The God Of All Comfort

My husband and I just returned from a ten day trip to Eastern Europe.  We spent time in three nations, four hotels, and seven airplanes.  An exhausting, but glorious adventure.  Exhausting because we're getting older and felt the intense schedule a little more than we used to.  Glorious because we spent those ten days encouraging church leaders who are quietly doing the work of the Kingdom day in and day out, in nations where they are not only few in number, but often persecuted.

I was humbled to sit across table after table, drinking coffee after coffee, listening to their stories.

The band of brothers who met Jesus from reading a Bible after communism fell, with no one to help them in their new-found faith.  They are now four churches strong, each a vibrant fellowship.

The seaman who drove us to the airport who found the Lord when an elderly man asked him what he was looking for in life, and then proceeded to share with him life's greatest treasure.

The smiling pastor and his brilliant wife who have launched the only Bible school in their nation, pioneered three churches, and built a pre-school to minister to gypsy cast-offs.  They have now once again handed their work over to someone who will take it with care, and are starting over from scratch in yet another un-reached area.

The shoe maker who drove us over the mountains who has shared his faith at great personal cost, introducing everyone he meets to the love of his Jesus, even if that person happens to be an influential mafia leader.

The teenage girl who still loves Jesus, despite being often mocked as the only Christian in her entire high school.

The earnest church leader who prays with his teenage sons every morning for three hours for God to open up Heaven and rain down grace on his city.

The young woman who just married a pastor, whose face glowed as she told me they will travel to a new region to lead the only church in the city as they begin their lives together.  She is absorbing every teaching she can sit under and asking every question she can think of, just to be ready to love people and love them well.

The person after person who told us how they first heard of the name of Jesus, most of them late in life, a testament to how rarely His truth has been proclaimed there since the grip of communism first clenched the life out of their countries.

I was humbled because these people are heroes, living out their faith in a reality I have never had to walk in. 

I was humbled because they do so with joy and hope that what they are doing will make a difference in their nations. 

And I was humbled the most because they thanked me for sharing myself with them.

And when I returned home and faced the problems I had left on my desk and the new ones that had accumulated while I was gone, they didn't seem as impossible as they might have before.  In fact, they seemed quite possible.

So today, as I think of my new friends in the far-reaches of the earth, I pray Paul's thousands year old prayer,

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too."  (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

May those who suffer for His name be filled with all measure of comfort and joy.  May they never lose sight of the great reward of seeing the lost come to faith.  And may I, when I face suffering, be as courageous as these.  Amen.

My First Love

This is the second post I've written today.  The first is finished.  And it ministered powerfully---to me. 

I realized as I was writing it that it couldn't be shared.  It was just a conversation between me and the God who loves me.

And it was beautifully refreshing.

I'm beginning to understand that when I'm processing something and I seek to "talk it out" too early with a friend, my spouse, or even on a blog post, I can tend to cut short the finished work. 

We all need sounding boards (especially women!), but what happens when I do not allow Jesus to be the first to hear and to speak?  What do I miss by rushing to the input of the world instead of first sitting at His feet?

Yes, I have people who listen and listen well.  They exhort me and edify me, often reminding me of God's truths when I have trouble remembering.  I hold on to them in gratefulness.

But, I do have a first love.

And He has a cup of coffee, sweetened just the way I like it sitting beside Him at His table. 

I'm fairly certain it's my dream house table, a shabby farmhouse type with some vintage linens and plate ware. 

And I have a chair waiting for me right beside Him. 

My first love. 

My love whose eyes light up when I take a seat and put my hand in His.

Five Little Things That Could Change the World

Most of the time, our youngest two get along beautifully.  When they don't, something like this soundbite from last week happens:

"Sweetheart, your big brother told me you two weren't getting along.  You want to tell me what happened?"

Instant tears.

"I was mad at him."

"Really?  Why is that?"

"Because he wouldn't play what I wanted him to play."  Long pause.  "So, I said some mean things."

"Hmmmmm.  Isn't your brother your best friend?"  Head nodding.  "And is that how you want to treat your best friend?"

Very long pause.  More tears.

"No."

Ah.  And there's the problematic truth.  She has discovered she isn't always the friend she wants to be. 

And I can feel her pain.

How many times have I wished after the fact that my words had been different?  That I had been able to offer the comfort or encouragement that was in my heart in a more tangible way?  That I had been more faithful, more true, or more gracious?  That I had been the friend I want to have?

The follow up to our conversation included instructions for her to write out a list of things she wanted to be as a friend.  She threw herself into it, even typing up her list on the typewriter her Nana gave her for Christmas.

I couldn't agree more with her decisions:


five things how i will treat my frinds

one  nice

              tow kind

                     three no tochie toche  (Admittedly, we had to laugh at this one--it's a reference to making sure she never used her hands to hurt her friends, but it did come out kinda funny.)

                                   four playful


                                              five treted like i would want to be treted



Amen and amen. 

Dear Seven Year Old Me

Twenty-nine years ago today, the seven year old version of me decided to become a follower of Jesus.  Compared to other childhood memories, I remember it quite clearly. 

I can picture myself in the Sunday School room of the church where my parents served on staff.  I can remember the teacher talking about the time she asked Jesus to be her Savior.  She went on to something else, but my mind didn't.  I could only hear those words "asked Jesus," over and over.

It was Wednesday of that same week, when the words were still resonating in my little girl heart, that I went to my mother and asked her to help me ask Jesus to be my Savior.  She was nervous, wanting to get it right.  She asked me if I could wait until Daddy got home.  But, I didn't want to wait, so we sat together and, in the space of one moment to the next, I passed the threshold into a new life.

