Those Pesky Rules

We are on vacation. And one of the things my little girls looked forward to the most was access to an indoor pool. We don't have a pool or much opportunity to swim at any time of the year, so to get to swim in March is a real treat!

Now, not only is there a pool, there is also a hot tub!

That is like sprinkles on top of the sundae for my girls.

They were very excited. That is until they saw the sign.

They looked at me with that look. The one that says, "Really Mom? Do we really have to obey this goofy rule?"

Me: "Ummm...."  (OK- this is when Mommying is tough. I mean, they have been in hot tubs lots of times. They are well behaved. No one else is in the hot tub. It is sort of a goofy rule anyway. And I am more of a spirit-of-the-law than a letter-of-the-law sort of girl anyway. But on the other hand, what would I be teaching my girls? To only obey the rules they agree with? To ignore the rules they don't like when no one is around to see them?......See what I mean? Parenting in not for cowards.)

So after mulling the rule question around and all the dire consequences that could lead to the eventual juvenile delinquency of my children, I said, "We need to obey the rule. We don't have to agree with it to obey it." (Thought I would throw in a little object lesson while I was at it.)

But I did relent enough to let them sit on the side and put their feet in.

After a while my husband looked over at my daughter who now had her entire leg in the water. She had just sort of inched in little by little. Clever girl.  He said, "You are getting as much of yourself in the water as you can without officially getting in, aren't you?"

Shazam!
Brain Flash!
Spiritual Application!
Conviction!


When God puts constraints in my life....when He says "No" to something I want....when He constructs fences to keep me in or to keep something out....when He does that, how do I respond?

Do I complain?
Do I try to figure my way around the constraint?
Do I half-heartedly obey, and then squirm my way as close as possible to what I want?

And those questions all boil down to one, really simple question:

Do I trust Him?

Do I trust Him enough to accept the:

• not now
• not for you
• not allowed
• you need to avoid this
• DON'T!

Because if I don't trust Him, I will balk. I will try to figure my way around the thing. I will inch my way into the very pool that He has told me "No" to.

But if I love Him, I will trust Him. Even when He says no.

While You Were Sleeping

Maybe the reason people flock to healing services or miracle shows is because we desire to see God work.

It would have been so great to be at the Red Sea.
Egyptian chariots racing toward us.
Pillar of fire in between us and them.
And then....SEE IT HAPPEN!
The Red Sea parting!

A miracle.
The supernatural.
God at work.
There would just be no other explanation.


But sometimes God doesn't work His miracles right in front of us.

In fact, most of the time, God is working His work without us even recognizing Him. Only later, after everything is settled, do we see the outline of His hand.

There is only one problem with that scenario.
That sort of freaks out us control freaks! We like to know what is happening and put our 2 cents in! I mean..."you might need my help God. I would be happy to help. I just LOVE to help. In fact, I have some GREAT ideas, if You need some that is. But, maybe....since You are God....You might not need any?"


I have been enjoying the Beth Moore Bible Study on Esther the past few months.
And I have been learning lots of lessons. Lots.

But this past week....it really struck me....God doesn't need me.
Okay, I already knew that.

But back to this Bible Study and to this time I am learning this important lesson. AGAIN.

The book of Esther consists of a fascinating series of events over many years. (There is at least 8 years from the first verse of chapter 1 to the moment of "The Dinner" in Esther 7.) When you realize how many years come between the event of Xerxes getting rid on one queen, finding another queen, and eventually ignoring that queen and condemning God's people to destruction, you realize that what is obvious to us in the retelling of the story, might not have been so obvious to those who were living the day to day life...even if that life was lived in the palace in Babylon. It must not have been until much later that they looked back and so clearly saw the tracing of His hand.

So here are our characters:
We have King Xerxes. What a guy. Besides all of his other "good work" he manages to squeeze in allowing God's people to be condemned to death.

And we have Haman, the evil man planning out that destruction.

And we have Esther (the former Hadassah) who is stuck in the castle, and while it was a miracle that she ever got there at all, the life of "Cinderella" is not always what it is cracked up to be. She must have wondered why in the world she was there at all.

And then we have her uncle, Mordecai, who sends her word- "You have to go to the king to save our people. Maybe THIS is the reason you are here in the first place!" (this is my loose interpretation!) Of course, for her to go to the king un-beckoned meant possible death!

So everyone fasts and prays for three days. And then Esther goes to the king. And then the King and evil Haman come to dinner. And then everyone goes home without the big "reveal" happening.

Wait a minute. Esther was DOING what she was supposed to do, at peril of her own life I might add. And when her big moment comes...nothing.

But here is the real kicker.

The BIG moment...
the pivot point of the whole story happens....

...while everybody is ASLEEP!

Except for the king that is. The King- well God providentially keeps him awake so he can just happen to remember the great service Esther's uncle had bestowed on him years earlier that, by the by, is completely unrelated to what is happening now. And THAT is the singular event that sets in motion the beginning of the end for the bad guy and the beginning of the beginning of the salvation of God's people.

Wait a minute! While Esther was sleeping??!!?

See what I mean? God didn't NEED her. He let her be a part of the story. He USED her faithfulness. He even used her name in the title of the book.

