A Tweet-sized Thought

It only took one act of disobedience to throw this whole world into its fallen condition. Will that fact change how you respond to the next temptation?

Routine of Bygone Days [life before Bryan started college]

My alarm clock buzzes, the room is still dark. I turn off the alarm and lie still on my bed as my eyes begin to adjust to the darkness. A few minutes pass before I hear the faint buzzing of another alarm clock in my brother’s room. I wait and listen. His door opens, the bathroom door closes. Soon it opens again and I hear his feet in the hallway. He appears at my door and he sniffs. I sniff back in response and the day begins. 

I join Bryan on his way down the stairs for breakfast. No words have been exchanged yet. Our sniffs sufficed for “good morning.” He arrives a few steps ahead of me, flips on the kitchen light, then proceeds to get out the things he needs for breakfast. Meanwhile I stand squinting in the doorway of the kitchen, temporarily blinded by the light, wondering why Bryan’s eyes never need to adjust like mine do. Once my eyes have adjusted I get out my cereal and start eating. On a cold day we wrap ourselves in blankets and stand over the floor vents as we eat.

Breakfast finished, I leave Bryan downstairs studying his Bible and head back upstairs to tackle the first bit of my schoolwork. A couple of hours pass and things are going smoothly, but it’s now approaching that   time of the morning when life gets very sleepy. I begin the struggle to stay awake. If I were smart, I would get up and walk around at this point to wake myself up. But I’m so comfortable. It would be a shame to change that. So I convince myself that I have the willpower to stay awake just as I am. I feel myself drifting off and I shake my head a little. This happens a few times. Finally I decide it would be better just to give way to my sleepiness and take a short nap. That feels so good! I wake up refreshed and ready to tackle some more of the day’s responsibilities.

At 10am, on the dot, Bryan shows up at my room. It’s time to practice violin and he is my “personal instructor.” He tells me what to play; instructs me about how to make it better; makes me play the same line of music over and over and over again until I get it perfectly; encourages me by telling me that if I practice well there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to play this piece of music better than most students do. He makes me work on all the things I don’t want to work on, and I pretend like everything he tells me to do is the end of the world (at the same time making it obvious that I don’t really think it’s as bad as I’m making it out to be).

As soon as 11am comes Bryan jumps up from his seat and runs down the stairs with me at his tail. It’s lunch break! He arrives at the kitchen ahead of me and opens the refrigerator door (perfectly timed) so that it slams in my face as I enter the kitchen. I was expecting it, so I catch it before it hits me. Bryan pulls out the “heggs” (eggs) and makes his typical “hegg sandwich” for lunch. I find something else in the refrigerator to eat and get going on that. And of course it’s necessary to end every lunch with a cup of cereal. 

On a nice day we stand on the back porch looking over the railing as we eat. We might comment on such an occasion, “Man, it’s “hebold” out here!” The word “hebold” finds it’s origin from the phrase “Hebold a Dice Nay.” or “Behold a nice day.” 

The school-day is about half over at this point. But the other notable events of a typical day-in-the-life, such as “vises” and “tinking sessions” and of course the 3pm “rejuthavidge”, have already been chronicled elsewhere on this blog. I’ll spare you and myself the time it would take to write them again here. 

Those old days were great, but I can’t say I miss them. These current days are just as good, only different. All of this makes me wonder what a-day-in-the-life might look like in the future. It’s interesting to think of looking back on these current days in just the same way I’m looking back now. What are those little routine things I do now that will be so memorable later I wonder?

The Cost of Obedience

For the Levites left their pasture lands and their property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from serving as priests to the LORD. He set up priests of his own for the high places, for the satyres, and for the calves which he had made. Those from all the tribes of Israel who set their heart on seeking the LORD God of Israel followed them to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers.” 2 Chronicles 11:14-16

To me this example from 2 Chronicles of obedience to God, whatever the cost, is beautiful, convicting, and very encouraging.

For most of my life as a believer I’ve been audacious enough to suppose that, if God were to call me to go somewhere, anywhere, to serve Him, I would be willing. I certainly hope I would be. But I’m not looking for a pat on the back here. In fact, the very reason I’m writing this is because I see instances in the recent past where I’ve failed on a smaller scale to give up what obedience required for me to give up.

