Be Like Jesus

{For the past several months I have been working with a small group of folks at my church, defining what a Creative Writing Team might contribute to worship. In part we have been in conversation about beginning a blog designed to compliment each sermon series for the contemporary service. This post was first shared on that blog.}

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“God decided from the outset

to shape the lives of those who love him 

along the same lines as the life of his Son.” 

Romans 8:29 MSG

God’s fervent intent, His deepest desire, is to make us into Jesus’ image; for us to be like Jesus. The concept may seem daunting. Here are some thoughts that point the way.

Lauren F. Winner, Duke Divinity School Assistant Professor reminds us, “Jesus specialized in asking people to steep themselves in the words of the scriptures and then to look around their ordinary Tuesdays to see what they could see about holiness and life with God.” In her book, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God, Winner explores multiple Biblical metaphors that symbolically illustrate the nature of God. From such symbolism we gain insight to ways that we can be Christ-like. For instance, Colossians 3:12 NIV tells us, “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Put on Jesus’ nature each morning just as you put on your day’s attire. Wrap yourself in His character as you engage in those ordinary days that are every day of the week. Be like Jesus, for His interaction with the people was not just on the Sabbath and did not happen behind the pulpit of a sanctuary. His conversations with seekers occurred across the tables of a meal, down the street around the local well, on lake shores in the midst of workday chores, on the road during travel, in homes and on hillsides, as well as in the congested thoroughfares of city streets. To be like Jesus, to love people as God loves us, we must wear our faith into every venue that we frequent. 

To be like Jesus, Christians simply have to show up. Jesus showed up in the hard places of human life. He showed up when people were diseased and dying. He sought out the poor, the widow, the orphaned, the marginalized, and the felon. Jesus offered food when the crowd was hungry. He washed feet to express His love. As Shelly Miller describes, “... God often shows up in the messy, broken, ordinary, complicated of the mundane.” In the foot steps of Christ, with the love of Christ, we are given compassion and courage to show up, to be His ambassador of hope for people who are struggling.

“ He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; 

and greater works than these he will do.”

John 14:12 NKJV

In the course of our efforts we’ll encounter people with deep questions regarding faith. It’s helpful to remember that Jesus repeatedly engaged in conversations with people who doubted His divine nature. But His followers knew Him to be approachable. Strangers knew Him as a teacher; ever patient, prepared to illustrate again, within the context of daily life, a new metaphor, a new story, of how God lovingly pursues His children and how faith can be nurtured. We can follow His example in the varied circumstances of our contemporary lives by being authentic about our own moments of doubt and our own committed journey to a stronger faith. Christian writer, Shannon Martin wrote, “...(Jesus) keeps showing up for us, often disguised as each other. He reveals himself, quite improbably, through humans who struggle ...”

Try it on, this garment of Christ. Perhaps a few alterations might be made, in keeping with the unique talents and spiritual gifts that God created in you, even though the composition of the cloth is His. Step into your ordinary days permeated with the variances of God’s people, wearing the heart and mind of Jesus.

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Dear Lord Jesus,

You spent your life here on earth caring for others.

You reached out to the homeless and the hurting with compassion. 
You forgave those who insulted you and tried to destroy you. 
Seeking hearts found answers from you. 
Weary hearts found rest. You lifted up those who were beat down by life.

Your kind heart broke for the entire world.

May we follow your example and spend our lives reaching out to others. 
When we are tempted to turn away from people,

let us show your love instead. Amen.

Max Lucado

Sources:
Lauren F. Winner, Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God
Shelly Miller Blog - http://redemptionsbeauty.com/2016/06/27/what-if-the- spirit-descends-like-a-pigeon/
Shannon Martin - http://www.incourage.me/2016/07/the-purpose-of- church.html
Max Lucado, Live Loved: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life
Photography by Lisa Moreland

Story Reflects the Weave of a Striving Heart

I have not written. It escapes me. 

The notion rises near daily, then evaporates as a wisp. 

Sentences promise to line up. Topics ticker tape across the marquee of thoughts, but fade and spill into the mist of distractions. 

Immediacy calls out, speaks internally about life’s shortening thread and the reduced opportunities to tell stories. Relentless, Immediacy rises up to inspire the will to write. 

