Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

“I’m very flexible; I just don’t like change,” my father in law says frequently through smiling eyes. 


David Bowie sang about it in 1971 with “Changes”:

“Lookout you rock n rollers,

Pretty soon you’re gonna get a little older.

Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.”

Embracing change is a tall task for many of us. 

The artistry of God paints October blue skies arching over a world both abounding in autumn beauty and moving headlong into winter. Shadows lengthen. The sun moves into the southern sky. Harvest festivals morph into winter landscapes. Signs of change are all around.

Seasons of life move through predictable patterns as well, try as we may to hold them at bay.

Living in the shadow of loss is a change that comes to us all.

For some, the sadness over what is overshadows the gratitude of what was. 

Reclaiming gratitude offers a solace all its own, one worth cultivating if we are out of practice. 

How to build in time for gratitude, some ask, when their days are frantic and fleeting? 

Busyness can keep us in turbulence tricking us into being victims in an out-of-control life, while others long for something to keep them busy and engaged with life.
 It may depend as much as one’s attitude as one’s season of life.

 I remember the obviously pregnant young woman who shopped in our store late one November afternoon.
Betty greeted her warmly, "I know we're not supposed to do this, but -- when?"

"Tomorrow!" The cute mom-to-be in the purple sweater practically exhaled the word.

Her Christmas shopping days were over. She had finished her list. Now the hard work begins. Her anxiety was palpable.

When young moms ask, “Will my life ever get back to normal?" I answer encouragingly, "Yes. But normal is different now."

Nothing stays the same. 

Life is dynamic, always changing. We learn to adapt, if we are wise, rather than to cling to what was.
Sometimes we think we are overloaded and stressed during a season of life, only to discover later that we had not yet begun to know overload. That stress, however, was all we could handle at the time.

Then we learn that we can do hard things. 

We grow the way most living things do: by stretching. We must stretch for each season of life brings its own challenges. How do we prepare for them?

1. Seek wise counsel. Read. This includes learning from those who have gone before. We need not reinvent the wheel. Yet some part of us still utters that toddler’s cry, “I can do it all by myself.”

2. Pray. This reminds me of the instruction on every shampoo bottle I have held since the ‘60s: shampoo, lather, rinse, repeat. One would think that we'd get it by now. 

The call to prayer is always present. You might think that we'd get it by now, too. Yet, rather than as a first line of defense and a forward strike against a threat, prayer often becomes our last resort.

So in any season of life when we think we cannot tackle another challenge, we need to know we are capable of greater things. We just cannot do it all alone. And we never have to. The promise of God's word is that God will never leave us nor forsake us. 

Each of us faces certain change in an uncertain future but we do not do it alone.

Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Hebrews 13:5-6
For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Cruelty and selfishness in one painful act...

Recently I wrote about Rich Dixon who hand-cranked his bike from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, riding from Minnesota south on a lifetime journey to chronicle his story and to raise money for charity. Rich is the cousin of my friend, Rachel Kabukala, and a gifted, impassioned speaker. He dreams big dreams, and I was impressed in his wake as he pulled out of town.

He is also paralyzed after an injury left Rich unable to walk. But Rich's companions, his precious wife and trusted dog, Monty, are helping make his steps through life more than amazing.

Now, in a testament to the innate selfishness bound up in the hearts of humans, I see an update to his story.   Please pray for Rich. And maybe for the person who thought it funny to steal his bike and leave him an utterly worthless piece of junk in its place. I am saddened to hear the news found here this morning.

Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.  Hebrews 4:16


UPDATE: May 4, 2012 The Fort Collins, Colorado Police delivered the located bike to Rich - with great rejoicing from friends and concerned onlookers. The investigating on ongoing, so there is no comment yet, but I am so pleased to give a happy ending to this story in time for his planned journey this month.

Pass It On

The recap of this fall football weekend includes the announcer's summary of big games all over the country. Beneath the hype and heap of players is almost certainly a video replay of a crucial dropped pass, a game-changing play that airs too often to the utter embarrassment of the miscalculating player.

One of the songs of my life comes to mind when I hear them say that he almost had control of the ball, but couldn't hold onto it. Now he gets charged with the dreaded dropped pass.

"Pass It On" by Kurt Kaiser is what is now known as vintage music, believe it or not. It only takes a spark, to get a fire going opens the song that was popular in the 60's and 70's. My children, too, sang it at camp when they were coming along in the 90's, so it has spanned generations.

