Thank God for ‘Re-do’s

By Dawn Wilson –

A story about a sneaky painter reminds me of the blessings of a second chance. As the story goes, the painter thinned down his paint for years while charging his clients full price. One day a local pastor hired the man to paint his church.

“All right!” the painter thought. “I can make some big bucks – it’s going to take a lot of paint!” True to his character, the schemer thinned down the paint and started painting.

Suddenly, a storm swept through the town and a bolt of lightning hit the painter, knocking him from the ladder. As storm clouds swirled and lightning struck near him again and again, the painter feared for his life. “Help me, God,” he yelled. “I know I’ve done wrong. What can I do to get a second chance?”

And a voice boomed from heaven: “Re-paint, re-paint … and thin no more!”

Ah yes, the blessing of repentance. When we confess our sins, God is merciful, faithful to forgive us (1 John 1:9). “How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered!” (Psalm 32:1 HCSB).

By God’s grace our sins were cast behind His back and He refuses to remember them anymore (Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 8:12). In the words of an old hymn, “My sins were like a heavy stone God cast and buried in the sea. As east so far from west is thrown, My sins have been removed from me!”

I’ve always appreciated the freshness of a new day. As Christian author and pastor Todd Stocker wrote in Refined: Turning Pain into Purpose, “A sunrise is God’s way of saying, ‘Let’s start again.’”

In a much broader way, we experience this freshness in the sunrise of a new year. Some will make a list of New Year’s resolutions. Others, knowing the dismal results of resolutions in years gone by, will skip the list and simply seek God for a new vision or direction. Perhaps a motivating scripture will keep many on track. Two friends taught me the value of asking the Lord for a “word” to embrace. Last year my word was God-confidence. The word inspired me to create a new ministry, trusting God for strength and wisdom.

This side of heaven, our Maker understands our weaknesses and He is the God of the second chance. And the third. And many more.

Repentance. Confession. Forgiveness. A fresh start. Those fresh beginnings allow for daily choices to draw closer to God, and to obey Him fully and bring Him glory as we become more like Jesus. It’s all possible because of God’s grace.

Have you thanked God for His grace and the countless ‘re-do’s in your own life?

The Ranks of the Bleary-Eyed

By Liz Cowen Furman –

As a child, I never understood why my Mom and Dad were such sleepyheads on Christmas morning. Then we had kids, and my husband and I joined the ranks of the bleary-eyed. (All despite heroic attempts to get everything done before midnight). Yet even in my sleep-deprived state, I could not believe the joy it gave me to watch our kids’ faces as they peered at the gifts under the tree. It was as though their smiles and delighted squeals transported me back to my own childhood Christmas mornings, only better.

One year, in a feeble effort to get more sleep, Dave tied a rope to the doorknob of the boys’ room and pulled it across the hall closing it in our door so that they couldn’t open theirs until we opened ours. We laughed ‘till we cried when the boys woke at 5:00 a.m. and couldn’t get their door open. You should have heard the ruckus. We still laugh about that every Christmas.

When I was a youngster, my parents gave the countdown and my sisters and I tore into the gifts all at once. Dave’s family took a different approach that once I adjusted to, I love also.

Here’s how it worked. Christmas music drifted through the room, everyone munched on gooey homemade cinnamon rolls and the adults sipped coffee, as the boys sorted and handed out the packages. Then, one at time, starting with the youngest, the opening began. It was such fun seeing what everyone received AND their reactions.

The smallest in the group could play with their gifts and their stocking contents that we all opened at once before we began, while the older ones carried on with the opening. The result was a lovely, relaxed family time punctuated by a few great laughs when someone would open one of Papa’s goofy gag gifts. We still practice this method today with our nearly grown children and whoever we are blessed to have under our roof on Christmas morn.

I never understood why, if it is Christ’s birthday, we get the presents. So, when our kids were little, we started a new tradition. We all wrote what we were giving to Jesus on a card to put in His stocking on the mantel. After all the gifts were opened, someone would read His last (He is the oldest). Notes like the one Micah wrote when he was about eight:

Dear Jesus,

For Christmas for You I bought a present for the family we adopted through Angel Tree.

Love, Micah

I loved those days when our kids were little, but having adult kids has its merits also. Like the fact that because they are so tired when they come home from college, we practically have to drag them out of bed on Christmas morning.

The traditions we kept over the years with our boys have become my fondest memories of the season. Like Baby Jesus’ birthday party and white elephant gift exchange on Christmas Eve or gingerbread house making parties.

When people whine that Christmas decorations are going up in the stores too soon, I’m thrilled. It means my kids will soon be home and that we will be celebrating my best friend Jesus’ birthday. What could be better? Merry Christmas!

Giving All—Mind, Body and Brownies

By Rhonda Rhea –

My workout routine for today: stirred brownie batter. It was really thick brownie batter too. So thick I’m probably going to need a nap. Right after I eat this brownie.

I was contemplating being out of shape the other day as I pulled out my new gym membership card. I should explain here that my new gym membership card isn’t nearly so much about my workout routine as it is my imagination. But I figure even if I don’t have an active lifestyle, at least I do have an active imagination. So there’s that. Now if I can only teach myself to eat imaginary brownies. Yeah, not very likely, that.

Still, pretty sure I’ll eventually need to do something about all these layers insulating my abs. Disturbing as it is, each layer is about the consistency of brownie batter. Like parfait gone terribly wrong. Ew.

Didn’t I read somewhere I could “think” myself thin? In that vein, I think I’ll plan some imaginary cardio for later this afternoon. Then again, for all of us who plan to “think” our exercise, abs of batter will probably always be our buns of steel.

