The Search (Part Two)

Last Saturday I shared with you the beginning of a story I wrote for StoryADay May. The challenge is to write a story each day in May using the prompts given you by various authors. The prompt for my story entitled, The Search, began with incessant banging on a cabin door; the character throws a souffle into the oven and opens the door to find only three antique brass keys and a Bible (my substitution for a tarot card). So without further ado...

The Search (Part Two)

Over the next two days, Harper tried to relax as well as come to some conclusions about the things that had been bothering her lately. "How do I fix everything in only a week?" she whined dramatically. It wasn't true, everything was not terrible, just predictably, mind-numbingly the same. She longed for something new, something inspiring. Up until now, she'd skirted the life she had dreamed of having. Sure, she had planned on working, but she had wanted a career, something she could sink her teeth into, give her life over to. She'd found a good job. "Aim low, you'll never be disappointed," she thought. Even if she'd chosen to be a career wife and mother, she would have been okay with it. Perhaps what she was really missing was being a part of something. She had a few friends, not that numbers are important, but they had their own lives. They had careers and families. They always included her in their barbecues and nights out, but as wonderful as they were, she never felt as though they connected. They had so little in common. And her parents, well, they lived so far away and had their church friends and all of their neighborhood things. For people approaching their sixties, they amazed her with their energy. They didn't simply get involved because they believed they had to, they got involved because they were eager to; they couldn't stop themselves from getting out there and helping others or just meeting others. "And here I am, sitting in a cabin trying to figure out my life," she thought.

The keys, once again, caught her eye. "What on earth could they open," she thought, "and why would someone insist on dropping them off here to me?" She began looking around the room again, and almost unable to stop herself, she rose to her feet. Her eyes panned the room as she began to walk slowly as if tracking something. Just then, there was a knock. The old cabin door jumped with the five or six knocks that followed.

"Hang on!" Harper commanded. "What is going on around here?" she mumbled. She reached the door just as someone shouted, "Sorry!" from the other side. Harper cracked the door open a bit. "Can I help you?"

"I am so sorry to bother you," the stranger said. "I had heard someone was staying up here in Danny's old cabin, and I stopped by the other night to talk to you. My name's Lucy --" 

"Wait, you were here the other night, banging on the door?" Harper interrupted.

"Yes, I'm sorry, sometimes I'm a little intense, don't know my own strength. Besides, these dry old cabin doors tend to amplify the sound on the inside. I stopped by to talk to you, but just as I was waiting for you to answer, my phone rang. One of the kids had fallen, and I needed to get home right away. I hope you don't mind, but I heard you were up here doing a little bit of thinking and thought a Bible might help. I'm sure you've already got one, but I dropped it off just in case. I didn't mean to run off. Anyhoo, I stopped by today--"

"Oh, hey, wow. Um, I really appreciate the Bible and all that," Harper interrupted again. This Lucy was quite the talker. "But, um, I really don't do the 'religion thing.' My parents are pretty good at it, though; I'll leave it up to them. Um, so, uh, what's with the keys? You dropped off keys."

"Oh, you found them! Praise Jesus! I stopped by today to see if maybe I had dropped them. Those keys go to some of my father's files and his desk. Daddy was a preacher in this area for years. He retired several years ago, and his eyesight isn't what it used to be. I usually take something from his writings up to the home to read to him. He would have been so disappointed to find I'd lost them."

"Wow, okay. Here I was thinking they opened something around here. I've been trying to figure it out. Here ya go." Harper handed over the keys. 

"Thank you so much!" gushed Lucy. "I don't mean to pry, but how's the rest and reflection going?"

Harper was taken aback by the question at first but found herself wanting to answer. "I guess, not quite as good as I'd hoped. There just seems to be something missing in everything. I just haven't been able to give my devotion to any one thing and come out feeling as though it has been worth my time. Have you ever felt that way?"

"Why, as a matter of fact, I have. If you wouldn't mind putting on some coffee, I'd love to tell you how I found purpose in my life."