I’m thinking of those times that I’ve been unwilling to give up a bit of my time to serve my mom when I know she needs my help. Or those times I’ve held back from bringing up the gospel face-to-face with people, because I was afraid of messing up a shallow friendship, or losing my approval. Or I’m thinking of those times that I’ve preferred not to give up the ease and comfort of talking with certain friends in order to converse with those ones who not as easy talk with.

Sisters and brothers, these kinds of things are what “taking up your cross” is all about. Jesus was not just talking about the big things like leaving pasture lands. We’re not faced with those things every day. Jesus was talking about denial of self in every form, big or small. He was talking about the daily stuff.

And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

It’s amazing to see how helpful such a small passage tucked away in 2 Chronicles has been to me when it comes to battling my selfishness. I hope you find it as helpful as I have.

My Type-O Personality (Continued)

When I was three, during family worship we were singing the Hymn, I Love Thy Kingdom Lord and arrived at the following verse:

I love Thy church, O God.
Her walls before Thee stand,
Dear as the apple of Thine eye,
And graven on Thy Hand.

I loudly and lustily sang out, “Dear as the apple of Thine eye, and gravy on Thy hand”! The family, of course, thought it was hilarious.

Much more recently, I was at the dentist getting my teeth cleaned, and the lady asked me if I lived in the country. Any level-headed person would have immediately thought of open fields and  . . . maybe chickens or something. But for some reason my immediate thought was that she meant the country: North America. I have no idea why I came to this conclusion, but I did none-the-less and answered accordingly. A minute or two later I reviewed the conversation (there’s nothing much else to do when you’re laying there with your mouth wide open) and became convinced of my mistake. Considering that I had dental instruments in my mouth, and that it had been at least a minute since she had asked the question, I decided to “let bygones, be bygones.”

I’m sure everyone has experienced the embarrassment of reading something incorrectly out loud. I can never read the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts without remembering the time I nervously read, “Now it was about three years [the text only said hours] later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened.” If you know the story, you know how ridiculous that would be.

And then there’s also the time we were studying Romans in youth Bible study. I read Romans 9:2 which says, “I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart,” and it somehow rolled out of my mouth as, “unceasing grease” instead of “unceasing grief.”

I worked a job over December last year at a company that’s connected with UPS (or at least they’re connected with them during the holiday season. I’m not really sure what they do normally). At one point I had to call a truck repair service to set up an appointment for one of my truck driver teams to get their tire fixed. This was something I hadn’t had to do before this point, so I was a little nervous when I made the call. Right before I called I had asked the driver to give me the tire size information and she had given me some numbers that she “thought” was what I needed to know.

So I’m calling this repairman, 1.) not really sure if the information I had in front of me was really tire-size information or not, 2.) having no clue of the intelligent way to read the information out loud if what I had in front of me was indeed the information that I was hoping it was, and 3.) conscious that my boss would be listening to my side the conversation, because he was somewhat guiding me through this process. (As I said before, this was the first time I’d ever had to do this.)

As soon as the repairman said hello, I started explaining the situation. He was pretty silent on the other end as I did this. After I’d said the basic info, I gave him a more obvious pause, expecting him to ask questions or to say something. When he didn’t, I boldly proceeded with the tire-size information I had gotten from the driver. I prefaced it with some statement like, “I’m not exactly sure if this is the information you need” and ended with something like, “Does that sound right?” When he didn’t reply to this question, I knew something was up. So I tried the natural thing: “Hello? Hello?” No answer. I hung up and told my boss that we must have gotten disconnected or something. He told me to wait and that he would try calling this time. I listened to him pick up the phone, dial the number, listen for a minute and then hang up. Then he informed me that I had just talked to the answering machine.

My Type-O Personality (I think you’ll identify)

Have you ever felt like your life is just one big typo? I never have, but I thought I’d ask anyway—since I thought of it.  Maybe you’ve at least felt that you have a unique ability when it comes to bloopering and blundering? I don’t know that I’ve ever felt exactly that way either, but that’s closer.

