I Want To Be Like Jesus - REALLY NOW?

To be like you in the quiet of my heart.
To be like you in the deepest private part.
To struggle with my humanity yet to cling to purity
Is to be, to be like you.

Recently I have been privileged to view DVD's entitled 'Lessons I Learned In The Dark by Jennifer Rothschild and also to hear her sing at the end of each presentation a composition that I believe she wrote. Above is the chorus from last week's DVD. Jennifer is a lovely lady who lost her sight totally when she was 16 years old. She is a true testimony to God using us where we are. '

I was deeply enthralled with her song last week, focusing on every word and admiring her sweet singing voice when I was smitten with the words in the title of this piece. Was it God speaking to me to remind me that being like Jesus isn't some nice walk in the park set to music.

I was born in my Grandmother's house on Manitoulin Island. I don't remember anything about it nor did I have a lot of choices about it. But if I had would I have said 'No Thank You' to the nice warm house, snd chosen rather to be born in Grandpa's cold barn. Would I or would you choose to live the way Jesus lived? What did He do for clothes? Did he take a garment from His carpenter shop home and make it last for the next three years? I am sure He never had the luxury of checking His wardrobe and deciding which one of the many garments there He would don for that day? What about food? Where did it come from? Who cooked it for Him? Could He choose to eat on any given day the things He liked the best? Somehow, I don't think so. And then there is the going without food entirely for 40 days and nights. Is that something you are dying to try? I know someone who did just that lately and one of the most difficult parts of the process was not sharing in family meals.

Which leads us to the loneliness that Jesus must have felt many times. He was rejected by those closest to Him, misunderstood by family. Loneliness is an insidious thing affecting every part of who you are - both physically and emotionally. And the abuse - the beatings, the spit in His face, the ridicule, the cruel death. Did I hear you say you want to be just like Him? And even though He went through all that perfectly and conquered death to boot, no one was there to celebrate as He left the tomb. Even that He did alone.

And then we come to His principles. That would be a much easier path to trod, right, practicing His principles? Perhaps we need to give that some serious thought. How about 'turning the other cheek', or 'blessed are the persecuted'. What about 'do unto others' and 'it is more blessed to give than to receive'. When is the last time you got really mad at someone and it rattled around in your head for days. Is your heart a home for bitterness and resentment or is it full of forgiveness and kindness?

Being like Jesus is hard, hard stuff! It is not, at some point, doing what someone tells us we need to do to connect ourselves to Him, doing it and then going on our way living pretty much as we would live if we had never met Him. But He promised us two great things if we try to be like Him as best we can - rest and peace. The greatest incentive for me to try to be like Him is that I see all around me when we are that life works, when we are not life falls apart. That is true for us individually, it is true for our churches, homes, schools, countries and so on. Based on what we see around us in all the aforementioned theatres of life, we had all better make a concentrated effort to be more like Jesus. And that starts with me!

THREE BLIND MICE

Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run, see how they run.
They all took after the farmer’s wife,
She cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever hear such a tale in your life,
As three blind mice.

Now why would I wake up this morning with this ditty playing around in the recesses of my mind, a ditty that was common to hear quoted by Daddy or Mom in my childhood but one which I doubt I have thought of in over 30 years. As I pondered this some interesting thoughts came to my mind. I wondered why the blind mice ever got close to the farmer’s wife in the first place. Did the warmth of her farm kitchen stove lure them or was it the smell of what she might have been cooking on that stove? Or was she the one who saw them and lured them to her side with big hunks of cheese with the express purpose of doing them in. I doubt that any of these ramblings are too important in the grand scheme of things, but as my mind wandered I couldn’t help but think how like those mice we humans are.

The Bible tells us that God’s Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are His child. This says to me that we know instinctively when our thoughts, our words, our actions are not those produced by God’s Spirit within us. But how often do we rush into danger to satisfy some physical urge, to bring comfort from our own lack of self-worth. Or how often is it simply Satan luring us with the ‘cheese’ that he knows is our greatest temptation. And so we are quite like the three mice - plagued with blindness, spiritual blindness and thus we lose our ‘tails’.

