The Dark Tunnel of the Unknown

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This time of year I always feel like I’m standing on the brink . . .

The New Year stretches out before me as a blank canvas.  The great dark tunnel of the UNKNOWN . . .

What will my world be like in the coming months?  What does this year hold?  Is it pregnant with joy or heartache, pain or blessing, health or illness?  What will it give birth to, I wonder?

I watch as everyone cheers as the ball drops in Times Square, welcoming a New Year and I am apprehensive . . .  wondering what will be.

Fear like a knife cuts deep into my gut.  Honestly, the “what if” . . .  has always frightened me.  What if this is the year I lose someone I love?  What if we face another “great depression”?  What if I gain twenty pounds?  What if my husband loses his job?  What if cancer decides to invade my life?  What if all my hair falls out?  Paralyzing fear.  Heart-stopping terror.  Mind-numbing dread.

In the midst of my fear, God whispers His truth . . . “You don’t know what the future holds but you hold the hand of the ONE who does!"

 

If we knew our future, I wonder, how would we live?  Would we be in constant dread and despair, focused on what was to come and missing what is now?  

God wants us to LIVE in the present.  Embracing each day as it comes.  Grabbing hold of every moment, knowing that He will be there with us in every minute of every day. 

He calls us to live a life of TRUST rather than fear.  Trusting that He holds our future in the palm of His hands.  Trusting that His plans are for our good and not for harm. (Jeremiah 29.11)  Trusting in the Hope of an Eternity yet to come. (Romans 5.4-5)

Did God give His life for me so that I could live in dread of the future? NEVER.  He died so that I can laugh at the future, embrace what He has for me and never have to live this life on my own again.

And so this year, I set my fears aside and lay claim to these words that the Apostle Paul penned so long ago, “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate me from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate me from God’s love.  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate me from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus my Lord.” (Romans 8.38-39)

 As you face this New Year, I don’t know where this finds you, maybe many of the fears I named are your reality.  Remember this, my friend:  You don’t know what the future holds but you hold the hand of the ONE who does.  He loves you and will never let you go! 

 

 

Where's Jesus?

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Are you familiar with the books entitled, Where’s Waldo?  These books have no words just pictures.  What makes them unique is that this no-word-book-with-only-pictures is designed for big kids and even adults!  Each page has a quirky little guy wearing a red and white striped hat but the tricky part is finding him.  There are so many things jammed onto each page that it’s difficult to see him and there begins the hunt . . . finding Waldo on pages that are crammed full of stuff.  

As I was thinking of Christmas this year and remembering years past . . . the constant hustle and bustle, gifts to purchase, goodies to make, cards to send, traditions to uphold, decorating, partying, planning, caroling and on and on the list goes. 

I couldn’t help but wonder, does my life look a lot like a Where’s Waldo book, only it’s not Waldo I’m looking for, it’s JESUS! 

 

Is my world is so crammed, jammed and packed with stuff, there’s no room for Him?  (Can I just say, I don’t think I’m the only one with this problem! ) 

How ironic it is.  The ONE who is at the center of our celebration is so pushed into the background that we struggle to find Him anywhere.   

We leave no space for Him. 

So often even the “good things” we do cause Him to fade into the background.   

You know how I can tell this?  By what’s on my to-do list.  I have on my list, serving at Church, making gifts for my neighbors, caroling to a nursing home, preparing great meals for my returning kids . . . but nowhere on my list is spending time only with Jesus, being still and knowing Him.   

I rush, rush, rush, everywhere doing good things for Him but never spending time WITH Him.  

What would it look like for us to take everything off the page . . . all the traditions, present-wrapping, card-writing, meal-cooking . . . EVERYTHING and sit down with God and ask Him what He wants us to do?    

What if we re-evaluated why we’re doing all the things we do?  Is it to impress?  Because it’s expected?  Because we’re worried what people will think? 

What would we look like, if putting Christ in the CENTER became what was most important in our lives?  

 

John’s final words in his book of 1John are so poignant . . .  Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.  (1 John 5.21 NLT)  

Are you willing to do the hard work of stripping away the busyness, the superficial and the expected to ensure that nothing takes His place in your heart? 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

-Helen Lemmel

 

A Thankful Heart

 

When I was growing up, my parents drilled into me the importance of saying, “Thank you” and  I turned around and did the same thing with my children.

As I sit and reflect on this Thanksgiving week, I am reminded that saying thank you and having a heart of thankfulness can be and often are so vastly different from one another.  

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, it is a shipwrecked-whipped-stoned-imprisoned Paul who reminds us to, “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”  This isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command.  

It’s the way of life . . . for someone who follows Jesus. 

In the very same breath, Paul instructs us to, “ALWAYS be joyful.  NEVER stop praying. 

Did Paul really expect a person who’s just been devastated by the loss of a spouse and then discovers the money's gone, to be joyful and thankful in the circumstances they've been dealt? 

How do you give thanks when the refrigerator blows, you can’t find your car keys and you’ve just been told that an outstanding hospital bill is being sent to the collectors? 

Where do you find joy and thankfulness in the catastrophic and the mundane? 

