Open My Eyes

Where better to turn on the journey for an attitude of gratitude, than to explore the road on the border between Samaria and Galilee and see firsthand, Jesus’ interaction with a group of ten lepers.  This was an unlikely group of people comprised of both Galileans and a Samaritan.  Even though “nothing good came out of Galilee,” Samaritans were despicable.  Not even a Galilean would have anything to do with a Samaritan.  But, leprosy held no prejudices, and disease like this had a tendency to unite the unlikely. 

I can’t imagine the toll leprosy took on a human: the pain, the emotional tsunami, the despair, the loneliness, the poverty, the confusion, the condemnation, the rejection...  Lepers were the untouchable, the unclean, the excluded, the ignored, and the “outcast.”  As hard as that had to be, here’s the “doozy”:  Leprosy was illegal. Yeah, it was “against the law” to be leprous. Seriously. I can’t conceive of being struck with a disease that I could do nothing about and immediately declared “GUILTY (as if I had committed a crime)!”  How do I know?  In verse 14, of chapter 17 (Luke’s gospel), these words are used “they were cleansed.”  The Greek word, which we translate cleansed, meant “made clean,” but it came from a root word that literally implied that they were “made lawful.”  You can’t be made lawful, unless you are first and foremost lawless.  Being a leper meant you were all of the above.  These men needed MERCY - in a BIG WAY!

So, they came to Jesus as he passed through the region. Hoping against hope...  Dreaming of possibilities... Minds whirling with the “what ifs...”  Oh, the compassion of Jesus!  He took one look at them, and said, “Go... to the priests.”  Please take note of this fact:  Jesus said nothing about being healed.  At that very moment the ten saw no evidence of their healing, but they must have had some element of faith, because they went.  “And it came about as they were going; they were cleansed (vs. 14).” 

Healing often comes that way – as we are going, and in spite of how we feel, regardless of what we see, and apart from what we think we know.  As we listen to the voice of Jesus, the possible becomes real. When did they see their healing?  For one, it appears immediate.  The others may have noticed, but didn’t really have their eyes fully opened.  If they had, all ten would have turned back in gratitude.  As it was, only one of the ten, in the midst of ecstatic, mind-blowing, life-altering transformation came back to Jesus, glorifying God with a loud voice...

...and he fell on his face at his feet giving thanks to Him, and he was a Samaritan (vs 16).

This one verse tells me a lot.  The more we recognize our condition without Jesus’ touch, the more grateful we are when we receive it.  The Samaritan was doubly outcast.  For the Jews in the group, there was a little element of “entitlement.”  Secondly, what does it say in general about our ability to be genuinely thankful?  Could it be that only 10% of us truly have our eyes fully opened to our blessings?  It’s caused me to examine myself...and as George Herbert once prayed, so I echo, “Lord, you have given me so many blessings, now I ask for one more thing...a heart of gratitude.”  Open my eyes, Lord, make me fully thankful!  May it be so – Amen & Amen!

In His Presence

I found myself reflecting this week on a season of near revival in the church I attended so long ago.  I remembered the desire to be in the building, for long hours, way into the night (I, now, have deep admiration for the nursery workers), because none of us wanted to miss the possibility that God just might step down in full glory.  Not only did we show up on Sunday morning and Sunday night, but I remember coming to church, and being excited about going, at very random times.  What a season of worship – real worship, heart rending praise and worship.  What a time of vulnerability, brokenness, confession, and restoration.  What sharing of testimonies of thanksgiving.   There is no question that God’s Spirit was present.  I had never sensed anything like it, nor have I since.  In many ways, I cannot describe or define what took place.  It was, in the true sense of an over-used word, AWESOME!

Yet, as I’ve pondered the “why” of that time, two key pieces stand out.  The first key piece could only be explained as being in an environment of grace that gave us permission to be real and messy...in order to find absolute forgiveness and renewal.  The second key piece I attribute to grateful hearts.  Again, as I’ve reflected, some key passages spill into my thoughts. 

