All Work No Play.........NOT Good!

This is one of those four fingers pointing back at me deals - Just full disclosure!

Saturday night I went to get us a hamburger for supper as it was one of those days when there just weren't enough minutes after dancing as fast as I could and, frankly, I was just plain tired. 

As I wanted for my order, I watched a darling little girl - probably about two or a little older - walking (no, BOUNCING) with her grandmother!  The grandmother was holding her hand and calmly saying with each bounce, "Just walk. I don't want you to get hurt."  The walk was still a bounce!  I knew the translation of that drill: "Please don't bounce. Just walk. It's late, and I'm tired!" or something like that.  Anyhow, the little bounced right out of one croc.  She bent over and tried and tried to get her foot back in to no avail.  A kindly stranger smiled, bent down, and put her shoe on her foot. Then, she bounced on her way!

Earlier in the day I saw this picture posted by Colleen Swindoll-Thompson on her FB page.  The little girl reminded me and challenged me to remember that play is a good thing!  Bouncing is good! We all need to bounce some - probably every day!

The Last Laugh!

At times, when life's circumstances feel dark and you are tempted to think the devil has won, consider what James Stewart, the Scottish theologian, wrote,

The very triumphs of Jesus’ foes He used for their defeat. They thought they had God with His back to the wall, pinned and helpless and defeated. They did not know it was God Himself who had dragged them down to that point. He did not conquer in spite of the dark mystery of evil, He conquered through it.

Easter two years ago my husband preached an Easter sermon with the title "Who Gets the Last Laugh?" This was exactly the focus - Satan gloated and thought he had won on that Sabbath after "crucifixion Friday"! But Sunday was coming and - when it came - Jesus arose victorious over sin, death and the grave! He did indeed conquer through rather than in spite of!

What a comfort! He walks beside us through (through the Valley of the Shadow of Death)! How sad that - like the Jesus followers on that terrible Friday evening and Sabbath - we choose to live trapped in the darkness of our own fears rather than living in the reality of Sunday that may be coming but is as good as here!

Jesus the Risen, Conquering King gets the last laugh and so do we if we walk with Him! Choose - with me - to live today safe in this wonderful truth!

The "Someone Done Me Totally Wrong" Song Ain't a Hill to Die On!

Singing the "someone done me totally wrong" song might be your or my reality today. Life isn't fair and life does not come with a guarantee against betrayal, loss and pain! Sometimes I feel like the perpetrators of the totally wrong stuff get off scott-free and "ride off into the sunset" to do their damage to another unsuspecting target.
It is true; it often seems that way! But that's not my call! I'm just responsible for my end. God promises to take care of the other side of this equation.
What's a gal (or guy) to do when there is seemingly no possibility of repentance and restoration or even closure? Staying stuck in wanting to "take out a contract" on the perpetrator is not a hill to die on. Moving on and asking God to work His restoring grace in my heart is the only path of health and sanity for my own heart!
Choosing the way of revenge or just-can't-forget-and-forgive does absolutely NO harm to the perpetrator but it does irreparable damage to my own heart! So making the terribly difficult but necessary step of forgiveness is actually the path of God's grace and mercy to me even if that grace and mercy seem severely won!
Just askin' ................... think about it!

My Three Special Granddaughters!

I have three really wonderful granddaughters. Two of them have been mine since birth. One came later.
Here's a special story about these three of my heart!
Clara and Abby first met Vania on a family vacation outing at Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC. Vania is the oldest at 15. Clara and Abby are 8 and 9. When they met it was obvious that they were intrigued with each other but also shy - just not quite sure how to relate to each other. Clara was particularly hanging back.
At that point in time, Vania's mother and our son were just engaged. Six months later they married after a "lifetime" of waiting for this love of both their lives!
The next time I saw Vania, Clara and Abby weren't there. Vania came into the house and ran from room to room upstairs and down. I followed her. After she had peeked in every room she leaned against the door frame, looked at me and said, "Whur the gurls?" It took me a minute to understand. She was looking for Abby and Clara. She was totally disappointed when I told her they were far away at home in Virginia.
A few short months later all three girls were in the wedding in their beautiful red silk dresses.
When Vania got to the front of the church, she was so happy her mother was marrying "Daddy Dave" that she literally danced a little gig! It was so precious!
The three girls bonded a little more at the wedding.
One reason Clara didn't quite know how to relate is that Vania is special. She has Down Syndrome. She has limited ability to talk clearly. She marches to her own drummer. She has a heart as big as the outdoors, a beautiful smile and a keen appreciation for giving and receiving love.
What about now? How is that relationship turning out?
Here's what happened yesterday: one of our grandsons, the brother of Abby and Clara, (all three are visiting us in Pittsburgh for a week) had a bad ear ache. We went to Med Express since it was Saturday. All of us went back to the exam room. The nurse was getting a history. She asked some questions about family health. Clara piped up and said, "Well, Vania has something. She has Down Syndrome but it's not catching and she's our cousin!" It might not seem like such a big thing except it spoke volumes about how far their relationship has come. What started as a little uncomfortable - the new and unknown - has come around to a matter of the heart with acceptance and love!
That's pretty special! It is truly a story about restoration deep in the heart!
Jesus, thank you for granddaughters who love and appreciate each other!

