Words and Meditations: A New Blog

After a brief hiatus from my lenten writings, I am returning to writing, and sharing my writing.  I am thankful for everyone who read my writings during Lent and I am thankful for the kind words that you shared of your own.  God has blessed me with a love for writing and an ability to do so.  It has helped me grow in my relationship with Him and has also been very healing at times.  Sharing love and hope and God's truth is a powerful thing and I want to continue to do so.

I will be spending my summer as a camp counselor serving God in the beautiful Green Lake, WI.  Christ's love was modeled for me as a camper at Quest, and now I am returning to model Christ's love for others and learn from them as well.  Although wifi is sparse, I will be sharing some words and meditations this summer.

Psalm 19:14 says "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer."

I absolutely do not know it all.  And I will never claim to.  God is working with me where I am at, and bringing me beyond that.  My hope and my striving is that God's words and truth can be found in the words I publish here.  My identity is in Him and I long for that to shape all that I do.  I also long to be honest, because I believe God calls me to be.  Honest in my frustrations and honest and sincere in my love for Him and others.

I chose to call this blog How Great Thou Art, because God is great.  He is first and He is the center.  This is about Him.  This is His truth.  I don't own it, but I want to share it.

~SP

http://howgreatthouartblog.blogspot.com/ 

Easter Sunday: Reedemer

I know my redeemer lives.  They came to the tomb that morning, and it was empty - which must have been terrifying at first.  Jesus began appearing to His friends and followers.  Some believed immediately, and for some, it took a minute.  He bore the holes in His hands where the nails had been, but He was completely whole.

Almost 2,000 years later, how do I know that my Redeemer lives?  It is His promise.  His promise that surely, He is with us to the very end of the age.  His promise to come again.  His promise that His spirit is present in our heart and in our lives.  I am learning to trust in His promise through experience and faith.

My heart hopes that one morning, I will wake up, and I will be sitting with Jesus, at His table, in His home.  I don't know when that day will come, but I have faith that it will.  I know that it will.  I know because it is impossible, even when I close my eyes, to deny the glory and the presence of God around me.

This is a day very high in emotion.  It marks the return of a beloved friend and savior.  During this season I have been praying for anyone and everyone that has come across these writings.  That they would hear God's words, and not mine.  I pray for anyone who doesn't know Christ, or wants to know Him better - I pray that they meet Him, allow Him as a friend into their lives.  I pray that everyone experience God's peace and God's love as we spend another year celebrating the life of our friend and Savior, Jesus Christ.

May God bless you this Easter, and always.

~SP    

Holy Week Saturday: Buried in the Grave

Today is the Saturday between Good Friday (Jesus' death) and Easter Sunday (Jesus' resurrection).  In my upbringing in the church, there was never a formal name for this day.  I know that in some Catholic traditions it is referred to as Easter Vigil.  This is a day of waiting.  A day right after a huge wave of sorrow and loss.  A day of stillness and quiet.  The opening line to Buried in the Grave says it well:

There was a day we held our breath

and felt the sting of bitter death

When all our hopes were buried in the grave

That is what this Saturday must have felt like so many years ago.  Jesus' family, friends and followers were holding their breath.  They were still sorting through emotions and feelings.  It was probably still hard to fathom that Jesus was really gone.  

The song goes on to say this:

All we had, all we had

was a promise like a thread

holding us, keeping us from fraying at the edge

Jesus tells his disciples that He will overcome death.  He foresees his death, and his resurrection.  Luke 18:31-34 shares that prediction and promise.  Jesus gave that promise to His people, that He would fulfill the prophecies, and in doing so, fulfill God's will.  It was a promise.  Promises are often given simply through words, and they can seem as fragile as a thread.  Believing in promises takes faith.  Maybe a good name for this Saturday would be Faithful Saturday.  We were waiting, standing on the promises, standing on the faith, holding on to what we could no longer touch.  

The song also gives this idea - there was grace in the tension.  There have been times when in the midst of struggle and frustration, I have experienced an unexpected peace.  I don't see it coming and I don't know how to explain it.  But it washes over me, overwhelms me.  It reminds me that I am not capable of calming the storm, God is - and He knows just when to do so.  I think that is God's grace overwhelming our tension.  He continues to calm storms from a place on high.  I can imagine that on this day long ago, there was tension - a painful tension.  But because of the promise that Jesus had left, there was grace present there too.  Even if they didn't feel it overwhelm them, it was there.

So we wait.  We could also call this Waiting Saturday.  We will wait sustained by the promises and the grace - which we may not realize are there, but they cover us nonetheless.  

~SP 

Good Friday: Revelation Song

Today is Good Friday.  We may not think Good to be the best descriptor because this is the day that Jesus laid down His life.  It is a somber day, a painful day, a heavy day.

The lyrics to Revelation Song go like this:

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

Good Friday is a snapshot.  It is like a picture we hold on to of a painful but important memory.  That picture is finite - but Christ is not.  There was a long journey up to the cross, an painful sacrifice on the cross, and life after the cross.  We have to remember those things - we have to think of the whole picture.  Good Friday would be absolutely devastating if we could not put it in the context of Jesus' life and the fact that Jesus lives.

