Category Archives: God’s character

A Roundabout Route

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This week when our prayer group of 5 ladies met to pray, Abigail began our time with an effective visual. She opened her iPad and showed us a picture (via Google Map Maker) of the route she would soon be driving between two Colorado destinations: Aspen and Crested Butte.

MapAlthough Abigail assured us the distance between the two towns was less than 10 miles (just long enough to make a nice hike), the quickest way to drive there was to travel in a roundabout way on mountain roads for more than 200 miles to the tune of 5 hours.

“Isn’t this the perfect picture of prayer?” she said, putting her finger on point A. “Here’s the request, and immediately God starts down the road to his answer, which is over here,” she said, pointing to B. If we were God, we’d rush the answer across the quick 10 mile route rather than taking the convoluted circuitous way. So why doesn’t he do that?

So often we pray as if we’re a waitress writing down the ask for a short-order cook, but God sees the process differently. On Tuesday mornings we have over 200 requests to pray over in 2 hours. This means we have to move quickly, which is why we’ve grouped the needs according to topic/subject. (God’s Wish List)

The only reason such a volume of needs doesn’t overwhelm us is our belief that God himself is in the room with us. All we have to do is enter his presence and lay out the requests. Then, much to our delight (and relief), he takes over from there.

But that’s the thing. He doesn’t take someone with problem A and put him/her on a rapid transit line to connect speedily with solution B. He could say, “Let’s see…. I’ll find the right surgeon for that one, put this other couple in front of a good marriage counselor, and arrange the perfect job interview for that other one. Check. Check. Check.”

But that just isn’t him. He’d rather take his time… and ours. That’s because he’s not only concerned about those being prayed for but also the ones doing the praying. All have needs, and when God maps out his choice of a route from request to answer, he’s intending to work wonders all along the way.

DetourGoogle Maps has an interesting caveat at the bottom of its directions page: “You may find that construction projects, traffic, weather, or other events may cause conditions to differ from the map results, and you should plan your route accordingly. You must obey all signs or notices regarding your route.”

What a great summary of how God works, dotting the route from request to answer with unexpected delays. The longer the delays, though, the grander the answers. And maybe that’s the reason we ladies continue to travel the route to our Tuesday morning prayer meetings…. so we don’t miss a single one of those grand answers!

“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Faking it.

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Nate and I never planned to have 7 kids. When we did, it was fine by us, but with children spread over 17 years, our large family brought a few surprises. One was that we would be dominated by school schedules for 31 years (not counting college).

For most of those years, I had no trouble getting up in the morning, since babies and toddlers make good alarm clocks. But when the babies quit coming, getting up by 5:50 AM became a problem. So I began playing a trick on myself.

TimingI hated the thought of such an early start each day, so I set my bedside clock 11 minutes ahead. When the alarm sounded, the first thing I saw was 6:01, which was world’s better that 5:50. Enlisting those digital clock numbers in my ruse seemed to solve my wake-up problem. But it also made me ask what other self-deceptions I had going for me.

All of us can talk ourselves into believing lies of our own making: “It’s such a little thing,” we say. “How much could it matter? It’s just a few… a few dollars… a few meetings… a few exaggerations… a few minutes. No one really cares.”

A just weightThe idea of fudging just a little was well depicted on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, October 3, 1936. An elderly lady paying for a chicken by its weight is pressing up on the scale from beneath, while the proprietor is pressing down from above. A little cheating wouldn’t matter. What’s a few ounces? But both had deceived themselves into thinking deceiving someone else was ok.

I confess I’ve struggled with “full disclosure” to myself on countless occasions. That’s because not telling the truth inside my head is sometimes easier and often works well in the short run. For example, I might think, “I’m going to start eating healthy any day now, but not yet. Eating what I want helps me cope with stress.” But is that the truth?

Most of the world has heard the statement, “The truth will set you free.” But as always, this promise is part of an “if – then”. Scripture says if we “hold to the teachings of Christ” (John 8:31-32), then his truth will set us free. Ultimately, truth is always linked to the Lord.

So, what is Jesus Christ’s teaching about self-deception? He says that if we consistently tell “little white lies” to ourselves, we’re at risk for three problems:

  1. small lies morph into bigger ones.
  2. deceiving ourselves morphs into deceiving others.
  3. regular lying morphs into trouble telling the truth.

As always, if we correct ourselves at the root of the problem (self-trickery), other more serious symptoms will fall into line. And eventually even our clocks can be set free to tell the truth.

“They all fool and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies…. They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:5-6)

Who do you trust?

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Years ago I read the story of a medical doctor who donated his time once a week to trim the toenails of elderly folks, because they couldn’t get the job done themselves. Some had neck or back troubles and couldn’t bend. Others had toenails that were so calcified and thick, they needed professional equipment to cut them.

For toenailsAs I remember the story, his service took place at a local library, and the doctor refused any payment. Surely handling one pair of old feet after another wasn’t pleasant, but week after week he showed up with his clippers, helping just because he wanted to, no strings attached. He was both dependable and trustworthy.

After thinking about this man and his honorable undertaking, I tried to remember the last time I did something quietly righteous like that. I came up empty. I did remember a couple of times when I offered to help strangers but received negative responses: “That’s ok. I can handle it. Thanks anyway.” The general rule of thumb is, strangers can’t be trusted.

Ruth Buzzi and her purseIt’s interesting that today’s general public is suspect of anyone offering help. Most will walk away as if they didn’t hear the offer, careful not to make eye contact. It reminds me of a vignette from the sixties TV show “Laugh In” when a stranger offered to help Ruth Buzzi (dressed as an old lady). She beat him back with her handbag.

That was funny 45 years ago, mostly because it was the opposite of what people usually did back then. Believe it or not, most accepted help from strangers. These days, rejecting acts of kindness is the norm. For example, if you volunteer to help someone load groceries into her car or even ask if you can take her empty cart back for her, typically she’ll say, “No thanks.”

When I was growing up, a stranger might ask to hold a baby while her mother checked out at the grocery store, and the mother would smile and say, “Oh, thank you so much!” Today that’s unthinkable. Our trust in each other has been eroded by too many experiences of broken trust and its painful consequences.

Maybe that’s why some people find it difficult to trust God. If they’ve never known a trustworthy relationship, then trusting him seems like just one more risk they don’t want to take. If they got to know him, however, they would discover he is trustworthy to the nth degree.

When he offers to help, he means it and will always follow through. Of course we have to give him the chance. If we say, “No thanks. I can handle it myself,” he’ll probably let us. But if we accept his help, we can completely trust him without reason to fear. All the proof we need is in his flawless track record.

To put it in practical terms, we can trust him to help us much like the toenail-cutting doctor helped those oldsters, without asking for payment, and doing it just because he wants to.

“The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.” (Psalm 145:13)