Caged In

Just as I expected, the rooster exhibit at the local county fair was the noisiest place on the grounds. Well, maybe second noisiest after the carnival rides at their busiest. I can’t blame them. When you’re used to strutting all over the barnyard, it’s total indignity to be confined to a cage next to other roosters bent on out-crowing you.


I snapped a photo because I was immediately reminded of times in my life when I felt confined by negative circumstances and probably "crowed" too loud about it. I’ve learned that accepting hardship is part of how I mature as a Christian and am shaped into readiness for my future home in Heaven. And it’s more than passive “acceptance.” It’s grabbing hold of those negatives and making positives of them.

Probably no Bible character illustrates that better for me than the apostle Paul, especially in his letter to the Philippians, written while he imprisoned in Rome (Acts 28:16-31). This was a hard thing for a “controller” who liked his space. Yet instead of saying, “I hate being stuck here by these stinky circumstances,” Paul said, “What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (Philippians 1:12). He was praising God for his “captive audience”—the Roman soldiers chained to him who couldn’t escape hearing his testimony. He was praising God that his witness emboldened other believers. He was thankful that God was using his negative circumstances to bring glory to Christ.

Peel back another layer of Paul’s letter to the Philippians, told in Acts 16, and there’s a even more amazing story. Paul had just been trudging through Asia, preaching about Jesus, when he had a vision to “come over to Macedonia,” meaning a whole linguistic and cultural jump. He and his companion Silas ended up in Philippi, a leading city in that area, and after getting their land legs, decided to worship somewhere, as it was the Sabbath. Philippi didn’t have enough Jewish men to form a synagogue, so they ended up down at the river with some women who met for prayer. Paul wasn’t “caged in” by expectations of what a church should be. If that was God’s place for him to start, he’d start. He didn’t say, “I don’t know anybody” or “What if they reject me?” He chatted with Lydia, a seller of luxury purple cloth, and led her to Christ.

Soon after came opposition. Paul cast an annoying evil spirit out of a slave girl, ending her fortune-telling business for her owners. He and Silas were seized by a mob, then taken by local police who stripped, beat and flogged them, then put them in stocks in prison. They didn’t sit in a funk, but in that stinky hole began praising God in front of their “captive audience” of other prisoners and the jailer in charge. Then came a violent earthquake—and many prisoners escaped. But not Paul and Silas, who kept the jailer from committing suicide and led him to faith in Christ.

And this remarkable story (think what Hollywood could do with it!) was the background of Paul’s comment as he began his letter, “I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil. 1:5). The “first day” (and week) were chock-full of negatives! Then they were literally caged in, their feet in stocks in the inner part of the filthy prison. But Paul remembered it with joy. It wasn’t the ideal script he would have written, but He trusted God to work through all the negatives.

All of that from hearing the cacophony of crowing at the fair? Well, yes. God can use anything to remind us of His truth. He used a donkey for Balaam, a whale for Jonah and, that day, a rooster for me.

Swine Time

There’s nothing like the pig pen at the county fair to slap a smile on your face. Though not super-models, but you can be sure they’ve been washed, shaved and otherwise beautified for their “showing” and hopefully a ribbon. But nothing—not even the caricature of “beautiful” that Muppet “Miss Piggy” brought to pig-dom—can eradicate the basic “pig”-ness of pigs. Turn ‘em back to the pen at home and they’ll roll in the first available mud to cool off. And snort. Their vocals aren’t exactly on par with meadowlarks.

I’m not a farm girl, but I’ve heard some make great pets. But they’re still pigs (or “swine”), and a breath away from a grocery ad illustration.

In the Bible, swine had a much more unsavory reputation. Declared “unclean” and unfit to eat, only non-Jews (or bad Jews) raised them. The “unclean” ruling was God’s way of keeping the Jews healthy in those days of primitive medicine. Pigs often carried trichina worms which passed on to humans in undercooked meat. The larvae infected major organs and muscles, making people very sick.

To keep things simple, God told the people to just leave ham (and other disease-bearing living things) out of their diets. Thus they acquired the reputation as loathsome creatures. That provides the background for a little proverb tucked into Proverbs 11 between two verses about the righteous and the wicked:

Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion (Proverbs 11:22).

In those days, the women often wore gold nose rings along with other jewelry as their “on-board” savings account. If a woman was widowed or abandoned, she at least had the jewelry attached to her body as an insurance policy. I’m not sure I’d want a nose ring, but in those days it was part of the beauty code. Except, you didn’t honor a pig with a nose ring. Slop and mud would soon coat it.

The contrast is the message. A woman may know how to dress, apply makeup, and do her hair in the latest style. But if her attitude stinks, that won’t make up for the best perfume. If what comes out of her mouth is negatives or profanity, that will cancel any other words. Externals don’t cover for the internals of godly character. Or, as the writer put it a few verses earlier, “A kind-hearted woman gains respect” (v. 16).

Turning over a few pages to Psalm 31, we’re given a get the bigger picture of what makes a godly woman tick. I’ve read it over and over, and I can’t see anything that puts “looks” first. In fact, after praising her industriousness and compassion, it ends up, “charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (v. 20).

