When God Thins Your Garden

God periodically takes me through seasons when He seems to remove my close friends. It may be that they get married or have kids, or move away, or simply become too busy to spend time with me. This invariably coincides with some time off, and I end up racking my brain to try to think of a friend to come over or to go on a trip with me, only to realize that there's no one left.

During those times, it can feel like I've been forgotten, left out, or left behind. But the reality is that God is doing a purposeful work.

It's a bit like a garden. You see, a good gardener plants his (or her) seeds, and then lets them grow up together until they need more room. Then, the gardener will uproot some of the plants and transplant them or discard them to give the seedlings that are left more room to grow.

That is what God does with us. He sometimes removes a friend we've been growing alongside in order to give us both more room to grow.

I can look back at those seasons when God has "thinned" my garden patch and see how God has used the absence of friends to help me grow stronger and closer to Him in ways I never would have otherwise. My friends are a help, certainly, but they can also become a distraction, and I think sometimes God wants to clear away the people I lean on so that I have no other option but to learn to lean fully on Him. 

Seasons of thinning can be lonely, and naturally so, since we were designed for fellowship. But in those lonely times, we can take comfort in the fact that God has allowed these limitations for a good purpose. Our loneliness reminds us to seek His face, to learn that His presence is enough for this season. After all Romans 8:28 applies to the seasons of  "thinning" just as much as it does to the seasons when we are surrounded by friends. As Elisabeth Elliot once stated, "God never does anything to us that isn't for us."*

We are not forgotten, we are not left out, we are not left behind. God has merely cleared some space for us to grow. The thinning is not a punishment, but a blessing, if we will only yield to God's purpose in it and look to Him for comfort and peace.

And remember, each season of life is just that: a season. We are simply to accept each one as it comes, trusting that God knows what He is doing.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29:11)

*Elisabeth Elliot, Be Still My Soul: Reflections on Living the Christian Life. Revell: Grand Rapids, 2003. p. 27

The Illusion of Safety

We live in a day where safety has become a daily concern. Slogans such as "Stay safe, stay home." are flashed across all forms of media, and debates rage over what measures we should be taking to ensure our own safety and that of those around us. Masks or no masks? Quarantine inside or getting out in the sunshine? Open up or stay closed? Arguments abound, but no one seems to be able to come to a sound consensus.

A news article about a White House staff member's recent Coronavirus diagnosis posed the question,

"If Coronavirus is in the White House, is anyone really safe?"

The truth is, the idea of safety is an illusion. At least, from a human point of view. There is no sure-fire way of keeping ourselves protected from Coronavirus, cancer, car accidents, airplane crashes, or simply tripping over our own feet and sustaining significant injury.

Sounds pretty hopeless, huh?

On a human level, it is. We can never ensure 100% that we will be safe or healthy, or that our friends and loved ones will be so. There will always be the possibility of illness or accident, always the possibility that the next breath we take will be our last.

So where is the hope in all this? Proverbs 21:31 reminds us that

"The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord."

So yes, we should eat our veggies and wash our hands. We should follow the guidelines set out by medical professionals that are working so hard to find new ways to combat disease, but we should also remember that all this is vain if we are not looking to the Lord to keep us safe.

We must also bear in mind that God's idea of safety may not match our own. We like to be left alone in our own little world, with things exactly the way we want them, but God's desire is not to make us comfortable; it is to make us more like Him. So, "safety" might mean taking away something that is hindering your relationship with Him. It may look like plunging you into the midst of sorrow, so you can find that He is your true source of comfort. It may even look like allowing illness or injury to get your eyes off the distractions in life and back onto Him.

Whatever God allows, we can be sure that if we have accepted Christ's payment for our sins, we are God's children, and as such, whatever happens to us must first pass through the filter of God's loving care.

Growing a Friendship with Jesus

The other day, I was thinking about Jesus being my friend. I have long wondered exactly what that is supposed to look like. After all, it's not quite the same as my other friendships, because I cannot see Jesus with my eyes, or touch Him, or enjoy spending time in His physical presence (not till heaven, anyway). So what does it mean to have a friendship with Jesus while here on earth? I was thinking about this, when I noticed something about the following passage:

"Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."

John 15:14-15

Did you catch that the reason Jesus calls us His friends is based on communication? If we stop to think, we can easily see that our earthly friendships are based on communication. After all, the degree of closeness we enjoy with our friends is directly related to the quality and quantity of our communication with them. 

But our friendship with Christ isn't based on how often or how well we communicate with Him; it's entirely based upon the fact that He has communicated with us. And what He has communicated is everything the Father told Him. 

So, with this in mind, how do we grow our friendship with Jesus? By reading God's Word, learning and pondering that which God has allowed to be known about Himself. The more we know of what the Father has revealed, the closer we grow to Christ, who is the very reason we are able to be given the indwelling Holy Spirit which helps us to understand what the Father has revealed about Himself. -A friendship with Jesus involves the whole Trinity, because of course all three Persons of the Godhead work in seamless unity. 