Let's talk about Hoosier basketball for a moment - and on a completely serious note.  For Hoosier fans in Bloomington, and across the globe last night, we watched our team fall to Syracuse.  After an incredible season - one unlike Hoosier fans had seen in a long time - it ended in two 20 minute halves.  It seemed like a flash of light compared to the season leading up to it.  When we stop to consider the journey, it is inspiring.  Coach Crean and his staff built up a team from the rubble, made them work hard and prove themselves when the odds were against them.  They played a tremendous season.  And now there is promise for Hoosier basketball's future.  In the moment, fans and players were heartbroken - but we can't discredit the journey behind us and the journey ahead.

The same is true of our Savior.  His journey up to the cross is terribly important.  He left us with so much through the love that He shared with those around Him, the teachings that we find in the Bible.  His journey beyond the cross is wonderful, because He still continues to love and be present in our lives.  Today we honor Jesus' death on the cross, knowing that there is hope for tomorrow.

~SP

Holy Week Thursday: I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

This is a song about surrender - one of the hardest things we are called to do.  We find safety in control, in being able to decide what happens, predict outcomes.  Following Jesus means giving those things up.  If I had been sitting by the water fishing one morning, and a man passed me and told me to drop my nets and follow him - what would I do?  I have job security, I'm making a living, and this man just wants me to leave it behind?

The choice to follow Jesus is a radical decision.  I used to think that if I was asked to give my testimony that it would bore people - no one would care.  I was born into a family that shared Christ's love with me from the day they brought me home.  I watched a lot of Veggie Tales, went to Church Camp...but because Christ is part of my story, because God has penned by story, it is worthy of telling.  Everyone will come with a different story.  When God has the pen in hand, there is no story that is not worth telling. 

Though none go with me, I still will follow

There are times when we will feel like we are walking alone.  There are times where we will feel like we don't have any support.  There will be some days when you turn around, like Forrest Gump, and realize that half of America is walking with you.  There will be other days when that is not the case.  But you are never alone on the Journey.  God has made the promise to walk it with you.

The cross before me, the world behind me

When we get up and follow Christ, we are headed toward a marvelous light.  We are headed toward a strong and steadfast cross that symbolizes the sacrifice and the promise that was made for us.  The cross is a representation of another home.  A home that God has prepared for us.  As we get closer and closer to the cross the world starts to fade behind us.  It is God's lighthouse, beckoning us home.

~SP  

 

Holy Week Wednesday: In Christ Alone

In Christ Alone is a classic hymn that has made its way into praise music.  It has great, descriptive lyrics - but also sets forth some simple ideas.

The opening line says this:

In Christ alone, my hope is found

He is my light, my strength my song

In Christ alone.  It hasn't happened to me before, but I often think about how I would answer the question why do you choose to be a Christian?  Why do you choose to follow Christ?  I could give tons of reasons.  I could talk about kindness and love, how to treat your neighbors and your enemies, the abundance of God's grace and mercy.  

Why do I choose to live me life this way?  Why do I choose to have a relationship with a living God?  It is because of Jesus Christ.  There is no one like Jesus Christ.  I could search in any other place, through any other religion or faith system, but I would not find anyone who compares to God's Son.  I have never known another person who would carry a cross on their back - the cross that they were going to die on.  He would endure that embarrassment and that shame for my life.  

I am in awe of His selflessness.  He laid His life down to pay a debt in advance - for those who believed at the time and those who were still struggling.  He laid His life down for those who wouldn't believe, so that salvation would be there if they want to seek it and choose it.  

I choose Christ because He is where my hope lies.  Hope in anything else fades or disappears.

This is what I believe.  I believe in a loving God.  I believe in a God that tells us that the way to eternal life with Him is through a relationship with Jesus, His son.  I believe that God is not a condemning God - He wants all of His children to come home.  I believe that the Shepherd will seek every last sheep.  That is where my knowledge stops.  God is so much greater than I am - there is nothing that He is incapable of.  I don't get any say in who spends their eternal life where.  But I know that He desires us deeply, and He will always want for us to choose a relationship with His son - He gave us Jesus so He could be near to us in that way.

Christ Alone.  He is all that I need.  He is what I choose.  There is no one like Him.

~SP   

Holy Week Tuesday: How He Loves

I put of videos by both David Crowder and John Mark McMillan.  I couldn't choose which version!  The opening lines of the song go like this:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

A few weeks ago I talked about boasting - our boasting.  We are called to boast in nothing but Christ.  An old hymn says I will boast in nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.  We do not need to boast, we do not need to prove our worth through what we can do or what we have.  We have a God who boasts in us.

I have noticed that in the world today, we have trouble doing things without an audience.  Giving or receiving a compliment, doing charity work.  We feel like we need someone to see it or hear to make it worthy of anything.  But in truth, we devalue what we are doing by doing it for attention and self-glory.  I am guilty of this.

God truly is jealous for us.  His affections for us truly are great.  He says, let me boast in you, I know your worth, you don't have to prove it.  Isaiah 49:16 says "See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."  God is proud of us.  And He owns the rights to that pride and all of the glory.   

Jesus showed us the perfect sincerity and humility.  Sometimes we strive so hard for those things - we aim to be the perfect Christian.  But there is not perfect Christian - only a perfect Christ.  God meets us right where we are at.  He loves us, and boasts in us for who we are every day.  

I once had a teacher in high school that tried to convince our class that every parent picks a favorite child.  He must not have been familiar with God's parenting style.  God has room on His hands for everyone's name.  He affections are truly that great.  God does not need to prove our worth to anyone, because He knows it.  He boasts in us because He loves us.

