My Misspelled Birth Certificate

By Peter Lundell –

The nurse who recorded my birth couldn’t spell. So am I who I think I am?

There on my life-long-till-the-day-I-die-permanent birth certificate, my middle name is misspelled. And crossed out, with the right spelling squeezed above. What if no one caught that? I’d have gone around all my life with the wrong middle name—or endured a tedious court process to change it.

This person also misspelled my dad’s occupation as “Reverand.” It’s Reverend. And it isn’t even an occupation, it’s a title. My dad was a missionary. Humph.

More dangerous than clueless people who mistake identities are those who damage others and destroy their identities. And sometimes we ourselves might damage others without intending or realizing it.

Kids get hurt. And sometimes they get hurt by adults who act like monsters. The child’s identity gets scarred, or twisted, or crushed. And from the damage often grows a scarred, twisted, or crushed adult. Too often these people live dysfunctional lives and may in turn hurt others. I see these things all the time.

It’s as if someone messed up the person’s birth certificate. God’s intended identity for that person got replaced by a false, destructive one. The false, warped image needs to be changed. That’s what happens in inner healing—and in salvation, spiritual growth, freedom from bondage, and growing into the image of Christ.

To treat the life of faith as boring or legalistic is completely against who Jesus is and what he came for. He came to set us free from the consequences of sin—both our own and others’—and he frees us to become the person God originally intended.

How has God freed you to become a new person?

Or how do you still need to be set free?

“Lord, You are the healer of my body and my heart. I lay aside my fear and pride, open my heart, and say do what only You can do in me. Clean me and restore me into the image you intended….”

“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18 NIV).

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3 NIV).

Not 89

By Peter Lundell –

“THIS IS NOT 89” read the sign. Huh? What kind of sign is that?

I was driving with my wife on Route 89, a backcountry highway in Utah. In a hick town called Panguitch, Route 89 turns east. Going straight, it becomes Route 143. We wanted to take 143, so we were fine. A mile out of town we came to this sign: “THIS IS NOT 89.” It’s the first highway sign I’ve ever seen that told me where I was not. I had to take a picture.

I could imagine some drivers blithely driving for miles through the wilderness before they realized they were on the wrong road—no doubt why the odd sign was put there in the first place.

It struck me that many people live their lives that way. Including me.

We go along in life, at school or work, professional or home life, and we don’t realize that the road curved. We don’t grasp that the world changed or we changed or that God has something new for us.

We can find ourselves lost in discouragement when we don’t pay attention to where our path has been taking us. Or maybe we just need to get off what we’re doing and change.

“This is not 89” signs are good for us. They may come as the slap of a sudden realization. They may be a gradual waking up to a new reality. They may hit as a major problem or loss.

They usually come because we were going the wrong way in the first place. Or maybe it’s just time to grow. So be thankful. They’re usually what it takes to motivate us enough to change.

Have you had—or do you have—“This is not 89” signs in your life?

“Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell” (Psalm 43:3 NIV).

“Lord, send me the signs I need to walk the road You are leading me on. Whatever those signs may be, I choose to welcome them. And to follow. . . .”

The Potential Beneath

By Peter Lundell –

I hiked Bryce Canyon and was awed while walking amidst the rock formations. Up to the edge of the canyon is a forest. And it’s flat. The canyon starts from a clear line of erosion along the edge of this forest. With an average of 200 days of freezing and thawing per year, it forms astonishing sculptures out of Dakota Sandstone.

All along its edge is that flat forest. Given enough time, the canyon will continue to widen where the forest now stands. The earth underneath the forest is the same as that in the canyon, but it’s still underground. As the trees erode or burn away, freezing and thawing water and ice will push chunks of rock apart to continually form new sculptures.

That whole forest has the potential to—and given enough time will—form these amazing features.

We often think of potential as something we strive to achieve. Bryce Canyon gives us the image that potential is underground, continually waiting to be uncovered. Our potential as people lies deep inside us, buried below social expectations, busyness, perhaps fear, and maybe laziness. That’s been true in me. It may be truer in you than you’d like to admit.

