Tuesday, April 21, 2015

HEART WHISPERS


I have been in a reflective mood this week. 
 Perhaps it’s because my cold took all the energy out of me. 
 My desire to do too many tasks in a day was lost somewhere between the bed and the couch. 
 And so I lingered and thought deep with my heart. 
I felt like I was listening to heart whispers.
 It’s like my soul was listening when my body could do
nothing but be quiet and still. 
 It’s like God was giving me a chance to clean my soul as the medicine was cleaning the germs from my body.  

Reflecting upon the scriptures for the week I marveled that we are solidly in the New Testament, with readings that focus totally on the New Covenant.  
No Old Testament scriptures during this season of Easter.  
Just celebration and awe regarding the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one.  
How many ways can I reflect upon the resurrection . .  . especially when my physical body doesn’t feel at all
resurrected? 

As I lingered in this quiet state, my heart whispers reminded me of my favorite author whose words mesmerized me several years ago.  
His name is Mattie Stepanek. 
 He is no longer living on this earth but he is very much alive in my heart. 
 Mattie’s book, ‘Heartsongs’ penetrated my soul in such a way that his words often return to me to fill empty spaces in my soul. 
 Mattie died at age fourteen after he gave the world a gift of hope, after he gave us words of resurrected life.

Just as Jesus appeared to the disciples to calm their fears and encourage them to touch and see the Truth standing before them, a young lad’s words appeared in my heart. 

 Mattie had an enthusiasm for life. 
He loved sunsets and rainbows and rock collecting. 
His love for people was contagious. 
His words reflect his love of all things wonderful.

God  calls us to believe in the the Word made flesh, the new covenant, a new song, a new heartsong.
Mattie Stepanek LIVED life and saw each day in a new color,
with a new heartsong.  
Here are some quotes from Mattie from the time he was three years old.  

“My disease is a very rare form of muscular dystrophy, called disautonomic mitochondrial myopathy”  . . .  “The doctor said, 'He can't last a week.' And I did. And they said, 'There's no way this kid's going to last a month.' And I did. And so they said, 'Two years. He's not going to make it.' Two years. 'Five years. He can't do that.' I lived to be five years. 'He's never going to hit double digits.' And here I am, a new teenager.”   . . .  “I would not have lasted a minute, literally a minute, on this Earth without God and angels by my side, because I was born.   And right as I was born, I went into a respiratory arrest. So, big things that keep me going are friends and family and God. And another thing is looking forward to what's going to happen tomorrow”. 

 That’s resurrected life.  I should mention that three of his siblings died from the same disease before the age of three.

Mattie continues, “While we are living in the present, we must celebrate life every day, knowing that we are becoming history with every work, every action, every deed.” 
Mattie knew that our actions toward others, our love toward the unlovable, our being present in someone else’s life makes an impact forever.  Each of us is making history simply by being present in another’s life.

Mattie said, “Sometimes my body wakes me up and says
'Hey, you haven't had pain in a while. How about pain?' And sometimes I can't breathe, and that's hard to live with. But I still celebrate life and don't give up.”

 Mattie celebrated each moment of a very challenging life. 
He never knew when he’d land in the hospital, when his breathing would stop even with a tracheotomy and a breathing machine.

He said, “I feel that God has given me a very special opportunity that I should not let go to waste. 
I use the gift he has given me.”  
Mattie’s gift? Words of encouragement, heart whispers, heart songs.  Mattie rose to the occasion daily. He rose above his disability to give others a sense of hope.

“I do fear death.  But what I actually fear is not dying.
 I mean, true, it will be sad. But I know that there is a better place waiting for me. "
 Mattie was secure in his faith. 
He knew God had a special place for him as God does for all of us who choose New Covenant life.
This next quote from Mattie is so profound.  
“Sad things happen.  They do.
 But we don't need to live sad forever.”

