There is always Hope

I live in a beautiful area in Michigan.  Everyday there is something new and exciting that just pops out at me and makes me thankful for God’s many creations.  I was in awe of what I saw last week right in my back yard.  The clouds started rolling in and it got darker and darker but in the midst of the darkness there was a burst of sunshine that came through the clouds.  The scene was surreal, as I never would have guessed that to happen. 

Isn’t that just like God to pierce through the clouds with His light just when it seems like the darkness will overcome and the storms will roll in?   Oftentimes, our lives are full of such darkness that we can’t see that small light of Jesus piercing through.  Our eyes are focused on the storm that is all around us instead of the light. 

This past weekend I received a phone call from the family member of a friend and was told that she tried to commit suicide.  My heart broke as I knew that this Christian lady struggled in her circumstances and only saw the darkness around her.  As a newer Christian she knew that “darts from the evil one” would come at her in her areas of weakness but couldn’t imagine how strong and how powerful those darts would actually be. 

But…..there is Hope.  There is always hope.  That light in the picture coming out of the darkness is hope.  In fact, here’s a God thing.  The gal that drove the ambulance for my friend, well, her name was Hope.  There is always hope. 

If you are suffering in darkness and you don’t see any light peaking out from the clouds remember John 1:15. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  Did you catch that?  The darkness has NOT overcome it.  The light of Jesus will not be snuffed out.  He IS there.  Seek Him, call out to Him.  There is always a bit of light somewhere.  If you don’t have any hope today then I will leave you with Psalm 139:7-12

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

Capturing that perfect moment

Today as I was looking out the window I saw a cardinal and a blue jay next to each other in the same tree.  I have been enjoying watching the birds out my window (minus the giant Woodpecker that eats ALL of the food in the feeder).  Because I love taking pictures I have lately been trying to capture those great bird moments.  I mean they aren’t dancing or anything, or holding up a wing as if saying hello but they are just there being cute almost as if they are asking for me to take their picture.

I quietly walked over to where my camera sat, picked it up, excited to take the perfect photo and…..they both flew away.  Uggg.  I so wanted that picture on this perfect, sunny spring day.  My husband always tells me to “just enjoy the moment and forget running to get the camera. Keep the picture in your mind.”  So, I guess today that’s what I did.

I do have the feeling of the sense of accomplishment when I take or get a picture of something extra special.  I recall pictures captured throughout the last year of people and events that I cherish in my heart.  My oldest son on his wedding day dancing with his mom as she cried big alligator tears is a picture that I look at and recall that special time.  I remember my son Zachary getting into his first car, a bright yellow Ford escape, smiling from ear to ear.  I have mental pictures of my husband and daughter being silly with each other, telling jokes, and going out to go skiing together.  These things I hold on to deep in my heart.  I never want to forget the time, place, sounds, and smells of where these captured shots took place.

Today a friend posted a special picture of herself with a friend on Facebook.  It was a beautiful picture, they were both dressed up and it was apparently a very special occasion.  I bet that day together was amazing for them. The reason she posted it was because it was her friend’s birthday and her friend had passed away suddenly last year.  She was looking back at one of their special times together and remembering it with fondness. After looking at that, I was reminded of just what it means to capture those perfect moments.  Yes, for her, there was that one perfect physical picture but I also know that there are many other pictures that my friend can scroll through in her mind with her best friend and have with her at any moment, for all time. 

Pictures are a wonderful thing to hold on to so that we can remember people or events.  However, I think my husband really does have the right idea about keeping those moments in our memories and holding tight to them.  I wonder today if I hadn’t have gone to get my camera but would have just stood at the window and enjoyed the moment how much nicer that “picture” would have been for me?  By nature I’m a photographer, wanting to capture those perfect moments, but I think I need to remember to live in the moment, capture it in my thoughts and memorize every detail possible for the snapshot in my mind.  Take a snapshot in your mind today and hold on to it dearly. 