But that is not the end of the story. Though there are consequences that we will never be free of, just like the little mouse will never have his tail, and though Satan has tremendous power in our world, I believe that God has a characteristic that Satan can never attain. It is only God who can take a life without a ‘tail’ and work in it to make it worthwhile and useful and blessed. Satan cannot do that!! I don’t know what the theologians call this phenomena. I call it grace!

From Our Heart Or Our Head

The conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 is, apparently, the longest single conversation that Jesus had with one person recorded in the New Testament. But she was a woman, not someone Jesus should have been conversing with out on a lonely plain. She was a Samaritan, not someone a Jew would converse with in any location. And her life style was not exemplary. But some of the most significant truths Jesus ever uttered she was chosen to hear, probably one of the times that one human being had the greatest impact on others for their good happened right here in John 4. How amazing!!

I couldn’t get this story out of my mind yesterday. Part way through His discourse with this woman whose name we don’t know, He said, “Go bring your husband.” He didn’t start her on the journey she needed to take by confronting her with the emptiness of her life, not by saying ‘you should’ or ‘you shouldn’t’. - but simply go bring your husband, the husband He knew she did not have.

But she didn’t want to go there. She was so much like us and we are so much like her. If we can discuss a doctrinal question it protects us from the hard stuff - the stuff of dealing with the heart. And so her question to Jesus was (paraphrased) - Who is worshipping in the right place, you Jews or us Samaritans. Jesus responded in such a way that she ran back to her village, to the people she had avoided for so long because of her shame, the people who were likely giggling and ridiculing and said: “Come see a man who told me everything I have ever done. Could this be the Christ?” What kind of humility, what kind of passion must there have been in her voice for her to cause a villageful of people that she had likely no relationship with over the years to want to go with her? I can only imagine!

All of this was on my mind as I made my way to visit at the Nursing Home yesterday, as I visited with these dear folks and for a long time after. What brings peace when one gets to the point where most of life is spent in a room with our own thoughts, when one’s life is spent in that ‘waiting to die’ stage and place. Will it be that one has worshipped in the right place, at the right time in the right way or will it be ‘He told me everything that ever I did’. I think I know! Jesus called it living water!

The Gaze of the Soul

"And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit." 2 Corinthians 3:18. A.W. Tozer's definition of faith - "the gaze of the soul upon God." May I today in my binding of a quilt, in my buying of groceries, in my playin of Scrabble, do it all as one whose gaze of the soul is upon God and may this reflection be apparent to those around me. Amen.

A Tribute to Rick McBay

Rick McBay - the man I asked many years ago to make me a box that I could put under our Christmas tree and it would become 'Uncle Clyde's Treasure Chest.' Rick built me a box - though not a box, but rather a beautiful slatted chest complete with curved lid. Many children had great delight from the simple gift they chose from that box. If you read this and are one of those kids, please add this kind action to the list of good things that Rick McBay did. My tears are for you, Sandy, Brian and Teral and all the rest of the family

Why Am I Here?

Parts of my life have not been easy. At one point I remember feeling like I was in a deep, dark pit trying desperately to get out. I would claw my way to the top, get my fingers positioned over the edge and feel like I was about to reach freedom when someone would step on them and I would descend once again to the bottom. I remember the beauty that surrounded me on my short drive to my work being completely obliterated by tears while my cry to God was: “Why is this happening to me?’

I also remember the time when I began to realize that it was not all about me - that it was about a cosmic conflict going on out there between God and Satan and I was being used by God in that conflict. And that made me mad!! I remember the feeling, how dare God put me through this in order to win His battle. And, yes, I was mad at God, real mad!! But as I worked it all through in my mind my feeling changed. I felt honoured, chosen by God to accomplish something for Him in this cosmic battle. I have shared this with a few people but mostly the response was not much more than a blank stare. Until now!

