One Simple Statement

Recovering from a broken pelvis, my 88-year-old mother in law, in one simple statement, reminded me last night of an important reason to pray for other people when she said:

“You have to pray when you can

because when you’re really sick,

you rely on other people to pray for you.”

“Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon.

In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out”

(Ephesians 6:13-18 MSG).

Walk-Through Visitor?

School teachers dread the walk-through, an annual evaluation that occurs when an administrator walks through the classroom with the intent of assessing teacher performance and instruction. In some schools, a form is filled out, boxes are checked, and an assessment is recorded in a permanent file. Often walk-throughs occur at the least opportune moment – disastrous times when a boy is stuck by his ears in a desk, or a girl who has fallen asleep is drooling on her paper, or a child decides to hide behind the teacher’s podium! Definitely not at times when things are going textbook perfect. Which is the point, I guess. To see how prepared we actually are to handle the unexpected and unplanned!

I can’t plan for a walk-though at my job, but I can prepare for company who comes once a year to visit us in our home. I thoroughly clean my house – inside and outside. I organize drawers and closets, wipe out the cabinets and replace towels. I buy new candles, and I cook like Paula Deen. Well, maybe not. In the garden, I deadhead the roses, pull weeds, and plant rosemary. I want our home and yard to be as clean and fragrant as possible so I prepare as thoroughly as I possibly can and pray all goes well.    

I also carefully plan and prepare and pray for our annual summer Bible study sponsored by Manna of God, a charity in which I’m involved. In reality, I pray more and study more and plan more as I prepare for this extra special event. More than I normally do. I admit it.  

Recently, the writing of Oswald Chambers reminded me that Jesus didn’t call his disciples to get to the other side, but he called them to get in the boat where they had to battle the waves and face their fears. He called them to a place where they were unprepared. A place they didn’t plan on being. And when they were frightened and worried and at their wits' end, that’s when they saw him -- walking on the turbulent water toward them -- not beckoning to them from the other side.   

Luke 12:40 tells us that we “must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when (we) do not expect him.” Jesus will return again, but he’s also present now, and regardless of the unprepared, unexpected, or unplanned situations where we find ourselves, he doesn’t just visit or walk through, but he walks on the waves of our lives, however turbulent and frightening, and beckons us to see him standing in our midst. To see he’s the only preparation we need for all that life might bring.   

The Wonder of Bubbles

I remember saying to a friend, “If I could just study the Bible and write all day long, I’d be in hog heaven.” I’m not sure what “hog heaven” means, but you get the idea. I love studying and writing! Then I got a phone call and guess what? Two classes were being added to the curriculum at school:  (1) Bible as in Literature and History, and (2) Creative Writing.  A God thang!

Last year, I took my creative writing class outside to blow bubbles and then write about the experience. If you haven’t seen high school kids playing like little kids, you’re missing something special! To discover and play with the wonder of a child after living in the world of peers and pressure is the simple definition of joy. Freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors were dancing, laughing, hollering, and frolicking with the sheer exuberance of having fun. Fun in high school?  I, for one, couldn’t teach without it!

The kids were overjoyed with the miracle of how something so beautiful can come from something as common as soap. And that inspired them to write and write and write, oblivious to the flies, the ants, and the cows who were also occupying the field where we played. It was a perfect day for our creative writing class all because of soap.

As I watched them that day, God spoke to my heart and I thought, “That’s how we should be with God!”

Each day, he gives us the gift of what seems common and unimportant, yet in his unfathomable greatness, invites us to see more for there is always more when it’s God. In fact, sometimes it’s “immeasurably more than” we can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).

How excited God must be when we rouse ourselves out of our daily existence and exclaim and marvel with child-like wonder at the miracle who is God. To discover joy in the soap of our day. The powerful significance of who He is in even in the midst of what might seem like a common life.

The kids were totally absorbed with loving the bubbles, so immersed in the moment that they weren’t even distracted by the fact that they were in school, their least favorite place to be. The last place many of them wanted to be.  Instead, they were mesmerized by the wonder of bubbles in the midst of the reality of their lives.

Oh, to be engrossed in discovering the wonder of God.  To sing and jump and dance and drift and float and waltz with the bubbles. Not just on bubble day, but in every day. That one day, however, will always remind me to look deliberately and listen intently and not miss a thang! To laugh for the joy of being able to laugh and to live for the miracle of being able to live.

My students in AP English class repeatedly ask me, “Mrs. Bader, do we have to analyze? Can’t we just read and enjoy the story?”

Oh, yes, let’s enjoy the story of our lives! Let’s observe and react and draw near and be overwhelmed! Let’s enjoy the wonder! And also remember that just as bubbles can leave a mess, our lives can be messy, too. But God is with us even in the midst of the messy parts. And that, too, is part of the wonder of God.