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving (Psalm 95:2).

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him... (Psalm 100:4)

In 2 Samuel 6, King David ushered in the presence of the Lord, as represented by the Ark of the Covenant, with jubilant, unashamed, thanksgiving.

In 2 Chronicles 5, just prior to the “glory of the Lord” filling the newly constructed temple, we find the people of God sacrificing, praising, and giving thanks...

There’s a definite theme that precedes the revealed presence of God in the lives of His people:  THANKSGIVING.

Life Lesson – short and sweet:  The surest way to usher myself into the revealed presence of God is in heartfelt celebration, offering up a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

...and, there is nothing I want more than to sense his nearness! 

Perpetual Broken-heartedness

This morning, I picked up the little book of Puritan Prayers, Valley of Vision. I have loved the prayers in this book!  However, today I stopped after reading these words:  “Give me perpetual broken-heartedness.  Keep me always clinging to Thy cross.” 

Certainly you understand why I quit reading.  Perpetual broken-heartedness?  Really?  Forgive my lack of spirituality, but I don’t really want to sign up for this.  I’ll make some justification in my defense.

This past fall, I went to see my doctor (hurray for insurance!), who turned around and sent me to the E.R.  I had been experiencing a little pressure in my chest and after a preliminary EKG, my doc thought I might be on the verge of a heart attack.  The good news is that following 36-hours in the hospital (by the way, the secret to quick attention in an ER is to complain of chest pains) they released me with a normally functioning, and beating, heart.  However, the uncomfortable tightness remained, so I had to see a cardiologist for more testing.  Again – bottom line is that while the inner workings of my heart looked great (other than my potassium levels being a bit low, which can mimic a heart attack), physically I was fine.  (There is a “but” to follow...) BUT, after exploring life-events of my past three years (several significant events, by the way), my cardiologist explained that Mayo has recently identified what they term BHS:  broken-heart syndrome.   You can actually Google this term, if you don’t believe me.  BHS is real.  It is uncomfortable.  It causes me to be short of breath.  I don’t like who I am and how I react when I don’t feel well.  Daily, I’m very aware life isn’t “normal” where my health is concerned; but, it will eventually go away on its own.  Over the last four months, I have requested from the Lord (pretty regularly) to take it away.

So, when I read the words of the above prayer, there is a very personal slant on them.  I don’t want this perpetual syndrome.  My focus landed on that first sentence, and I forced my mind to look at the part "B":  Keep me always clinging to Thy cross.  Those words remind me of David’s words:  It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your instructions (Ps 119:71)...  There is no question in my mind, the “good” of my affliction is exactly that I have not only clung to the cross of Christ – the symbol of his great grace and mercy –  but I have searched and found his words to be the source of my daily strength and hope.  So, in spite of my prayers for deliverance, I see a higher good coming out of the broken-heart:  cross-clinging-dependence.  In my journey toward gratitude, this is reason enough for the giving of thanks – yes, even for the very thing that is most uncomfortable. 

If so, then to the cross I choose to cling - for there is my true source of full life, even in the face of my weakness.  There at the cross, in the cross, for the cross, and under the cross is some purpose complete, not for my sake, but His.

To keep me from becoming conceited...there was given me a thorn in the flesh...three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  This is why, for Chris’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties...

2 Cor. 12:7-10

A New Song

I will sing a new song to you, O God...to the One who gives victory...

(Psalm 144:9a, 10a)

As is my new habit, I went running this morning.  However, along the way, in spite of the music pumping through my ear phones, the song of a bird melted away what I was hearing.  As I looked around to see where it was coming from, I took note that the little guy was perched on top a saguaro.  In spite of the prickles, his little beak was lifted to the sky and his song rang clear and true.  His was obviously a song of trust (even if I didn't understand his words).  So, without any prodding, I stopped running and snapped a picture on my phone.

