I'm Taking A Poll

I need your help. Well, need would be a strong word for this. Let me rephrase: I am curious; you might be able to help, if you even care about this insignificant--and highly random--subject.

Here's the deal. I've never been able to determine my face shape. This becomes important for things like choosing hairstyles and applying makeup--topics I don't normally cover here. However, The Journey is a topic I cover here, and it is said journey that has changed things up for me. See, my face used to be round as a bowling ball:


But since God has brought me along on this journey, it is no longer round. But what is it?


So, just for fun, I though I would add a poll to my page. Check out the column on the right to cast your vote. It's not nearly as vital as, say, the election on November 11. But it might cause you less indigestion. ;-)

Smiles,
-J

A Post Script Lament: I think it's cool that my eyes seem to have gotten larger. But why did my nose have to do the same?

P.P.S. In response to popular demand (thanks to the two of you!), more on The Journey is coming soon!

(c) 2008

Recipe

Long ago and far away, in a comment on a blog once posted by one ShalomSeeker, it was promised that a recipe would be shared. A recipe for a cucumber-tomato salad. A promise not kept...until today!

This recipe was taken from EatBetterAmerica.com, a nice website for recipes and coupons too. Here is the link to the recipe I mentioned, oh, forever ago:

Cucumbers and Tomatoes in Yogurt

Yum! I hope you enjoy too!

Blessings,
-J

(c) 2008

From The Inbox

I get various devotionals and Scriptures delivered to my email inbox each day. I find I benefit from the daily refocusing that they provide me. One subscription that has proved profitable to me is the Insight for Living devotionals, featuring the work of Charles R. Swindoll (or, as I like to affectionately call him, Dr. Chuck).


Recently, he's be walking us through the lives of various 'saints' from the Scriptures, most recently Saul/Paul of New Testament fame. On Thursday, this was part of the text:


Like Saul, we're no match for God. Checkmate is inevitable. It's no game either. God will do whatever it takes to bring us to a point of absolute dependence on Him. He will relentlessly, patiently, faithfully goad until we finally and willingly submit to Him.**


Let me help you hone in on what hammered home for me: God will do whatever it takes to bring us to a point of absolute dependence on Him (emphasis mine).


Lately, I've found myself focusing on the v...a...s...t...n...e...s...s of God's plans, and how He is working out history--both broadly and personally--for the BEST end. Here is what I mean by "the best end": It might be that I am desperately ill and need God's healing touch. But the greater lesson might be to learn how God can heal my heart, and perhaps leaving my body damaged is the means to that end.

OR, it might be that I need my bills paid. But a greater need might be that I am placed in a position to remember Who my provider is. And to learn that lesson, my bills might have to go unpaid. My credit rating might even need to be trashed. I might even have to declare bankruptcy. When God has a great refining furnace lit, he will not stop until His servants are purified--no matter how much heat needs to be applied.


See, if God is all about His glory--and He is, make no mistake about it (Isaiah 48:11)--then the greater needs in our lives, not simply the cessation of our pain, are the ones that cause the reflection of His glory. If we twist and squint enough, sometimes we can catch a glimpse of the bigger picture God is painting, the one where the various moments of our lives become eternally echoing notes of praise to His glory, joining the symphony of all such moments across the scope of time and crescendoing into a larger, grander, more intricate and beautiful work than any that has ever been heard on planet earth--a work far greater than even Handel's Hallelujah Chorus!

But, if you're like me, you often just want the discomfort to end. Now would be good. Yesterday if possible. But because of His love for us, his infinite desire to refine and restore us, He will not leave us alone. He will not stop when it is wished, but only when it is finished. He tailors our experiences such that we become natural reflectors of Jesus Christ. And when we do THAT, it brings glory to Him. I think it is one of the coolest things in the universe that as God is working out His own glorification, we are beautified--and blessed--in the process. That just goes to show the goodness, the kindness, and the loving nature of our God!

And so, I stand amazed, and say, "Yes, Lord. Whatever it takes." And I try not to kick against the goads.

-J

On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' "Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' " 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. --Acts 26:12-15, NIV

(c) 2008, except where noted otherwise

**Adapted from Charles R. Swindoll, Great Days with the Great Lives (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Quoting Someone I Actually Know

Usually my 'Quoteworthy' moments are famous--often dead--people that I have never met. In many cases, that is great, since meeting dead people is not on my list of things to do in this life.

However, every once in awhile, someone I actually know personally says something really great, profound, and/or noteworthy. I received one of those today from my ever-increasingly-profound-and-wise uncle. (It was actually his son who I referred to in yesterday's post.)

In a note from him, I received this gem:

Funny--the water never parts in the desert, just at the promise line.

That'll make you think, and then go, "Yeah. I agree; that's true." And later, the nice twist in the wording will hit you, and you'll appreciate it even more. At least that's what happened to me.

Hope it blesses,
-J

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. --Romans 5:1-6

(c) 2008

On The People Of God

There is no comfort so great as can be felt in the midst of the people of God.