Now, if Jesus' friendship with us is based on His communication to us, why does the first part of John 15:14 state that we are His friends if we obey? Actually, if you think about it, that's related to communication as well. Psalm 66:18 says:

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" 

If we are disobeying God, we are sinning, and unconfessed sin hinders our communication with God, as well as our ability and willingness to be communicated to. When I know I've done wrong and try to hide or ignore it, that doesn't put me in a praying frame of mind. In fact, it does the opposite.

There is another factor to this connection of friendship and obedience. When we disobey God's commands, we are acting not like God's friends, but like His enemies. James 4:4 states that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God."  

It takes faith to obey God when the world is so against Him. Notice Abraham's faith, and how God viewed him in the following passage:

"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God."

James 2:23

Abraham's faith prompted action, and he obeyed God (in this passage, the context is Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.) Abraham was in turn called "the Friend of God". 

So we see the "formula", as it were, of friendship with Christ: 

Faith leads to obedience, which opens up communication which builds relationship.

How is your friendship with Jesus? Are you looking to Him in faith, obeying what He has commanded, and communicating with Him through His Word and prayer?

Inviting God In

Ever have one of those moments when the Holy Spirit draws your attention to a step of spiritual growth and says "How about you?"--I don't mean audibly, of course, but it never ceases to amaze me how clear that "still, small voice" can be.

The other day, I was working on editing a recent project, when I ran across a sentence I had written that hit me like I'd never seen it before. It had to do with the idea of inviting God into one's smallest needs and desires, and it was like God was pointing to that sentence and saying, "You could do that."

I could tell it was something that God wanted me to spend some time on, so I wrote the thought down on a sticky note and stuck it to the journal I write in when I spend my hour with God each morning, knowing that it would take more time than I had just then to do the kind of thinking and praying God wanted me to do over the idea.


Throughout the day, and into the evening, the thought would come to mind and I would stop and pray, asking God how I could invite Him into even my smallest wants and needs. I found myself asking, "What would that look like?"

An example came to mind of a time when I had actually done this. It was over a year ago now, and I was at a store. I had recently marked a milestone in my life, and when I came across a Christmas ornament highlighting that particular milestone, I was suddenly struck by the thought, If Grandma were still alive, she would have gotten me one like that for Christmas.  I had actually picked up the ornament, intending to buy it for myself, when something stopped me, and I put the ornament back.

 God had been teaching me a lot about finding comfort in Him just then, and I decided that, instead of buying the ornament, I would tell God about it, and see what He would do.

I still can't quite explain how I came to that decision; it was all the work of a moment, but I walked away from that display with a sweet and peaceful expectation that either God would prompt someone to get one for me (which would be far nicer than buying one for myself), or that He would instead give me contentment with whatever He had planned.I didn't tell anyone else about the ornament, because I wanted it to be clearly from God if I got one. --I suppose it was a sort of exercise of faith.

Anyway, I never got the ornament, and I had even forgotten about it until the other day. What I did get while I waited, however, was a sweet sense of closeness with God --the delight of sharing a secret with only Him. Looking back, I can see that if I had just taken that desire into my own hands -insignificant though it seemed- I would never have had that experience of inviting God in and enjoying the delight of expectation that God would provide what was best.

When we are particularly close to someone, we tell them things we would never tell just anyone. We tell them about all the small, insignificant things that matter to us.When we are close to God, we do the same thing. There is nothing too small to take to Him, just as there is nothing too big. The smaller the need or want we bring to God, the closer we will feel to Him .

But it's not just things we need or things we want that we can bring to God; we can also bring our gratefulness for even the smallest of blessings. Even if we can see nothing else to be thankful for, we can always be thankful for salvation, for the gift of life itself, the very fact of God's love and care, --one could go on and on, for God has given each of us so many blessings!

When we invite God into our thoughts, even when they are insignificant and mundane, we are opening our hearts to Him more and more. And the more we are in the habit of talking to God about everything, the easier it becomes to invite God in to our hearts and minds when we are tempted. Inviting God into our moment of temptation helps us to be victorious, for it invites to our battle the One who has already won the war. (I Cor. 15:57)

In 2 Thessalonians 5:16, we are commanded, "Pray without ceasing". By inviting God into our thoughts --whatever they may be about-- we are, in effect, praying. Even if we do not have our heads bowed or our eyes closed, it is prayer nevertheless, because it turns our internal conversation with ourselves into a conversation with God.

So, what is it that God wants you to invite Him into? You'll be amazed what blessings come from simply telling to Jesus your simplest desires, your smallest thanksgivings, your most fleeting temptations.

Tell it all to Him. 

"Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you."
I Peter 5:7

Finding the Purpose of Your Wilderness

Have you ever been in the middle of nowhere? I remember once, on a trip with my sister, driving away from the highway into a terrain of low hills, with nothing but dirt as far as eye could see. It was late summer, and the ground was dry and dusty. The road was good, but the farther we got from “civilization”, the more I began to feel the suffocating feeling of being far from human help with no cell phone signal. 

My imagination began to conjure up “what-ifs”. The car could break down, we could get a flat tire, we could be on the wrong road entirely and not realize it until we ran out of gas, hopelessly far into the wilderness… all this ran through my thoughts within the space of a minute, then sped back through for another lap. Round and round they raced. I asked my sister how long it would be until we got there, and her reply bought me a few seconds of relief before my imagination got to work again. -I was so happy when we finally pulled into the dusty little town to which we were going!