I have been using The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible published in the New Revised Standard Version for my reading. In the introduction to the book of Ephesians, written by a Timothy Brown I read that ‘through a Christ-like lens’ reading of the book of Ephesians will receive the “hardware needed to enter the cosmic conflict around us bequeathed by Christ. “ Eph. 6:24 which says “Grace be to all who have an undying love for Jesus Christ.”

When the vagaries of life hit us it is a time ‘When Only God’s Grace Will Do’ - a time when the ‘hardware’ of God’s grace will keep us out of the pit - when an awareness of the ‘cosmic conflict’ will give meaning to our journey. That He is there doing His work through us and at the same time holding us close is almost beyond our comprehension. ‘God Moves In A Mysterious Way.’ Amen

Jewels On My Path

JEWELS ON MY PATH

“If you had known., especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace.” Luke 19:42

Oh my! Oh my! Who of us are not searching with all our might for the ‘things that make for our peace.’ That precious commodity, the ‘peace that passes understanding.’ Why is it so elusive? Perhaps because we are so often much like the Pharisees of old - looking for it while focused on our own understanding, our own desires, our own concept of how life should work.

Here I am at 7:02 AM at the beginning of “this my day” with the promise that God will scatter the jewels that ‘make for my peace’ along my path. Will my eyes be so fixed on Him that I will see them or will my focus be such that they will be ‘hidden.’ Even legal blindness cannot hide them from me if I choose to see them. This is God’s grace at work. Can you hear my praise?

That's It! That's All!

It is 10:30 AM. I am wandering around my house doing this mundane chore and that mundane chore. Already this morning I have heard a man say: “I would like to do great things for God.”
I have heard a woman say: “We are going to ‘such and such’ church but I am not really doing anything for God.”
‘Doing for God.’ How do we do anything for the omniscient, omnipotent One who created us in the first place and everything around us. What does God want from us? Two things, I think. Our love and our trust and that’s it, that’s all. To the degree that we learn to do that He will take the circumstances of our lives and ‘work it all out for good.’ Romans 8:28. And what is the good? We will become more and more like Jesus (Rom. 8:29) and the result will be He will glorify us (Rom. 8:30). Surely, as a person glorified by God I will be a blessing to someone, somewhere, sometime without consciously wishing or worrying that there was something that I could do for God. When I stop trusting Him and Him alone is when it all falls apart. So what can I do for God? I can love Him! I can trust Him! Two full time jobs ----in which no chore is ever mundane!!

From Sorrow's Heart - A Gift

I just read an article in the London Free Press entitled 'From Sorrow's Heart A Gift.' The request from the family of Fred Preston asking people to make donation to the family of the slain police officer inspired this title. How could it ever be worded in a better way for this tragedy or any of the multiple tragedies and heartaches that come to all of us. It behooves all of us who know this family to do all in our power to help them work through the details of the tragedy in such a way that we will all receive 'a gift from sorrow's heart.' If we don't Satan will win one more battle and more sorrow will be the result. It was Grant Preston, who many years ago, made me aware of the meaning and beauty of 1John Chapter 1. May we all get into the Light, embrace each other as God embraces us, in full and complete love. Love begets love

Gold. So What?

He know the way that I take and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10.

As I sat and contemplated the terrible hurt that often we go through I thought again of this verse. I thought of how important it is in difficulty to beseech God to teach us what He wants us to learn from the situations of our lives. Pain is only ‘hurt’ if we don’t learn something God is trying to teach us in it, it is a bygone experience that fades away and our focus, rather like childbirth, is on the jewel that the pain has produced when we have learned something.

However, this morning my mind meandered down a different path. So? An overweight hunk of gold - what’s the good? I share with you my thoughts. What does gold mean to us? It is a symbol of commitment in the wedding banc and when God has purified us through pain and we see the beauty of that pain because of what God is doing in our lives we will be ever committed to Him. But, also, we wear gold as a thing of beauty added to our person. I wonder , if when we have been purified, when we come forth as gold. do we do the same for God? I pictured in my mind, me worn by God, enhancing His beauty in the eyes of someone who needed that; helping Him in some way in the giant battle that He is in with Satan. Is that what it means to glorify God? In the midst of these thoughts I remembered Isaiah 40:31; “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.“ and for the first time in my life I felt transported to that place.

