Everyday miracles

It's the everyday miracles that keep my hope alive

It's the way You move in little things that help me survive

And I know You move in greater ways

But this is great enough for me

What You do with my everyday is amazing

The things that seem impossible, I lay down at Your feet

And just when I am needing most You are there for me

And I know you've made the lame to walk

And caused the blind to see

But what You do with my everyday is amazing

When I'm down on my knees

And I can't make it through

When it's up to me

It's really up to You

(Sara Groves)

I have been amazed lately by the ways God works His miracles in my everyday life. The God that is so much bigger than I could ever fathom or imagine makes Himself small enough to be a part of my everyday life. He cares about the smallest choices, the most seemingly insignificant actions, and He both motivates and holds me accountable to them.

Life throws its changes and ups and downs, its sorrows and joys at me, and I am left with an arrangement of choices to react to all of these. Do I pick up the phone of a sister who calls me everyday just to fill another 5 minutes of her empty life? Do I send off this eMail to my coworker that could easily wait another couple of days? Do I keep this letter from a dear friend that was written years ago or do I throw it out to save some space in my drawers? Do I reach out to my friend who hasn't bothered to call in more than half a year, just because she's been on my mind for some reason?

Choices we face every day, and they seem so insignificant. Sometimes they matter more to Him than they do to us. Because all of our choices, no matter how small they might seem, carry consequences, and those matter to the Lord, because in and through them, He molds, shapes, teaches and changes us. He is at the root and conclusion of everything - if we decide to give Him credit for it or not is up to us. If we do, we need to come face to face with our own inabilities, our restrictions and shortcomings. Because as much as we would like to, we cannot possibly foresee every consequence that each of our actions, as small as they might see, can have. But He can, and He does. He is the only One who knows that this sister calls because she is in desperate need of some human connection. That my coworker's promotion is dependent on this little piece of information that I had promised to provide. That the letter that I am about to throw out contains one of the most profound truths about His sovereignty that I ever need to understand, and that I won't understand it until I will re-read it a few years down the road. That the friend I am hesitating to reach out to will have the exact words to fill that empty spot in my heart today.

Small choices matter. God works miracles in our everyday lives and humbles Himself enough to take part in our mundane everyday lives. Go about your day with an open mind and an open heart, looking for clues to God's caring Love. You'll be amazed at the details you will find that hold the Lord's fingerprints.

Colossians 3:23-24

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

An Ode to the Book of Psalms

Psalm 66:19-20

but God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!

I have been so blessed by the Psalms in the past few days. Sometimes it is so easy to feel inadequate because I just cannot find words to pray, or even muster up the discipline to sit down and invest the immense effort of putting my thoughts, my emotions, the cries and joys of my heart into spoken words. Satan whispers in my ear that this is yet another failure, and lures me away from closeness to my Creator. But for times like these, for those days, or weeks, or even months, where the effort of formulating words out of an often overwhelmed heart or mind just seems to great to even attempt, God, in His absolute sovereignty, knowing the limitations and incapacities of His children, gave us HIS word to pray to Him. There is not an emotion, or fear, or joy, that is not expressed in the Psalms. And no matter where I open the book of Psalms and start reading, I always, without fail, find myself arriving at a verse, or several, that perfectly express what I am not able to. And simply reading, repeating the words of people who were just as incapable and limited as I am, breaks down the barriers of frustration and allows the Holy Spirit to minister to my heart.

Romans 8:26: In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

No major revelation today, just the recognition of God’s provision in a tangible way.

Jeremiah 32:17: "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

Checking out early

Living in the here and now, and not checking out until I actually move on. This has become quite a challenge for me. The second I knew I was going to leave Basel, I started preparing, steeling myself against the fear and the hurt of saying goodbye to a people, a church, a city, that have become so dear to me. While my halfway psychologically-educated mind understands that this is a classic form of self-protective coping mechanism, my heart isn't quite ready to come up with the emotional and intentional energy it requires to overcome these almost instinctive coping strategies. Except that in the midst of all this steeling, it is slowly dawning on me the this "checking out" process comes at a huge prize - the prize of not only alienating myself from my people, but also from God and the things He still has for me here.

James 4:13-15: Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that."

As much as I am looking forward to my future, it is in God's hands, and I really don't have any idea what it is going to look like. I am not even of much relevance in the here and now, but the little relevance I have in my small universe made up of friends, family, colleagues and the people I encounter in daily life I desire to use for God's glory. If the Lord's will still has me in Basel for this moment in time, then that's really all I need to know. It is my responsibilty to be fully here, and invest any energy I have in engaging with the things that are in my life today.

