Sandscapes

Yesterday, while cleaning one of the many piles that have accumulated over the past school year, I came across my 'Art in Motion - Sandscapes' purchase of last year. Inside a glass rectangular frame, tiny grains of colored sand pass through small holes, creating amazing scenes of peaks and valleys that shimmer in the sunlight. It was purchased with the idea that it would help my active four year old students relax and enjoy the shifting sand. But today, it was me enjoying the changing scenes. As I watched the shifting sand, one hole was inactive. Impatiently, I reached up and gave the case a couple of strong shakes, interfering with the gradual process. What followed was a scene very different from the others. Gone were the peaks and valleys with varying shades, replaced by a flat layer of sand. By stepping in to help, I had altered the course of the grains and eliminated the beauty and potential.

Often, I find this is what I do in my life. Rather than wait on the Lord, I rush in to help, only to find I have done more to hurt than to help. The peaks are breathtaking, but the valleys can be frightening and lonely. Trying to avoid the pain that can happen in the valley, my efforts are spent interfering with God's perfect plan. Rather than grow, I grumble. Rather than trust, I tremble. Rather than climbing for the peak, I am clamoring in the valley. Perhaps, if I stop interfering, I will see the mighty hand of God at work. Help me, Lord, to trust You when You say, "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth," Ps 46:10. Teach me to remember that those who "wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not grow faint," Is 40:31. Then, when I pass through the valleys, rather than trying to interfere, I will be able to say with the Psalmist, "even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of darkness, I will fear no evil, for You are with me, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me," Ps 23:4.

What Lies Ahead ?

I have been singing for so long that it's a part of who I am. I sang my first solo in church at 5 years old.
(I can still sing the song ).

As I got older, God provided more and more opportunities. I was always so deliberate in choosing music to sing. I wouldn't sing about something that I hadn't experienced. It was important that I believed with all my heart the message that I was singing . In doing so, music became the vehicle that really enabled me to share my faith and my love for God.

So many times my love for singing made it easier to become involved each time we moved to a new area and started attending a new church. Music allowed me to share with greater passion than I could have with the spoken word. It really is the universal language.

Lately, I have been wondering if God has something else for me, some other way to share my heart. I know that I will always need to be able to tell others all that he has done for me. My heart will desire to pour courage into woman who may be going through hard times, and are in need of a messy friend.

If you read this will you pray for me? I am listening for that still small voice.

LOVE /luv/ n. a warm personal attachment or deep affection for another person

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE /un'ken dish' e nl luv/ n. to love no matter what

GRACE /gras/ n. God doing in and for us what we cannot do ourselves

God's love is ALWAYS a gracious love

Jesus loved to lavish grace on the left-out and the used-up and the put down. This is the way Christians are supposed to be...a group of rag dolls who have received love even though they know they didn't deserve it, who then extend it to others because they refuse to allow raggedness to keep them from loving. Because love is God's signature and grace makes love strong.

adapted from Living The God Life by John Ortberg

Comparisons

The other day I was having a conversation with a young friend of mine. In the course of our conversation she shared her struggle of not quite measuring up spiritually to other people in her life.

I've been thinking about that for the past few days. Isn't it something how often we are waylaid by comparing ourselves to other people.

Using other people as a barometer for our own spiritual condition is never good. There is only one standard given to us as a goal to aim towards and that is to be more like Christ.

Knowing that it is not possible to be sinless like Christ was, what does God desire from us?

We first have to consider what God has already done for us. God demonstrated His love for us by making the greatest of sacrifices. He gave His only son, Jesus to make a way for us to be forgiven and freed from sin. When that forgiveness is accepted, it not only secures a future in heaven, but makes it possible for us to have intimate fellowship with God.

Gods' love for us cost Him dearly and what he desires from us is much simpler, I believe, than we make it.

• I believe that God wants us to love Him and our relationship with Him more than anyone or anything else.

• I believe that he wants to be the first person we go to when we need a listening ear, someone to cry to, someone to pour our hearts out to.

• He wants to be part of the mundane, the everyday aspects of our lives.

• I believe that he desires obedience to His word, not out of fear, but out of love.

I have learned that He Loves me more deeply and completely than any human being is even capable of. He sees the very best in me, and he also sees the worst but He loves me still, because Jesus paid the price for it all.

The many examples that we find in scripture of humans greatly used by God, should in themselves remind us that God uses imperfect people. That is the beauty of Grace.

Comparing ourselves to others can only do one of two things. It will cause pride and a false sense of spiritual rightness, or it will cause discouragement and self loathing. Either way satan has won because when we focus on others or ourselves in this way, we have taken our eyes off of God.

This is the essence of our spiritual battle isn't it? What or who is the subject of our focus?

So don't fall into the trap of comparison. No two people will ever be at he same place in their spiritual walk. The important questions are:

• "Am I where God wants me to be"?
  
• "Am I walking with Him before me, behind, me and all around me" ?
• "Does my love for Him and His love for me impact the way that I live and the choices that I make"?

Look at yourself honestly but Not through someone elses lens.

Love is always worth the "risk"

Sometimes life is messy. Sometimes love is messy. Sometimes relationships are "one way." When we love someone who is in trouble, someone who needs to be rescued, there is often a high cost to be paid. The cost might include risking our comfortability. It might cost us our reputation. It might cause us to risk our sensibility. Is it worth the risk? Life change is always worth the risk. Love is always worth the risk.

(adapted from the sermon Monster in the Lake: "Risk" by Keith Walker)