With Gusto

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Margaret

The other day I was running errands and passed a small store that had some big enthusiasm out front. A teen girl dressed warm against the wintry temperatures was holding up a yard-wide poster that said, “CASH FOR GOLD!”

She wasn’t just holding it up. She was waving it back and forth in an effort to get the attention of passing cars. On top of that she was dancing, back and forth, up and down, side to side, spinning around, ear-buds enlivening her ears with upbeat music. Although I’d seen similar signs (which are called human billboards), I’d never seen such a lively one. I wondered if she had just started her shift or if she was just one exceptional employee.

All of us can remember projects or commitments we started with gusto but finished just-barely, if at all. Some were even in the spiritual realm. Who of us hasn’t committed to reading through the Bible in a year, only to get bogged down in Leviticus or Numbers? Maybe we made New Year’s resolutions to eat healthy but gave up in February, or started exercise programs that went defunct 4 weeks in.

What’s the key to following through with the things we say we’re going to do? It’s partly the character quality of perseverance, but absent that, it can also be sharing the same commitment with a like-minded friend, or asking someone else to hold us accountable. Even having an enthusiastic cheerleader on the sidelines is sometimes enough to make us follow through.

Scripture includes a verse that talks about cheerleaders. Hebrews 12:1 mentions “a great cloud of witnesses” watching the life races we’re running as believers in Christ. Scholars dispute who these witnesses are, but it’s clear somebody is watching, and most agree those somebodies are urging us on to do the best we can in this life.

I don’t know exactly who’s in that crowd, but I do know the name of one biblical cheerleader who is steadily encouraging us with gusto, whether standing in that group or off by himself: Jesus Christ. He’s watching us for signs of ever-growing faith in him while simultaneously doing something wonderful. He’s praying we won’t fail, or, put another way, praying we’ll succeed.

When I think of Jesus (and the others), and of having only one earthly lifetime to use for heavenly purposes, it makes me want to keep the commitments I’ve made and to do so with enthusiasm. Although I might not be able to dance while following through, I can certainly leap for joy inside my heart and my will, especially over the things God has directly assigned for me to do.

As for the CASH FOR GOLD girl, I think I’ve seen that same gusto someplace else:

“David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.” (2 Samuel 6:14-15)

Heavens of Brass

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Margaret

Once in a while we hear Christians say, “When I pray, the heavens seem made of brass.” It’s an expression that comes out of the King James Version of Deuteronomy 28:23. God is comparing and contrasting obedience with disobedience, detailing the blessings that come with one and the curses with the other. In verse 23 he’s describing the curse of failing crops: “The heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.”

He’s telling them that if they refuse to obey, he won’t answer their prayers for rain. From this reference the phrase “heavens of brass” came to mean silence from God.

Most of us nod our heads, having experienced the frustration of unanswered prayer. Why would the Lord purposely withhold guidance? What valid reason could there be for such coldness toward us?

Actually, there are several:

When God seems cold, it’s then that we want to warm up to him.
When he’s silent, we call to him more frequently and with greater intensity.
When we can’t hear him, we listen more carefully for his still small voice.
When we aren’t getting his half of the conversation, we crave his counsel all the more and realize advice from others just isn’t good enough.

….all good things.

But what if we’re faced with a decision and he won’t tell us what to do? Are we supposed to just roll the dice or close our eyes and point? What do we do when the deadline is upon us and he hasn’t answered yet?

Sometimes I’m helped by thinking of God’s guidance like a GPS. I depend on “Lee’s” GPS voice to let me know which road decision to make, just before I get to the intersection. Key words? “Just before.”

God does that, too. He may be silent as a deadline looms, despite promising to direct us. We cry out for instruction, and it doesn’t come. “Which choice, Lord? Help!”

One of two things will happen. Either he’ll let us know exactly what to do in the nick of time, or he’ll expect us to make no new moves but to continue as we have been. With my GPS, Lee doesn’t say a word if I’m supposed to continue going straight. As my wise daughter Linnea says, “When you don’t know what to do, think back to the last time God put you on a specific path. Until you hear something different, stay put.”

God may get quiet for a time, but his heavens are never made of brass. He’s continually hearing us and is closer than we realize. And though we think he’s silent, he’s actually still speaking, inviting us to continue calling to him in expectancy, holding out hope that when the time is just right, we’ll hear from him.

“Come close to God, and God will come close to you.” (James 4:8)

A Word or Two

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Margaret

Birgitta loves to read. Board books captivated her before she was a year old, and in her preschool years, if we couldn’t find her, she was cuddled up with a book somewhere. She began to read at four and could read almost anything by six.

Words interested her, and she enjoyed putting them together into sentences. Before long she was writing short stories, illustrating them herself, and I have a file cabinet full of these treasures. God gifted her with not only a rich creative side but the desire to use it.

She’s always had a natural interest in words, their definitions, and their pronunciations, looking up the ones she didn’t know. Some of this was inherited from her father, who often read Webster’s Dictionary for pleasure, annotating the margins.

In 40 years of marriage I never asked Nate what a word meant that he didn’t have the correct answer, which included the history of the word, too.

Maybe Birgitta’s love of words came to her through her genes, but she also grew up in a home where reading was a respected pastime and vocabulary questions peppered dinner table conversation.

Hitch-hiking on that love of words and books, her sister Louisa hosted a bring-a-book baby shower for one month old Emerald last weekend. Watching Birgitta open the childhood favorites of 20-some guests was to watch her light up with pleasure at each new title.

Little Emerald now has her very own shelf in the room we lovingly call our library, a prize the value of which she will soon begin to realize. It’ll be Birgitta’s delight to read these stories aloud to her, and surely Emerald will become a book lover just like her mother.

On the other side of our little library is a wall of shelves, part of which is filled with Bibles, commentaries, and biblical reference helps. Since most of my Bible reading and studying is now done online, those hard copies have gathered dust, which makes me feel bad. How many Christians in this world would give anything to have access to such treasure but can’t, either because Christian books are illegal, or expensive, or just hard to find.

But as I look at those dusty books I hear the Lord say, “Margaret, don’t stress about that. As long as you’re drawn to my Word and to Me, the form doesn’t matter.”

So I ask myself, am I enthusiastically gravitating toward Scripture and its Author on a daily basis? Or do I have a take-it-or-leave-it point of view?

Words and books are treasures, with God’s Word, the Bible, the optimum one. Thankfully Emerald’s personal library shelf includes several titles that represent these optimum riches, and hopefully she’ll love to hear their stories, again and again.