Row, row, row your boat …
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” Remember that little song? Well sometimes, we don’t get anywhere rowing and most certainly life is not always a dream!
In Mark, chapter 6, the disciples were struggling, trying to row the boat, and it just wasn’t happening. Jesus comes walking on the water and they, of course, were not expecting that, and were terrified. They were not only not expecting Him, they were not even looking for His help, and afterwards, when the waters were calm and He was standing in the boat with them, they were speechless.
Are we so different today? Earlier that day the disciples had seen the masses fed by Jesus- an amazing miracle. They had, themselves, already gone out, two by two, sending demons packing, and healing the sick both physically and mentally. The disciples saw lepers healed, a paraplegic walk, a crippled hand work again, a madman come to his senses, all kinds of healings: all this they had seen and experienced – yet when they looked up and saw Him walking on the water (this was the second time!), in the midst of the storm, they were scared and then shocked speechless. Again, are we so different?
All through my life I have seen God at work: little things, big things, unexplainable coincidences, twists and turns that I can look back at now and see that the Lord has always been there – over and over again – not only in my life, but also the lives of my family and the lives of my friends. Yet still, when a new ‘storm’ hits, I struggle with my first inclination: to fall into fear or despair, focused solely on the problem, struggling to row my way through it. And yes, when I finally remember to look up, I still am amazed, even shocked, that the Lord is there! Will I ever learn? Is there hope? Of course, there is! The disciples eventually got it and I know I will and you will, too. It’s a life process, a journey, and I believe “that the God who started this great work in you and me will keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.” (Phil 1: 6 MSG) He will never quit on us. He will always be there.
I want to get to the place that I am looking towards Him always: that when nothing makes any sense in life, I KNOW with absolute certainty that everything IS all right because I see “Him walking on the sea.” I want to always hear His voice saying, “Courage! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.“ (Mark 6:49-50). Everything changed when He got in that boat with the disciples: everything changes when He gets in the boat with us! Take courage! Press on!
On The Journey … Valerie
We are reading through the New Testament in 2013 using the YouVersion Bible app. This writing was based on Mark 6:45-52.
Looking at “both sides” of me
Did You Ever Wonder About People?
Yesterday, Monday, February 11, I turned 60 years old. I can hardly believe it myself, but I am. I am very aware that I am beginning the winter of my journey and I have been reflecting on that a lot. 🙂
I am reading through the New Testament in the Message this year, this week in Chapter 26 of Matthew, and I am, once again, astounded by the priests and religious leaders who are supposed to know better. They are ones to whom everyone should look up to and strive to emulate; the ones who should have great wisdom and should be beyond reproach. Yet, here they seem like scary, small men of little or no character. Scheming men who are planning the death of Christ – and all this with the blessing of the leaders in charge! What great examples they are, eh????
Then, we have Jesus’ disciples who get all bent out of joint because a woman poured expensive perfume on Jesus. It says in Mt. 26:9 “They were furious.”
Add to all of this, Judas, one of Jesus’ disciples, who traveled with Jesus, heard His teachings, and who had seen everything He was and everything He did and still had the audacity to ask Jesus if He thought that he, Judas, was the one who would betray Him? Wow.
All of this made me ask, how different are we than they were and what kind of follower and example am I?
I don’t want to be like any of them! I want to learn from what I have read. I want to be a reflection of Christ in my remaining days. I want to extend His love and mercy in word, prayer and deed. I don’t want to be a calloused religious leader that has lost my heart to this world or just seeks knowledge for knowledge sake. I want to be extravagant in love and I want to be merciful enough not to condemn others who do things differently than I would, who may, in my eyes, “waste perfume.” And I don’t want to have hung around Jesus for all these years and “not get it”. I want to know Him more, to truly have fellowship with Him and with those who are His. That is my prayer for myself and all His beloved.
On the journey…
Valerie
Simply Be Yourself
“But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”
Simply be yourself: easier said than done! Especially in today’s world where movie stars go back to size zero four months after having a baby and “more is better” or ‘go for the gusto” and ‘keeping up with the Jones” and the constant bombardment of commercialization that never ends. We have to have figures like Barbie and Ken, facelifts and Viagra, dye our hair, use Rogaine, live in mansions, be at the corporate top… It never ends!
Apparently, the leaders and teachers in Jesus’ day were having similar problems. Jesus, in Mathew 23, hits them hard for being all talk and no action backing up their walk – for seeking “Hollywood status”, top positions, honor and power, keeping double standards, obeying whatever is convenient, yet demanding that the masses follow every little addition to law that they invented.
But in the midst of all these admonitions, Jesus says, “But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”
Do we believe that? Do we believe that if we ‘just be ourselves’ striving to follow His ways, using the gifts He has given us” that our lives “will count for plenty”? We are so programmed to compare ourselves to others. It has been going on since the beginning: Satan enticed Eve by saying she could be ‘more’, she could be like God; Cain wanted to be ‘favored’ by God like Able; royal family members killing family members to rule kingdoms throughout the Old Testament; the mother of Zebedee’s sons, who wanted them to sit next to Jesus in His Kingdom; and even Peter, who asked Jesus about John because of the rumor that John would not die! We are so worried about what everyone else has or what they have achieved.
