Squeezed

Sometimes life has the amazing ability to just be really hard. I try to be optimistic and find the good in all situations; to not grumble and complain - but sometimes, the school of life just slaps you across the face and tells you to "SIT DOWN"! It's those times when there's at least one puzzle piece missing (feels like more) that I cannot see. I can look in hindsight and see how the pieces have linked together. I can look ahead and make out a faint sketch of what is to come, but right in front of me - there's just no piece that fits! I've tried them all. It's a lot like our last family vacation. The one where we drove 11 hours the first day, 7 the next few days and 18 hours straight home. We heard questions like, "Where are we going today, Mom?" Mom answers... "Well how far is that?" A few minutes later, "How much further....Are we there yet?" Those are natural, trying to get my bearings questions. Thankfully, we weren't the first explorers to travel to New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, so we have a general idea of how far, how long and where to stop along the way. In the same way, the ancients of our faith have also traveled this life and left behind nuggets of truth, encouragement and wisdom for our walk today.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, after the plagues and finally the Passover, they had no idea what obstacle they were going to meet first. Right out of the gate, they reach a chasm in their life puzzle called The Red Sea. What do we do now Lord?! Take me back to Egypt! The Lord directed Moses to raise his staff and stretch it over the water. From there I always think they just hopped ashore and watched their enemies splash to their demise. But that's not exactly how it happened. That's not the whole story. To stop there would be missing a huge piece to the puzzle. The piece where God shows His glory. So God parts the waters and sends His pillar of cloud BEHIND the Isrealites to protect them from the ensuing army. All night long they walked through the sea. Walls of water to their right and left. Walk... walk...walk. With no one mentioning the fact that at any moment the waters could return back and swallow them all up whole!

 Exodus 14:24 says, "During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and thew it into confusion. He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, 'Let's get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.'"

There are times I've seen the Lord perform miracles and "part the waters" for our family. There's also times, I'm learning, He sends His pillar of fire behind us, putting distance between us and our enemy; shining light to us, but darkness to them. In those situations, when I'm walking through the oooey, gooey seaweed covered land with jellyfish to my right and left, we can only keep putting one foot in front of the other, and trusting God do the fighting and let Him get the glory. The Israelites walked all night. I may walk for awhile, but at the last watch, God will show up and deliver His people.

O Lord, Are we there yet?!

Righteous will Live by Faith

I am not tech savvy. I do not like figuring out computer issues, nor understand routers, modems and wireless connections. I do not like a computer thinking it knows what I need because its "creator" pre-programmed the inputs and outputs a certain way. In the words of Dr Seuss, "I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am!" Unfortunately for me - and the rest of my family at times - the use of computers and spiffy technology is unavoidable. A while back our printer bit the dust, so its replacement, un-be known to me at the time turned out to be a "smart printer". Smart printers really aren't that smart. After every other print session, it does thing called an "all systems check". Which basically means it makes a lot of noise, clicks and clacks and is unavailable for a while! Which can be very frustrating when you have several things to print out and you weren't planning on it taking all afternoon! Well that's the situation my son, Caleb entered upon. This was not a new situation for him either. He quickly surveyed the situation and issues his diagnosis: "There's smart phones, smart printers and smart cars, now all we need are smart people!!" Hallelujah, Caleb you hit the nail on the head for me! Is it just me or do all these "advancements" and "smart" equipment leave you feeling really...dumb?!

Now I'm sure we could make a strong case on is civilization growing dumber rather than smarter, but that's not quite the angle I'm coming from. As I look through the pages of God's timeless Word, I find really, not much has changed. Jesus spoke to the people using parables so they could understand - and many still didn't. He clearly referred to his death and gave His disciples specific instructions as to what to do. They still responded with the deer in the headlight look or had the audacity to ask to sit at His right and left in Glory. The Pharisees, though well educated and a prominent leader in society had the hardest hearts around. Ecclesiastes rings true again... "There's nothing new under the sun."

Jesus said of His crowd in Mat 13:13 "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing they do not understand."

I just finished reading a book called Lessons I Learned in the Dark: Steps to Walking by Faith, not by Sight by Jennifer Rothschild, who's been blind since High School. Her book discusses her walk through blindness and the lessons God has taught her as she exercises faith everyday. In closing she says this, "The greatest handicap you can have is for it not to be well with your soul. To allow your circumstances to blind you to the infinite goodness of God is far more debilitation then physical darkness."

Jesus didn't choose the smart people of His day to be his disciples. He chose humble fisherman. Rich or poor, philosopher or lay-man, young or old, God's call is still the same. It's "Come and follow Me." There's no app for that or a pre-programmed button. Just a leap of faith. Have YOU responded yet?