Again, Harper was taken aback. All this talk about purpose and devotion. She was beginning to think she'd fallen into some commercial for a self-help seminar. But, she'd come up here for answers and it was answers she would get. "Sure," she said, opening the door.

Lucy made herself st home on the overstuffed chair. She picked up the Bible from the table and began flipping the pages.

"Do you really read that thing?" Harper asked, grabbing mugs from the top shelf.

"I sure do! There is nothing in life this thing can't teach me."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, it's just that it's all never made much sense to me. All those 'thee's and 'thou's. And how long ago was it written?"

"It's okay," reassured Lucy. "I felt the same way you do when I was growing up. I didn't understand it, I failed miserably at following it, and I gave up. That is, until one weekend of soul-searching when I was in my late twenties. About your age, I guess."

"I appreciate that, but I'm thirty-three," Harper chuckled. "Guess I'm even having my mid-life crisis at the wrong age."

"I don't think it's a mid-life crisis," Lucy said. "I just think you need some answers -- we all do, and once that coffee's done, maybe I can show you where I found mine in the pages of this wonderful Book."

Harper surprised herself, "Okay, I guess. Let the search begin."

I Like Big BUTS!

Inappropriate? Probably, but I'd like to direct your attention to this word right here:

The word "but" is used more than 3700 times in Scripture. "But" is a pretty important word. "I love you but..." could wreck your day. "I was going to pay you back today but..." could change a discussion. "But" is a conjunction that links two contrasting ideas; it can alter or negate the previous thought simply by what comes after. And as I mentioned, the Bible is full of "but"s. One of those occasions is in Acts 12:5:

"Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church."

As Luke tells us in the rest of the account, sometime between three and six in the morning, an angel appears to Peter, wakes him, and gives him specific instructions. Peter's chains fall to the ground, and he and the angel leave the prison completely undetected by the guards. Peter is no longer in prison, the result of a "but": but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. 

Romans 8:28, 

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

and Luke 1:37,

"For with God nothing will be impossible."

are some powerful "but" verses. Things may look bleak, we might be confused by our circumstances, there may appear to be no way out, our dreams might seem to have vanished right before our eyes...

...BUT God. God created all things, sustains all things, and owns everything. He raises the dead to life, calls things that are not as though they were, and He will bring to light whatever is done in darkness. This is the God we serve! Romans 8:28 and Luke 1:37 are the assurance He is working for our benefit and working the impossible. These verses are the assurance there will be a "but God..."

In Acts 12, Peter was asleep. His brother in Christ, James had just been executed, and Peter faced his own death sentence in the morning. But, he slept. He slept because he served the God of "but"s. Peter knew his future was dependent upon the Lord of Hosts not the King of Judea. Whatever the outcome, Peter knew it would be ordained by God; it would not be overlooked or unseen. Peter was in prison, but the church was praying, but God was still on His throne.

Praise God, He still is! And no matter your current circumstances, that's a very big BUT!

Who Do You Appreciate?

One of my high school teachers recently passed away. He and his wife lived in my neighborhood; I would see them when they passed our house on their daily walks. When I was still in high school, I babysat for them on a couple of occasions. I was "friends" with him on Facebook and enjoyed his posts explaining the Scriptures. When I ran into his widow the day of his memorial service, I approached her and offered my condolences. Strange actually, because I'd never said anything more than "hello" to either one of them when I saw them on the street; neither my teacher nor his wife had any clue who I was. The only thing I could really say about him was, "I didn't appreciate him when I had him as a teacher." And I didn't. 

There are some in this world who will one day say the same thing about Jesus. Some of those folks are my friends, some think I am "ridiculous" and "over the top" when it comes to the "Jesus thing." Some of those folks learned early on who Jesus is and either rejected that completely or thought it was sort of a nice tradition and have held onto the teaching in that way. Some of those folks have never really heard but believe the rumors about "the dos and don'ts" and rightfully so, run the other direction. Some of those folks will think they have years to make a decision, will figure a life full of rules and church hymns will be okay when they're old, and count on choosing then. Some of those folks may have legitimately wanted to believe but were told something different by someone, something that was unfulfilling or extremely difficult, something that wasn't even true, but rather than seek God in Scripture where He reveals Himself, they gave up and wrote God off. Some of these folks may have thought that just by being married to someone who believes or having Christian parents they didn't need to have a personal relationship with Jesus, they could just ride someone else's coattails and have faith in their faith. And one day they will say, "I didn't appreciate Him when I had the chance."

