What Size is YOUR Heart?

I love Dr. Seuss' memorable Grinch! He lives high above Whoville in a cave with his stingy little heart and is most miserable! I don't love his miserable self! I love that he learned his heart was two sizes too small!

 

 

It's Christmas and Grinch tries his dead level best to destroy every last vestige of joy in Whoville by stealing Christmas. His efforts totally fail because the Whos in Whoville have hearts bigger than the stuff!

 



 

 



SO, what size is your heart? Just sayin' !!!

A Block of Wood and Two Boys

It is only a little block of wood that a boy named Peter carved into an Indian head tie-slide 50 years ago. It is cleverly carved and painted. Peter's sister gave it to my grandson about a week ago.

Tonight was a Scout Court of Honor for Troop 1807. My grandson Matthew was the MC. He dressed up in his Scout uniform this afternoon. He put on his tie rolled in its 12 twists and threaded his tie through the carved Indian head.

When our son Duncan got up to give the "Scoutmaster Minute" at the end of the Court of Honor tonight, he talked about the things we leave behind. He talked about footprints we leave behind. He held up the little Indian head slide and talked about Peter. Peter carved that Indian head the day he returned with his mom from a Scout camping trip. On the way home Peter and his mom were both killed in a car wreck. That little Indian head slide is one of the things Peter left behind. Our son challenged the boys and others there to consider what they might leave behind.

Then the end of the program came and our grandson announced that a Scout named Ryan would play taps. His dad helped Ryan wheel to the front. Ryan - BIG grin on his face - touched his computer smart board attached to his power chair and the sound of taps played while his fellow Scouts sang the words:

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well, safely rest,
God is nigh.

Peter left a wonderful carved Indian head that my grandson will wear and treasure. I hope Matthew will pass it along to his own little boy some day! The story of Peter made an imprint on my heart tonight.

 

AND Scout Ryan also left his imprint on my heart with his beautiful smile and his obvious joy in being a part of Troop 1807 . It DOES matter what we leave behind! I doubt I will ever hear Taps played without thinking of a Scout with a chest full of badges he's earned and a BIG bright smile! God is nigh!

Latin Feasts and Servant Hearts

In my "pay check" job I teach Latin. One of the highlights of the year is the Latin Feast the last week of school. Traditionally the youngest students come as slaves and the older students are assigned places on the class spectrum of ancient Roman society. It just so happens this year that students who have been slaves two years already are the youngest class. They don't want to be slaves again and are pretty vocal in their protests!

I thought of using the slave thing as a motivation for rewarding hard work so that the students in that class who had worked the hardest would be rewarded by being promoted from slave to freedman. Would you believe that a few moms vigorously protested because her particular student didn't make that cut? Just sayin' ...

So I went back to the "drawing board" and appealed to the oldest class who would now be Patricians to show leadership by being slaves this year. As you might imagine, that crashed and burned very quickly! Then I thought, OK, maybe some moms and I can be slaves. And the more I think about it, the more I like that idea!  One mom emailed last night that her daughter and another girl in that youngest class wanted to be slaves a third year.

I have been reflecting ... I think there just might be a parable here. Our hearts are dark places. We don't like to take the low seat or the servant role. We often think we are entitled to better even if the reason is only just because or It's just not fair!

Not only are our hearts dark places, we live in a dark, broken world! 

There is an historical account - actually from the days of the Roman empire - of One who came from another world to take on the role of servant even choosing to die the most humiliating death in the most shameful way! He was the High King who chose to serve. He did it because there was NO darkness in His heart! He did it so the darkness in my heart and yours can be removed forever! His name is Jesus! He told us to be salt and light so He put hands and feet on that command. He showed us the way!

²The evening meal was in progress, ... ³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ... ¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³ “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴ Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶ Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them! (John 17:2-17)

What a parable for my heart today! It isn't easy to be a servant, but the One who shows that way makes it possible by changing dark hearts to want to push back darkness and be light - to become servants too!

Bombs Bursting in Air!

