Whistling

One of the things that has delighted me here in the Alps is the enchanting birdsong.  I keep thinking of the opening scene of the Sound of Music when you only see the clouds and hear the sweet notes of the birds before the fog clears away to reveal the beauty of the mountains.        

Yesterday morning I was taking a walk along the mountainside up from where we’re staying.  Heading back, I came to a plump Swiss woman standing in her garden.  She smiled, greeted me, and then returned to what she had been doing – whistling!  Trying to match the birdsongs exactly! 

She’ll never get it exactly because she’s not a bird.

But she was good!  She beamed as she got close to a match and I cheered her with international sign language.  Hysterical.

It made me think how discipleship is trying to match God’s tune.

As I write this I think it sounds trite or cheesy, but sometimes simple things are true. True, not easy.  (And how could I make up a whistling Swiss woman??)

During this time of sabbatical we don’t have the normal day-to-day stresses and draining relationships that make singing the tune harder.  Right now we’re practicing in the garden with no distractions. 

I think this is why spiritual disciplines are so important – it’s practicing in the garden the tune we want to sing in the marketplace, in our schools, with our kids…

When I read God’s Word in the garden I’m listening closely to learn the notes He wants me to sing.

When I pray alone on my knees, I’m warming up for the way I want to be singing all day – in duet with my heavenly Father.

I really am wondering.  If anyone hears me whistling today will the music sound anything like the One I’m trying to imitate?

Absent God?

We’re in the Swiss Alps now, staying at some friends’ chalet for this leg of our sabbatical.  Pretty incredible.

But this is what we woke up to this morning.

You’d never know that THIS is what’s really there.

Yesterday at church we sang “Thy praise shall never, never fail throughout eternity!” and it was easy and heart-felt because we could see God’s beauty and evidence of His faithful presence all around us.

But this morning we can’t see anything to praise God for.  We’re not likely to sing with as much gusto.

Jeremiah was a guy in a cloud if there ever was one!  He was honest with God about that, but then he wrote, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope; because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”(Lamentations 3)

The mountains we can’t see this morning are steadfast, immoveable, and there.  So is God.  I need the reminder that many others like Jeremiah through the ages have been in the clouds and have still trusted the God who is there.

Matthew Henry wrote, “God is sometimes a God who hides Himself but never a God who absents Himself… sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.

Still, I’m looking forward to tomorrow when things are clearer again.

All Dumb Dogs

This is a sign I saw last week that made me laugh.  It’s a sign I think maybe all of us should wear to remind ourselves that we mean well, but sometimes we’re all just “dumb dogs.” 

We need to go slow and give each other grace. 

Kind of like when John recently asked our waitress when she was due. 

And she wasn’t pregnant. 

A large tip was involved. 

He was a “dumb dog”.  But he meant well.

He was just trying to be friendly.

He had asked me first if I thought she was pregnant.  I said “yes”. 

I NEVER thought he’d make the dumb dog mistake of asking her when she was due!!  But I make them too.  We all do.

I’ve read recently in several articles that we tend to judge others based on their actions, but ourselves on our motives. 

Similarly, in The Me I Want to Be, John Ortberg writes, “We suffer from the fundamental attribution error.  When I see bad behavior in you, I attribute it to your flawed character.  When it happens in me, I attribute it to extraordinarily trying circumstances.”

So today I’m trying to go slow, remember we’re all “dumb dogs” sometimes, and we’re ALL doing our best. 

It’s all grace.

Less Than

The other day I was in a discussion with a couple people and I found myself feeling more and more “less than”. 

I felt incompetent and inarticulate in a room with these people who are noted for the knowledge, insight, and, well…competence they bring. 

I felt far from God in this moment. 

It didn’t feel like a kingdom conversation.

This got me to thinking…Do people ever feel “less than” with me?  Do I default to a posture of self-importance in some settings?  Do I talk too much and listen too little?

What do kingdom conversations sound like?

How do I become more aware of an attitude of self-importance, and repent?

Do I call out the unique gifts in each person who is present?

Can I seek out and ask the opinion of the quietest and the “least important” person in the discussion?

