Tag Archives: path

Muchness

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[SPOILER alert: If you haven’t seen the latest “Alice in Wonderland” film you may not want to read on]

I tend to see the “deep” in just about everything.  I can’t help it really.  Because of this I’m always watching for messages and morals in movies and books and when I find one it can move me and stay with me a while, giving me ponder material.  When I saw the “Fellowship of the Ring” and watched near the end as Sam tried to swim after Frodo to keep him from going on his terrible quest alone, I cried seeing the loyalty and tenacity of his friendship played out on the big screen.  I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise. “Don’t you leave him Samwise Gamgee.” And I don’t mean to. I don’t mean to. It was beautiful to me.  Likewise when I watched the last movie, “Return of the King” I was moved at the visual image of battle scenes between good and evil, dark and light…the willing sacrifice to fight for what was right in a last-ditch effort to push back what was so wrong.  It reminded me of the world we live in and the battle we fight as followers of Christ.

Sometimes when I mention what I learned from or got out of a movie, my family will humor me  with rolled eyes but then say things like “I thought the graphics were amazing!”  or “I liked the fight scene” or “wasn’t it funny when Gandalf smacked Sam on the head with his staff?”  I do remember after watching “Napoleon Dynamite” a few years ago, Krissy saying to me, “I didn’t see any lesson in that movie, Mom.”  I actually agreed with her on that one.

I was surprised when we went to see the latest remake of “Alice in Wonderland” to find myself inspired by some of what I saw and heard.  Continue reading →

WTDWYDKWTD #3

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“The godly offer good counsel…”  Psalm 37:30

“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume…”  Proverbs 27:9

If you know me at all, you know that when something is on my mind I need to talk about it…a lot.  I have times of quiet, to be sure, when I need to pray and think, but I also need to process my thoughts by talking with someone.  I think everyone is like that to a certain extent.   My husband is my absolute best friend and partner, but sometimes I need to talk to someone a little more outside the situation – someone who hopefully can be objective.

There’s wisdom in seeking out a godly friend to listen and give feedback when you’re not sure what to do.  Be sure to choose your listener/adviser/counsel wisely.  (Whenever I say “choose wisely” I think of the 3rd Indiana Jones movie scene when the bad guy chose the wrong holy chalice and got his face melted off.  Please…choose wisely!)  It doesn’t make sense to ask just anyone what I should do or what they think, if they don’t believe the same things I do.  For instance, if I shared a story about someone who had hurt me with a non-believing friend, they might advise me to just ignore that person from now on or even take revenge somehow.  Continue reading →

Don’t look at the headlights

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I walked out into the warm, humid, early morning air to take my jog for today and headed up the road.  I could tell it was overcast.  Even though it was dark as night, the cloud cover seemed thick and low.  There are two paths I can take in the morning, one heads north toward two nearby neighborhoods, the other east toward a big neighborhood.  Either way, I have to do my warm-up walk by dark woods before I get to sidewalks and houses.  I don’t relish that as the dark woods kind of give me the creeps!   On a clear morning the dawn begins lightening the sky by the time I head back toward home…but I knew it wouldn’t be that way today.

As I walked, the path was barely visible but I know the route well.  I was determined to warm-up at a fast pace and get to the street-light lined street quickly.  Whenever a car appeared, heading my way, the headlights were blinding.  I made the mistake of looking toward them the first time and the path disappeared – the lights being so bright everything else became completely black.  The next time a car drove by I kept my eyes on the path and even though it was barely visible ’til the car passed by, I could still see where I was going.  It made me think of a great devotional I read a few days ago by John Piper about the verses in Matthew 6:22, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. 23But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness.”   I’ve read that verse many times but often thought Jesus had it backwards.  The eye as a lamp?  It gave me a mental image of someone with eyes shining like flashlights on everything around them.  Now that would come in handy on these dark early morning jaunts!   Continue reading →

Another chance

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As we sat outside Starbucks on the patio, enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze, we laughed and laughed.  Rather than feeling awkward like I feared it might be, I was actually completely at ease and felt like I did the last time I got to be with these friends.  “How long has it been?” we asked each other.  “16 years?  That doesn’t seem possible!”   We took turns catching each other up, going back to 16 years ago and giving the nutshell version of life for us since then.  So much has happened since we lost touch with each other – much blessing, much hurt and growing.

I actually didn’t think this day would ever happen.  The friends I’m talking about were very close and dear friends to John and I when we were first married.  We shared community and prayer like never before with them and several other couples in our first small group experience.  We spent lots of time together, talking, laughing, walking, praying, sharing.  A few years into this great friendship, John and I moved to Florida to work in a church there.  Coming back to visit one summer was fun, but already felt a little different.  You know how things change in a relationship when you’re not able to spend much time together.  You tell yourself that it will probably never be quite like it was.

God began leading us different ways, as if I saw my special friend and her husband walking farther and farther away from me until I couldn’t see them at all.   Life has a way of becoming so busy that unless we’re really intentional about staying in touch with people, it just doesn’t happen.  We lost touch.  Continue reading →

As Iron Sharpens Iron

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Today God answered a prayer I prayed recently. I prayed he would keep me humble. I don’t know why I keep praying that prayer. He always answers and it is always painful – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. This time it involved something I have done for a while and did recently that hurt a dear friend of mine. I don’t like admitting it or facing the parts of myself that have yet to be pruned away completely. At the same time, I realize that although God wants us to “forget” ourselves so that He can shine through us, he doesn’t want us to go so low as to feel sorry for ourselves or dwell on the awfulness of a flaw or mistake.

knifesharpMy friend graciously forgave me as we talked this afternoon. I’ve been thinking about it since and remembered that verse in Proverbs 27:17, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” As we walk our path alongside our friends we sometimes clash, sometimes accidentally bang into one another, sometimes get scraped. If we’re following Jesus, He can use these “incidents” to sharpen each of us, to mold us, to perfect us. This type of shaping is bound to hurt – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot – but the end result can be good.

God’s been speaking to me a lot lately about forgetting myself, about letting Him always be in the lead and in control, about trusting him and others around me. It’s not about me (where have I heard that before?). Today I was reminded that things don’t have to be perfect or just so to glorify God. Don’t I think that God can work in and through all that we do, perfectly done or not? Who’s to say my way is the perfect right way anyway? That alone speaks of a pride issue in my heart – or that I think pretty highly of my opinion.

This past week in church we heard a message about the poor in spirit inheriting all that God has to offer, now and forever. Poor in spirit – realizing I have nothing without God, that without God and his mercy I would be utterly lost and completely without hope. It was evidently time for a reminder for me! I’m thankful for a gracious friend who doesn’t begrudge me the scrapes I unintentionally gave her this week.

Maybe God will even use our rough patch of path to hone her as well, making her even more beautiful and effective for His use. I sure hope He does that in me.

“As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” Prov. 27:17 NLT