Walking daily with faith in God’s goodness above all else helps me trust the fluctuations of His seasons. The story of Joseph, in Genesis, is a compelling example of how God’s hand is upon His people through all things. 

Joseph was the 12th son of Jacob and his favorite. His brothers hated him because of it and schemed to kill Joseph. Instead, they sold him to a passing caravan headed to Egypt and led their father to believe that his beloved son was killed by an animal. In Egypt Joseph was sold again and became the slave of a man named Potiphar. The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, says Genesis 39:2. The young man had been sold into slavery by his own brothers and, all the while, living out God’s great plan for him. 

I want to remember that verse. The Lord was with Jennie and she prospered. Walking in the chaotic nor’easters of life the Lord was with Jennie and she prospered. Crawling through the deathly heat of life’s long summers the Lord was with Jennie and she prospered. May I learn to walk in all things knowing that the Lord is with me and I will prosper.

Joseph’s story gets even worse—and better. He suffered lies against him and was thrown in prison but God was with him and Joseph prospered. God had given him the gift of discerning dreams and soon he was prospering in Pharoah’s palace, the king eventually placing him in charge of Egypt! Joseph’s gift of discernment prospered Egypt in a time of famine and when his unsuspecting brothers traveled there in search of food, Joseph (the Lord was with Joseph) blessed his family with Egypt’s bounty.  The Lord is with me in all things and I prosper.

…a time to weep and a time to laugh… Ecclesiastes 3:4 

What is normal and “good” to the world is not necessarily the goodness that God bestows.  It can feel like a herculean feat to choose God over swimming in the norm but as His child this what I am blessed to do and blessed in the doing. I am abundantly blessed to release the things of this world to embrace my Father’s provision.

How to say “No” to the things of the world:

Remember that I am a child of God and without God I am nothing, life is pain and confusion.

Remember to consciously give my will and life over to God so that when He speaks, I am free to be moved by Him.

Remember that the world, in and of itself, offers me nothing. 

Remember to walk in the direction He leads always; even small ways create wide paths of fruitful obedience.

Remember how much He loves me—that He died to bless me abundantly.

Normally, one believes she is the center, that life is her own to do as she prefers. Commonly, one believes that her needs will be met by the world around her. Ordinarily, one feels it is heroic to be the commandeer of her own life and build with her own hands.  No. When I choose God, I am saying “No” to normal and ordinary and “Yes” to life aligned with the Extraordinary!

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15

When the Holy Spirit moves in me to stop and turn around, it may be to keep me close to Him and on the right track. Like the one who painted this boundary for a race at the park, He doesn’t want me to take a path leading to nowhere or worse. He has a good plan for me to finish my race, so I must stay to His course.

Temptations can veer me away from God’s will. True, I will meet with temptation along my way, but the fork ahead is clearly marked. I recognize the way He provides for me. Upon close inspection, the wrong way looks something like: STOP. Turn around.  If I take the wrong way, it’s not for a lack of options. My Father always provides a direct way to His good plan. If I follow a temptation, if I choose the path of distractions, I step further away from my beautiful, joyful walk with God and His plan.

This was a cold winter. I had options. If it was exercise I was looking for, I could have used a machine indoors. For prayer and meditation I might have sat at home. But I believed that God had invited me to walk with Him in His creation–heat, cold, storms and all, so I kept to the path. And to borrow the words of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” that has made all the difference.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.                                  1 Corinthians 10:13

How can I walk with understanding in this world I didn’t create and do not rule?  How do I discern my calling? How many moments or years have I fished around for things that were never supposed to be on my hook?

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness can be found in Matthew 4. Satan told Him to bow down and worship him and He would gain all the world’s kingdoms.  Foolishness. Satan has nothing to offer. Jesus told the devil to flee from Him and spoke scripture from Deuteronomy 6:13:  “For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'” Matthew 4:10 

When He left the wilderness, Jesus met fishermen Peter and Andrew at the Sea of Galilee. He called for them to follow Him and He would make them fishers of men. They followed, as did two brothers, John and James, who left their boat and their father to walk with Jesus.

Matthew 4:11 goes on to say that when the devil left Him, angels came and attended to Jesus. At the moment Jesus shunned the devil and the things of this world and affirmed the holy Word of God, angels appeared. And when the men left the sea and tuned in to the perfect voice of Jesus, they found their mission. They found their life in Him. 

Know God’s Word. Get into agreement with His perfect voice.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2

Sometimes there was a young man at the park, who stood in the very center of the ball fields encircled by my path. I never saw his face, just his hefty form in heavy clothes and the large adult-sized scooter he lugged along at his side. I wondered about him as I passed and smiled as I imagined him riding his scooter to the park, perhaps from the apartments nearby, for the same afternoon sky, peace and connection I sought. 

One day as I entered that wide circle I saw him, sans scooter, standing at the end of a third baseline fence close to the path. He soon saw me and began walking at an angle toward the same far corner I was headed. I felt a little tremble inside. Though I had never once feared him, I was uneasy anticipating this unusual intersection. I kept walking and tried to keep my peace. When my steps on the path were even with his on the field, he suddenly turned and ran straight at me. 

So I prayed. I didn’t want to run. I didn’t want to yell. I didn’t know the young man, but I didn’t believe he meant me harm. So as he barreled toward me, yelling words I couldn’t understand, I kept walking peacefully and prayed that I wouldn’t be injured by the impact. When his feet hit the path, he turned slightly and zoomed by my face, then around behind me. I didn’t look back, I just walked on.  A lady’s voice called to him far across the field. He lumbered to her car and they drove away.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.  Hebrews 12:14

My father spanked me once. Maybe just once, I don’t recall any other time, but I do recall the once.  He had worked long hours and my mother was serving him a late dinner in the kitchen. I climbed up on the radiator next to the table, grabbed the two long pipes that went up into the ceiling and swung on them, back and forth. He watched me as he ate. 