~SP

Holy Week Monday: Your Love Never Fails

This song has been on my mind because it uses one of my favorite verses from scripture.  The bridge of the song goes like this:

You make all things work together for my good

It is from a verse in Romans that says:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Sometimes - a lot of the time - I get frustrated in the moment.  I'm not always sure why I make the decisions that I do.  I'm not always sure about the decisions of others.  I tend to have a tunnel vision view of life.  

I could put myself in the shoes - actually, probably the sandals - of one of Jesus' friends.  One of the disciples, or Mary or Martha.  Here is my friend, this man that I have come to spend so much time with.  To learn from, to care about, to trust in, to really love - and he is going to be put to death.  I would be angry and frustrated and heartbroken.  Why would Jesus have to die?  What I wouldn't be capable of seeing is that in Jesus death and resurrection, He would be preparing an eternal life for me.

God sees this.  We often talk about God's timing.  This great mystery that we often are frustrated and come into conflict with.  You want a job - God's timing.  You want to meet someone - God's timing.  You want to be married, find a house, have children - God's timing.  We have a God that works outside of time.  He is alive in the past, the present and the future all the same.  He does not work in linear time.

When I try to explain God's time to others, or try to come to terms with it myself, I liken Him to an author.  An author doesn't write a book and say, on page 31 such and such will happen because it will take the reader 30 minutes to get there.  An author carefully crafts the story, without considering time like that, because all readers are different.  They put details into exactly the right places in the story to build it into something beautiful.  I think that is how God looks at our lives.  He knows just the right places to put in the details.  It's not about hours and minutes.

Jesus on the cross was a part of the story that God is writing.  God sent Jesus to die in order to give us life.   The story continues.  God took something that was so devastating and painful for that moment in time and used it for the good of His children. 

~SP 

Day 40: Redeemed

Redeemed shares a lot of good ideas about God's grace and redemption.  It talks about being made new through God's grace.  Part of the song goes like this:

Because I don't have to be the old man inside of me
'cause his day is long dead and gone because
I've got a new name, a new life I'm not the same
and a hope that will carry me home

Something else that I have learned about my identity is that I am not defined by one moment in my life.  I am not defined by my worst day, month, year and I am not defined by my best.  God doesn't keep a record of my achievements and my failures.  That is something we often do as human beings.  We keep our own record of wrongs and think, after all of this, how could I ever be worthy?

We can't control the gift of grace, we can only choose to receive it.  God gives it out in abundance, but sometimes I find myself too prideful to accept it.  On the giving end, we see charity as a great and honorable thing. On the receiving end of charity, we struggle.  If someone offered me food stamps today I would say, well, I'm not in need.  I would even go as far as to say I don't want those.  We often struggle with receiving help - we don't want to seem incapable or unable.  

God knows what we need and we need His grace.  We do need to humble ourselves to receive God's grace.  God's grace does not make us less worthy.  Our worth is constant because God is constant.  

~SP

Day 39: Heaven Song

I found this song just this morning.  It is a beautiful depiction of our hearts' desire to be with God in heaven some day. 

This past summer I gave a short devotion to the family camp group that comes up to Green Lake in July.  I talked about heaven and how Green Lake for me is like a glimpse of heaven on earth.  Green Lake is a big part of my life and my faith.  It is home to the American Baptist Assembly - a conference center purchased by Dr. Kraft (of Kraft cheese fame - interesting fact: he was also a minister) for people to come and find rest, fellowship with other Christians and enjoy God's beauty. 

My family talks about Green Lake a lot.  You'll find pictures of it throughout our home in Milwaukee.  It has been a place of spiritual growth for my brother and I during our summers at camp.  It has been a place of rest and rejuvenation during family vacations there.

Green Lake is often what I imagine heaven will be like.  It is lush and green and natural.  People are kind and friendly.  Camp friends seek deep, personal relationships in an inclusive community.  No computers.  No televisions.  Minimal cell phone reception.  All those cares are left at the gates.  I can feel God's presence there - sometimes through other people and sometimes simply through the breeze blowing up off the lake. 

Green Lake is a place I want to take people.  My family has brought some of our closest friends up to Green Lake with us over the years.  It is a place we want to share with others.  At the end of a family vacation or a summer spent at camp, it is hard for me to leave Green Lake.  I feel safe there.  If I could, I would probably just stay there all year - however I know that is not possible.

One of the years at camp, our theme was about living on the edge.  On the back of the shirt for that year was this quote: "A ship at harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for."  I will have that chance to be with God eternally some day, to be safe in His presence, in His heavenly community.  But I am called beyond the gates of Green Lake, beyond the gates of my church, beyond my safe places and my comfort zone.  He is calling me to be His hands and feet in a world that doesn't know Green Lakes or even heaven.

When the ship leaves the harbor the waters can be treacherous - but my Savior walks on water.  After He has used me for His purpose, He has a harbor prepared for me eternally.

~SP

 Top Picture: The Lakefront        Bottom Picture: The view of the grounds from Judson Tower

Day 38: Forever Reign

This is a beautiful praise song that I was introduced to at camp.  The opening lines go like this:

You are good, You are good

When there's nothing good in me

I like the idea that this first line sets forth: God is good even when I am not.  God is the good in me.  People will tell you that college is the place to search for your identity.  I know that many people will leave college having learned knew things about themselves, and some people will leave college just as lost or even more lost than when they came.  That is the nature of the search.  But because God continues to seek us, there is always the opportunity to be found.