Could each of us be like Bryce Canyon? Like the flat forest, we may live a normal life and be little different from others. But dig away, patiently, for years, our whole life. What uniqueness or abilities or actions would we find?

I think most of us tend to give up too easily, or we get distracted, or burdened with the rest of life. I often have. Then I start in again. Focus! I shout at myself.

What’s buried beneath your surface? How has God uniquely created you?

And what are you willing to do in order to bring it out?

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV).

“Lord, You know who I am better than I do. Work in me and lead me to erode away all that obscures and hinders what you would do with my life. I commit to fulfill my potential in Your hands.”

The Setting Sun Rises

By Peter Lundell –

The jet took off as the last sliver of the setting sun dipped below the horizon, perfect timing to witness a rare sight. A moment later the gray sky and dark line of the earth was pierced by the same sliver of sun that seemed to push back up. Then a layer of clouds blocked the sun, but behind them the sky grew brighter in hues of orange and blue. As we continued to climb above the stratus clouds, the sun emerged bigger than before. High, wispy cirrus clouds veiled it in a dreamy skyscape, and as the plane continued to rise, the orange ball seemed to ascend with us.

The plane reached its cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, and after a full half- hour in flight, this sun, which had fully set at our moment of takeoff, had risen back up into a full round ball. Nature had gone in reverse.

Of course it was an optical illusion of our rising in altitude, which made the setting sun appear to rise. But still weird.

I wondered about mysteries of the natural world that defy our normal thinking. And I wondered about the supernatural, what we call the miraculous or impossible. From God’s perspective it may all be natural.

In God’s dimension, the Trinity is natural. So is being outside of time and existing in what we call the spiritual world. Probably the strangest thing on earth, Quantum Physics, must be normal to God.

Educated Westerners are probably the most answer-oriented logic-mongers on earth. We don’t like mystery unless we can solve it. But God is full of mystery because He is so beyond us. And sometimes the setting sun rises.

How have you experienced mysteries of God or His creation?

“Lord, open my heart as wide as my eyes. Let me see beyond my sight. Let me embrace the mysteries of Your world and appreciate them as mystery, appreciate You as mystery, for You are infinitely beyond me.”

“Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish” (Isaiah 29:14 NIV).

What Takes Your Breath Away?

By Peter Lundell –

What takes your breath away? For some of us that’s what defines the best of life.

Recently the snow was great in the mountains north of LA. I had to go. When I downhill ski, I gravitate toward two things. One is to go to the steepest, most ungroomed, most obstacle-covered slope and make my way down. The other is to crouch on a gradual descent toward a steep drop- off, where I can’t see anything beyond the ledge, and then fly over it in an OMG! instant as the slope appears beneath me.

Some people may suggest counseling, but enthusiasts know it’s stuff like that that keeps us from needing counseling.

When we have to give 100 percent focus to something—otherwise we court disaster—it has a liberating effect. We’re momentarily freed, as if suspended, from every other care in the world. And after the adrenaline rush, we can return to the world and its cares with renewed freshness.

Similarly, a stunning view can take our breath away. It encompasses us and demands 100 percent of our focus just because of its magnificence. And we are momentarily freed, suspended from cares. Renewed.

The same can happen when we fall in love. Or encounter God. Or even listen to the “Hallelujah Chorus.”

We live so much of our lives doing routine things, and we’d probably die of overload if we didn’t. Though “normal” and “routine” keep us sane day by day, they need to be invaded once in a while, lest we grow comatose.

So, what takes your breath away? What makes you stop and say, “Wow!”?

In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul says that God “richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” (NIV) Are you enjoying what God gives you? I hope you say, “Wow!”

Prayer: “Father of my life and all good things, show me Your glory in this life I live. Open my eyes, my ears, and all my senses to be always alert to the ways You may amaze me. Lead me to live above the mundane, with eternity in my heart, and in tune with the glory of creation all around me.”

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world…” (Psalm 19:1–4 NIV).

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