THANKS--FOR THE THORNS?

Got thorns in your life? Like sorrow? Financial troubles? Job challenges (or challenge of unemployment)? Family conflict? People in general who are hard to get along with? Physical or mental health challenges? Whoever said “life is not a bed of roses” must have endured life's stabs and pricks from difficult experiences or people. Some have even worked their “thorn wounds” into books with that saying in the title. I haven't seen one (yet) titled, “Life is a bed of rose petals.” The thorns come with the petals.

Sometimes life seems too full of emotional and physical “jabs.” Some years ago someone jabbed me with negative accusations and nicknames in person, by phone, and by notes and E-mails. The verbal abuse hurt...for a long time. God and I had lots of conversations about forgiving that person.

Here's the truth: thorns are part of living in a fallen world. Roses are lovely to see and smell, but their stems have this “fallen accessory,” called thorns. But be thankful for the thorns? When you live with pain or an incurable physical problem? When you deal with human brokenness (your own or others')?

Maybe instead of complaining about our own “thorn”--whether physical, mental, or spiritual—we need to look around to see how others successfully deal with theirs. I'm regularly reminded of the outlook by a Scotsman named George Matheson (1842-1906). He began going blind at age 17 while studying for the ministry, and a few years later was completely without sight. He loved a woman—and she him—until blindness began. Unable to cope, she broke the engagement. He never married, but with others' help (including a sister who became his “eyes” for reading and writing) he went on to become a respected and beloved minister.

Every time I read this quote from him, I am moved:

My God, I have never thanked You for my thorn. I have thanked You a thousand times for my rose, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensated for my cross, but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Teach me the value of my thorn.

There's a powerful word for such an attitude: surrender. None of us will have a perfect life. “The perfect life” ended in Eden. But in this fallen, wounded world, we can surrender our broken dreams and hurts to God, remembering He is the master “arranger” of all the thorny stems of our lives. And what He can bring out of the pricks and wounds of life's hard places—when lived-out with gratitude and trust—what can become His showcase to the world.

Yes, His beautiful, artfully arranged, life-bouquet.

UNDERCOVER WORK

 “Oh, rats!” In my childhood, anything remotely sounding like a curse abusing God's name was thoroughly discouraged. I think we got away with “Fiddlesticks” (even though it denigrated my future music passion), “Bummer!” or “Rats!” All of which I could have recalled (though refrained from reviving) for a recent household emergency—with the exception of the last. Because watching television isn't my “thing,” my evenings are quiet, often spent reading. So when I heard thumps and bumps and clattering in the ceiling—and there was no chance of the fabled Santa Claus and his four-footed flying helpers being the reason—I knew I had a problem.

Rats roam the neighborhood, probably still insulted that their wonderful Rat City (huge vacant lot behind the fences of homes on my street) was disturbed and banned when developers put up a huge neighborhood of townhouses on the site. Do rats have scouting parties that work in the dark? And how would they get in my attic to have nighttime square-dancing contests that scared me spit-less (more or less)?

Sharing my plight with some friends, we decided the rats had looked for a back door to success—in my case, a tiny chewed-away part of the wood frame of the screened “plug” to my foundation well access. Once under the house, party time! And somehow, the party moved upstairs through walls to my attic. A caring friend came over with eradication supplies (spell that e-RAT-ication) and helped me with the dastardly task. Another brought a bent piece of metal to cover the tiny suspected-chewed entry of the screen's wooden frame. A couple weeks later, the unwelcome clatter faded. I heard a tiny ceiling chunk-e-dunk a couple nights ago, but not the full-fledged square-dancing-romps of previous weeks.

As I considered the tiny access making way for a vermin celebration, I thought of how sin can be just as sneaky. Give sin an inch, and it chews away at a one's character:

Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them. (Ephesians 5:11)

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:5-6)

Disclaimer: I'm not pointing any fingers in writing about this problem. Any Christian faces the threat of spiritual “rats”: “Do not be deceived: bad company corrupts good character” (1 Corinthians 15:33). We don't have to turn up at unsavory places in person. Pushing the “on” button on a computer can take someone to virtual bad places as well. The more someone spends time in such negative places, the more it can erode one's character.

