Legos and Logos

If you've been around small children lately, you've seen them create with legos--plastic interlocking toy bricks. They come in various colors and sizes and a person can build cars, castles, flying ships, or anything else one's imagination inspires.


 



With Logos, an ancient Greek term for God's Word, one can build a life--more than anyone's imagination can conceive. God's Word is beyond science, beyond history. Although we may not see it today or tomorrow or in the next decade, the pieces will all fit because they're in God's hands--His perfect vision for your life, the Master Creator. While He's fitting the pieces together, you will not remain the same person. Think of the mystery!

Got Questions? God does, too.

As human beings on a spiritual journey, we are going to have questions. Lots of them...What do you want for lunch? Why did you get home so late? are not the kind of questions I'm thinking of.

Why do the innocent suffer?

How can human trafficking, politics without principles, 

       murder, rape occur in a world God created?

What is heaven like?....

These are the kind of questions I'm speaking of.

It is okay to ask God questions. God created us to be curious. In asking, we have the potential to develop a closer relationship to our Creator. And, also in asking, we hopefully learn to trust.

There are over 3000 questions asked in the Bible. The book of Job asks the most. In its 42 chapters, Job asks questions; his three friends ask questions of Job. However, my favorite part starts in Chapter 38 when the LORD finally speaks with His questions.

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? .... 

Who shut up the sea behind the doors?... 

Have you ever given orders to the morning? ....

Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread his wings toward the south?

Does the eagle soar at your command and build his nest on high?

Possibly our questions are best answered by reading God's questions to Job....

GPS--God's Positioning System

Good Day, Sojourner.... continue your journey.

It's not as simple as you're born, you live, you die.

Because we were created by God, for God, we have built in compasses, the Holy Spirit, encouraging us to keep on the path to our God ordained destination.

A GPS is a Global Positioning System. We have one in our car and I appreciate it. My favorite button to press under "destination" is Go Home. In spite of our attempts to outguess it by getting out a map or stopping someone/anyone to ask for directions, our GPS has proved dependable.

I'd like to think of God as my own personal innate GPS. Unlike the car GPS, however, my life journey is not going to take me on a direct route. There may be ruts in the road, a tornado whirling overhead, the occasional flat tire, an engine that needs servicing, a gas tank that needs refilling, or the annoying backseat driver. The trip may at times feel like a never-ending roller coaster ride or at other times feel like being stuck in quick sand, unable to escape dire circumstances. God, however, is ultimately my "Go Home" destination. On the way, there will be times of sorrow, times of rejoicing, time of questioning, but it will be an adventure.

C.S. LEWIS writes The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing--to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from...my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for Home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.

Safe travels wherever today takes you; trust your own innate GPS, Christ within.

Track Season...Ready, Set, Go

Track is a little like life. In this sport, we know where the race starts and where the race ends. Life differs in that we know where we started, but the finish line remains a mystery.


With track, everything is laid out: the lanes, put one foot in front of the other, keep going, the finish line. No surprises here....

With life, there are no lanes painted on an all-weather track. We don't know what's around the curve or where the finish line lies. It seems to be more of a roller coaster ride--scary, adventurous, messy--to places we've never even imaged or wanted to.... Hurdles, stumbles, quicksand--and it goes on and on.

There is no end to the "ready, set, go".  A new job, another baby, a relationship challenge, a financial or health issue. There are periods of time when each morning seems a "ready, set, go."

The use of the word "go" is used many times in the Bible, from when the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you." To the verse in Matthew, "Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Some things don't change a lot. The sport of track being one of them.
Some things in life don't change a lot. From generation to generation to generation, it's been a "ready, set, go" kind of routine.

Someday, that will all change. There will be a finish line. A permanent finish line, a glorious finish line. Knowing that, let us remember Timothy's words, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

                                         Ready, set, go...

Who? What? Where? Why? When? How Long?

There are over 3000 questions in the Bible? Beginning in Genesis when Satan asks Eve, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" to Revelations where the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God..., cried out, "How long Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"

Some of the questions, God asked. For example, when Elijah flees to Horeb and hides in a cave, God asked him, "What are you doing here, Elijah'?"

