Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash
Yeah, so I might have had a slight touch of fear now and then over my lifetime.
OK, let’s admit it. Fear is paralyzing me, my constant friend.
Jesus walks over to me, crouches in the corner next to me, and offers me His arm. It is time to stand. I rise on quaking legs.
Click here to continue reading this post.*
* This post is part of our “Say-It-Again-On-Friday” blogpost series, where we say it again, on Fridays!
So, I’ve been reading about becoming a successful and influential online figure that others look up to and admire.
Did I mention that yet?
Yesterday, I learned that we need to establish AUTHORITY that we KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON before we boss others around. “So THAT’S what I have been doing wrong!” I realized, slapping my head with this newfound wisdom. So today, I will ASSERT my AUTHORITY and EXPERTISE in the following sentence before I advise you:
I WAS VOTED ONE OF THE BEST DRESSED PEOPLE (!!) IN MY SMALL RED-NECKED HIGH SCHOOL SEVERAL DECADES AGO!!
And so, because of this obvious flair for fashion, you can now wholly trust me as I tell you about the cultural fashion trends I am currently observing!
As I sat in the new Mexican taco place last week, I was scratching my head and puzzling over the décor.
Why was this place decorated with skeletons and skulls?
The previous month, in another restaurant, when the 20-year-old kind waitress turned, her forearm flashed a skull tattoo. She didn’t look or sound like a terrifying “Hell’s Angel” motorbike member, cussing and starting fights. Or whatever scary biker guys do – I don’t happen to have any good friends who are active Hell’s Angels members, come to think of it!
Actually, there is one scary-looking biker guy who attends our church, but his heart is so kind and full of a desire to love like Jesus that I forgot he’s frightening.
Anyway, this young waitress had a kind smile and a genuine desire to see us be well served.
She just happened also to like skull tattoos. “Why did she like a skull tattoo so much that she wanted it engraved into her arm, never to come off?” I wondered, scratching my head, trying to figure out this new fad.
Now, as proven here I am a very cool person, and with only a BIT of imagination, I am even CLOSE to attainting the title of “Cool Surfer Dude!” At least, this is the case in my imagination. (Now – What is my editor yelling at me again for anyway? – And something about “Authenticity”? She’s a bother!)
We can all define ourselves the way we want, and I am definitely cool.
Anyway, since I am, as proven above, so VERY cool, you’ll want to sit down and listen to me when I talk about tattoo fashion trends and current decoration styles in the public space.
The only problem is, with this ONE vogue trend of demonic fashion decor, I have absolutely NO idea what is going on. (I’m SURE there are NO other cultural fashion trends for which I am confused – Rest assured!)
The point of this post?
We’ve tossed the church as the source of a beautiful gate leading to God’s heart. The gate has cobwebs, and the path beyond it seems dark and foreboding. We have added stuff to Christ’s message so that The Way isn’t as brightly lit, especially in contrast to other paths that flash their bright neon lights and claim The Way to God. And so, people are gently turned away from the beautiful gate by the cultural forces of progress. “Travel here,” the dark shapes seduce us.
“Life comes from death”, they whisper, stroking our heads to keep us calm, like a parent to a small child.
It is true that life comes from death.
Unless a grain of wheat is . . . dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.
Jesus Christ, the guy 1/3 of the world claims to follow
We sense hints of the divine in the symbol of the life of a flower emerging from the skull of symbolic death, so we blindly walk in that direction.
And so, we allow ourselves to be steered down a path of partial truth, which has always been the path to the most destructive of lies.
There is a profound truth within this metaphor, but blindly embracing all demonic symbolism is a path leading in the wrong direction.
Wake up, friends!
Let the bathwater of unhealthy Christian culture wake you as we toss it in a panic. Ah! Let’s throw out everything that doesn’t reflect the love Jesus showed us as He washed His friends’ feet and hung on a cross! Let’s toss the dirty bathwater of some parts of Christian culture! And may many wake up by this water splashed in their faces as we toss it, friends.
But let’s keep the baby.
A virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel (. . .for “God is with us”)
Let’s polish that beautiful gate and allow Christ to transform our hearts so they are bright enough, full enough of selfless love that our hearts on fire light the way for others to see the path to God, too.
But let’s stop turning to demons, friends, to show us the path to God.
Let’s worship God instead!
The reasons why we may want to worship a beautiful God who wants to set us free in joy instead of foul demons that will eventually devour us will be discussed in the next couple of posts!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
So I went to church the other day.
