All of life is a progression. Ebb and Flow happen (Ebs and Flows is also a blog by Nick and other contributors) constant change, grow and die. These thoughts always come to mind as the sun bs and flows i. It seems that the most beautiful sunsets do not last very long. I only hope for five minutes to capture some good images on camera. Some call me a sunset junky with a camera and it’s close to an addiction I suppose but the thoughts a sunset stimulate can literally capture ones whole life in those five minutes. Take a look at a recent view a few feet out our front door where we live in the northern Wisconsin.
On the one hand God creates such beauty. No sunset is the same and every image is different of the same sunset. God has given us, as part of his image, the ability to feel His Beauty emotion as we gaze upon something so common as a sunset. For us it happens once a day. Jesus as human, experienced the sun rise and sunset.
I see a sunset as a part of dying. The day is over and in a sense our life will have one last sunset. Some lives are beautiful to the end and finish well. Other lives are shrouded by the clouds of surviving life and busyness. There is a beauty that exudes even from the most pain wracked follower of Jesus. Beauty that burnishes the cloudiest day. Both you and I have seen those warriors ready for the time travel of their life. I saw it in my mom before she left.
Rather than trying to get deep here I leave you with a simple thought given a long time ago to Gods people …”But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15
Our nation has all kinds of gods that we have created. In many ways the sun is setting and our beauty has faded. Pray for Revival anyone? Only God can fix it one life at a time.
Choose with me each day to serve the Lord. May we be a light in the darkness until our last beautiful fading sunset…Gary
How do we learn? Teaching a grand daughter to fish. Picture by my Daughter Tracy Demarse
We are born with a brain in the physical sense. I am told that most of us only use a few percentage points of our brains capacity through out our lives. Huh! Funny word “capacity” . I picture a livestock water tank (from growing up on the farm) that can hold 200 gallons of water and most of us put in 10 gallons our whole life.
Reality check here. The brain is actually closer to being a water balloon with growing expansion room as we grow. Yes, it matters what you put into it! “But wait, there’s more” (to quote the overused commercials). Way more!
What if the brain grew more capacity as it was used? what if capacity (and it does) grows exponentially in the areas used? What if we were created in the image (and we are) and likeness (how much do you know about His likeness?) of God? That part of us that can have a close relationship with our creator and be-becoming like Him in proportion.
Here is my story…and a spiritual illustration.
Trying to get a grand son interested….this is going to take some work
When I was 11 years old a saw blade came off a machine and cut both my arms to the bone, cutting off the main nerves to the rest of the arms, hands and fingers. As I tried to function somehow a doctor told my mother I needed to either play the piano or learn to type; and do it a lot. I now had Hope to be able to use my fingers past being clothespins on the end of my hands. I chose piano. It was slow. Very slow. Somehow I began to use my fingers. After years of playing (even with a degree of proficiency) I began to wonder why I could feel the keys when I played. I could play songs in the dark and actually feel the keys. Hmmm. This is not possible…or is it? What happened?
A few years ago I read an article from a retired neurosurgeon that explained what happened. The brain can actually begin to fill in the blanks (it’s the nerves that tell the brain what is being felt and in essence we experience feeling through the brain. This is why a blind person can use their hands to feel your face and say with confidence “I can see you” and they really can! This is why, when I play the piano, I actually have a touch on the keys and do not just pound away (although pounding was a huge part of learning for me). I can feel the keys and yet get a wood sliver under my fingernail and not feel it until I see it…then the brain kicks in and then says “yep , sorry, this should be hurting….oh, sorry wrong finger. Sometimes my brain still gets the fingers mixed up.
Don’t miss the applications here. I have realized that knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him is way more than knowing about God. It’s like knowing about pianos. The hours spent on the piano for me are way beyond what most people would need to be able to play the piano extremely well.
We come to God, in a sense (pun intended), with our spiritual nerves cut off. The best we can do if we used 100% of our capacity falls extremely short of Gods requirement of perfection.
Our baby brain does not start out leaning toward anything but ourselves. fast forward into adulthood and we have no more capacity to play the piano proficiently or have a deep relationship with God without a “start” in our lives. With the piano the start was easy. Sit down and start banging away right? No I needed someone to at least start me in the right direction, Sit down on the bench, open a beginner’s book, point the way, keep pointing the way and then practice for hours on end every week for years. I started to “feel” the piano keys some time in my 20’s. The progression was extremely slow. Even now, if I quit playing for awhile my feeling of the keys deteriorates rapidly.
