It’s My Party

By Mollie Bond –

One person at every party wins these titles: drama queen, party-pooper, Debbie downer. When I was 12, you could have called me Debbie.

At my friend’s thirteenth birthday, her mom let us watch a “scary” PG-13 movie: Death Becomes Her. I was almost 13. My mom said I could watch it. After eating pizza, watching the movie, and calling the radio station to play “It’s My Party,” we fell asleep in New Kids on the Block sleeping bags under a cake-covered tablecloth fort.

I woke up at 2 a.m. haunted by scary parts of the movie. I saw blood-drenched limbs everywhere. I put my hand gently on the wall, avoiding light switches. I found the phone, called home and said, “I’m going to die! Come get me!” My sleepy parents talked me out of my wild fear and fetched me in the morning.

We read in Genesis of how Joseph’s eleven brothers dramatized a scary moment, too. Reuben and Joseph’s other brothers had sold Joseph long ago. Joseph became head-honcho in Egypt. Not knowing what became of Joseph, his brothers came to Egypt to buy food and did not recognize him. Joseph pretended to believe they were spies and kept Simeon, a brother, in prison.

Reuben, the “I told you so” brother, thought this evil ruler of Egypt was going to lock up Simeon forever because of his past. Reuben wailed, “Oh, how terrible!” (True.) “We killed Joseph!” (Not true, they sold him.) “He cried out to us and we didn’t listen,” (True.) “and we’re going to die!” (Not true.) Reuben exploded into a woe-is-me party. It’s his party and he’ll cry if he wants to.

Sometimes our memories warp and we exaggerate scary moments. What stressors seem magnified now, but won’t matter in a week, a month, a year? What scary memories haunt you? Are you remembering them correctly, or are they food for a pity party?

PRAYER: Father, I’m calling on You because I remember something horrible, but perhaps it wasn’t as terrible as I remember. I’m glad You took care of me and want to use those scary moments for good. I’ll dry my tears and scale back the drama. Amen.

“Speaking among themselves, they said, “Clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn’t listen. That’s why we’re in this trouble.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy?” Reuben asked. “But you wouldn’t listen. And now we have to answer for his blood!”” (Genesis 42:21-22 NLT).

Waters Gone By

By Michelle Lim –

Life is seldom predictable, but one thing we all face is hardship. For some it seems as if hardship is an everyday companion. At those moments, it is difficult to keep a faith-filled perspective.

Every time I think I deserve a better shake I think of Job. The man lost all of his possessions, his family, and his health, but still served God. Even though his friends told him to curse God and die, Job chose to believe that God had never left him.

How bad would things have to get before you would curse God and die?

I hope you never have to find out, but each day when we spend time getting to know God, we build the balance of our rainy day fund. No, not in dollars and cents, but in faith. All of the verses we learn and words of Jesus we read give us the ammunition to fight our own doubts and fears when things are at their absolute worst.

Job 11:13-14 gives us a formula for surviving and coming through adversity with victory:

1. Devote our hearts to God and worship Him. Reach out to Him in our struggles as well as the good times.
2. Get rid of sin that is in our lives. Both the things that are in our homes and our hearts. When we don’t allow evil to have a foothold, it gives God the territory.

When we do these two things, God gives us strength and hope. It is counsel far wiser than Job’s friend who said he should curse God and die. It builds up our faith so we are ready when trouble comes. It keeps us from doing things that would separate us from God, when times are tough. Following this formula we will find the strength to face our struggles with a faith perspective.

“Then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by” (Job 11:15-16 NIV).

Time Out

By Jane Thornton –

My daughter just called me Satan.

Not in so many words, but the “Get thee behind me, Satan” sentiment came through loud and clear. And too late. Off in Abilene, she is doing a great job of making lifestyle changes, shedding close to twenty pounds. She called and asked for her Easter basket to be healthy instead of the normal overflow of chocolate. Yes, we unashamedly still do baskets and probably will until we have a new generation to take over the children’s roles.

I complied, but with company in the house for the holidays, I filled the three candy dishes scattered throughout our living room. As strong as she has become, that inconsideration did not do her in. However, eight other adults scooping out Cherry Sours by the handful and heaping seconds of chips and salsa onto our plates brought her down with a crash.

She lay face down across my bed and moaned about my bad influence. After I laughed, I apologized. So much for being a supportive mom. Thoughtlessness and my own gluttony undermined us both.

A glimmer of proper parenting broke through, though, when I reminded her that all was not lost, or regained, and we could start fresh the next morning—Easter morning, perfect day for renewal.

Perhaps, this provision, at least in part, inspired God’s creation of time. As an eternal being, He exists beyond seconds, days, years, millennia. But all of these units bestow opportunities for His children to start over, with His grace removing the errors of the past. With each day and awakening, the world rouses to the prospect of new beginnings and do-overs. Each season, each year, each decade, nature reflects these chances. With technology, we’ve even broken down our days into innumerable measurable moments that provide starting points for restitution, rejuvenation, and restoration.

Sometimes our needs require us to move in both the space and time continuum, to use science-fiction lingo.

When I was a sophomore in high school, poring over the signatures in my new yearbook, I found the inscription, “To the girl I cheated off of in chemistry…”

What? I never gave that guy permission to copy my paper. Unfortunately, he probably knew that I had allowed others that privilege. I was too chicken to stand up for what I knew was right and didn’t want to be labeled even more of a goody-goody than I already was. A precedent had been established. A slippery slope breeched. I didn’t know how to halt the slide.

