Focus

(cutestpaws,com)

Glasses, a magnifying glass, a telescope or binoculars; which help me see the big picture? I have enough of a problem seeing my fraction of the picture when it’s right in front of my face.


I’ve run into folks that need to micromanage everything. For the most part, I’ve grown content with focusing on my little piece of the puzzle – though I still need help adjusting my lenses to see what my little piece looks like. As the aging process ripens me, I realize it’s not my job to make sure all the pieces of the puzzles of life get fitted into place perfectly.

(collegegroveoptometry.com)

Though I can’t wait to see ‘the big picture’ – or what the puzzle will look like when it’s done, I have a job to do and it’s not the job of overseer. Like one tiny cog in the great-grandfather clock of time needs to consistently turn, I need to consistently keep my eyes on Jesus and follow Him in meekness and obedience. Yet, something innate drives me to reach out to help the other cogs turn, too. When one cog gets stuck, we all stop and time stands still for an eternity.

If we’re any more intelligent than a bumblebee or a horse – it should be all the easier for us to do our part. We certainly don’t see horses trying to make honey. Yet, we look at each other’s lives and try to do someone else’s part – some of us even try to do God’s part! He’s so patient with us. He trusts us to do our part more than we trust ourselves -and each other, more than we trust Him.

1 Corinthians 12:12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. (NIV)

How Sharp Are My Questions?

Are we working too hard because our axe is dull? If we have the understanding to sharpen our axe, our work is made easier. That is, of course, our work includes cutting down trees. My axe might be equated with my questions. I learn more and I’m able to apply what I learn, if I’m asking relevant questions.

If a scene plays out before us, but the lens of the camera is zoomed in too close we might see a tough-looking boy shove a pretty little girl down on harsh concrete and cause her to drop her ice cream or teddy bear; skin her knees and dirty her dress, perhaps even break her arm if he falls on top of her.

When we zoom back and see the scene unfold in context, we might see that he wasn’t being mean at all. Rather, he was shoving her out of the way of an oncoming truck she failed to pay attention to. In reality, what could have looked like he was being rough and mean to her, can actually be his attempt to save her life.

Without pulling back on the lens, we might become angry and unfairly accuse the boy of wrong doing or seek to punish him. Our anger or grief might blind us to the possibility that there was something else happening, that what we perceived as reality, though it was real, was not the complete picture.

Do you think perhaps we sometimes accuse God of dealing with us unfairly? Do we sometimes get angry at Him for allowing unnecessary roughness?

1 Corinthians 13:8-12 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Smell....

A sweet smelling savor….

Springtime is filled with some of our favorite aromas; freshly cut grass – especially the first of the season, floral and leafy scents on the breezes. Maybe it’s not so much the individual fragrances, but the fact that we’re so much more aware of them. Spring signals newness and rebirth. If we’re not too busy we’re more aware of ourselves and our uprising desires for a new season after a long, perhaps dreary, winter. Smells can awaken us from slumber, whether to morning breath or cinnamon rolls.

Our nose does so much more than make it easier for us to breath. We’re told to stop and smell the roses or wake up and smell the coffee. Odors and fragrances can agitate, they can invigorate, they can soothe, they can arouse. They can even cause time travel; taking us back to buried memories, as can all of our senses.

There are memories tucked away within us that may never be exposed, but our God-given senses trigger and ignite memories by design. Exploring and understanding what God has already brought us through can prepare us for the new seasons of our lives. Winter, a time of dying or sleeping, always precedes springtime.

Hidden treasures -costly sacrifices, are not always pleasant, but yielded to God, He will use them for His glory.

Just as He saves our tears: Psalm 56:8 “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (NLT)…

He keeps our prayers: Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (KJV)

Touch....

Old songs come to mind when I think about touching God. From ‘…reach out and touch the Lord as He goes by…’ to ‘…surely the presence of the Lord is in this place, I can feel His mighty power and His grace…’ But the one that captures the heart of my imagination is a Ray Boltz song that intrigued me the moment I heard the words. ‘With her hands she was touching Him, the Alpha, the Omega, the Beginning and the End, and with her hands she was holding on to His…’

The name of the song is Touching Him. It was a common request when I regularly sang for a multitude of churches, perhaps the audience could hear my sincere passion. I want to touch Him. I want to feel the touch of His fingers on mine, the warmth of His embrace, even just to touch the hem of His garment. I want my relationship with Him to be tangible. The song is about a woman Jesus had graciously forgiven. At His dinner host’s outrage, Jesus said; she, who is forgiven much, loves much, as she washed His feet with ointment mixed with her own tears and dried them with her hair. (Luke 7:36-50)

But how do you ‘feel’ God today? How do you ‘reach out and touch the Lord’? He’s no longer here in our midst to reach out and touch. Or is He? Look around. Who do you see? Doesn’t His Spirit reside there? Touch them, now. Feel your fingers tremble at the point of contact…..