That’s the key.  I have heard from so many people where we live about the darkness and cold of winter that affects many of us.
The only way we might be able to rise above this pressing sadness is to think beyond the cage of darkness and focus on light of hope.
 As Mattie says, “We don’t need to live sad forever.”  
Mattie would be the first one to tell us that we have an ever-loving God who can draw us into His bright light, who can draw us out of the darkness. 

Mattie continues, “A heartsong doesn't have to be a song in your heart. It doesn't have to be talking about love and peace. It can just be your message. It can be your feeling. Some people might even call it a conscience, even though that's not really what it is. It's your message, what you feel like you need to do . . .  Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.” 

These words from Mattie speak of the present-ness of God and remind me of  God’s continuous whispers into my heart.

When Mattie calls upon God, he is very straight forward.
 “It doesn't matter how you pray.  Just pray. . . . . God gives me hope that there is something greater than us, something better and bigger than the here and now, that can help us live.” 

“Keep all special thoughts and memories for lifetimes to come. Share these keepsakes with others to inspire hope and build from the past, which can bridge to the future.”

“We all have life storms, and when we get the rough times and we recover from them, we should celebrate that we got through it. No matter how bad it may seem, there's always something beautiful that you can find.” 


Now that’s what I call Resurrected life. 
Perhaps each of us can find a moment each day to listen to our heart whispers, that childlike understanding of  life-happenings that are hard to comprehend.  
I need a quiet place to focus on my heart whispers.   

Perhaps we each can find new meaning to resurrected life when we listen with our heart.

Friday, March 27, 2015

CONVENIENCE

I linger on the thought of CONVENIENCE today.
My mind swirls as I wonder how our lives have been geared to convenience.
Working at a low paying job is not convenient but it pays the bills.
Having restaurants and stores open on Sundays has become a 'convenience' that most cannot do without.
Yet, I do know of a few establishments that are closed on Sunday.
They still make a huge profit.
Their employees are quite satisfied and their satisfaction translates into good customer relations.

Is life ever convenient?
The book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time to live and a time to die.
There is a time for everything under the sun.
There may be a time for everything but is it a convenient time?
Are we able to control enough of our lives that we create a hedge of convenience around us?
Maybe.
How boring!
Creativity most likely bursts out of inconvenience.
Perseverance presses through inconvenience.
Patience and kindness can only be honed through 'inconvenient' experiences.

One can truly understand the peace that passes all understanding when inconvenience reigns and convenience is quenched.
The heart and mind and soul cannot work together if they rely on convenience.
When is the best time to feed the mind?
By feeding the mind, the heart is fed.
Passion for what the mind absorbs fills the heart.
When this passion consumes us, it might lead us to immense joy or total disaster.

Some passions of the mind focus on the convenience of our wants, our desires.
I . . .  me . . . my . . .  convenience.
I want what I want and I want it now.
It's mine, all mine.
This is my life and I will control it according to the conveniences I choose to establish for myself.
All inconvenience will be dashed from my sight.

Study and hard work are inconvenient.
Following through with a creative idea that brings positive solutions takes hard work.
Living a life that sees beyond oneself is inconvenient.
Taking time for others, to help others grow strong and steady is difficult and very inconvenient.

When God sent His only begotten Son to this earth to live among us, this may have been an inconvenience.
Jesus' faithful, focused, resolute life as one with the Father was inconvenient.
Jesus' choice to follow the purpose of the Father and die a horrific death on the cross was an inconvenience.
Jesus gift to us of eternal life for all who believe in him may not be inconvenient but our obligation in receiving this gift might be inconvenient.

We are commanded to 'take up our cross and follow Him, Jesus . . . God:Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
That's where it gets inconvenient.
We who call ourselves Christian must be willing to live inconvenient lives.
We are called to seek, ask, find . . .  continuously . . .  for eternity . . . to remain connected to God through His Son. . . . to believe in His every word . . . to confess our sins and to live as Jesus lived . . .  inconveniently.

Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph, greeted by palms and praises and JOY!

Within days, as Jesus well knew would happen, he was arrested, falsely accused, flogged almost to death and then nailed to a cross.
I wonder.
Can those of us who call ourselves Christians, Christ followers, be inconvenienced by walking the journey to the Cross the entire week from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday?

