Text me, O LORD!

 What?!

“Text me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind;

for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.”

(Psalm 27:2-3 NIV).

I read the verse and jumped! Just for a moment, I really thought the scripture was asking God to text me.

But maybe there’s a point there.

Maybe the “test me” David prayed for can be seen in my daily texting.

By examining my texts, is it obvious that my heart and mind are focused on God?

By examining my texts, is it obvious I’m glorifying God?

By examining my texts, is it obvious that God’s place is first in my life?

Or not?

Mmmm….think I need this verse ever before me today, as I remember to “walk continually” in God’s truth and in his love.

God doesn’t text me, but he certainly reads mine.

And it'll be obvious by the end of the day whether I'm passing that test.

"A Rose by any Other Name"

Deep red, delicate pink, vibrant coral, subtle apricot – the colors waved at me from the roadside nursery, enticing me to tap the brakes and turn quickly into the parking lot and then welcoming me into the quaint, yet lively cottage garden shining in the morning sun. Anticipating the treasures I would see, I moseyed along crunchy stony paths, drifting through multihued flower beds as the beauty of God’s world took root in my heart and a gigantic smile planted itself on my face. God created color, and what pleasure it brings.

And then I saw them. Peeking out from the sun-loving cascade of  purple Duranta and the river of New Gold Lantana, the dainty island of orange and peach and fading pink blooms happily beckoned me to stop and marvel, and in less than 5 minutes, I was the joyful owner of a small, sweet, lovely Coral Drift rose.  

I wanted the perfect rose to plant in my garden as a reminder of the lovely ladies at the First United Methodist Church in Hempstead, Texas, and I found it.

Tucked into small spots in the garden, the Coral Drift is a repeat bloomer, a vibrant salmon-tinged rose that brightens garden walks and paths as it spills into the landscape and fills in empty places lacking in color. From the Knock-out Rose family, the Drift Roses resist disease, refuse to wilt in tough Texas summers, and rally during cold winters. A rose by any other name should be as blessed.

Oblivious to its beauty, the Coral Drift rose had whispered my name, and now she’s dancing in my cottage garden, an elegant reminder of God's love that drifted and hovered and surrounded me as I walked through the doors of a tiny, Texas church carefully planted in God's earthly garden.

And when I rock on my back porch, the Coral Drift Rose reminds me to pray for a group of women whose joy lights up a room and whose fragrance of love welcomes those who enter their lives.

“…that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;” (William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2)

It Could Have Been Any Field!

 (Photo Credit  -- Valley of Elah -- by Reid Bader)

"It could have been any field, anywhere, just like out here,” and Reid waved his arm in the direction of our back pasture. “There were no tourists, no signs, no markers to designate that anything special had happened. It was simply a field like any other.” 

Yet the field Reid stood on was a special spot for it was the place where a fearless young shepherd named David picked up five stones and fought a boastful, nearly 10-ft-tall giant named Goliath.  

Our oldest son had returned from a trip to the Holy Land, and I asked him that morning, as he whisked through our house, to share one moment he remembered from his latest travels.

That was the moment he shared.

And it’s a moment we’ve read about for thousands of years.

But it could have happened on any field.

A simple remark, a profound thought. For God fights daily on the fertile fields of our lives, too, and we have our own stories to tell. Stories of battles against cancer and victories over fear and struggles with forgiveness and fights against lost hope. Stories that matter. Stories told with raw honesty that encourage others.   

“David said to Saul, ‘Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.’”

Like the battles fought on the field of our own lives, our stories, too, can help others not to lose heart when faced with tough times.  

David’s story still encourages me today. Ours can do the same for someone else.

³² David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

³³ Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.

 ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him (50).

1 Samuel 17

Snickers, Ghirardelli Milk & Caramel Squares, and Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Frosting (Writing Lists #3)

I love to read, and I have an eclectic list of writers who are on my on-call list, authors I depend on to “do it for me” and keep me entertained and interested, yet challenged and inspired, writers like CS Lewis, Mark Buchanan, Frank Peretti, Frederick Buechner, Anne Lamott, and then there’s Robert Parker when I want a quick fiction fix with fast dialogue. Most writers I enjoy reading are a strange and wonderful menagerie, willing to open their veins and bleed, risking humiliation for the sake of honesty. I learn from them and ponder their thoughts, I acquiesce with some and are inflamed by others, and they’ve influenced my life; however, it’s not the writers I read but the people I love and who love me -- my husband and children and family and good friends -- who impact me the most, for they are the ones with whom I’ve shared my life.

John Ortberg, another lovely writer with a free-flowing, extremely clear style says that God “can take what you have to offer and make a difference that matters for eternity.” The value of who we are doesn’t stop when our life on this earth does, and that’s another valid reason to write:  to leave behind a written legacy of an examined life, the life we’ve actually lived which isn’t necessarily a list of lessons learned, but a life of moments shared. And the beauty of writing is that we have control over what is seen for we have freedom to tear it up or chew it up or set it on fire or whatever we want, which is pretty awesome considering how little control we have over, well, almost anything!