These questions aren’t getting me to my paragraph-destination as quickly as I thought they would. Point is, I’ve made a number of stupid mistakes in my day and I have a list to prove it. They’re mostly small things—the kind that you revisit over and over and over (and over) and over again in your head, thinking of the numerous ways you could have avoided them or half mended them at the time. And the worst of it is, most of them never really mattered in the first place. Ah! You’re smiling. I knew you’d identify.

So I sat up last night compiling this list that highlights my abundant lack (if you can have an abundant lack) of sophistication, and I found I had even less of it (sophistication, that is) than I thought I had previously.

Did I ever tell you about the time that a few friends and I were getting ready to record a song on Audacity? We decided to lay down a metronome beat first. Simple. We would just put the metronome up next to the microphone and hit record. The only thing left would be to wait, listen, and be quiet. Except, we didn’t factor in how difficult it can be to stay quiet in a situation like this. You know how it is: everything funny is ten times funnier, even if it wasn’t funny. Mid-way through I was struck with a brilliant idea. If I were to turn off the microphone while we were recording, we could be as loud as we wanted! I acted on this thought immediately, and almost as immediately had a second thought. Okay, I had a second thought as soon as they asked me what in the world I was doing. So I may not be the brightest star in the sky. Especially after 9pm. Or at least there’s a rumor spreading around town that I turn into a pumpkin at about 9:05 every night. I let you be the judge on that one.

And of course there are those absolutely unintelligent things that I’ve said, which are the worst. Like the time my voice teacher listened to me say that 6×2 is 14. Yes, I seriously said that! And to make matters worse, this happened just last year. I did know better, I promise. It was one of my first lessons and I was a bit nervous. When she put me on the spot my brain completely froze up. It was so embarrassing! Talk about giving homeschooling a bad name.

Once, when my dad’s car was new, my neighbor-friend’s mom asked me what kind of car we had bought. I told her that I couldn’t remember, but I thought it was either a Toyota or a Camry. Little did I know that it was actually a “Toyota Camry.” She told me as much, and I took the liberty of mentally supplying the, “you dummy,” to her sentence, whether she meant it or not.

And once upon a time when I was young enough that my mom was drying my hair for me, she made some comment about my hair and asked what kind of conditioner I had used. When I told her I had used “hairball” conditioner, of course that didn’t sound right. So I made a trip to the bathroom to retrieve the herbal conditioner.

My brother and I used to attend quite a few classical concerts, back when we were young enough to get in free. Friends of Chamber Music still gives that sweet deal to students 18 and under. So we went regularly enough to these that we felt a bit artsy, or at least at home with the artsy crowd. Until the time one lovely, soothing piece of music was interrupted by the most glaring, bone-rattling, ugly tune you’ve ever heard, coming from . . . my purse! I totally forgot about that cell phone my mom handed me when we walked out the door. I dumbly, furiously, hopelessly and helplessly clutched at my purse hoping to stifle the noise. But it was no use. Bryan was forced to come to the rescue in a dramatic way. He grabbed my purse from my hand and sprinted through the door of the auditorium to safety (cell phone still ringing all the while.) They had some free snacks and juice for after the concert, but we didn’t stick around.

You know I’m hopeless when I make a biscuit-topped chicken pot pie and accidentally leave out the chicken, and the cream of chicken soup. Plus the biscuits were doughy. And of course I picked a day to do it when Mr. Burchett was eating with us. It’s one of those recipes you ought not to be able to mess up—all you really do is open up cans and assemble—but I failed miserably.

This is not even half of my list. I may continue it some other time.

By the way, feel free to fess-up to your own blunders in a comment. I’d enjoy reading them.

Or does my audience not blunder?

Unceasing Prayer

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about Paul’s simple imperative, “Pray without ceasing.” I’ve heard it for years, but never seriously tried to put it into practice until recently. It’s going well . . . ish. Honestly, I’m still pretty bad at it, but I am getting better. And it’s getting easier and more natural and more joy-filled the longer I work on it. I would love this to be my lifestyle. Imagine how sweet that would be!

I asked a friend of mine to help me think ways to cultivate a lifestyle of unceasing prayer. (Note to self and others: If you want to have a great conversation that’s the way to do it.) We came up with a few ideas like these:

-If you feel thankful, express it. Turn everything positive you see or experience into a prayer of thanksgiving. When you go outside and see the Fall leaves on the ground, thank God for the seasons. When you’re spending an enjoyable evening with your church friends, thank God for the church, friendship, the ability to communicate, food, laughter, the Bible, the examples of Christ-likeness that surround you, and much more.