Decision Making counter argues. Decision Making tangles the story yarns; knots the family of origin lore with travel logs, splits threads between loss or redemption memoire, and balls up faith stories with frayed epistles of doubtful searching. 

Decision Making teams with the uninvited Nay Sayer to haggle internally over the value of recording any of it. Where would the stories find readers or purpose? One woman’s collection of tales, the Nay Sayer posits, among billions of her peers; why would that have value?

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"The Only unique contribution that we will ever make in this world 

will be born of our own creativity." 

Brene Brown, Daring Greatly

~

Spirit rises. 

Spirit, the sacred and divine within all, rises. 

Spirit persistently urges – write.

Spirit devotedly whispers, every story matters.

Every story reflects the weave of a striving heart,

co-created by divine intent and human interpretation. 

Record personal history, recount disasters and discoveries

to herald the dearly attained saga of human transformation.

~

“The voice that spoke light into existence is the one we need to expel the darkness within and bring us to light, to life, and to love. Working on us like an instrument that is out of tune, God masterfully tightens and loosens the strings until notes resonate properly and reflect the most beautiful of sounds. We find our voice when we find His voice.” p. 60

The Artisan Soul: Crafting Your Life Into a Work of Art, 

Erwin Raphael McManus

Linking this post with the following communities of writers: Coffee for the Heart, Simple Tuesday, and Let Us Grow. Click on the badge below to visit these link ups.

Terrain and Lenses

Gazing out the window of an aircraft can offer the most magnificent of perspectives. Looking back reveals the terrain that has already been traveled across in all its undulating, traversing intricacy. Valleys are apparent, river crossings are complete, distances from one point and to another are fairly clear. 

Pondering the living of the past year can be approached from a similar perspective; spread it all out, look back for familiar markers, and consider the ground that has been traveled.

Nourishing Ties

As I do so, a large swath of such a blanket of last year’s doings represents family. Mine is large and geographically far flung, desert to tropics, woodlands to prairies, nearly coast to coast, requiring a determined “get out there” and see them intention. Those multiple travels rendered tender days of crisp memories, deeply nourishing ties that had gone adrift for too long. Though the effort to reconnect with so many still extends into the new year, its encouraging to anticipate the renewal of each relationship.

Soul Space and Lunar Reality

Across the months of any year there are the shadows of darkness. Events that stun, circumstances that pull the air out of every sail. A backward glance at the past twelve months can’t ignore the hues of heaviness that we must learn to bear. There is much to be said about the understandings that were seared by the hurt and the capacity of endurance that was tested. However along side that level of learning, I garnered additional insight about the elements of darkness that are more benign, the ancient history of God’s presence there, the long lost value of being familiar with the dark. Barbara Brown Taylor writes of such wisdom in Learning to Walk in the Dark. Knowing darkness well, both as a soul space and a lunar reality, tempers fear.

Global View, Scriptural Compass

Increasingly as world dramas have ticker-taped their way across every screen and voices intone in decibels just below shrill screams, I have strived to imagine a global perspective, since presumably this is God’s perspective — of His world, His people, His cosmos. From the thinnest atmosphere, with the benefit of recorded history, and through the lens of scripture…that widest scope influences priorities and opinions.

The terrain of 2015 was as diverse as each of its predecessors, both personally and historically.  As the phrase from A Tale of Two Cities declares, every era “is the worst of times and the best of times”. In any calendar year, it matters greatly what maps and lenses you use to guide your way.

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Linking with Emily Freeman's What I Learned Community, Coffee for Your Heart, Weekend Whispers, & Tell His Story.

November: An Invitation to gratitude {Between Times}

November: An Invitation to gratitude {Between Times}

Autumn hoovers gently as the early morning mist between the exuberance of summer and winter's crisply chilled grip.  Shade loving foliage spread wide, florals risk one last burst of blooms. Spear shaped Elm seeds and tiny Live Oak acorns cast wide for the sake of another generation.

Between times offer grace, holding a place for the promise to come.

