Another book from God...

 

God has been sending me books lately...

 it's kinda weird... but really special... When everywhere you look, God is telling you the same things... over and over.   For one thing, it's really awesome to know that we serve the living God...a God who still speaks to hearts and whose hand is still at work in the lives of His children. Sorta funny though because this heavenly Father knows that I'm not always quick to embrace the message He's trying to get across to me.  And so, if His Word isn't enough, then He'll send me a book.  And if sending me one book isn't enough, He'll send another one. Okay...I think I'm getting the message. ...I think.  :-) So, He's been sending me little reminders here and there to show me how to truly follow Him, and in the process, let go of some things in this world that I've been clinging too tightly to, so that I am free to love Him more completely.  

 

Looking for jewels...

 

 I haven't been updating my blog as much as I would like... and that's partially due to the fact that I recently started a private blog as a spiritual journal. There's been a lot going on in my heart, but a lot of it isn't the kind of stuff that I would post on a public blog... Not because it's scandalous or even that intensely personal... But honestly, a lot of things in my life look an awful lot like ashes right now. A blog should be genuine... But I want my blog to be filled with words of praise and gratitude. Not ashes. But one thing that I've learned is that some of the most beautiful things in my life have risen up out of the ashes.  Mmm hmm...that's where the blog's name came from--you're catching on!  Because...there are almost always jewels in the ashes if you are looking for them.  But you have to look for them.  Sometimes, you have to dig for them.  But they're there just the same, and when your heart wells up with praise to the Lord for the smallest jewel in the midst of the ashes, that is beautiful... . . .  If you read this post, you remember that I've been reading a book called, "One Thousand Gifts"  The Lord has used this book to remind me to be looking for all of the little blessings in my life from day to day...  All of the abundant blessings that are so far beyond anything I could ever deserve... to get my mind off of the ashes... I want my lips to praise the Lord continually. I don't know about you, but I used to sometimes feel a twinge of guilt when I praised the Lord for certain comforts in life.  It seemed somehow shallow or selfish to praise the Lord for peace or safety when everyone knows that true character rejoices in tribulation.  Am I a shallow Christian if my heart spills over with gratitude over trivial things? Early on in the book, Ann Voskamp addresses this question when her heart welled up with thanks while preparing a simple homemade pizza for her family: "I think how God-glory in a cheese ring might seem trifling.  Even offensive, to focus the lens of a heart on the minute, in a world mangled and maimed and desperately empty.  I know there is poor and hideous suffering, and I've seen the hungry and the guns that go to war.  I have lived pain, and my life can tell: I only deepen the wound of the world when I neglect to give thanks for early light dappled through leaves and the heavy perfume of wild roses in early July...and the rivers that run and the stars that rise and the rain that falls and all the good things that a good God gives." I found comfort in her words, and I felt challenged to begin my own journey of counting "one thousand gifts" (you'll understand this better if you read the book). So, I intend to keep a gratitude journal of life's blessings--both big and small--from day to day. Because God is good.  Why not list thousands (upon thousands) of reasons why I should praise Him? Mmm...and another quote from Ann...  Remembering why we praise God. "God is not in need of magnifying by us so small, but the reverse.  It's our lives that are little and we have falsely inflated self...  In thanks we decrease and the world returns right." Somewhere along the line, humankind got the idea that we deserve something more than ashes...when in reality an eternity of ashes would be perfectly suited to what we deserve.  When we get a right perspective on who we are, and a right perspective on who God is, we can truly praise Him in any circumstances.  It is then that we can find the beauty in the ashes... When it's appropriate, I may post random tidbits from my gratitude journal on my blog.  I'd love to hear yours as well. And if your life looks like ashes right now... Join me.  Let's start looking for jewels.  :-) 

If you don't want to see my underwear, don't read this post:

 My last post was about the faithfulness of a certain little animal who lives in our house... my teddy bear, Gretchen.  It's amazing how many smiles this little creature brings into our home.  Our first couple years with Gretchen were very challenging.  We almost decided she wasn't worth the trouble.  Breaks my heart to think of that now...she just wasn't an easy dog to train.  But she's a very good dog now, and a welcome member of the family.  She really is quite civilized for an animal--her inner beast doesn't come out very often at all anymore.  But there's one nasty little habit that she hasn't been able to overcome.  She has a taste for dirty clothes.  Specifically our underwear.  Several days ago, I went into the bathroom to take a shower.  Now, to her credit, most of the time when Momma showers, she sleeps faithfully outside the door or else on the rug in the bathroom.  But on this particular day she opened the door to the bedroom with her nose, and I knew she was up to something.  I looked at her and said in a low voice,   "No panties."  I proceeded to take my shower and when I finished, I made my way into the bedroom where I found Gretchen near the foot of the bed.  Her location in the room would indicate that everything was perfectly normal.  But with tail between the legs, head low, and ears back, her body told a different story. Into the closet I went to find not one, but 5 pairs of underwear strewn about.  She had cast off all restraint and shamelessly devoured FIVE pairs of underwear!  Naughty.    Usually, I would give her a token swat on the nose with the underwear and say,   "Naughty dog.  NO panties."  But FIVE pairs of underwear??  I remembered back to a story my dad told about one of their dogs that killed a chicken.  Dad took the chicken and strapped it around the dog's neck and made him drag it around for a day.   (Hey, you can't have a dog killing your chickens!) After that point, that dog was the chickens' devoted protector.  Hmm.  So, I took one of the pairs of underwear and secured it around Gretchen's head:  

 The funny thing was that Gretchen willingly accepted her shame.    She knew she did big sin...  So, she quietly sat there, in the exact same spot, the entire time I got ready.  After 15 or 20 minutes I removed the obstruction from her eyes, and she pranced around the room with her tail high and her conscience cleared.  And to my knowledge...  she hasn't had a taste for underwear since.   Time will tell how good her memory is.  :-)

Faithfulness...

Certain things around our house are pretty predictable. One of those things happens every time we finish our evening meal around the kitchen table. As soon as I put down my fork... ...I feel a soft tap on my leg. It's Gretchen, wanting to get on my lap. Of course, you think, she's begging for food. But you see, Gretchen knows that when the meal ends, we read the Bible together, and there will be conversation... ...and somewhere along the line, she got the idea that she needs to be a part of that. (Of course, she's not offended if we give her a taste of something) But the moment I put her on my lap, she goes limp and relaxed and sometimes even starts to doze off in the crook of my arm.  

 You would think that in the presence of all of those smells of the tasty remnants of the meal before her, she would be utterly overwhelmed by her instinct to devour everything on the table. But she is perfectly content just to sit on the lap of the one she loves more than anything else in the world. That makes me feel pretty special.  :-) It also makes me think that there's a spiritual truth there somewhere... Gretchen is an animal--a "brute beast".  She is a creature of instinct, and the only way she learns what is expected of her in the human realm is routine and discipline.  Let me tell you, there's nothing much in this world that pleases her more than a juicy piece of meat.  Yet her love for me drives her to completely overlook the enticing pleasures in front of her. That's faithfulness... Can I say the same for me? How much do I long to be in the presence of the One I adore? Do the best things this world has to offer fade from view when I'm resting in His arms?  I hope so.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to tap on His leg and crawl into His arms tonight?

Winter Cookouts

 Remember this post?  We've been having quite a blast of arctic air in Minnesota.  Temps hovering in the single digits...and lows way below zero at night. It's cold. Cold enough that even I like to stay home.  But that hasn't stopped us from firing up the grill...  Tonight, we had chicken fajitas for supper.  

I just want to go on record as saying one thing:

  

Mmm...

Wanna come over for supper?

We'll cook out.  :-)

Cheap thrills...

