Change

Another change is soon upon us.  September is more than half over, the weather is dipping for a few days and fall is technically here with the feel of if just around the corner.  I've already seen folks decorating with colored leaves, acorns, pinecones and scarecrows.  I used to be one of those people.  Now I just kind of let nature take over my yard.  You know, the scraggly, weedy, totally natural look?  That's me!

Living on a farm and being a farmer, we are used to change and I think being a farmer prepares us well for change.  We are used to the fact that change is a staple of life and changes are thrown at us daily.  The weather changes, animals' moods can change our plans very quickly, birth and death both bring changes.

But change can be a beautiful thing.  I don't ever want to be one of those people that loathes change, falling into the "same-old, same-old" routine, becoming stagnant in my life and daily awareness and learnings.  If we choose to honor change, we will walk with it hand in hand and be able to work with what we're handed.  If we choose to curse change, we may ourselves be cursed with misfortune.  By understanding the powerful grip that change has upon our lives, we can accept it with respect and grace.  By respecting it, we can embrace it.

I choose to embrace change.

Worthy

I love spending time outside at night.  Warm weather is easier to stay longer, but even on the cold winter nights, the crisp air brings a sense of peace to the night.

I'm a big stargazer, though I am not very learned of the constellations and celestial objects in the sky.  But just the awesome magnitude of the never-ending sea of stars and cosmic bodies makes me feel such a part of something so magnificently wonderful and sometimes so unworthy at the same time.  Such a small speck of grain in such a vast desert.

Truth is, we're really all unworthy.  We're born that way.  But the story doesn't end there; it's only just beginning.  We may think we're unworthy, and by society's standards, may fall into that web of lies.  But the real truth is that we are worth more than we can ever imagine.  Not financially or socially, but soul-ly.  I know, I just made up a word.  Don't let it distract you from my thoughts! :) The thing is, the cosmos, the celestial objects, the millions of stars, all the way down to the plants, the mountains, the seas, these things were all created for us.  They were created for us because even though we may feel unworthy, we have a purpose, and every one, no matter our wrongdoings, has a worth that we cannot comprehend.  We have a worth that is not judged by human standards or opinions.

The question of our worth is one that has been asked for centuries.  Psalms 8:3-4 says,

I look at your heavens, which you made with your fingers.  I see the moon and stars, which you created.  But why are people even important to you?  Why do you take care of human beings?

 Fact of the matter is, we are all worthy.  I know.  I just contradicted what I said a moment ago.  Hang on.  Just as the stars and moon were created, we were also created, each one of us unique and completely different from any other.  Unique.  Extraordinary.  The only one of our kind.  And, just as the stars and moon worship, we were created to worship.  (If you've read anything I've written, you've heard that before!)  All of creation was created to worship (see Psalms 148), and when we don't, He misses us.  He made us in an amazing and wonderful way, and we are worthy.  We are worthy, because we are loved.  Loved with an unfathomable love.  Loved no matter our circumstances, our nationalities, our status, our wrongs.  We are loved.  And because we are loved, we were deemed worthy before we even knew we were unworthy.  We only have to accept it.  The heavens declare the glory of God, day after day after day.  When we, too, declare His glory, worshipping through song, prayer, meditation, whatever, we will begin to glimpse our worthiness.

You are loved.  Don't be missed.

Spiritual Cancer

When the Cornerstone Bank in Waco, Nebraska, was robbed of some $6,000 in November of 2012, the bank employees were able to give the police a fairly good description of the teenage girl who pulled off the crime and the car in which she escaped.  As it turned out, the investigators didn't really need those descriptions, because the thief recorded a YouTube video titled "Chick bank robber" boasting of her criminal prowess.

Fanning out the cash in front of the camera, 19-year-old Hannah Sabata held up a sign that read, "I just stole a car and robbed a bank.  Now I'm rich, I can pay off my college financial aid, and tomorrow I'm going for a shopping spree."  Later she held up another sign which said, "I told my mom today was the best day of my life...she just thinks I met a new boy."

Hannah's brief criminal career ended later that week when police took her into custody.

