Life.
It’s all sorts of whirlwinds. All sorts of waves. Can I catch my breath before the next day flies by, the next wave knocks me around?
Highs and lows. Even lower. Can we get lower? Run to my high place, highest tower, rock above swirling waves: Jesus. Highest of highs, even on the lowest of days. Our depravity can never overwhelm His perfection of holiness and light. Joy and life eternal.
*****
In a few days…
…she’ll be one.
*sigh*
That’s all.
Fortunately, God doesn’t worry about keeping the best pastors for the big cities. On any given Sunday morning, in the Middle-Of-Nowhere, NY, you’ll hear some of the most powerful preaching from one of the best men. This past Sunday, it sounded like this:
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that there is a God in heaven.
And that you live to serve Him.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that Christ died to save you from your sins and reconcile you to God so that you can live every moment of every day in a way that pleases Him and brings glory to Him.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you are no longer a slave of sin, but you are now a slave of righteousness and are called to live pleasing to Him in all things.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that the purpose for your life is far greater than your own fulfillment, your own peace of mind, or your own happiness. You were born for His purpose.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that your greatest pleasure is found in bringing glory to Him, and that your greatest delight will be in hearing the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that this world is passing, and the momentary and light affliction that you might be facing now is producing for you an eternal reward. And that your focus will not be on the temporal, that which is passing; but your focus will be on the eternal, that which will never pass away.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that God doesn’t exist for you – you exist for Him. Remind yourself that He is not your servant – you are His servant. Remind yourself that He owes you nothing but that you owe Him everything.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you were purchased for God by the precious blood of Christ, the costly blood of Christ, that God spared nothing in pursuing you. And that the life you now live is not your own; you belong to Him.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you have been made a partaker of the divine nature — the precious Holy Spirit has made you alive to God, and that the power of the Holy Spirit in you is sufficient to carry you through every difficulty, every challenge, every snare, and every temptation – and to strengthen you in the midst of all adversity.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that your worth comes from Him – the one who bought you. And if the world around you fails completely to see your worth, it doesn’t change a thing – your worth is settled in Him. He loved you and gave it all for you.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you have a part to play in the unfolding plan of God. That you are called to serve Him and to impact the lives of people around you through prayer, giving, serving, and sowing. And that nothing and no one can stop you from walking out His kingdom will for your life.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that your labor in the Lord matters – that He sees your love, your sacrifice, and your patience toward all men, and especially toward the saints, and that He will not forget your work and labor of love.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you are a valued part of the Body of Christ, the people of God in the earth today. And that you are called to strengthen the body through love by supplying what only you can supply.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that His intended purpose was to adopt you as His own in Jesus Christ!
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that this world is passing away, along with everything that seems so appealing; but that he who does the will of God abides forever.
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that apart from Jesus Christ you can do nothing; but in Jesus Christ you can do all things
Everyday. Wake up and remind yourself that you will not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And that your meat is to do the will of God.
—from the sermon series on Ephesians
Clearly, wildflowers inspire contemplation.
This year, as I trimmed and arranged, I was again amazed by the beauty one can gather from highway and byway.
God does that. He gathers us far, low places. He isn’t limited to the hot-house carnation. In His loving grace and mercy, He brings us up, invites us to His table, calls us His.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints not is weary. His understanding is in searchable.
He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary , they shall walk and not faint. —Isaiah 40
There is no shame in realizing I have no might. Realizing I am more weak than yesterday! God is in the business of glorifying His name as earthen vessels are emptied of their own selves and are filled with Him.
This looks like “He must increase, I must decrease.” It looks like a growing awareness of my incredible lack, and greater knowledge and experience of His surpassing power to those who believe.
Pastor them. Shepherd them.
Amy Carmichael wrote, “The salvation of a single child—who can measure what that may mean not only here but There? You can’t do everything. ‘After it, follow it, follow the Gleam.’ For us the Gleam is the salvation of children, and it involves the prosaic towel. ‘He took a towel.’ So we won’t mind if our feet are bound, for it is Love that binds them.* His were bound on the cross.”
*Tamil proverb: ‘Children bind the mother’s feet.’
Take a towel. Serve them.
Some verses get lodged in your heart, always in the background, being mulled and processed and slowly shaping how you live and see life. This is one of those for me. Mike Tomford read it on a Sunday several years ago, and it’s been lodged ever since.
Today it comes to the forefront.
This makes sense, because May 28th is always a day that makes me think of labor, babies, and life. Twenty-four years ago, I was a 9 year old girl, scrambling downstairs at dawn with my siblings, excitedly tiptoeing into our dining room, peering through doorway past a cluster of my mother’s friends, hoping for a glimpse of the miracle taking place: a baby being born! She came, chubby and sweet, and Mrs. Colbert swaddled her and named her Butterball until a more suitable moniker could be chosen.
She’s the cute brunette, still a little butterball-y!
And so May 28th, labor, and Galatians 4:19 all converge this morning in my heart.
*****
I’ve learned things about childbirth and labor in the last few years. I learned that it’s not easy, watching my strong and courageous mother, a woman I knew could take on the world, meet her match in labor. I learned that it can last for days as I waited for news of my first nephews’ arrival (and cried to Mrs. Kinnen, wanting so badly to take my sister’s place so she could just rest.) I learned that it can go much faster and more intensely than anticipated, when Jameson was born 4 hours and 15 minutes after my water broke, with barely 3 hours of contractions. I learned that it can include complications requiring life-saving measures, as my littlest brother was delivered by emergency c-section, and a niece followed suit several years later. I learned that it requires determination, that it exacts all reserves of courage, that it crashes like brutal waves and leaves you depleted only to find a new depth of strength. I learned that your last labor is not your next labor, and no two are exactly alike.
I learned that no one can promise you or tell you much about how it will go. The only true comfort is this: “There, that contraction is over. You’ll never ever have to do that one again.”
And the greatest joy is that there is a baby.
*****
I learned how to meet childbirth with Holy-Spirit inspired strength from my mother.
And I’m learning what it means to be “again in labor” as I watch my mother (and my father) persevere in seeing Christ formed in me and in my siblings.
All of those things about courage and perseverance and trusting for grace for this moment and not dwelling on how long that last labor was — all of those things, I see them doing still.
I’m learning that the ecstatic moment when you hear, “It’s a girl/boy!” is only the start of a life of laboring.
I’m learning that “I can’t do this anymore!” needs to be swiftly met with those scripture cards I wrote out for labor. He makes me able.
I’m learning to labor alongside. I’m learning that just as I am strengthened by my sisters and friends in a circle around my bed, wetting my sweaty forehead, rubbing my feet, whispering and cheering — so we strengthen one another as we each labor to see others come to maturity in Christ.
I’m learning that personal expectation and desires and any selfish grasping must be done away with. Just as I surrender my body to bring forth a baby, so we lay down our lives — our time, our energy, our money, our everything — to see people find Jesus and His purposes.
I’m learning what incredible joy it is to labor and pray and persevere alongside and then see someone dear be set free, fall in love with Jesus even more, set their hearts completely on Him.
Because this: “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.”
*****
“It’s a girl/boy!” isn’t the end.
Neither is their 18th birthday, or high school graduation.
It’s not over until Christ is formed in them. (Yes, that’s a life-long labor we’re talking about.)
This is parenting that all believers are called to — married, single, childless — all.
*****
When the contractions keep coming, and you wonder how much longer, and no one can tell you?
There’s this:
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” –Galatians 6.7-9