The Big Let Down

I heard the most amazing statement today. At first, I thought I heard it incorrectly. Maybe, I thought I heard this, but surely not. It was too profound and yet it stopped me cold with its simplicity. As I was cruising through my friends’ updates on Facebook, I noticed a video post. The word my friend posted below it merely said, “Speechless.” Needless to say, I was intrigued. I clicked on the link that led to a video called, God’s Chisel. It was a very simple video, only two guys, one portraying God and one portraying, well, it could have been any one of us. The man cried out to God to make him more like Him. Then he confessed that he was afraid he couldn’t live up to being like God. He was terrified of letting God down. God said plainly, “You never held me up.” Wow! That’s when it hit me: when we cry out to God for forgiveness of our sins, we beg Him to forgive us for letting Him down. We attach human qualities and attributes to the love of God, as if He judges by the same pitiful standards that we do. We believe that by our sin, we’ve caused God to think less of us, feel less for us, or love us less. Impossible! There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can cause God to be ‘let down’ by us. The notion of being let down comes from the idea of holding someone up. We have never been the ones to hold God up and, therefore, cannot let Him down. We hold Christians, preachers, teachers, police officers, parents, children, friends and even some politicians to a higher standard on earth. We believe that these people are not allowed the luxury of failing and if they do, they cause us to doubt their passions and motives from the very beginning and disappoint us by their godlessness. We conceitedly and callously think they owe us something because they failed us. We forced them to a place that they were not ready or even willing to go and then we berate them for failing us. How completely backwards! Have we ever stopped to think that it is in those very moments of failure that it is our responsibility to look past the sin, the failure, the disappointment and reach out with love and tenderness to help restore our fallen to their proper place? No man, woman or child can survive forever under the scrutiny of living on a pedestal. We assign that position to them out of our own fears of failure. We believe that if we look up to them, they can show us the way. They can guide us better because they are higher above us and can see further down the path. This is a precarious position in which to live. You see, the higher the pedestal, the longer the fall from it. With so much heavy inspection, the pedestal will come crashing down, idol and all. When we assign someone–anyone—a place of such honor, we’ve replaced God with that person. We’ve committed idol worship. We’ve broken the First Commandment. No one, not our spouses, our children, our jobs, our churches, our ministries, our own bodies or our pursuits of happiness can replace God and there still be true worship for the Almighty God in our hearts, no matter how many songs we sing, hands we raise or Bible studies we attend. God’s love for us is unconditional. There was nothing that we did to earn it and consequently, there is nothing we can do to lose it. He loves me. He loves you. He loves each one of us right now as much as He ever has or ever will. His love has no beginning and no ending. It has no conditions. His love is perfect and complete. When we fall into the habit of trying to assign human characteristics of love to God, we don’t let Him down, we let ourselves down. We realize how little we know of true love, giving or receiving it. We believe it is a feeling that can change as easily as the direction of the wind. We forget that love is a verb. It is an action. It is a decision. It is a commitment. If we would learn to see the Cross as the definition of love, instead of what Hollywood and Hallmark would have us believe, we would begin to understand how to truly love. God decided to love us, committed to save us from our sin and acted by His death as our substitute so that we wouldn’t have to face death and condemnation. God is love. He is the living, breathing, acting definition of love. He isn’t waiting with a down turned frown and words of reprimand for us to fail, He’s waiting with open arms of love, waiting for us to get over ourselves and come back to where we belong, in His loving embrace, where He holds us up and will not and cannot ever let us down.