That's about the time, I had a thought.  So, here it is:  why am I not more like this little cactus wren when I'm in the midst of the saguaros of life, and feeling the prickles of problems attacking me?  King David learned how.  As I read Psalm 144, I recognized that he was still singing, even though the mighty waters of deceit were threatening to overwhelm him.  He sang a new song even though people attacked him on all sides.  His was a song of trust, a song of deliverance...even before the delivery came, because he trusted in the One who gives victory!

In Psalm 144, verse 8, David said this, "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you."  As I started running once again, I noticed the words to the song this little cactus wren had drowned out - words from Mercy Me's, Spoken For.  Let me share them with you:

Covered by your love divine

Child of the risen Lord...

To hear you say, "This one's mine!"

My heart is spoken for!

Even to me, this morning, God  brought me word of his unfailing love...I am his; my heart is spoken for!  I have a new song to sing at the top of the cactus when life is the prickliest!  I have much to be thankful for...

Where Gratitude Begins...

I jotted down the following quote this week.  I don't know who said it, or even where I found it.  Perhaps it was on someone's FaceBook page, among the many pearls of wisdom I read (and some not so gem-like).  Oh, here's the quote:  Gratitude begins where entitlement ends. 

I didn't like that quote.  Pondering it made me think of how "ungrateful" I can be, as there are times when I think I deserve something that I don't get, and that sense of entitlement leaves me spiraling downward.  Immediately the following scenario came to mind.  I just boarded the plane home after a weekend of speaking - a GREAT WEEKEND.  God had moved.  I settled into my bulkhead seat, grateful for a little stretchy-room.  Though the doors had not closed, everyone seemed to be aboard.  The seat next to me was open, and the excitement grew that I could stretch out and maybe sleep a bit. The word describing me that morning - tired!  I started to close my eyes and sensed some movement.  A very bulky gentleman arrived and moved into the seat next to me.  When I say very bulky, I mean, he had to put up the arm rest between us, and his right leg took up 1/2 my seat, as well as his, because he couldn't fit otherwise.  As I readjusted myself in my seat, my attitude also readjusted, but in a negative direction.  Not only did I not get to spread out, I really had to scrunch.  Not only did I not have extra room, I didn't even have the space for which I had paid...and every time the stewardess walked by, the cart hit my arm.  Instead of seeing this as an "opportunity" to give thanks for the flight carrying me home, or the great weekend past, or a friend-yet-to-meet, I turned the flight into the ride-from-down-under.  As Yoda would say, "Miserable I was..."  The bad attitude didn't just affect me emotionally, it affected me physically: headache, tight muscles, exhaustion...  I thought I deserved more...

Read carefully these words from the Psalmist:

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High; to declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness by night...for Thou hast made me glad by what Thou hast done (Ps 92:1-2, 4).

I just want to focus on the word "good."  In the Hebrew the word translated good, also incorporates the following translations: well-pleasing, appealing, pleasing to the senses, useful, profitable, a general sense of well-being and happiness.  Stick those words in that verse and ponder.  Do you, like me, ever find yourself in life-events that start you on the downward spiral, which, then, affects you mentally, emotionally, and physically?  You just seem to live there in that place of frustration?  The soul-medicine, the road to well-being, and the journey upward to happiness and peace is to find the road sign that takes you on a detour of THANKSGIVING.  Nothing is more personally profitable than taking that detour, when life sticks a roadblock in the way.

Indeed, the problem begins when I think I deserve something.  Certainly, I paid for an entire seat.  Certainly, I didn't get my whole seat.  Yet...on this side of that ride, I made the flight much more miserable than it could have been.  It was my choice, my sense of entitlement, that kept me from finding true joy and peace, in spite of...  Life just happens...but I have a choice how I am affected by it.

A Woman of One Thing

As the New Year unfolded, I was challenged anew, with Jesus’ instruction to Martha (I am a Martha) in Luke 10:41-42:

Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things (who me?); but only one thing is necessary (really only One!), and Mary has chosen that one…

(italics are either my words or my emphasis).