There’s just something about being in a wilderness that is panic-inducing. I think for me it is because in a wilderness I become acutely aware of the fact that I am helpless, needy, lacking necessary resources, and completely cut off from human aid. 

I got to thinking about wildernesses today as I pondered the current state of our world. We are helpless in the face of this virus. We are needy and lacking necessary resources as workers are forced to stay home and companies reel with both the loss of business and a lack of workers. In addition to our economic resources, some other daily resources are in short supply: grocery stores have been out of staple food items, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies. Healthcare professionals in many places are facing a lack of masks, equipment, and medicine. 

As so many states and nations issue stay-at-home orders and social distancing has become the norm, we have become a people cut off from human aid, both physically and emotionally. We cannot gather together in person for encouragement or socialization, we cannot reach out to touch another person for fear of imparting or receiving a deadly illness. As masks become a more widespread precaution, we are even unable to smile at others when we do see them out in public.

Yes, this moment in history does feel very much like a wilderness.

And yet, did you know that God often takes His servants into a wilderness in order to fulfill a specific purpose? A quick scan of Scripture reveals many of God’s servants being sent into a wilderness for several purposes. Perhaps God will use one of these to encourage you today about your corner of the wilderness!

    1.      To meet with God

Moses was sent into the wilderness, where he met God, who spoke to him from the midst of a burning bush. It was in this encounter that Moses’ walk with God began. As far as I can tell from Scripture, Moses went into the wilderness viewing God solely as the God of his fathers, distant and impersonal. But by the time he left the wilderness, God was his own God, the God whom he now served and spoke with directly.

Perhaps this is you. Perhaps your wilderness is for the purpose of making God your own, of beginning or developing a true relationship with Him. Perhaps God has slowed your life down so that you will have no excuse but to take time to get to know Him.

    2.      To build your faith:

Israel spent over 40 years in the wilderness. Yes, it was in judgement for their unbelief and disobedience when they first got to the land, but God always has a loving purpose behind His judgements. He is just, but He is also merciful.

In the wilderness, their faith was tested and built over and over again. With every fresh difficulty came a fresh opportunity to learn to trust God, and to see that He is trustworthy.

The Disciples also found themselves in a wilderness at one point, and it was there that they brought to Jesus a lack of resources. They didn’t have food for the multitude, and it was too far for them all to walk to the nearest supply, but Jesus did a miracle and showed them that He was not hindered by their lack of resources.

Perhaps God is giving you an opportunity to learn to really trust Him. Look around you. Are there difficulties you can’t solve yourself? Those are the difficulties in which your faith can be the most effectively built as you learn firsthand that God is worthy to be trusted. God often removes our resources so that we can learn to trust Him to provide, just as the disciples had to trust Jesus to feed a multitude with just five loaves of bread and two small fish. (Matt. 14)

    3.      To prepare you for service

David spent years in the wilderness watching sheep, during which time God was preparing him to fight Goliath. He then spent years in the wilderness again while running from Saul, and was prepared to be king by the development of his leadership skills and the strengthening of his character. But more importantly, both of David’s wilderness periods were preparing his heart by teaching him first of all to delight in God, and then to wait upon God. He was being prepared spiritually as well as physically and mentally.

John the Baptist also lived in the wilderness until it was time for his ministry to begin. His was a solitary time, so far as I can gather, and it prepared him to hold fast to the truth God had for him to proclaim, no matter if people agreed with him or not. It prepared him to be bold with the truth and to stand firm, even when it meant prison and death.

Perhaps this time is a solitary time in which God desires to knit your heart to Himself, preparing you for later ministry through this time of decreased distractions. Perhaps the lack of human companionship is meant to teach you to delight in God, and perhaps the uncertainty of this time is meant to teach you to wait upon Him. (A book I’ve been listening to recently is Waiting on God by Andrew Murray. I highly recommend it!)

    4.      For Victory

Jesus Himself was led into the wilderness, not just to fast for forty days, not just to be tempted by Satan at the end of that time, but, --perhaps most importantly-- to have victory over temptation and the tempter.

Perhaps your corner of the wilderness is a corner fraught with temptation. This is the time to get close to God, cry out for His help, search the Scriptures for the truths that combat the lies Satan is using to try to trap you, and to finally experience the victory Christ has already won on your behalf!

Whatever the purpose is in your particular corner of this “wilderness”, know that it is a good purpose, for the will of God is “good, and acceptable, and perfect”. (Romans 12:2) Look to God, and ask Him to show you what He desires to do in your heart. Seek Him, dear reader, for He has promised to be found of you.

“And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart, and I will be found of you, saith the Lord”

Jeremiah 29:13-14a

“For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

Luke 11:10

Keeping Sunday the Lord's Day When Stuck at Home

We live in unusual days. The Coronavirus has caused several states to put their residents under a "shelter in place" order, and the states that haven't gone that far have at least issued a ban on meeting in groups. Across America, Christians are faced with the prospect of Sunday at home, whether for the short term or for an indeterminable "month of Sundays" as the saying goes.

