Monthly Archives: April 2011

Come and get me.

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Any of us who’ve lost loved ones to death find our thoughts moving between two different worlds, the here and the hereafter. This back-and-forth thought process includes a pause at a theological stop sign: Christ’s second coming.

According to the calendar of human history, we’re living in that middle ground between Jesus’ first coming and his second, his first as a newborn who grew into our radical Savior, and his second as a victor in battle.

Once in a while I think, “What if Jesus returned to earth tonight?”

He promised that when he did come back, it would be to defeat evil and escort Christians to heaven. He actually said, “I’ll take you home with me.” (John 14:2)

I love that he’s implying we’ll feel right at home when we get to heaven. It’ll be similar to returning home after an arduous journey with a big “Ahhh” of contentment when we walk in the door. So I tell myself, “Wouldn’t it be spectacular if Jesus came today?” But I struggle to answer, “Yes.”

And there’s a good reason: I need more time to do better at living the Christian life.

Most of us get only 7 or 8 decades on the earth, and it took me about half of those to get into gear in my walk with the Lord. Much of my early life was bare-minimum believing as I straddled a spiritual fence between obedience and rebellion. Even now, already in my 60’s, I should be doing much better.

And so, I figure, I need more time to keep trying.

Is Jesus reading this and chuckling? Or is he reading it and saying, “You’ve got the right idea.” Being unsure of the answer is probably an indication of my spiritual immaturity. Of course I’m longing to be with Jesus and to experience walking into his home, finding the place he’s prepared for me there. But as the Bible so aptly puts it,”Night is coming, when no one can work.” (John 4:9) Time to try harder will eventually end.

My hesitation to head to heaven isn’t because I want to earn more glory-points. It’s about feeling badly over personal sin and hoping for time to practice godly living, to be a better daughter to God. Just as I wanted my earthly dad to be pleased with me and felt badly when he wasn’t, I have a strong longing to please my heavenly Father.

There’s just one nagging thought behind my philosophy of wanting more earthly time. What if my condition as a human being is exactly the factor that’s prohibiting greater success at godly living? I don’t mean to say ungodly desires aren’t the root cause, but what if even the most saintly person among us still feels like I do, no matter how many years she has to work on it?

In that case, it would be a really good thing if Jesus just came and got me tonight.

“To the one who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)

All Broken Up

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Recently a group of us rented a condo in Florida, and as we were leaving, one year old Micah tripped on a lamp cord and pulled it to the ground, shattering it. Klaus took the evidence to the property manager, who shrugged it off saying, “Don’t worry about it.” He wouldn’t even let us pay for it.

Once back at home, I went to the post office to pick up my vacation mail. Passing the drive-up mailbox I noticed it was broken, too. The once-narrow mail slot had been wrenched open to resemble a camping tent, its metal twisted by someone driving too close. No doubt the car’s side mirror went home broken, too.

Yesterday while cleaning out my china hutch, I broke a small mirror. Today I broke a votive candle. And that’s how life goes. Stuff gets broken.

The lamp, mailbox, mirror and votive can be repaired or replaced without too much trouble, but what about breaks that aren’t so easily fixed?

During the same Florida vacation, my nephew-in-law broke his elbow while playing racket ball, careening full force against an unforgiving wall. Three weeks later he’s still experiencing pain and inconvenience from the break, but eventually it’ll heal.

There are other breaks, though, that never seem to mend, like broken hearts. We’ve all had our share through disappointment, treachery, dashed hope, regret, betrayal, death. I think God sees our grief in these situations and comes in close, reminding us of his presence and love. The hurt may not be completely repaired on this side of eternity, but the Lord partners with us to share the burden.

There is one kind of break, however, that causes God to rejoice. It’s the broken heart we experience when convicted of our own sin. Psalm 51 says, “The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”

A willful break from God leads to a broken spirit, which God is good at fixing. He makes a supernatural repair superior to anything Super Glue can do. And on the other side of that fix is God’s forgiveness and our joy.

I’ve broken quite a few things in my life, but so has God. He’s broken something that turned out to be spectacular for us; he broke the power of sin, which is what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Because of that we are dead to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (Romans 6) His break led to our being repaired.

My parents taught these things to us from childhood, and Mom also made sure she covered several other breaks. One night when I was 17 and in a dating relationship, she said, “How’s your love life?” She knew I wouldn’t share any secrets but wanted to crack open the door, just in case.

“Fine,” I said.

Then she said, “If any guy breaks your heart, I’ll break his neck.”

I know that was just her “cool” way of saying she loved me, but when a boy did eventually break my heart, I sure-as-shootin’ didn’t tell Mom.

“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” (Psalm 34:18)

Packing Up Possessions

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There are two seasons of life: collecting and dispersing. When we get married, bridal shower gifts and wedding presents give us a jump on creating a new home. Then as we travel through the years, we move to bigger digs and eventually add children. Along with them comes a new volume of equipment, and all of it needs space. Children grow, we age, and the pile-up of years can pile up enough possessions to threaten our sanity.

Every once in a while it’s good to take inventory, but most of us are too busy until it’s time to down-size. And suddenly we have a problem.

Because it took four years for our family to sell our big, old house, I had plenty of time to condense our stuff. The first year I set a goal to eliminate 1/3rd or every drawer, cabinet and closet as preparation for the move.

The second year I did it again, this time stretching for half of everything. Storage began to loosen up, and it felt better than going on a diet and losing weight.

More reducing was necessary to squeeze two houses into one, and now, two years later, I’m at it again. We’ve still got too much furniture in our small home, so I’ve made plans to ditch the largest piece, a big china hutch.

This cabinet has housed my beloved collection of glass items for 25 years, and in order to send it out the front door, I needed to eliminate more than half of what it held.

And it was much harder than I thought.

I struggled to decide what to let go of and needed some standard by which to measure each piece’s value, not in dollars but in sentiment. I decided to get rid of everything that wasn’t linked to someone special.

The process wasn’t easy, but that was an excellent reason to do it. I love my glass, but it was glass-gluttony for sure. No one person needs all I had. Scripture tells us to hold our possessions lightly and continually acknowledge that all of it is God’s blessing. Our stuff finds ownership in him.

Jesus told the story of a man who did so well at accumulating, he had to build bigger buildings to hold it all. The result was an identity in what he owned and an inflated opinion of his own importance. Because of those two things, Jesus labeled him “a fool.”

The Lord challenges us to find our riches in a bond with him. People say, “You can’t take it with you,” which is true of all earthly assets. But we can take the Lord’s relationship with us when we die.

And that’s the one possession I’ll never eliminate.

“Jesus said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own. A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” (Luke 12:15,21)