Monarch's flit enroute for the tropics. Canadian Geese and pristinely elegant swans glide onto the ponds. Continuous flocks of song birds darken the sky, settling in unison to fill power lines and  treetops. Winged migratory guests taking a brief layover, build reserve until the morning they're gone.

Between times offer grace, holding a place for the promise to come.

Families gather goods for holiday seasons rapidly advancing on calendars. Households harvest the last cool weather produce from the garden, sweep the chimney, stack the wood pile, then walk lazily down leaf strewn paths. New life beats steady and ever so small, cradles deep in mother's precious darkness as a family prepares in patience, prays for the promise, waits in love. 

Between times offer grace, holding a place for the promise to come.

A world revolving on its ancient orbit, turning until it is made new. 
An ancient people humbled by resurrection, living in grace and abundance until the return.

Gratitude for the between times bursting with grace, 
holding a place for the promise to come.

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Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads
Day 5 Legacy
Day 6 Indian Summer
Day 7 Transforming Power of Gratitude
Day 8 Homefires

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: An Invitation to Gratitude {Homefires}

Mom on her own during Dad's 1958 tour of duty in Korea.

November 11: An Invitation to Gratitude {Homefires}

“Keep the homefires burning” historically meant

women tasked with keeping the embers hot and the pot cooking until the men return.

Military families blow kisses and wave final good-byes.

Then, tears still falling, with all the strength they can muster,

gather up the children to return home 

to an all too quiet house, to a table with an empty place,

to the chair vacant of its usual lounger, 

to the bed missing the other half,

to the closet partially empty, 

to singlehandedly keep life going 

for long months or years.

They keep the heat on, the bills paid, the lawn mowed, the larder filled, food on the stove, give every bath and read books followed by bedtime prayers, every night. No one comes home at the end of the day, or on the weekend or the holidays, to offer a hand or a cherished word.

In my childhood a world map hung over the stereo in our home and we learned the geography of far east nations, the distant locals of our father and his fellow pilots and soldiers. 

Mom was a petite girl, a provincial small town girl of her era, yet as an officer’s wife she grew to become the gale force, the CEO and master organizer with steely strength born of necessity that singlehandedly kept six kids feed, clothed, carpooled, and motivated on their individual paths while maintaining a household, continuously writing letters overseas, all under the constant filmed coverage of war on the evening news. 

Extend gratitude to the nation’s military families. 

Our nation is protected from the creeping tide of war

by their loved ones,

and their lives are forever changed.

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Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads
Day 5 Legacy
Day 6 Indian Summer
Day 7 Transforming Power of Gratitude

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: Invitation to Gratitude {Transforming Power of Gratitude}

November 8: Invitation to Gratitude {Transforming Power of Gratitude}

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world." 

Sarah Van Breathnach

I began recording just one blessing that I noticed each day. That small step primed my mind to be more vigilant, more attentive, cued to my world with a different eye. The daily notations increased and seemed to stream from the pencil, my hand urgent to record quickly lest I forget some one gift before I had scribbled them all down at the end of the day. One daily recording, became a multitude of daily gifts. I pursued the practice of listing daily blessings for nearly a year, reaching a goal of one thousand recorded gifts. One thousand. The weight of the journal with the number of pages filled was stunning. The tangible evidence of this new spiritual discipline. 

The deeper reward, 

the more constant outcome, 

was the heightened sensitivity of my soul 

and the groundbreaking transformation of my demeanor and perception of daily living. 

Even without daily listing of blessings I still saw them daily. I noted the abundance daily. I praised God's presence in those blessings daily. 

I continue to add to the list periodically, recording full pages at a time. Today there are hundreds more with nearly fifty praise and thanksgiving scripture verses intertwined with the bounty of blessings. But it was the initial daily listing that successfully trained my heart and my eyes to internalize a habit of maintaining a grateful heart, an awareness of God's hand in all things, in all places, at all times. Gratefully, that remains the blessing carved deep into my soul.