Yet, again, that still, small voice says, “be content” -do what I ask you to do, and it is plenty. I am reminded of the title of one of Barbara Johnson’s books, “Bloom Where you Are Planted” and of Azlan’s rebuke to Shasta when he questioned him, “I am telling you your story, not hers. I tell no one any story but his own.” (“The Horse and his Boy”, C.S. Lewis) Each one of us causes ripples in the pond and only the Lord knows the outcome. In other words, we each have our own story to live and complete, a part of history, i.e. His Story, and every one of our life stories is as important as those of our family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors and strangers. Remember Sam asking Frodo, “I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?” (J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Two Towers”) Live your life story and no one else’s!
Make no mistake; I want my life to ‘count for plenty’. But I want the ‘plenty’ to be what is of worth in the Kingdom to come – not what the world offers as plenty – that all can be gone in a flash. So today, again, I will fix my eyes on Jesus, and seek what is His will for me, just me, and I will strive to do that.
On the Journey …. Valerie
“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.” Matthew 23:11-12 MSG
Getting Together
I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of spending time with others. That is due in part to the recent loss of a person very dear to my heart and to the undeniable fact that I am turning 60! And His Word also encourages us to get together. I want to spend more time with old friends and get to know some new folks better, too, and I hope you will join me in this endeavor.
Several of us are reading through the New Testament this year and are currently in the book of Matthew. I was drawn by the thought in Mt. 18 that the Lord is very aware of when His children get together!
“What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.” (Matthew 18:18-20 MSG)
“And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.” I love that! The Lord loves it when His children get together – whether it’s to pray and talk about the things of God, or for fun and fellowship. He’s in it! I want to do more of that this year! I don’t want to take what time I have left on this earth for granted. I love getting together with God’s people. I love hearing what the Lord is doing or seeing what prayers need to be spoken for others or just laughing together and rejoicing in all the Lord has done for us.
I am reminded of one of my favorite verses in Malachi, where, again, the Lord shows how much He loves His people getting together.
“Then those whose lives honored God got together and talked it over. God saw what they were doing and listened in. A book was opened in God’s presence and minutes were taken of the meeting, with the names of the God-fearers written down, all the names of those who honored God’s name. (Malachi 3:16 MSG)
This year, Lord willing, I plan to have more times of getting together with more of God’s children: in particular those who attend our church family! There are new folks we need to get to know, and plenty of regulars to get to know better!
Perhaps you would like to join me on this new adventure. I am going to add in one new thing a month for 2013- whether it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner with some folks I love chatting with at church or visiting someone in the hospital or nursing home. Some other ways I plan to connect include just calling and saying hello to someone in my small group, meeting someone for a cup of coffee, or having some new folks over for dinner. I would love to hear some of your ideas and also, ask me how I am doing – hold me accountable! 🙂
Will you join me in my “once a month – do something new”? Let’s strive to get out from in front of the tv, computer, our comfort zone, and comfy homes, and get together with others, knowing the Lord is right in the middle of it and loving every second of it – “taking minutes and writing down all our names in His book!” Isn’t that a great thought? 🙂
“And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are.”
While my three children were growing up, I kept a reminder on the refrigerator for them to see on their way out to school everyday: “Remember whose child you are…. You are a child of the King!”
I was reminded of that as I read through the scripture this week. (I decided to read it in the Message version -which I have greatly enjoyed!)
Matthew 16:15-19 says: “And how about you? Who do you say I am? Simon Peter said, “You’re the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
“Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are.
Do you know who you really are?
It took Peter awhile to figure it out and to live up to his name – a rock. It can take a lifetime journey for us, too. But here’s the good news! We are children of the King! We often forget that. He’s the King of Kings. We have access to His throne room. He knows our name and hears our every cry and spoken word. We have not just hope, but the assurance of life eternal in a beautiful kingdom with Him.
And, not only are we children of the King and Kingdom heirs, we also will receive a new name! Revelation 2:17 says that to those who overcome, the Lord will give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.
I cannot wait to hear the Lord say: And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. Maranatha! Valerie
Our Story …
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1))
I love to read! And the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is probably my favorite read. I don’t think that’s a big secret to anyone who knows me. I do love books and I love a good story and can hardly put a good read down because I can’t wait to get to the ending to see how it all turns out! Isn’t that kind of what our lives are like- “a book”- which is linear (it has a beginning, middle and end) in its information. Isn’t that our lives? But no matter how much we would like to – we can’t skip to the end of our story. We live by faith everyday that our story continues. And it’s not over ‘til it’s over! Hang in there!
Forget Me Not
This is my first blog. I write all the time but have never written somewhere where others can read it. I picked this theme, because the name of it was “Forget Me Not” named after the beautiful blue flower. But it reminded me of why I write. I do not ever want to forget what the Lord has done for me and wanted to share those insights. Proverbs 3:1-2 says,
Good friend, don’t forget all I’ve taught you;
take to heart my commands.
They’ll help you live a long, long time,
a long life lived full and well.
I want to keep the Word hidden in my heart so that I may face each day knowing that the God of all Creation is always present and always just a breath away.
The Kingdom's Keeper 