Who could wait?  When your bridegroom is waiting for you with baited breath at the door, who wants to tell Him to wait?  When your new home is waiting for you in a glorious Kingdom, who wants to pass the mundane hours until Dad gets home?

And when I think about that girl, with a heart full of love for her Jesus, I feel so tender towards her.  She was young and innocent and full of trust.  She heard the Word, treasured it, believed it, and acted on it.

And she was changed.

No, she wasn't leaving behind a life of crime or drugs at the ripe old age of seven.  But, her change was still real.

She left darkness, and she took up residence in the light.

I can see her crawling into bed that night under her pink bedspread, whispering her prayers to her new Savior.  I can see her smile.  I can see her confidence that came from believing with her childlike faith that God is good and He loves her.

And if I, the twenty-nine years later version of me, could hold that girl in my arms on that day, I would rock her to sleep and tell her a few things. 

She doesn't need to know all the specifics.  They are better left to be discovered.  She doesn't need to know the names of the victories ahead, or the faces of the heartache that's coming. 

She just needs to know this:

Sweet girl, it won't always be easy, this road you have chosen.  There will be times when you will be asked to sacrifice and times you will need to go through the narrow gate, when the wider one seems so much more fun and convenient.  There will be times when people around you won't understand the decision you made or the decisions you will have to make to stay true to your first love.  There will be times when you feel like you can't see God and don't understand what He's doing.

But, little one, your faith is real.  It has changed you.  He has changed you.  And the best news of all, you will never, ever be alone again.  The one thing you've always feared---it can never happen, now.  No matter what, you will never be alone. 

The lover of your soul has joined His heart to yours now.  You have become one flesh with the One who died for you.  And He will never leave you or abandon you.

Instead, He will massage the wounds in your little heart until you no longer believe the lies that you are rejectable.  He will heal you with His love and unconditional acceptance.  He will transform you into what you have always desired to be.

So, sleep tight, little girl.  There are mountains ahead to be climbed, and views so glorious to behold, your dreams tonight can't compare.  There is a life to be lived that started today.  And it's a beautiful life.  A beautiful life joined to a beautiful God. 

The God who saves. 

The God who rescues. 

The God who delivers. 

The God who heals. 

The God who restores.

You can trust Him.


Author's Note:  If you are reading this today and are looking for what that seven year old girl found, you can meet Him---His healing is for you, too.  Click here to read more.  You don't even have to wait for your dad to get home.

I Love You Because

My husband and I have pages and pages of lists in our bedroom, and every list answers one question.  "I love you because..."

It was a sweet little tradition we started in college, filling up entire pages with all the reasons why we loved the other one and hiding them as tender suprises.  Through the years, we've continued it here and there, the stacks of lists growing as we entered each new phase of marriage and parenthood.

This morning, as I read the love letter on my shelf from my God, I was stunned by the words of the psalmist in Psalm 116:1, "I love the Lord because..." 

So, God enjoys getting those letters, too!  He likes to hear why his children love Him, why their heart is bent towards Him, so much so that He included someone's list in the pages of Scripture.

My mind has been working on a new list all day.  Lord, I love You because...

And the answers can fill notebook after notebook.

I have no doubt He would love to receive one from you as well.

Grafting

"God sets the lonely in families."  (Psalm 68:6)

I read it again this morning.  And how true it is.

For He looks upon the broken, the rejected, the cast-aside, and He claims them as his own.

He sees the pain of the wounded heart, the fearful, the shamed, and He says, "This one is mine."

But He doesn't stop with "just" redemption.  He goes a step further...

He finds the one that will fit with another, and he brings hearts together.

He pieces the heart that vowed "never again" with another jagged edge, and together they heal.

This is my God!

I have witnessed His tenderness in lives all around me, as they have been grafted in to more than they ever dreamed possible. 

The woman with no family who found a Godly husband late in life. 

The man whose wife had left him and would not heed his pursuit for reconciliation, who now can't stop smiling as he looks at the second chance who thinks he hung the moon. 

The divorced friend who had never known the love of a church family, until now. 

The couple who tried for years to conceive, and now raise two precious ones that came into their arms through the joy of adoption.

And one who is very dear to my heart--my mother.  She, who thought life was over with a husband who did not want her and a baby just six months old.  She, who smiles triumphantly on the arm of the stepfather who raised me.  She, who knows that even the pain of rejection can be healed under the oil that flows from His hand.  She, who will soon celebrate thirty-four years of marriage to a man who looks at her as if she is the most desirable woman on earth.

God sets the lonely in families.

And it's that God who calls us to join Him.  To find the lonely.  To bring them into the family.  To wrap His arms around them through ours.  To say, "You're wanted here."  And to keep saying it until it is believed.

Creating the Love Spark, Days 1-14

Last year here on Treasure the Ordinary, the "Creating the Love Spark" thread offered a bit of encouragement for feeding your marriage every day, from February 1 right up until Valentine's Day.  This year, all the Love Spark challenges are all in one spot, right here for your convenience. 

If you didn't take the challenge last year, it's never too late to choose to invest in the health of your marriage.  Just click on each day as it comes, read, pray, and follow your heart. 

"Creating the Love Spark" Challenge:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

 

This year's bonus "spark" idea:  How long has it been since you and your spouse had some photos made together?  The picture above shows it doesn't have to be a serious, costly venture (although that would be wonderful as well!)---it can just be you and your camera on a tripod, with a stick-on mustache from the dollar store.  The point is to have fun together and make some memories.  And in a culture where couples often air their frustrations with each other in public, it never hurts to have something to show to the world that yells, "We love each other!"  So, go ahead, put your commitment to each other on display!