A kind fellow welcomed me by taking off his hat and bowing to me. Then he slapped me upside the head and told me that I had to believe a political ideology as well before they would welcome me into their church.
They’ll make a show of religion but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people.
I left the church and got into that church through another entrance because I knew how to look for another door. But many of you don’t. Many of you turn away, saddened, looking for another path to God.
“That path is not in the church,” many of us assert.
Have we replaced our primary sense of belonging . . .to [Jesus] . . . with politics…?
So we stay home the following Sunday and watch TV or ask questions online, wondering, “Where is God?” Our hearts are stirred at night as God tries to wake us from spiritual slumber. We hear stories and wonder, “Maybe?” and then we are again distracted by our lunch and phone notifications.
But our hearts are a black hole that attracts the supernatural, often against our will or our reason.
Let’s dig deep down in our hearts today, friends, and see what we find deposited there in the depths. Like a vacuum attracting dust and debris, cultural beliefs swirl around in our hearts and sometimes settle there even though these ideas are simply filth, cluttering our minds. Instead, we need to find thoughts and questions that are food to fuel our spiritual journeys.
What we find often surprises us when we dig deep, deep down, hitting the depths of the heart.
Here’s some everyday clutter that we dig up and can inspect from all angles before DECIDING, with our MINDS, whether these ideas should be treasured in the depths of our hearts or thrown far, far away into the night, never to wake us again with their mischievous badgering. Sometimes, the wrong thoughts keep us awake at night. What do we toss, and what do we hold onto of the musings deep in our hearts, friend?
Here are several ideas:
Why?
A counterfeit Jesus, counterfeit rules, and counterfeit beliefs POINT TO THE TRUTH THAT SOMEWHERE OUT THERE, THERE IS “THE REAL” OF EACH OF THESE THINGS.
No one counterfeits items that hold no value.
The fact that someone bothered to counterfeit these items hints at the truth that the accurate, authentic, valuable versions are out there somewhere.
Don’t turn away from your path to God just because someone slapped you upside the head a bit.
Find the other entrance.
Photo by Marco Aurélio Conde on Unsplash
*(Boring) Administrative Announcement: Hello! I sent this same post from my Substack yesterday. However, I have recently realized that some prefer reading posts here on WordPress instead of Substack. ALL FUTURE POSTS WILL BE SENT FROM WORDPRESS unless I hear otherwise from you. Thank you so much for supporting me so I can feel important!
I prefer whining, usually.
It’s less risky.
Plus, it’s safer on my ego to point the finger and deride others than to realize that we’re the ones who’ve accidentally fallen on our rears.
My example:
Hear us whine:
“Hallowe’en is a lot more disgusting than it used to be in years past, etc,” we said. And so we bury our mouths in tubs of candy, fix our eyes on the latest movie, close our ears to the kids knocking upstairs, and hide in our basements, waiting for November, when all is right once more with the world. (Isn’t it? But I digress. . . )
Hoisting oneself by the seat of the pants and leaving the house:
So we asked the grocery store manager to please remove the DISGUSTING display of realistic, cut-off body parts sitting on top of the oranges. These were their “decorations” during October. “Yes! Of course!” she exclaimed, running off to remove them before we finished speaking.
And then came another fall on my rear with the following sentence from this store manager, “You are the first person who has said anything about these decorations in ten years.”
Ouch. Doing the mental math as I sat on my rear after the fall, I quickly realized I had shopped in that store for that long. I have complained every year and yet never once spoke out in love.
And the store manager?
She wasn’t a fierce wolf waiting to attack the foundations of excellence in our culture. But she was a confused sheep, head in her hands, crying, waiting for someone to shine a light on a mess in her store that she couldn’t quite see but knew intuitively needed cleaning up. She had longed for someone to give her a reason to take down the decorations that the rising tide of culture had deposited in her store.
The other thing is – I didn’t create an enemy in this store manager but the reverse happened.
She opened up to me about her cancer struggle and her search for God. Years later, during COVID-19, when the sign at the grocery store exit said in bold letters, “WE WILL NOT HELP YOU CARRY ITEMS TO YOUR CAR”, I didn’t ask for this service, but she carried items to my car. We shared some love in the way that strangers do when they talk about God together (This is another post).
But the point?
Maybe it’s time to grow up a little?
Nah.
I’ve got a bag of candy I’m enjoying tonight (Yes, sugar is a poison – what is your point?), as I watch another episode, and whining is easier, frankly.
But as my joints become enflamed from all this candy, and my spiritual life shrinks with me as I hide in the corners of my culture and complain, I wonder if I should get up off the couch, again?
