Category: goodness of God

The Weapon To Use Against Fear of Scarcity

.Reading time 5 minutes.

They feast on the abundance of your house, you give them drink in your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life. In your life we see light. Psalm 36:8-9.

Each of my three kids get the same allowance every week. For some reason, this trip to Target, only two of the three kids chose to purchase gum for themselves. Twenty minutes later during our visit to Gramma Jean, the kid who brought newly purchased gum into the apartment offered a piece to one of the other two. The third child, asked for gum as well.

“What do you have to trade?”

“Nothing.”

“Then, no.”

“What!?! That’s no fair! Mooooooom….”

“It’s MY gum. I bought it with MY money. I only have EIGHT pieces left.”

*sigh*

There were so many things about this situation that were driving me crazy. We got through it, but I was tempted to wish the kids back to school. Tomorrow, please and thank you.

Rather than let me marinade in annoyance, though the Spirit nudged me. Granted, it was later that day. Maybe that’s how long it took Him to get through. Anyway, the nudge asked, “just how well do you share when you feel there is a limit to how much there is to go around?”

See, there are some challenges at work and changes to our schedule coming this fall. Challenges and change kick up my fear response. And when I am afraid, I tend to hunker down and hoard. Hoard my money, energy, time…Withdraw. Take no chances.

In short, after the Spirit nudged, I had to admit that my kids aren’t the only ones who don’t want to share when it may be costly. To look at another child who has trouble sharing, I just need to pull out my mirror.

Anybody else? Anybody else look at life as though there’s not enough to go around when they feel scared? Not enough time, not enough resources, not enough energy? Anyone else’s bodies seem to freeze up in the face of change and cry out — too little! We must conserve!

Things are running out!

Friend, I don’t share this to shame us. Heaven’s knows, the last thing we need is guilt and shame sprinkled over fear. Instead, let’s recognize this undercurrent in our self-protective tendencies. Let’s see our hoarding for what it is. Let’s tune our ears to truly hear God’s voice. Listen to His heart, friend.

His heart richly overflows with grace and mercy. He desires us to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that [we] may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19).

His heart yearns to heap provision on us when we turn to Him. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:21).

In His kingdom, there is already more than enough, and when we step out in faith, the more multiplies. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed own, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Luke 6:37-38).

May we allow the Spirit to helped us identify the subtle lies. Especially those lies that sounds so much like our own voices speaking that it’s hard to call them into the light. May we draw near to the Source of all good things. May our hearts receive, eyes see and ears hear the abundant, delightful life that is showered on us.

I created this graphic to cue us to fix our gaze on God’s abundant, generous nature when we find ourselves pulling back and hording. Click here to sign up to receive the graphic as a free download.

Work in Progress

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Quiet morning, busy week.

Feeling the pressure mounting and experiencing every of minor thing gone wrong as particularly annoying.

Dishwasher? Still broken. Printer? Offline. Kids? Bickering.

Anybody else facing challenges these next few days?

The mix of challenges is as different as we are. Personally, I found myself rushing home hungry to a house of tired kids, thinking of the work I didn’t *quite* get to finish, vaguely anxious about the logistics of traveling by plane Wednesday (should I try to carry on all my luggage? will all those 3 ring binders fit? do I have travel-size shampoo?).

I caught myself yelling, “STOP YELLING!” at the kids the other night. Shockingly, it did not stop the yelling and about the second time, I yelled my directive, I realized that my modeling on the issue was leaving something to be desired.

We all desperately need a reset at times, don’t we?

When we find ourselves yelling or avoiding or ignoring or whatever our particular “tell” is, let’s take a deep breath. Right when we realize it.

Then, let’s remind ourselves: when our time, energy, patience and smarts just aren’t enough, it is there Jesus shines through all the more. Friend, we still have to show up, we still might have to bite our tongue, or talk when we would rather pretend we weren’t actually present…Yes, yes. But the first step of faith, friend, is stopping in our tracks right then to listen to Him speak over us, “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (1 Cor. 12:8).

The power of the “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. [Who] is before all things and in [Whom] all things hold together.” (Col. 1:15, 17) gives us His power in our weakness so His glory is shown.

That’s the next step of faith: showing up, with this belief in hand, giving it our best, and surrendering to Him the results.

Easier said than done, I know. So let’s breath Him in deep and encourage each other — His power is perfected in our weaknesses and He is more than enough.

5 Things I Learned Spring of 2019

.Reading time 4 minutes.

I follow several lovely ladies on social media and one of them, Emily P Freeman, invites people to join along in chronicling “what I learned this season.”  I love the idea of pausing four times a year to check in with my life.  I tried to start the habit of joining in sometime last year – but life got in the way of checking in with life and so the story goes.  Maybe this time it will stick.

What I learned this Spring:

1. I enjoy life when I have quality time with my friends much better than without.  This spring, work and kid activities took over my life and the thing that got cut out was my time with my friends.  I have plans this summer to be a little more consistent with some girlfriends this summer and I feel so much more settled knowing that I’m making an effort to clear a little pool of time in the schedule.

2. As much as I hate it, one of my very first reactions to unexpected and stressful life situations is anxiety.  We had some stressful, landscape-changing things happen on the work front this spring.  For a couple days I felt waves of useless adrenaline coursing through my body and my mind alternately felt frozen or went spinning out possible scenarios into a dystopian future.  Rather than pretend that’s not what I naturally do, I’m noticing it.  Which lead to:

3. I can control my responses to life situations –  I don’t have wallow in my natural reactions to them. My pastor is working his way through Matthew on Sundays and he said recently, “Jesus will tweak your expectations, the question is, what will you do with Jesus when He does?”  Over and over the Bible tells us there will be trials.  What matters most is not the situation itself, but our response to it.  Our response to the trials either brings us closer to Jesus or hardens our hearts and keeps Jesus from coming nearer to us.  Sanctification, I’m learning, is God’s process of tweaking our expectations and training us to respond through His Spirit.  Rather than despair and worry when circumstances unexpectedly skew, God is training me to look in faith to His character: goodness, love, and kindness.

4. I enjoy the Marvel movies.  I watched Thor: Ragnorok and Avengers: Infinity War and just thought they were fun.  Fantasy that doesn’t take itself too seriously is my jam.

5. My metabolism is slowing down, so I need to eat slower and listen to my body when it tells me I’m full.  It’s either that, or, the way things are going, I’ll need to purchase all new pants.

What about you?  What did you learn this spring?