What sincere words of affirmation and value can I speak into the lives of those who may feel “less than”?

Was Paul coaching on kingdom conversations when he said, “Take the attitude of Christ…Consider others as better than yourselves…”

The story has often been repeated of a young woman who had dined with both statesmen, Gladstone and Disraeli. She is said to have compared the two men this way. "When I dined with Mr. Gladstone, I felt as though he was the smartest man in England. But when I dined with Mr. Disraeli, I felt as though I was the smartest woman in England."

Just thinking…

Mentors

One of the blessings of Sabbatical has been spending time with older mentor type friends in our life. 

The other night was one of those golden evenings as we sat around dinner with two people we greatly admire – Jean and Leighton Ford.  Jean is Billy Graham’s sister.  She and Leighton have a powerful ministry of their own.  They have been life-long disciplers and mentors to many young leaders.  They have quietly influenced thousands for Christ.

As we spend time with these and many other wise older friends, we think, “We don’t want to grow up, but if we have to we want to be like them!” We love to learn from them.  Here’s some of what I notice:

• They listen really well.  They are present and will sift through the extraneous and pick up on the important heart issues.
• They ask good questions.
• They find things to affirm.  Their speech is “seasoned with grace.”
• Even when asked for advice, they limit what they say. (This one is a huge one for me to learn from!!)
• They model what Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people."
• They don’t isolate themselves from the darkness of the world, but rather, prayerfully strive to be salt and light in those places. 

What do you notice about the people who have influenced you?  What are you learning from them?

Entertaining Angels

It was said of Dolley Madison that when she was hosting people no matter who it was she welcomed them with open arms as if to say “Oh at last you’ve come!” And no matter how late they stayed they felt like she was saying “Oh do you have to leave so soon?”

I love that!  

My friend Deborah is a modern day Dolley Madison who lives and breathes southern hospitality.  

 Right now John and I are staying in her guest cottage that is the most charming, welcoming place imaginable. 

Heaping bowls of fruit, muffins, and cookies…a roasted chicken were waiting for us...

A note of welcome.

Books everywhere, Fluffy towels, soft chairs, warm blankets and a fireplace ready to burn brightly.

We may never leave.

If grace is “unmerited favor”, there should be a picture of this cottage in the dictionary next to the definition.

But this magical place got me to thinking about the many, other pictures of hospitality we’ve enjoyed from both friends and strangers as we’ve been traveling. 

Someone has said that we all walk around with an invisible sign that says, “Do you love me?”

Hospitality says “yes.”

You are loved.

You are welcome here.

I want to help you.

Hospitality is grace with skin on.

Hospitality doesn’t have to be offered in a beautiful home.

One person I know who exudes hospitality is Bill, who directs traffic at our church.

In Tanzania or Target, on the bus or at a baseball game.

Hospitality may be

A random word of kindness

An open door.

A budge in line.

A hug.

I think hospitality feels like extending the kingdom wherever you are.

Where have you seen it?  Where have you lived it? 

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to strangers.”  Hebrews 13:3

Of Psalms and Sailing and Sickness

Last week John and I got to go parasailing and it was, well, just amazing.  As we soared 25 stories above the water

I said, “John I want to write a psalm!” 

I know.  Weird.  I’ve never said that before.  But that’s how I felt!

So I wrote a psalm when we landed.

David definitely does not need to worry about the competition!

Ordinary words just couldn’t capture my feelings.  The glory of God and the thrill of this new experience…being held up by the breeze and God’s hand…

Now this week we’ve been sailing and snorkeling around the BVI’s and I’ve been thinking about David again.

I’m an outdoors person.  Nature is my spiritual pathway so it doesn’t take much to get me excited, but I mean REALLY!!  God was having a great day when He worked on this part of the world. 

We lay on the bow of the boat at night looking up at the dark sky lit by a zillion stars.

Stars are like Easter for me.  Try as hard as I can I still can’t fully comprehend either.  How can anyone take in such magnificence?!