I don't know how God does this, but I know He does. In the midst of the people of God He can bestow such comfort.

I am thinking today of my family in Texas. About this time two years ago, I was at a get-to-know-your-missionaries gathering in someone's home. I knew only a handful of the people, and only very casually, but we were all enjoying hearing how this family was planning to return to Africa to minister to health and spiritual needs there. During a break, my roommate called to check our home voicemail, and then called me over to listen.

The call was from my mother, and it was distraught. My 14-year-old cousin, the only son of my mother's brother, had just been hit by a truck...and killed.

I gasped, and when I felt my knees starting to go weak, leaned back against the kitchen cabinets and slid to the floor. I replayed the message to be sure I had heard correctly, made my apologies, and bolted for the door to rush home.

But in the driveway, I suddenly stopped. Where was I headed? I was 1000 miles from my family, so I couldn't go and help or comfort them. The thought in my head was to go home, but to what avail? And suddenly, I knew that what I wanted most was to walk back into that group of believers and pray with them.

I reentered the building and shared my desire with my hosts. This was a young group of people--mostly twenty-somethings, and I think that my request was pretty unusual to them. but they agreed. Even though I think some of that group was uncomfortable, even though most didn't pray, I found myself comforted just to be among the people of God as my heart cried out to him.

When I went to work the next day (I work at a church), the people of God there rallied around me in ways I had never imagined. And when I arrived in Texas, I found that the people of God there were buoying up my family.

It is a beautiful thing when the people of God behave as conduits for the Spirit of God. It is so amazing and healing and sustaining. And, I might add, when the people of God act instead from their old natures, it is more damaging than almost anything else that can happen to us.

As the old hymn says, I am so glad I'm a part of the family of God. I have spent most of my life in ministry, so it is no surprise that I have been deeply wounded and subsequently scarred by the Church. Yet, by God's grace, I see His hand at work in her...and I love her. She is uniquely commissioned and privileged to represent Christ on earth.

And when she does, it is the loveliest thing you will ever see.

Celebrating the work of the Spirit in the Body of Christ, to the praise of the Father,
-J

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. --I John 4:7-12

(c) 2008

Quoteworthy

Just ran across this beauty, and thought I would share:

"To choose suffering makes no sense at all; to choose God's will in the midst of our suffering makes all the sense in the world." --Oswald Chambers

Well said, brother. You are one wise man.
-J

A Lousy Start--The Rollover Principle

UGH!! I have had a lousy start to my day and my week.


It started when someone needed to interrupt my morning schedule. This was the very first thing that happened today--as in, I was still in bed (though I had begun waking up)--and it turns out that this is a problem for me. I am not nearly as flexible...or as kind...as I ought to be. UGH!


Then I thought, "Just let it roll. Move on, and you'll be fine." But I'm not fine. Every time I interact with someone today, I find myself irritable and snappish. And you know, even if these things could be earned--and I don't see a record of Jesus being snappish so I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to be--these people didn't deserve my attitude. But out it came anyway. UGH!


I try to make my first thoughts of the day prayer. I find this usually gets me off to a pretty good start. But this morning, my first thoughts were of things I forgot to do at work on Friday. Things that were needed for the weekend or that should have been moved to someone else's plate in a timely manner. I really hate realizing that I am behind, that I have messed up in this way. And I don't like that the crunch I felt last Friday at work has now rolled over to my Monday, and thus my new week. And all of that put me in a foul mood from the get-go.

I am seeing what I'm calling The Rollover Principle: When something doesn't get done in timely way on one day, it rolls over to affect the next. Or when I go to bed late one day--for good or lazy reasons--I start the next day with a deficit, either of time (oversleeping, which is my body's inclination) or of sleep. One action affects the next, and if one tiny thing gets out of alignment, all kinds of chaos ensues.


And it sometimes [read: especially today] feels like I'm living in the middle of said chaos. I'm not sure how to stop the cycle. It's like I can't pull back far enough to plan well for all that needs to happen. Don't worry--I'm working on figuring it out, but today, I am its servant, not its master.


I do think this is part of why God ordained days/periods of rest--of cessation. I wonder if this wasn't partly intended to create that margin, that gap which provides some relief from the whirlwind grind of daily life. I don't believe that the Sabbath (and according to the entire Old Testament, that is Saturday, guys *wink*) is part of the commands for the church (feel free to disagree (-:). However, from the very beginning, God Himself, though never tired (nor in the midst of chaos!) set a pattern of break-taking. I do try to observe a day of rest each week, but the chaos simply seems to pick up again the following day. Somehow, I'm not getting something right...

MMMmmmmmmmm.... I'm ready to skip this week. It looks pretty intimidating from my Monday morning, and I can't seem to find an attitude that will lighten things up.

Feeling like my week's on my back & not liking who I am today,
-J

(c) 2008

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love...He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities...for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.
--Psalm 103:8, 10, 14, NIV