Just like Hannah's immodest boasting quickly caught up with her, we are warned against the dangers of what many Christian and religious teachers agree is the utmost evil:  pride.

I've opened up a big ol' can of worms, haven't I?  Condescension.  Superiority.  Snobbery.  Imperiousness.  Overbearingness.  Haughtiness.  All synonyms of arrogance and pride.

I think we're all familiar with the knowledge that by delighting in ourselves and our accomplishments, rather than taking pride in the fact that we were able to please someone or God and leaving it at the fact that all is well, is where we can fall into the trait of becoming condescending, in turn becoming unreasonably arrogant and prideful.  And if we fall to the point of not caring what others value or think of us because their opinions or ideas are of no consequence to us, then we have reached the epitome of the worst pride.

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity,

The real black, diabolical Pride comes when you look down on others so much that you do not care what they think of you.  Of course, it is very right, and often our duty, not to care what people think of us, if we do so for the right reason; namely, because we care so incomparably more what God thinks.  But the Proud man has a different reason for not caring.  He says "Why should I care for the applause of that rabble as if their opinion were of value, am I the sort of man to blush with pleasure at a compliment like a young girl at her first dance?  No, I am an integrated, adult personality.  All I have done has been done to satisfy my own ideals - or my artistic conscience - or the traditions of my family - or, in a word, because I'm That Kind of Chap.  If the mob like it, let them.  They're nothing to me."  In this way really thoroughgoing Pride may act as a check on vanity; for, as I said a moment ago, the devil loves "curing" a small fault by giving you a great one.

I believe it is an easy trap for us to fall into as humans.  It's our nature to be proud of our accomplishments, of who we are, where we come from and to boast of such things.  It is not as easy to have humility and meekness.  One of the biggest ways we can start to accomplish this, though, is to stop talking and start listening.  I've always heard that God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason.  To talk less and listen more.  A trait of a sincerely humble person is one that is genuinely interested in what you said to him, not in telling you how his way is the right way or the only way.  Generally, these are cheerful, intelligent folks who are able to easily enjoy life and I believe the reason is because they are not thinking of themselves.  There is no perfection trying to be achieved.  They know perfection on earth is impossible; we can only better ourselves as we work toward our life's main goal of Christ.  As Leo Tolstoy once wrote, "An arrogant person considers himself perfect.  It interferes with a person's main task in life -- becoming a better person."

In Muhammad Ali's heyday as the heavy weight champion in boxing, he had taken his seat on a 747 which was starting to taxi down the runway for take off.  The flight attendant walked by and noticed Ali did not have on his seatbelt and said, "Please fasten your seatbelt, sir."
He looked up proudly and snapped, "Superman don't need no seatbelt."
Without hesitation she stared at him and said, "Superman don't need no plane."


"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."  Proverbs 16:18

Choosing Joy

Joy is often thought to be the icing on the cake for what makes life worth living, but what happens when we seem to lose our joy?  Like there's no real purpose, every day is filled with the same old, get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, do it all over again tomorrow routine?

We are all human, and life is daily full of choices.  Many of those choices we must make whether we "feel" like it or not.  Like going to work on Mondays.  I know I would love to have a day to sleep in way past the sun coming up and then when I wake up, roll over and stay in bed for the next four hours.  While I do love sleep, that's a bit unrealistic and not a healthy choice.  And besides, I know several animals that would be a bit upset if I didn't get up and take care of their needs every morning.  So, even when we don't feel like making that choice, we make the choice to get out of bed and go to work, even on Monday morning.

Joy is one of life's choices we must make.  We can be going through a rough time, having a bad day, ready to quit, but if we choose to trust the situation, we will surely see that the end of the circumstance holds promise.  Or, we can avoid joy, reveling in our negativity, complaining that life is full of sorrow, depressing, and full of despair and we will be destroyed by it.  It's a choice.  And we have the freedom to choose.