While we’re thinking about it, how about a reminder to put more than just thought into our faith life? An intellectual exercise alone will do about as much for our spiritual well-being as imaginary exercise will do for us physically.

Maybe you’ve read Romans 12: 1-2 even more times than I’ve dodged my workouts. I read it routinely. And though I read it routinely, it’s always a heart-charger. Like spiritual cardio, this passage so often becomes a faith workout routine for my heart and mind: “Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” (HCSB).

That’s the kind of spiritual cardio that is truly heart-changing. I’m reminded here to present my body, brownies and all. And I’m reminded to let my mind be renewed too. Both are exercises of obedience. Both are exercises of faith. The Lord wants our bodies. He wants our minds. He wants us heart, soul—absolutely all. He wants us in the most complete, scrape-every-part-of-the-bowl way.

Following Him is not merely an intellectual exercise. It’s verified in our sacrifice. It’s at the point of total surrender that we’re free to understand, to “discern,” the “perfect will of God.”

O Lord, may we be ever-ready to give body, mind, heart and soul to you in loving obedience.

As far as the physical workout goes, I’m thinking one of the things I should exercise is better judgment. Yesterday I stood up, yawned, then totally counted that as my yoga. I don’t even do yoga. Not to mention, after that I figured I’d earned a brownie.

Blinded by the Light

By Kim Stokely –

For years, as the rest of the world succumbed to the lure of smaller, shinier and showier mobile devices, I resisted change. The last of my friends to get a cell phone, when I did, I made sure it was already archaic.

“Nothing fancy,” I told the guy at the store. “I just want to make calls, not microwave my dinner.”

I hung on to that dinosaur for as long as I could. Until it developed a mind of its own—shutting down and turning off at will. Randomly calling people when I hadn’t pressed their number. When the keyboard got so sticky I couldn’t send texts (the only way my kids communicate with me now) I broke down and entered the technologically advanced age of the smartphone (but only because anything less is now considered a museum quality antique).

And what I feared would happen, has happened.

I am constantly distracted by the shiny.

In my defense, the screen saver shot is of my adorable puppy dog.
How can I not stop to peek at her beautiful brown eyes when they appear on my phone?

And, look there! The little message face is smiling! It means I have a new text! Someone loves me! (Or they want me to pick up milk when I’m out, but the subtext is they care).

I’m not the only one. I’m sure you’ve noticed how everyone seems to keep their heads down as they type away on their mobile devices. No one has a conversation anymore without also checking their email, their Facebook page or crushing some candy. We’ve lost the art of face-to-face communication and instead find our BFFs in chat rooms and social networking sites.

But that’s not where real relationships are found.

Those are found in undistracted quiet times over a cup of coffee while you let a friend rant about a difficult job situation. They also develop in the silences that occur on long walks before the day begins, when the world, and your friend, are just waking up. Hastily written texts can’t take the place of a comforting hug. A Facebook post isn’t the same as a handwritten note.

The same is true of God. If I want a real relationship with Him, a deeper relationship, it means I have to spend time with Him. It means making myself stop playing another round of “Words with Friends” and opening up my Bible. It means not posting a picture of the great lunch I’m eating, but remembering to thank the one who provided it for me. These were things I used to do, but I’ve let myself get blinded by the lights. If I have one resolution for this coming New Year, it’s that I return to the less shiny days of my past and reconnect with God.

My “friends” on Facebook might start to wonder where I’ve gone, but God will know exactly where I am.

Cookin’ Up a Good Life

By Dawn Wilson –

Ask my family. I’m not a good cook. I’m a good baker. I’m a cookie pro. But the other stuff—nope.

Mud pies are more delectable than my beef casserole. My husband’s dinner beverage of choice is Alka-Seltzer. My sons refer to our smoke detector as “Mom’s oven timer.”

I’ve managed better in recent years. Holiday dinners now consist of Costco ready-mades.

Although my family remembers my cooking adventures with exclamations of “Yikes!” or “Oh, wow!” (and “wow” is not meant to be positive), they have other memories of home that more than make up for my recipe experiment “catastrophes.”

Looking back, I think my sons had a pretty good life, and our granddaughters are getting healthy servings of the good life, too.

By “the good life,” I don’t mean everything was peachy-keen. We weren’t “rolling in the dough,” and we had more than our share of problems; but there was something that held us together like that stuff that makes bread sticky.

No, it was someone … God.

God is the not-so-secret ingredient that helped us respond to each other in love. He showed us how to stay on mission as a family. We took Matthew 6:33 seriously: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (ESV).
The “all these things” included our food, shelter, and clothing—the basic necessities of life. Though others may not agree with our analysis, we felt rich because God was our Blessed Provider. We observed some other families with far more material possessions who struggled with their relationships, were never happy, and always in conflict or discontent. We knew we had it good.

As our sons matured, they realized how unique our family was compared to the many they saw in the world. I kept reminding them, “Knowing God makes a difference.” They saw other families suffer the consequences of making wrong choices—many of them falling apart in divorce or alienation. Then my boys compared others’ lifestyles to how we tackled stresses with the truth of God’s Word and practiced love and faithfulness. They understood the difference.

Along the way, God threw in some surprise adventures, like ministry opportunities as a family in Canada, and community holiday activities that filled our hearts as we honored the Lord.

Yes, in seeking God we enjoyed such rich blessing. The “all these things” meant so much more to us than possessions. We experienced the guidance of the Scriptures, a loving and supportive church family, encouraging friendships in Christ, and the joy to cooperate with God as He changed all of our hearts.

We know the “good life” doesn’t come from our good works, but from God’s good mercy and grace. It’s all about God’s good work in us (Philippians 1:6). His recipe for cookin’ up an amazing life can’t be beat.

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