 I needed a good saute pan. I had purchased one awhile back that I thought was nice.  But it very gradually warped and no longer heated well on my cooktop.  So, I was stuck using small stainless steel pans until I found something new.  I wanted something that browned well, heated evenly, and didn't stick.   I wanted cast iron.   But of course everything I've ever read says to not use cast iron on a glass cooktop.  And when it comes to $1200 appliances like my double-oven range, I tend to live by the rules...   (After all, George Bush is not going to buy me another one anytime soon...) I began researching pans...  It had to be large.  It had to heat evenly.  It had to brown well. A good enameled cast iron pan would have been over $100 (in the size I wanted). A good non-stick searing pan would have been $250.  No, I'm not kidding.  I could have a KitchenAid mixer or one pan.  Like that's gonna happen! I stood in the kitchen aisle at Target and picked up a monster cast iron pan.  The bottom was nice and smooth.   $18.99 I thought about how nicely cast iron pans brown.  I thought about how they flavor the food.  In the summer, I use cast iron pans all the time on the grill, and I love it. I had exchanged comments with my nephew's wife on Facebook, and she said that she used cast iron on her cooktop all the time. I decided to live dangerously. I bought the pan.  And tonight I cooked with it. It worked beautifully... 

  Now I'm thinking of all of the wonderful things I can cook as I season my new pan. It's an heirloom in progress.  :-) 

A book from God...

 Today has been one of those days... ...one of those days when you just take a step back and wonder what God has in mind... Because in my heart, I know He is good... ...but I can't help but think that if it were up to me, I would do things differently...  Of course, it's not up to me.  So...my part is to trust Him.  God knew that I was going to have this day. It was all part of His plan when, a couple of months ago, I pre-ordered a book from Amazon.  A book that I pretty much forgot that I ordered.  But a book that God knew that I needed today. Here are a few excerpts from this book.  I hope it will encourage you...and maybe even entice you to get your own copy.  Because I've only read one chapter, but I can tell it's a good book. "Can there be a good God?  A God who graces with good gifts when a crib lies empty through long nights, and bugs burrow through coffins?  Where is God, really?  How can He be good when babies die, and marriages implode, and dreams blow away, dust in the wind?  Where is grace bestowed when cancer gnaws and loneliness aches and nameless places in us soundlessly die, break off without reason, erode away.  Where hides this joy of the Lord, this God who fills the earth with good things, and how do I fully live when life is full of hurt?"  "Like all beliefs, you simply live them... We live with our hands clenched tight...  No, God...  Is this the toxic air of the world, this atmosphere we inhale, burning into our lungs, this No, God?  No, God, we won't take what you give... No, God, this is ugly and this is a mess and can't You get anything right and just haul this pain out of here and I'll take it from here, thanks..." "...I believe the Serpant's hissing lie, the repeating refrain through the ages: God isn't good...  Doubting God's goodness, distrusting His intent, discontented with what He's given, we desire more...  Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren't satisfied in God and what He gives.  We hunger for something more, something other...  We were lured by the deception that there was more to a full life...  And true, there was more to see:  the ugliness we hadn't beheld...the loss we hadn't known." "It is one thing to choose to take the grace offered at the cross.  But to choose to live as one filled with His grace? ...It is a choice.  Choose to say yes to what He freely gives...  If I don't, I am still making a choice.  The choice not to." "That which tears open our souls...may actually become the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to the heart-aching beauty beyond.  To Him.  To the God whom we endlessly crave.  But how?  How do we choose to allow the holes to become seeing-through-to-God places? ... How do I give up resentment for gratitude, gnawing anger for spilling joy?  Self-focus for God-communion.  To fully live--to live full of grace and joy and all that is beauty eternal.  It is possible...  I now see and testify.  So this story--my story.  A dare to an emptier, fuller life."    All excerpts taken from "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp:  buy it on Amazon.com