 This is a challenge for us, because God has always intended for Christians to fellowship with other Christians. His plan for the church hasn't been that we each spend Sundays in our separate houses, reading our Bibles in solitude, so it is naturally  difficult to keep the Lord's Day feeling like the Lord's Day when we cannot be with other Christians. 

So, what's a house-bound Christian to do? 

Whether we stay home because of illness, cancellation, weather, quarantine, or whatever other uncontrollable circumstance might keep us from gathering with other believers on a given Sunday, we are still to take a day to rest and to focus on Him.

As I've thought through for myself how to keep Sunday the Lord's Day without the option of going to church, I settled on a few ideas that I think will help me accomplish this. Perhaps they will help you, as well!

1. Start the day with God.

This is something I try to do anyway, but it can be easy to fall into the rut of habit and not really pay attention to one's time with God. It can become just one more thing to check off one's list. A Sunday at home presents a reminder to bring the heart back into your time with God. It also (hopefully) is a time when you might have some extra time in the morning which you could use to prolong your time with God.

Time with God can, in fact, include nearly all the elements of an ordinary church service: worship in song, prayer, Scripture reading, and perhaps a sermon or commentary on the passage you have read.

 Our time with God on Sundays should be at least as precious and refreshing as on any other day, and while at home, with nowhere to go, we should be better able to keep what we have learned in our time with God with us all day long, thinking and meditating on it throughout the day.

2. Gather together (as you can).

For those who are housebound or under quarantine, this might seem to be a silly thing to say, but in our age of technology, it is easy to reach out to others and fellowship verbally when we cannot be physically present with them. There are lots of possible applications to this idea.

For those, like myself, who live in a house with other family members, it is quite easy to gather together on a Sunday and have one's own "church service". After all, Jesus did say that "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20).

I have warm memories of the few Sundays we were unable to go out to church during my childhood, whether because of weather or illness. If all of us were to stay home, Mommy and Daddy would cheer us up by bringing the "Sunday School box" down out of the attic. This was a box full of interesting items left over from the days when they had taught Sunday School before we were born. Because this box was reserved for churchless Sundays, we did not get it out very often, which made it quite a treat. We would pull each item out of the box, one by one, and then my parents would lead us in our own at-home Sunday School class. Honestly, I remember the box better than the lessons, but the principle still holds that Christians stuck at home together can still have their own "church service".

From what I have read, this was a common daily practice in Christian homes during the Victorian era. Now, I won't say that the Victorians were perfect, or that we should all try to make society go back to what it was then, but as with any time in history, there were some good things going on. One of these was the concept of the "family altar", where the whole family, and often the whole household, servants and all, would gather together to sing, read Scripture, and pray. There would often be a short lesson for the children to learn or recite, and the head of the household would often give some explanation of the text of Scripture read.

In modern times, we would call this family devotions, and Sunday is the perfect day to make sure this happens. If family devotions are already part of your family's daily life, Sunday could be a day in which you add something to it to make it special. Does your family like to sing? Have a special time of singing together. Do they like to memorize? Have a time for reciting all the verses each family member has memorized. Does your family have a flair for the dramatic? Have some of the family act out a portion of Scripture. Each family is different, so each family's devotion time will be a bit different as well. But as long as it draws the family's focus to the Lord, it will be time well-spent.

For those who find themselves alone, gathering together may mean reaching out to others over phone or text or email or even a video call like FaceTime or Skype. Mommy has a couple friends who regularly "meet" with her over the phone to pray together. Just because you aren't able to be present with other Christians physically doesn't mean you can't still have fellowship with them. --And it doesn't have to be a whole "church service", either. It can be as simple as texting a verse to a friend or telling them you're praying for them.

I'm told that during the 1918 outbreak of the Spanish Flu, many churches had to close for a time, similarly to what we're seeing today. One pastor I read about, Rev. W.B. Hinson, kept in touch with his congregation with the weekly church bulletin, which he sent out at his own expense. In these bulletins, he wrote to his church, encouraging them to keep focused on God while they were unable to meet, as well as bringing to their attention the preciousness of having a church to gather with at all. The result? The very first time the church was again allowed to gather, their congregation had increased "almost two-fold"! You can read about it here.

Many pastors are doing similarly, either through emails, podcasts, or live-streamed sermons. These are meant not only to teach and encourage those in the congregation who cannot meet together, but also to give the sense of fellowship as well as to keep the congregation on common ground, ready to move forward in unison when we can again meet together. After all, part of what unifies a local church is the common teaching we hear each week. It points us all in the same direction and gives us a Biblical foundation upon which to base our interactions with each other. 

3.  Choose activities that draw your focus towards God, and choose to refrain from activities that draw your focus away from Him. 

For many centuries of Christian history, Sunday was considered to be a day only for spiritual pursuits. One problem that arose from this was a cultural expectation that certain things were for "Sunday" but not for the rest of the week. The current attitude of Christianity towards this concept of a day set apart only for spiritual things is largely one of disapproval, citing the fact that we should be focused on spiritual things every day, or that it is "legalistic" to spend a day only doing that which is spiritual in nature, but I think we can learn a lot from those devoted Christians who made one day set apart, choosing to focus only on God and choosing not to focus on worldly things. 