Photo by Julian Bock on Unsplash
How about you?
Should we help each other put down our candy and get up?
Nah.
Oh OK! I’ll tell you about the next time I do something like this in another post. Now leave me alone so I can finish my candy and movie, ok?
(Thanks.)
Sometimes, God says the same things over and over.
It’s because we’re too dumb or deaf or arrogant to hear the first time.
That’s ok!
He repeats it! Maybe we’ll bother to pick up the words that will heal us this time! When we pick them up and insert these words into our ears, the peace and joy are like beautiful music!
This reminds me of the point of this post – God sometimes speaks through music, and when we stoop to pick up the words He dropped and put them into our ears, we often find joy and a song to dance to.
Take this song:
This song spoke to me in the same way the other song did in the last post, in these three ways:
1.The sun shines on every patch of ground of earth.
Lyric from Who Am I by NEEDTOBREATHE: You won’t let go
God won’t let go of us – of me, of you, regardless of what we have done, haven’t done, what we have seen or have failed to see.
This is hope, friend.
2. Winter carries the promise of spring.
Lyric from Who Am I by NEEDTOBREATHE: You grow your roses in my barren soil
He grows an amaryllis from a 20-year-old neglected pot! He grows a lilac after ten years on a (perceived) dead bush! He grows a peony in a 13-year-old weed-filled “flower garden”. He can grow beauty through my barren life, too!
This is hope, friend.
3. Surrendering the throne of my life to its rightful owner, to God, instead of to the insecure, bossy child (me), is what releases life.
Lyric from Who Am I by NEEDTOBREATHE: I push you away, but you won’t let go
Sometimes, we push God away without even realizing it, pushing Jesus aside in our rush to get out the door when He has been standing there all night, knocking. Maybe it’s time to set aside the fact that we know best and let Him steer the ship.
This is hope, friend.
And this is how we begin the dance with God. He takes one step toward us, offering hope in the form of a flower, and we take one step toward him by receiving the good gifts He offers us. Ready yet to take another step on your adventure?
If we’re honest, we’re all lost and directionless in the snowstorm of life.
And we should be honest because truthfulness with ourselves and God about how lost and scared we often feel is like being a moth in the darkness and then finding a light source and being drawn together.
When we can no longer see because we’ve put blinders over our eyes again, we can sometimes hear God calling us softly through the gobs of earwax we forgot to clean out. (Sorry for the gross illustration, but one of my exceptional talents is producing immense quantities of earwax. This metaphor has an arresting punch for me).
Do you hear God calling?
This song was like a megaphone God used through another’s voice when I was too deaf again to hear him speak.
During my last winter season (spiritually speaking), God whispered in this song in a way that touched my heart, if not my ears in the following ways:
1. The sun shines on every patch of ground on earth. The following lyric was like a knife touching the hardened parts of my heart, the sections that God could not break through with the warmth of his breath because I had locked and sealed it off. God seemed to breath on this lyric, waking a deep part of my soul:
Melt the ice of this wild soul
2. Winter carries the promise of spring. This lyric would quicken my heart and bear the baby of faith:
If you’re not done working, God, I’m not done waiting
Have you been waiting for an exceptionally long time for the voice of God to whisper more clearly to you, too, friend? God might be digging around your soil, preparing to transplant you to a sunnier location, to a spot where you can feel the sun’s rays a little more easily before he breathes on your ears, restoring them. (He’s not done working).
3. Surrendering the throne of my life to its rightful owner, to God, instead of to the insecure, bossy child (me), is what releases life. The voluptuous blossoms in your life will look different than what you imagined.
Like a seed you [Jesus] were sown, for the sake of us all. From Bethlehem’s soil grew calvary’s sequoia
The full blossom of Jesus’ life was the cross, dying to set you free so your ears can be opened to the voice of God and you are free to soar.
Ready to pick up the gift He left for you, friend?
Ready, yet to be awakened?
So we decided to take surfing lessons in our summer holidays this year.
I had never tried surfing on the ocean before, but as you know, I tried surfing for the first time behind a surf boat on a lake this summer.
As I was putting on my wetsuit for my first ocean surfing lesson yesterday, I was surprised that our group consisted of about two dozen teenagers, with my husband and me. We have kids their age. There were three parents nearby.
“I’m glad at least there are a few parents,” I whispered to my husband.
He nodded appreciatively. The parents didn’t suit up. They were there to watch.
“Should we be concerned about that?” my huband and I asked each other silently.