I believe a relationship with God is the same way. Our “Start” is when we realize we cannot even know God except through Jesus Christ, your most important relationship (Please see how this is explained in detail here).
Final thought and why I wrote this blog: Knowing Gods heart deeply takes time. Knowing God can be in the next few minutes. Knowing God and His Heart can begin right out of the gate. Knowing God deeply takes a lot of time spent with God. No short-cuts on in-depth relationships of any kind. I am still a beginner but alone time is essential.
Every morning I get up and put my book (not the piano book) in front of me and read my Bible. I ask God for understanding, guidance and honestly have a staff meeting with God. Side Note: God seems to like “obedience” quite a bit. We talk and listen to one another. It’s taken years for this time to not be so one sided. My “feeling” capacity for God and for others has changed me to be more like Jesus. I may be quite slow to love God, others and possibly even my enemies but hey my nerves were cut off as were yours. I suspect that is why there are so many “One Another” commandments in the Bible, sigh, that’s another discussion.
I was restless on this chilly, damp and blustery May day. The kind of day to read a good book by the fire casting it’s heat to thaw the chilled bones. I had been watching the deer mosey around the fenced apple trees and the little song birds getting blown off the feeder by wind gusts. No singing today as they seem to look for spots of refuge from the wind and flapping foliage.
I stood with my camera ready as I had spotted a bright red Scarlet Tanager. A tunnel through the flapping leaves suddenly appeared as my little red bird found a sanctuary on a stout oak limb situated just right behind the tree trunk and out of the wind. The unruffled bird put up with me and even posed a bit. I felt as if we shared some peace in the chaos until little tweetie said “that’s it, I’m done” and off he flew to wherever birds go after a fine photoshoot.
Much has been said about having Peace in the midst of Chaos. Songs written and Poems published but so many times the experience eludes us.
Jesus told his disciples they would encounter chaos (my words) but he promised “My Peace I leave with you” John 14:27. Jesus calmed the storm when the disciples thought they might die. Mark 4:39. Again: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.
Watching this little bird find a brief sanctuary in the chaos made me realize that I spend too much time looking for ways and places to escape the various levels of chaos life seems to daily throw my way. I have also found peace in the storms of life when my walk with Jesus is close. He draws me closer and says “I’m here, experience my peace”. When my trust level with God is high he seems to smile and raise the bar higher. “Trust Me”. Seems cruel on God’s part to give no explanation or relief sometimes.
My Prayer most of my life has been “I need you Jesus”
My wife and I have experienced our share of loss and extremely hard times as well as a great life with adventure and good times. Our trust bar with God has been raised beyond sight. There becomes an unexplainable depth to the sanctuary we find in walking daily with Jesus. unexplained chaos becomes unexplainable depth? hmm.
My hope is that others may see a tunnel through the chaos to where we are sitting and see what they would like to have. Peace inside becoming peace on the outside. That’s my Little red bird lesson. I will not look at the Scarlet Tanager the same way again.
Feel free to share your helpful thoughts and thanks for reading. Trust Jesus.
we sometimes need to forage for hidden nuggets of truth…sometimes right in plain view.
Solitude
Auras of mystery surround places of solitude. The very word fills pages of novels, entices the busy, and secretes fear into the lost. Solitude hides a secret ingredient in the discovery of inner peace. She whispers of fulfilled longings and whisks sweet fantasies into the souls of dreamers.
Solitude begs the wilderness to conspire. “Let the open places call and the forests invite the seeker”. No answer is heard as nature awaits it’s own peace.
Seekers reach for solitude. I slid the canoe into the water quietly at 4:30 am in the Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness. Getting away from camp for my own sense of solitude. 3 portages, a river, and part of a floating bog later I was met by the early morning sunrise on Sema Lake. Crystal clear calm water looked like I was floating on air 40 feet above the rocky lake bottom. It was that moment when I realized that being totally alone without anyone knowing where, did not give me the solitude I was seeking. Only God knew where I was and only His peace could fill me. Of all the places in the world to discover the place of solitude was on the inside. How ironic to find one must be still and get alone when they are already alone. Even more to find out one can be still and utterly alone in the middle of a a busy city (although a park bench might keep us from getting run over).