Finding God in a Chinese Restaurant

We buzzed with excitement as we moved to the table the hostess indicated. Allison had just graduated from college and we were so proud. She had chosen a Chinese restaurant in which to have her post graduation celebration. Everyone was there; mom, daddy, finance, sisters, brother-in-law and nieces. Laughter and smiles were everywhere. As we settled in to our respective seats, conversations became full of questions like, “What are you having?” and “Do you want to order an appetizer?” In the busyness of making food and beverage choices, four years old Marley became quite preoccupied with her latest discovery: chopsticks. It was no surprise that the adults missed her question for the first three or four times she asked.
“Can you show me the right way to use these?” she asked. Her countenance was serious as she concentrated on how to use the chopsticks. Over and over again, she asked, going from one grandparent to the next and one aunt to another. Finally, she was able to capture some of the adults’ attention. Once more, she asked, “Can you show me how to eat with these?” She received answers that ranged from “I never have been able to figure those out” to “I have no idea”. Her countenance dropped, she wanted to use the chopsticks. She wanted to overcome this new challenge. Then like a candle lighting the dark, her face was bright and full of a smile.
“My daddy can show me. He knows everything,” she proudly announced. Suddenly, we were all aware of Marley. Our gaze passed from her to her father who stopped midsentence in discussing his latest work tale and turned to his daughter. As quick as lightning, a huge smile spread across his face and danced in his eyes. His full attention was focused on teaching his daughter how to use her chopsticks.
As I sat there watching her daddy’s face almost burst with palatable pride, I wondered. I wondered, do we ever brag on our Heavenly Father the same way that Marley just did her father? When’s the last time we looked at our circumstances and announced proudly, “My Father can do this for me!” or “My Dad will take care of this new challenge in my life.” I wondered when was the last time that I had felt as confident with God caring for me and wanting to show me the right way to go as Marley was with her daddy. Then, a much more sobering thought passed through my mind. When was the last time that something I said about my Heavenly Father made him smile like Marley’s dad just did? Are my words of praise as sweet to my Father’s ears as Marley’s were to hers?

Firsts

Firsts can be amazing...your first new bike as a kid, your first day driving with your new license, your first kiss. Yes, firsts are wonderful. They are the beginning of something; something new and exciting. Remember the butterflies you had in your stomach when you went on your first date? Firsts: exciting, thrilling, breath-taking, nerve racking. I believe God intended for us to have all those feelings before we begin something. He wants us to be thrilled, excited, nervous, overwhelmed with the idea of possibilities. I believe He was filled with some of those same emotions on that first day...you know, THE very first day, ever. "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good..." Sure, He already knew the beginning from the end and every possible thing in between, but it says that He saw that the light was good. Perfect. A perfect creation by a perfect God and still He chose to look upon it before deciding that it was good. Have you ever wondered why? I'm not claiming to have that knowledge but you have to wonder if, when He set the firsts in motion, if He could already feel the pain of our rejection...a first for Him.
You see, not all firsts are wonderful. Some are downright awful! I have a friend who remembers going to kindergarten and getting paddled for misbehaving on the very first day! You can imagine how excited he was to go back, right? What if your first love breaks your heart? That first isn't one you'd readily sign up to go through again. No, not all firsts are waited on with bated breath. For those who mourn over the death of a loved one, every first brings pain. The first Mother's Day without mom. The first Father's dad without your dad opening yet another tie. The first Christmas without. The first birthday, uncelebrated. Pain. Loneliness. Hurt. Tears.
Why would a loving God put us through all of that? Doesn't He understand how deeply it cuts us, all the way to our core?
Yes, He understands. He feels more than we can even imagine. He feels every joy and hurt, hears ever laugh and cry, sees every smile and tear. He knows how we feel because He feels it too. When we laugh, He laughs. When we cry, He cries. Every emotion we could ever possibly go through, He knows. He knows and shares with us. Hebrews 4:15 (NIV) promises us this: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin."
Firsts don't scare God. They don't surprise Him either. He has no fear of the unknown for there is no unknown for Him. He knows. He cares. He loves. He mourns with us during every bad and rejoices with us during every good. Whether it's a first tear at the birth of a child or the first tear at the death of a loved one, He knows.

Of Mice and Men

As we celebrate our fathers today, I must share my story with you. Before we begin, happy father's day to all the dads out there!

Now, our tale begins at roughly 2:50AM Saturday morning but first, I need to bring you up to speed. In recent years, I've had increasing trouble with being able to wind down and go to sleep at the end of the day. Some days, I'm just too wound up from a busy day and some days, I have too much 'stuff' running through my mind. Either way, I tend to have a tough time going to sleep. This condition invariably causes late night channel surfing or computer card games, or sometimes, both. Last night was one of those nights. After channel surfing didn't help to bore me to sleep, I decided that, surely, a few tries at Spider Solitaire would definitely do it. That brings us to where the story begins. Picture it, late night (or early morning, depending on how you like to look at it), the constant flickering of the muted television, a small bedside lamp burning through the darkness of the night and the soft glow of my laptop laying on top of the bed. I had just made a stunning move on the game and was feeling pretty sure that I would win this round. In other words, I was way too into the computer! Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see a dark shadow zip in front of the mirror that is visible from my bed. Naturally, I thought I was finally getting sleepy enough that I was imagining things. However, I've seen one too many horror flicks to just let it go...oh, how I wish I had!

