Fix Your Eyes

I've shared before that I struggle from motion sickness.  Really.  Bad.  Motion sickness.  My stomach turns a little even as I write those words. It's always been a problem for me, but it has gotten worse as I get older. I've tried everything to remedy it, but it appears to not be going away.

While I can't make it better, I certainly know how to make it worse.  Coffee, for one, seems to aggravate my stomach.  Whenever I fly or prepare for a long road trip, I try to avoid coffee.  That, of course, is difficult because those seem to be the days I need it the most. Fortunately, there are other sources of caffeine.

I've also learned that I can't look down, especially in the car.  I have about a ten second window that I can look down (if I'm not driving) at phone or GPS device.  After that, forget it!  Reading in the car? No way.  I'd die.

Ok, maybe I wouldn't die, but I'd be miserable.

I've learned to keep my eyes set on what is before me.

The writer of Hebrews uses a similar concept to encourage the early believers in their faith.  He writes:

Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, NASB).

I'm the tall caveman in the back.

Running? I've done some, but I haven't received any formal training.  However, dancing is another story. It surprises a lot of people that I was a dancer in high school.  I knew I was never going to be a professional dancer, but for the most part I was able to do what I was expected to do. I knew what I could and what I could not do.

I always struggled with the pirouette. I could fake it, but I couldn't master it. That whole "pick something to focus on" trick that they teach you, I understood it conceptually but it didn't seem to do much to help me. I'd start with my eyes focused on something, but the spin would make it hard to find it again. I knew what I was supposed to do, but it never got easier.  I do one turn, but never two.

With my faith, too, I am at first easily focused. Then life spins me around and I've lost all sense of direction. Where'd my mark go? Was that one spin or two? Why am I so disoriented? It's not supposed to be this hard, is it?

Friend, yes.  Life is hard. I can't say it enough.  I wish someone had sat down with me when I was younger and explained to me that, though things change, they never get easy.  At least, not the kind of easy we expect.

We need to continue learning to look only at Jesus because life will never stop spinning us around.

Bailout

With the American economy in the toilet (and, honestly, a good portion of the global economy), I reached into my file of "Random Things That I Probably Should Have Thrown Away A Long Time Ago" to share with you some thoughts I had last time we had a government bailout. There are lots of strong opinions floating around on the CARES Act, and there are also lot of strong opinions on whether there will (or should) be a second round of stimulus checks. This post is indifferent to the political nature of any bailout. Just have some fun with my theology. What else do we have to do these days?

Reason Why Jesus is Better than Any Bailout

• The bailout is meant, largely, to preserve personal wealth and our global economy. But God gives us "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4).
• Some say that the bailouts represent a fundamental shift in the way the U.S. economy works. Fortunately, we're taught, that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
• The "Bush Bailout" was supposed to fix our problems, and didn't. The "Obama Bailout" was supposed to fix our problems. The first bailout under Trump didn't either.  It leaves Average Joe asking how many bailouts will it take? But Scripture tells us Jesus saved us the first time: "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
• Everything our government is discussing is only conjecture because we have never before had an economy like we are experiencing now, but our Savior is the same One who created the universe. He has told us: " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future' " (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV).

And there you have it.

My goodness, I need to get out of my house for a while.  And soon...

FMF: People

So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God.

For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors,

just as God did after creating the world.

So let us do our best to enter that rest.

But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.
(Hebrews 4:9-11, NLT)

I don't often think about Sabbath as a gift, much less a special gift.  I usually think about it as another obligation.  I have to rest today.  Will God be upset if I wash laundry?  How full can I fill the sink with dirty dishes before God will not care if I wash them?  It's nonsense, and it's the wrong perspective.

The book of Hebrews gives me a better perspective, the right perspective on Sabbath.  Yes, God wants us to rest from our labor.  If you have kids or know young kids, you may have seen a child so tired that when trying to put him down for a nap, he throws a fit, crying, "I'm not tired."  The grown up knows the truth even when the child does not.  Sometimes we are those children, and God is our Father trying to get us to stop for a moment for rest.

But Sabbath is a special gift.  It is one day a week when we collectively stop and practice Heaven.  We remember "the special rest that is still waiting for the people of God."  When you think about it that way, I feel especially foolish for the way I've negotiated my rest.  It's like I'm asking God, is this enough Heaven?  No, I want all the Heaven I can get.  I want access to God, quality time with Him.

We have learned to labor; Lord, help your people to practice rest.

This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

FMF: Now

My pastor closes his sermons with this benediction:

"Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (Hebrews 13:20-21 NIV).

At first I thought it was a strange selection. It sounded to scholarly. Who uses words like "equip" in everyday conversation? Most don't, but the writer of Hebrews did. As I continued to hear these words week after week, I realized how appropriate they are.

I want the GOD OF PEACE to EQUIP ME WITH EVERYTHING GOOD FOR DOING HIS WILL.  What better blessing is there to give to people?

I am just one of the sheep, and JESUS is THE GREAT SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. He guides me, protects me, and provides for me.

I want God to WORK IN US WHAT IS PLEASING TO HIM. It doesn't matter what is pleasing to me.  Ultimately, I live as Christ's representative, so what he wants is what I want.

I can only do these things THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, and he deserves GLORY FOR EVER AND EVER. None of this is about me.  Or, at least, none of this should be about me.  Help me, God, when I lose track of You.

AMEN.

This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.

You Complete Me

Last night my husband and I sat down to watch a movie together. As we started scrolling through Netflix, a movie caught his eye. "Jerry Maguire," he said, "let's watch that."

It had been many years since either of us had watched that movie. I remembered the story, but not the details: A sports agent gets fired from his job for wanting a more personal relationship with his clients, and an account leaves the company to work with him. He doesn't love her, but they get married. She comes to see the situation for what it is and releases him from the commitment he made. Eventually, he realizes he does, in fact, love her. In the final scene of the movie, he confesses his love to her with the words she'd been waiting to here. You complete me.

My husband and I are not sappy romantics.  We both rolled our eyes and giggled when we heard those words. However, the sentiment is truer than I'd like to admit.

First, God calls us to be one with Him:

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30, NIV)

Second, God calls us to be one with our spouse:

So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man." That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. (Genesis 2:21-24, NIV)

Third, God calls us to be one with other believers:

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40, NIV)

In all these areas I struggle to give up my desires so that I can do my part for the other. However, God will continue to help me grow as I continue to seek His will in my life.

FMF: Tomorrow

In these days, more than our current generation can recall, we recognize the uncertainty of tomorrow. There has never been a guarantee that things will happen a certain (excepting if God so desires), and man's will has never been able to deliver an outcome. But that's ok. That's how it is. We have known this for a long time, even if it has never seemed so. The Bible says:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” (James 4:13-15, NASB)

Prosperity and comfort give the illusion of certainty. When we are well invested, our finances feel certain. When we are well employed, our provision seems certain. When we own a home, our shelter seems certain. These are just molecules in the vapor of our lives. They freeze in the cold and evaporate in the heat. Eventually they are nothing.

We ought to, instead, put our faith in the God who was, is, and always will be (Revelation 1:8). He does not change (James 1:17). He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He has plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11), and so let us trust Him for them and take part in them.



This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.