The Woods are Lovely, Dark and Deep

In traditional Jagger style, we were running late for our Father's Day celebrations. Try as we might, it always takes us forever to leave for anywhere. After church we got ready to head down to the Bob Jones Bike Trail in Avila, which is a lovely meandering path through a wooded area, ending right at the beach. It took us so long to get down there that when we arrived the parking lot was crowded and so was the trail, but mostly with people headed back the other way.

Our family rode our bikes all in a row, through the path, down to the beach.

 We played catch on the beach, watched our daughters run to the edge of the water and back. We walked to the end of the pier and then walked down underneath it, where we saw huge starfish on the pylons, as the sun slanted through the water.

 We followed this by a great dinner and some ice cream. By the time we finished, it was nearly dusk, and time to get back on the trail for the bike ride back.

By now, not a soul was on the trail except our family. We rode along quietly, enjoying the evening sounds of birds and the running brook beside the trail. The darkening woods surrounding the path made it so rich and still; it made me think of the line in the Robert Frost poem that says "The woods are lovely, dark and deep." Being with my family in the quiet made me feel so peaceful and content.

I thought about the verse in Philippians where it talks about the peace of God, and how it passes understanding. The peace I was feeling was so wonderful, but God's peace is even bigger than that.

Philippians 4:6-7 says,

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. (NLT)

No matter what joys we know, God has something even better. He is worthy of such praise, and I am so filled with thankfulness that he is a God of peace.

Lord, thank you that we get a taste of what your kingdom will be like. Thank you for sweet times with our families, and that you enable us to feel a peace beyond anything we can understand. I praise you, and I love you.

Famous Last Words

There was a link online tonight about the last words of famous people, who knew they were dying. What a difference between the last words of believers and non-believers.

Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest) yelled at her housekeeper for praying for her as she was dying, demanding that she not call upon God to help her.

By contrast, Mother Teresa's final words, so simple, were "I love you, Jesus, I love you."

Tammy Faye Messner's last words were "I'm in the hands of Jesus." During an interview with Larry King awhile before her death, she tells him she knows without a shadow of doubt that when she dies she will be in heaven with Jesus.

During their lives, and up to the very end, these women proclaimed their love and reliance on Jesus. He is our reason for life, and our reason for hope.


Lord Jesus, please help me to get rid of things in my life that come between you and me. Help me to know to the core of my being that you are everything. I know that you are all we need, our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Help me to proclaim your name and to give my life to you.

More than you can Dream

When we first moved into our house, there was a lovely row of mature cottonwood trees just behind our fenceline. These trees were one of our favorite things about our backyard. In the summer heat, the backyard was a good 15 degrees cooler than the front, and the shade was perfect for our little daughters playing on a hot summer day. We loved to sit outside and hear the rustle of the leaves in the breeze.

One day I came home to hear loud sawing noises from behind our house. I looked out the upstairs window, and saw that there was a crew of men methodically sawing down each tree behind our fence, until nothing was left but stumps. I broke into tears, and cried on and off for days.

Our once-pleasant backyard was now glaringly bright and hot, with no shelter from the sun. I couldn't understand why anyone would get rid of such wonderful trees, and there was nothing I could do about it.

But...

What we didn't know was that many of the trees and shrubs in our own yard had their growth stifled by all that lovely shade. Grapevines had gone years without growing more than a couple inches. With all the sunlight in the yard now, everything started to grow like crazy.

The grapevines shot up and over the slatted wood patio cover, covering the top completely, and produced a nice little grape harvest. The butterfly bush grew to immense proportions, leaning over at just the right angle to shade our porch swing. My favorite rose bushes produced the most gorgeous pink-and-white roses. And most delightful of all, a little cottonwood shoot from the tree stump made its way under the fence to our yard, where it grew like crazy, just in time for our growing daughters to have their own climbing tree. Our yard is shady once again, but this time from our own trees.

We spend lots of time in the yard now. The girls climb up our tree almost every day, hiding high up in the leaves, and my husband and I spend hours sitting in our porch swing, enjoying the shade and the rushing sound of the leaves and the mottled light dappling the ground.

I feel God so much in this gift. God wants more for us than to admire the beauty in someone else's garden; he wants to give us a garden of our own, to tend and to love. And he can take a loss and turn it into something better than we could dream.

God, thank you so much for the sweet gifts you give. Though sometimes losing things is painful and confusing, your hand is in the goodness that comes afterwards. Help me to trust you more during the difficult times, and rest in the assurance that  you cause all things to work for good, and that you answer prayer beyond what we can dream.

Because You're Worth It

"You deserve it." "Because you're worth it." "Visa--it's everywhere you want to be." Advertising is everywhere, convincing us that we're not enough, that we need more. And not only do we need more, but our culture tells us that we deserve more, that having more stuff makes us better people. So we spend and spend and are never satisfied. Our culture pushes us into this cycle of buying, but this is far removed from the treasures God has planned for us.

In Luke 12:15, Jesus says "Beware! Don't be greedy for what you don't have. Real life is not measured by how much we own."

