"A Heart That Won't Quit"

"A Heart That Won't Quit"! I stole the title for today's blog post from Joni Eareckson Tada's wonderful devotional Diamonds in the Dust for June 25. I just love this devotional book. I know that I am a daughter of the King of kings. I guess that makes me a diamond, but I don't always feel or act or think like a diamond. That's my bad! Many days I'm a "diamond in the dust."

Just last week I was talking to a new friend at my grandson's birthday party. I happen to know that she thinks my grandchildren are something of a handful. I don't know exactly what she said to me, but my response was, "Well, my grandmother used to say: It's harder to raise race horses than cabbages but then you have a lot more when you get through." My new friend stood in a totally silent pause for some long seconds before she responded, "I never heard that before but it's a great description of what raising some children is all about (or words to that effect) ."

I come from a long line of "race horses" and John and I have perpetuated "race horses" in our children and grandchildren. That's not bragging. It's just the truth! There are many times in each generaton of those "race horses" from stories I've heard about former family generations and from my own life experience when "race horses" presented more as cabbages but underneath beat the heart of a race horse. It's that heart that produces the "race horse" in the end!

I recently read a story from the life of the famous missionary David Livingston. Livingston went to Africa from England in the 1800's. Apparently some friends sent a communication to Livingston offering to send men to help him in his mission. They ended their letter with the question, "Have you found a good road into your area yet?" Livingston's response was: "If you have men who will only come if there is a good road, I don't want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all."

That's the heart of a "race horse" Christian! One who will still come and serve "if there is no road at all"! Of course, there is always a "road" but it may be well obscured! God alone may know the way. But His sure promise is to "never leave us or forsake us" (Hebrews 13:5b)! God is even better than Garmin, TomTom or OnStar.

Joni relates how she had to be lifted from her wheelchair and laid on the couch in her office four times in one day due to "shallow breathing and skyrocketing high blood pressure." She honestly shares what she mumbled under her breath, "Where do I go to resign from this stupid paralysis?" I just have a sense that Joni has asked that question before and will ask it again and again. She has a heart that won't quit. Jesus is with her, so she will keep going on in her place "where there is no road at all" until she finally goes to heaven and gets to resign from her paralysis to trade her present body in for one that is brand-spanking new!

God calls us to be willing to walk where there is no road. All He asks is faithful obedience. God calls us to step outside our comfort zones to follow him. God is absolutely in the business of stretching our faith especially when we walk where we cannot see a path. It is only on that path, pursuing that adventure of obedience that I (and we) plumb the depths of God's faithfulness!

I don't know what this adventure of obedience looks like for you. I'm too busy discovering what it looks like for me. It's risky to walk "by faith and not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7)! It is on that often "invisible" road that God gets the total glory for what He is doing in my heart and in my world! We have to go to the place of KNOWING we can't go there on our own for Him to get the glory!

Joni knows that. When she gets out of her wheelchair, someone has to lift her. She can't do it on her own. When I walk with Jesus today to some place outside my comfort zone or when you do the same, we can do so only because God has given us hearts for Him and hearts for a broken world around us - hearts that won't quit until Jesus comes back!

"Lord, give me a heart today that won't quit - a heart that knows I can't live this day on my own - a heart that follows You even where there is no path!"

Another Lesson Learned From Grandchildren - Fond Memories and Happy Hearts

My grandchildren absolutely love to have tea parties when they come to visit. Sometimes we do simple. Other times not. We have "tea partied" on a quilt in the back yard with juice and cookies. We have dressed up as prince and princesses and brought out the bunny tea set and really "tea partied" hearty. Sometimes we invite a guest to join us. Sometimes not.

Last week when Matthew, Abby and Clara were here we had a tea party. We invited "Miss Sarah." We had china cups painted with roses filled with tea or apple juice. We had miniture vanilla wafers and strawberries.

Then after Matthew, Abby and Clara went home I noticed how the dollhouse was set up. Very carefully five people were placed around the dining room table (just like we were) with a tea set and other goodies on the table. All the chairs were drawn closely together. It took me several "looks" to understand. They were freezing a moment of special memory! They left the dollhouse dolls at a perpetual tea party.

I knew they really like tea parties, but now I know that tea parties touch their hearts. It's a special memory. I expect that when I am older and grayer and they are all grown up with boys and girls of their own that they will perpetuate the tea party tradition. Tea parties make them heart happy!

Sometimes it's the most simple things that reach our hearts and recall memories of long ago to make our hearts smile as we remember. In our families, in our homes, in our churches we need to intentionally build heart memories. They are the bonds that tie us together in love and make happy hearts!

