Category Archives: Stories

When I try to get creative and paint some word pictures…

Faith Hero #2 – Jonah

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“One day long ago, God’s Word came to Jonah, Amittai’s son: ‘Up on your feet and on your way to the big city of Nineveh! Preach to them. They’re in a bad way and I can’t ignore it any longer.’ But Jonah got up and went the other direction…”  Jonah 1:1-3  The Msg

When I think of the word “hero”, I don’t typically think of Jonah.  The poor guy gets a bum rap, but he brought that on himself.  He was human, like us, after all.  He faced his share of disappointments, a number of which we can read about in the book named after him in the Bible.

When we first meet him, he has just heard a message from God, the Creator of everything that exists, the Almighty Father of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  “Go to Nineveh and tell them they better turn from their wicked ways or it’s ‘hasta la vista baby’ to their entire existence.”  Disappointment #1:  Jonah is given a task he doesn’t like.  Maybe he was hoping God would send him to minister in the luxurious coastal towns of good repute where the people were kind and pleasant.   The Bible tells us that he immediately got up and started walking in the opposite direction from Nineveh. Continue reading →

Faith Hero #1: Joseph

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The story of Joseph has been one of my favorites for a long time, but especially lately.  If you are lacking faith or need encouragement about having to wait on God, dealing with the unfairness of life sometimes, trusting even when it seems God has left, even reconciling family relationships, you should read his story (Genesis 37-50).

I read his story again this morning and was moved several times to tears.  As I read, I tried to imagine his emotions, the surroundings, the events and life that happened in between the lines of Genesis.   Having heard the story so many times as I grew up, I read it in The Message version today.  I really took my time to think as I followed him from being born to a joyful and relieved mother and father who had waited a long time for his arrival, to growing strong and handsome as the favored son, to being betrayed and disposed of by jealous brothers, to success then unjust imprisonment, to being forgotten and waiting years for change, to success again and eventually restoration of his relationship with his family.

Can you hear his voice yelling up to his brothers, who sat calmly by eating their dinner, as he yelled for them to pull him up out of the cistern?  Continue reading →

Inspired

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Dry bones.

That’s all I am, Lord, unless you breathe into me.

I want to live a life inspired, inhaling Your life-giving Spirit so that my lungs practically burst

Exhaling more of my self with each breath, expelling with crackling wheezes the filth of lies, faulty thinking, selfishness and sin

Your pure love and compassion swelling and beginning to flow in my brittle blood vessels, softening and revitalizing

Truth coursing through them invigorating and nourishing

Your power and grace forming muscle, enabling me to stand

Faith and hope spreading out in a vibrant layer of new skin, holding me together

My new eyes glistening with expectancy, bright and clear

My feet stretching and raising on tiptoe

My face bearing Your resemblance, upturned and clean

My hands raising in surrender, but also in praise to the God who is the beginning of all life

Of all real life.

Inspire me, God.  Breathe Your breath of life in me.

Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”

“O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”  Ezekiel 37:4

Day 3 – Alone

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Forty days is a long time to spend wandering in a rocky, dusty wilderness, especially without food.  Lots of time for thinking, praying, listening, walking, resting, trying to sleep.  It was hard for the tanned and sweaty man not to think about the gnawing hunger and thirst inside.  Then there were the moments of temptation and taunting from the enemy, so artfully crafting arguments to try to persuade Him to abandon his true purpose, even His true identity.  Would he be able to keep his weakening heart and tired eyes focused on obedience and perseverance to complete this time of solitude, to be honed and made more ready for what was coming?  He had God’s Word, He WAS God’s Word and the enemy was no match for that or for Him.   Even so, heading into the wilderness and surviving its lessons and temptations, Jesus was alone.

Once he began teaching and performing miracles, the people couldn’t get enough of Him.  He would teach, heal and love all day, get in a boat with his disciples, arrive at a different place only to see a sea of smiling, eager faces of those who wanted to hear him teach, to have his attention, to feel his healing touch.   Reading about his compassion even when he must have been physically exhausted always amazes me.  No wonder Jesus often got up early before the sun even came up, and went off somewhere by himself.  That time of quiet prayer with God must have been refreshing, even imperative.

Living life with the men He called to follow Him for three years, journeying from town to town, sleeping in others’ homes or outside under the stars, or even by the sea, interacting with hundreds of people in crowds everyday, must have been wonderful, tiring, rewarding, and disappointing all at the same time.  There must have been times when he would pause from teaching to look into the bewildered eyes of his friends and disciples, seeing that they didn’t really understand what He was saying or who He really was.  In those times, I think He felt alone.  Continue reading →

For all of us losers

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Loser.  What comes to mind when you hear that label?  Nerd.  Dork.  Failure.  Outcast.  Someone to make fun of.   It’s not a title anyone relishes or wants.

Have you ever been the loser at any one point in your life?   Or have you been on the other end, the one giving the loser a hard time?

Jesus met lots of losers when he walked the roads of Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth…Samaria.  One time He and his disciples were going through Samaria while heading somewhere else and stopped for a break.  Jesus told the disciples to go on into town to get food while he waited just outside of town by a well.  It was midday and hot.  As he looked out across the stony ground he saw the waves of heat shimmering low and felt the sun baking his already browned arms and hands.  He heard the shuffling of feet drawing nearer and turned to see a woman, all alone, coming to the well for water.  She came in the heat of the day all by herself because she was a loser.  Continue reading →

I’m looking for Jesus

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The angel said to them, “Good news! The Messiah is finally here, bringing peace and hope that’s for everyone.  Here He is, we’ve mysteriously teleported you to the location and stood you directly in front of him.  See?  Just look down.  There he is!”

No wait, rewind…let’s try that again.   The angel said to them, “Good news!  The Messiah is finally here, bringing peace and hope that’s for everyone.  To find him, go look for a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, having been laid in a feeding trough.”

I remember reading through a devotional book years ago that instructed me to daily look for ways God was present in my day, in the life of my family and those around me.  I was looking for something He did every day, some answer to prayer – big or small, something that reminded me of Him or showed me in a fresh way how amazing, beautiful, powerful or creative He is.  Purposefully looking was the key; every day I had at least one thing I could write in my journal and when I looked back over the list later I was so encouraged to remember how God had been so near, so faithful, so good.

In the book “The Last Battle” in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, it is the end of the age and an epic struggle takes place between those who have held to the truth and still believe in Aslan (aka God) and those who have been misled into following a false god.  The final conflict of the story takes place in the dark of night around a campfire that crackles in front of a dingy stable.  Somehow, as the prince and children in the story, dwarves, centaurs, talking animals and all were tussling and battling, Continue reading →

Whose dream are you hoping for?

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Joseph had probably been planning and dreaming for a few years. Now the dream was beginning to materialize: Mary was his betrothed!  He had been working and saving to provide a home for her to come to – to join him and make a family, to have children and love life together.  He couldn’t keep from smiling just at the thought of it all.  She was due back from her visit with her cousin Elizabeth today. He put away his tools and cleaned up from his project, hurried out the door and down the street. As he shielded his eyes from the desert sun, he could see the caravan slowly approaching, wispy dust clouds hovering around the camels’ feet. His heartbeat quickened.  He could make out her pretty face now, her petite form as she dismounted and walked toward him.  Continue reading →