I have to go and walk my dog now. I pray that the rays of the Son will shine on this overweight hunk of gold and cause a sparkle that will bring cheer and comfort to someone else as I go.

Be Still And Know

The first written words that came before me this morning were, "Be still and know that I am God." As I sat and thought about this, thankfulness formy grandchildren and the directions their lives are taking kept coming into my thoughts. But also there was the desire that they might have wisdom to depend on God more each day. So for my grandchildren and all the other grandchildren out there my prayer is that you will "Be still and know that He is God" in the deepest recesses of your heart.

The Pressure Of My Circumstance

Isaiah said that the Lord spake to him “with a strong hand.” Isaiah 8:11. Oswald Chambers calls this ‘the pressure of our circumstance.’

I have a new friend whose life, a number of years ago, was indeed impacted by ‘the pressure of her circumstance.’ She was a farmer’s wife in a small Ontario town, the mother of three little boys, her life pretty much ordered by the daily demands of her situation. One morning her husband went to the barn to do the morning chores. When he returned to the house he found his wife blind. Their circumstances immediately changed, their faith and attitude toward God did not. They saw this situation as a message from God that would change their lives, though they knew not how.

I don’t know the detail of how they moved from this small Ontario town to a tribal area of Senegal in Africa.. I only know from the story that her husband told that they lived there for 39 years, that they never asked for a dime of support from anyone in all those years, that without medical training he did what he could to help the area sick and without flight training he flew supplies in to the impoverished people that they lived among. He ended his story by telling us that “the Lord gave me my wonderful wife for 49 years but now He has asked for her back”. He was telling us that his wife now had Alzheimer’s and was a resident in the Long Term Care Centre where I visit weekly.

I have come to love this woman dearly. I often find her with a huge laundry basket of cloths - brown cloths, green cloths, gold cloths. She is carefully folding them, stacking them, unfolding them and folding them again and restacking them. All this is done with a quiet concentration and joyful smile. You see, the children will be along soon and will need dry clothes. Do I feel sorry for this woman? Not a bit! Sometimes I have to stretch my imagination to it’s limit to join her in her world but it is always a world full of peace, of generosity, of gratitude for God’s gifts. She is always glad that she was home when I came down her road, that there is a pie on the oven almost done and wi will be able to share a cup of tea and a piece of pie in just a minute or so. There are clean sheets on the bed and if I would like I can spend the night. She has been praying for my boys (how did she know I had boys) and Jim has gone to help some folks but he will be home any minute. I hold her hand and stroke her arm and wander through her world with her, a world so different from many - a world free of discontent, of criticism, of complaint. When I go to leave and give her a hug, she always takes my face in her hands and tells me she will pray for me - often she tells me I am an angel sent from God and she hopes that she is home the next time I come down her road..

Circumstances! Do we see God’s hand in them moving us to places where He wants us to be, to attitudes He wants us to have? Or are they just happenings in our lives to us? This lady’s muddled mind has done more to change my attitude toward what my life is than probably anything over the 70 plus years of my journey. I am so thankful that He saw fit for me to know her............................Wilma Lansdell

P.S. Don’t ask me when or how, but somewhere along her journey her sight was restored.

Goc Versus Paul Newman

The story is told of a woman out shopping on a hot summer’s day. When she passed an ice cream shoppe she decided to treat herself to an ice cream cone in an effort to cool off. She went into the store and ordered her cone. As the clerk was preparing it she became aware of someone standing beside her. She turned and found herself looking into the big blue eyes of Paul Newman. Immediately her neck felt hot and her knees felt weak. About that time, the clerk returned with her cone, set it in the holder on the counter and asked for $1.75. In her befuddled state, trying to pay for her cone, she spilled things from her purse, had trouble finding the right change and became ever more flustered. Finally, she got it all together and left the store. She was only a short way down the street when she realized she had forgotten her cone. She returned to the store only to find Paul Newman standing in the doorway. He said, “Did you forget your cone?” to which she replied, “Yes, I did.” Paul Newman then said, “Well, lady, it is in you purse.”