Real life is not measured by how much we own. I think we all know that, and yet look at how many people seem to be living the opposite, measuring their worth by their possessions.

So how is real life measured? In Luke 12:21 it says, "A person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not to have a rich relationship with God." And later in Luke, Jesus reminds us that "Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be." (12:34)

The world may try to sell us stuff, but these treasures are not long-lasting. The next time I am tempted to spend my money unwisely, I hope that I will remember these words, and know that nothing I own can give me real life. A deep relationship with God, and only that, is an eternal treasure. Because God is worth it, and his love satisfies like nothing else.

Lord, thank you for your words that free us from the things the culture pushes us towards. Let my thoughts and heart be with you always, knowing that you are the real treasure.

Go for Broke

Would you give up part of your last meal to a stranger?

I can't say that I would. Generosity is not always one of my strong points. Oh, I can be generous when I feel like I have a lot to spare, but when I feel my resources dwindling I tend to shut down on sharing.

That's why I was so amazed to read the story of the widow at Zarephath in 1 Kings 17. There we find a woman, a widow, living in the middle of a drought, with only enough food for one more meal for her and her son. That meal is all that stands between her family and death.

Along comes a stranger, Elijah, who not only asks her for water, but also for food. She explains how little she has. Elijah assures her that her food will not run out, that the Lord has promised that "the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain on the land." (1 Kings 17:14)

I'm not sure that I would be filled with faith at a moment like that. The widow had a son to feed, and there was barely enough for the two of them. Yet "she went away and did as Elijah had told her." (1 Kings 17:15)

Afterward, "there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah." (1 Kings 17:15-16)

What if the widow had said no to Elijah? It would be understandable to not share your last meal with a stranger. Had she said no, she would have had one meal. But she said yes, and instead of just one meal, she had an abundance of food, enough for Elijah and her family for some time. This seems like a perfect picture of our loving God, who blesses more abundantly than we can imagine when we let go and say "yes."

Lord, reading about this widow humbles me. Please help me to overcome my lack of generosity. Help me to recognize those in need and to share willingly with them. Thank you for your abundant love and provision.

Never Pray for Patience

Maybe you've heard that you should never pray for patience, because God will put you in an abundance of situations where you can learn it. Doesn't that sound awful? I know it's not really true, but whenever I want to pray for patience, I start getting visions of jury duty, slow checkout lines, the DMV, slow talkers, and watching Fox News with my husband. Then I usually decide that I don't want to risk it.

The sad thing is, I really do need more patience. I snap at people I love when they are not moving fast enough for me. I don't understand how people can do just one thing at a time. Yet I've never prayed to be more patient.

Patience does seem pretty awful if you only imagine tolerating terrible situations as they drag on and on. But the verses in the Bible about patience paint a different picture.

Love is patient. (1 Corinthians 13:4)

Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus. (Romans 15:5)

Those who wait on the Lord (patiently) shall renew their strength. (Isaiah 40:31, parenthesis mine)

A patient man calms a quarrel. (Proverbs 15:18)

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)

Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act. (Psalm 37:7)

I really had no idea that patience had such a positive side. I mean, I knew it was a virtue, but I thought that was just because you were suffering silently. These verses show me differently. Patience renews strength, calms quarrels, allows God to act on our behalf, gives us a harvest. Being patient means we are trusting God. And He is a God of patience Himself. How blessed I am that He is patient. What a blessing I could be if I were patient with others.

Lord God, thank you for your words in the Bible that help me to change my perceptions. Help me to become more patient person, and to understand that being patient means letting go and trusting in you. Lord, help me to be still in your presence, patiently awaiting your plans.

The Best Outfit

I love to try to figure people out. Do you ever do that? I love to observe and watch people's reactions to each other... maybe it's from majoring in counseling, I don't know. But one thing I have noticed over and over is that people can be very compassionate towards someone else's struggles when they themselves have been through that same thing.

Maybe you're having some big personal problems, or having relationship issues. Maybe you're stuck with a sin that you can't seem to shake. Perhaps you struggle with addiction, or depression. Someone who has been there before knows what you're going through. Those are great friends to have. They say things like "I've been there. I know how it is. You're going to be okay."

On the other side of the coin are those who have not been through what you are going through, and maybe feel free to pass judgement. They might ask why you haven't tried this or that to fix your problem, or ask how you even got there in the first place. After talking to someone like that, you might be inclined to heap even more judgement upon yourself.

Which kind of friend are you? Which kind of friends do you have?

I'm pretty sure I've been both, depending on the issue. But my prayer is that God would grant me the heart to be compassionate regardless of my thoughts or feelings. It is not my place to judge, but it is definitely my place to love.

Colossians 3:12 says this: "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Clothe yourself with compassion. I love that. We are dearly loved, and therefore we are called to dearly love.

Lord God, please help me to love others the way that you love me, and to reach out to those who are suffering. Help me, Lord, to be gentle and kind in my responses to others. Grant me a heart full of love and compassion, overflowing.