A Holy Blacksmith? NOT!

To those broken on life's journey, know that our Creator loves nothing more than to reforge shattered hearts and souls!

He is not a Holy "Blacksmith"! He is the Creator, the Great I AM! He makes all things new!
His promise is that this day and all the other days of life He is actively at work to make ALL things work both for my/your good and God's glory! That kind of takes away the strain and stress of walking in faithful obedience, doesn't it?!!!

Talk about Restoration!!!

This is what God's restoration of one heart at a time looks like in real life lived in the light of the Gospel! Tullian's story is the story of many ministry families without the same public visibility but this same formula is true over and over again in life and ministry when we live and walk as sons and daughters of the Most High God. Then truly Jesus + Nothing = Everything!

How can someone live without depending upon the approval of others?

This is something that we as sinful people will struggle with for the rest of our lives. None of us will ever come to a place where what people think about us (good or bad) doesn't matter to us at all. But a deep grasp of the gospel does help us to become less dependent on the approval of others because the gospel announces that all of the approval we long for and need, Christ has already secured for us. We no longer need to live under the slavish pressure of trying to earn the approval of others because Jesus has already earned God's approval for us.

In the book [Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, recent author of Jesus + Nothing = Everything] I tell the story of how this became real to me.

With the merger of the church I planted and Coral Ridge back in 2009 and the leadership transition that accompanied it, a small but vocal group of long-time Coral Ridge members immediately began voicing opposition to practically any and every change we initiated. Blogs were posted, letters were circulated--some anonymously--with false accusations about me. Just three months after I arrived, a vigorous petition drive was started to get me removed. Battle lines were drawn, rumors raced. There was a crescendo of misunderstandings, frustration, and pain. Just three months in, I was ready to call it quits.

About that time, I opened up my Bible and in the reading plan I was following, it so happened that the day's passages included the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians.

Desperate for help from God, I read those verses and my eyes were opened to see the incredible sufficiency of Jesus with greater clarity than I'd ever experienced. In my misery I told God that I wanted my old life back. The answer from God that I received from Colossians that morning was simple--but sobering: "It's not your old life you want back; it's your old idols you want back, and I love you too much to give them back to you."

You see, I never realized how dependent I'd become on human approval and acceptance until it was taken away. For the first time, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of being deeply disliked and distrusted. I was realizing just how much I'd been relying on the endorsement of others to validate me--to make me feel like I mattered. In and of itself, human approval and acceptance are not bad things. They are, in fact, a gift from God. But I had turned them into idols by making them my primary source of meaning and value and worth and significance, so that without them I was miserable and depressed.

The verses that set me free, specifically, were Colossians 1:9-14. In those verses the Apostle Paul says (my summary): You will grow in your understanding of God's will, be filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding, increase in your knowledge of God, be strengthened with God's power which will produce joy filled patience and endurance (v.9-12a) as you come to a greater realization that you've already been qualified, delivered, transferred, redeemed, and forgiven (v.12b-14).

What those verses liberatingly taught me was that because of Jesus' finished work for me, I already had the justification, approval, acceptance, security, freedom, affection, cleansing, new beginning, righteousness, and rescue I was longing for. I started to see the many-faceted dimensions of the gospel in a more dazzling way. I was realizing in a fresh way the now-power of the gospel--that the gospel doesn't simply rescue us from the past and rescue us for the future. It also rescues us in the present from being enslaved to things like fear, insecurity, anger, self-reliance, bitterness, entitlement, and insignificance.

It was on that day that Jesus plus nothing equals everything became for me more than a preachable tagline. It became my functional lifeline!

It was rediscovering the gospel that enabled me to see that,
Because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak;
Because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose;
Because Jesus was Someone, I was free to be no one;
Because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary;
Because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail.
-- Ed Stetzer's blog 11/08/2011, interview with Tullian Tchividjian

Heart for Love and Life by God's Amazing Grace!

Our 38-year-old son fell in love in February 2010 to God's "perfect" answer to his need and hers. Both have journeyed a long, lonely, rugged road to find each other! They married last August 2010. Yesterday was their 1st wedding anniversary. July 24th 2011 their first "together" child was born - our 7th grandchild!
Our God who loves to surprise His children has been busy doing so for them and us! Even the "mistake" of a "botched" reservation last August charged and paid last October turned into an anniversary celebration at just the right time!
It's a beautiful beginning of two hearts loving each other and loving God and their children together in a pretty incredible story of how God puts broken pieces together into a beauty of restoration and grace!