Identity has been on my mind a lot lately.  A friend recommended a sermon series that I have started watching that focuses on our identity in Christ.  That is exactly it: we are in Christ.  That is our identity.  That seems like it is so simple.  Like it has been bottled down.  But it is true.

If someone were to ask me who I am, I would probably start explaining like this: I'm often quiet and mellow, I warm up slowly to others, I love my family, I love bargain shopping, I'm a vegetarian, I'm a camp counselor, I'm studying dietetics...That tells you some things about what I do and what I love, but not who I am.  Sometimes who we are isn't an easy conversation.  It is hard to shape the words around it.  Sometimes it has to be witnessed.

Who I am is In Christ, and that shapes everything that I do and how I love the people that I love.  God is the good in me - He is my identity.

Ephesians talks a lot about identity.  We can see Paul working out his identity and living it out as he writes to the church.  Ephesians 1:4-5 says this:

For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will.

Who we are shapes what we do.  We are nothing of this world.  A lot of this is still floating around above my head.  It is hard to grasp.  Identity is a process of growth, and God is there to nurture that growth.  We are constantly learning more and more about what it means when He tells us that we are created in His image.


~SP

  

Day 37: Low in the Grave He Lay

This is my absolute favorite Easter Hymn.  The first video is two little boys performing the hymn.  They are quite comical.  The second version is the hymn performed by a church choir.

I love this hymn because it is a reminder of the glory and the victory of that morning, when the tomb was empty.  I also love the way that this hymn is performed musically.  If you are ever sitting in First Baptist Church of Indianapolis on an Easter morning, you will hear the organ lead into the first verse Low in the Grave He Lay.  It comes in softly, and then is gently joined by the voices of the congregation.  At the end of the verse, all is silent for a moment until the timpani begins to roll and leads in to the chorus:

Up from the grave He arose (He arose)

With a mighty triumph o'er His foes

He arose a victor from the dark domain

and He lives forever with His saints to reign

He arose, He arose

Hallelujah Christ Arose

I love that timpani roll.  It is exciting.  I can imagine that when Jesus' friends and followers found that He had been raised from the dead, they were excited.  I often forget that Jesus had parents, family and friends.  He went up on the cross as God's Son, as the Messiah - He also went up there as the son of Mary and Joseph.  The friend of the twelve disciples.  The friend of Mary and Martha.  On that morning that they realized that their friend was with them once again, I can imagine their heart's beat just like that timpani.

I have been in some churches that display a cross with Jesus still on it.  It is a beautiful depiction, and I can't come close to imagining what it was really like to be in the presence of Jesus on the cross.  Although one is not right or wrong, and I don't necessarily prefer one over the other - I like to see just a cross hanging in church.  It reminds me that Jesus is no longer there.  He was nailed to the cross by our sins, and He overcame them.  He was truly greater.  He was truly the fulfillment of God's plan.  Because He is no longer on that cross, we no longer have to be held to our crosses.  He made that sacrifice for us.  And He Arose.  

~SP

  

Day 36: Amazed

Amazed is one of the songs we did at camp this past summer.  The opening line goes like this:

You dance over me, while I am unaware

You sing all around, but I never hear the sound

Lord I'm amazed by you, and how you love me

Often, to trust something or someone and to know them better, we have to have experience.  We often learn to trust in God's faithfulness through experiencing His faithfulness.  The first few, or few hundred times, that may take a blind leap.

Today, I wanted to share a story about how I experienced God's faithfulness - a time when He was dancing above me, and I didn't even know.  

My friend and roommate Laura and I are that college roommate anomaly.  We were roommates freshmen year and have lived together ever since.  Laura and I had a mutual friend before college.  One of my best friends from high school, Grace, had moved to Tennessee for a year and attended school with Laura.  When the summer before college began, and I was embarking on the roommate search, Grace remembered that Laura was going to IU as well.  She told me I should contact her when I get to school.  That we should get together.  She knew this would help because we would both be 6 hours away from our homes and in a vast sea of 40,000 strangers.

Laura and I connected with each other over Facebook.  (Our first messages are still archived, and Laura likes to pull them up every once in a while.)  At the time I was really worried about finding a roommate.  That is a huge part of the first year of college.  You want someone that you feel comfortable and safe around.  So, in a Facebook message I said this: I don't know where you are in the roommate search, or if you have found somebody. As of now I guess I'm what IU calls "going potluck." But if you are interested in a clean/organized roommate who doesn't drink or smoke let me know!

Luckily Laura was looking for the same things in a roommate.  We laugh at those first messages, and often reflect on the first time we met - with our parents at McCallister's Deli in Bloomington, IN.  There will be a booth there commemorated for us some day.  I know that God was at work here, because He not only brought us together as roommates, but as friends.  I know this because we sat around on our couches last night finishing each others thoughts and talking about our faith.  God's faithfulness in this situation is truly evident.  

Sometimes we have to take that first leap and experience God's faithfulness.  God has brought many people into my life in college and outside of college.  He has brought opportunity to learn and grow.  I am so thankful for the things He does that I am not aware of and do not expect.  I have experienced a faithful God and I pray that everyone is able to experience Him too.

~SP

 

This is one of the first pictures that we took freshmen year.  This was the dorm room we lived in in Read.