If we can find a church that walks the journey through Stations of the Cross, are we willing to experience this even if we are not familiar with that denomination?

How about Maundy Thursday, the night before Jesus goes to the Cross?
Could we find a church that walks through this passover night with Jesus even if we are not familiar with their form of worship?
Is it inconvenient to experience another perspective of Jesus life as we journey with Him to the Cross?
Most likely.
Perhaps this inconvenience might bring us into a closer relationship with the One in whom we believe.
Perhaps the blessings that pour out from this experience will show us another perspective of our personal relation with God through His Son.

I linger on these words that flow from my heart and ask myself if I have invited too much convenience into my own life.
I ask the One who experienced the most inconvenience of any in the world - Jesus- 'Help me move from convenience to inconvenience so that I might know you more clearly and love you more dearly."

I pray I can tred more deeply into the life of the One I follow and linger in greater inconvenience so that I can, some day, say, "I indeed took up my cross and followed Him . . .  even though it was inconvenient."




Saturday, February 28, 2015

KNOWING THAT WE DON'T KNOW



Yellow moon shines bright and low in the evening sky.
How did God create such awesome geometry
as to have a moon look like a sunset? 


I write all week in my other blog and prepare words for others at the end of each week.  

So, I thought I'd publish what I write to share with others on a Sunday.    
The pictures simply remind me that the Spirit of God is always alive, especially in the stillness of winter.
As I linger with these words I am reminded that the mind is a wonderful thing.  One thought can trigger another and a chain of creative thoughts may flash before us. 
I wonder if that happens in ‘senior moments.’  
We become distracted as a conversation might trigger a memory that totally moves our thoughts away from the current moment.  
Suddenly we are in another world of
To create this mega-snowflake is far above my IQ.
Our creative God created us to be creative.
thought.

As I read the scripture in Mark 8: 31-38, I think I had a senior moment.  
My mind flashed back to a profound phrase that my english teacher spurted out in class one day.  
Perhaps some of us can think back to our senior year in high school.  
We are at the top of the heap.  
We’ve done it all.  
Some in the class are nearing the end of their formal education, knowing full well they will not go on to college.  This may be the pinnacle of one’s life.  
Triumph!  
We know it all!  

A camera lens can see better than my eyes but my mind knows what to discern.
Gray sticks and man-made wooden shapes covered in snow create 
an incredible story of humanity in God's creation.
In fact, many times I am sure I felt I knew more than the teacher (fool that I was) until I heard this phrase from a much admired, very demanding teacher. 
 If one was taught under Miss Westby, one knew they were getting the best education in English that any high schooler could have.  
So, when she spoke, we listened.  
“The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know.”  That’s all she said.  
 I’ve carried these words and chewed on them to this day.  

The words are so profound!  

The more I know, the more I know that I don’t know.

Therefore, I keep seeking to know more.  
Anyone in search of more knowledge . . . about themselves, another, life, a specific subject, God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, whatever . . .  feels compelled to seek more and know more because the more we seek, the more we know that we don’t know.  

We will never know it all.  
We are no different than Albert Einstein or Madam Curry or Thomas Edison or Bill Gates.  
I consider all of these people geniuses.  
Yet, they are simply people who have known that they do not know it all and have continued to seek knowledge in the area that most interests them.

Knowledge, linked with understanding, becomes wisdom.  Some of the wisest people might make foolish decisions or make a statement that diminishes them from the ranks of the wise.  
That was the Apostle Peter. 
He had a ‘senior’ moment.  
He wasn’t thinking. 
 It was like he curled up in a tight little box and needed to remain within its confines. 
 Jesus, on the other hand, saw the broad picture and needed to implant that broad picture into the hearts of His most faithful followers.
Blue gray of evening as black pops out from white.
To know what these bits of dark are in the midst of open space
creates a picture that give peace to the soul.