Unbelievable the depths of the evil in men's hearts and their ability to creatively execute that evil! There's the Gosnell trial in Philadelphia - a cesspool of violence and corruption! There is the Boston Marathon Bomb(s) with all the devastation! There are poison letters sent to at least one congressman and the President! And then there was the infamous April 15th! All that is happening in this one week!

As I drove to work this AM, I was struck with wonder as I passed mile after mile of beautiful flowering trees and gorgeous plantings of daffodils and tulips! My thoughts were that God NEVER intended the world to be anything but right, good and beautiful! Instead it is broken beyond repair and not just in the sensational news of this week! The world is broken all over the place and especially in my own heart!

Isn't it wonderful that God still provides the beauty of spring bursting forth after the cold and snow and bleakness of winter to bathe our eyes and our hearts with a glimpse of the beauty that will someday return like it was in the beginning! 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. ... And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then He said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Rev. 21:1-5)

Ministry, Messy, Media! Just Sayin'

Last Friday night Rick and Kay Warren lost their youngest child, their son Matthew. He killed himself because the pain of living became too overwhelming.

Just this morning I read a quote from Kay Warren when she spoke in Greensboro, NC at the Anglican Mission in the Americas Winter Conference February 15, 2011: 

"In the last two and a half years, our fourth grandchild nearly died at birth during an emergency C section. Seven weeks later, our daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had to undergo 26 hours of brain surgery with a long recovery. Our daughter had severe auto immune disease, my mother slid mentally into dementia which made me the primary caretaker. On top of all this, our youngest child struggles with bipolar disease and has found it difficult to keep going. We have hung on by a thread of a finger nail," she told a stunned audience. Warren said there have been struggles in her marriage to Rick, and stress in her walk with God. Through it all she says her walk with God has become stronger, deeper, richer and more intimate. "I have great family and friends. I am embarrassed to be in need. There is no big girl pill nor can I simply chill out." She added, "When I realize because of God's extravagant lavish love for me, and that I am his beloved, I can survive the painful circumstances that come into our lives. "We need to tell people that they are the beloved of God. In doing so we remove the shame, it removes the guilt over sins I can't conquer. We are called to be messy with people and be with people in tremendous need. When you know you are His beloved and not God's bother you risk it all for Him. People may persecute you and hate you but you know also how much God loves you."
                                                                               --By David W. Virtue www.virtueonline.org

Her words: We are called to be messy with people and be with people in tremendous need. When you know you are His beloved and not God's bother you risk it all for Him. challenge me!

The emergence of social media is an interesting dynamic where it is possible to see people sharing all kinds of things both trivial and personal. I wonder if these (for want of a better term, social media groupies - which, in some ways, includes me as I also enjoy Twitter, FB and Pinterest) realize their posts will forevermore be somewhere for all the world to see and know or be buried in some archive only to slither forth to bite them another day. Maybe my social media friends are just braver than I. I prefer to think that I am just more wisely cautious than they but who can say?

For some time now, I have been contemplating how to fit this observation (about social media) and my musings into a paradigm. I have to honestly admit that a major "hold-me-back" is having been there and done that when things come back to bite me. I seriously don't want to bring that kind of pain on myself! I have been and am a pastor's wife - more than 40 years. I have seen joking and innocent words and actions twisted in unbelievable ways. I have seen bold, risky messy ministry turned into attack opportunities.

It is impossible to catch feathers in the wind which is what spiteful, lying words become. I have lived that awful, ugly pain of being stabbed in the back when I was guilty of little more than being willing to participate in God's call to costly "messy ministry."

I have a friend who is also a pastor's wife. She has struggled with serious depression issues. She has two special needs daughters. I read her blogs and I marvel at her transparency. I benefit from her honesty and am blessed. She has been a major challenge to my heart in my contemplations!