This is Laura and I in Chattanooga over fall break this year.  Three years later and I am still just as short, and she is still just as tall :)

  

Day 35: Give Me Jesus

This is a very simple hymn, but its simplicity is what makes it true and wonderful.  The verse starts out like this:

In the morning when I rise

In the morning when I rise

In the morning when I rise

Give me Jesus

When I made the commitment over Lent to write and reflect each day, I decided to do the blog post every morning.  It was a way to keep myself on schedule, and to hold myself accountable.  I have come to like starting off my mornings reflecting and conversing with God.     

There is a great scripture in Lamentations:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.  Lamentations 3:22-24

God's mercies are new each morning.  God's grace is new each morning.  God gives us the morning for a reason.  Sometimes we have to endure the night.  It is dark and long.  It is uncertain.  I have endured night times in my life where I wasn't sure the sun would rise.

Jesus' faithful followers had to endure 3 days of a dark, dark night.  But the Son did rise.  That is what the sun is there to remind us of in the morning.  Jesus left the tomb.  He was faithful.  When we think that hope is gone.  That it will forever be dark - watch the sun rise, that is a promise from God - we have been saved and made new, and that promise is renewed every morning.  

As I wake up this morning, it is finally a spring morning.  I can hear birds chirping - a natural alarm clock.  Those are the things you hear in the early morning, when it is quiet and still outside.  Sometimes we forget that waking up in the morning, simply having another day, is one of the biggest gifts that God can give.

~SP

Sunrise.  August 2009.  Wauwatosa, WI

Day 34: To Be Alone With You

I heard this Sufjan Stevens song in church earlier this year - it is beautifully written and has a beautiful melody.  The title caught me off guard.  To Be Alone With You.  It has such intimate connotations.  After listening to the song a few times, it made me think about the intimacy of the relationship that Jesus desires with each one of us. 

What is it like to be alone with someone?  You are undoubtedly vulnerable.  You are finally alone with that person that you like, and now you have to make a connection, sustain conversation - see if there is anything really there.  You may sit through some silences - you know that there are thoughts racing through both of your minds.  But you remember, that person wanted to spend that time alone...with just you.  

Jesus wants an intimate relationship with each one of us.  The phrase intimate relationship is often misconstrued.  We often jump right to physical intimacy, because that is how modern culture wants to define intimacy.  But intimacy is also connecting at the heart level. 

God gives us different relationships in our lives - friends, family, boyfriends, girlfriends (and eventually spouses) - so that we can experience what His love is like through them.  But even when we feel we are so in love, or we have such a kindred spirit with a friend, God loves us more.  His love far surpasses any other love we experience.  There is no beaker that can measure the volume of His love or a ruler that can measure the depth.  He shows us love and says see how great this is?  There is something greater yet.

God wants to be alone with each and every one of us.  The lyrics to the song say this:

To be alone with me you went up on a tree

If I think of all the lengths that anyone in my life has gone to to so that we could spend some time together, nothing can compare to Jesus.  He died to know each one of us.   He died to have an intimate, heart-level  relationship with each one of us.  

If you ever feel lonely, know that there is a man who desperately wants you to be in His presence.  He carried a cross on His back and died a very public and painful death to be with you.  When He is with you, He sees everything that you are.  He cherishes that time with you - and He has all the time you need.

~SP

This is a picture of the Milwaukee portion of Lake Michigan.  One of the reasons that Sufjan's song stuck with me is the opening line: I'd swim across Lake Michigan...to be alone with you.  When you are standing on the rocky wall early in the morning at the lakefront, before the sun rises, you can only see a few lights on the water.  I know that lake Michigan isn't the most vast or even the deepest body of water, but on a morning like the one pictured above, it seems like it is infinite.  For Jesus, it would be a small distance and a journey worth taking to reach our hearts.

 

Day 33: They'll Know We are Christians

This is a hymn that I can remember singing often in church.  Its tune is dark and gloomy, but it offers a simple, and important, idea.

The chorus says this:

And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love

And they'll know we are Christians by our love

How do people know that I know Christ?  How do people know that I have a relationship with Him?  People know I go to church.  People know that I am a church camp counselor.  Sometimes I have my Bible with me when I am on campus.  Sometimes I talk about God with friends in class and other places.  

There is a verse in Ephesians that says this: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received (Ephesians 4:1).  It is about my life, and it is about the way I choose to live it.  That is how I want people to know that I have a relationship with Christ.  That is simple to say, but takes a lot of thought and intention to put it into action.  It is about the way I treat others, the words I use when talking, how I handle conflict.  It is about showing humility, grace and love - and trying to do those things the way that Jesus did.  They will know I am a Christian through God's love.

 

1 John 4:8 says this: Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  We often toss that idea around a lot when talking about God.  Who is God?  Well, God is love!  If we dig deeper in to it, that statement is most certainly true.

I read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, which is a very popular Bible passage on love - often read at weddings and framed and displayed in homes.  This time, I substituted all the places it uses the word love, for God. 

God is patient, God is kind.  (True). God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud (In some ways God does boast in us - He writes our names on His heart - but that is very different from how we practice boasting). God does not dishonor others, God is not self-seeking (He is truly selfless), God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
  God never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

God is love.  By allowing His love to live within us, that is how others will know we know Him.  That doesn't discount evangelism, and the need to share His word with others - but it gives us a starting place for the lives we are living in Christ.