Recently, I heard a minister begin his sermon with this story. He wasn’t using up his time just to tell a funny story but to try and compare the awe that we sometimes feel for our heroes of any stripe - acting stars, musical stars, sports stars etc. - in comparison to the awe we feel for God. He went so far as to ask, “Whan was the last time an encounter that you had with God cause your knees to feel week?” Thought provoking!

Robert Capon has said the church “is a community of astonished hearts that God has saved them.” One dictionary meaning of astonished is ‘struck dumb with wonder’

Marvin P. Dalton said, “ Oh, what a Savior! Oh, hallelujah! His heart was broken on Calvary; His hands were nail-scarred, His side was riven, He gave His lifeblood for even me.”

Jack Hayford said, “ Majesty, worship His majesty. Unto Jesus be all glory power and praise.”

The writer of Hebrews said, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”

May we all, as we enter this new year, exalt the God of the universe in our lives and see the icons of this world for what they are - people with a talent different than ours but with no power to bring us lasting joy or peace. We will have a far better 2010 if we do!

The Battle Rages On

My husband has a dear friend, one he has never met, one who lives all the way across the country. Sometime ago this man’s wife took his three children and left with a restraining order in hand that he was not to contact them. My husband has been praying fervently for several weeks that there might be some contact over Christmas. It did not happen. What to make of this. How is God working in it all?

Do you have issues like this in your life? Oh! I know! nothing as bizarre, nothing as serious as our friend’s story But let’s be honest - do we have absolute peace in our lives? Is our health everything we would like it to be? Can we count on our job being there for another year and paying what it has paid for the last? Are all of our children conducting their lives exactly as we think they should? It goes on and on!

In mulling this over in my mind this morning I became re-convinced of something I came to believe fifteen or so years ago. Exactly when this world was created and exactly how I don’t know! Exactly who God will save and on what conditions I don’t know! But this I feel fairly certain about. There is a huge battle going on between God and Satan and God wants to use me to win that battle. How He needs to use me I know not, nor can I ascertain the amount of hurt I will suffer nor what form it will take. But one thing I know, I will not be called to endure more than I can bear and that in the bearing I will learn and become a better person. And so, it seems to me, that even in the worst of what life has to offer I should be able to find peace. I should be able to say with Mary this Christmas: “May it be to me as You have said.”

My Inheritance

I was raised in a home where money was scarce. Most of my clothes came from boxes given to us by other people or were made from material that my mother ripped up and remade to fit me. I remember my mother making me a dress from new material when I was six, a white voile dress with yellow flowers. She bought me a new dress when I was eeven and made me a suit from new material when I was fifteen. Those stand out in my memory. I think everything else fell into the first described categories.

My mother lived until she was past 90. The last five years of her life were spent in her own room at the Meaford Nursing Home - a place she loved and enjoyed to the full. Her rent for this modest space was something around $2000 a month. Despite the very modest means of her life and the expense of these last years, when she passed away there was a modest inheritance for each of her six children. That was the most poignant part of her passing to me - not that I had a little cash but that after all the years of careful living financially, she had cared for a family and then for herself and still a little to spare at the end. It was our inheritance.

When I picked up my devotional book this morning the page fell open informing me of another inheritance. Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.” John 14:27. My inheritance!! My little inheritance from my mother is long gone - spent!! Yet this huge inheritance from my Father above, at the deepest levels of my emotion, of my thinking, of my attitudes, of my behaviors, so many times sits unused, unspent. I wonder why! Do you know?

