Where Did You Find God Today?

Stormy weather zipped through my area one morning this week. The weather team on TV had predicted a 20% chance of rain, no big deal. But the cold front didn’t listen to the news last night, I guess.

It came barreling down. The sky darkened to almost a solar eclipse quality. A huge flash lit the living room with a white glow, followed within a second by a rolling crack of thunder. BOOM!

And my whole apartment complex lost power for a few minutes. Then everything came back on…except for my desktop computer unit. Ugh. The monitor, printer, and lamp on my desk were fine. But the CPU would not turn back on. And I work from home.

I dug out an old, ten-year-old tablet and between it and my phone, I was able to conduct business. It took holy patience, mind you, and quite a few breathed prayers! Finally that evening, my favorite techno-geek (AKA my son) arrived. After a few minutes of diagnostic head scratching he figured out the problem. The lightning zapped the surge protector and the one outlet where the computer cord prong plugged in had received the brunt of the shock. He replugged the cord into the surge protector and all was well. My CPU hummed again.

So, why am I telling you this? It occurred to me that this was a prime example of how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. When we are plugged into His presence, gifted through the Father, and proclaimed by the Son, then we have protection against the zaps of the evil one in our lives.

Zaps are inevitable. They are part of living in a temporal world broken by sin. They can be disturbing, scary, and at times greatly disrupt our lives.

But through confessed faith in Jesus as our Savior, His Holy Spirit comes to dwell with us and in us. We have a God-given surge protector to minimize the shock of what happens to us here on earth. In fact, it may be that He absorbs more than we realize, which is why we need to stay plugged in through prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other faithful believers walking in the Word.

Because we never know when lightning will strike next!

Psalm 96:2   Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.

Psalm 96 is one of the uplifting ones, isn’t it? It is filled with praise. The psalmist encourages us to recognize the glory and power of our Lord and let it be known to others. Daily.

But how do we do this? Are we to stand on street corners spouting Scripture with a Bible in our hands?

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

 Perhaps not, though some may be given that talent with the guidance of the Holy Spirit to preach and persuade. For the rest of us, I think it is taking the adage, “walk like you talk” seriously.

I wear a cross, not to show I am holier than thou, but to remind me who I represent. Does how I act and interact throughout my day mesh with what Jesus would do or say? Am I exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in patience, joy, faithfulness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, peace, and love?

Photo by Elissa Garcia on Unsplash

As the old spiritual song states, I hope all I meet today will know I am a Christian by my love.

Don’t you?

I saw this posted on Facebook- no attribution was given so I don’t know who wrote it, but I thought it was very pertinent today:

Practice the pause. When in doubt, pause. When angry, pause. When tired, pause. When stressed, pause. And when you pause, pray.

I might add–when you are tempted to buy, pause, or react emotionally, pause.

Then this came to me–I credit the Holy Spirit–that “pause” can stand for:

Pray

Aloud

Until

Stress

Erases

Why aloud? Verbalizing seems to bring things to the surface and release them. They are no longer stuck in our guts or trapped in our brains.

So pause and go into a secluded place to tell it out to God, even if it is the bathroom with the water running full blast to mask your cries. Release it to the Lord. He will listen. He will care.

He will respond, though perhaps in a way you never expected at a time you later realized you needed it the most. Then thank Him for being ever-present, and for His past blessings. Praise Him for his mercy and grace.

I bet you’ll find this is the pause that refreshes!

This time of year, Facebook memes and comments seem to be about goal setting. I guess that is a good thing, but frankly, my focus has changed.

Over the years I seem to keep quoting, “the best-laid plans of mice and men.” Whatever I plan seems to not really happen. Financial, health, and life situations slap me in the face like a discarded rake hidden in the grass I accidentally step on.

Instead of “planning” my life for the upcoming year, I have learned to hand it over to God and accept His plan. Somehow, even though mine never come to fruition, things turn out right when I turn to Him. Scott Moen says, 

Yes, that’s my screen saver for 2024. I have biblical proof that this i a good way to plan.

Proverbs 3:5 tells us to not lean on our own understanding but to trust in God’s ways.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Psalm 119 states: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws. I have suffered much; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word. Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-26).

Then there is that song, Jesus, Take the Wheel. Last September, my son and I went on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to England and Ireland. We rented a car and I let him drive “on the wrong side of the road”. I learned to lean back, trust him, and enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, walking was not as great. I ended up in bedrest and came home to discover a nasty bone spur had grown into my spinal cord. I have been basically homebound since, unable to drive and dependent on others for a lot of things.

However, God has prevailed and provided. When an opening in a senior community of one-story bungalows emerged, I quickly made plans to move. But God slammed that door shut, and I sat for another month in a second-floor apartment unable to navigate the stairs. Brokenhearted nad confused. I really wanted that bungalow.

My Lord Jehovah Jireh had a better idea – one of the few apartments in my complex, built on a hill, that didn’t involve steps to get to it came available. I love it. It is a better floor plan and I feel safe and secure. I get to stay in the area of town I love, close to shopping, friends, and church. With the aid of my walker, I can take out my own trash and go to the mail center to check my mail. It is easier for friends and delivery folk to find me in this maze of buildings, too. His plan was much better than mine!

The trek to England and Ireland was worth it and taught me a good lesson. I am no longer satisfied with having God ride shot gun or trying to be a backseat driver. Instead, I want to be a passenger and see where He leads me this year.

And for once in a long while, I am kinda excited about how 2024 will unfold. I have the best driver who already knows what lies ahead taking me there. My goal is to give thanks for that, every day.