Oddly, mice and rats have been gentrified (made “normal”) through the pens and brushes of cartoonists. Remember the mice who helped Cinderella get ready for her life-changing ball? Or the comic critters with big ears, long tails and vicious dental work who starred in Disney's 2007 cartoon “Ratatouille”? Sorry, not the real world. My unwelcome visitors didn't have names, except maybe “Ugh.” Eradication, not entertaining them, was my aim. Hmm, sounds like spiritual warfare for believers, too....

SDRAWKCAB

My 12-and-under grandsons were having too much fun around the paper and crayons that I keep on a play-area shelf. I had heard them giggling, but that's a better sound that complaining about something. After their “grandma time” that day, I went into their play area and found this little sign—all in backwards printing. Their creative area is right next to a mirrored closet door, so I figured out that they'd written “backwards” (and everything else) well, backwards, and then held it up to the mirror. Snicker, snicker, snicker....

I'm not sure what they meant by “backwards cool”--maybe that I'm not “with-it” with computer games or assembling new and fantastic creations with those little notched plastic blocks. (The ones that start with the letter “L” which are not fun to walk on barefooted....) But (as Grandmas should) I do respond to their presence with adequate supplies of milk, granola bars, cheese sticks, apple slices, or other food items to help them grow big, strong, and smart.

The word “backwards,” unfortunately, has taken on some mean connotations. To call a person “backward” is to imply that they are “diffident” (meaning timid or lacking confidence) and just not “with it” for good relationships with their contemporaries. That bothers me, because “with it” doesn't always align with the behavior God desires that we exhibit in honoring Him. Often, there's an element of rebellion and pride rather than the graciousness that should characterize a Christian.

Here's another way a Christ-follower might look at this little grammar/spelling exercise. Moving forward in the Christian walk means heeding the lessons of a “look back.” That means a sobering look to the First Century when a Bethlehem-born Man left his earthly father's carpentry shop (and his mother, we presume, in the care of his subsequent brothers and sisters) to tell people about a Heavenly Father. And not just tell with life-changing words, but show it through life-changing miracles.

His itinerant ministry—up and down Palestine, and up and down again—shocked folks who thought God's promised Son would come in great, glittery splendor, like an earthly monarch. Not as a regular-looking person with dirt in his worn sandals and dinners with his followers around a camp fire. But there was something about His life and words that lifted people to a forward look—of an eternity with God on the basis of faith, not backwards layers of so-called “good works” which they hoped would cancel out the “bad parts” of their lives.

For peoples steeped in “religious rites” that centered on killing animals as sacrificial gifts, this “faith not works” relationship with God was new and jarring. It just seemed backwards. But it would change a world burdened by trying to work enough “works” to earn God's favor. The “backwards look” requires us to admit our sinfulness. The “forward look” pulls us into a relationship with a loving Father. The transition, spelled backwards, is called “noitavlas”--a silly word, but the true word, salvation, is the point of an honorable, joyful going forward with God.

GLORY AFTER THE SNOW

Besides the golden trumpets of daffodils, or the prayer-cupped petals of tulips, my yard welcomes spring with the tiny blue-star chionadoxa, better known as “Glory of the Snow.” Originally native to the mountains of Western Turkey, this member of the lily family spreads its dainty blue blossoms where the spring sun beams its welcome onto my front yard. Self-propagating, it always surprises and delights me in March as warmer weather crawls into the valley.

When I walked by my patch of these flowers one Sunday after church, I was struck by a truth they illustrated. I had sat with a friend who was widowed before I was. Behind us sat another widow, whose loss is more recent. We are navigating our spiritual “winters” of loss in our own ways. But hope—the spring of spiritual hope—is unfolding in ways unique to each of us.

In a similar way, the hope of new life through faith in Jesus seems to parallel the wakening from winters of sin and discontent. An old hymn, “I Can Hear My Savior Calling,” has been running through my mind lately. (Yes, I am a hymn-lover!) This one dates to 1890, expressing the heart of E.W. Blandy (1844-1907), a British Salvation Army officer who immigrated to an assignment in a rough New York City waterfront slum known as “Hell's Kitchen.” I wonder how many mornings he walked out the door into New York's worst neighborhood claiming that this was the place Jesus had called him to.