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,

And they will call him Immanuel”–

which means, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23 NIV).

Situational Irony

I am loud, but I don’t like noise; I like it quiet, but I teach in a noisy school.

And I married a man who doesn’t hear very well, a man who needs the volume of the television or the radio turned up as loud as it can go. Not just loud, but exceedingly loud. Or he can’t hear. A few years ago, we bought headphones so he can listen to the news and Star Trek and all his old movies without blasting me out of the house. By the way, I think his lack of hearing is good for our marriage. We’ve made it almost 33 years!

I am loud, but I don’t like noise; I like it quiet, but I’m married to a man who is not quiet. He doesn’t talk a lot, but he moves in a loud manner, walks in a loud manner, shops in a loud manner. He’s a big man. He makes his presence known. I like it quiet, but I love my husband who doesn’t do quiet. And when he’s not home, his absence leaves a quietness that makes me miss his noise even more.  

Once, before he retired from the bank, he looked out his office window and saw me shopping in a store across the parking lot, so he got on the bank’s intercom and loudly yelled, "Don’t let her in the store!” He thought he was funny; I thought he was loud and embarrassing, but I still loved him. And thought he was cute.

Even my husband’s snoring is loud and keeps me awake at night. But ironically, when he isn’t here, the lack of loud snoring also keeps me awake. Go figure.

What is that? Maybe nothing, maybe something. Or maybe the real definition of irony is that God has lots of irons in the fire regardless of our situation. Always teaching us a lesson. God is omniscient, so He knows. And that's enough for me. I don’t have to figure it all out. Maybe it’s just life. And noisy or not, it’s good.

Hair Dye Day

Have you ever noticed how God sends a person into your life at exactly the time you needed him? Or her? Someone who has gone through what you’ve gone through or messed up like you’ve done? Maybe not the exact situation, but certainly a similar one. Another person who gets it.

Yesterday was hair day -- the day I set aside every few months to have my hair cut and colored -- a day which always reminds me of another time, years ago, when I was dying my hair and not doing a great job of it.

It was the day of the annual Bluebonnet Ball, and I decided at the last minute that a speedy touch-up was needed on my hair. As I’d done for 25 years or so, using the same dye and in the same way -- even the directions haven’t changed in all those years -- I quickly colored my hair. No big deal.

After I dressed in my black Jovani evening gown, carefully fixed my freshly-dyed brown hair, clasped my white pearl necklace around my neck, and got in the car, I glanced in the mirror one last time and then gasped and screamed and overall went berserk for around my forehead was an extremely dark, very noticeable stain that was none other than hazelnut hair dye! How I missed it was a mystery. But as consumed as I was for becoming as beautiful as I could be, I failed to pay attention to the obvious, and there was the stain for the world to see. Or 500 people at a charity ball in Bellville, anyway. Freaking out because Ian wouldn’t let me go back home to fix it, I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed even harder with whatever I could find while my handsome grey-haired husband -- with thick, beautiful, Samson-like hair and without a stain around his forehead -- laughed and laughed and laughed all the way to the ball.

Unable to remove most of the stain, I tried to cover it up with even more make-up and quickly improvised a new hairdo and somehow -- probably because Ian was sending up a quick SOS to God -- we had a fabulous time as I eventually began to see how funny the situation was. So instead of hiding the tell-tale dye, I showed the stain to my friends, laughingly telling them my hair dye story! Some of them thought it was funny; some didn’t. Oh, well. Ian was out of the doghouse, which is all that mattered!

I covered up my grey hair because I didn’t want it to show, which created an even bigger problem than my grey hair!

Later, I realized that sometimes I do the same thing in other areas of my life. I try to cover up pain with jokes and heartache with clichés as I want to hide what I prefer others not to see. But how can I help someone who is hurting if I pretend I’ve never been in pain? How do I help when I hide what is real?

However, when I quit trying to hide my mistakes, my heartaches, my pain -- the realities of my life -- then I help other people who need, maybe at that exact moment, to know someone else understands how tough it can be. By sharing what I think I need to hide, I'm a friend with whom they don’t have to pretend.    

We do not serve an invisible God. He is visible to us through the lives of each other. By sharing our stories, even those that are painful, we see God in the lives of each other. The God who heals. The God who doesn’t hide.  

Today I’m grateful for all the people who have shared their own stories of hospital pain. Who haven’t covered up how hard it was to watch their loved ones suffer.

As one of my favorite inspirational writers, John Ortberg, says, “He can take what you have to offer and make a difference that matters for eternity.” For all of you who have shared your heart-felt stories with us during these past weeks while Ian's mother has been in the hospital, please know that your experiences have reminded us, especially during this Christmas season, what Christ’s name, Emmanuel, really means. God with us. Regardless of how painful life can be.