Hebrews 3:12-14: See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.

Here's the danger of "checking out early". We focus our attention on what's ahead, on the "what if's" and "could be's" of a life we always imagine to be better, happier, more exciting, and somehow more relevant than today's. We let those thoughts of a future that isn't even ours yet distract us from where God needs us right now, and leave the doors wide open for Satan to step in. "Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness". It seems so easy to justify those litte sins of neglect, or ignorance, or those missed opportunities to share the gospel or encourage a brother or sister, with the prospect of a life in a place where the consequences of those sins won't affect us anymore. At least that's what we think. Except that sin, and its consequences, are not restricted by physical distance.

Philippians 4:9: Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Paul doesn't say: "Put it into practice at your next assignment, or at the next place you go to." He doesn't say: "Wait and learn more before you can pass on anything of what you've already learned."

In the same way, when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, part of the Lord's prayer specifically says: "Give us today our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11) - asking the Father to provide for our needs today, not yesterday, or tomorrow.

This is not about a simple "Carpe Diem" attitude. It's about the instinctive measures of self-protection that I see rise up in me, and recognizing that they are opposing the God-honoring attitude that I desire to have.

Thoughts?

Marks of family

We call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ, call the church family, identify ourselves as children of God - all these are wonderful ways to symbolize the affiliation we have with the Creator of the universe as well as His creation. But – it’s not just symbolism. We are tied and connected to fellow believers in supernatural ways with a bond that is stronger and more powerful than blood, stronger than the loyalty and love that connects us to our natural family, our parents, grandparents, siblings.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:16-18)

Never does this become a more demonstrating reality as when I am touched by God’s work in a brother or sister’s life that I don’t even know. We are co-heirs with Christ, we share in His sufferings and share in His glory, and in the ways these two things manifest themselves in our lives. I find myself moved to tears by the heartbreaking story of a struggle against a disease, and find myself lifting my hands in praise to a God Who turns that same struggle into a testimony to His ever-enduring faithfulness. My heart breaks as I see a teenager cry for her friend who didn’t survive past her 14th birthday, and Jesus gently puts those pieces of my heart together again as He allows me to understand more of Him and His purposes in the process of grieving.
The urge to get up in the middle of the night only to be able to pray for a brother or sister whose challenges I only heard about, the need to stop in the middle of my workday to lift up the missionary whose picture I just saw in the news – these are the true marks of spiritual family, testimonies to the magnitude of Christ’s love passed on and manifested in the hearts of His children.

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)

Yes, Lord

Matthew 9:28-29
When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?"
"Yes, Lord," they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"


How much do we really trust God with our deepest desires, out most threatening fears, our most hidden weaknesses? We profess that we believe prayers are answered, that God is all-powerful, but do we allow Him to be all-powerful in our own lives? In those dark prison corners of our hearts and minds where Satan keeps us locked in with keys made out of our fear, of pride, of “I-can-do-this-on-my-own” attitude?
I so often find myself trapped in those dark corners, desperately wanting for God to free me, all the while still looking for solutions that I can come up with, that enable me to be independent and solve my own problems. Just in case. Just in case He forgets me, or doesn’t care enough, or is too busy, or doesn’t love me enough to free me out of that particular prison. Just in case somehow all those promises in Christ don’t apply to me for some reason. Just in case this prayer is too big, or too small, for God to deal with. After all, how can the same God who heals the blind and walks on water be bothered with my feeble cares and concerns?
He can, and He has. By the same principle that He applies to all of His children, and all of their prayers. “Do you believe that I can do this?”, Christ asks. He wants to, and deserves to, have the victory, and the glory, in our lives, in the ways He answers our prayers, the ways He provides, the ways He cares and heals.

How far does my faith go? How much do I trust Him? What does it take for me to surrender everything, not just those things which I have carefully weighted in my mind and decided there is a good chance that the Lord might care enough, love enough, be big enough, to answer? Am I willing to say “Yes Lord” in utterly surrendered faith? The few times that this has happened, those precious moments when God has stripped me of all my pride, and shone His bright light into the darkest prison corner of my heart, make up the greatest testimonies of God’s mighty work in my life.
Lord, that you might touch my eyes, and answer me according to my faith. That you might heal me from a blindness that stands in the way of complete surrender to the mighty works you desire to do in and through me.