Fixing Our Gaze

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

 (II Corinthians 4:17-18, NLT)

Does your gaze need fixing? Mine often does.

Sometimes life seems to be all mapped out and I’m comfortable with where things are. When my sons were little, they might have been underfoot quite a bit, especially with home schooling, but I knew where they were. I knew what the lesson plan was for the day and sometimes before four o’clock in the afternoon, what we were actually having for dinner. While there were days not enough seemed to get done, we had a routine of sorts. Yet life was never boring. We had plenty of  “interruptions." My parents needed care and we had to move them a few times. My husband, Jack, fell off the roof and broke many bones, landing in a wheel chair for six months. Later, Jack’s parents needed help. And in between there were the soccer games, art and music lessons, church activities, etc. Dogged by a lack of energy to begin with, I struggled to catch my breath and keep some semblance of order each day.

“Interruptions” can also take place in the lack of activity. As things seemed to be moving along in my career, I recently had a job with the right hours and the right distance from home . . . and then I was laid off. I had also felt plugged into a small spiritual community a couple of years ago, which was a great support to me, but I had to let go of when I returned to school and then again when I was working. Friends and family move away; we lose people we love. Life can change in a month or a moment. Suddenly we’re in the desert, when we least expect it—parched and alone.

Whether I was struggling to have enough energy to care for others, beyond the usual demands or being asked to sit still in the quiet, I am at a crossroads where the Lord asks, “Will you trust me for the answers?” Either I am leaning on Him for strength or wisdom—or both. I can choose to see such interruptions to my plans as mountains to climb in my own strength or I can see them as momentary troubles to help me focus on Christ and His will for my life. I can learn compassion and patience or give myself sleepless nights filled with worry.

The Lord allows for our best-laid plans to not always turn out for a reason. Our faith is
tested to help it grow. How we react and live through our troubles can give God glory when we do things right. We have an eternal hope in the unseen realm. Earthly troubles last for a short time compared to the eternity we will live with God in His glory. I don’t know just exactly what that will entail. Jack used to tell the kids when they were little that he was sure there would be ice cream in heaven. As much as I like ice cream, I have a feeling it’s going to be even better than that.

Lord, please help me to have the right heart attitude and to do a better job of waiting on You for guidance for the days ahead. Amen.

Saturday Spiritual Uplift - Thinking About Time

Fisher Building, Detroit,
from Wikimedia Commons {GNU}

 Thinking About Time

God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”

And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day. (Gen. 1:5, NLT)

For you, a thousand years are as a passing day,


as brief as a few night hours. (Ps. 90:4, NLT)

So teach us to number our days,


That we may gain a heart of wisdom. (Ps. 90:12, NKJV)

When I was a little girl, we often drove into downtown Detroit for doctor and dentist appointments. Dad pulled the car in front of the Fisher Building, the tallest building in Detroit at the time, and Mom and I got out. The building was only 30 stories tall, a junior skyscraper among skyscrapers today, but when I gazed up at the tower of concrete and marble with windows stacked floor upon floor, reaching up toward the sky, dizziness overtook me and my heart drummed away. To my petite personage, the height of the Fisher Building was incomprehensible.

Often when I’ve thought of the eternal nature of God I have felt this same way. When those feelings overtake me I know I'm out ofmy league in comprehension. Faith must take over. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega—the Trinity has no beginning and no end. Does that mean everything is in a circle and time just repeats itself? I doubt that, but I do believe the Lord sees time differently than we do. He invented linear time for us, but He’s not limited by it.

As humans we like to read stories or watch shows about time travel, because the subject is fascinating for us. What if we could travel to the past? Could we change what we’ve done, so that mistakes are fixed? If we traveled to the future would we really want to know what awaits us? We’d like to know the good things, but would we be ready to deal with the negative?

God, on the other hand, exists eternally. He was with us in the past, He is in our present and our future. He gives us wisdom to deal with consequences and to learn from our mistakes and He supplies grace for the difficulties that lie ahead, when the time comes. He is infinite, but our finite little minds can’t comprehend all of these layers at one time, so the years of our lives are linear, numbered in days. If we ask, He will guide us to make the best use of our time, one day at a time, in this new year of 2014.

Father, please give us Your wisdom and grace for the days ahead. Help us to number the days of this year and use them in a way, which would please You. Thank you for whatever time You’ve given us to live for You. Amen.

Saturday Spiritual Uplift

A Debt Paid in Full

Mounting national debt. Over a trillion dollars worth owed to China. A slow-growing economy. Thirty years ago, who would have ever thought this could be possible in the U.S.? No, I’m not getting political here, only pointing out that as the national debt surpasses $17 trillion, the average citizen finds it hard to imagine how we will ever repay that debt--and downright depressing.

Numerous radio commercials and online ads will tell you the end of the world is coming . . . or practically. They say their book or CD has the answer to avoid the approaching economic cataclysm. You pay the author or speaker a small, reasonable amount and they’ll give you a foolproof method for becoming rich and avoiding tragedy. Really? Do you think any of those offers come with an ironclad guarantee? Absolutely not!

There’s only one debt ever paid in full with an eternal guarantee! As we went over this in Bible study on Thursday, I thought about how unlike the national debt, Jesus’ provision for His people is. Jesus’ death on the cross, as a perfect sacrifice for our sin, paid our debt in full! We only have to humble ourselves and realize there’s nothing we as humans can do to earn salvation for ourselves. Jesus sealed the deal by proving He could overcome death by His resurrection power.

Jesus would rather that none would perish. He would rather prepare a heavenly home for you to live with Him in eternity, because of His mercy and grace, rather than owe a debt you can't pay and be judged on that basis. However, you have to trust in Him and receive this gift. Unlike a credit card, His gift can’t be cut up. Unlike cash, it can never be devalued. But you can throw away the chance of a lifetime and eternity by not receiving this precious gift.

The thought that my sin has been forgiven and its debt settled for all eternity humbles me. That Jesus would love me before I loved Him and provide me with this security makes me very thankful for what I don't deserve. And yet, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to comprehend just how precious it really all is.

Romans 3:22-28 (NLT) tells us about our shortcomings and the hope we are given through Christ:

We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.

Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

(Image of U.S. currency in the public domain. Found at Wikimedia Commons.)