A Time for Everything

On August 9th, Wayne & I gathered with family & friends to celebrate the marriage of our daughter.  On August 16th, we gathered with family & friends to mourn the death of his father.  Today we face a rainy, home-bound day thanks to Tropical Storm Fay.  It gives me a chance to pause and contemplate King Solomon’s words in Ecclesiastes 3 (NKJV).

To everthing there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:  A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time break down, And a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. (vs 1-4)

We have danced and we have mourned.  This life is full of joy and sorrow, sunshine and rain.  There is a season for it all.   The ups and downs of life will come for ALL of us – sometimes in big bundles, sometimes in little snip-its.  But in ALL of it…in every single minute of it…God is there.  “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”  (Psalm 46:1 NIV)  He is ever-present, He is in it all.  His presence gives it all purpose and meaning and hope.  His presence gives us perspective on the here-and-now and motivation for the future.

“A time for everything”…in the midst of our personal joy and sorrow, we continue to look beyond ourselves as we are called to participate in something bigger than ourselves.  We have the privilege of joining together with our church and community as we finally “land” in our new Ministry Center on C.R. 210 in the next few weeks.  Sunday (8/24) begins 7 days of prayer at 7 o’clock as we seek God’s heart and provision to face the WALLS that are before us.  We continue to move forward because God is with us and because God gives it all purpose and meaning and hope.

Plans

A couple of days ago Wayne and I celebrated our 24th anniversary!  Where did the time go?  How can I be old enough to be married 24 years???  On Monday, we nibbled on delicious crab cakes while absorbing the sights and sounds of the Atlantic Ocean…and we reflected on how we ended up “here”. 

“Here” is a beautiful place to live:  a loving, wonderful home; meaningful ministry and work; three awesome kids; a fantastic church family & lots of stress - and all a short drive from the ocean.  We started out in the Chicago suburbs with humidity in the summer and snow in the winter.  We were full of plans then–plans for financial success and a whole lot of other things that have long since been forgotten.  We never would have planned Florida, full-time pastoral ministry, church planting, or even three kids (two maybe, but three?).  But “here” we are 24 years into a marriage that gets better every year…quite content to jump (together, of course) into God’s plans.

How did we get here?  Proverbs 3:5-6, that’s how. 

Step-by-step, yoked to Christ (see earlier posts), we’ve trusted the Lord with all our hearts, we’ve leaned on him, we’ve acknowledged him as Lord–and He has led us on the straight path to RIGHT “HERE“. 

Redemption

As I’ve been preparing for this Sunday’s Mother’s Day message, the POWER of REDEMPTION amazes me once again.  God is a God of HOPE in the midst of hopelessness!  Rahab-the-prostitute became Rahab-the-honored-mother through FAITH in the One True God.  (Joshua 2, Matthew 1:5, Hebrews 11:31  James 2:25)  No matter how hopeless our story may begin, God can redeem us and transform us and re-write the story of our lives into something beautiful!! Our past does NOT have to dictate our future–not when our faith is in the God of Hope!  (That’s a glass-half-full perspecitve if I ever heard one! )

Promises

There are some great promises in the Bible.  Promises like “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”  (Phil 4:19) and “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  (Matt 6:33)

The promises are one of the AWESOME parts about being yoked to Christ.  The promises come to reality when we walk IN STEP on this journey with Christ.  I’m thankful to be reminded of the promises today!

Perspective

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”  (Matt 11:29) 

“Teach me dear Lord, to live all of my life through your eyes…” (see Apr 18 post)

Perspective.  By nature, I’m a glass-half-empty kind of person.  A couple of decades living with a glass-half-full husband has helped me gain perspective.  At least now, I at least consider both halfs! 

Walking yoked to Christ challenges my perspective every day.  I’m way out of my comfort zone now, somehow I got here step-by-step as I’ve walked in joyful obedience in a relationship with my Savior.  It is only by nurturing that relationship–that Matthew 11:28-30 relationship–that I can keep that glass-half-full perspective.  I must daily come to him, learn from him and receive his rest for my soul.  Maybe being out of my comfort zone isn’t such a bad place to be.  It makes me look up before I look forward:  Not a bad perspective. 