A Fun Galatians

We have just returned from a fun vacation (a fun Galatians to great-granddaughter, Bayleigh). It rained, it snowed and the purpose of the trip, at least in the hunter's minds, was probably not realized. But what fun it is to have great-granddaughters, to be around little ones when one is in her eighth decade (think I have the right one) was. For any readers who don't know Remington is our little dog. He was outweighed, out heighted and all the other outs by the five other family dogs in the crowd, not to mention outrun by the two little girls who at three and almost two have found their legs. I made the mistake of taking Remington to the cabin where the little girls and one very large dog lived for the week. He did very well with it all for a while, but then on one race through the sunporch he lifted his leg at the table leg and you know what ensued. Bayleigh, following close behind, stopped and called, "Mommy, come quick! Reninghan just spilled his juice." I hope my memory retains this one into my ninth decade!
Why am I telling you this? To encourage you in several directions. If you have a marriage you are thinking of canning, think again! A family held together through the generatons is worth working for! If you have a son-in-law or daughter-in-law (this doesn't apply to you, girls!) that you don't like much, learn to! Good family relationships cannot flourish where love does not flow freely in all directions. If you have some possessions that are more important to you than the children in your family, change your mind! I guarantee that antique piece of furniture, that new carpet that you are protecting, that old car or whatever else is dear to you won't have a good word to say about you at your funeral. My most prized possession at this point in my life is my relationship with my grandchildren. And I feel pretty donfident that as the next generation increses in number and in years they will swiftly become a part of that 'prized possession' circle.

Isaiah 61:1

“ But to really understand Grace you have to do more than study it academically or quantify it theologically. To Get what Grace is, you have to have it offered to you in a moment when you are so repulsed by your own sin that you expect anyone who knows to be equally repulsed. “
The above came to my desk in the form of an e-mail to my husband from a pastor for a church all the way across the country. I don’t know this man, nor do I know what fellowship he was pastor for, but I know my heart breaks for him and his family. His wife and his three children are gone, the house where they lived empty. He has no home, no job and no family. Why? Because Satan won a major battle in his life and there was no one there to snatch him back from the abyss. And this story is being repeated in one form or another over and over again all over this land.

Why does Satan hold such sway over every segment of society? Where are the Christians, where are the churches who are supposed to be modeling, sharing, passing out in abundance the love of a God who wants to heal a broken heart? Please read with me a paragraph from John Eldridge’s book ‘Waking The Dead.’ “Satan realized he couldn’t stop the church. Oh, he tried. He arranged to have Jesus killed as a babe. He tried to seduce Him as a man. He tried to marginalize His message by having the religious establishment discredit Him. Finally, he had Him crucified. It backfired. Badly. Then he tried to stop the young church through intimidation and through death, having most of them killed. It also backfired. So he turned to a backup plan. If you can’t beat ‘em...join ‘em. Infiltrate their ranks dressed as an angel of light. Then slowly bring a veil over all that is good and beautiful and true. Take them captive through their own religion.”

And so, here we are today with churches of every creed and kind protecting their own way of thinking, sequestered with their own ki nd, and if they reach out at all it is to persuade others to think like them. And no one is fighting the war against Satan. Indeed, most of us would not feel like we were part of a war, or if we do, we have mis-identified the enemy. And mis-identified the battle field - in our own hearts. Would we be like Jesus? Then we must ‘heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and open the prisons of those who are bound.’ Isaiah 61:1.

Look again at what my hurting brother said: “ But to really understand Grace you have to do more than study it academically or quantify it theologically. To Get what Grace is, you have to have it offered to you in a moment when you are so repulsed by your own sin that you expect anyone who knows to be equally repulsed. “

When is the last time you have been repulsed by your own addictions, your own sins? When is the last time you have tried to lift a hurting soul up by telling them how God is helping you with your addiction, your sin?

‘But I have no addictions.’ you say.. Then that makes you better than Paul, way better than David. And lots better than me. I have several and each one is more serious than chocolate!!