Yes, this should be a daily focus, but that just means that every other day should be like Sunday, not that Sunday should be like every other day.

Obviously reading one's Bible and spending time in prayer are activities which should draw the Christian's focus toward God, but there are other things we can do that will keep our minds focused on the Lord throughout our day. For example, I have a number of Christian biographies I could read, as well as shelf upon shelf of commentaries, studies, and other Christian literature. Perhaps now is the time to get that big concordance off the shelf and do a good, old-fashioned word study.

 Studying the Scriptures is not a dry, boring task. You never know what God might do in your heart through the simple act of choosing a word from a passage you've read and looking up all the other references that use that word. Not only is it a good mental task that will keep your mind sharp, it is a task that the Holy Spirit can use to keep you spiritually sharp as well.

Sometimes, I find myself having to do something "mindless" on Sundays, like putting away laundry or doing dishes, and I have recently been enjoying listening to sermons or Bible study podcasts while I do these things. Another way to focus my mind on the Lord while my hands are busy with "earthly" necessities is to listen to some good Christian music.

Another activity that comes to mind is transcribing Scripture. There are lots of "Scripture writing plans" on Pinterest and other sites, and taking the time to write out verses on a specific topic or even to write out a whole chapter or book by hand can be a good way to spend a portion of your Sunday. Writing the verses out by hand makes us slow down and pay attention to every word, every phrase, even every punctuation mark! It is a good way to train our minds to notice small details as we read God's Word and to think more deeply about specific portions of Scripture.

4. Remember to rest

God is clear throughout Scripture that the "Sabbath" (which Christians began to celebrate on Sunday to commemorate Christ's resurrection) was to be a day of rest.

My church has a running joke about the Sunday afternoon nap being "the third ordinance of the church", but it is true that Sunday is to be spent not only in focusing on God, but also in enjoying the opportunity of rest He has provided to us. It is good for us to take time to rest on a Sunday, whether we are resting our bodies in sleep or our hearts and minds by taking time to be still before the Lord, rest is an indisputably important part of keeping the Lord's Day.

I think one of the keys to a Sunday at home is to treat it like a normal Sunday as much as possible --nap included-- and to keep one's heart grateful for the extra rest God has allowed for that day.

After all, we spend so much time rushing here and there that we come to view rest as a very valuable (and rare!) thing, but it is also a thing we tend to grumble about when we are finally forced to have time for it. When we are sick or snowed in or quarantined in some fashion, it can be easy to grumble about what we're missing or to wonder why God would allow such a thing to happen. Could it be that God's people need to learn to rest and look to Him for themselves without the external motions of going to church?

Above all, while you are obliged to spend your Sundays at home, remember that God has a good purpose for allowing this trial --for trial it is-- and that He is with you always. He has promised never to leave you, never to forsake you. Nothing can change who God is. Rest in that truth and have a blessed Lord's Day.

Philippians 4:8 for the Christian Writer

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while.

 I wasn't sure if it should be a blog post, an Instagram blurb, or if it was just something I was simply meant to learn. I have found, though, that what God teaches me, He usually means me to share with others.

That having been said, I should begin at the beginning: the night I began to write my "accidental novel". It was a school night, and  all day I had been looking forward to the hour I had planned to set aside and work on my nearly-finished manuscript of a study on a passage in Proverbs 30 (More to come about that!).

As I prepared to work, I went to the kitchen to get some tea. I had two kinds of loose-leaf tea I was trying to decide between, so I did what any tea lover would do and checked to see which one smelled the best. As I smelled first one, and then the other, something happened in the writer part of my imagination and next thing I knew, I was delightedly scribbling thoughts down in a notebook, curious where this little seed of a story might lead. After my fit of scribbling had subsided, I was left with several pages which read like the beginning of a novel. --And I loved where the story was going!

It was not until I had a couple of close friends read the short exerpt that I began to do some research into writing a novel. I listened to podcasts, found author advice videos on YouTube, and eventually ordered a book about structuring a novel. The more I learned, the more I realized just how much work there is in planning out a good story, and how lacking my very vague idea of a plot was.

And then there was the nagging thought that novels are not exactly what I want to be known for. I would much rather write nonfiction about things that matter. Then one night, I was listening to a podcast episode on choosing/writing characters, and the statement was made that the main characters should all flesh out the story's theme in some way. I felt utterly overwhelmed.

I didn't have a theme.

In fact, I didn't even have the faintest glimmering of a theme... and I wasn't sure how to get one.

 So, I did the only thing I could do and started talking to God about it. I hadn't talked to God about this story yet, and once I began, all my fears and apprehensions surfaced. I sat there in my car asking God if I should even be writing this story. It was so out of my league, and I was so overwhelmed by the structure and planning I didn't know how to start.

And besides, I thought, Is it right for me to be writing fiction at all? Can a novel glorify God? I have read Christian novels before, and I knew it was an accepted thing to write a novel that was meant to bring glory to God, but could my story really do that?

