Impossible

My daily devotional reminded me today that, "We have a God who specializes in impossibilities. His power is greater than our problems, our difficulties, our crises, our emergencies, our reverses" (Mendell Taylor's Every Day with the Psalms).

Today feels like a day of impossibility, and so I must proclaim that I need God.

Today may be a day of impossibility for you, so I must write about it.

When I was a child, I loved riddles.  We'd ask question like this paradox: Can God make a rock so big that He can't move it? It turns out plenty of people are still discussing this question and others like it. The question doesn't really have anything to do with God; He just happens to be the subject.  Instead, we seem to love thinking about what is possible and what is impossible.  As if we know.

A friend once explained knowledge to me this way: Imagine a small circle.  The area (the interior of the circle) represents everything you know. Everything you don't know is outside the circle.  The circumference (the line making the "outside" of the circle) represents the meeting of what you know and what you don't know. It is what you know you don't know, the tip of the iceberg so to speak.  If you were to next draw a large circle, the area (your knowledge) would increase significantly but so would the circumference (what you know you don't know).  Therefore, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. There are a lot of things I don't know.  I hope that means that I am growing in knowledge.

Today is the second week of my second year of college.  It's the second time in my life that I've been able to say that. Almost two decades ago I attended two years of university.  My life experiences have taught me a few things since then, but there is really only one fundamental difference this time: when I don't know something, I want to know. It's why my Goodreads' Read list includes books I wouldn't have picked up before. I actually read books on the subject I am studying that aren't assigned by my teacher.  My eighteen year old self would wonder who I've become.

I learned to read unassigned books during the years I wasn't in college.  It's how I compensated for what I felt was a failure. I thought it was impossible to correct the mistakes I had made.  I just didn't get it.

So, what's impossible today? I'd rather not talk about it, if you'll give me that grace.  But, I think of the words that I have struggled to believe for years:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13, NASB)

I hear this verse thrown around like it's a lotto ticket. Well, that's a terrible simile because I would never throw around a lotto ticket, at least not a winning one. I would hold it close and guard it until I could cash it in. No, this verse is the battle cry of those who preach the prosperity gospel. Do you think a Ferrari would further your ministry? Believe in Him to give you a Ferrari. The truth is, I don't want a Ferrari. I told my husband he could never buy me a car with more than 6 cylinders, or else he'd have to get a second job to pay for all the speeding tickets.

This verse is not a name-it-and-claim-it verse.  It's a testament to the power of Christ.  The verse literally says: For each thing, I have the strength of the one strengthening me.  However, we read translations, not transliterations, and so we end up with the words we are more familiar with.  The difference here is slight, but I believe the transliteration makes the verse harder to pluck out in singularity.  Alone, it begs the reader to ask: what things?  The answer is in verse 12.  Poverty. Wealth. Hunger. Contentment. Abundance. Lack.  In that context, it's hard to think of this verse as access to anything you want.  The verse is not about the ability to have anything as much as it's about the ability to have faith. So, today, on a day that seems impossible, I can have faith because Christ is strengthening me.

FMF: Loud

When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.

(Joshua 6:5, NIV)

It very well may be the strangest battle strategy of all time: Walk around the city for seven days. On the seventh day, walk around the city seven times, then shout. LOUD.

I find that when God asks me to do things that don't make sense there is usually one reason: it shows that I trust Him.  The faith of these believers was not in their weapons or their leaders' skills as warriors.  It was in God. It's not only about others; it stops me from thinking that I am more than I am.  Sure there would be a celebration that night.  For years when someone pulled out the trumpets they'd remember that time that God did what He did.  They were not boasting in themselves, they were trusting in God.

I feel like I'm walking around a city right now.  I don't know what's inside, but I know this is what God has told me to do.  With nervous excitement, I look forward to the day that God asks me to do something unlike what I've ever done before. On that day, I will walk around the city seven times and give a loud shout.  It won't be a scream of terror, but a proclamation like Philippians 1:6, that God is finishing the work He has begun in me.

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

The body. The braid.