Life Lessons from the Ski Slope

It’s been one week since my skiing accident.  My daughter and I happened to go down the wrong hill and I got going too fast, was too inexperienced to know what to do and I crashed.  Boy did I crash.  I felt a pop in my knew and spent 5 minutes lying in the snow, skis still on, leg twisted back trying to figure out how to get my ski off so my leg could be bent back to the right position.  Thankfully I didn’t break anything, but I did get hurt and have been in a knee immobilizer since.  I won’t lie, I hurt something else as well-- my pride. Of course this after making jokes before going about not skiing in a long time and what people should do if I ended up in the hospital.  I didn’t thing I would really get hurt. I’ve learned a few things about skiing and it applies to our Christian walk as well.  But of course it would, I have to parallel it to that.  Would you expect anything different?  Here’s what I learned.

1.      Start with the bunny hill and don’t go to another hill until you have mastered the basics.  Even though I accidently got on the wrong hill I was going so fast that I didn’t have the knowledge of how to stop.  I was headed for the trees, gaining speed by the second and the snow plow used for the bunny hill wasn’t working.  I thought I had the tools, but I was wrong.   Here’s a scripture that could go well with this.  1 Corinthians 3:2 says, I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.   This talks about new Christians who should be working on their relationship basics with Jesus but not jumping too quickly into areas of maturity that they are not ready for.  If you have just become a Christian why would you start teaching a Sunday School class when you are still learning what being a Christian is?  So it was with me going down a hill I had no business going down.  I wasn’t mature enough, didn’t have the knowledge and skill enough for it and I crashed, hurt myself and am not too excited about getting back to skiing anytime soon.  We don’t want to see new Christians eating “solid food” too quickly as too discourage them when they fail never wanting to continue their pursuit of Jesus again.

2.      Wear a helmet.   Recently we bought our daughter a helmet for her new skiing adventures but because I wasn’t going to go very often I wasn’t going to “waste” the money on one for me.  Fortunetly, the Lord saved me from hitting the trees that I was so quickly headed towards during my ski incident.  Others haven’t been so lucky.  Have you read the newspapers about all of the people that die skiing without that helmet of protection?  Why would I think I would be exempt from that?  I mean especially with the book that I just wrote called Stumbling Along?  That should have been my first sign.   Here’s what the Bible says in Ephesians 6 about protection. Verse 13 says, Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. If we only put on part of our gear and not all, we are going to be tripped up Because we’ve been talking about the importance of a helmet, let me just mention what verse 17 says, Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.   Do you think a helmet is important?  Not only in skiing is it important, but as a Christian, it’s our lifeline to God!

3.      Make sure you are skiing with someone.  I was very thankful that I wasn’t alone.  My daughter and I both went down the wrong hill together.  She crashed before me about 20-30 yards down the hill and thankfully didn’t hurt herself as badly.  But we were together.  I could yell down from my awkward crash position and know if she was alright.  She was able to take her skiis off and walk up hill to sit with me until the medics arrived.  There we sat in the cold snow talking about our mishaps, wondering how long it would take for the medic snowmobile to arrive, the embarrassement of crashing all the while she encouraged me with kind words and actions.  The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.  Did you catch that?  If one falls down (Laurie while skiing) there is one (Laurie’s daughter) there to pick her up.  Though my daughter couldn’t physically pick me up, she picked me up just by being at my side and encouraging me.  As a Christian we fall or struggle with things, there is an amazing difference when we have a friend praying for us and picking us up in our walk with Jesus.

