Tag Archives: trust

TGYWTT

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This morning I realized that I forgot Thankful Thursday again!  So instead of TGIF, today I say TGYWTT:  Thank God Yesterday Was Thankful Thursday.

This time I want to thank God for the things I usually think of as negative or unwanted in my life.  I know He uses everything to help us grow, to strengthen us, to keep us humble, to help us remain desperate for Him.  Thanking God even for the awful things you encounter is a way of saying “I trust You, God, and still believe that you’re good.  I believe what you said about causing all things to work together for good.” (Romans 8:28)  Like the Psalmist said in chapter 118, “Thank God because he’s good, because his love never quits.” (The Msg)  I thank God because He’s good and that never changes….so I can always be thankful.

As a follower of Jesus I say that I’m content whatever comes my way because my life belongs to Him and I trust Him.  Can I take it a step further and actually be thankful for the hard stuff that comes my way?  Sometimes I can.  I try to.  I guess that’s what the song means that says “we bring a sacrifice of praise.”  Being thankful can actually feel like sacrifice.   We may not feel thankful but we choose to be.  So here goes… Continue reading →

It’s going to be good

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I don’t know what’s ahead tomorrow; don’t even know what’s ahead in a few hours or two minutes from now.  But it’s going to be good.

It may be something different from what I plan.  It may hurt.  It may make me laugh.  I might be overjoyed or concerned, scared, relieved, bewildered or surprised but I belong to a good God so it’s going to be good.  Good doesn’t necessarily mean “happy” or comfortable or even pleasant.  There’s a deeper good that God knows and wants to give.

My God who keeps His promises.  My God who loves and loves and loves.  We can’t out-give Him.  He is good.

Sadly, the hard stuff of life can sometimes cause me to see God as indifferent, angry, or unkind.  What if instead I saw Him as He is:  a wholly devoted, attentive, compassionate Dad who can relate to how I feel in every moment.

Have you ever bought a gift for someone and you know it’s exactly what they want and waiting until it’s time to give it to them is almost unbearable?  You just can’t wait to give it to them because you know how happy they will be and you want to make them happy because you love them.  God probably has to restrain Himself from bowling us over with revelations, blessings, and knowledge of outcomes because it’s for our good, because it’s not time yet or we’re not ready to receive what He has for us yet.  I think He can hardly wait to help us and show us all that He has planned.  I imagine it’s especially hard for Him when He has to remain silent, watching while we cry out, all so that we will search more, grow more, and become stronger.

Sometimes when talking with friends about things I don’t understand we say that when we get to heaven we can ask God about it.  Maybe then He’ll finally show me what it was all about or why certain things happened.

You know what?  I don’t think I will care at that point!  When I see Him face to face – the One who somehow shrunk His vastness down into the tiny, frail body of a human baby and grew up among the limited, common folks He Himself made out of dust, and then actually gave his life up for all of us because of unrelenting love – I think all I will be able to say is “thank you.”

All the stuff that happened here will be wiped from my memory and won’t matter anymore.  All that will matter is that it drove me to Jesus and helped me get home.

It’s going to be so good.

“…open your eyes and see—how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.”  Psalm 34:8  The Message

“You bless all of those who trust you, LORD.”  Psalm 40:4  CEV

Not sure I wanna go there again

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She stood there for what seemed like an hour, hesitating, looking at the guy at the bottom of the ramp urging her to go for it, then back at me, then down at the skateboard she stood on perched on the edge.  I could tell her heart and mind were working at 100 mph trying to decide what to do.  She wanted to be a skater and had pretty much mastered the horizontal, flat ground skating. Now she was trying to learn to “drop in”: when the skater presses their front foot down on the board and rides down the steep curvy ramp. The idea is to stay on the skateboard of course and keep going once you’re on level ground.  She had attempted dropping in on the smaller ramp at least 15 times, each time wiping out and landing flat on her tailbone – the one place with no protective padding. Now she was perched on the big ramp but not so sure.  Continue reading →

Shifting Gears

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My dad learned the hard way:  never bring hot coffee along when teaching a 16-year-old how to drive a stick shift.  We bounced around the high school parking lot in the rusty little 70’s Dodge Colt, almost banging into curbs and barely missing light poles.  It took me a while but I got the hang of it and then I loved it.  There was that one time, though, when I was still getting used to the whole idea and accidentally put my clutch in instead of the brake as we rounded a corner.  My mom shrieked.  My little sis and brother laughed and flew around in the back seat. Continue reading →

Daredevils

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What some find entertaining, I often find too stressful to enjoy watching:  daredevils.  Those reckless, bold, wild people who love to walk a tightrope way too high over a busy street or catapult themselves across canyons or jump long rows of semi-trucks, just for fun, just to prove they can do it.  Have you noticed that a single danger isn’t usually enough?  “Not only will I jump my motorcycle over these trucks, I’ll do it BLINDFOLDED!  And we’re setting all the trucks on FIRE!  AND I’ll be holding my tiny, helpless kitten ‘Snuffy’ as I jump across!  I SPIT in the face of fear and death!”  Did Snuffy get a say in this??  The crowd leans forward on the edge of their seats to watch, holding their breath, loving every minute.  Continue reading →

Really trusting

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It’s one thing for a little girl to say she trusts her daddy, it’s another for her to crouch down and jump up away the firm concrete, out into his arms over the deep end of the swimming pool.

It’s one thing to say you believe in heaven and another to keep believing when you’ve lost someone you love and your faith means they’re actually in heaven now.  Are they really?

It’s one thing to proclaim God will provide and another to have to depend on that claim, waiting for some miracle or revelation of something you can do because you’re out of money and have rent to pay or an empty pantry. Continue reading →

Come on, let go

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I feel like I’ve been holding in my little hands things and dreams I expected to keep or have, even prayers answered the way I think they should be.  I also feel like God has been reaching down with His big daddy hands, grasping mine and shaking them so I’ll let go of the stuff I think is good but He knows is not what I really need or want.  I remember when my girls were very young, shaking their chubby little hands at times to make them let go of something, like handfuls of dirt or some other yucky thing they were about to put into their mouth. Continue reading →

Roots

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My sister, Jodi, writes a monthly newsletter for women about overall well-being and making healthy choices.  Her words are always encouraging and helpful.  This month she shared a great illustration about a vine that keeps cropping up near their house, because although they’ve cut and pulled it away time and time again, there is evidently still a root in the ground somewhere and so it keeps coming back.  Jodi says that similarly, in our lives, if we don’t get to the root of a problem, we can cut and pull at symptoms that show on the outside but they’ll just keep recurring.  So true!

If a negative attitude or thought sits long enough inside our hearts, I believe it begins to take root and will be harder to get rid of than if we extract it as soon as we notice it there.  Continue reading →

Fighter

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I’ve talked so much about Zumba class and how much I love it that my friends and family are probably tired of hearing it.  Let me just say that God brought it to me when I needed an outlet, some fun, some community, and of course some exercise.

Right now one of the songs we dance/exercise to is Christina Aguilera’s song “Fighter.”  We do some kickboxing during the chorus:

It makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

Christina Aguilera “Fighter” ©2003

She’s singing about someone who cheated on her and did her wrong, but I when I hear those words I usually think of something I’m struggling with (or friends and family are facing) like temptation, feeling down, disappointment, challenges, etc.  Yesterday I was thinking about cancer.  Continue reading →