So...we had one of those moments...you know, those moments where your life could have been in the "Calgone take me away" commercials. The kids and I had met one of the college athletes I mentor at Braums for ice cream. Everyone had their icecream and we are all sitting in the booth chatting and having a good time. My youngest, Case (3), crawls up into my lap and just whines a little bit. He then begins to start coughing and as I reach for the cup of water, he pukes all over him, me, table, booth, floor, and I am pretty sure I saw some on the ceiling. I had never seen so much throw up come out of a little body. The college girl, Brianna, gets me some paper towels and i could tell she could go at anytime, and then my Chloe starts gagging too. I had Brianna take Chloe out of the way while I am trying to calm a very sad and scared little boy and clean us up in some way. It was crazy...and about that time...something is hitting me in the face...its my 8 year old spitting spit wads at me through his straw. "Really??!!, do you really think this is a good time for that?" came out of my mouth and Oh how I wanted a timeout...a timeout from life at that moment.
Can you relate?
I find myself asking God this same question..."Really?!, do you really think this is a good time for that?" What I am really saying in that question is, "God I don't think there is a good time for bad times.
Oh, but His ways are not our ways...His wisdom is not our wisdom...His thinking is not our thinking.
One of my favorite women of the Bible is Esther. Esther was a Jewish woman who was chosen to be the Queen to King Xerxes right after the King had banished the first Queen from the Palace because she refused to come to him when He sent for her. Dang, that would be a hard role to fill...talk about walking on egg shells with the hubby. Well, there was an evil guy who was the King's most powerful official named Haman. Haman came up with an evil plan to kill all the Jews because he didn't like Mordecai, a Jew who refused to bow down to Haman and who also happened to be Esther's cousin. Are you still with me? This IS in the Bible and not an episode of Days of Our Lives...promise.
Mordecai asked his cousin, the new Queen to help him and their people..."Don't think for a moment that because you're in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for such a time as this?" Esther 4:13-14
Um... we are put into certain positions or circumstances for such a time this...time to show my children how to act in a stressful situation, time to show the patience that I had been praying for, time to show the character of Christ, time to see the goodness of God even in the worst of times.
What we learn is that Esther didn't ask for a timeout from this time in her life...she used the position and the time she was given to bravely ask the King for help and he did! Esther and her people were saved.
May be you would like a time out from your marriage and God wants to use this time to bring you both closer to Him. May be you would like a time out from your job and God wants to use this time for you to trust HIM.
What if we looked at life through the same eyes as Mordecai and Esther and ask ourselves "What if God has placed is in this season of life for such a time as this?" There is always a good time for God to teach us life lessons and some times he uses bad times to do it.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 says, "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."
There are times to win and there are times to lose
There are times to be with loved ones and there are times to be alone
There are times to have icecream and there are times to throw up icecream
And Yes, there is a good time for bad times...just ask Esther
Afterall, "God has made everything beautiful for its own time." Ecclesiastes 3:11
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Truth or Trash
After a message from church one day, my family started playing a game that we play often...it's called Truth or Trash. We will ask the kid squestions like: "if you mess up, God loves you less..truth or trash?" or "you have been created by God, for God, to do great things because of God...truth or trash?" They love it and are learning the difference between the truth of who God says they are and the trash the World says they are. As a wife of a coach and person in ministry, I play this game all the time...it just happens to be random people saying the statements and I have to ask myself is this truth or trash. Paul could relate...
In the book of Acts 27 and 28 we read that Paul was on his way to Rome, as a prisoner, and the ship he was on wrecked and the sailors found themselves on the island of Malta. It was cold, rainy, and they decided to build a fire. This is where we pick up the story in Acts 28:3-6, "As Paul gathered an wood for the fire, a poisonous snake bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw the snake hanging from his hand and said to each other, 'A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live."'But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up and drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn't harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god."
In the matter of about 5 minutes, based on the world's view of Paul he went from being a murderer to a god. The Truth was he was neither. The truth of who we are is not based on what people say we are, we are who God says we are...nothing more and nothing less. As a coach's family, we go through times where people will say that we walk on water (this is usually when we are winning) and then there are times when we will be told we are not a good role model. There will be times people will give you life with their words or try to give you death with their words. We have to learn that truth of who we are doesn't come from the mouths of people but from the mouth of God. Yes it is hard and yes I am tempted to believe the trash, but a wise man once told me "Just keep in mind that everyone has an opinion. Doesn't make them right. Live in truth not opinion."