"That's how it is with God's love, once you experience it. You spread His love to everyone, you want to pass it on..."

When I think on this title, it occurs to me:

Sometimes we choose to pass it on, and sometimes we say, "I'll pass."

We say it in our actions if not in words.

"I'll pass on it." Not interested. Put somebody else in, Coach.

Tiny words shuffled make a big difference. Let's not fumble this one. Pass it on. We will not have a perfect record of completions in this life, but we can hold fast to the faith we've been given. (I know this post is evidence that I've read too many college admission essays on sports as a metaphor for life, but please permit me this one.)

Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
guard it well, for it is your life Proverbs 4:13.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful Hebrews 10:23

Paddle or Die

Remar o Morir!

My husband and one bold niece swept themselves down a river in Alaska in a raft like this one. Though I'm more of a canoe girl myself, there is something exhilarating about the anticipation of rushing water and the skillful navigation along the river's course. Have you seen rafters paddle while going downstream? It seems like that would be a good time to coast, to enjoy the scenery. Perhaps you've experienced river guides directing the paddling of the raft going downstream before hurtling over whitewater rapids. Do they really need to pick up more speed before reaching that treacherous water, I've wondered?

Paddlers stroke the water gently but steadily while the river propels them downstream because that is the only way to have some measure of control over the direction they are going. They must be going a little faster than the current carrying them. To navigate with purpose, we must control our direction.

We live in a whitewater world. Sometimes we lose our footing. Sometimes we get swept away in the frenzy all around us. But we continue to paddle so that we can maintain some sense of uprightness--of knowing our orientation--relative to God and to those we love.

Paddling for the believer may be an expression of keeping our eyes on Jesus. Don't be fearful or distracted by what is going on all around. There will always be something that beckons for our attention, maybe even something threatening or dangerous, but do not lose heart.

Keep your paddle in the water.

Stroke after stroke.

Hang in there.

Let us practice the disciplines that keep us connected to God so that we can remain strong.

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how He did it, because He never lost sight of where he was headed--that exhilarating finish in and with God--He could put up with anything along the way. Hebrews 12:2 The Message




Inspired from devotional reading by Robert Schnase

Beauty in Unusual Places

Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who sees takes off his shoes.

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was asked by her husband how she felt as she was dying.

"Beautiful," she replied, her last word. She died in his arms in Florence where he tended her alone.

Inventor Thomas Alva Edison said just before his death in 1931, "It's very beautiful over there."

Beautiful. Can it be?

There is a great mystery in dying that has gotten my attention in recent years. A favorite book, Final Gifts by Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelly, is an important guide and resource for those suddenly thrust upon the final-illness scene; yet it is even better if we have no such prospect looming but simply want to live with greater understanding of a topic we generally like to keep far away from us.

Written by two hospice nurses who speak from experience of thousands of deaths, Final Gifts acknowledges that while each person's death is distinctly one's own, there are patterns and stages common to most that we likely will experience.

Preparation for dying draws me - not in a macabre or gruesome way - but with a spiritual intensity that longs to be prepared physically and emotionally as well. I have shared this pursuit with others who are facing near-death situations themselves. Yes, tennis might have been a more pleasant hobby, but for this season (and for the past number of years) death bids me to take a closer look.

Each of us will experience death and dying of those dear to us, perhaps many times over our lifetime. While I would choose to wedge the door shut if that would keep the unwelcome intruder at bay, I want to learn from those who have experienced this aspect of our shared humanity. I want to be as prepared as possible for a possibly incomprehensible loss.

I say I do not fear death. (I have yet to be fully tested on this hypothesis, you understand.) I do, however, fear grief, and I dread living without the presence and companionship of those we love. I have named my fears, and grief is at the top of the list.

Death is a part of life, an essential stage of moving from this life to the Life we cannot glimpse until we pass its threshold. We are not kidding ourselves to avoid it, or to act as though it might not happen to us. But it need not have the last word.

I believe there is an inaudible 'beautiful' that awaits us as well.

A young Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote,

"There are so many mercies close around me that God's being seems proved to me, demonstrated to me, by His manifested love."

