Whines and Complaints

“Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the LORD, and when he heard them his anger was aroused.” Numbers 11:1

As the Israelites broke camp and set on their new journey they were warned that there would be difficulties in taking the promised land. They had just spent an extended time with God, experienced His magnificent presence and were the audio recipients of God’s voice. How much more did they need to trust Him? But there they were once again, grumbling and complaining about the next trek of their journey.

How soon we forget! My sister and I tease about our family aimlessly running around much like the children of God with good intentions but falling into the same traps as our predecessors. We ask, we plead and we petition to the Father only to be followed up with questions, concerns and complaints (many times). We each have a promised land for which we seek. Our promised land is as individual as each child of God. Sometimes it is a prodigal child returning home, a new job, a new marriage or even freedom from something that has enslaved us.

I remember one day when my children were young and the complaints of the day had overtaken me. I had listened to each complaint, responded for the most part with patience and reminded them of the important reasons for my decisions. It didn’t matter how much time I spent with them they were going to complain about something... anything! I finally decided at 3:00 pm that my day with them was done (Bruce was to be home in about an hour), and that I was going to remove my presence from them. Essentially, I told them I was sending myself to my room. I couldn’t take their grumbling anymore so I left them to wallow in their misery. When I returned in about an hour they were much more thankful and wanted time with me.

I believe that God pulls back His fellowship with us when He senses an ungrateful heart, a grumbling spirit and a mind not focused on Him. We know intuitively when we possess a grumbling spirit and so does God. We experience God in a way that is without reserve but yet we still whine and complain about our circumstances. None of us must look very far to find the life of someone else whose circumstances make ours look like a walk in the park.

I had a friend years ago who was in a whining mode about some aspect of her life and the complaints were continual and ongoing. I’ll never forget when her husband sent her roses during this time of discontent. She opened the card only to read his heart-felt message, “Remember the handicap.” The message penetrated straight to the heart and she had to face the fact that she had lost sight of the blessings in her life.

Next time we grumble and complain about our circumstances, let’s “remember the handicap”!

(Incidentally, my friend threw the roses in the lake!)

Surrendering To New Seasons

“The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey, and go…’” Deut.1:6

Freedom from a tough season in our lives can be very intimidating even if that season has been extremely difficult. We adapt to whatever life throws at us and develop a recovery plan for “a new kind of normal”. So when God has determined it is time for us to “turn, set your journey and go” it can be just as scary as the wilderness itself. I am experiencing this type of freedom at this point in my life.

As many of you are aware, three years ago my husband and I relocated his father and mother-in-law after a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s for his father. We have spent the last three years setting up their lives 10 minutes from us, establishing the best doctors, along with helping them create a new life for themselves. It has been both rewarding and grueling at the same time and has taken a great deal of sacrifice, patience and endurance but their new life has finally gotten nicely established. They have a place in Boone to which they have always retreated in the summer months. I received a letter a month ago telling us that they have decided to move up there full time and they are putting their home near us on the market immediately.

My initial reaction was shock but very quickly was replaced with peace and felt like God had intervened. Over the next couple weeks bitterness and sadness set in like a dark cloud. I began feeling as if every sacrifice I had made over the past three years was in vain. I had to spiritual work to do….

Over the past week God has spoken consistently and loudly through His word that He is setting me free and giving me a new life. His spirit has touched mine with love, approval and completion. I kept returning to the victim mode feeling like someone had done something to me, thereby blocking His peace and His approval that He wanted me to experience. I finally heard loud and clear from Him once and for all, “No one has done this to you, I have done this for you!”

“In our walks with the LORD we will discover moments when a season of camping out in the foothills of Sinai ends and we are compelled to take what we’ve gathered and move forward. When our souls begin to stir and the Holy Spirit begins gently nudging us to turn, set a new journey, and go, we can know that God is moving us to a new place in our relationship with Him.” Priscilla Shirer, One In A Million, p. 107.

Surrendering to new seasons allow us to leave one experience at the base of His mountain, accept His will to turn and set our journeys on another and to make the steps necessary to walk towards our promised lands.

Oil and Vinegar

“For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial... Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord…I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6:14b-18.

In the Bible, the word Belial personifies evil or worthlessness. These questions are meant to call us to separateness and righteousness in our pursuit of a holier way of living. We cannot live our lives one way and claim to be “in Christ” in another.

I love an oil and vinegar mixture on my salad but this mixture will only mix when continuously shaken and will never reside within each other. They will always remain apart never living up to the fullest potential of their integration unless shaken. Many times our Christian lives are the same as we present ourselves as one mixture on the top but underneath we are really another. Our fullest potential only develops when God shakes and stirs creating a flavor that sets us apart.

Righteousness and wickedness cannot reside side by side in the same heart if we are pursuing Christ in our lives. One will always separate us from the other and we will never have the end result of a seasoned life in Christ. Our actions must exemplify a desire to be set apart, to stand out and to stand for!

Why do we try to so hard to fit in when it is obvious He has created us to stand apart?

Relationship By Proxy

“When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled in fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” Exodus 20:18-19.

This morning when I read this verse I lovingly thought of my baby girl, Caroline when she was 11 years old. The event was our family vacation to Disney World and her mood was extreme fear. Everytime we would approach a ride she would begin staring at the beast before her and biting her nails. I can still see her sun bleached blonde hair and large green eyes panicking as she wanted the benefits of the ride but the fear held her back. We would take turns staying back with her throughout the entire days at Disney and watched her struggle with desire vs. fear.