My teacher was a person, an individual. I saw him as an out-of-touch, rigid, unrealistic authority. My goal was to pass his class. Not to learn anything, not to build any type of relationship. Follow the rules (sort of), get an "A", and move on. But I missed out on the wonderful person people told stories about. I missed out on memories others had shared. I missed out on a marvelous education by an incredibly intelligent human being. Simply because I couldn't see past my own agenda.  

I grew up going to church. It would be a tremendous stretch for me to believe that God did not exist, but wanting to be a Christian was something I struggled with until I was forty. Maybe I was blind, maybe I never understood what was being taught, maybe what was being taught was wrong and I needed to seek God out in Scripture for myself, maybe I couldn't see past my own agenda even then. But I learned in those years of struggle, there is no hope and no salvation in obeying the rules. I learned I missed a lot of years in which I could have been doing some really great, really hard, really meaningful things. I learned my entire life could have been so much better-- as good as it is now --long before I was forty. I learned tradition is for families to observe or create but is not a criterion for Christianity. I learned that anyone who would believe what their told or put their faith in someone else's faith rather than open the pages of Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth about God and His plan is a fool, plain and simple. A condemned fool. 

Appreciate Him while you have the chance.

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Going for a Walk

Last fall, as the weather began to cool I spent a good amount of time walking. One day, I took an unfamiliar shortcut through a field that sloped down the side of a large hill. There was no worn path, just long grass which had been beaten down by previous storms and had become entangled and difficult to navigate. I slowly made my way through discovering rabbit holes, snakes, and who knows what else lay hidden beneath the long grass and the bramble. From time to time there were tiny drop-offs or larger rocks that were virtually undetectable; careless placement of my foot would cause my ankle to twist or bring me down the hill much more quickly and painfully than I was prepared to go. I had to plot every step and walk with great care. Making mental notes of the actions I took that were safe and those that were not, I learned what to avoid. Stumbling reminded me to take better care and alerted me to deception, ground I believed to be solid but proved unsteady. I made it but had I carelessly tried to rush through, it probably would not have been without serious injury. 

The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5:15-16, "See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil." The word translated "circumspectly," is the Greek word, akribos, which describes something characterized by exactness and thoroughness, in addition to the associated idea of looking, examining, and investigating something with great care and alertness. Akribos implies strict conformity to a standard, involving both detail and completeness, with a focus on careful attention. Paul refers to our Christian walk, how we conduct ourselves in this life. The way in this world is littered with temptation and our "adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." It's important we "walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called." That means knowing the God we serve and His will, then evaluating and re-evaluating our desires and decisions that they might always bring honor to God's name. We must examine ourselves by looking at our motives, our behavior, our longings, all the things that tell us who we are and who we serve with the purpose of living in alignment with Christ. It also means we walk as those who are aware of the dangers and pitfalls in life; we are aware of the harm Satan wishes to cause at any cost, and we know to resist him. We rely on the discernment of the Holy Spirit to guide us in all truth. To fail to walk circumspectly is to walk as a fool.

But, Paul adds, we are to redeem the time because the days are evil. Time is short! If we are to walk carefully, paying close attention, how are we to redeem the time? Sometimes walking circumspectly means making every minute count-- like evaluating every step in a field, but with brevity, just in case a snake decides to pop out and say "hello." To walk circumspectly, redeeming the time is to walk carefully, not fearfully; efficiently, not hastily. Jonathan Edwards, in his diary, resolved never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way he possibly could. 

So let us all walk circumspectly, certain our behavior is reflecting the God we serve and making sure His message reaches as many as possible, through our words and our deeds.