There are 2 traps to listening to the world: 1) Those that say you are a god 2) Those that say you are a murderer. Paul addresses the first one in Romans 12:3, "...I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us."
It is kinda like when my son was playing football and we overheard him tell the coach, "coach, if you want to score, give me the ball." After the game, we talked about what humility is. The very next game we heard him say the same thing. We asked him, "Cale, we talked about this. What is humility?" He replied, "It is when you know that God made you this good." Dad gum it! That is it! He knew he was good, not because of what anybody said, but because he knew he was good because of God....he knew the Truth!
And for those who say that you are a murderer, Paul says in Romans 8:15, "So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now, we call him, "Abba, Father." For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children." You are a murderer...Trash. You are a slave to this world...Trash. You are not good enough....Trash. You don't measure up to other people....Trash. You are a daughter of the King of Kings....Truth. You are enough....Truth. You are a child of the living God...Truth!
The Truth is God and when we know the truth the truth will set us free. Set us free from pleasing people to pleasing God. Set us free from seeking peoples approval and seeking God's. Set us free from living for the world and living for God.
If there is anyone who understands this and can help us through these time is none other than Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He was paraded through town with people shouting "Hosanna! Hosanna!" and one week later put on a cross by the same people shouting "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" And what did he do? He said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do." Forgive them because what they say is trash, forgive them because they do not know the truth.
There are going to be times in our lives when we are getting told by the world that we are murderers or gods and we will have to look to God and ask "Is this Truth or Trash?" His opinion of us is the ONLY TRUTH!
In the book of Acts 27 and 28 we read that Paul was on his way to Rome, as a prisoner, and the ship he was on wrecked and the sailors found themselves on the island of Malta. It was cold, rainy, and they decided to build a fire. This is where we pick up the story in Acts 28:3-6, "As Paul gathered an wood for the fire, a poisonous snake bit him on the hand. The people of the island saw the snake hanging from his hand and said to each other, 'A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live."'But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up and drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn't harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god."
In the matter of about 5 minutes, based on the world's view of Paul he went from being a murderer to a god. The Truth was he was neither. The truth of who we are is not based on what people say we are, we are who God says we are...nothing more and nothing less. As a coach's family, we go through times where people will say that we walk on water (this is usually when we are winning) and then there are times when we will be told we are not a good role model. There will be times people will give you life with their words or try to give you death with their words. We have to learn that truth of who we are doesn't come from the mouths of people but from the mouth of God. Yes it is hard and yes I am tempted to believe the trash, but a wise man once told me "Just keep in mind that everyone has an opinion. Doesn't make them right. Live in truth not opinion."
There are 2 traps to listening to the world: 1) Those that say you are a god 2) Those that say you are a murderer. Paul addresses the first one in Romans 12:3, "...I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us."
It is kinda like when my son was playing football and we overheard him tell the coach, "coach, if you want to score, give me the ball." After the game, we talked about what humility is. The very next game we heard him say the same thing. We asked him, "Cale, we talked about this. What is humility?" He replied, "It is when you know that God made you this good." Dad gum it! That is it! He knew he was good, not because of what anybody said, but because he knew he was good because of God....he knew the Truth!
And for those who say that you are a murderer, Paul says in Romans 8:15, "So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now, we call him, "Abba, Father." For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children." You are a murderer...Trash. You are a slave to this world...Trash. You are not good enough....Trash. You don't measure up to other people....Trash. You are a daughter of the King of Kings....Truth. You are enough....Truth. You are a child of the living God...Truth!
The Truth is God and when we know the truth the truth will set us free. Set us free from pleasing people to pleasing God. Set us free from seeking peoples approval and seeking God's. Set us free from living for the world and living for God.
If there is anyone who understands this and can help us through these time is none other than Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. He was paraded through town with people shouting "Hosanna! Hosanna!" and one week later put on a cross by the same people shouting "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" And what did he do? He said, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do." Forgive them because what they say is trash, forgive them because they do not know the truth.
There are going to be times in our lives when we are getting told by the world that we are murderers or gods and we will have to look to God and ask "Is this Truth or Trash?" His opinion of us is the ONLY TRUTH!
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