Slowly, I inched over to the side of the bed to prove to myself that there was nothing there. If this had been a Freddy or Jason movie, I would have been the stupid, curious white girl who decides to check out the noise coming from the abandoned barn while precariously balancing on high heels! You know, the chick that bites it in the first 5 minutes of the movie, that would have been me.

That's when I saw him! He shot back across the floor to hide behind my entertainment center. I've affectionately named him Saddam Hussein. Since he terrorized me, it seemed fitting. Saddam is a field mouse! A mouse in my house! Oh my goodness! It was all I could do not to lose control of my bladder right there in my bed! So there I sat, fighting my urge to scream and tickle at the same time and not knowing what to do otherwise.

Maybe I imagined that too, right? No way there's a mouse in my house! I'm just sleep deprived. I almost had myself convinced and calmed down, almost, that is until the little devil shot out from behind the entertainment center and UNDER MY BED! I'm not sure how many of you, as children, believed with all of your heart, like I did, that any monster that might be hiding under your bed would swiftly and quickly grab you and drag you straight to hell if you let your feet, arms or any other part of you hang off the bed or if you tried to make a run for it. I was even convinced that the shark from Jaws could somehow miraculously live without water under my bed and waited for me like I was chum in the water! Amazing, no matter how grown up you get, when there's a 'monster' under the bed, you're seven years old all over again!

Back to my dilemma, what was I gonna do about Saddam? After what seemed like an eternity, I decided to take my chances at escape. I am a little bigger now than I was at 7, so surely, I could fend of any attacker dragging me to the dark abyss, right? I pulled up into a crouching position in my bed and leaped for the door that led upstairs to where my parents were sound asleep. I'm not sure if I took the stairs two at a time or three. All I know is that I was banging on the bedroom door in less than a minute.

My poor father, it's a wonder that I didn't cause him to have a heart attack. I babbled incoherently about the gigantic rat that was taking over my house! Amazingly, not only had the vermin grown in size, but he had changed species as well. Is there ever a good way to wake up at 3AM? This was not one of the best ways, that's for sure.

My father, now my savior and hero, jumped into action as soon as he could get the sleep out of his eyes. Like a warrior, he went to battle for me. He was armed with a flashlight and a strong sense of protectiveness. I supported him (actually, watched from a distance) as he searched like Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. He looked high and low and then in a blast of arrogance, Saddam shot past him and made a break for it! Now, if you know my dad, you know that he protects the home against invaders of the rodent kind like a mother lion over her newborns. The search was on! At 3AM, he's pulling storage boxes out from under the bed and clearing clothes from the closet. He left no stone (or shoe or book) unturned. When he couldn't find Saddam in person, he decided to lure him out. In a matter of minutes, I had 6 well baited mouse traps placed strategically around the apartment. Needless to say, I did not spend the night in the apartment. My dad, my hero, not only gave up sleep in the middle of the night to stave off my stalker, but he helped me carry my pillows and blankets to a safe place to rest my weary head. We still haven't found the vile creature, yet, but I know my dad will. He's relentless. He will make it safe for me again.
Any man can be a father, but it takes a real man to be a daddy. A real man, a true daddy, will give up sleep, time, or money for his family. My daddy, my protector, my hero and my mouse killer. He'll always be the number one man in my life! Happy Father's Day, Daddy!
Love your little girl, Angie

Rebellion!