The hymn is the only one known to be associated with Blandy. But those who study hymn histories believe it was eventually published in more than 700 places. (One researcher claimed it was in 903 volumes.) Blandy based his hymn on two verses:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

“Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34)

Some church music historians regard this hymn as “too simple.” Its verses repeat these phases after “I'll go with Him”: through the water, through the garden, to dark Calvary, to the judgment. Then it ends: “He will give me grace and glory” (repeated three times) “and go with me, with me, all the way.” But these easily remembered words were just right in expressing the Gospel message for Blandy's rough-and-tough slum-area ministry.

Little more is known about Blandly. He was just one man, reaching out to people living in wretched conditions. Folks living in the unforgiving, crime-chilled environment of inner New York. But he appealed to them, through this hymn, to listen for the call of hope of faith in Jesus Christ. And in so doing, left us this still-memorable hymn.

Listen to the hymn here: Bing Videos

Then enjoy this spring-welcoming music with a background of these spring flowers and chirping birds:

Glory-of-the-Snow Symphony ❄️? Spring Serenity & Piano ? The Beautiful Garden ? #Chionodoxa

A LITTLE FOOLISHNESS

Five days until April Fool's Day—and I'm not fooling around about that fact. I really don't do anything for this so-called holiday. I mean, why mark a holiday for exalting pranks and deception? Not surprisingly, this odd holiday goes back to ancient times when the spring equinox (also known as the “vernal equinox”) took place in earth's Northern Hemisphere. That's the transition “day” when day-length is more or less equal to night darkness, and daylight progressively lengthens. The reverse (“autumnal equinox” with longer nights) will begin in late September.

No surprise that this celestial habit caught attention of ancient peoples. The Romans (somewhere between 625 B.C. And 476 A.D.) had a classic festival they called “Hilaria.” As you might guess from that word (similar to our English “hilarity”), it called for fun, like wearing disguises. Not much more history is recorded of that until 1561 when Eduard De Dene wrote a poem about a servant being sent off on silly errands. (Supposedly, that's the origin of the phrase “a fool's errands.”)

Fast-forward to 1957, when a joker on Britain's BBC broadcast claimed Swiss farmers were able to grow spaghetti on trees. Would you believe folks called the station to find out where to get pasta trees? Then Swiss jokers got in on the ruse, when a TV station claimed they could get color on their black and white television by wrapping their TVs with nylon stockings.

The prize for being “gullible” (or true, card-carrying “fools”) probably goes to folks who have heard about God's plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, and choose to ignore it. Instead, they go for man-generated outlooks, like thinking happiness comes through wealth or fame.

The Bible's take on it includes these verses:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7)

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkens unto counsel is wise.” (Proverbs 12:15)

“A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions” (Proverbs 18:2).

Some other Biblical perspectives:

*Fools tend to be hot-headed and for some reason feel secure through such behavior (Proverbs 14:16).

*Folly is like turning perfume into a stinky mess of dead flies (Ecclesiastes 10:1).

*Fools who deny the existence of God are corrupt, known for vile deeds and “no good” (Psalm 14:1).

*A “repeat offender” fool is like a dog going back to its own vomit (Proverbs 26:11).

A better verse to end this topic:

“Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17)--and that is to seek wisdom and discernment, and be committed to aligning one's life with God's purpose.

Oops, was it really boiling temp outside?
No--but my internet "home page" for
 March 13 said it would be 255 degrees out!

Years ago (credit childhood immaturity) I probably tried a few “April Fool's Day” pranks on my family. The possibilities are out there—just search the topic on the internet and you'll find several websites. If that's your inclination, be sure to keep it “light” and not damaging to reputation, health, or the environment.

God created us to laugh as well as cry...and He might have had some fun Himself in the whole creative process. Like, how did He come up with the idea of a platypus? Or allow weather forecast bloopers like this one slip into the daily internet predictions....

HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW

Sorry for the bad pun (here/hair today), but one recent night my kitchen floor was covered in grandboy hair. He'd not had a trim in months, and that night when he was visiting, I dared to say, “Would you like to earn $2 and have a haircut tonight?” Money talks to little boys with an addiction to those tiny little colored notched plastic building blocks whose name starts with “L.”  He, his dad, and a brother had just come from an "L-toy" store. 