As I wrestled with these questions, I finally cried out to God:  I need a theme. But it has to be the right theme, a theme that will glorify You. I want my story to be true. I know it's fiction, but I want it to be built upon a truth.

God graciously helped me to find a theme which was founded upon a truth I have been learning in my own life in recent years, and once I had the theme, I knew exactly where the story would end up. (Even though I'm still not exactly sure how it will get there yet.) In fact, while thinking out the theme, I ended up writing what will eventually be the very last sentence of the novel.

My story is no longer just a few pages scribbled out for fun; it has a purpose I can get excited about, and I have a track to run on with all the numerous decisions necessary to planning out a plot.


In all this wrestling over what to write and how to write it, I have been reminded over and over again of Philippians 4:8.

"Finally, bretheren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

That is my standard against which my novel --and anything else I write-- must be judged. Will it cause people to think on that which is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy? Will readers come away with those things in their heads and hearts? Do the characters and plot exhibit or exalt these qualities? These are the questions that drive my writing decisions. It is a grave responsibility to represent Christ in irrevocable print, for all the world to see. I want to represent Him well. These qualities at least point me in the right direction as I consider whether my storyline and characters will fulfill their purpose of glorifying God and representing His truths well.  

When God Withholds

Yesterday was Valentine's day. And you know what? It wasn't horrible.

I woke up this morning and was reflecting on what made this year's Valentines day different. I'm still single like I was the years it was so hard, I'm still living at home with my parents like I was, and honestly, not much has changed. What has changed, however, is the focus of my heart.

The Bible says "No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84:11b)

For years, the focus of my heart was on the "someday" when God would stop withholding that which I was sure was His plan for me. I was just biding my time until God decided to bring the right one along for me to marry.

But that attitude and that heart-focus both run contrary to the character of God. He does not withhold that which is good. If He does withhold something, it is because it would not be a "good thing" for us.

I had come to understand this in the last few years, and that has helped my contentment enormously, but this morning the Holy Spirit pointed out this verse during my time with God and took me to the next step with this truth.

It's not just that marriage is being withheld because it isn't a good thing, it's that singleness has been given because it is. If God had given me what I wanted, I would have been so busy with husband and kids and housework that I would never have learned all the things being single has taught me. And I also would likely not have become a writer.

The more I thought about this, the more I could see how God had given me this season of singleness on purpose, because it is exactly the "good thing" I needed to propel me into the place of influence and purpose He planned for me to fill.

And since I know that God sees singleness as a good thing, and meant this season exactly for me, I don't need to feel left out or as if something is missing. I have all I need because He has provided. That's why this Valentine's day was not the day of discouragement and discontent it used to be, because I have a sense of purpose that calls me to trust the Lord's plan and be content in His loving care.

Contentment chooses to see what is given, rather than that which is withheld.

A Challenge to Millennials

Recently, someone pointed out to me that I am technically a millennial. I had a hard time understanding that, since I was born before the new millennium, but apparently I fall into the category of pre-millennial, or some such nonsense. Honestly, I have never much cared what my generation was called, because it really didn't matter. Being a pre-millennial or generation "Y" or anything else doesn't change who I am as a person, and besides which, my identity is to be found in Christ, not society's labels.

But all that aside, the practical side of me can see the use of naming generations so that you can more easily address them, and so to all the millennials out there, this post is for you.

Actually, I have noticed that this generation seems to be delighted with anything new: after all, we live in a world full of new technology, new scientific and archaeological discoveries, and new social outlets (i.e. social media). Millennials generally like to try new foods and experience new things, go new places and find new ways of doing things.

But this focus on novelty has a danger:

I read in an article some time back that stated that many millennials are rejecting their parent's antiques and family heirlooms in favor of new, modern furniture from stores like IKEA.  Wrapped up in the desire to surround themselves with the new and trendy, these young people are missing out on precious treasures --monetarily and sentimentally.

Maybe it's because I grew up surrounded by antiques and history, but that seems to me like a tragedy. Some of my most prized possessions are things that have been passed down to me from previous generations, and these items give me a way to connect with the past generations by serving as a tangible link to relatives who died long before I was born. (For example, the little hymnal from my ancestor who came across the Oregon Trail.) Some of these hand-me-down heirlooms might be from as recent a generation as my parents, but remind me of stories they or others have told; like the cherry-wood bookcase Daddy made for my Grandma in 7th grade, which was her prized possession for many years before it became mine.

But that's actually not my point. Just as some millennials reject their parent's heritage of physical belongings and miss out on something of value, many of my generation fall into the trap of rejecting their spiritual heritage, trying to make Christianity into something new, or else trying to live the Christian life in a new way. But is that Biblical?

I was struck by a passage today which in turn reminded me of another, and I thought I would share them. Both are from the period in Israel's history where their society had left its spiritual heritage and had become entrenched in idolatry. In the process of warning His people of their impending judgement and exile, God continually reached out to them, sending prophets to warn, but also to call to repentance and a promise of blessing to those who turned to the Lord.