That loving presence would be tested a few days later when she learned of the death of her only brother, Edward, in a sailing accident with friends. She had parted with him with 'pettish words' on the day he left, and her grief was complicated by her intense remorse over that unreconciled quarrel. For years she could not hear of the sea or of her brother because of the lingering anguish she felt.

Only later in life did she write,

"Once I wished not to live, but the faculty of life seems to have sprung up in me again from under the crushing foot of heavy grief. Be it all as God wills."

She is not alone in expressing such a sentiment. Grief is oppressive. It settles in for a season - maybe a long season of drought and barrenness of spirit. The fog hangs even heavier when embedded within it is guilt for harsh words exchanged, or forgiveness withheld, or unexpressed love and appreciation. We long for the opportunity to settle emotional accounts.

The faith I embrace gives perspective that all do not share, I realize. Chief within it is the call to love and to forgive. Forgiveness is not easy, and it is not optional. But it does go a long way in resolving conflict and easing the burden we bear after last words are spoken.

Everyone has struggles and challenges, even those who appear to live a lovely life. Elizabeth's subsequent love for and marriage to Robert Browning is a 19th century love story that would inspire millions today, but their life together was not easy. Her father had forbidden his daughters to marry - a prospect that terrified and saddened them - and, though Browning thought he could speak openly with her father about the stance and persuade him otherwise, Elizabeth knew her father's edict to be firm, and they eloped. She pleaded for reconciliation with her father for the rest of his life, but he refused to speak with her and later returned all her letters to him, unopened - a final insult, it seems to me.

She knew something about suffering. Her mother and brother had died early in life; her poor health kept her confined to a room. She could not walk. Robert carried her up stairs or across the brooks near their home. She experienced real life: satisfying life and love mixed with unreconciled issues, family conflicts, and lifelong grief. And yet she could express devotion to God and rest in God's provision even though her life was filled with hardships to endure.

And she called it beautiful.

I want to know what is true....what is bedrock...what is helpful on this part of the journey....and I pray that God will guide through shared experiences and from impressions of the Spirit on this quest to live life to the fullest and to face the end of this life with courage and grace in the presence of the Lord.

God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:15

Be strengthened in the Lord if you are facing an uncertain road ahead. Know that you are not alone. May we see 'common bushes afire' with God's loving Presence and have spiritual eyes to see something beautiful beyond our sight.

In the Fullness of Time

Some days are far from the romanticized images of childhood picture books. There are just not enough hours in the day. We find ourselves out of time and out of gas. We are like the obviously pregnant young woman who shopped in our store late this afternoon.

Betty said with a smile, "I know we're not supposed to do this, but -- when?"

"Tomorrow. " The cute mom-to-be in the purple sweater practically exhaled the words.

Her Christmas shopping days were over. She had finished her list. She had laid by her provisions, as they used to say. Now the hard work begins.

When young moms ask, 'Will my life ever get back to normal?" I answer encouragingly, "Yes. But normal is different now."

Nothing stays the same. Life is dynamic, always changing. We learn to adapt, if we are wise, rather than to cling to what was.

Sometimes we only think we are busy/overloaded/stressed during a season of life, only to discover later that we had not yet begun to know what busy is; however, that stress was all we could handle at the time. But we learn that we can do hard things. We grow the way most living things do: by stretching.

Each season of life brings its own challenges. How do we ever prepare for them?

1. Seek wise counsel. Study. Read. This includes learning from those who have gone before. We need not reinvent the wheel when we can learn from others, yet some part of us still retains that vestigial message: 'I can do it all by myself' attitude not reserved only for toddlers.

2. Pray. This is like the instruction on every shampoo bottle I have held since the 1960's: Shampoo, lather, rinse, repeat. One would think that we'd get it by now -- that they don't have to keep telling us how to wash hair. The admonition and call to prayer is always present: you'd think that we'd get it by now too. But rather than a first line of defense and a forward strike against a threat, prayer often becomes our last resort.

So even on the busiest days when we think we cannot add another item to the list or tackle another challenge, we do not know that we are truly capable of greater things. We just cannot do it all alone. And we never have to. The promise of God's word is that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

I pray that young woman we saw today knows the power of the Presence of God tomorrow during this life-changing day for her family! And each of us will benefit as well, even if it is not our birth day. Thanks be to God.


Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Hebrews 13:5-6
For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"



Photo: Festive Family Christmas from Antique Holiday Postcard Scenes - 2006 Lord & Taylor Holiday Window Displays