I wasn’t quite sure of the wisdom of this whole surfing gig, even without the fact that this seemed to be a teen activity. As you know, I spent a month this fall in bed with a back problem. Was this really wise?
I felt God whisper to try, to do less of the lesson, but to give it a go.
Also, the pain specialist said that often, people get stuck and won’t do anything new after their injury. Their backs freeze up, and they get stuck in cycles of every-more-limited mobility.
I don’t want to be constrained by fear.
The surfing lesson was super fun! Except I did have to ask one of the teens to help me carry my surfboard down to the beach because it was too heavy for me, and I didn’t want to explain about having a sore back last fall lest one of them ask, “Lady, what the heck are you doing in a surf lesson then???” But apart from the minor hiccups, it was great fun!
My husband said we should continue to do this kind of stuff, meaning that we should push ourselves outside of the limits that we set for ourselves, i.e. as non-surfers. I agree with his philosophy. Before the trip, he said, “This will be a great trip because we have aspirin!”
But this got me thinking about midlife crises.
The teen instructor asked us, “What made you want to get into surfing?”
“Trying to avoid a midlife crisis?” I offered.
But there may be some truth in expanding our horizons a little bit and in allowing ourselves some room to grow to avoid a midlife crisis.
So here are some thoughts on avoiding a midlife crisis:
Why be satisfied with our old identities and a boring turkey sandwich when God offers us His world to soar into, friend?
Ready yet for adventure?
The first step is to be cool.
You’ve always wanted to know how to be cool, too.
And I’ve figured out how to find our inner cool!
But why do you want to be cool? It’s essential to evaluate our motives. If we are cool, then people will like us! And by “like,” I mean “like” the things we say on social media! Then we can feel important!
And this is how we know we have significant lives!
For example, in the book Deep Work, Cal Newport says that social media is popular because we agree to certain codes of conduct with our friends that make us feel important! For example, we agree to like every inane and boring comment that our list of friends says, as long as they obey the unwritten rule to also like our inane, superficial and uninteresting comments.
Cal Newport states that if we wrote the comments on a blog that we write on social media, we would have precisely 0 readers.
In contrast, people read this blog! Last week, I learned that people from 24 countries have read this blog (Seriously!). Why this level of success, you ask?
1. One reason could be that I constantly write incredibly jaw-dropping, interesting facts. However, we all know that you laugh at me whenever I say something particularly insightful, so saying interesting things can’t be why you read this blog.
2. The unusual favour could be because God sometimes whispers between the words to mysteriously touch your soul, which should be the case for all of us who learn to listen to and follow Jesus- He speaks through our lives. (So no, I’m NOT saying I’m special (you Loser!) because we’re all losers -but this is good news!– remember?)
3. I am finding my inner cool. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I am cool quite yet, but perhaps that is a matter of opinion.
I prefer to assume it’s Option 3.
So yes, how do we find our inner cool? Good question. This way:
1. Think of things that cool people do!
2. Do those things.
3. Wait to be covered in cool, too!
Here’s an example from my own life recently.
1. Cool people surf.
2. So I tried surfing for the first time last week!
3. Now I’m waiting for the cool to glom itself onto me.
That hasn’t entirely seemed to happen yet. And in the photo above, for some reason, I don’t look quite as cool as those cool super dudes, but that must be the camera angle or something.
We drove to a surfing location recently, and I will have my first ocean surfing lesson soon. Wish me luck! I’ll let you know what I learn to share my insights into being cool with you!
I’m not sure exactly why, but I sense God hinting that this ancient verse below fits perfectly with today’s theme.
The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do.
My husband said that being cool is overrated. But since he’s married to me, obviously, being cool is a big part of our image! How is it possible he has never noticed that before?!
Anyway, you’re welcome!
Good luck!
And so a peony blossom suddenly appeared one morning in my untended flower garden.
Of course, God’s fingerprint can be found within every living thing, but was God’s Holy Spirit wind hovering over this flower, asking me to notice His hope through this blossom?
God made plants that I thought were dead or non-existent to bear beautiful blossoms three times this spring – amaryllis, lilac, and now this peony.
What was He saying? I sat up a little straighter in my seat, adjusted my tie in my executive-looking suit and sharpened my pencil, ready to hear the encouragement from God that I knew was my due. His reply knocked the legs out from under my chair, and I landed back on the floor where I belonged.
God showed me a picture of Him trying to give this peony to someone else because I wouldn’t take it.