I know some people like this as it relates to their fear of approaching God and getting deeper in fellowship with Him. It is supported throughout the Bible that we will suffer for Christ and to fellowship with Him is to suffer with Him. This has been true in my own life as the closer I have gotten with Christ my adversities have seem to be on the rise. I have to testify though that the benefits of the ride far outweigh my standing on the sideline. I have my own experiences with Christ instead of having to live through the experiences and fellowship with Christ of someone else.

No one can know God for us – we must show up and invest the time to know who He is for our individual lives. People may walk along side of us teaching about Him, encouraging us through His truths and praying for us, but no one can climb those high stairs, embark on that ride and experience the climb and the drops like we can when we get off of the sidelines and accept our destiny.

Cast your fears aside, begin the adventure and hold on tight!

As a side note, Caroline has always regretting not riding any of those rides!

Beast of Burdens

“They will know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. I will provide for them…they will no longer be victims…They will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they…are my people.” Ezekiel 34: 27b-30

Enslavement…can there be anything that depletes our emotional, physical and mental energy more than something in our lives that bind and imprison us? Everyone has some area of enslavement that will resurface throughout our lives with different faces. In the dictionary, enslavement is defined as a dependence, addiction, habit or craving. These are powerful descriptions of areas of our lives for which we give so much attention. Each definition denotes an extreme negative response in certain areas of our lives.

In the Bible God speaks continuously about freedom from captivity and providing a way out through Him. He doesn’t just rescue us but replaces our enslavement with a new life, a new land and a new way. The only requirement on our part is the willingness to trust Him enough to be rescued. We get so comfortable in our enslavement because we have built a comfortable home on that land.

I am reminded of the drowning man who flails his arms as someone is attempting to save him. He creates more dire circumstances for himself through his fear of drowning and lack of trust in the person who has the ability to save him.

If Christ is to break the bars of our yoke, whatever it is that enslaves us, we must be still, trust, float and allow Him to gently and purposefully move us to safe shores. As He lays us on safe land He will not abandon us. He will do the work to breathe life back into us and show us how to live with a newfound appreciation and understanding of life. He will take away our fears from our experiences and replace them with the awesome knowledge of His saving grace in all situations.

When I was a child my sisters and I would carry each other on our shoulders. I remember how it felt when my sister would jump off after I had carried her around. I almost felt like I was going to float upward because the weight of the burden had been lifted. The same is true when we allow Christ to share in our burdens. We assign the amount of power our enslavement has over our lives. We carry those burdens on our shoulders instead of allowing Christ to “break the bars of our yokes.”

What are you carrying around on your shoulders?

A New Paint Job

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

We are in the process of having our house painted which we have put off far too long, partly because we knew the cost would be great and the interruptions would be frustrating. Our house had gotten to the point of peeled paint, rotten wood and overall poor appearance. I didn’t realize the work that went into the prepping of painting a home. The painter’s first day I was anticipating portions of the home being beautifully transformed and was shocked when I came home to find the majority of the wood now exposed. It reminded me of the “slave cabins” in the woods we used to play in as children, cabins that had been neglected and abandoned with no one caring about their existence.

What I didn’t realize was the necessity of scraping off the old paint, roughing the surface to ensure the new paint adheres and anticipating the weather for perfect timing for the new coat to assure its ultimate beauty.

This made me think of my life and how God primes each of us in an effort to bring out our ultimate beauty. Through adversities he “scrapes off the old paint” and removes things from our heart and mind that prevent us from reaching our fullest potential. He sees our complacency of settling for a not-so-lovely dwelling and roughs up the surface making us vulnerable to the elements. He then chooses the right time to apply His work based on His timing and not our own. Through trials He primes us with a protective and lasting coat of grace so that the outward beauty of our new surface is based on the durable work of His craftsmanship.

Now that the work is done on the front of my house and the results are beautiful, I know what went into the prep work. I know how dependent the underneath layer is and the success of the external beauty is dependent upon the work of the underlying layer. Our underlying layer is the Holy Spirit that removes the old, primes for the new and covers with fresh coats of grace daily enhancing our beauty.

Are you ready for a new paint job?

Our Father - the Eagle

“He found him in a desolate land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, cared for him, and guarded him as the [apple] of His eye. He watches over His nest like an eagle and hovers over His young; He spread His wings, catches him, and lifts him up on His pinions.” Deut. 32-9-11.

A few years ago when I was a registrar for a middle school I had an encounter with a family that breathed life into these verses. A father came to enroll his son for whom he had just been granted custody. He didn’t even know he had a son since the boy’s mother had never contacted the father. The father and his present wife were unable to have children and had been praying for a child. The man was contacted by DSS and informed that he had a son whom had been raised by an alcoholic mother now imprisoned. This was confirmed by a DNA test and the couple was ecstatic.

A few weeks later the boy came to live with his real dad and stepmother. This is where the story takes flight as if the first part wasn’t enough. A few weeks after the boy came to live with the couple he shared some letters with his father that he had written to God during his desolate wilderness. These letters were an intimate exchange between the boy and His heavenly Father crying out that he would be delivered and that someday God would bring him to his earthly father. In the letters, the boy described that God was going to lead him to his father which is exactly what occurred.

This boy had few people on his side, and few people who knew his story or his suffering. But the One who had control knew his story and “hovered” over him for twelve years. To hover is to “flutter in the air without moving very far from the same spot” according to the dictionary. His heavenly Father surrounded him, cared for him and guarded him until he was given over to his earthly father.

Some of our loneliest times in the wilderness is when we are able to witness God soaring on our behalf. He knows our wings are too weak to take us where we need to be. He spreads His wings and shows us how to soar and when to soar. As little nestlings, we have our mighty Eagle to protect each of us as He stirs the nest igniting our passion for flight and teaching us how to fly with new found strength, power and knowledge.

Only God knows when our spiritual wings are strong enough to take us to new found heights but when He incites flight we must believe we can fly!