4.      When you fail or fall make sure you tell someone and don’t try to let it heal on it’s own.  I made the assumption that I could go to bed the night after my accident and wake up, maybe a little sore, but that I would be fine.  I didn’t go get it checked out or run and tell a doctor because I thought I could take care of it on my own.  I had quite the surprise the next morning when I awoke and saw the size of my knee not being able to bend it. I knew something was really wrong and I knew that I had to go tell someone—the doctor.  At that point she was the one that was going to get me on the right track from whatever was wrong.  Why are we so deficient in telling people when we have failed or are hurting?  We have this thing inside of us that we can take care of it on our own and that’s when it gets worse. (This spoken from true experience in both my ski life and my Christian life.)   James 5:16 says, Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  As a Christian it may be very humbling to tell someone that you’ve failed or fallen in some area.  How wonderful it can be to have someone that will pray for you and point you in the right direction.  Maybe that direction from a friend will be suggesting prayer, a Bible study, speaking to a pastor or counselor or maybe it will just be them checking up on you.  The main thing is that you go to where you can be healed and oftentimes God will bring a person into our lives to point us to him. 

Thankfully I’m healing in my physical body from my accident.  If only I had taken to heart the steps above before I went skiing.  But, it’s how we learn to do things differently.  This was also a way for me to step back and look at my Christian life and be aware of how not to crash and burn.  I want to be at the top of my game in my walk with Jesus.  Without safeguards in place ahead of time I will crash.  I don’t want to look back later and say, “If only I had have……”

Get a Grip!

We live in snow country Michigan.  When other schools and activities cancel downstate, we are open.  To the people up here, canceling things “down below” is mere child’s play.  When things are canceled up here, you know it’s bad. 

We happen to live at the bottom of a very very big hill.  It’s one of those hills where at the very top there is a sign to warn trucks to not get going too fast.  It’s big and it’s long.  When there is snow and ice, it seems extra big and extra long. 

Last week when this newbie-to-the-winter-weather-up-north saw the snow and the prediction for more to come, I thought for sure that the evenings basketball game would be canceled.  Since my daughter had to cheer at that game I was looking forward to the cancelation so that I didn’t have to drive in the nasty weather.  The cancelation never came; I just couldn’t believe it.  These people are true winter warriors!  I skipped most of the game and decided near the end to drive the 6 miles to town to pick up Emily. When I left I realized that the snow had turned to rain and that the temperature was cold enough for it to freeze on the roads.  Lovely. 

My husband, Brian, asked if I wanted him to drive me and I told him no because we live here and I have to learn how to drive in it sometime.  I ventured out to the van, hopped in and pulled slowly out of the snowy driveway.  I got up to about 15 mph as I hit the bottom of the hill ready to go up.  It was like the Little Engine that Could, except that I couldn’t.  The hill was a sheet of ice and the van spun its “all weather” tires and decreased in speed.  I realized that I had better back up and get down the hill, I had barely started, or else the van was just going to do it itself. 

When I walked in the door I had to ask Brian to take me.  We decided to take the car thinking those “all weather” tires would be better.  As we made our way to the hill we began to go up, spinning our tires on the ice. As we inched along.  Brian would push the gas, the car would go forward as the tires would spin and smoke.  Yes, smoke.  We could not get any grip on that road and it took us 10 minutes to make it too the top. During our time on the hill a few trucks with 4 wheel drive and good gripping tires passed us with ease.  What was the problem here?

Well, we didn’t have a grip.  Our tires were not really made for “all” weather, but for “some” weather.  We needed snow tires.  We needed something that would grip that ice and allow us to go forward. 

Of course everything is an analogy to me. I got thinking of our lives.  So many times we slip and slide around because we don’t have a grip on the right thing—or more importantly the right person, Jesus.  Some people dealing with the same conditions as we have appear to deal with them with ease while we are floundering up the hill.  Why does this seem to be?  It’s what we are gripped on to, or more likely, what we are NOT gripped on to. 

In the Bible Paul says in Philippians 3:12, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”   Not only can we have our grip on Christ but Christ has His grip on us.  When our lives seem to slip and slide, let’s remember that we may not have the right grips.  Look for,  and hold on tightly to Jesus and watch how he will help you up that hill.  As far as our “all weather” tires are concerned?  Some generous soul in our church heard of our struggles and donated four good winter tires for our car.  What a difference a good grip makes.