Ending or Beginning?

NOTE: Restoration Heart has been on an extended "vacation" due to neglect and the tyranny of the urgent! I'm back....................... !

There are many "endings" in life and it seems their "tribe" increases:

• Too little money and too many bills
• Loss of a job
• Loss of a home
• Lies, deceit, slander from "friends"
• Rejection by family and significant others
• Reaching the threshold of heaven personally or with a loved one
• Foolish choices and their consequences
• Growing old(er)
• Depression
• Disease and disability
• Taxes and the IRS
• Too much to do and too little time
• Unrelenting pain of all kinds
• Fear of the future
• Dillusion with government and alarming changes in society

All these circumstances and heart-breaking "milestones" happen and more beside! It may even seem like the end! You may wish for the end!

In the last two weeks, we reached "the end" with our beloved Susie. Susie was our black lab - 13 years old - and one of the greatest gifts we ever received! We never expected her to leave us so quickly and so suddenly. Exactly two weeks ago today our wonderful vet told us that "nothing matters any more." We went to the appoointment with a list of food and snacks wanting counsel on changes we should make or not. We left knowing it wasn't going to matter. Dr. Jim grabbed John's and my hands as we turned to leave the exam room with Susie. He prayed with us thanking the Lord for our wonderful Susie. She was sick beyond healing! No food or care was going to change her plight. Dr. Jim couldn't even hear her heart beat due to all the fluid that was in her chest and belly.

On a scale of 1 to 10 expecially up against the list above, losing our sweet Susie seems way down the list. BUT when our hearts are involved in the pain and loss we experience, the loss - the "ending" - the depth of the pain is HUGE!

Last night I watched a video - "When Disability Hits Home" - which features interviews with Chuck Colson and R.C. Sproul. Each man opens his heart about how his own pain over his seriously disabled grandchild "crashes" into his theology of the sovereignty of God and the ways of God. In the video Joni Eareckson Tada helps tell their stories as well as being living evidence of her own loss and pain. Joni, Chuck and R.C. all affirm their confidence in God!

Most people in our world would consider such devastating circumstances and heart pain clear evidence that God is absent and not benevolent or benign! NOT TRUE!

The truth is that no matter now final the end seems - no matter how pain may drive us to wish this is the end - It is NOT THE END! God is still God! God is still on His throne! God did walk into our world and put on our skin and live in our neighborhood in the Person of Jesus! (John 1:14, The Message)

The end hasn't come. It may be just around the next curve or miles down the road. That doesn't matter! For those who know and love Jesus the end is not the end anyway. It is the beginning of restoration of all that is painful and broken!

Jesus came to meet people - all kinds of people at his or her point of need. He acted to comfort the broken! He didn't just pat them on the head or shoulder and wish them well. He knelt to wash dirty feet. His healing hand touched blind eyes, mute tongues, crippled feet and hands and broken minds.

My heart prayer for you today is that God will reach into your brokenness - that brokenness that seems so final - and bring you restoration. Your brokenness and pain may seem beyond repair or escape. Hang on to Jesus! He WILL take care of you! He still kneels to wash dirty feet and touch blind eyes! Your broken heart matters to Him! Remember this isn't the end when it's the beginning of restoration. That's something ONLY God can do!

Restoration Heart

It is a long time since I blogged - long summer, lots going on!
Just this week I have been challenged to think about what a restored heart looks like. That would specifically be a heart restored in the only way that works - by the restoration only God can work into a heart and life.
We live in a world no more scarred and marred than it has ever been since just past the dawn of time. In the USA at least there is no longer the thin Christian veneer that existed from our founding to cover the evil that springs from hearts in desperate need of restoration.
William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies. It is the allegorical story of some English schoolboys marooned on a deserted island who try to create a framework for society and governance with catastrophic results. The title of the novel speaks of chaos and the power struggle that exists between God's standards for living and evil. The "lord of the flies" is a reference to Beelzebub or Satan.
That's really the ultimate choice in every relationship, in every culture, in every government or any other structure of life. It's the choice between living under the standard for which we were created - to love God first and most and others next OR reverting to "type" by becoming the worst we can be in those same relationships, culture, government and other structures of life.
God alone can restore the scars of sin. God alone can renew brokenness at the heart level.
Just this week I have personally encountered the same sort of contrast Golding depicts in his novel. My faith is an in-your-face confrontation to those who reject and rebel against God's standard for life. My dilemma is fight or flight. Flight is the easy way. Fight requires standing for truth and right. It's by far the harder path. However to stand and "fight" is ultimately the reason God places His people in any culture. Jesus called it being salt and light. Salt and light both have positive effects. Salt preserves and brings flavor. Light pushes back darkness and reveals truth.
When I was walking our dog Susie in the dark last night, I saw shapes in the shadows. Only light can reveal whether those shapes and shadows are fearful or not.
Being salt in a rotten world and light in darkness requires action. Flight is not an option. Standing firm to be salt and light requires wisdom and effort. It requires seeking strength for the fight from God Himself. He alone has triumphed over sin and evil when His Son hung on a cruel cross outside Jerusalem and then rose triumphant over death and sin. God alone has the power to bring restoration to hearts broken by sin and shame!
Without God's intervention there is no remedy. He is the Creator for all of life. The perfect world He created is broken in every way because of sin. God alone can do something about that brokenness to bring true and total restoration.
The schoolboys lose the thin veneer of civilization that kept them from being the worst they could be. Left to their own devices, their true nature slithers forth in all its ugliness. They cheat, murder, lie, steal and spiral into total savageness. With no adult supervision, they revert to the worst kind of depraved behavior. They lose all restraint. They become on the outside all that their depraved hearts really are on the inside. They don't respect their Creator and they savage each other.
That is what life looks like without Jesus! That is life without God's restoration!
It is not that any of us becomes all that we could or should be in this life. None of us can, but we can start on that path with God's help. When God begins His work of restoration in my heart or yours, His work begins restoration in every way! And then the watching world sees the beauty of God's restoration whether they like it or not!