Lessons Learned From Grandchildren - Gratitude

There are three particular little people in my life who have been visiting me recently. It is interesting what I learn from them. It is easy to see things they still need to learn about life, but what surprises me is what I learn about life from them.

My grandson had a birthday party Thursday. I think he had about 20 friends who joined him for minature golf, cake and fun. Each child invited was a special someone to Matthew. The most interesting thing to me was watching Matthew open his gifts. It started with singing "Happy Birthday." All those kids and a number of adults sang, and I watched Matthew's face. From where I was standing I had a ringside seat. He grinned. He rolled his eyes. He was totally estatic! It was so fun to watch!

Then when he started opening the gifts, I was amazed. Matthew has enough toys to stock a good toy store so even finding something he doesn't already have is challenging. However, every single gift was received with such absolute and obvious joy and gratitude!

That's the part I am holding in my heart to keep - those "pictures" to remember. We should all have such appreciation and joy and gratitude. LIke Matthew, our gratitude should just bust out all over our faces from our hearts! It is a beautiful thing!

Gratitude has to come from deep in the heart. To prepare one's heart for gratitude, perhaps it's a little like what happened to Matthew. First his heart bloomed with the joy of feeling very loved as everyone sang "Happy Birthday." It was love that brought him to gratitude. His gratitude was a beautiful gift to my heart. I want to walk through this day with the same kind of gleeful abandon and joyous gratitude!

When the ancient poet wrote "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Ps. 118:24), he wasn't speaking about a particular (or special) day. He was talking about any and every day - living with the attitude of gratitude! This attitude of gratitude can only come from a heart in the process of restoration. Only the Great Restorer of hearts can do that! And God's heart restoration process starts with His love: "... God has poured out His love into our hearts ... " (Romans 5:5)

Making Memories To Last Forever

I haven't had a chance to post in almost a week. In case anyone out there misses my blog, I'll be back. In addition to the rest of living, I've been making memories with my grandchildren. These moments are too precious to waste. Once the opportunity of this day or yesterday or tomorrow is gone, it won't ever come again.

My grandchildren are growing up quickly. Chances to do things together, to go places, to read and to play make memories that will last forever. I know because I can still remember my grandmother's smell (a good thing) when she would lie down with me to coax me to take an afternoon nap.

My grandson will never have another nine-year-old birthday party. The one tomorrow is the only one he'll ever have.

Yesterday afternoon I walked in my front yard and saw so many weeds in my flower beds I was horrified, but those weeds will only grow stronger for a few more days. Meanwhile I'm investing in hearts and memories! I'll be back soon!

Child-Proof Medicine Caps

My husband has had his left arm in a sling for about a month following surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff. His sling wasn't one-of-a-kind, but it was certainly "the mother of all slings" I've ever seen. The object was to keep his left shoulder as immobile as possible for initial healing.

At the same time, he was dealing with significant pain. It just isn't possible to open a child-proof cap with one hand - or at least for an adult to do so. My grandchildren might could defeat the child-proof cap with one hand, but certainly no adult can.

I seem to encounter a lot of things that are difficult to open. Take the packaging for toys made in Asia and shipped to the USA. They are so encased in molded plastic and twist-tied to their backing that it takes heavy duty clippers (and even small explosives) to open some of them. I guess they are child-proofed, too!

And then this morning I encountered the almost bomb-proof packaging for our black lab's flea and tick medicine. It's a bear to open taking both tools and brawn!

There's a life parallel here, I think. In a sense, life comes packaged. Life comes packaged in various "protective wrappings.". We struggle to get past the wrappings. Jesus made a promise in John 10:10: "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full(est possible measure)." We want life to be as good as it can get. We want to skip over the hard parts of life and just get to the fun, easy part of living.

There is a way to living life in full measure. It's God's way! He alone has the code. He is ready and willing to help get past the packaging or untwist the cap, but He waits for us to give up and turn things over to Him. The Frank Sinatra code: "I did it my way" doesn't work.

Paul said, "... God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." (2 Cor. 9:8, NIV) That's a pretty awesome description of what life can and should be!

We simply have to hand over the "bottle" or the "package" (which is our life) - give it up to Him! That's when He begins the work of restoration. That's when he takes my hard heart I hand Him and He restores it to be a living, breathing work of His grace for all the world to see! The only thing holding up the process is my holding onto my life with my grubby little fists rather than giving it over to the One Who fixes broken things and makes everything new - the great God of restoration!