It is in this context that we find Isaiah 58. In the first part of the chapter, God calls out the Israelites who had been claiming to worship Him, but who were doing it in their own way. They were still worshiping outwardly, but just for show. They had rejected the emphasis on holiness of previous generations and were living their lives how they pleased, all the while claiming God's promised blessing but for worship that was not based on a desire to please God.

God's response to these Israelites was to describe how He really wanted to be worshiped: not with the outward only, but with a wholehearted seeking after Him. Then comes a beautiful passage about how God promised to bless those who did turn to Him. Tucked among the descriptions of blessing is verse 12:

"And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations: and thou shalt be called, The repairers of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."

 Those who returned to seeking the Lord from their hearts would not be identified with doing new things or worshiping in a new way, but rather in repairing and restoring the old foundations, walls, and pathways.  This verse always reminds me of Jeremiah 6:16, which says,

"Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls..."

Isn't that beautiful? And yet, it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness and excitement of the "new" to the neglect of the "old paths" that bring "rest for your souls".

The heartbreaking thing about this verse is that it doesn't end there. At the end of the Lord's declaration of how to find rest are the sad words: "But they said, We will not walk therein".

As a whole, Israel had become very wicked. In fact, Jeremiah 6 describes them as being unashamed and even unable to blush for shame. --Sounds like our society, doesn't it? But the way out isn't in finding new ways to do things, or rethinking how we worship God: The way out is really just to turn around, look for the old paths, and return to how God designed Christianity to be: a reflection of Christ to the wicked world around us.

So, for the millennials reading this, or for readers of any generation, my challenge to you is simple:

"ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls"

What's the Bible All About?

Today on my way home, I was listening to a podcast, and I was struck by a statement the speaker made. She pointed out that the Bible isn't actually about us, but about God.

She pointed out that we all too often go to God's Word looking for what it says about me, when our primary purpose should be to discover what it says about God.

You know when someone puts into words something you knew deep down, but hadn't ever verbalized?

Well, a couple years ago, I was in a dry spell spiritually. I was reading my Bible, and was even praying some, but it seemed as if my soul was numb and my heart asleep. I just couldn't get anything out of my reading, and even my favorite go-to passages didn't give me that "just read my Bible" feeling.

I knew it couldn't be a problem with God --after all, He is omnipresent and unchanging. I also knew that the answer wasn't to stop reading. I had listened to enough sermons to know that when I don't feel like reading, that is the time to read the most.

But just reading -even reading more- wasn't getting me anywhere.

I wanted to enjoy my Bible reading, and I wanted it to bring me back to that closeness I had with God, but somehow lost somewhere along the line. But how?

I finally decided to actively seek to learn what God was like. Around that time, I took a Bible doctrines class as one of my college classes, and when that was done, lo and behold, my Sunday school teacher began a series on the attributes of God. As I learned more about God's attributes and the implications of Who God really is, I began reading with an eye to what each passage said about God. I even did a study on the first time each name of God was used, and why that particular name was significant. My understanding of Who God was and how His character influenced His actions broadened my faith and helped me to internalize the importance of godly character.

But I'll be honest: the feeling I was looking for didn't return with any consistency until I began spending time in prayer before my Bible reading each day, asking God to quicken His Word and guide me into all truth. -After all, the Holy Spirit is really the key to understanding and internalizing Scripture.

But that year or so of reading and studying out of "duty" was not wasted. I have heard several speakers lately mention that Bible reading is like making deposits in a bank. Even when it seems dry, you're still building up your knowledge so that when the challenges come, you know where to turn.

For example, when I was having a particularly rough day this week, God reminded me of Romans 8:28, and I was able to remember that even that rough day was meant by God for my good and His glory. That changed my focus from self-pity to gratitude and a desire to look for what God was going to bring out of the day.

That's the amazing gift of the Holy Spirit: He is always there to bring comfort and help and conviction as needed --primarily by reminding us of what the Word of God says. The more we know, the more we can be reminded of, and the more we can focus on bringing glory to God through whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.

So, dear reader, if you're in a dry spell -keep at it! Remember that emotions are fleeting, and even when you feel that God is silent and distant, the reality of His presence and loving involvement in your life is never going to change. -And resolve to begin afresh to truly seek to know God through His Word, in prayerful dependence on His Spirit to lead the way.

"And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart, And I will be found of you, saith the Lord..."

Jeremiah 29:13-14a

When Life Gets Busy...

The school year has fully ramped up, as have my church ministries and I am once again in the "you want me to be out past 8:00 on a schoolnight?" season of life where sleep and coffee are both highly prized commodities.

It's not just me, either. Everyone I know seems to be more busy now than they were even a week ago. --Funny how everyone tends to get overwhelmingly busy at the same time, huh?

So, how do we handle this intense busy-ness? The natural tendency is to madly rush through each day, distracted by all the things that demand your focus, trying to keep it all straight in your mind and sort out what needs to be done first. --In short, we tend to run around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off.