A friend brought me a lush, gorgeous Pythos ivy in a hanging pot. As its tendrils grew longer and longer toward the floor, I clipped them and stuck the ends in a vase of water. Slowly they started to grow roots. After a while, I planted those stems with new roots back into the hanging pot. Those roots soon dug deeper into the dirt and intertwined with the other roots of the plant. They began to grow lush, full, and flourished even more.

It reminded me of the Christian … or the way our lives in Christ should be. Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying,

I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love,  you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you will be filled up to all the fullness of God. (vs 16-19, emphasis mine)

When new Christians are baptized, the Holy Spirit immerses them in the new faith. Slowly, the new way of living takes root. But unless they are transplanted into a body of believers, it will be hard for them to thrive.

We all need to intertwine. We need to grow together, learn together, nourish each other, and share the love of Christ. Then we can spread out to others. We all have a responsibility to train up the children in our churches, even if we are not called to teach Sunday school or VBS. The Torah instructed the people of God to teach the commandments to their children (see Deuteronomy 4:9, 6:11, 11:19.)

How we act around the kids (and the adults new in Christ) has a great effect on their growth. When they see how we live out Scripture in our daily lives, it encourages them to do the same. They will flourish in the nurturing soil of the faith, attached to the vine as we are through Christ.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing” (John 15:5).

Then when the time comes and they are cut away to start off on their own, the Holy Spirit will immerse them in how to live in the world yet not be tainted by it. What they witnessed in us will begin to take root.

Eventually, our hope and prayer is that they will realize they need to be repotted with other believers. And then the cycle will begin once again.

We are all children of God when we claim Christ as Lord. And we all grow at different rates. Let us not judge each other but intertwine and help each other grow in the faith, no matter our age or how long we have been in the Body of believers.

After battling nerve pain and enduring two surgeries over five years, I finally felt alive again. I could walk on my own, though not more than a half mile or so. I could drive. I could even haul my groceries up the stairs to my apartment.

Then, after eight months, the familiar burning twinge down my right leg returned. I was daily commuting twenty minutes to work and climbing a steep flight of stairs to my office. I ignored it. Part of me said I was simply out of shape after being housebound for so long. Part of me didn’t want to face the reality that the discs in my lower back that were now bone-on-bone were rubbing me the wrong way… literally. My bucket list trip to England and Ireland with my son lay just a few weeks away. So we went, and I walked, and the pain kept getting worse. On the final full day of our trip, I tried to get out of bed and couldn’t put weight on my right leg. So I stayed in bed and watched the tree outside my window blowing as a storm moved in.

As I watched the tree, I noticed the leaves all reacted differently to the wind. When the tree limbs swayed they fluttered in different directions- some into the wind, others away from it. Yet they all remained anchored to the bark. It reminded me of a plaque I inherited from my mother: We cannot change the wind but we can adjust our sails.

I had a choice. Pout or choose joy. So I made the best of it and watched British TV mysteries and home improvement shows while chomping on a cheese roll, biscuits (shortbread cookies), elderflower water, and hot tea–thanks to my son’s trek to the cafe next door. Then he ventured out to discover London on his own and ended up seeing a lot of what he wanted to see before the rains came. After that, he took refuge in a pub under the Tower Bridge and met some nice folks who were also seeking shelter. After the storm passed, he brought back some pub food takeout. And me? I experienced London in my own way and, despite the pain, had a good time.

Back home, the pain still lingered and the trigger point injections only exacerbated the nerve. The spinal surgery team I had before was booked out for a consultation until five weeks later. Once again I am homebound, limping, and in pain. And once again God reminded me that I had a choice of how I handled it.

You see, I design the bulletins for my church and the lesson for the next Sunday was Philippians 4:4-9.

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! ⁵ Let everyone see your gentleness^. The Lord is near! ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. ⁹ And what you learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things. And the God of peace will be with you. (New English Translation)

The Holy Spirit whispered into my soul: Always be thankful and rejoice. No matter what happens in your life you can be certain of this: Your LORD is by your side, He will provide, and be your guide.

The truth is, if you call on Him in prayer with a thankful heart, He will be the same for you. No matter what way the wind blows, little leaf, cling to the branch!

Think, my friend, about these things. And the peace of God will indeed be with you as well.

You lead me in the path of life. I experience absolute joy in your presence; you always give me sheer delight. Psalm 16:11

What are you facing on your trek in this life? Is it a TRAIL or a TRIAL up ahead?

Often we do not know, but our attitude may hold a clue. It is all where we place the A and the I. That makes the difference. You see, it is a matter of perspective. Do we spend the most time concentrating on our will (I) or our LORD’s will (Almighty.) Do our prayers concentrate on “Lord, will you do this for me today?” – or – “Lord, what will you have me do today?”

Yes, God may allow trials. But when He does, it is usally to teach us something so we can grow in our relationship with Him, learn how to strengthen our weaknesses and armor chinks through His mercy, or give up something that may not be in our best interest after all. What attracts us may be a false bunny trail leading to a dangerous situation. Almost every time we seek to satisfy our egos, whet our appetites, or fulfill our own desires, it will be an error in direction … despite what the world tells us.

But, when we trust the One who loves and knows us the most, and not only knows the future but has actually premade it, then we can be assured our steps will be steady ones. As children, we may have played follow the leader. Perhaps that didn’t turn out very well. However, don’t let that deter you. Following The Leader is always the right way to go.

None of us know what lies ahead. We have limited vision. But when we rely on the One who does know and choose to follow Him, even those trials can become trails of glory when we gaze back down the path where we have trod.