He told me to stop. I did not. He told me to get down. I continued to swing. I knew I was being ornery, but I thought we were having fun and didn’t see the harm. 

My father, who does like to tease and have fun, was too tired to play that night. I was being too cheeky to notice. He pushed his chair back and stood up and suddenly I understood. I leapt off the heater to make an escape but no sooner had I found my footing, I was launched by his hand on my bottom into the next room. 

The radiator incident is not unlike every other time I have played with fire and gotten myself into hot water. There were warnings. I ignored them. There came an awakening shock. Fear, pain and shame followed.  To believe the warnings is to respect the one who warns and to respect the one who warns, is to believe the warnings. As I know and love Jesus more, I want to please Him more. I want to abide with Him and not defy Him.

If I could do it over, I would respect my father’s warnings too. Even better, I would help my mother and prepare his place at the table. I would not grieve him, but sit beside him, love and serve him.

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:1-2

God’s word is law.  To ignore, defy or grumble about it is choosing to act in my own detriment.  A law is not only a requirement or a restriction, a law can also be a truth. Like gravity. Mankind may shirk the law of gravity for moments but not forever. Like airplanes returning to the runway, the course is predictable: defying the law and succumbing to the law. One way or another the law eventually prevails.

I think defied gravity once as a child. We were playing tag and I was running at top speed toward a low wall. Rather than hurdling it, I planted my foot on top and pushed off into the air, trying to miss the sand pile on the other side. As I flew, I caught a glimpse of a long black snake stretched out on the warm sand below my feet and miraculously increased my velocity mid-flight. Landing on the grass and continuing my escape now with even greater abandon, I just hoped my friend behind me could muster the same powers.

It’s a weird thing that defying a law, scientific, moral or otherwise can make a person feel powerful for a moment. It can leave a person with the disastrous idea that they are more powerful than gravity or that some principles don’t apply to them or their circumstance. Ultimately, however, a limit is reached and, like the law of diminishing returns, things begin to take a turn for the worse.

The Bible is not a book of requirements and restrictions, it is Truth. The Creator is Truth. His Word is Truth. He can bestow nothing but Truth.  His Truth sets me free to soar.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.    2 Timothy 4:3

When the eye is placed between the luminous body and the objects illuminated by it, these objects will be seen without any shadow. ~Leonardo DiVinci 

My grandfather grew the world’s best tomatoes.  I ate them warm, right off the vine. As a child, my mother carried a salt shaker to his tomato patch. These were good tomatoes. He’s gone to heaven, his field is now grass, and I don’t eat tomatoes anymore. They are all lies, all poor substitutes for Pop Pop’s true tomatoes. Those poor souls who enjoy pale, waxy tomatoes…

I listened to Beethoven in the womb as my mother practiced endless hours for a recital just inches away from my awakening ears. One day only recently I said to her, “I love Beethoven. His music just settles right down into my soul, making perfect sense. It’s like a balm to me.” She smiled and told me why. How would I recognize a lousy tomato and where would my ears find rest above the cacophony, if I had never before been placed in the midst of perfection?

To recognize God’s light and to see all things as His light reveals them, I must place myself in His presence and in His word. To know Him is to know what is good. Only then can I recognize His light from that which aims to obscure it, from that which might seem otherwise to be adequate. And only then can I taste His truth and hear His perfection.  Like the sun, He is luminous; and like the moon, those in His light will be illuminated.

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15

Jesus’ coming was quiet, but not silent, not uncelebrated.  Those who would listen were blessed beyond measure with the glory of God. 

The angels told Mary she would give birth to a son, the fulfillment of God’s promises. Mary knew those promises and before the Christ child’s birth, she declared them with joy to her cousin Elizabeth, soon to give birth to John the Baptist. My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers. Luke 1:46-55.

At the birth of John the Baptist, his father Zechariah gave praise to the coming Savior. Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. Luke 1:68

When Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph took Him to the temple where a man named Simeon, led by the Spirit, took the babe in his arms and praised God. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared  in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel. Luke 2:30-32  Luke writes that Mary and Joseph marveled at Simeon’s words.

His coming was quiet but marvelous and triumphant to all people and all things, sounding glorious in the ears of those who would listen. Let my ears attune to the marvel of Jesus Christ!

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2

 

Wandering in the desert after the Lord saved them from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites were irritable and thirsty. They cried out for water and Moses, their leader, turned to the Lord for help. The Lord told Moses to take his staff, hit a certain rock where God would appear, and water would flow out for the people. After all God had brought them through, with Moses at the lead, the people were still testing Him and full of strife, so Moses called the place “Mahssa” and “Meribah,” “testing” and “quarreling.” Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:7 NIV

In the gospels of the New Testament, Jesus says that He is the living water and all who believe in Him will flow with rivers of living water and not thirst.  He refers to the Holy Spirit, His Spirit within me, a believer in Christ.  Jesus left the Holy Spirit with believers when He ascended to heaven after the resurrection. He dwells not only with me, but inside me.

When I find myself pleading or arguing or complaining to God about anything, it is good for me to remember that Jesus gave me this great gift. I have One who comforts me, supports me, speaks to God for me, gives me strength and deep understanding if I will listen.  Just like those who walked with and heard the voice of Jesus on the earth, I too walk with Him now and hear His voice down deep in my spirit. There is no time when I am separate from God, from the well of His good counsel and love, for the living water of Jesus flows within me and quenches my spirit.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'”        John 7:37