To cope with the overload of demands on our time, energy, and mental focus, most of us look for ways to pare down the demands, getting rid of that which is not "urgent" or "necessary"

And for many of us, one of the first things to be pared down is time spent with God in prayer. Maybe we don't cut it out all together (although it is very common for the busy Christian to rush out the door, meaning to get their time with God in later on, and then forget altogether in the hustle and bustle of the day, waking up late the next morning only to repeat the cycle.) My temptation when overwhelmed by how much I have to do each day is to minimize or cut short my time with God.  But as I was reminded in Pastor's sermon this morning, the busier we become, the more we need to pray.

Think about it.

When you feel you are taxed beyond your limits with the busyness of life, work, ministry, family, whatever puts pressure on your time, you can go to the omnipotent God who has no limitations, and who offers you His strength for each day.

Isaiah 26:3-4 is an oft-quoted verse, but have you ever stopped to consider the last part of verse 4?

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength."

Everlasting strength. strength that never ends, that never fails, that is never exhausted. Through God we have access to this strength. Ephesians 3:16 indicates that God does strengthen believers with His might.

So how do we access this strength?

Look back at Isaiah 26:3

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee."

The way to access peace in the midst of our busy-ness is to stay our minds on the Lord --to talk with Him in prayer and to read about Him in His word. When we take the time to stay our minds on Him, He helps us trust in Him, and notice why the "perfect peace"-filled individual is trusting God -"for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength". Ephesians 3:14-19 also ties God's act of strengthening to closeness to and knowledge of God on the part of the believer.

So working backwards, to get God's strength, we must trust that it is everlasting- that it is enough (and more!) for our day. And if we trust that God's strength is greater than our own, we will take the time to seek His strength by staying our minds on Him.

In other words, you have to be willing to put aside what you think is urgent and take time for God, trusting Him to enable you to get everything accomplished in your day.

I think it was Martin Luther who remarked to a friend that he had so much to do that day, he had to spend an extra hour in prayer. --That's the mindset we need if we are to live our busy lives empowered by God's limitless strength.

"He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day" 

-John Bunyan

Waiting on God in the "Silent Years"

This morning at church, Pastor made an interesting observation: after Joseph’s lifetime, there was nothing recorded in Israel’s history for about 400 years. He posed the question, “Was God at work during those silent years?” His answer and mine is a resounding “Yes!”, but the fact remains that, historically speaking, while God was at work, He did not see fit to record any of His working during that period, making it easy to see that period as unimportant or insignificant.

Yet, if you know the Lord as I do, you know that He is ever present with His children. Even during those silent times, He would have been at work in millions of ways every day that encouraged the faithful among the Israelites. They may have been living in a “silent” period, waiting, watching, longing for the deliverance God had promised at the end of the 400 years, but God saw, God heard, and God loved them. He was present with them and purposeful in what He allowed, using even the difficulty of the years in slavery to prepare His people for the blessings to come. After all, if Egypt had been a place of freedom and prosperity, they would not have wanted to follow Moses across the wilderness --even for a land flowing with milk and honey.

 God often allows seasons of difficulties to make us willing to accept the blessings He has prepared for us later on. 

And those difficulties are sometimes “silent years” in our lives. They may span days, weeks, months, or years. They are periods of seemingly unimportant slogging along, not sure if we are accomplishing anything meaningful. Those are the times when one can doubt that God is at work. You may feel forgotten or left out as friends move freely down the pathways God has for them, as you stay still, seemingly stuck in a muddy patch on yours. But even in the muddy spots, God is there. Look for Him in the silence. Seek Him in the struggle. 

Let me tell you a story to illustrate. Once there was a young teen-aged girl who just might have been me. She lived out her Junior High years in an imaginary world of her own making, always imagining a different life, with different circumstances and different people.

 In High School, she began to grow up and somehow knew God wanted her to begin living in reality instead of trying to escape the ordinary, every-day life He had given her. As she looked around her, though, she realized that she was lonely. She had family who loved her, and she had friends she saw once in a while, but there was still something missing. 

She began to seek the Lord, beginning again to read through her Bible and, for the first time, praying regularly. She would get up very early and sit by the window of her upstairs bedroom like a princess in a tower, but instead of imagining a prince charming emerging from amongst the apple trees, she now began to revel in the beauty of her moment-by moment reality: the way the light painted the leaves, how lovely the gentle breeze was that blew in from the open window, the joyful sound of robins singing as if to celebrate the new day, the truths she was learning as she sat there reading God’s Word. 

After a while, she began to realize that God was showing His love to her every day in small, sweet, thoughtful ways. Sometimes it was sending a bird to sing to her on a particularly dreary day, another time it was a yard full of her favorite flowers which she had never noticed before, even though she walked past it nearly every day. Another time a whole string of traffic stopped to let her across the street when she wasn’t feeling well but had to walk to piano lessons anyway.

Bit by bit, she began to see God at work and the more she saw His love, the more she looked for Him. And the more she looked for Him, the more she found Him, right there, showing His love for her again and again. And soon her loneliness began to lessen, and she began to find that God is enough, even for the routine of daily life during a seemingly insignificant and unimportant season of life.

I won’t say that the girl was never lonely again, or that she always had that sense of closeness to the Lord every minute of the rest of her life, but I will say that whether or not she saw it at the time, God has always been right there with her, showing His love just the same whether or not she thought to look for it. 

“Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you” James 4:8a