I am reminded of the life of Corrie ten Boom, whose entire family was arrested and imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps for harboring Jews in their home in the Netherlands.  She wrote much about the months she and her sister survived through three separate camps, and even after the death (from illness) of her sister, the continual joy in every circumstance was her choice.  She chose joy in a Nazi concentration camp.  And her joy became contagious.  She did not let them steal her joy.  What faith!  After a clerical error released her from the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp only days prior to every other female her age being executed, she wanted to share what she and her sister had learned in those camps:  that "there is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still."

You are a treasure to God.  A person who has forgotten what God treasures will not be filled with joy.  Are we going to trust that life's circumstances, painful as times may be, hold promise?  Or will we be filled with despair and let it destroy us?  I need to take this one step further, though, and tell you that choosing joy is not just a choice we must make.  It's a command.  "Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Whatever happens, give thanks..."  ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  Puts a little more pressure on the choice, doesn't it?

Every day we face choices.  Every day we choose to get out of bed and face the day.  Don't face the day without making the choice for joy.

"Joy does not simply happen to us.  We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day."
~Henri J.M. Nouwen

Living Life Forward

Have you ever thought about your story?  How you got to where you are now?  We all have one.
 And most are filled with many, many chapters that seem like they happened an entire mini-series ago.

There are chapters of joyful, wonderful times that we openly share with everyone.  You know those times, all the happy pictures and posts on Facebook, the times with family and friends, the new jobs, the goals reached, the exciting events in life.  We're happy to share those times with everyone.

And we all have chapters that we'd just as soon have deleted, though they don't necessarily defeat us, more just annoy us.  You know what I'm talking about.  Those not-so-good choices we made that our mothers still have included in the family encyclopedic photo album.  Those somewhat embarrassing times that we thought were quite grand at the time and now look back and think, "Wow.  That was stupid."  You know, like really big hair, really bad clothing styles and really bad boyfriend choices.  But mom won't tear those pages out of that photo album, so we live with the more-than-vivid memories when company visits and laugh it off to young ignorance.

And then there are those chapters of shame.  There may not be actual photos of these times, but the  memories in our minds are just as clear as if they happened yesterday.  The life-changing events that we didn't expect, the choices made hoping to please someone we loved for what we thought was the right reason, the times of loss, defeat, heartbreak.  The times we'd just as soon forget completely.  The shame and regret and feeling of total unbelief that we trusted so completely, loved so passionately, and didn't see the signs pointing to the coming failure or loss.  The 20/20 times.  The times that when we look back, we can see clearly with 20/20 vision what was coming, but we were so infatuated with the moment we didn't allow ourselves to see reality.

Each chapter has it's importance, many times for later use.  It can be a lesson for us to learn, sure, but more importantly, it can be a lesson for us to share.  If we will approach each chapter in life as a lesson to be learned, we will be inspired, able to focus on living a courageous life, and ultimately become unstoppable with God's grace.  We must not allow pride to get in the way, but we mustn't be ashamed of our chapters, for each one has a purpose.  And if we will allow it, God will take our chapters, forming them into a beautiful story, and use that story for His glory.

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward."
~Soren Kierkegaard

Working for a Bigger Purpose

Labor Day. A time to honor the "American labor movement and contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of their country." ~Wikipedia

Labor:  physical or mental work, especially of a hard or fatiguing kind; toil. ~Dictionary.com

 I believe true happiness and contentment can only come when we are able to love and enjoy what we are laboring for. For me, that comes from remembering why I was placed here. I believe I was put here to be a caretaker of God's creation. I think we have removed ourselves so far away from that in society these days. We're too busy keeping up with our schedules, so we'll let the tree-hugging, charitable types take care of creation. Or nature. Or the woods and forests. The animals and people. That ought to be enough, right?  Throw some extra change in the plastic jar at the convenience store. Set up a monthly debit to my favorite save the trees and animals charity. 

Personally, I believe the purpose of my labor is so much bigger than that. And it's when I am able to focus on that bigger purpose that I am most content. At peace. When I start worrying about keeping a lot of people happy or what others think, that's when I lose my focus of that bigger purpose. I am not convinced it's my job to save the world, change the world, feed the world. I am convinced that it is my job to work hard, be productive, and be a caretaker where I am. When I am focused, then I am content and feel the effects of a job well done.  

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20  Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him - for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work - this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. -NIV