Within minutes of coming inside my home, his brother was already assembling the newest L-block toy. But Grandboy #3 hadn't bought one. He might have spent his allowance at another tempting place (the candy aisle at a local quick-mart?). I didn't ask. But his hair was getting hippie-style. His dad usually is his “barber” in the family bathroom (where the “results” are easily swept up), but Grandboy #3 had escaped the scissors and buzzer way too long. Money talked (Grandma's money!) and soon he was on the kitchen stool, orange plastic cape on his shoulders, getting a major trim by an electric-clipper-holding dad, who's performed this rite often. (And I asked myself, is this how it works? Does the person who cuts my hair pay me for the privilege of making me look human again? No, I think it's the other way around!)

He does get an allowance for chores around the house. I can't remember, but he might be “tasked” with taking the clean knives/folks/spoons out of the dishwasher and divvying them into the sectioned “utensil drawer.” Maybe he takes a turn scooping the gross little “sausages” (to put it nicely) out of the cat's litter box. Whatever it is, it's age appropriate. And it provides him with a tiny door into the big-world lesson of managing money.

So, back to the haircut and its results all over that end of the kitchen. If this had been a barn, it might have passed for wall-to-wall hay, in and out the animal stalls. But no, it was a little boy's hair, and he was $2 happier for cooperating.

I wonder if this story might represent the times when someone is reluctant to get rid of something they really don't need, but are negligent about abandoning. Instead of hair, maybe it's cutting away a bad attitude toward someone. Or failure to step out in faith to a big life change instead of stagnating with negative choices. They get so used to the overgrown, messy “present-self" that they can't envision that changing.

The apostle James (coincidentally the same name as my “hairy” grandson) considered that dynamic when he wrote, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” (James 5:16 KJV). I think we often focus on the “confess” and “pray” parts of that verse—and we should—but we overlook the “another” (or “one another” as in other translations). Left to ourselves, we get blind or stubborn to our neediness, resisting change. My grandson needed the incentive of $ to make an “appearance” decision, but in spiritual matters, a payoff is not the solution. The key words in this verse are “confess,” “one another,” “pray,” and “healed.” Necessary spiritual change happens best with admission of need, support of community, and earnest desire to adopt changes toward spiritual wholeness.

Disclaimer: there is no barber's striped pole outside my front door. No cutesy signs that say, “Hair today, gone tomorrow.” I'm happy to serve my family's “junior members” in this way. And when they run into the bathroom to see their “new look,” I think of how I need to regularly check my image in God's mirror—wanting to honor Him in the way that people see Him through me.

EQUIPPED

Somebody, somewhere, had this great idea of a pink-handled tool kit for women who will never aspire to be “Tim the Tool-man.” (Maybe “Tina the Tool-woman”?) Yes, the basics of hammer, pliers, screwdrivers, and such for those pesky little problems that crop up in running a household. I can't recall who my “girl-tool-kit” came from, but it's stored in a “handy place”...and from time to time has been “quite handy.”

First, a disclaimer. One's gender does not predispose certain real-world “tool-handiness.” There are women out there who excel with hammer, saw and all the rest. Some of us, though, have the “beginner set”--and I thought about my beginner tools when I thought through some Biblical passages about being “equipped for good works.” Like this one at the end of the letter to the Hebrews, offering a benediction that the “God of peace” bless these believers, “equipping you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 20:21). It's not a quality you can buy at a store, but it's what is stored up in our character through a growing faith.

These passages came to mind as I thought of essential “spiritual tools”:

Scripture's saw: Able to cut through character defects and excesses for the right “fit”: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

Tried-and-true instructions: Not a paper of 1-2-3 instructions and diagrams, but the tried (literally “tried” for Paul, before Roman government high-honcho Pilate) and true (Son of God) “Shepherd of God's sheep” who is able to “equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may...work in us what is pleasing to him” (Hebrews 13:21).

Skill-matched tasks: Some of the faith community will be tapped as leaders, others to serve in less public roles—all making up the body of Christ so all can “become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13). Whether judges or janitors, each has a vital role that lifts the “ordinary” to “God-ordained.”

Perseverance: The apostle Paul knew how tough ministry could be. He sat in many jails, endured harassment, and survived life-threatening stoning. He experienced the world's “pounding” of ridicule, shame, prison, shipwreck—and eventually a death sentence. Yet he affirmed, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I remember a screw coming loose on a door hinge....