed over to authorities that trampled his rights under the weight of false testimony, subjected to beatings and torture that you and I cannot even begin to imagine, and killed in one of the most excruciating ways known to man—crucifixion. The clouds rolled in quickly to replace those clear skies, and in the end the darkness was almost overwhelming.

And I think I’ve had some bad weeks.

It amazes me how swiftly blue skies can turn to gray. Conditions that appear conducive to smooth sailing can rapidly deteriorate into squalls that bring wind and waves that would threaten to capsize us. The beautiful blue-green color of the spray becomes an angry grayish-black. What began as a comfortable ride is transformed into a hold-on-with-all-your-strength struggle of endurance.

Some of you know what I’m talking about. You’ve been there. You’ve experienced it.

Some of you are in the midst of it right now.

In John 16:33, Jesus told His disciples, “in this world you will have trouble.” We can see that trouble all around us—financial strain, unemployment, relationship struggles, illness, death…the list goes on and on. But Jesus completes His statement in that verse by saying, “but take heart! I have overcome the world.”

God wants us to know that whatever trials we are facing, whatever trouble we are experiencing, He can get us through. For as quickly as the triumphal entry of Palm Sunday gave way to the seemingly-utter defeat of the cross on Good Friday, so too did that despair turn full-circle into Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday, His ultimate victory over sin and death. He is risen for me, and He is risen for you.

For those of you who don’t know what it is to put your trust in Jesus, Lisa and I would love to explore what the Bible says with you and share about how Jesus is working in our lives.

For those of you in the midst of the storm, we and friends at Walk Right In Ministries offer to be Walking Partners with you. We have experienced many of the hardships of life ourselves and have walked with a large number of people to support them and help them to see how God is working even in the trials of our lives.

Please don’t hesitate to share your story and/or prayer request with us. You can email us at prayer@walkrightin.org.

As the clouds gather and the darkness builds, don’t lose hope. Just as Jesus is there for you in the sunshine, He is there for you in the rain. “But take heart! I have overcome the world!”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. JOHN 3:16