Joy in the Journey

  “Well done my good servant!” his master replied.   Because you have been trustworthy in very small mater, take charge of ten cities.” Luke 19:17 Most people I know are grateful for a “well done.”   While it may be enough to know that we’ve given a project our all, it is still nice when someone gives us that little pat on the back.   It shouldn’t be the motivation for doing things well. We should be working to please God but it’s nice when that work gets noticed. I spend a lot of time with a little girl who is the personification of the word encouragement.   Those of us who know her well tease that she will never have to take a spiritual gifts assessment. Her gift is very obvious. My little angel, Brianna, came into the world with what some people see as a disadvantage. Brianna has Down syndrome. What she also has is a heart that never stops looking for ways to hearten and promote the people around her. Whenever she sees someone do even the tiniest...

The day of the Lord is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you: your deeds will return upon your own head.   Obadiah 1:15   My day job is in a public elementary school. One of my duties occurs at the end of the day when I stand outside with a few other people as we attempt to get all the students home safely.   Today a co-worker of mine followed after a boy accused of bullying.   This is not some power hunger teacher who was out to prove her authority.   Her name is Beth and she is an extremely lovely and kind person who claims Jesus Christ among her friends. Her purpose today was to stop trouble before it got started. As she walked away I was thinking how glad I was that it was her and not me. I can’t stand bullies in general and this boy in particular, has rubbed me the wrong way since he was a first grade student. Beth followed him and I got busy with some other children and didn’t see if she had to intervene or even speak to...

The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7 From the day I learned to read I’ve been reading. I read voraciously.   There are books and magazines all over my house and in my car. You never know when you might get stuck somewhere, or have to wait for some reason. You should always have reading material at the ready. Some of the things I read are for educational purposes or spiritual growth and some are just fluff, fiction.   Today, proving once again that he can speak anywhere, anyway, any time he wants, God used a line from a book that is very much in the chick lit drama to get my attention. In the book a man is dying and being very cavalier about the whole thing. As he is making jokes about his possible heart transplant his doctor warns him about how much worse it could get. “You’ll see taking a decent breath as a gift from God.” My first thought was, ...

Only be careful and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Deuteronomy 4:9   Yesterday in church I saw something so sweet and it reminded me of how dear and tender our Lord is with us. Seated in front of me was a family consisting of a man and a woman, their teenage daughter and a son who looked about six or seven. I’ve never seen them before and so supposed that they were visitors. Sadly the service yesterday was bad. I don’t know if our pastor had a rough week or what was going on.   I do know that it was far from the norm for our church.   It was disappointing to my husband and me, regulars, but what must it seem like to a visitor? Thankfully, at the point of the service where we greet each other it appeared that the family I thought was visiting knew a few people. I decided they must have been there...

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heave you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there. Psalm 139:7-8 Driving to work yesterday I received an interesting nudge from God.   The way I travel I drive down a road that has a twenty-five mile an hour speed limit. A little way down the road there is a field where police cars often park to, for lack of a better word, observe the traffic. Yesterday I was moving along just at the speed limit with the driver behind me just short of in my trunk. For quite a distance she was on top of me and suddenly she was a respectable car length or so behind. Are you ahead of me here? She slowed down inches before the field where the police sit to observe.   Very quickly a thought flashed through my head. She obviously travels that way enough to know that in all likelihood a law enforcement officer is waiting right around the bend to enforce the law. With that knowled...

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stren, sleeping on a cuching. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:37-39 The Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell this story as well. They tell it a bit differently, without as much panic in the voices of the disciples. I like this one. It reminds me of so many times in my own life, so many, maybe too many conversations I have had with God. “Hello! I’m drowning here. Can’t you see this? Don’t you care?”   When I think about it after the fact it seems so terribly unfaithful. It is a lack of faith. Things may look, feel and even be scary or bad but if I believe, as I say that I do, that God is in control, then what is the problem?   In all three accounts of this event Jesus points to the ...