Maybe it was her name in the title that threw me.
I thought the story was about what ESTHER HAD DONE.
But no. It is about WHAT GOD HAD DONE!

And that is all my life is about as well.
It is not about me or what I get or where I go or who I love or who loves me.
It is not about what I have or what I don't have.
It is not about where I live.
It is not about me at all.

And it is most certainly NOT about what I have done, am doing, or will do.

It is all God.
It is about God.
It is for God.
It is through God.
It is because of God.

And it is all done BY God.

Whew. What a relief. Even for this control freak.

I think I will just go to bed now. Who knows what God will do while I am sleeping!

It worked for Esther!

Am I Believing the Truth?

Lately, I have been worrying.

And by lately, I might as well admit that I mean the past 23 years! (That is how long I have had kids, if you need an explanation for the odd number!) Worrying and motherhood have pretty much gone hand-in-hand for me.

But I am so good at worrying that I not only worry about my kids and their safety. I can worry about other things too!

I am also very talented at worrying about finances.

I am an expert at worrying about the demise of a major appliance or car (probably because I am so good at worrying about finances.)

I am extraordinarily gifted at worrying about my abilities (or more accurately, my inabilities) as a homeschool Mother. And I am also gifted at the follow-on worry of how messed up my children will be because of my shortcomings.

What About Faith?
I have a problem though. My worrying and my faith can often butt heads. I mean, they get along so poorly, I can't even have them in the same room.

My worry thinks up the worst thing that could happen.
My faith announces that my God has future, hopeful plans for me. (Jer. 29:11)

My worry convicts me of how I have failed in parenting.
My faith remembers that my God will finish all the good work He has begun in my children. (Phil. 1:6)

My worry sends the reminder to me almost daily of the things we need to purchase that we cannot afford.
My faith proclaims that my God will supply all my needs. (Phil. 4:19)

My worry makes dire predictions about the future.
My faith divulges that the Alpha and Omega has both the beginning and the end under control. (Rev. 22:13)


This weekend God used two incredibly divergent mediums to convict me of the uselessness of these diametrically opposed messages that I live with daily.

1.  The first was on Saturday when we watched the movie, The Man Who Never Was, which is about how the British made up fictitious papers, put them on a dead soldier, and planted him in a German controlled area to try and communicate the idea that the Allies were going to invade somewhere else than Sicily (which is where they were going to invade.) If the Germans bought the lie and moved even some of their troops then many Allied soldiers would be spared.

(On an aside- it was a great movie, if you like understated, suspenseful, British movies that don't have cars chasing each other and buildings blowing up.)

2.  The second was on Sunday morning at church when we sang the song, "Whose Report Will You Believe" which is an older song and one I hadn't sang in a very long time. The lyrics are:

Whose report will you believe?
We will believe the report of the Lord!
His report says I am healed.
His report says I am filled.
His report says I am free.
His report says victory!


So how did a movie that was made in 1956 and a song written in 1989 come together for me in 2012?

The Conclusion
The question from the song struck me.

Whose report DO I believe?

Am I like the Nazis in the movie and believe the lie?
Do I change my behavior based upon the bait my enemy waves in front of my face?

There was a reason the Nazi's finally believed the lie. The British Secret Service were REALLY GOOD LIARS. They thought through every contingency and followed through with multiple layers of lies.

And I am faced with a really good liar too. I am faced with the father of lies! (Jn. 8:44)

So when my worry is an antithesis to my faith, which am I going to listen to?
I will give you three guesses...(and since there are only two options to begin with, this really shouldn't be that hard!)

WORRY, listen up!
I am not listening to you any more.

Whose report will I believe instead?
I WILL BELIEVE THE REPORT OF THE LORD!

Where Are You Going?

In our Latin studies we were memorizing the Latin saying, "Quo vadis?" which means, "Where are you going?"

And that set me to thinking. Where AM I going?

I need to know, because if I don't know where I am going, I can't watch for the signposts that tell me how to get there.

Think about looking at a map- with all its roads and symbols and towns and rest stops and state lines. You find your spot on the map- the place you are now.
You are going to figure out where to go. Next.
But if you don't decide WHERE that is, then your map is useless. Except for maybe letting you know where you COULD go. That is if you would decide WHERE that is!

And there is the crux of the problem.
There are just so many possibilities!
There are so many choices!
And I can't figure out the HOW to go somewhere unless I decide WHERE it is I am going.

Quo vadis?
Where are you going?
Where am I going?

I know where I want to go: TOWARD GOD!

But honestly, sometimes, it is hard to know which direction that is.
Life can sometimes look and feel like this:

Life ever feel like this you?
Or is that only me?

What do you do then?

Well, when I am smart, I hop right over to my travel manual and read some instructions like:

"..your ears will hear a word behind you, saying "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to right or when you turn to the left." ~Isaiah 30: 19-21 

That Voice is way better than the most updated and advanced GPS system.
That Voice is from the One who can see the beginning from the end and Who loves you enough to die for you.
That Voice is the One to listen to!

Listen to what else That Voice says,

"But just as it is written, 'Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love Him.'"  ~I Cor 2:9

Quo vadis?

I don't know about you, but I am going to go EXACTLY where The Voice tells me to go!