The final chorus: ‘With your hands, are you touching Him, and with your heart, are you loving Him, and with your hands are you holding on to His? Then the source of life is right there in your hands.’

Taste....

Taste and see that the Lord is good -Psalm 34:8(NIV)

Michael Ramsden of RZIM teaches brilliantly. After speaking, he invites questions, staying until he answers them all. Oddly, instead of picking his brain this weekend, I listened as others questioned him.

He points out: People are not always what they claim to be. When we claim to be something, how do we back it up? If you claim to be a doctor or a lawyer, you have diplomas and certificates to your credit. But how can one prove they’re a Christian?

Mr. Ramsden points us to the proof the Bible requires. When we truly live a life submitted to Christ, we bear good fruit. What is good fruit? ‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ -Galatians 5:22&23 (NIV) When this is the fruit we bear, we will leave ‘a good taste in someone’s mouth’ when they encounter us.

The man half joked when he invited: Bite me.

The book of Galatians also tells us what bad fruit looks like: ‘The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.’ (5:19-21 NIV)

In the book of Revelation God Himself tells us what He will do when we call ourselves Christians, but fail to produce good fruit. ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.’ (3:15-16 NIV)

I pray that my life invites you to taste of God’s goodness through the fruit of the Spirit made manifest in my thoughts, words and deeds.

May we taste good!

Look....

If God created us simply to ‘use’ us He surely wouldn’t keep so many ‘useless’ people around.

God created us to love us and for us to return His love and share His love with each other.

Go into nursing homes or hospitals where people are not expected to live much longer. Look at the faces of the limp, near lifeless bodies attached to machines, lying in beds with no hope of ever getting up again. Look at the frail bodies of those without family to come visit them, as they wither away, curled up on their bed, facing a wall alone in a dark room. Look into the eyes of those institutionalized for life, either because of insanity or such severe mental handicap they can’t take care of themselves. Look even into the hearts of the convicted criminals on death row.

The lives of these people look ‘useless’ to many of us looking in from the outside. But these are not useless lives. God loves every soul trapped in those bodies. He still has purpose for them. There is no life He won’t fill, no soul He doesn’t love, no one whose love He will turn away.

Maybe our purpose is to seek out their purpose.

Maybe in showing them God’s love, they can show us God’s love in ways we can’t even yet imagine. Just maybe – He has treasures there, for us!

Don’t stop there; look into the tears of the woman in a battered women’s shelter, into the eyes of a lonely child abandoned to an orphanage. Look into the soul of the homeless person on the street corner, into the world of the couple in line at the welfare office, into the stories that the old man at the diner is just dying to tell someone…..

Look. Looking is one of the biggest parts of seeking. Seek God. Seek His purposes.

Listen....

I was recently enlightened and relieved of a heavy burden. I’ve tried my hand at two novels now, only to stop short of completing them because I felt that before winding up ‘the point of the story’ I needed to show ‘step-by-step’ how-to guidelines, woven into the story that would help the reader achieve what my main character(s) found through their stories. What a silly, self-imposed notion. Talk about lack of trust in your readers! God ever so lovingly revealed to me that everyone’s steps to maturity and freedom in Him will be different. Our questions – and the answers to our questions, will vary. My purpose is simply to confirm and assure that there are answers, and that He has them. Whew!

I imagine that most of us carry around a misconception of some sort. I challenge you to listen for the Voice of relief – it’s the voice of release as well.

God didn’t design us to run in circles with our eyes closed and our fingers in our ears, crying because we’re lost. He didn’t create us to be mindless robots that comply with instructions issued centuries before we were born. He made us to bear His image in this world and the next. After sin entered the world, mankind discovered a void in our hearts that can only be filled by His life giving force – His Spirit, His love. Seek where we may – we can only find fulfillment and purpose after submitting to His love and direction. He doesn’t lord over us to show how important He is or because His ego is larger than life. He is Lord because He is God and Creator of all. Through our submission and awe, His love can be spilled out into our world that’s dying of emptiness. And more than anything else – He wants us to be loved.

Listen....