Until we moved.

Torn away from my home and friends by one more military decision in my father’s Marine Corps career, I found a silver lining in this opportunity for a clean slate. I could re-establish my integrity.

Not every weakness demands a move of a thousand miles, but some do. Thank God for the feet, yards, miles and the minutes, hours, and years He puts between us and our sins.

“As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12 NIV).

Comment prompt: How will you take advantage of God’s do-overs? When?

Winning

By Marcus Smith –

“But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also” (Matthew 5:39 NIV).

This verse reveals one of the many ways in which the economy of God is the opposite of the world’s. How many people, merely when threatened, rush to defend themselves with force? People operating under the world’s economy seek the biggest weapon, the smartest put-down, the solidarity of friends to lock out an offender. Whatever resource will defeat an enemy physically, mentally or even socially becomes acceptable.

Yet in the race to win what is forgotten is God’s call. God’s call not to win, but to Love.

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-4).

Christians do not have the privilege of hating their enemies or of failing to pray for them. Although not expressly forbidden, the reliance on physical weapons is discouraged as Matthew 26:52 and Revelation 13:10 warn that those who kill with weapons are themselves subject to such death. Likewise, when we find enemies on any number of other less lethal but no less spiritually damaging arenas we must consider whether our response should leap to the weapons of that arena.

As a young man growing up in Texas, my enemy could take the form of another young man. Perhaps even a friend. And with few unkind words, a flurry of fists and dirt and blood, another battle would be over. Another victory won. Another cheek not turned.

Among women, the conflict increasingly looks the same, but Rachel Simmons in her recently revised breakaway best seller Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls reports on the devastating consequences of social exclusion and ostracism in female culture. From dirty looks and taunting notes, to sudden removal and ostracism from even an established group of friends, girls have their own techniques for punishing their social enemies.

As we struggle in this life, it makes perfect sense, natural sense, common sense for us to hit back when someone attacks. And if we have the opportunity why not hit first? If we have an opponent that we cannot out debate we can strike first in a new arena by attacking them socially.

Christians have an even trickier struggle as we are prone to spiritualize personal strife. Our enemies become spiritual enemies, our struggles with them become discussed in spiritual rather than personal terms, and our disagreements move us to create spiritual walls that separate us into convenient camps of worthy and unworthy.

But Matthew 5:43-4 teaches us that the mark of God’s presence in a person’s life is that they do not hit back, much less hit first, or hit in a new way.

To be a Christian is to set aside any mindset that prevents us from treating our enemies, all our enemies, with love and prayer. Only then do we display the presence of Christ in our lives.

As Oswald Chambers writes, “…you cannot imitate the nature of Jesus— it is either in you or it is not. A personal insult becomes an opportunity for a saint to reveal the incredible sweetness of the Lord Jesus.” He goes on to say in eloquence that, “It is not your duty to go the second mile, or to turn the other cheek, but Jesus said that if we are His disciples, we will always do these things. We will not say, “Oh well, I just can’t do any more, and I’ve been so misrepresented and misunderstood.””

The call of these passages does not go out to those with specific spiritual gifts. The call is not to be listened to under the right circumstances. The call is not to be obeyed whenever it is convenient. More than duty, our service to God is both privilege and sacred trust, and in our service, we never cease to offer mercy, never cease to offer compassion, never cease to offer love. The call of the Christian then is to represent God’s love in this fallen world.

The Power of Kindness

By Rosemary Flaaten –

Holding the door for the young mom pushing a stroller and keeping two toddlers in tow.

Waiting with uncommon patience while the clerk looks up the produce code for my purchase of artichokes.

Sitting with a young couple as they wait for their one year old daughter to return from having a cancerous tumour removed in surgery.

Stocking the pantry with food my teenage son’s friends can devour as they hang out at our home.

Complimenting an elderly woman that she looks like a million bucks in her fur-collared coat.

Acts of kindness.

I’ve been on a mission this spring to be the purveyor of kindness. A purveyor is someone who provides, supplies or makes available. My mission has been to ooze with kindness, to seek out opportunities to show kindness and to do so to a variety of people.

On the days that it seems easy to show kindness to the total stranger at the grocery store, it proves a struggle to come home and speak kindly to the loafing family member. Other times, I’m unwittingly overlooking the person beside me and their need for a kind gesture in favour of a self-absorption that doesn’t allow me to look past the end of my own nose.

To live out the commandment found in Mark 12:30 to love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength I must love my neighbour as myself. The age old question of delineating who might fall into the category of neighbour was fully explained when God became Incarnate and moved into our neighbourhood even though our neighbourhood was characterized by hostility and abandonment. God chose us as His neighbour and He showered us with kindness and love.

Kindness is the quality of compassion and generosity. It’s what spills out of us when we’re filled with God’s Spirit. It cannot be manufactured but it can be practiced. Choosing to discipline ourselves to be someone who seeks out opportunities to show acts of kindness will impact three realms:
1) it’s an act of worship to the God who acted kindly to us
2) it will impact the recipient – who knows how God might use that act of kindness to draw that person to Himself?
3) we’re blessed through obedience –“It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor,
but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy” (Proverbs 14:21 NIV).

Prayer: Lord, gives us eyes that are like Yours so that we might see the needs of people around us and a heart like Yours to be purveyors of kindness.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV).

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