~SP

Day 32: Word of God Speak and Easy Silence

Today is a Saturday double feature.  These two songs came to mind when I was thinking about prayer.  The first song I've heard in church many times before.  The second song is by the Dixie Chicks.  Regardless of the meaning and intentions that the Dixie Chicks put into this song, there are some beautiful lyrics and ideas that can be re-purposed to focus on prayer.

Communication is important in every relationship - especially our relationship with God.  That is easy to forget because the Bible tells us He is all-knowing and all-seeing.  What could we possibly have left to tell Him when He knows everything?  He desires that time with us.  He desires that conversation.

Word of God Speak says this:

I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say  

God wants to offer His word to us in so many different ways.  When we pray, we often desire an answer.  That is okay.  God has so much to say.  He wants to provide those answers.  Sometimes His words will come and settle in our hearts and we will just know.  Sometimes they'll come out of the mouths of others.  Sometimes we will find them in scripture.  God wants to speak to us.  He knows the best form of communication even  if we cannot understand it in the moment.     

God also wants to listen.  The chorus of Easy Silence goes like this:

Easy silence that you make for me
It's okay when there's nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me

God always has words to offer us.  He also knows when we need someone to listen.  Sometimes we sit down to pray, we pour everything out, and then we wait for the answer.  We are so eager for that answer that we forget to appreciate that God is just there.  He is listening.  I value all the times that the friends and family in my life have been there to lend a listening ear.  I forget that God can do that too.  

God wants to hear from us.  He wants to know the desires of our heart.  He wants us to ask Him for what we need.  He wants us to thank Him for the answers we have received.  He wants to listen.

~SP

   

You can pray anywhere.  God is like a cell phone service that covers every inch of the map.  Even though I do talk to Him everywhere, I thought I would share some places that I like to spend time talking to God.  The picture on the left is Green Lake, WI.  I like to take walks there and talk with God.  God is outdoors in His beautiful creation.  The picture above is Beck Chapel - a chapel for all faiths - on IU's campus.  I like to sit there in the last row next to the stained glass window and talk to God.  God sits inside there, waiting for conversation.  And when I am not in either of these places, I know He goes with me, I know He continues to listen. 

Day 31: Carbon Ribs

John Mark McMillan has a sound that can easily transition from the worship room to the radio.  I found this song on Spotify at the start of break.  The name itself is catchy - Carbon Ribs, but it also offers a valuable reminder. 

The chorus says this:

Cause I'm a dead man now
With a ghost who lives
Within the confines of
These carbon ribs

  

Everyday I wear the same necklace.  It was a gift from my parents, and one day if I lose it or it gets taken, I'll have to remind myself it is just a thing.  But I will always remember why I chose this necklace and what it serves as a reminder of.  The pendant on the necklace is a heart with the Irish trinity in it.  The Irish use a three pointed symbol - the Irish trinity knot - to symbolize the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).  That is where the Holy Spirit is - in my heart.  There is its dwelling place.  

I often overlook the Holy Spirit.  I can picture God and Jesus - both with bodies and as beings.  I can relate to God as a parent.  I can relate to Jesus as a brother or a friend.  I have never seen a ghost or a spirit.  I don't believe in them, in the Casper sense of the term.  But the Holy Spirit is within me.  It is hard to imagine anything closer than residing within my heart.

Carbon Ribs gives a great illustration.  The Holy Spirit is the life within me.  My body is finite.  It is carbon.  My physical being came from the dust, and to the dust it will return.  God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, is what gives me life.  We often think of a ghost or a spirit as something that is dead - but the Holy Spirit is very much alive.

One of the verses of the song says this: 

A thousand miles of pain I'm sure
Led you to the threshold
Of my hearts screen door
To tell me what it is I'm dying for  

That is another cool thing about our anatomy.  God gave us a cage, a gate in our torso.  He knew it would house and protect something important.  He put a heart inside that cage.  One that pumps blood and keeps our body alive.  He left space it in for something to inhabit it, so it would never be empty.  He left room for His spirit.  When we read that our body is a temple in the Bible, it is not about what it is adorned with, or how it appears.  A temple is a dwelling place for God.  We are a dwelling place for God.

~SP

This is the Irish trinity knot.  For Irish Christians it is the representation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I like that there are three distinct points, but you can't tell where the limbs start or end. 

    

Day 30: Put Your Hand in the Hand

I rarely honor throwback Thursday, but I thought this song would be appropriate.  My parents sing it sometimes - and I'll let Joan Baez sing it today.  It is called Put Your Hand in the Hand.  I am only familiar with the chorus and the first verse.  The verse goes like this:

Every time I look into the Holy Book I wanna tremble
When I read about the part where a carpenter cleared the temple
For the buyers and the sellers were no different fella's than what I
professed to be
And it causes me shame to know I'm not the gal that I should be

I like the reference to Jesus clearing the temple.  That is a story from the Bible you don't soon forget.  In the second chapter of John, Jesus is turning over tables, scattering coins.  It never describes Him to be yelling, but you can tell that His words were delivered emphatically.  Jesus is upset - angry even.  The first time I heard this story, I remember being bewildered.  Jesus got angry?  Seeing our savior, our ultimate role model get angry seems unsettling.  But in some ways, I have found it to be comforting.

Jesus was human.  He was as much human as He was divine.  That isn't easy to explain, but both of those things are important.  Jesus was human.  Jesus wept.  Jesus felt the things that we feel.  He had friends and family that He loved.  Jesus got frustrated.  He was honest about the way that He felt.  He was always honest with us.  God shows us that He knows our hearts through Jesus - through a savior that experienced the same emotions that we do.  