There's a wonderful chorus we sing at A Restoration Church written by Keith Green:

My eyes are dry. My faith is old.
My heart is hard. My prayers are cold.
And I know how I ought to be: Alive to You and dead to me.
But what can be done for an old heart like mine?
Soften it up with oil and wine.
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love.
Please wash me anew in the wine of Your blood.

That's what restoration looks like: new tears for dry eyes, new living faith for hard hearts, warm prayers instead of cold and coming alive to God and His Spirit, washed in the wine of His blood!

Hot and Thirsty!

This morning a local Pittsburgh TV channel showed workers trying to fix a water main break and residents lining up to get water from "water buffalos" brought in by their township. I didn't get details so I "Googled" - "Pittsburgh residents without water" - and found that at least four different areas in and around the city are without water due to water main breaks. The particular area I saw on TV apparently has not had water for eight days and can expect two more days or more without water.

So I guess the conclusion is that Pittsburgh is a hot and thirsty city - at least in some parts. In Manorville, (according to one news article I found) Nancy Pierce can see gallons and gallons of water from her home. She lives facing the Allegheny River. But the water in the river isn't safe to drink. It is sort of like the words spoken by the Ancient Mariner (written by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge): "Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink." Almost every news story I read emphasized the necessity of boiling water for the residents of areas effected by the water shortages.

Especially in hot weather, the human body craves water. Our bodies scream to us that we need to rehydrate.

Jesus Himself craved water one hot day. John 4 describes Jesus' encounter with a woman at a well where he sat down to rest. The woman came alone in the heat of the day (at noon) to draw water. She was a pariah in her village because of the wild life she chose to live - had lived with five husbands and was now living with a man she wasn't married to. (The Bible is such an honest book!) She didn't come when the other women did. She didn't want to face their stares, cold shoulders and jeers. So, she came alone.

Jesus asked her for a drink. Just the simple request for water started a conversation that changed her life forever. Jesus knew that she needed far more than water for her body. Her heart needed the "Living Water" which He is! Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water (the water from the well) will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst - not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life." (The Message, vs. 13 - 14))

The woman at the well got water for both her body and her heart that hot awesome day when she met Jesus. Her life and heart were changed forever. And her story changed her entire village!

Jeremiah 2:13 describes the other response to being heart thirsty: "My people have committed a compound sin: they've walked out on Me, the Fountain of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns - cisterns that leak (are broken), cisterns that are no better than sieves." (The Message)

The thirsty people in Pittsburgh don't have water due to a broken water main (a broken cistern). They are isolated to a few areas in the city. But all across this city people are heart thirsty. They desperately need God's "water of life." It's the only way to get a restored heart (and cure heart thirst)!

23,010 Mornings and Counting

Today is my parents' 64th wedding anniversary. That means (except for the year or so they spent apart while my father served his country as captain of a US Navy ship during WW2) that they have gone to bed and waked up approximately 23,010 times and counting. They still - after all these days and years - go up the stairs to their room each evening together. They may not always get up at the same time, but they always disappear to bed at approximately the same time.

Last night when I spoke with them they were planning to do their traditional wedding anniversary thing of driving up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, having lunch and "taking a hike." They are both 87. I was thinking about that hike a little while ago. I don't think I plan to be hiking (especially on a hot June day in North Carolina) when I'm 67 much less 87.

Their love affair has brought six children, 21 grandchildren and 12 plus great-grandchildren so far. Their love has lasted through good times and tough times. My father has always described my mother as "the most beautiful woman in the world" and I'm confident that she is exactly that to his eyes! He still opens doors for her and carries things like groceries in for her.

One day I was talking to them on the phone from Pittsburgh to North Carolina. My mother said she had to go get ready to go to her water aerobics class. All of a sudden I realized I was talking and no one was on the other end. Mother had gone to get ready for her class, and my dad immediately put the phone down and went out to start the car for her. Never mind that I was talking on the phone to them!

They met almost 72 years ago on a hot summer afternoon near where they now live. My dad was at the Naval Academy, and my mother was a counselor at a Christian camp. Daddy stood looking over "the girls" with his cousin. He picked out the girl in the green checked skirt as the one he wanted to meet. And, as they say, the rest is history!

What in the world does this story - sweet as it is - have to do with A Restoration Church? Well, a lot because, you see, my parents know what God's restoring love and grace is in their own hearts. They model His love and grace in living color to all who know them. When I think of my parents and their years together, I can't help but also think of the words Steve Green sings in "Find Us Faithful":

We're pilgrims on the journey of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift though all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.

What an awesome legacy! It's one restoration heart leading the way and modeling the way for others! It is family love and bonds that show our broken world just what family needs to be!