Writing lists excavates the forgotten, nudging us to prod deeper than the surface, shoving aside the obvious and discovering the omnipresence of God in what was once a fleeting moment, an epiphany which is, by far, the icing on the cake.

And speaking of icing, food is a great go-to for generating a list. For example, we can list our favorite desserts or favorite ice cream or favorite fruits or favorite Mexican food restaurants or favorite comfort foods. We can list the weirdest foods we’ve ever eaten, the healthiest foods or the opposite! An endless list of possibilities, food-listing provides.

As we create those lists, forgotten memories will resurface.  Sometimes, one particular food will grab my attention, and other times I’ll meander until one emerges louder than the rest, but as I list, I’ve learned that’s it more fun to let go, allowing the writer in me to roam for that’s where the surprises are. At times, that discovery is a delicious detail; at times it’s harder to chew. Regardless, it’s the flavor of my life. The bitter and the sweet and the sour and the salty.

For example, today I’m going to list my favorite chocolate treats, mainly because I haven’t had any sugar in awhile except for Dove dark chocolate, which is another story…

I really like…

1. Snickers
2. Ghirardelli Milk & Caramel Squares
3. Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Frosting in a can
4. Aunt Ruthie’s caramel chocolate brownies
5. Blue Bell Triple Chocolate Ice Cream
6. A Hershey chocolate bar – plain, no nuts
7. Smucker’s Hot Fudge Topping on Blue Bell vanilla ice cream
8. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
9. Hot Toll House Chocolate Chunk Cookies  

And now, instead of choosing one, I’m going to sample several just like I do when Ian brings me Valentine candy, nibbling one piece, then putting it back in the box before finally discovering the candy I want to eat. And if I need help, I might ask myself:

1. When was the last time I ate it?
2. Do I like eating it alone or with someone?
3. Do I woof it down or suck on it or nibble a bit at a time?
4. How much of it can I put in my mouth at one time?
5. How much can I eat before I want to stop?
6. Do I like to drink something when I eat it? If so, what?  
7. Does writing about chocolate make me want to eat it – duh?!

And then as I meander through the chocolate maze, I’ll eventually tumble into a moment to savor, not just the Lucy moments that make us laugh, but the difficult and dirty ones, too. And in that smorgasbord of memories, moments that have made up my life will reveal themselves -- my sister licking her Snickers and snickering at me since I had long devoured mine. Scraping the icing off the entire chocolate cake and hearing my mom’s furious screeching. Going downstairs in the middle of the night and scooping dark chocolate Duncan Hines frosting out of the can with a cold metal spoon, a furtive activity that would have kicked me off The Biggest Loser!

Yet for all the sweet memories, there are others, too, not so sweet but meaningful and important and valuable, moments for me to chew on first and share later. Or not. For now, it’s enough that I bravely face them alone, asking questions and contemplating the answers. For example, when did food become such an issue anyway? When did I cross the line between enjoying it and then worrying about it? How old was I when I began feeling guilty about eating?

These questions are worth contemplating, for they matter to me; to anyone else, who knows? But if I’m inspired to write them, I will, bleeding and crying and coming to terms at times with thoughts once unuttered and actions not understood.

I asked my freshman students the other day, “What goes at the end of your introductory paragraph?” One young girl responded, “A period!”   I was expecting the logical answer, “a thesis statement,” but what I got was the literal, an answer I’ve continued to ponder. Because she’s exactly right. Sometimes you have to stop, put a period at the end of that part of your life, and then get on to the next thing. And for me, the therapy of writing, the praying to God, and the finding of peace is yet one more way I see God’s active involvement in my life.   

And the icing on the cake is that it might help someone else, too. For the fragrant legacy of our lives doesn’t end when we leave this earth. Maybe one day I’ll have a young granddaughter struggling with food issues and she’ll read about the time her grandmother once ate a gallon of Blue Bell ice cream or woke up with a dead peanut butter sandwich on her pillow or had to weigh in each week on a platform scale before her drill team peers. And maybe knowing my struggles, she will benefit from the ponderings of my heart for God can take anything and use it for his glory. Even chocolate!

Snickers, Ghirardelli, and Duncan Hines – oh my! Follow the chocolate dessert road, and you might be surprised where it goes!

Why write? (Writing Lists #2, continued)

 Listing, Listing, and Listing

List-making provides a place to begin writing, generating ideas and thoughts and memories that provide even more ideas and thoughts and memories that provide even more…So whenever the words and ideas and inspriation cease to flow, I list, list, list, and then list some more.

Here’s a suggestion for today:

Let's make a list of everyone who has loved us.

Then when we've finished writing our list, let's choose one person on that list and write whatever crosses our mind about that person and our relationship with him or her. Before I begin, I ask God to direct me and surprise me, too. After all, He loves us and knows who loves us, and He also knows what’s in our hearts.

If your list surprises you because of its length, then that is something to write about, too, for writing truth is richer than anything we can make up. Write it real, not superficial. 

I pray that you’ll laugh and smile and even cry as you remember those who have loved you.

And I’d love to hear how the list-making is going!