At the end of the verse, it talks about buyers and sellers.  I know that I was in the temple that day - not literally, but some days I get caught up in that mentality.  I overlook the fact that I am surrounded by buyers and sellers.  That we are all not the people we should be.  And because of that Jesus has a relationship with each one of us.  He knows that there is work to be done in all of our lives.  We often forget that, and forget to give grace to one another.  We all experience pain, hurt, frustration and any other emotion you can name. We are all broken, and all working with God to grow.  

~SP   

Day 29: Washed by the Water

Washed by the Water is another one of my favorite Needtobreathe songs.  It talks about leaning on God in the hard times and how He is constantly faithful.  The lyrics tell a great story.

When I hear this song I often think of my baptism, because it talks about water.  I remember the day I was baptized - I was 11 years old, and I had made the decision a while ago that this was something I wanted to do, to make a public profession of my faith and my relationship with Christ.  My grandfather baptized me, and I remember that he told me this: baptism is an outward symbol of an inward change.

Baptism is an outward symbol.  It involves the community around you - your friends and your family - it is where you ask them to hold you accountable for the life you are planning to live in Christ.  Baptism is also a journey.  I am not the same person I was on the day of my baptism, because I didn't have it all figured out that day - I don't have it all figured out today either.

The chorus of Washed by the Water goes like this:

Even when the rain comes

Even when the flood starts rising

Even when the storm comes

I am washed by the water

There will be storms in life.  We will get knocked down and tossed about.  We will stop walking or take a break from our journey, maybe go a different direction.  But we are always invited to come back to the waters.  We are always welcomed to the overflowing of God's grace.  He knows we didn't have it all figured out the day or the moment we decided to start our lives in Him.  He never expects us to have it all figured out.  He wants us to grow with Him, grow into Him.  

This is a picture of my grandpa and I on the day of my baptism.  It was October of 2003.  It will be some time before I am unable to remember dates and specific details of the day.  But I know that the waters are always there.  Even when they fall down like rain or overwhelm like a flood.

~SP 

      

 

Day 28: Love Song for a Savior

Love Song for a Savior describes exactly that - what it is like to fall in love with God.  The first verse says this:

She thanks her Jesus for the daises and the roses
in no simple language
Someday she'll understand the meaning of it all
He's more than the laughter or the stars in the heavens
As close a heartbeat or a song on her lips
Someday she'll trust Him and learn how to see Him
Someday He'll call her and she will come running
and fall in His arms and the tears will fall down and she'll pray,
"I want to fall in love with You"

Over this season, I have been thinking about how my heart is changing - how God is changing my heart.  I have to stop and remind myself not to take even the small things for granted.  I am thankful for my parents and how they have modeled their relationships with Christ for me.  I am thankful for all of the camp counselors in Green Lake that gave their summers in service to model their relationships with Christ for me.

This past summer at camp we focused on the woman at the well for a day.  Reading this story opened my eyes to a couple of things.  First, even if you think you know a story from the Bible, there is probably something else there to be found.  Second, I found something in the woman at the well's story that has stuck with me all year long.  The woman meets Jesus.  She doesn't know it is Him right away.  When He reveals who He is to her they continue to talk - they develop a relationship.  The woman then goes back to her town.  She gives testimony of her relationship with Jesus to others.  There are a group of people in her village that she speaks to.  They hear all about Jesus - but then they realize, they have to go directly to Jesus, they have to establish their own relationships.  They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world."   John 4:42

There is a book that I have been trying to read for some time.  I'm a very fidgety reader, so it usually takes me twice as long to concentrate and finish a book.  Both of my parents have read Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz.  In the front cover of the book is this quote:

Sometimes you have to watch someone love something before you can love it yourself.

It is as if they are showing you the way.

I think that is true.  We learn to love by watching others love.  We learn to love by watching God love.  We learn to love by watching God's love in other people.  But God wants an authentic relationship with each one of us.  When we have been shown the way, when we have witnessed Him through others, He wants to meet us personally. 

~SP

 

 

Day 27: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

 

I couldn't decide which version of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus to use.  The first video is Jadon Lavik - he has a really great acoustic version.  The second video is Selah - they have a really great a capella version.  

For as many years as I can remember I have had a blue and white blanket that I keep on my bed.  It was a gift from a friend of my grandfather's.  On the blanket, in black stitching, it says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make straight your paths."

That is one of the biggest ways my faith has grown since starting college - I have learned where to lean.  When I was at home and growing up, I knew to lean on my faith and on God and a lot of that direction came from my parents.  I leaned on my Bible, on devotion books, on Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, camp and how I knew God through those things.  

When I chose to go to college 6 hours away from home, I knew there would be a lot of decisions I would make on my own.  A lot of those decisions have to do with taking responsibility.  Would I take responsibility for my studies or would they be a lower priority.  Would I take responsibility for my relationship with Christ or would that be a lower priority.

At the end of my senior year my closest girlfriends and all of our moms gathered together for a mother/daughter afternoon at one of my friend's houses.  My friend's mom had a great idea - all of us girls would write letters to ourselves that would be sent to us on a future date of our choosing.  Our mom's would all write letters to us that would be sent on a date of their choosing.  I got my letter from my mom early in my freshmen year.  She told me that she loved me and that she would miss me while I was away, she hoped I was making friends and enjoying school.  The very last thing she wrote was this: trust Jesus with everything.  