Long Time - No See - New Year

I'm involved in a journey. It began in 2008. My good friend is dying of cancer. It is a special gift to be walking this journey of pain with her and her daughter.

Today Joni Eareckson Tada writes in her daily devotional about New Year resolutions and 2 Corinthians 4:16: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

My friend is outwardly wasting away. The cancer has a death grip on her body. My prayer for her and her daughter is that they will discover the secret of God's inner renewal. It's the only way to make this painful journey with peace and confidence!

Cancer is an ugly disease. Unseen it winds its nasty tentacles through organs, tissue and bone until it chokes out life. There are treatments like chemo and radiation. There are drugs for the pain. There are friends like me for loving support, but the truth is that none of these stop the deadly onslaught of the disease process once it is well-established. The body outwardly and inwardly wastes away.

The ONLY hope to hold onto is God's restoration of the heart!

On His way to Gethsemene and betrayal, Jesus spoke words of comfort to His disciples. He knew they would soon desperately need the truth of what He spoke. He said, "Don't let this throw you. You trust in God, don't you? Trust Me. There is plenty of room for you in My Father's home. If that weren't so, would I have told you that I'm on My way to get a room ready for you? ... I am the Road, also the Truth, also the Life. No one gets to the Father apart from Me." (John 14:1-6, The Message)

Jesus was promising "heart renewal" for now and for ever. That's the only hope to hold onto - Jesus, the Road to God and heaven! He's the only path to heart restoration! He promises to make "all things new" (Rev. 21:5) - even bodies riddled with cancer!

Rejection and Restoration

It's terrible business - the stuff of rejection! It hurts! It even feels like death! It is certainly no fun!

Can there possibly be any good in rejection? Can God use rejection to work His Gospel of restoration deeply into a battered heart?

Just this morning a long-time friend sent a second email in as many days with his own story of rejection. In his case he has been rejected by others who call themselves a church. He wrote, "... my heart is broken. God will heal it. For now I am not too interested in being around God's people." His honesty is sad but understandable! Some of the cruelest wounds of all are from those who should love us best!

Rejection is a common experience in life. It comes to all of us in time. Try as we may to avoid those times and places where we might encounter rejection of any of its forms, sooner or later rejection finds us all. It is hard to keep pressing on through rejection. There is sometimes wisdom in just standing still or even backing up.

Our great God of restoration will show us His strategy for each situation we encounter. His way, however, is NEVER the path of fear, failure, uncertainty or insecurity or even just being too tired to fight one more battle. He promises faith for our fears, His direction in our failures, His abiding presence ("I am with you always!" Matt. 28:20) in our uncertainty and insecurity and especially His strength in our weakness.

God gives us many examples of real people on the pages of Scripture who faced rejection in many of its forms and even endured severe adversity in that rejection:

• Joseph trapped in an Egyptian prison simply because he refused to act against his principles and God's rules for life
• Moses leading God's people in the desert in spite of their grumbling both against God and their leader Moses
• Jeremiah and many other of God's prophets who preached to people who shut their eyes and their ears to God's truth
• Hosea who lived a life of rejection when his wife left his home and children to be a prostitute - God called Hosea be a living parable of God's love in the world of his day.
• And the best example of all - the Son of God who "put on our skin and walked in our neighborhood" (John 1:14, The Message). Jesus faced rejection over and over again until it finally put Him on a cross beside a pathway outside Jerusalem!