 

Jesus said, "For whatever is in your heart determines what you say.  A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. " (Matthew 12.34-35) 

So what are you treasuring?   

What have you been caching away?  Trust or doubt? 

  

Joy and thankfulness come from a heart that trusts!  Trusts that God is good.  Trusts that He is for you.  Trusts that when He says, “ALL things work together for good” . . . , He means it.  You can’t expect to have joy and thankfulness, if you haven’t forged a life of trust. 

 

It’s a choice, not a feeling!  

What do you get from a heart that has stockpiled doubt?  Discouragement.  Hopelessness.   Despair.  There’s no room for joy and no room for thankfulness where doubt reigns. 

Trusting in a God we can’t see doesn’t come naturally.  Our propensity is to control, to carry the burden and say we trust God when we really don’t.  Then we wonder why we struggle to find joy.  We question how it is possible to be thankful in ALL circumstances.   

What does the treasury of your heart look like?  Do you have a storehouse of trust or a cache of doubt?  Choose to trust!  And joy and thankfulness will follow. 

 

 

Love Stalker

Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.  Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” John 4.5-7 (NLT)

She brushed the windblown hair out of her eyes, to get a better look.  Did she see right?  Was there someone sitting there at the well?  She had deliberately chosen this time of day to come – she wanted to be alone.  She was so weary of the gossip, the innuendos, and the unguarded looks when they thought she wasn’t looking. 

This emptiness inside her was a dark whirling vortex, sucking everything she ever was or hoped to be into its depths.  She had tried to fill the emptiness five time over but it just never seemed to work out.  Why didn’t anyone want her? 

She’d given in to the worthlessness, knowing that any hope she had ever had was long gone.

She didn’t know the man sitting at the well but He knew her.

She was why He was there.  He’d come for her . . . to use her like all the others?  Never!

He’d come to save her.  Rescue her.  Give her worth.

Jesus was stalking her . . .

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He was on the hunt for her.  He went out of his way to meet with, what many in that day perceived to be, the scum of the scum.  She didn’t just have one strike against her, she had three.  She was a Samaritan. (Jews wanted nothing to do with them and would go out of their way to walk around Samaria rather than go through it.)  She was a woman. (Women were not held in high regard in any society.)  And she was a woman sleeping around.  In the eyes of the world she was a nothing but Jesus loved her.  He came to give her worth.  He came to give her value.  He came to rescue her.

 

Why?  Why would the God of the Universe, the Messiah, the Holy One go out of his way to meet with this lonely, desperate, used up woman? 

For that matter, why would this God desire us?

In a word . . . L-O-V-E

Undeserved, unrequited, unexplainable LOVE.

This is how much God loved the world:  He gave his Son, His ONE and ONLY Son.  And this is why: so that no one need to be destroyed; by believing in Him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. John 3.16 (MSG)

Unlike a lion seeking it prey to devour, the Lion of Judah stalks not to take life but to GIVE life!

What will you do in the face of this incredible love?  Will you fall to your knees and let it overwhelm you or will you turn tail and run?

He is on the hunt for you . . .

                       Not to take life from you . . .  but to give YOU life. 

 

Plugging In

I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him.  This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.  Now He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else – not only in this world but also in the world to come.  Ephesians 1.19-21

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My neighbor got up one morning, only to discover that the light in his refrigerator had burned out.  He jumped in his car drove twenty minutes to Lowes to get a replacement bulb.  He returned home after being gone more than an hour and replaced the light bulb.  But this bulb didn’t work either!  That’s when he noticed that the power was out in his entire house.  He’d spent more than an hour trying to replace a bulb that wasn’t broken!  It wouldn’t have mattered how many bulbs he changed in the house none of them would’ve worked because the power was missing.  It’s easy for us to get this concept with electricity but do we understand this in our spiritual lives?

In Ephesians 1, Paul reminds us of the power source we have living inside of us.  This isn’t a gimpy sort of power, this is the power that RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD! 

But how many of us live our lives, replacing bulbs and forgetting to plug into the power source?

We try to fix ourselves by reading self-help books and checking boxes.  We Try. Try. Try. And wonder why it never really sticks.  We end up ensnared.  Trapped. Broken.  We wonder why we’re stuck, why we’re so desperate and never experience change. 

We’ve been changing the light bulbs and forgetting the Power Source.

We’ve got to plug into the Power. 

“Okay, I get that,” you say, “But what does that really look like?”

In a word . . . SURRENDER.

Climb off your throne and let God take control.  Go to God.  Spend time with Him.  Quit trying. Quit fixing.  Quit doing.   

Does this seem impossible?  Is your stronghold too strong, too powerful for you to let go of?  Have you struggled with it for too long?

Remember what God says about His own power . . . God’s Power is Mighty. (There is no power like His in all the earth.) God’s Power is Faithful. (It isn’t fickle, it’s dependable, ready and waiting for you to tap into.)  God’s Power accomplishes the impossible! (It raised Jesus from the dead!). 

This power resides in all those who are His children.  You’ve got the power, you just have to use it! 

Will you continue to change your own bulbs or plug into the Power Source?