I’ve got no place else to go

During the past two weeks, I’ve grown a bit weary.  It always happens the first two weeks of April…it comes with the territory when you are a tax accountant (April 15 should be a national holiday!!).  My role as a “mom” needs some significant attention too…with some extra health needs in the family and a wedding only 3 1/2 months away.  Not to mention being a “part-time” pastor of a church in the midst of a LOT of transiton! 

So, what do I do when I get weary and burdened?  I go to Matthew 11:28-30.  First thing this morning I ignored my “to do” list, put on my tennis shoes, grabbed my music and headed out into the sunshine.  As I exercised my body, I responded to Jesus’ call to “Come to me”…after all, “I’ve got no place else to go” (a line from an old movie that has hung on to me )

A Kutlass song, “All Who Are Thirsty” resonated in my heart: “All who are thirsty, all who are weak, just come to the fountain, dip your heart in the stream of life.  Let the pain and the sorrow be washed away, in the waves of his mercy as the deep cries out to deep.  We say ‘Come Lord Jesus, come…”

A Darlene Zschech song  “The Potter’s Hand” followed:  “Beautiful Lord, Wonderful Savior, I know for sure, all of my days are held in your hand, crafted into your perfect plan.  You gently call me into your presence,  guiding me by your Holy Spirit.  Teach me dear Lord, to live all of my life through your eyes.  I’m captured by your holy calling, set me apart, I know you’re drawing me to yourself, lead me Lord, I pray.”

Wow!  The words turned to prayers and my physical body and my soul were both refreshed.  Are my days held in His hand?  Will He lead me through the challenges ahead?  The song “Great is Thy Faithfulness” followed.  What can I say?  I can only predict the future by looking at the past.  And when I look at the past, I see His faithfulness.  “I’ve got no place else to go.”

Teach me

When you are yoked to Christ, you don’t sit still very long.  Yokes were never meant for standing still.  Finding the rest that Jesus calls us to in Matthew 11: 28-30 requires staying in step with him…moving his direction, at his speed.  That’s not easy.  It’s daily praying “Show me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.”  (Psalm 25:4-5).  It’s knowing Jesus by knowing his Word.  It is a  relationship lived out one decision at a time.  It is a journey taken–one step at a time.

Learning

Jesus said “take my yoke upon you and learn from me…”.  I guess if I’m yoked to Christ…bound to Him…I’m going to learn a thing or two.  I read that in the good-old-days of plowing fields with oxen, they would sometimes put a new ox with a more experienced one so the young one would learn how to do his part.  Jesus is “gentle and humble in heart”–He doesn’t force us to take up His yoke and he doesn’t force us to learn from Him.  But when I consider WHO He is and who I am–well, it sounds like a pretty good invitation. 

Unequal

I guess it depend on who you are yoked to. 

My understanding is that when they used to use yokes for plowing fields, they would match oxen of relatively equal strength and size.  If I am yoked to Jesus–well, there’s not much equal about that!  The more I get involved with God’s Kingdom, the more inadequate and weak I realize I am.  I’m a pretty tenacious person…you should have seen me carrying tables around at 9 o’clock tonight as I was helping set up for Sunday!   But this KINGDOM business is a lot heavier load than I can carry. (By the way, “Manual Labor 101″ should be a required seminary course for every up-and-coming-visionary-pastor-in-training.  It puts it all in perspective.  But dragging tables is NOT the kind of load I am talking about.)

On my own, my weakness would get the best of me and I would have quit a thousand times already this year (and it’s only March!).  But yoked to Christ–bound to Him–I keep moving forward and, by the grace of God, I get to share in plowing the Kingdom fields.  As a matter of fact, this week I got to pray with a young man as he came to Jesus and accepted the gift of salvation.  It was a great reminder of why we do what we do–and why a yoke isn’t so bad after all!

Choice

I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11: 28-30 as kind of a 2-part invitation.  He said “come to me” and “take my yoke upon you”.  Can I do one without the other?  Can I come to him and ignore the yoke?  Can I find rest for my soul without the yoke?  A yoke ties two together.  If I’m yoked to Jesus, I’m bound to him.  Where he goes, I go.