I don't imagine Jesus enjoyed the rejection. In fact the Bible describes Him as setting His face like flint (hard stone) to go to Jerusalem where He knew He faced certain death on the cross. He set His face like flint because He had to intentionally face and walk into that rejection of all rejections He knew was coming! The crucifixion was an attempt to kill God! Jesus knew what was facing Him!
God has important plans for you and me today. He sends us on a special mission to the part of His world where He has put us. Our mission is to model restoration for the watching world. It's the radical, upside-down aspect of the Gospel that speaks of grace and love as nothing else can!

When the world sees believers willing to endure rejection and remain faithful and obedient regardless, they know they are seeing something out of this world! It is a glimpse of heaven as God reaches down and touches rejection with restoration - with love, mercy and grace!

Sometimes God picks particular ones of His servants to experience rejection. God is not so much concerned with the form of rejection as He is with how we respond! It's an opportunity to turn our upside-down world rightside-up for Jesus! It's also a way to experience God's restoring love in your heart and mine!

What Does a Calloused Heart Look Like?

Last week I saw a very impressive callous on a friend's elbow. My friend named Sue has bone cancer and tumors from spreading breast cancer. The cancer has eaten away part of her spine. She has a large tumor at the top of her right leg and a tumor on her back. Because of these tumors and damage to her neck from the cancer, she hasn't been able to sit in a relaxed way for almost a year. She cannot sit all the way back. She has to lean to the left and take her weight on her left elbow. Consequently her elbow has a callous that is bigger than a silver dollar and about the size of a very small pancake. Callouses form to protect our skin and the tissue and bones underneath from injury. Sometimes we get callouses on our feet or hands when we put pressure on a particular point over and over.

When I used to do a lot of pencil writing, I had a callous on my middle finger's first joint just where I held the pencil tightly.

My friend Sue's elbow has this huge callous because she puts all her weight on that elbow as she sits "like a pretzel" - that's how she describes it!

Yesterday the sermon was about the Prodigal son's older brother. We all know about the son who walked away, spent all his father's money, ended up in a pig pen (not a good place for anyone but especially a Jewish son) and finally decided to go back home. When he got home, his father ran to embrace him, gave him a robe and the family signet ring and threw a huge Bar-B-Q for the lost son who was now found.

Big Brother who stayed close to home and worked hard was really angry that his father would celebrate bad Little Brother's return home! He had a calloused heart! He worked at hanging onto his anger at his brother and father for a long time. His anger was well into boiling stage! To hold all that anger up he had to develop a very calloused heart!

We say: "My, my! What a terrible response for a brother!" - to hate his brother so much he wished him to stay dead!(as in gone to a far country never to return or be heard from again)! But we understand the bad Big Brother's heart easily because we know all about calloused hearts, don't we? We do it, too! We like to hold all that anger in against someone or other. Just like Sue's elbow, that's a lot of weight to hold up - so we soon develop a callous - a calloused heart!

My friend Sue is teaching me what a calloused heart looks like with her calloused elbow. The Prodigal's Big Brother teaches me about my calloused heart by how he acted (read the story in Luke 15) toward his brother.

In a calloused heart, the callous is there to support the anger and to "protect" the heart from the pain of REAL love. Like Sue, when we have a calloused heart, we are also all twisted up inside just like a pretzel! Only God can soften and untwist calloused hearts! The good news is that He can and always will soften and untwist calloused hearts if we are willing! God is in the business of restoring calloused hearts! What great news for this Monday morning!

The End of the World? September 11, 2001 !!!

There are MILESTONES along life's way: birthdays, life-changing accidents, children born, grandchildren born, jobs won and lost and on and on! September 11, 2001 is a milestone moment for every American living today and into the future. Life as we knew it changed forever on that day!

I grew up hearing radio recordings of President Franklin Roosevelt proclaiming "December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy"! These words were in Roosevelt's speech to the joint houses of our Congress asking for them to declare war against the perpetrator of that day: the Empire of Japan.

My father was a first year midshipman attending chapel at the United States Naval Academy that "infamous" Sunday morning. The preacher that day was Peter Marshall, then chaplain of the Senate. My dad still remembers the sermon text and Peter Marshall's comments on the text, "Why, you do not ever know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14, NIV) My dad also remembers that Peter Marshall made a motion with his hand to emphasize the vanishing nature of the mist.

[In the book Peter Marshall, Catherine Marshall (his wife) records that Dr. Marshall actually changed his sermon from his planned text to the one he used as he was driven from Washington to Annapolis, MD. Obviously that was a God thing! Only God knew what was coming that day and in days to come!]

It was later that cold December day that the news broke of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the decimation of our ships and naval forces.

We all learned the truth of James 4:14 seven years ago today when we watched transfixed on the images on our TV screens. How many times could two towers fall and how many times could those same people flee in terror from the coming apocalypse in the streets in New York?

Life as we had known it came to a screeching halt in many ways. If you don't think so, take a flight. Flying will never be the same again, and that's a necessary thing!