Peter knew Jesus was Messiah, the anointed one. 
 Yet, his idea of Messiah meant a warrior who would enter Jerusalem on a white stead and cut down all the Roman soldiers and free the Jewish people from persecution.  
Peter knew Jesus would conquer every enemy of the Jews and place the Jews in power.  
He saw Jesus as ‘immortal.’  
When Peter hears the words from Jesus, that He must suffer and die, and then be raised again, it was like Peter’s brain froze.   
This statement by Jesus was totally outside of Peter's ‘knowledge level.’ 
 This was Peter, a man who knew Jesus, the Christ, and totally believed in him as savior. 
 Peter had never questioned his devotion to Jesus.  But, at this moment, it was like Peter had an ‘out of body experience’ with Jesus. 
Pops of dots, patterns in the snow.
Incredible patience.  Time. Knowledge. Understanding.
A desire to create beauty from nature's delight.

Peter was so in charge of the moment, he forgot where he was.  
Peter was still under the tutelage of Jesus, the Rabbi, the teacher, the mentor, the leader.  
What on earth was Peter thinking when he told Jesus that this ‘suffering’, this ‘rejection’, this ‘being killed’ . . .  would not happen?  
I don’t think Peter even heard the words, “and rising after three days.” 
 I think he only heard the words, “suffer” and perhaps “rejection.”  
Peter definitely had a ‘senior moment.’

Peter thought he knew everything yet he knew nothing.  
Peter stopped seeking to know more when he planted in his heart the notion that Jesus would be the warrior-savior who would never suffer and never die.   Peter may have even thought
A silent place to linger and wonder how beauty can remain
so simple after a heavy snow.  Do we ever understand
our mortality?  Does winter remind us of God's
presence in the absence of activity?
Jesus would be ‘taken up’ by God like the prophets Enoch or Elijah.  Peter ‘knew’ (in his lack of knowledge) that Jesus would never have to suffer a mortal death.

Praise God for Jesus’ command, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”  Jesus knew this was not Peter speaking.   Jesus knew that one with a severe lack of knowledge, one who seeks to learn nothing, satan, was in the midst of these words.  It’s as if the devil had placed a brick wall in front of Peter to stop Peter from seeking a greater knowledge of God’s infinite realm through His Son.  

“A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”  because a ‘little’
knowledge hinders us from seeking to know more. 
 To ‘know’ that we cannot know enough is the most powerful motivator we can have in any field of learning.  
With correction, Peter learned that he would never know it all.  
Peter would eventually have to totally rely on God’s Spirit to give him words, to direct his path, to press him into the next phase of his ministry.  
Peter learned that not being a ‘know it all” was a good thing.  In time, Peter had enough wisdom to know that he could never know enough.  
Peter knew to teach others, “the more we know, the more we know that we don’t know,” to keep seeking more of God through His Son.

Yet, in Jesus’ day, the ones who were suppose to “know,” the Pharisees, thought they knew it all.  
They stopped seeking.  They remained in their little box of knowledge.  
It’s the “know-it-alls” who rejected Jesus’ message and condemned him to death.  
There will always be pharisees of a sort.  
To this day, Christians are being slaughtered by those who claim to ‘know a god’ that is not our God.  
Our God is love and grace, drawing all seekers, by faith, into his outstretched arms.

Today, those who accept, by faith, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob are expected to embrace the New Covenant.   We are commanded to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  
That’s what the New Covenant is all about.  That was the ‘next step’ God gave to His chosen people, a New Covenant. The more we seek to know about God through His Son, Jesus Christ, the more we find that we don’t know.  

Instead of giving up and saying, “Oh well, I’ve gone as far as I can in this Christ-knowing journey," why not seek more?  Why should there ever be an end to our understanding of our own personal Christian life?  
Why should we ever be satisfied with being where we are in our Christian walk?