Solitude is not found in the rocks, trees, skies, or seas. She hides in plain sight while we are distracted by all that surrounds us.Just the fact that we are searching is a seductress. Could it be that solitude is always there waiting for us to slip away from all our distractions into the quiet place of our own heart?
Beware of seeking solitude for solitude’s sake for it is a trysting place. A place to meet with the lover of our soul. A place to know the depths of God’s desires for our heart. A place to listen for Gods voice and bare your soul without uttering a word.
Learn how to practice the the discipline of Solitude wherever you are. Psalm 46: 10 Be still and know that I am God. Could it be that easy?
You don’t have to get to the mountain top to find solitude
Get alone anyway
For in depth information on the discipline of solitude read Jan Johnsons writings and her sources she uses on this little used but necessary ingredient for growth in our walk with God.
What does alone time look like for you? Do you have a trysting place?Please share in the comments at the bottom
I opened up Facebook this morning to see what was going on. more news feeds to get the blood boiling and tempt one to dive into the fray. How to ruin a perfect Saturday morning. No, I need to settle my soul, look for words of encouragement, start the day with time alone with God as I usually do through the week. I share with you some worthwhile thoughts and perhaps share some depth to an undefinable peace that permeates the core of one walking in an intimate fellowship with Jesus. We want all that Jesus gives without taking the time to have an intimate walk with God. Here is a glimpse of my morning time with God. I know my mind goes to many places over a few words of scripture in the mulling.
Hebrews 5:8 Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, and was designated by God to be High Priest.
“Once made Perfect”That took 33 years by the way.
“How are you today?” (overheard in the church entryway) “I’m perfect!” Hmmm…Lester with his gnarly fingers wrapped around a home made cane from a bent and twisted tree that resembled his body frame and the physical trials of life. Lester living in pain was “perfect”. maybe the perfect poster boy for selling home made canes out of bent and twisted tree branches and similar small trees cut to length, debarked, polished and finished into a beautiful product actually. One of a kind, original, possibly perfect and becoming more perfect in the aging, testing, usefulness and possibly essential to another like Lester himself. Sometimes I rebel and actually hate God’s perfectness and all I see is the pain and tragedy of what I would call perfect.
Our middle daughter with 35 surgeries, in constant pain, clinging to a hope that one day she will run and jump and play, is perfect and becoming more perfect as she has her own intimate walk with Jesus. This is hard to accept!
Lester with his attitude and contagious crooked smile. His company is enjoyable and I am better for it. In a world where most things lean toward falling apart rather than building up there is something worth exploring here. Lester is not so perfect for the church basketball team and many other tasks but when did “perfect” take on so many meanings?
As a little kid the perfect Christmas gift could cause all kinds of fights with the siblings. No wonder we received clothes from our grandparents. The perfect husband or wife often becomes very imperfect after being tried and tested with time and life. Parents are perfect until they have kids for even a very short time. The perfect newborn child does not stay perfect very long and the new car gets a scratch and it’s another old beater.
Jesus was made perfect
How strange to think that even though Jesus was perfect he had to be made perfect in order to be our High Priest and intercede for us in front of God. It took 33 years of becoming us, living every moment perfectly, responding perfectly to pain, abuse, temptation, success, all of human life stuff including death. Perfect. Oh, and he also had to conquer his human death to become our advocate before the Father God. He was made perfect.
The one who was made perfect can be making us perfect but we need to trust his sense of perfection!
I have an idea in my head of what my perfection would be. I’m quite sure it’s different than God’s. My life has been detoured quite a bit. I need to trust that God is making me perfect as I trust him. To those who believe in him he declares “Perfect” but He also says (in the context of loving your enemies) “Be perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect” Matthew 5:48
So how are you today? Can we say “I’m Perfect” ? Or “walk with me, this will take awhile”
I stared down at this 13 year old asking me to be his dad. He was serious. I scrambled for words that would straighten out his world a little bit and yet not let him down too far. Both parents worked and his dad seemed to either be gone driving truck or home sleeping. I guess I was Bret’s only adult friend.