The message was that I was receiving this gift from God not because I had something inherently unique in me. I was receiving this metaphorical flower because I was available. And the leeches of arrogance that had somehow covered me again had to be pulled off one by one, painstakingly, as I sat on the floor, having fallen off my stool of self-righteousness again.
God will use anyone available.
He doesn’t use little Jesus look-alikes. The ones who view themselves this way are so covered in leeches that we can’t see any reflections of the light of God in them anymore. I’m not special, He was reminding me.
Jesus is.
Would I follow him out of the barren garden and take this message that He was offering me in the form of a peony to others?
Because if not, he would offer this flower to another.
This thought felt a bit like a sucker punch to me, but one that would remind me to put away the robes of self-righteousness that I so cleverly fashioned and to dress myself again in the beautiful royal attire of the robes that He purchased for me, to put on the signet ring of the authority of his kingdom that he offers to each one of us should we have the humility to dress like a child of the king.
And now that I dress this way, will I get to work scrubbing the filth I encounter with living water? Jesus’ sleeves are rolled up, and we smile together as we rub shoulders, cleaning together and doing the work He has called me to join him in. Will I do it?
Will you?
What exactly I felt God calling me to will be discussed another time, but perhaps what doesn’t matter. It’s more about the yes. If I am available to follow Jesus on the journey He leads me on, we can expect a trail of blossoms to follow our lives.
Are you available when you hear Him whisper?
Have you time to find the royal princess shoes He gave you that are stuffed in your closet behind so many other pairs of shoes it will take a bit of work to find them? Will you step down the rungs of the spiritual ladder of self-importance you’ve been climbing, too? Or if a cloud of self-hatred surrounds you, will you climb up the spiritual ladder to meet Jesus?
In either direction, He’s waiting there for us, ready to give us His love and the strength to complete our spiritual assignments if we remain shoulder-to-shoulder with Him.
Are you available for a cup of tea, a sharing of the heart, and the healing balm he offers? Come on! Let’s go!
And so the astonishing reason God feels far away is because we won’t receive the flower blossom He offers us.
By faith, Noah . . . acted on what he was told [by God]. . . As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
The astonishing surprise of Jesus is that he desperately wants us to follow Him on a journey to learn to garden with Him so that blossoms arrive unexpectedly in our world, but He doesn’t need us in particular. (It’s not about us.) Let’s not waste the opportunity.
Come on!
Let’s try flying!
God, help us to long to receive what You offer.
I looked out my window this morning and saw something surprising in our overgrown “flower” patch.
This flower was so entangled in the weeds I had to cut back greenery all around it to snap a photo.
I knew God was speaking through this flower and will explain why soon. But I also wondered, “What are You saying?” I felt confused, which is usually how I feel when God seems to be whispering.
Several years ago, I shared with friends that God was whispering, calling me into something new but I was stuck in the weeds of my fear and misplaced identity, and I had shrunk God down to my own size again. But those are other stories for another day.
My friend had a prophetic word for me that night several years ago about a stick of a plant above ground in winter.
That stick was me. “But a blossom is coming,” she said. Three times this spring, a flower blossom has surprisingly appeared even though I did nothing or very little for ten years, thirteen years, and more than twenty years as amaryllis, a lilac, and now this peony appeared out of nowhere.
I didn’t plant a peony.
We’ve lived in this home for thirteen years, and this is the first time a peony blossom has appeared in the flower garden the previous owners planted. I didn’t know one of the plants without flowers (was it a also weed?) was a peony. The peony was my favourite flower when we lived in another home.
Perhaps because the blossoms on this flower are so remarkable, the peony had become a symbol of this word about a blossoming season that is coming.
I had a photo of a peony on my iPad wallpaper and a painting of peonies hanging on my physical wall for a long time, symbolizing a blossoming season that is coming, God seemed to whisper.
I had filled dozens of journals in the last few years, but early this week. I sensed God asking me to purchase this journal, which features an artistic rendition of peonies on its cover.
And today, one peony appeared amidst the weeds of my garden.
What did it all mean?
We can make several mistakes when our ears start itching with the things God is saying and we try to interpret His heavenly language into our own language.
Here are three common ones:
What are the solutions to these three problems?
With these three attitudes – honesty (that we are spiritually lost and confused again), thirst and surrender- we are ready to take our next step on our spiritual journeys.
Is the map you received becoming a bit less blurry for your next step, friend?
Mine too.
Let’s rest here at this cabin in the woods before we go our separate ways on our journeys following Jesus.
I’ll tell you more about what I think God may have been whispering through the surprise of a peony in an unkept garden next time.
Restoring Life 