"...if a joyful heart is good medicine, then giving thanks is my daily prescription." Ann Voskamp

"Without gratitude there is no joy." Brene' Brown

View Dr. Brene' Brown's interview on the topic of JOY here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKV0BWSPfOw

Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads
Day 5 Legacy
Day 6 Indian Summer

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: An Invitation to Gratitude Series {Indian Summer}

November 6: An Invitation to Gratitude {Indian Summer}

Indian summer bliss,

those brilliantly bright days of late fall, warm like melting butter on pancakes. Foliage rustles in rich color, breezes move with a gentle warmth. Folks linger on patios with their coffee, faces upturned to capture the sun’s last kiss of warmth before crisp temps return, forcing us all back behind windows to watch leaves spilling from the trees. 

In some regions its called a "little summer"; a brief nod to the mid-day warming reminiscent of a bygone season. Though the light and the scent is distinctly different; the lights angle lower, recognizable as fall, the herbed aroma of dried leaves inescapable.

Our area has basked in this "little summer" all week. Cafe patios overflow with business. Park playgrounds are bustling with post halloween super heroes and princesses going down the slide. Hopeful end of season fisherman cast lines across the ponds. Kids walk home from school with hoodies stuffed in backpacks. 

Its temporary, appreciated because its fleeting.

Raise your head from distractions. 

Neither of us wants to miss it.

Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads
Day 5 Legacy

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: An Invitation to Gratitude {Legacy}

November 5: An Invitation for Gratitude {Legacy}

Hearing mama call me using my first and middle name clearly communicated her serious intent, a matter of importance was forthcoming. Every child knows at such a time, the only response is haste and attention. 

The name, my name, came to me by way of Grandma Great,  a woman of faith and grace, so her legacy is told. Her name is recorded on the family tree, in the ninth generation of faithful people dating back to one of the Norway's early Bishops. 

Our name, Grandmother's and mine, is a derivative of "Elizabeth", meaning consecrated to God, or God is my oath. On the occasion of first learning this fact it simply made sense, being aware of an abiding presence of faith within my heart from an early age. It felt true. I claimed the legacy.

Knowing and honoring family heritage is not common for many, perhaps not even helpful for some. For myself, I have considered it a tremendous blessing, a source of heritage and strength gained from generations that formed my identity. 

Honor [esteem, value as precious] your father and your mother [and be respectful to them]—this is the first commandment with a promise— so that it may be well with you, and that you may have a long life on the earth.

Ephesians 6:2-3 (AMP)

Additional Posts in An Invitation to Gratitude Series:

Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away
Day 4 New Roads

Linking with the Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for the Heart, and Tell His Story. 

Click on the buttons below to join read posts by these communities of faith filled writers.

November: An Invitation to Gratitude {New Roads}

November 4: An Invitation to Gratitude {New Roads}

A canopy of trees arching across the road, captivating in every season, though reaching a pinnacle of beauty as the trees turn to their autumn splendor. As I approach it is not unlike entering a cathedral. The awe of such grandeur reaching heavenward, God's design of seasonal change accented in a bounty of color.

The road threading through the woods disappearing around a bend or over a hill, the destination unknown. Yet I would not have arrived to partake in the beauty overhead if I had not been willing to travel the unknown road that God offered.
Continuing the journey, this one, or any other that is charted on the geography of a life stretches knowledge of unknown worlds and unfamiliar people. 

In our faith we are taught to do just that. Travel far, at least in the heart. Expand ourselves beyond known places to embrace all that is within our reach to meet the measure of God's use of our talents and potential to extend His glory in the world. 

Grateful for the ever new roads that He guides me to explore.


Additional Posts in this Series:
Day 1 Attentive Listening
Day 2 Boundless love
Day 3 Time Away

November: An Invitation to Gratitude {Love}

November 2: An Invitation to Gratitude Series

Little guys. A joy beyond words. Born this month five years ago. Twirling dervishes of exuberant life! Exploring, building, creating; engaging with the world at a runners pace. Appreciative of the boundless love that their lives have brought to mine, as well as, the reminders and insight their unrestrained living brings to my attention.
                                          ~

Additional Posts in this Series:
Day 1 Attentive Listening

Untethered: One More Gate to Heaven

The first leaves loose their moorings, sailing gracefully from above.

Slowly, they spiral and slightly tilt. 

Cast off from the tethers of elm or oak, pecan or maple, released in a brief and dazzling flight. Spread wide, kite-like, captured in a crosswind, they sweep back and forth. 