I have a skill that did not come easy (very quiet and shy through high school). My hard fought and practiced skill is talking to perfect strangers and being their friend, if only for 30 seconds in the grocery store line. I intentionally practice this skill to this day. It’s easier if they are wearing fishing or hunting T-shirt.
Bret wandered by my house several times a day it was not long in saying Hi and smiling. This led him into my garage to help fix the car or hook up the boat and do a lot of talking about Bret. There was a lot bottled up inside this little man and I merely popped the top off the bottle.
I probably knew more about Bret’s interests, friends, hopes and dreams in a few encounters than his parents or siblings. He met our family in the yard over a homemade ice cream cone and I began to bring him home so he would not stay at our house too long. I was beginning to be his parent teaching him values, time management (“time to get home Bret”) and drawing lines (“do you want to become like your friend Jack? I could visit you behind bars on Thursdays!”). Bret was learning how to think and make decisions on a junior high level. I like to think I took off his training wheels in that department.
I have a dad (and mom) who knew how to be Dad as Parent and Dad as friend. The relationship was intentional, planned and well executed from the cradle through college. As time went on Dad and Mom prayed very hard for wisdom beyond what they could muster for all seven of their kids (That is probably why we survived some of our choices). Dad was pure parent until age 12 when he began to take his hands off my decision making steering wheel. I had to begin making choices and be responsible for them. There was plenty of talk time about those little choices and how I would have much bigger ones as I aged. I was responsible for choices and reaped the consequences (good or bad) in chores, handling money, school sports and even developing my own personal quiet time with God.
Over an ice cream cone, I told Bret that as the oldest, his parents were really trying hard to make a home for him and his siblings. When his dad was gone he was man of the house and they needed him to mow the grass, help his mother with the house and maybe make some of his own money mowing the neighbor’s lawns and doing odd jobs for people. I also told him that his dad needed him to be his friend. “Talk to him, find out his hopes and dreams, ask how you can help be the man of the house when he is gone”.
Bret was quiet when I took him home. I suspect Bret made some choices after that day. He did not roam the neighborhood as much. I had turned him down as dad. I suspect good came of this odd friendship as Bret’s mom was driving by one day and stopped at the end of our short drive. “I just have to say thank you for being Bret’s friend”. We moved not long after.
Wherever you are Bret, I hope you have learned how to be a Dad Parent and a Dad Friend to your kids. I also hope you have developed a relationship with the God of the universe like we talked about.
My grand daughters is not afraid of snakes…we should take lessons
It started in the Garden of Eden. We can blame the snake but our motives, words and actions loudly shout to the rest of the world if we are truly followers of Jesus. The problem is that much of the world seems confused over what following Jesus looks like including His followers. I include myself here.
I was minding my own business, I thought, attempting to sing some new song along with the worship band in church “He is Lord” Umm…let’s talk about that.
I physically trembled, tears came and I quit singing as random everyday life s
Subjects flittered (in a millisecond it seemed) through my mind. Three words in the middle of the song and I came undone. My “Christian” friends are typical people.
Driving: A highway Patrol friend saying “sooner or later everyone in the church will be a customer, and they all have an excuse”. There is something wrong here! Don’t they know obedience? (Romans 13:1)
Work: An employee friend telling me he would do an extra job but not for me or the company but for himself only. This is his common unhappy response. I watch “Christian” people subtly steal time, talent and resource from the company. Don’t they know they are working for Jesus? (Colossians 3:23)
Marriage: A friend saying to me “I’m not happy, it’s my wife’s fault. All she does is play computer games and Facebook”. Sorry guy but take the lead, she is waiting for you to Love her in your retirement (Ephesians 5:28-33)
Prayer: All the times I have heard “it’s too personal”. Wow, what a privilege to have an audience with God, you know the author of the universe who invites us into a most intimate relationship that we were created to have. (Philippians 4:6-7)
Scripture Reading: “I’m too busy”, “I don’t get into reading”, “I listen to Christian music”, and “I figure the pastor will tell me what I need to know”. OK, can I interpret that as “I’m too busy and important to read instructions from the King of the universe about whom I am, who and whose I should be and how I should handle life.(Hebrews 11:6)
A myriad of thoughts flew by but one remained to become a prayer, I suspect the Holy Spirit got my attention; “God help us all. We need revival in this land”.