Poetic questions come from the book of Job, with God asking, "Who shut up the sea behind doors..., Where does darkness reside?....Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?"

On one occasion, an expert in the law asked Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus responded with a question of His own, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?"

Who, what, where, why, when, how long....?

We ask questions at home, at work, with friends. We ask ourselves inside our private thoughts.

Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you... Matthew 7:7-8

Questions are okay. More than likely, it develops intimacy with God. Asking doesn't mean you'll get what you want. Maybe, it's what God wants for you. Maybe, he's telling you to be patient.

3000 some questions....

Do you know how many times in the Bible God tell us not to be afraid? According to my research, it is 365 times that He tells us, "Fear not." How may days in a year? Guess he made His point....

Ask your questions. But, also don't be afraid. It's in His hands.

Treasures in Jars of Clay

But now, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. Isaiah 64:8

I have come to believe that our greatest treasures are within our hearts, minds, and souls. Since retirement, I have more opportunities to reflect. It gives me pleasure to remember ....

-our children eating fried chicken in a shady park with only a swing or two and a merry-go-round
-two of our daughters playing on the same basketball team
-a picture of our son under a rainbow
-a long ride with our first child, as a two year old, to meet her great grandmother
-David's pride with his first horse
-a family vacation

I used to not want to go back. Now, I do. Not to change anything. I just want to be a silent observer of some of these times and hold them close to my heart.

Further back, there are other memories....
-Mom's special lemon meringue pie made on two occasions (their anniversary and Dad's birthday)
-the tree house where my brothers and I made a chimney and a fireplace and a second story
-the humongous snow pile designed by my father's imagination and a tractor with a loader
-walking into a house filled with love and the smell of supper every day after school
-a blonde-haired, blue-eyed bf from second grade to forever
-a memorable "I love you."

There are the more recent memories of the birth of each grand child--little miracles with incredible journeys ahead. These memories all kind of mesh together until it feels like it was someone else's life. Or, it was mine.... and now, I'm someone else.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with all these reflections. It seems that there is a reason my head is sometimes filled with them. There must be an explanation for not wanting to let them go. Perhaps they are all puzzle pieces and when all is said and done, the puzzle pieces will fit. Perfectly.

What lies behind us and what lies before us

 are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

What Do You Believe to Be True About God?

During my younger years, "Do you believe in God?" seemed fundamental to any conversation about my faith. As the years have passed, scripture studies, various experiences, and my thoughts are more often of, What do you believe to be true about God?

When sharing a family meal with grandchildren, it is common for one of them to suggest conversation starters. This usually involves a question, such as, "What is your favorite color?" or a request, such as "Name some things that fly."

If you reword these same questions or requests with, "What do you believe to be true about the color blue?" and "What do you believe to be true about things that fly?" --the conversation takes a twist in deeper and broader thinking.

In high school, I once asked a boyfriend, "Do you believe in God?" I was flabbergasted when he said, "no." In my innocence, I thought everyone believed in God. He explained that he was agnostic. I was bewildered, not even knowing what the word meant.

He returned the question, "Do you?"

"Of course," I answered.

"Why?"

And, that's when I became silent. I believed because that was the way I was brought up. Our family got up every Sunday morning, dressed in our finest, iron-pressed clothes, and recently shined shoes, piled in the station wagon, and drove the 12 miles to church--rain, shine, or blizzard-- where we heard the Word of God.
How could I not believe?

Other believers do not grow up in the faith but come to it because of experiences, study of God's word, and/or a friend's gentle, loving, Godly persuasions.

Although my belief was always with me, I have come to view it differently because of experiences, the study of God's word, and hanging out with gentle, loving, Godly people.

And, so now, I want to ask my grandchildren and I want to ask you, What do you believe to be true about God?  What you believe to be true about God and who you increasingly believe God to be will expand your own insightfulness in who you believe yourself to be. Something to consider....

What do I believe to be true about God?
He is my Savior, my King, my Helper in time of need, my joy, the Creator, the Ancient of Times, The Beginning, The End, my Everything....

Hallelujah!