Now I read Kay Warren's comments and I wonder if Kay hasn't cut to the heart of where I need to "camp out" and plant my feet asking God to embolden my fears -

We need to tell people that they are the beloved of God. In doing so we remove the shame, it removes the guilt over sins I can't conquer. We are called to be messy with people and be with people in tremendous need. When you know you are His beloved and not God's bother you risk it all for Him. People may persecute you and hate you but you know also how much God loves you." 

Just sayin' ... and still thinkin'

Easter's Over???

Yesterday was Easter. Today is not Easter. Is Easter over?
The answer is a plain and simple but resounding NO! Easter isn't Christmas. When Christmas night comes I am always hit with a bit of angst that Christmas is over until next year.
I love holidays! I love the memories, traditions (including the new traditions that we've done once so it becomes a tradition), decorations, food and the list goes on! Given enough time and energy I have often put up more than a couple of Christmas trees! Christmas music and the sights and sounds and smells of Christmas fill the air!
I love Valentine's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Fall and Thanksgiving! And they all come and go until next year.
Easter? Not so much! Easter is more than a holiday; Easter is a matter of the heart! Easter is the hinge upon which all of life depends for the Christian. And this matters in humongous ways!
We live in a secular even hostile and pagan world in increasing measure. No longer is our world covered with a thin veneer of Christian faith! That's one reason Easter is so critical! Easter is all about the resurrection. If Jesus only died, then He did no more than any other man. His death alone isn't the pivotal issue. His death bracketed by life on both sides is the essential essence of Easter!
Easter matters and it matters every minute, hour and day of life for a believer. We MUST live in the peace and hope of the resurrection before a watchin' world! The resurrection of Jesus is the heart of why and how Christian believers all over the world are salt and light in a dark, broken world. The other wonderful thing about Easter is that God has built in a weekly reminder as each Sunday - in a sense - is Resurrection Day! Easter must matter in how I live, think and act!
Easter is more huge on my horizon this year than ever before. My sweet Daddy went to heaven last August leaving a huge hole in this world! At Christmas I wondered about what Christmas in heaven is like and shed a few self-serving tears. But yesterday - as we sang and worshipped the Living Savior - I pondered Easter in heaven and concluded that it's always Easter in heaven, always all about the Resurrection. Heaven's light according to Revelation 21:23 is the Light of the World - Jesus!

Jesus, may the power of your resurrection, we celebrated yesterday, show up in our disruptions & disappointments today!  (Thanks, Scotty Smith, for this "nails it on the head" prayer!)

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.  Words: Dallan Forgail (8th Century)

We sang these majestic, soul-stirring words yesterday in chapel at school. I sat looking at the students as they sang - their heads hanging down over the papers in their hands - the words printed on them. They appeared to be going through motions. Such wonderfully rich words .......... I couldn't let them pass so I began each class yesterday with a question about "High King of Heaven."
Not one single student had any clue what the words meant. I knew they all knew the land of Narnia so I started there.
Narnia - 

• the land where it is always winter but never Christmas, the land frozen under the witch's spell 
• the land where the Great Lion Aslan shakes his shaggy mane and begins his move across the land bringing the thaw of winter into spring and life to all its inhabitants
• the land beyond the lamp post where the woodland creatures talk and live beside other wonderful mythological creatures
• the land created by C.S. Lewis to enchant children and adults alike

Peter Pevensie is the oldest brother who shares his adventures in Narnia with Susan, Lucy and Edmond. Peter is eventually crowned High King of Narnia which gives him authority over all the other Kings and Queens that country will ever have.


Since the name Narnia probably comes from the Italian town Nami (or Narnia in Latin), it seemed appropriate to take advantage of the teachable moment to make the connection in my Latin classes yesterday.

Of course, Jesus is the High King of Heaven! He is our Treasure! He is our Victory won - the conquering, Risen Christ! He is the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords!

 

And, best of all, He is the Risen Christ who took all my sin and who made the awful trade giving me, His orphan daughter now adopted into the High King's forever family, His righteousness in return.
He gives me radical, astonishing, amazing grace! Just because He can!
HE is the High King of Heaven!