Perhaps this Lent is the time for us to walk more deeply into our Christian faith.  
Perhaps we can become wiser in our life journey. 
 It’s never too late.  Have we explored every avenue
of our faith?  
Have we participated in every opportunity to become closer to God through His Son?  
Would we dare attend a bible study even if we can do no more than listen?   Would we dare attend eight weeks of ‘Confirming Our Faith’ class to find out where we stand with Christ in our own personal walk?  
Would we dare walk the Stations of the Cross to deepen our understanding of Jesus' walk to the Cross?  
Would we dare commit to attending the Maundy Thursday service to embrace the end of Christ’s life before we celebrate His Resurrection?  
Perhaps by seeking more we will know more. 
"The more we know, the more we know that we don't know."
God knows your heart, do you?  
  

Saturday, February 14, 2015

100 YEARS !

Dad celebrates 100 years and looks like he can go for another 10!
Family from all over the U.S. came together to help him celebrate.
I can't imagine living 100 years.    I think of all the changes in my own life of well over half a century.                                           I remember when the doors were never locked and I could knock on any neighbor's door on my way home from school if I  needed help.  I remember the telephone before it had a dial.                                   We simply asked the operator to connect us to another with a seven digit number.                                       When the dial on the heavy black phone was implemented, we thought we were totally in the tech age - well before the tech age.                                                                    Then came the Princess phone in a half-dozen colors that one could have in her own room.              How I envied those who could have one.                                    Our family was large and practical, and did fine with one dial phone in the kitchen.
Then came a variety of phones until we saw the 'portable' phone.  
It was huge and was mostly for very rich people.  
  In the mean time the computer was gaining popularity outside of big businesses.
Perfect words for this month, found at a Mpls. flower shop.
Dad's Birthday celebration will stay in our hearts
from now through eternity.
When I was young, a 'computer' took up an entire room in my dad's company.
Paper cards punched with a variety of holes were consolidated or sorted.
The binary system was the way to go.
Then came the desk top computer and its many stages.
1200 2nd Street, downtown Minneapolis,
Designed and engineered by Hewitt & Brown, Pike & Cook, build ca. 1920.
Home to Dad's Security Life firm, from May 1956 until ?
Added to the national Register of Historic Places in 1984.

All too soon we could take our heavy 'portable' computers home on the weekends.

Cornice over the front door of the above building
A grand entrance into 'Security for Life.'
Then, VOILA, the computer CHIP . . .  the greatest invention of the century in my humble opinion.

[New parents may say that disposable diapers are the greatest invention known to man.]

This CHIP exploded technology into mini-computers that are now the size of a watch.

It's the chip that gives us the ability to stuff incredible power and diversity into a tiny space so that we carry around this rectangle that does everything a computer can do but it is now called a PHONE.
Who ever thought a phone would come this far and be so full of technology.
Text messaging overtook the voice for those younger ones at the quarter-century mark.    Instant connection,  24-7-365.  

The younger ones may wonder how anyone could live without this computer-phone at their side.                               I scramble to keep up with changes of the past year much less a century.
Dad's sister could not make it to the big bash but
she was on the phone with me the next day wondering why
her package was returned just because she had
one number wrong but had the Name of the
complex he lives in.  It's another world today.

Above is the building dad purchased to house his incredible adventure before it became too large and he moved to even grander digs.

 His dream came true, grew and expanded to a greatness that he was very much part of until his 90s.

And so my father sits and absorbs the cacophony of noise and movement and revelry at the party.                                        

I wonder what he is thinking.

The speeches, the toasts, the wonder of it all.     We all came together  . . .  and then . . . when the celebration was finished . . . we returned to our daily commitments and responsibilities.

At least we took time to help dad remember the generations he has embraced over the years.

Children, Grand children, Great Grandchildren, gathered together to celebrate 100 Years!
The pictures that many took on their phones, are now being distributed through a computer web site.
What a wild ride we are experiencing.
I can't even imagine how dad has embraced it.
Remember past blogs when I spoke of his sister?
She is a super tech at 102 1/2 years and still going strong.

So I drink in the words of the sign I found at a small flower shop when we visited dad.
"For those who love, time is eternity."
I love where I am right now, with life spinning past me at the mach speed of technology.

I, too, watch and listen and absorb the moments and simply celebrate this time of my life.