During a Sunday morning service last May, I found myself thinking about that girlhood rite of passage: the sleepover. Forgive me, Pastor Josh, if you are reading this.

Our pastor had just explained that the proper translation of Philippians 1:6 is a plural you. Where we read "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in YOU will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (NASB), it would more properly be translated “He who began a good work in Y’ALL...” (as they might say in the south).

He had just made this statement when I noticed two girls in front of me sharing a moment of spiritual sisterhood. They were tenderly, messily braiding each other's hair. The jokes about girls getting together to braid each other’s hair are almost cliche. Nobody I know gets excited about braiding their own hair. Some even consider it a chore. Yet many times I've seen one woman start braiding another woman's hair, almost instinctively. Why is that?  Why is there something special about braiding each other’s hair?

I suspect it’s not too different from what my pastor was saying that day. We are made to be a people. God promised Abraham a son, but also a people. It was God’s people, as a collective, who were punished with 40 years in the desert, not just the ten spies who doubted their ability to conquer the promised land. It is why Paul missed his fellow believers when he was away from them, which I wrote about yesterday, and you can read HERE. Like three portions of hair come together to make a braid, we make up a body of believers. Don't forget, the braid is a Biblical concept.

"Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?  And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, NASB).

Be the body.  Be the braid.

See You Soon

The apostle Paul had a special gift for telling people he missed them. Sure, everyone misses someone from time to time, but Paul was good at expressing it.

In his letter to the Roman believers, he speaks of the blessing it will be when he is reunited with them:

"I pray that I will be allowed to come to you, and this will happen if God wants it. I want very much to see you, to give you some spiritual gift to make you strong. I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you" (Romans 1:10b-12, NCV).

In his letter to Timothy, he recalls the affection of his coworker and the joy his friendship is:

"Remembering that you cried for me, I want very much to see you so I can be filled with joy" (2 Timothy 1:4, NCV).

In his letter to the believers in Corinth, he states that he'll be visiting on his return trip so that he can spend more time with them. In the previous verse, he says he hopes to stay the whole winter, but he will act upon God's will:

"I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to stay a longer time with you if the Lord allows it" (1 Corinthians 16:7, NCV).

In his letter to the believers in Philippi, he expresses the deepness of his love for them:

"God knows that I want to see you very much, because I love all of you with the love of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:8, NCV).

In this era of social distancing, many are feeling socially isolated. Not just physically separated, they feel lonely and devalued. I have struggled with these feelings even though I live with three other people. We may not be in prison, like Paul, but we may feel trapped in our homes all the same.

Our communities need us to be Pauls, to be willing to put our hearts on the line, and expose our deepest emotions.  It's ok to miss people.  It's ok to remember good times. It's ok to have hopes for the future. However, it is better that these feelings be expressed to build each other up.

I'm starting now.  I pulled out some blank notecards and all the postage stamps I could find in my house. I am going to do what I can, what God allows me to do, to make sure people know they matter to me.

I hold on to the hope that God will allow me to see you soon.

FMF: Practice

I’ve been “practicing” this blog post over and over in my head all day. I’ve written and rewritten the words that I wanted to type but instead of actually doing it, they’ve gone undone and have been lost into space. So many things in my life get “practiced” for no reason:

There are the words that I wish I had said after I had a fight with someone.

There are the things that I should’ve done to improve a situation that I was facing.

There are the ways that I intend to act when I get somewhere important.

There is the way I’m going to look when I finally lose those next few pounds.

In all of this “practice” I am spending energy and effort on things that don’t matter. I am not preparing. I am not rehearsing. I am wasting. And so could it be that this supposed “practice” is really something evil disguised as something important. Could it be a wolf in sheep‘s clothing waiting to attack me, from the inside, from my own very thoughts?

This could be why we are instructed in Philippians to think about good things. To think about things that are noble. To think about things that are trustworthy. This is why we are told in 2 Corinthians to take our thoughts and make them captive. And it is why the real practice is eliminating these “practices” and instead focusing on Christ.




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