We should be on our knees today praying for God's mercy on our nation. We are blessed that there have been no other atrocious attacks on our own soil in these seven years. That is not due to lack of diligence on the part of the terrorists to try. It is a tribute to our wise and brave leaders who have worked tirelessly to protect us. Many, many plots have been foiled in those seven years. We now live in a wiser, more alert but very dangerous world.

God's promise is "If My people ... will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their evil ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14) God will keep His promise only if we ask Him to truly restore our hearts! We cannot accomplish that with wishing or social programs or trying harder. Repentance is the only path to restoration. Repentance is our only hope as a nation and as individual people!

September 11th is a day of remembrance. For all God's people, it should also be a call to prayer and repentance. September 11th is our opportunity to pray and assess and find (with God's help!) the path to a restored heart!

Character and Conduct

It seems like a no-brainer - character and conduct! The two should go together like peanut butter and jelly or like green eggs and ham - especially in presidential candidates and actually in all who aspire to lead.

In our post-modern world, we have taken a turn in the road from objective to subjective, from absolute to relative, from truth to whatever works for you and on and on. We have also taken a turn away from foundationally knowing that character matters. We hear and even say or think that a person's private life (even public figures like presidents) is what they do on their own time and is nobody's business. Thus the wedge between character and conduct begins to widen.

Character determines conduct or should! Character is who a person is in the bedrock of their soul. Character is who and person is and what a person does when no one but God is looking. Character is built and developed. Character determines our values and thus guides our actions. Character matters! So does conduct.

The problem is that we (the world of 2008) have divorced the two - character and conduct - so that we minimize the value of character and shut our eyes to conduct that comes from flawed or missing character. After all, if we examine the relationship of character to conduct too closely, then accountibility follows. And accountibility is fundamentally scary!

There is another problem: we demand perfection as in "no dirty laundry" in public figures - at least the ones who don't follow our philosophical base and we tolerate almost anything when the public figure is doing what we champion.

This is twisted thinking and practice! The business of restored hearts demands by very definition that something is wrong and needs restoration. Builders don't restore brand-new houses. There's no need. What God calls us to is restoration, grace, mercy and justice. (Micah 6:8)

The fact is that all our character is flawed and damaged by sin. We are born that way.

It is only in the process of restoration through the truths of the Gospel that God builds His character deeply into our souls. From the inside out we begin to reflect His character and truth rather than the twisted character and lies which constitute who we are from birth because of sin.

God's process of heart restoration is all about His buildling His character - even infusing His character - as He scrapes away all the bad stuff and replaces it with the new. That's what restoration is - getting rid of the old and broken and replacing it with new. God is the Great Restorer!

God knows and cares about character and conduct. God also knows that repentance (followed by forgiveness) is possible and restoration is real when the Gospel begins to work its way into one heart at a time!

Write in Sand or Carve in Stone?

Two friends walk in the desert. As they walk, they talk and eventually argue. One friend got very angry and punched the other in the face.

The friend who got punched winced and then bent to write in the hot sand, "My friend just hit me."

They walk on across the hot sand until they reach an oasis. After quenching their thirst, they decide to take a swim. One friend got stuck in the mud in the bottom of the pool and started to drown. The one stuck was also the one who got punched.

The other friend rescued his friend from the mud and pulled him to safety on the shore. The rescued friend found a chisel and hammer and carved into a stone these words: "Today my good friend rescued me."

The rescuer just had to ask, "I hit you and you wrote in the sand. Now you write on stone. Why?"

The friend responded, "When we experience hurt at the hand of another, we should record our hurt in sand so the winds of forgiveness can blow it away. BUT when someone does something good and kind, then we must engrave that memory in stone where no wind can ever erase it so the memory will remain."

The moral is for us to learn:

• to write our hurts in sand and then blow on the sand with the grace of forgiveness.
• to carve our blessings and joys in stone.

When our blessings are carved in stone, then as one stone stacks upon another in life, we collect remembrances of stone to remind us of God's grace and love toward us. When we know God's grace and love for us, then we can forgive with free and loving hearts! It's the path to restoration!

Larry King and the Chapmans

Thursday night I made a point to watch "Larry King Live." I don't normally watch Larry King's program, but I saw that the Steven Curtis Chapman family were being interviewed by Larry King. I wanted to see what they would say. I wondered what questions Larry King would ask them. Of course, the interview centered on the death May 21, 2008 of their youngest daughter Maria Sue.

Maria Sue was playing outside that day in May. She wanted to "do the monkey bars." She just wasn't tall enough to reach them. When she saw her beloved brother Will driving down the drive, she ran toward him. She knew he would lift her up high enough to reach the monkey bars. Will didn't see her coming. All he knew was that the SUV hit something. And in a moment's time Maria Sue was lifted far higher than the monkey bars. She went straight into Jesus' arms.