She knew she and my dad couldn't go to college with me.  She was telling me that Jesus had been there all along and would go with me to places that she couldn't.  In college I am learning to take responsibility for my faith and my relationship with Christ and working on living a life in Him.  I am learning to lean on Him.  I am learning that I always can lean on Him.  I can turn my eyes upon Jesus, and set my heart there too.

~SP     

Day 26: When God Made Me

Every once in a while when I have a break from school, my dad is able to come pick me up and drive me home.  We spend the six hours talking and listening to music together.  This time Dad put on Neil Young's Prairie Wind.  The last song on the album is When God Made Me.  As I said of Dave Matthews a few weeks ago, I'm not sure Mr. Young's faith life or spirituality.  This song does offer a lot of thought about God and His children.

The first stanza of the song goes like this:

Was he thinkin' about my country
Or the color of my skin?
Was he thinkin' 'bout my religion
And the way I worshipped him?
Did he create just me in his image
Or every living thing?

I know this: God works outside of time.  When He formed us, He saw everything that we were and would become.  He knew the ethnic background we would be born into and the town we would call home.  He put a part of His heart in each of us - created all of us in His image.  The hardest thing was that He knew that not all of His children would recognize Him in themselves.  They may not claim Him as Father - and I am almost certain that that breaks God's heart, because He truly loves each one of His children.

The parable of the Good Shepherd is a good illustration of how God feels about His children.  Even if the majority of His sheep are in the pen, He will continue to seek the very last one.  God will continue to seek us, no matter what we do or how far we try to distance ourselves from Him.  The character of His heart is constant, even if we do not know our own hearts.  

I can remember another car ride with my dad.  I had been reading him a book that sparked a conversation about why God created us.  When I asked my Dad, he said, God didn't want to be alone.  I think that is definitely true.  God knew about love, long before we experienced it.  He knew that it was something to be shared and given away.  His created us in love, He created Jesus in love - love for His son and love for all of us - and He gave Jesus up on the cross out of love.

~SP      

Day 25: How Deep the Father's Love for Us

This is one of my favorite hymns.  The words in this hymn build a powerful depiction of Jesus' death on the cross.  Every verse in this song was beautifully written and carefully chosen. 

The second to last stanza goes like this:

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Boasting was something I considered carefully when I decided to start this lenten commitment.  I thought about my intent to publish this blog and share it with others.  I continue to pray about it.  I think about the verse that says "let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to you, God."  My prayer and my hope is that the words of God speak through me in whatever I do.  

I am as much a necessary audience member to a lesson on boasting as the next person.  There are days when we can't figure out if we are the pot or the kettle - we wake up blind with enormous planks in our eyes.  Boasting has been something that has been made easy in recent years.  We've got social media to let people know where we've been, who we're with, the things that we've done. 

What does it look like to boast in Jesus Christ.  I doubt it has to do with posting a picture of Him and I on Facebook or Instagram.  He doesn't care if we say were were "with Him."  He is always with us.  He wants others to know that.  Not because we can prove it, but because He wants us to emanate who He is when we are with others.  I think that boasting in Jesus Christ is allowing others to see that all glory is to, and flows from, Him.  

One of the middle stanzas says this:

Behold the man upon a cross

My sin upon His shoulders

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

There it is - our own voice.  

The words that we choose and how we present ourselves to the world around us are important considerations.  We are not called to put on a costume - to pretend to be anything.  We are called to live our lives in a way that is glorifying to God.  There isn't a rule book for that.  That is a personal you and God/me and God situation.  It is set on our hearts to pray - to ask Him to guide our actions and our choices.  To help us make sure that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts are for His glory. 

~SP   

Day 24: All the Poor and Powerless

We have been doing this song in church on and off, and friend sent it to me yesterday.  The lyrics begin like this:

All the poor and powerless

All the lost and lonely

The second verse continues:

All the hearts who are content

and All who feel unworthy

All who hurt with nothing left

Value is a hard beast to tackle.  There is this image painted that struggling with value is specifically a female thing.  There is also the image that  the struggle to find value is only a phenomenon of a person's early life.  That is not true.  It is a human thing.  It is an everybody thing.  It is an all the time thing.  We are constantly trying to find our value in things, in other people, in activities.  Things that are tangible.  For me, I often search for my value in my school work.  It is tangible.  But I am not the grade on the paper.  We have to keep going back to those things that we think yield value because they never really fill us up.  

When we search for our value in these tangible things, we often feel just as the song describes - poor and powerless, lost and lonely, unworthy.  The situation becomes more desperate because we try to convince ourselves that we can fix those feelings - that there is something we can do.  

At the end of each verse of the song, the lyrics say this:

Know that You are holy

Holy is a word I am very familiar with.  It is found throughout the Bible, incorporated into hymns and praise songs, prayers and devotions.  It is used so much, that I don't often think about what it means.  Here is what the dictionary offers:

Holy: specially recognized or declared sacred

We are specially recognized by God.  We are declared His sacred sons and daughters.  There is no award, no affirmation, no compliment that can compare to God's value for us.  There is also nothing we can do to attain this value.  This value was set the day that His son was nailed to the cross.  Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we were made wholly children of God; Because He is holy, He decided to make us holy.

~SP