That encourages aging women like me whose faces now nurture wrinkles and whiskers. At least some of those wrinkles are smile marks from checking out the pig pen at the fair. I know I could have even more laugh lines as I learn how, like Mrs. Perfect in Proverbs 31, to “laugh at the days to come” (v. 25).

Besides, with all my allergies, a nose ring would be a nuisance.

Tested by fire

Choke, cough, wheeze—right now the valley where I live is enveloped in a thick, smoky haze, no thanks to multiple nearby fires that have blackened thousands of acres. The sun, gauzed by the smoke, rises and sets as a crimson globe. Health officials have deemed the pollution level as “hazardous” and are urging people to stay inside, if possible. Schools are even keeping children in at recess. As an asthmatic, I’m staying inside, close to an air purifier.


The fires started Saturday night with an intense thunderstorm that lit up the sky and pounded us with half hour of rain. When we drove to church Sunday, already smoke was boiling into the sky up a canyon just a few miles away. Within a few days, flames had crept across foothills within a mile of our home. The fire encircled the home of friends, who had wisely put a wide perimeter of gravel around it.

Winds blew the fire away from our neighborhood, but the flames continue to eat at scrublands of sage brush and dry grasses, plus parched timberlands. As I pray for the firefighters, I’m also reminded that fires can cleanse diseased lands. Unfortunately, when they’re in populated areas, they’re unwelcome.

Fire is also a powerful spiritual analogy. One comes up in 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, which talks about Jesus Christ being the only certain foundation. What we build on that foundation must past God’s test at Judgment Day. At that time, the lasting influence of peoples’ choices will be revealed. Some will have used the spiritual equivalent of gold, silver or costly stones; others, wood, hay and straw.

That passage doesn’t specify what activities are enduring and what aren’t. But maybe this is a good question to ask: “Does this work or activity have the ultimate end of honoring and serving God, or is it rooted in boredom, selfishness or personal indulgence?”

I think about that as I find “indoor” activities for my time. I’m editing some articles and blogs, and cutting up fabric scraps for more baby blankets for the hospital. And as I look out at the haze, those “arrow prayers” go up for the men and women fighting the hot monsters in my area.

Looking up



My mother painted this version of Mount Rainier for
me in 1978, the year she died of cancer. It's
much like the view of Tipsoo Lake at the
top of Chinook Pass, mentioned in this blog.

 Someone stopped by the house the other day and began anxiously lamenting all the negatives in world news. “Is God still on the throne?” I chided. Every generation will have its negatives, some of which seem to be hurtling our planet toward self-destruction. When worry about these things tries to slither into my heart, I find I need to go back to Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

This psalm had its greatest impact in my life when I was 32, making numerous trips over Washington’s Cascades Mountains to my sister’s home in Eastern Washington. I was temporarily living in our deceased parents’ home in Western Washington while cleaning it out as part of estate settlement. The four-hour trip included a true apex. At the top of Chinook Pass, I came upon a stunning view of snow-capped Mount Rainier, elevation 14,410 feet.

Often I’d be mulling over my problems and challenges as I drove. But when that mountain came in view, reminding me of God’s power and purity, I got an attitude adjustment. Though I didn’t know how He’d do it, I could trust God for the troubling unknowns I faced.

The Israelites didn’t have Mount Rainier, but they did have Mount Zion, the “big hill” on which Jerusalem was built along the ridge called the “Judean Hills.” The temple hill was Jerusalem’s focus, and in those days the “glory cloud” that signified God’s presence hovered over the Holy of Holies. When they looked to the hills, they had this bright, inexplicable floating mass to remind them that God dwelled among them. Who could be more powerful than the Maker of heaven and earth?

He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Let me tell you about a “foot slip”! Mine on an icy stairwell changed my life and the anatomy of my ankle. Though the broken bones healed, the arthritis there now is a great barometer for weather changes! But in this case, the psalmist is saying God is the ultimate security. He wants to help us over life’s rocky places. Unlike human guards, who are apt to doze off, He’s on constant alert on our behalf.

The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

Most Bible teachers connect these verses to demonic religions that deify the sun and moon. In that context, this verse is a reminder that God is greater than that. First John 4:4 emphasizes: “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life;
The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

This doesn’t mean that nothing bad will happen to us. Instead, nothing will come into our lives apart from God’s permissive will. Bible teacher Kay Arthur often remarks that whatever happens is “filtered through fingers of love” (As Silver Refined, Waterbrook, p. 130). To pull from Romans 8:28, these things happen according to God’s purpose.

God’s enduring care for us shines through the last four words: “both now and forevermore.” His watch-care never ends.

The Bible predicts a cataclysmic end to the world. I don’t know what that will involve. Maybe Mount Rainier will collapse! But I know I don’t need to worry about it. God cares about every detail of my life and will help me through whatever is ahead. And someday, I won’t look unto the hills for inspiration. I’ll look unto the Throne, from whence came my help, and offer all the praise I can muster.