Limited Time Offer

By Cynthia Ruchti –

A coupon came in the mail today. A limited time offer. The problem was it hadn’t been delivered until after the offer expired. Big sale. Big, big sale. Yesterday.

The satellite TV offer looked good…until we read the fine print that revealed the discount was temporary and would bump up significantly after two months of the two-year contract.

The medication worked great. But the recommendation from the doctor, confirmed by the pharmacist, limited its use to no more than ten days. The ailment lasted far longer.

The limited warranty for the riding mower covered everything except the part that failed. Limited warranty sounds a little like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?

I’m bound by a 24-hour day, a seven-day week, by the limits of my artificial knee’s range of motion and by the boundaries of my checking account.

One of the church songs I remember from my youth rang out with this truth taken from the pages of Scripture:

His love has no limit.
His grace has no measure.
His power, no boundaries known unto men.

No limits. His love and grace carry no expiration dates. He’s not bound by the things that limit us.

Another truth has brought immeasurable comfort in recent days in light of horrifying headlines and personal tragedies and grief shared with friends who are slogging through unbearable crises.

His understanding has no limit. Even His understanding is infinite!

How often are we confronted with disappointing news? Or hear a tragic story? Or wonder what someone was thinking when they made an unwise decision (Notice how I avoided using the word dumb)?

When the heart cries out, “Lord, I don’t understand!” He answers, “But I do.”

He understands the hows and whys that sometimes cripple us. He understands the whens that we think have no end. He understands what is at the heart of our fears and addictions, our anger and pain, our knee-jerk responses and nonsensical grudges.

He gets it that we cry when we’re happy and laugh when we’re nervous. When no one else understands, He does.

It’s a truth we can count on. Where human understanding fails us, His is not threatened in the least. His understanding is unlimited, boundless, infinite.

PRAYER: Father God, how have I overlooked this wonder for so long? You can’t be befuddled or mystified. You never wonder. You KNOW! Thank You, Lord God, for always and unfailingly understanding me even when I don’t.

“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit” (Psalm 147:5 NIV).

Bless the Woman Who Loves Him Now

By Cynthia Ruchti –

The message came through Facebook, as crisis messages often do these days. An urgent message. My son needed help.

So here I am, bringing ice packs for twenty minutes every hour. Keeping a cool washcloth on his forehead. Urging him to try some crackers so the medicine won’t upset his stomach. And listening to him snore a very manly snore.

My son is twenty-seven. I’m his mama, but the call came from the woman who loves him now. The one who had to go to work today. The one who cares so much that she didn’t want to leave him alone when he was in that much pain. So she called us, his parents. Dad took the first shift. I’m taking the second.

Yes, the chicken soup is on the stove, even though it’s more tradition than anything. I don’t remember chicken soup listed as a cure-all for torn tendons in the neck. It’s the thought that counts. And that delicious smell.

I’m praying for my son while he sleeps, even though he didn’t and wouldn’t ask. As I pray, I’m thanking God for the woman who loves him with a tenderhearted love and who reached out to make sure someone was here when she had to be gone.

I wonder if that’s how God feels when His people rally around those in trouble, the hurting, those sick to their stomachs with grief. I wonder if He says, “Bless you, dear one,” to those who care so much they’ll call in reinforcements rather than leave the hurting person alone to fend for himself or herself.

My son is temporarily broken. But it’s a deep comfort to know someone else loves him.

Our churches and neighborhoods are full of broken people. Can God count on us to love them? For whom are you making spiritual chicken soup today?

PRAYER: Lord God, our Healer and Sustainer, it’s an honor to care for the hurting in Your Name. When I get caught up in my own schedules, my own routines, my own problems, yank my chain, Lord. Jerk me back into consciousness of those all around me who need someone to sit with them for a while, listen to them, or to love the ones they love no matter what’s going on in their lives.

“I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:36 NIV).

Yet Without Sin

By Cynthia Ruchti –

In all the artwork—paintings, sculptures, etchings, stained glass—of the crucifixion, have you ever seen Jesus on the cross with a smile on His face? The art comes from artists’ imaginations, clearly, since there was no photography at the time. But did any change the natural grimace into a grin?

It seems a ridiculous question. Who would expect Jesus to have smiled through that kind of agony, despite how courageous, strong, and divine? It would seem closer to insanity than joy if He had been laughing His way through being crucified, or had cracked a smile while the crown of thorns cracked his skin open. How would it have served His Father’s purposes if He had treated the crucifixion lightly, even if He could have risen above the pain to “give His mama a little grin”?

But did the sober, tortured, pained expression on His face mean He’d lost His faith? Of course not.

Then why do we judge others when they feel their anguish deeply and walk through seasons when the pain of their situation puts a tortured expression on their faces?