-When you make a decision, even a smaller one, ask the One who knows best for His counsel first. Sometimes just the act of bringing my small decision before God helps me to realize that I already know the right thing to do. But most importantly, prayer about decisions puts me in that position of seeking what God would desire from me, rather than what would be most convenient for me. I struggle with remembering that those two things don’t always agree.

-Whenever you meditate on Scripture, pray through it. I need a lot of work on this one.

-Keep a humble and needy view of yourself, which is a correct view, and pray accordingly. “I don’t have boldness to speak truth to this person. Give me boldness.” “I can’t understand this text of Scripture, no matter how hard I try, unless you unlock it for me.” “I confess that I don’t have a right view about such-and-such right now. Set my mind back on what’s true.”

-When a person comes to mind, always pray for that person. Mom mentions, “So I guess so-and-so had her surgery yesterday, I wonder how she’s doing.” Cue: pray for her.  Dad says, “Well Laura and Josh are having a good time on their honeymoon I guess.” Cue: pray. I open up my email inbox and discover an email from someone. Well there’s my cue again—it’s time to pray.

-Strategically place things where they will remind you to pray. Example: I put a map of Europe as my computer background to remind me to pray for that continent and the various missionaries and friends that are over there right now.

-More ideas anyone?

Watching the Local News

Please Pray

Felt like I should pass this on to you all. This is a tweet from Paul Washer:

Iranian Pastor Youcef is scheduled for execution tomorrow. Please pray. http://t.co/NByAmZSz

Helough Friends!

I was just reminiscing about old times with Bryan tonight and we referred to these posts of mine from a few years ago:

Bryan/Laura Vocabulary Part 1

Bryan/Laura Vocabulary Part 2

At the suggestion of Bryan, I’m considering writing a part three. We’ve added some words to our vocabulary that you may find interesting. These posts will prepare you for that upcoming post if I end up following through with it, and hopefully entertain you even if I don’t. Enjoy.

Do not lean on your own understanding

The Israelites knew they were not supposed to make a covenant with the nations living in Canaan. They had been told this over and over again. They knew they were supposed to utterly destroy all these nations.

But the Gibeonites, some of the inhabitants of Canaan, were crafty:

They set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended, and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled. They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you are living within our land; how then shall we make a covenant with you?” But they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Then Joshua said to them, “Who are you and where do you come from?” They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of the LORD your God; for we have heard the report of Him and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan who was at Ashtaroth. So our elders and all the inhabitants of out country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them and say to them, “We are your servants; now then make a covenant with us.” This our bread was warm when we took it for our provisions out of our houses on the day what we left to come to you; but now behold, it is dry and has become crumbled. These our wineskins which we filled were new, and behold, they are torn; and these our clothes and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey.’ So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord. Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them , to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. It came about at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living within their land.

Unfortunate, right? But this could have been avoided if they had simply “ask[ed] for the counsel of the LORD.”

Likely they themselves thought they knew well enough what to do, and didn’t feel a need to ask the LORD about it. They felt they had pretty good understanding and wisdom about the situation, so they just went ahead and did what they thought was best, without getting counsel from the LORD.

This stood out to me because I’ve made a lot of decisions in my life the same way as the Israelites did. When I’ve felt like I’ve know what to do, I’ve done it. No need to pray about it. I’m wise enough, right? Prayer, for me, was meant for those times when I’m really not sure what to do. I pray about a decision when I don’t feel wise enough. but the truth is, I’m never wise enough.

This reminds me of proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him
And He will make your paths straight.

Notice the word “all” in both verses. He doesn’t say “Trust in the LORD with some of your heart.” And He doesn’t say to acknowledge Him in just some of your ways.

I want to be one of those people that does this—one of those people who is scared to ever lean on her own understanding. I want to always realize and live in light of the fact that I’m ignorant and stupid, and God is all wise and and ought to be acknowledged in every decision. As of right now, I fail at this all the time.

Meditation on this truth ought to be a turning point for me. I’m excited to see where God is going to take me in this area.