The message I’ve taken away after yet another reading of this story (who hasn’t read the story of Mary and Martha a kazillion times?) is the concept of one thing.  I am ADHD enough to have a number of thoughts floating around my brain at any given time, and, as shocking as it may be to you, this Christian worries and is bothered about many things (true confession).  Not all the time, mind you, but it’s significant enough to be a problem. 

I want to be a woman of one thing.  I have wanted to be ever since reading this story the first time.  Mostly, like Mary, I want to find peace and calm at the feet of Jesus.  Yet, that’s not my take away from this story, this time.  I really sensed the Lord asking me to prayerfully consider one word, one concept, one over-arching theme to develop and focus on in my own walk with Him.  That’s not easy to do.  I have prayerfully contemplated this for weeks.

As I reflected, a repetitive theme from 2011 emerged.  For the past nine months, I’ve been reading the Psalms slowly and very conscientiously.   Do you know how many times I have read the words, “Give thanks to the Lord…”  A lot!  On top of that, it seems every time I read those words, it was right in the middle of a time of struggle.  Not an easy concept to do at those times…  Then, I read a book in which I read something to this effect, “The problem with the American church is that we’ve become consumers of the church, not committed partners.  Our biggest hurdle to overcome is our sense of entitlement.”  The cure for entitlement:  gratitude.  I read another book and the theme of this one was that we, as followers of Christ, have become so self-centered, we are no longer others focused.  Self-centeredness has three key components:  pride, foolishness, and greed.  The one component, greed, is overcome by, yes, gratitude.  A third book was given to me, and every chapter was on giving thanks…  So there’s my word for 2012:  gratitude.  For a while at least, I want to focus on the giving of thanks. 

So, I challenge you.  If God were to ask you to become a woman focused on one thing in 2012, what would be your word?  I’d love to hear it!  I might borrow it in 2013!

Another New Year Thought

I’m afraid I’m still in a New-Year –reflection-mode... and still working on that action plan that we talked about last week.  This morning I read through Psalm 145.  From David’s pen, I formed a spiritual roadmap for 2012.  I thought I’d share this plan just to give you something to chew on through this week.  David gives us four items to focus on.  Four is a good number:  not too many things that cause me to be overwhelmed, but not too few that I’m not challenged.  At the end of 2012, I want to come back and ask myself if I accomplished these, and if I did how they impacted my life.  Because I have a feeling that if I make these a regular Monday to Friday/Saturday/Sunday thing, I’ll be the one transformed.   Isn’t this what we’re about?  Being transformed by the truth.  I want to keep growing; keep looking more and more like Jesus and less and less like Peg.  Obviously, you don’t have to make my action plan your own, I just wanted to throw these “thoughts” out there...

To begin, please take a few minutes to read Psalm 145:1-13.  Here are David’s items that he proposes working toward.  He says he will (the word “will” indicates intentionality):

1)      Extol the Lord, and bless His name daily.  David intentionally plans to meditate on who His God is (vv. 1-3).  What a tremendous goal to spend a little time each day focusing on your God.  There are some great books available to help if you want them...

2)      Speak of God’s works and declare His mighty acts to OTHER GENERATIONS (vv.4-7).  As we talk about God-stories, His work in our life and in the lives of others, the ground for growth is fertilized for faith to develop.  As a mom, and a grand-mother, I long for others to come alongside of those I love, and share God’s might, His faithfulness, His sovereignty, His grace, His action on our behalf...  It might even be someone from an older generation who needs to hear...  Make it part of your plan to share God-stories with others from all generations.

3)      Thank God for His grace and goodness in your life (vv.8-10)  - #1 is about WHO HE IS; #2 is about WHAT HE’S DONE.

4)      Share of God’s Kingdom – His rule and reign right now on earth, but also the Kingdom to come.  God’s Kingdom is eternal...I pray I can share that Kingdom and bring as many as possible into it with me.  It’s one great place (vv.11-13)