My Ugly Orchid

In March of 2008, in response to a death in the family, a dear friend brought me an orchid. This little plant had three blooms on it - they stayed for a long, long time, then one by one fell off. Not knowing for sure what to expect, I carefully watered the little plant regularly and was greatly excited when a new shoot came forth from the stem. Even though it didn’t look a lot like the stem that had produced the three flowers, I was sure that was what it must be so I carefully tied the little shoot so it would grown up, though its natural bent was to grow straight west from the stem. The little, sprout headed upward with a westerly veer to its growth and, after I don’t know how much time the original stem produced two more blooms.
These little blooms did their part to brighten my life for several weeks then one by one fell off. So what would come next? It was several weeks later that I noticed another of the fat, fleshy sprouts heading west from the stem. Soon there were several headed in all four directions and places in between. What are these things? What are they for? I decided they must be roots that would eventually bury themselves in the soil and the plant would grow a lot bigger. But I didn’t want a bigger plant!! I had no place to put it.
At this point I called the florist to see if it would be OK just to cut them all off. “Oh, no!” she said, “You might kill the plant.” Though she was certain that ‘cut off’ these ugly shoots would be the demise of the plant, she was not sure what they were. She suggested I bring it in and let the florist tell me. And that was the plan!
But, in the meantime, a neighbor had given me a pretty outer pot for my little orchid so my decision was, since I couldn’t cut them off, I didn’t have to look at them. So I stuffed them all down between the two pots. Out of sight, out of mind so it was mnay weeks before I took my orchid to the florist.
When she saw what I had done she was aghast. “The plant can’t breathe.” she said as she pulled them all out and I brought my plant home with tentacles sticking out every which direction. Ugly, yes but now they could feed the plant. One day when I was ‘ugh’-ing how much I disliked the look of these shoots, I couldn’t help but think what a great illustration of the hurt and pain in our lives that they illustrated.
Hurt and pain are neither pretty nor comfortable but there is no doubt in my mind that they are necessary. I know of no character in the Bible who fulfilled the great purposes of God outside of pain. And when we think about it for just a minute, it doesn’t take long to realize that the pain came from diverse sources: Joseph from the mistreatment of others but the pain served to illustrate the providence of God, Job from intense physical and mental pain, which if not caused by God, certainly used by God to sear on the hearts of those who will listen the absolute sovereignty of God, David whose hurt and pain, for the most part, was the product of his own sinfulness. But David’s pain and sorrow has been, down through the ages, the stellar example of God’s forgiveness second only to the Cross of Christ
But, very much as I did with the ugly orchid tentacles, we try to hide the hurt and pains of our lives - the pain of our own failures, the pain of betrayal by others, the pain of loss of all sorts of things - job, finances, children gone from home, death of someone we love and so on, and the disappointment in just life itself. The result is much like the result when I tried to hide the ugly tentacles of my orchid. Our soul can’t breathe!
Elizaeth Lesser in her book ’Borken Open’ said this: “Adversity is a natural part of being human. It is the height of arrogance to prescribe a moral code or health regime or spiritual practice as an amulet to keep things from falling apart. Things DO fall apart. It is in their nature to do so. When we try to protect ourselves from the inevitability of change, we are not listening to the soul. We are listening to our fear of life and death, our lack of faith, our smaller egos will to prevail. To listen to the soul (to God - parenthesis mine) is to stop fighting with life - to stop fighting when things fall apart; when they don’t go our way; when we get sick, when we are betrayed or mistreated or misunderstood. To listen to the soul is to slow down, to feel deeply, to see ourselves clearly, to surrender to discomfort and uncertainty, and to wait.”
Will you look at my orchid again with me? One day not long after all the ugly shoots were exposed, I noticed that a number of them had wilted and shriveled up and the leaves of the orchid looked so much healthier. But new ugly tentacles keep coming. Again I was reminded of our hurt and pain! Stuffed away it only festers and causes us all kinds of problems. But acknowledged, in most cases shared with another human being, and always given to God for His tool to teach us what He wants us to learn, the pain has meaning and soon is pain no more. But since we always need to go a step higher spiritually, those pain tentacles reappear and a new lesson must be learned. This is the journey of life!