I held my head in my hands, the non-physical pain consuming me, twisting my body to reflect my inner state.
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Just because the battle of [insert famous battle name here – I’m not a Historian, ok?] was lost, doesn’t mean those soldiers lost the war too!
The same is true in the war that many in our culture are fighting to open our eyes to the reality that climate change is real.
We’ve lost a battle or two, granted.
For example, consider the implementation of climate solutions and the recent US election. I am not a Harris supporter by any stretch of the imagination. (Also, I’m Canadian, so no one cares who I would have voted for. AND, it’s much easier to criticize leaders trying to create positive change than to come up with real solutions that work!)
The point is that we lost another battle in the war against recognizing that climate change is even a “thing” with the election win of Mr. Trump.
But just because climate change has lost another battle, that doesn’t mean we have lost the war in finding a solution to our climate woes – Not by any stretch.
It is time to close the chapter in the book “Let’s talk about climate change rationally, using science.”
Instead, let’s focus on applying and implementing this one solution.
Let’s focus on food.
No, I did not leave my rationale mind over there as I wrote this post over here.
Stay with me.
In Paul Hawken’s book “Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation,” there is surprising hope in implementing Regenerative Agriculture.
Don’t have time to read?
Check out this free movie, Kiss the Ground Film | Official Website
A Hollywood Actor narrates the movie, so that’s how we know it is the truth!
Just kidding – There is LOTS of science here and a growing movement.
“Kiss the Ground is an audience-supported nonprofit promoting regeneration and healthy soil as a viable solution for our wellness, water, and climate crisis. Since 2013, we’ve inspired millions to participate in the Regenerative Movement through storytelling, education and partnerships.”
Oh, and another benefit – when you put less poison in the form of hyper-processed foods into your body and recognize food ITSELF is healing, you’ll probably feel a lot better, too!
There is a movement of people who have started to be accidentally healed of various modern ailments through eating healthier foods, but we’ll talk about that another time.
Oh, and we can avert the climate crisis once this movement snowballs, too, without mentioning the term “climate change.”
The thing is (whisper):
God has a solution to EVERY problem we see in our world.
We have hope! Let’s dance! No problem is too big for our God.
As the song below plays, ask God, “Has my hope been reduced to the size of politics or the problems in my life and our world? Forgive me. Would You help me place my hope in the One who is bigger than every problem?”
“If . . . my people, my God-defined people, respond by humbling themselves, praying, seeking my presence, and turning their backs on their wicked lives, I’ll be there ready for you: I’ll listen from heaven, forgive their sins, and restore their land to health. From now on I’m alert day and night to the prayers offered . . . “
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She was a shell. She was skinny, sickly, and often lost in her little world.
Her stomach racked her in pain. Friends were elusive. She was unhappy, never having exploded in childhood giggles that should have been her right.
My husband and I oscillated between worry and confidence that she would grow out of “this.” One of us, either he or I, carried the ball of fear for this child. The ball never went away.
Occupational and physical therapists dribbled through our home – in and out – like a constant stream, reminding us that something wasn’t quite “right.” The ball of concern for our child, which we took turns carrying, grew heavier.
Doctors punctuated our lives.
An exclamation point with a specialist doctor in September. A question mark with that prominent city specialist who visited in April. The regular full stops of our home doctor, where “many” childhood milestones were missed, again, were a part of the regular background noise.
The cloud of “something” felt suffocating.
It was hard to breathe.
And doctors get so concerned nowadays. Our other daughter was told she “might” have a problem detectable only by modern medicine (pulmonary stenosis!), and yet that asymptomatic “problem” mysteriously resolved itself only a few years later.
“Would the same thing happen with this other daughter?” I wondered on the days when my husband carried our ball of worry.
And then it happened.
God’s voice was carried by the wind of the Spirit that day as I chatted with a friend about her struggling child.
“Try it.”
What now? I looked around, wondering if I had heard right. My heart sensed my Father’s love for me and my daughter as He spoke. Was I imagining things, though?
“Could you repeat that?” I asked
Nothing. Stillness. Quiet.
Had I heard correctly?
I had been learning that God speaks when we remember to attach our spiritual ears. I bent down to look for my spiritual ears which seemed to have fallen off again. Had He spoken?
At the moment that I wondered if God was nudging me, my good friend had been talking about a special diet – Yes, a special diet – that she was preparing for her son, who had developmental delays.
Diet?
But that’s not what the specialists EVER recommended!
But that was what was working for him. I felt God was asking me to try this same approach. Would I obey?
And so, how are we led on God’s specific, chosen path for our lives and families that usher in His healing?
That’s it.
And oh – our daughter was healed. But that’s a story for another time.
By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. . . . As a result, Noah became intimate with God.
An additional fun result of following Jesus where He leads is buried within the quote above if our eyes are open – Intimacy with God! Wow.
As the song below plays, ask Holy Spirit, “What is the ONE NEXT step, or person you want me to ask advice from, regarding this problem in my life that is literally burning a hole in my gut?”
God:
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Previously, we talked about the fear that sometimes descends over our culture like an unwelcome blanket, smothering us. And yet, we cling to our fear as a self-soothing exercise. We are used to it
How do we throw away the fear that always seems to linger on our hands, like unwanted gum we are trying to put in the trash?
We can’t entirely eradicate fear.
The reality is that we are tiny little people, and who knows? A comet may arrive in ten minutes, throwing us into another ice age like it did for the dinosaurs. Then we’re hooped!
But this, ironically, like all my best advice, is where we find some of our hope.
What if we didn’t fear “death” (I said THE word!) QUITE so very much?
It is the denial of death that is partially responsible for people living empty, purposeless lives
This one fear, the fear of death, instead of being a blanket that twists itself around our neck, strangling us, is the one fear that can ultimately comfort us.
For example, it doesn’t matter to me whether I get two likes or one like on a post (No, that wasn’t 2,000 likes or 1,000 likes – Why do you ask?) when I remember that one day, I will die.
So, one of the best ways to eliminate a bunch of our lingering fears, it turns out, is to confront the biggest, most terrifying fear looming in our bellies’ most bottomless pit.
It’s to confront our mortality.
So, how do we recognize our mortality, though we (kind of) don’t want to?
When we realize that we are resting in the palm of our Saviour’s hand and that His love is the warm blanket that comforts us, we find we can sleep a bit easier, and this life is a little easier to live.
But what if we’re having trouble grasping hold of God as we clench our frightened fists around His Spirit, grasping for something to hold onto?
What if we reach out to touch God, and our fingers, instead, only close around thin air?
Well, let’s return to something I learned in university while wrestling most deeply with this question. (Don’t you find that you thought more interesting things in university? These days, the thing I seem to think about most is when I can next grab some deep-fried chicken or chocolate cheesecake.)
When I wrestled most deeply with this question at University, the philosophical argument called Pascal’s Wager, was a great balm to my soul.
Here it is, summarized. A fuller version can be found here:
Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. (…) There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite.
As the song plays, consider asking God, “Am I afraid of the right things?” When we face our fear of death, a most surprising thing happens. Other fears seem to fly away somewhere!
Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?
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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 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.
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?
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.