Isaiah tried when he wrote, “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars.  Behold the one who leads forth their host by number. He calls them all by name.  Because of the strength of His might and the glory of His power not one of them is missing.”

David tried too when he wrote that “The Lord wraps Himself in light as with a garment and stretches out the heavens like a tent.”

This is great when you’re out sailing and the weather is perfect, but then today I got word that my friend, my faithful friend who loves Jesus and has suffered so much, had to go back into the hospital for the millionth time.

 

And then I say, “Lord, you hung the stars!  You could heal Heather with one hand tied behind your back!  Why not?!”

And I want to write another psalm.  A psalm of complaint and questions. Begging for mercy and strength and healing for my friend. 

David, who looked up at these very same stars thousands of years ago, did that too.  “How long O Lord, how long?” he wrote.

I’m in good company I guess.

Do you feel like writing a psalm of praise or complaint today?  Maybe both.

Social Media and my Soul

John gave me an extravagant gift for Valentines Day.  A camera.  A really nice one that will take me a long time to learn how to use fully in order to do it justice.  For now I’m just enjoying experimenting with it and am grateful for such beauty around us in Tortola to try to capture.

One of the great things about digital cameras is the ability to erase and re-shoot what you don’t like.  And the editing capabilities!  John took a picture of me and my arms looked heavier than I wanted so I cropped them out!  This “image management” is nice, but it’s got me thinking about dangerous territory.           

Shane Hipps recently wrote an article for Relevant entitled, “Is Facebook killing our Souls?”  He says, “ We become creators and consumers of our own brand… We endlessly refine, create and consume a digital projection we want others to see. However, we are rarely what we project…”

Facebook, Twitter, Blogging…ah, so many opportunities for image management.  Does anyone else wrestle with discernment in this area?

Although my hope is that this blog would be helpful and about the journey we're all on, I also feel like it's a dangerous business - this "public" aspect of formation.  I recognize that I often care more about the comfortable appearance of holiness, than the discomfort of truly becoming holy.  For me social media can tempt me to live into my false self – the “me” that’s dependent on appearances and affirmation.  

I resonated with a caution I read recently by Rick Warren: "Blogging theology is far easier than living it.  Writing on ministry is easier than actually living it.  Beware of self-deception." 

I don’t have any great answers to this.

I'm trying to be cautious and embrace some spiritual disciplines.  One of those disciplines is a commitment to be still before God first and then prayerfully ask myself some questions:

Is this authentic?  Is it “you” or just the “you” you want to appear to be?

Are you offering it in a posture of humility as someone in the process of being refined?

Are you able to laugh at yourself? 

What would the only One who matters think of this update, post, tweet…whatever?  Would He recognize the you here as the one He knows?

Going Back

This beach is a holy place for me. 

Set apart.

A place where I’ve walked hundreds of miles and wrestled with God in despair. 

Asked Him my heart-felt questions.

And had moments of great joy.

Last spring – another time and another place - there was a day when I was really shaken up.  Someone did something hurtful that left me rattled and wondering if I could be sure of anything.  It was one of those rare times when God prompted me and I actually paid attention.  I sensed Him saying, “Go back to what you know.” 

I felt guided to go back to a place I knew – a lake where I walked and prayed every day of a very difficult season of my life.  It, like this beach, had become a holy place for me…a physical “rock and refuge” place.  A place where I cried out to God and was reminded of His power and sufficiency regarding any circumstances. 

There I met God again.  While walking there on that day I was nudged to go back to what I knew of God and myself.  I needed to have Him remind me that I’m a precious child of His and nothing (not even mean people) can change that.  I needed to be reminded that even when I’m shaky He’s not. 

Isaiah 46:9 says, “Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.”

I join Mark Batterson in wondering if Jacob ever went back to the place he wrestled with God.  Did David go back to the spot he brought down Goliath or return to the fields where he watched sheep and first learned to trust God?  Did Peter return to the spot on the Sea of Galilee where he joined Jesus in walking on water? 

Do you have places where you’ve met or wrestled with God that you return to?

Yesterday we left one of my holy places and some delightful godly friends we do life with.  But I’ll be back.