What captivated me during the King interview was the honest, calm faith the Chapman family demonstrated. God showed up in Larry King's studio for all the world to see. Larry King honestly stated that he just didn't understand their faith, but he clearly saw the power of God's restoring grace in the five Chapmans he interviewed.

Apparently Will told Larry King as they left the set that he was going to pray for him to really "get it." Larry King doesn't understand (by his own admission) how God can be enough for such an incredibly tough time. But he also saw in living color a powerful demonstration of God's work to bring peace and purpose even in the most severe pain and loss!

The world is clammoring for real faith! Only real hearts restored by God's love and grace can demonstrate real faith to a world dying and lost - to hearts desperately in need of restoration. Actually that's exactly why there's A Restoration Church forming in the South Hills of Pittsburgh - to demonstrate God's power to restore broken hearts and lives! It's a compelling message! It's the heart of the Gospel!

Steven Curtis Chapman (SCC) has written many wonderful songs. One of them is titled "Yours." Since Maria Sue went to heaven, SCC has added another verse to "Yours":

I've walked the valley of death's shadow
So deep and dark that I could barely breathe
I've had to let go of more than I could bear
And questioned everythng that I believe
But still even here in this great darkness
A comfort and hope come breaking through
All I can say in life or death
God we belong to you.

In the lyrics of "Yours" SCC writes of streets in London, Uganda, Singapore, Manila and Shanghai and how it all belongs to God "from the stars in the sky to the depths of the ocean floor ... it's all yours, God"!

I started thinking about the streets of Pittsburgh. Without permission I want to "tweak" SCC's lyrics:

"I walk the streets of [Pittsburgh] and notice in the faces passing by
something that makes me stop and listen
My heart grows heavy with the cry: Where is the hope for [Pittsburgh] ?
You whisper and my heart begins to soar as I'm reminded every street in [Pittsburgh] is Yours ...
And I hear children's voices singing of a God who heals and rescues and restores
And I'm reminded that every child in [Steeler Town] is Yours ...
It's all Yours, God - all our dreams are Yours
It's all Yours, God - all our plans are Yours, God ...
It's all Yours, God - everything is Yours!"

And because it all belongs to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords then we can pray and work and live as A Restoration Church confident that He Who began this good work will finish what He has started! (Philippians 1:6)

"When Pretty Things Get Broken"

Today I've been listening to a new CD I got while we were in California at Joni and Friends International Headquarters. One song "When Pretty Things Get Broken" by Joni Eareckson Tada is hauntingly beautiful and reminiscent of her own life:

My life was just like china, a lovely thing to me,
Full of porcelain promises of all that I might be.
But fragile things do slip and fall as ev'rybody knows,
And when my vase came crashing down those tears began to flow.

But don't we all cry when pretty things get broken?
Don't we all sigh at such an awful loss?
Jesus will dry those tears as He has spoken
'Cause He was the One broken on the cross.

But Jesus is the Porcelain Prince.
His promises won't break.
His holy Word holds fast and sure.
His love no one can shake.

So if your life is shattered by sorrow, pain or sin,
His healing love will reach right down and make you whole again.

Joni Eareckson Tada is a beautiful woman. She is beautiful inside and out! Is her body broken? Yes! For more than 41 years she's been in a wheelchair. It's not easy. There is even pain that a quadriplegic feels deep in the bones and gut apparently, but Joni is NOT a broken woman! And Jesus is the reason! He has restored her heart and given her a song and a beautiful smile even on those days when that chair and the pain are almost too much.

I remember that September Saturday afternoon in 1977 when my neck was broken. I was out running errands. The trunk of my new car was actually filled with greenware (porcelain in its green state ready to be prepared for firing). The greenware was actually the pieces for many nativity sets I planned to paint to be Christmas gifts for my brothers, sisters and parents. The car came out of nowhere from behind and hit me full force when I was stopped in traffic. My car crunched. I crunched. The greenware crunched. Greenware isn't a pretty thing. It's just in the process of becoming a pretty thing. Most of what was in my trunk was shattered into powder. It never would be what it could have been.

My story turns out better (at least physically) than Joni's but only by the grace of God. Actually I think our necks broke in almost the same place which makes my story even more remarkable. Why did God protect me from paralysis and allow Joni to be in a wheelchair? Well, I don't have all of that answer. BUT what I know is that God is good all the time. God was with Joni in the Chesapeake Bay 41 years ago, and God was with me that Saturday afternoon. Very few people know my name and story, but people all over the world know and love Joni just because she is in that chair! God has used her life and ministry in incredible ways mostly because she is paralyzed.

But more significant than that is the story of what God has done in both Joni's heart and mine over the years. God has taken brokenness and brought restoration. God gives grace for each and every day no matter what happens.