I read a quote today that made me think. "Learning is always rebellion...Every bit of new truth discovered is revolutionary to what was believed before."-Margaret Lee Bunbeck. Let that sink in a minute. What images pop into your head when you hear the word rebellion? Tattoos, piercings, alternate lifestyles, stealing, breaking the law, dropping out of high school? Have you ever considered education as a rebellion? Yeah, me neither. James Dean didn't pose with a textbook, it was a t-shirt and a motorcycle and he was the face of rebellion in the 50s. When did we lose sight of how to truly rebel? When did we decide to quit thinking for ourselves. We accept whatever truth that the loudest voice says. How do we know what the truth is?
Throughout history, it has never been the deviants who have led the greatest rebellions, it has always been those who choose to learn. Martin Luther was one of the world's biggest rebels, all because he choose to dig deeper intellectually rather than to accept what the Roman Catholic Church taught as truth. His education led to his rebellion from the accepted. His biggest rebellion? He translated the Bible from Latin to the language of the common people. He gave them the ability to educate themselves instead of having to accept what was being told to them by the controlling faction or by him. Can you say the same thing about yourself? When is the last time that you questioned the norm in an effort to become more educated; to become a rebel? Ironically, those who choose to do what everyone else is doing are in fact, part of the norm; the straight and narrow path. The mere fact that one chooses to follow blindly instead of questioning is the very action of being part of normal society. A bit of a slap in the face there, huh? The next opportunity that you have to make a choice, scare the world to death; make an education decision. Your rebellion may lead us all to a better community!

Comments, anyone?

Hello Friends!

I just wanted to drop a quick line to say "Thank You" to those of you who follow my blog. My prayer is that through shared experiences, we all grow closer to the Lord. I am honored that you have chosen to follow my blog and appreciate the encouraging comments that I receive. I do read them. If you're moved to thought by something I've written, please take a minute and share that with me. I'm do not want to be a single voice "crying in the wilderness", I want to know what you would like to know and what you think about as well. I'd like to know you better. Thank you again for following. Hope to hear from you soon!
Angie

Come out and fight like a man!

GRRRRR!!!! I hate how the battlefield for everything is our minds! When we battle Satan, our own selfish will, our own greed; everything, it's always in the mind where we struggle. I've pondered why so many times that it has made my head hurt. Ironic, huh? Have you ever been mentally tired? Just ready to grab your head, scream and run for the darkest corner? I have. I feel that way now. Satan is, I begrudgingly admit, smart. There's no way that he could drive us as crazy as he can be planting a thought and walking away. Ingenious old devil. He knows that if he hangs around in plain site, we will fight. None of us who have committed our life to Christ would dare back down from our enemy in a face to face battle. What a disgrace that would be! No, he's been around long enough to know that he needs to bob and weave when it comes to setting us up. Too obvious and we'll catch on. Too subtle and we may actually miss the trap he set for us. No, he plays dirty. Heck, he invented playing dirty. He sets us up with the tiniest of thought and then allows it to grow, knowing that our brains and our egos and our own prejudices and self-esteem issues are more than fertile enough ground to grow a bumper crop. All of this happens while he slips away, snickering at us; at our failures, at our faults.

Everyday, we are bombarded with his trash. It's not the obvious that you should concern yourself with the most. We know what porn can do to marriages, we know what sex outside of marriage will do to the individuals involved. Affairs destroy families. Abortions kill babies and leave would be mothers with a void as deep and dark as a black hole in space. Drugs, alcohol; you name it and most of us can give you the list of every unavoidable destruction that each life while experience. No, my friend, it is not the "big" sins that you need to guard against. By the way, who colored lies and classified sins as big or small? ALL of our sins nailed Christ to that cross. No sin is worse or better in His eyes. If you think differently, imagine looking in His blood stained face and arguing with Him about that. Back to the subject, it's always the small things that cause the "big" sins. It's been that way from the beginning. Eve didn't set out to sin against God and cause the whole world to suffer the consequences of sin, she was manipulated into thinking how good the fruit looked for food. David took a second glance on a bathing woman, causing him to burn with desire for another man's wife and that caused him to become a murderer! Judas was angry that Jesus wouldn't overthrow the government so he believed he could force Jesus' hand to action. Even the soldiers at the foot of the cross, gave into their greediness. They were literally an arms length from salvation for their souls and chose to gamble for a piece of cloth instead of reach for a Savior! All of these things started as a thought, in the mind. Satan may be a cunning adversary, but he is one other thing as well. He is a coward. He won't stand face to face and fight because he knows that the battle is the Lord's and he would not win. No, the coward lurches in the shadows and like a bully, waits for his next victim to come along. Don't be a victim! Today, think on whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS. Take every thought captive to Christ and that timeless dark devil will lose before he knows what happened. We can truly live free for ourselves and from him, if we choose to live hidden in Christ!

Battle on, my friend!
Angie