Years ago, a woman told me that when her mother died of a sudden heart attack, she and her sister—both young moms at the time—traveled together by train to the funeral. The woman telling the story said her tears flowed softly and freely most of the train trip. Her sister chided her to stop crying, shaming her for being sad. “Mom’s in heaven. Get a grip. We should be celebrating for her. Quit with the tears.”

The woman heeded her sister’s rebuke, wrongly thinking her tears were a sign of weak faith. It was decades before she allowed herself to cry again.

Jesus felt the full brunt of the agony He bore, but we’re told even then He was without sin. Grief and sadness are natural reactions to pain. We trust God with our lives, trust Him in dire circumstances, trust Him in the blackest of moments—as Jesus did—and still experience deep grief.

A recent news report told the story of yet another prominent figure—a person of profound faith—whose son committed suicide. I pray no well-meaning person tries to tell that dad and mom to quit crying. Their agony is not sin. It’s the human heart’s response to tragedy. Faith can remain strong, even when the tears flow.

PRAYER: Jesus, I’m in awe of how much Your cross is still teaching me, all these years later. Father God, Your Word tells us there is—there IS—a time to cry. Increase my sensitivity to those around me who wear their anguish on their faces. Help equip me to be a better listening ear and leaning post until their tears subside.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 ESV).

Waiting for the Right Word

By Cynthia Ruchti –

“Oh, that was unfortunate,” my husband said when a television reporter inadvertently chose a word that was so close to the right one, but not quite. It went something like this:

“Harmony Corners police officers were called to a rural home Saturday night to investigate an alleged claim of invasion of privy.”

We’ve heard and read others over the years. Comedian Norm Crosby made his living messing up words just enough to entertain his audiences.

My father-in-law’s battle with hearing issues created some laughable moments. We took a family trip to Lion Country Safari in Florida one year. He persisted in calling it Lion Country Sapphire. It wasn’t a one-time slip-up. Grandpa was convinced the right word was “sapphire.” So he said it…a lot.

Whenever we think about that trip, we remember elephants, water buffalo, lions, tigers, gazelles- and the color blue.

Was it all a hearing problem? He hadn’t gone far in school before his father needed him on the farm. But he seemed unconcerned that some words didn’t make sense. Like Pepsicola, Florida. Or calling his Oldsmobile Sierra a “Sahara,” his apparent desert-mobile.

My husband observed, “Maybe Dad felt self-conscious about his lack of education. Maybe he’d been bullied as a child. His poor self-esteem might have exasperated the problem.”

“You mean, exacerbated?” We broke into hysterics.

I’m grateful God was careful about the way He expressed himself to us through His Word.

“Cast your careers upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.” You mean, cares, Lord?

I can almost hear God saying, “Yeah. Those too.”

PRAYER: Lord, You, the unerring One, speak eloquently to my heart. Help me catch every nuance, the significance behind Your word choices. Help me keep my sense of humor about my verbal slip-ups, but walk so close to You and pay such careful attention to Your world and Your people that they are few.

“For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature” (James 3:2 Amplified Bible).

And Do Good

By Cynthia Ruchti –

“Stronger” is my word-of-the-year, whispered to my spirit when I asked the Lord what I should specifically focus on for 2013. A few years ago, the thought was Brave and Bold. Last year, it was Enjoy. And I did. So this year? Stronger.

For me, that means stronger in spirit. Stronger in my relationships. Stronger in a business sense. And…cough, choke, gasp…stronger physically. My knee replacement is healed. Time to move more.

When I decided—rather than just continue to toy with the idea—that it was time to get serious about getting stronger, which in my case can’t help but get my weight in better alignment, I considered the kinds of things that make up my normal diet, and what was going to have to be jettisoned.

I eat gluten-free of necessity. So cake, donuts, cookies, pies, breaded and deep-fried foods have long been absent from my table, except for the occasional yummy gluten-free variety that passes the taste test…which means very few.

What does that leave, Lord? I distinctly heard him say, in a holy, resounding voice, “Potato chips.”

Ouch. Really? I mean, I have so few legitimate indulgences. Even I recognize the ridiculousness of that statement in light of world-wide poverty and hunger.

What I’m realizing is that I can’t just eliminate a bad thing—too many potato chips—without filling in that gap with a good thing—like cucumbers and carrot sticks. If I eliminate without replacing, all the sensations like crunch and chew and “full” start to rebel.

Jesus talked about it when he cast out a demon. In essence, He said, “Plug the hole or nine worse ones will come in to take its place.”

I read it in the Psalms just today. “Turn away from evil and do good” (emphasis mine). God did not merely tell us to turn away from the wrong things, but to replace them with good. Turn away AND…

PRAYER: Father God, in every area of life, help me grasp how the harmful or worthless things I turn from need a counterpart of something good to take their place. Watch less TV? Spend more time in Your Word? Eliminate potato chips? Ex-er-cise.

“Turn away from evil and do good,” (Psalm 34:14a NLT).

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