God has powerfully demonstrated that He uses the weak things (and people) to demonstrate His incredible strength to a world dying for need of restoration in both Joni's life and mine. God has proved His faithfulness to us both. God has made His promise true: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision (substitute "paralysis") or uncircumcision (substitute "not paralysis") has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love." (Galatians 5:6)

"Faith expressing itself in love" is the true demonstration of heart restoration!

Flowers in the Blood

It comes from generations back in more than one direction - this flowers in the blood thing. My grandmother used to stop and pick flowers on the side of the road. She always said that they were there for the taking as the roadside didn't belong to anyone.

My mother loves flowers, too. We always had beautiful gardens around our home. Sometimes we lived in very simple houses but there were still flowers. Later we lived in larger homes with landscapes created by my mother as a frame for our home.

When my husband and I married, the reception was in the gardens of our home. Since we were engaged for three years, mother had actually planned and planted flowers exactly the colors of the wedding attendants' dresses - a bright fuchsia pink with other colors as accents.

My parents now live on top of a mountain in North Carolina. Once again Mother has planned and planted lovely gardens all around. The other night she thought she saw some blooming bushes at the edge of the yard - actually a little way down the mountainside. She decided to walk (at dusk) down to pick some. I don't know if she picked any flowers or not. She fell in her progress down the mountain on very rough ground and broke her wrist. Being the plunky 87-year-old she is, she had to wait for my dad to look for her and come to help her up but she still went to church the next morning as usual. At that point she didn't even know her wrist was broken.

I guess she might say it wasn't worth the fall for the flowers given that she'll spend the next six weeks in a cast and sling and it's her right arm. But with flowers in her blood she just might not say so. It is flowers in the blood that feed the heart with beauty.

I had to grow up and have my own yard to learn that. I never found "yard work" particularly enjoyable growing up. But now I know the joy that flowers in the blood can bring. We have a rather steep bank in front of our home that drops about 70 feet to the highway below. Little by little we have tamed some of that bank and planted things that bloom there. I love the growth that our rather short Pittsburgh growing season brings to ferns and flowers. I guess it's the flowers in my blood, too.

It wasn't by accident that God placed his first creation in a beautiful garden. God created us to have flowers in our blood - to enjoy the beauty of His creation. Sin came and wrecked God's plan for a time but the day is coming when God promises to make all things new - to restore His creation to all He intended it to be in the beginning. That restoration will be a beautiful thing!

In the meantime, we work among the thorns and thistles to bring beauty of even an imperfect sort while we wait for God's coming restoration. I spent part of today "reclaiming" my yard from the thorns and thistles that had sprung up during the last several weeks. There is still more to be done, but the flowers in my blood will call me to stay on task.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Coming from Pittsburgh I am up-close and personally familiar with all kinds of construction. The theme for the Joni and Friends Family Retreat 2008 in Murrieta, CA is "Extreme Make-Over" taking off from the popular TV show on Home and Garden Network. Only this extreme make-over has more to do with hearts than anything else!

For five wonderful days families and individuals are coming to this beautiful spot for rest and refreshment - restoration. For five great days more than sixty "short term missionaries" (one of whom is me) have the incredible privilege of coming alongside one of these families or individuals to serve them. Right now we're all busily making welcome signs for "our" family or person and others are "constructing a house" for a stage backdrop.

Jesus must be looking down from heaven with a smile. He Himself worked in a carpenter's shop when he lived on earth. He is definitely in the business of heart restoration! It will be awesome to participate in God's great work of restoration this week. I expect my own heart to be restored as I serve others. So, "Let's do it!"

A Being-Restored Heart in a Twisted Body

J. Paul Getty left a legacy of art and architecture. On canvas and in stone he left treasures to wow the world. He made his fortune in the early to mid-20th century amassing billions.

I visited "The Getty" (J. Paul Getty's museum) the other day. It sits high atop a hill in southern California. There are more than five multi-storied buildings to house Getty's collection of rare and beautiful treasures, exotic gardens and waterfalls around the spacious central plaza.

There must be something fundamentally wrong with me because I'm finding a little art, pieces of furniture, manuscript pages, sculpture and pottery go a long way.

One of my companions on this "field trip" is a fabulous young man named Amos. Amos challenges me to my core. Amos is touring "The Getty" on a skateboard today. That's just how he gets around!

When Amos was born, the doc twisted his hips in the birth canal during delivery. The twist broke Amos' back and permanently damaged his spinal cord. Amos' body is twisted from his lower chest down. He cannot walk. He has a different way of sitting. Pretty much the practicalities of living I mostly take for granted are challenges for Amos.

I overheard Amos say: "I'm not handicapped. I'm not disabled. I just have a twisted body."

Amos isn't angry. Amos isn't bitter. Amos knows and loves Jesus! Amos' heart is being restored by God's love and grace! Someday God will untwist Amos' body, too. For now, Amos is just rolling along through life with Jesus! My heart won't be the same after meeting him. Just spending time getting to know him and learning his heart has "blessed my socks off"!