Occasionally lifted by an updraft, tossed in a swirl of crimson, mustard, and bronze ultimately falling as gravity draws them ever downward. Destined to assemble as a mosaic, carpeting vast spaces. 

In delight I revel in the glory of color cascading from the boughs and wonder at the bounty that has hung far overhead all summer long. Souls touched by such wonders whisper prayers, knowing the whole world is the house of God. 

“ The whole world is the house of God…

I can stop …long enough to see where I am…

I can flag one more gate to heaven, 

one more patch of ordinary earth with ladder marks on it, 

where the divine traffic is heavy…

instead of walking right past it… 

say a blessing before I move on to wherever I am due next.” 

  An Altar in the World, Barbara Taylor Brown

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Linking with these communities of writers sharing thoughts on faith: Weekend Whispers, Still Saturday, Coffee for Your Heart

Intercessory Prayer

Many hours of this week were punctuated by thoughts, sorrow, and intercessory prayer for those both near and far, who are suffering.  Sorrow for grave illness, heartbreaking loss for those in my closer sphere and concern for the terrified surge of humanity seeking survival overseas sends me searching through scriptures to pair a message with a photo for each personal need, to portray heartfelt concern. Calls, posts, or mail all enlisted to communicate loving support and to share God's promises of presence and protection. For after we have walked out all earthly responsibilities for the care and wellbeing of others, there comes the essential action of prayer.

"Prayer is a participation in willing God's will. While God's ultimate will cannot be thwarted, the strategy God uses to reach that goal may be infinitely variable. The prayers of committed people become part of the cosmic reality God has to work with. [As Douglass V. Steere] suggests, God can use them to "tip the balance" and change the shape of distorted realities in the world. It is not stretching the truth to say that God needs our prayers. Such is the dignity and purpose we have been given in his divine [plan]." Marjorie J. Thompson, Soul Feast, "Communicating and Communion with God" p. 41

Claiming significance as a daughter of God, 
claiming the attention of His hearing to ask for His holy work in every need known to me, 
emboldens me to pray the 91st Psalm 
and to say to others:

For He will give His angels charge over you 

to accompany and defend 

and preserve you in all your ways.

 Psalm 91:11, AMP

Honor the Endurance

In the morning light we walked the grounds of the charming rural inn before traveling the next leg of our trip.

An expanse of spring green pasture spread out in front of the lodge, circled round by a narrow farm road bordered by fields of wild flowers dotted among the brambles and dense woodlands. 

We walked the rutted road to get a closer view of lambs in the pasture, of hens freely ranging the grassy places, and of the fresh faced Daisies spreading in the sunlit edges of the forest. 

I whispered prayers as we rambled the road. 

We would, that day, continue our long distance travel, deeper into the rural areas of this region to visit loved ones. Loved ones, soul sore burdened by illness, disability, the vigor of health stilled by incomprehensible injury. 

We two people, two threads binding together to gain strength from each other and from our faith, in order to move past our own sorrow to meet the greater needs of those we love.

Claiming sabbath quiet as we walked, I gathered refreshment for the soul. 

In the company of lambs I whispered prayers under the sweeping clouds and across the clustered heads of Daisy growth, inviting holy Lord to bless the visit that lay ahead, to guide our words, to fulfill our hope to do only good and offer encouragement through our presence. 

That He would guard us against making careless dismissive statements, insensitive platitudes, or sweeping comments that the heartbroken can gain no solace from.

I whispered prayers that we would honor the struggle, come along side the challenge, and that we would be able to extend caring concern. 

"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, 
but only such as is good for building up, 

as fits the occasion, 
that it may give grace to those who hear."

Ephesians 4:29 ESV

Epilogue:

God covered the visit with our dear ones, with much Grace, a depth of loving effort on everyone’s part, and He provided strength through compassion that we hoped for. My heart swelled with unending admiration for the endurance and effort of our loved one and the fortitude of the devoted family who are providing constant care.

 ~

Sources for understanding chronic illness:

What Not to Say to Someone with Chronic Illness

The Challenges of Living with Invisible Illness

Open Letter from a Person with Chronic Pain