HAPPY PLACE

Noticed this sign at a fabric and craft store--yes!

My late mother (she would have been 101 this year!) had many happy places in her life, all of which my dad graciously encouraged. One was sewing, and after years of cramming her sewing machine into what should have been the breakfast nook in our kitchen, she moved it all to my old 10x10 bedroom when I moved out on my own.  The other was her art, mostly oils and pastels, which my sister and I shared among ourselves and with relatives after her death.

I am not an artist, but I have found joy in sewing simple projects, like grandkid pajamas and baby quilts.  I leave the intricate quilting to the real pros who exhibit their masterpieces at our local quilt show. But I have made more than 1,000 simple patchwork baby quilts in the last five or so years, none of which stayed in our home. I donated them to hospitals and ministries serving people in need or advocating for unborn babies. This was my “happy place,” to create and give away. That’s why I resonated with this sign at a local fabric store (where I often stop to check the remnants bin!).

A few mornings ago my husband had the television news going while I was still trying to admit that daytime had come. (I am not a morning person.)  They featured a guest who said there were three important elements to cardiac health.  One was exercise, then healthy diet, and finally, a “happy place”—that is, something that brings you the altruistic joy of serving people.

Bingo! That’s what my crazy blanket-sewing project had become as I continued to pursue it during a time of enduring emotional negatives from a troubled person.It’s prompted me to consider these scriptures in the light of a God-pleasing “happy place”:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NIV)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10 NIV)
Now, fear not if the sewing gene skipped your generation. I know several who serve with willing hands and “with all their might” in a local soup kitchen, week after week after week. Others are “lunch buddies” for grade school children at emotional risk. Or they take food and encouragement to seniors or families in need. One woman, who never had a bike as a kid, tries to match used bikes to kids in poverty who have none.  

On and on the list of hidden ministries could go. The principle is there in Jesus’ teaching about the vine and the branches (John 15). When we stay vitally connected to Him, “fruit” is going to happen through growing godly character and serving others for Him. Far better than a kid’s “happy meal,” my “happy place” feeds my soul, one patchwork square at a time.

DAY BY DAY

A flowering of Swedish hymnody came through

the pen of Lina Sandell

An  encouraging scripture: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9)
For those who grieve, going through a loved one’s belongings—to sell or giveaway—can be an almost unbearable task. I experienced that at 31 when I had to clean out my parents’ home after both died in 1978. Handling everyday things—their clothes, photos, hobbies, even dishes—brought on waves of crippling sorrow. But I had go on, and often in that house of memories I’d sing an old hymn, “Day by Day,” which affirmed that I would find strength to meet trials here.  Not until years later, in researching the life story of its author, did I realize she, too, walked lonely paths of sorrow. In such times, she, too, had to walk “day by day” in the strength of God.

Her name was Lina Sandell Berge, and she’s been called the “Fanny Crosby” of Scandinavia, alluding to her prolific output. Swedish born, she is credited with 650 hymns, of which 150 have been used by the church. Her hymns were a significant part of the Piestist revival in Scandinavia in the late 19th century.

Born into a Lutheran parsonage, she was a frail child who at one time became bedridden with a mysterious paralysis. As a result, while other children played outside, she was  a “daddy’s girl” who spent a lot of time in her father’s study One Sunday when she was twelve, her parents left her behind as they went to church. She spent that time in prayer and experienced a healing enabling her to walk again.

Early on, she showed her poetic gifts and was just 13 when her first book of poems was published. At 17 she wrote  the lyrics to “Children of our Heavenly Father,” set to a Swedish folk melody. That song was popularized by a man named Oskar Ahnfelt, who adhered to the revival teachings of the Pietists, and who traveled with his ten-string guitar introducing evangelical hymns—many of them by Lina Berg--to the Swedish church.

Lina was 26 years old when she went on a boat trip with her father to the Swedish city of Gothenberg. When the boat lurched after being hit by a large wave, he accidentally fell overboard and drowned as she watched. In losing her beloved earthly father, she learned more intimately the care of her Heavenly Father. From this experience came her hymn, “Day by Day, and With Each Passing Moment.”

That was not her only grief, as she would also lose her sister to tuberculosis and her mother to a prolonged illness. Lina was married at age 32 to a Stockholm merchant, but they experienced the collapse of his business and the stillborn birth of a baby girl, their only child.

Besides Ahnfelt the guitarist, Lina’s hymns were popularized by singer Jenny Lind, known as the “Swedish Nightingale.” Though acclaimed internationally for her formal concerts, Lind would sit with common workmen at their crude benches and sing the simple hymns about Jesus. Lina’s hymns were also used by the Swedish evangelist Carl Rosenius, who helped spread the Pietist revival.

Her hymns were translated to English by a Swedish immigrant to America, Andrew Skoog, who for half a century associated with the well-known Pastor E. August Skogsberg in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Together they were often referred to as the Swedish counterparts of evangelist Dwight Moody and song leader Ira Sankey.

Lina died at age 71, thousands attending her burial in Stockholm. Like many Swedish funerals before and after her death, the choir began singing (in Swedish, of course) her hymn “Children of the Heavenly Father” with its line, “Neither life nor death shall ever from the Lord his children sever.”

WORRY BAGS

How big can a purse get before it’s considered a suitcase? I think about that when I see displays of huge purses at stores (or thrift stores, as in this photo), then recall how I try to minimize what’s in my purse. I’m not sure when the standard modest purse disappeared. When I was in high school in the 1960s, when the “ratted/poufed/sprayed” hairdos were all the rage, a teen girl’s purse wasn’t complete without a big can of hairspray to keep her locks in lacquer. (Disclaimer: I didn’t do that.) And of course, that took up space.

I’ve tried to keep my purse-life under control. I can’t survive with just a wallet, keys, and my tiny no-frills $7-a-month cell phone. Add a small calendar planner and a little zipped pocket thing for lipstick and the like. When I weighed mine recently, it was a decent four pounds, complete. But I’ve been attacked by mega-purses, not because somebody thought I was going to rob them, but in other innocent situations—like sitting in church next to an empty seat.  Even though I usually stand up to provide more room for the passer, I’ve gotten head-bashed by somebody’s mega-purse that borders on the size of a suitcase.

I smile to think of it—and I remember a wonderful illustration about heavy suitcases given by Corrie ten Boom during her speaking tours. After World War 2 she was a guest at a little church in Japan, which was still reeling from the war. She decided to conquer the language barrier with an object lesson about how to pray. She dragged her heavy travel suitcase up to the speaking platform. Quoting 1 Peter 5:7 (“Cast all your cares upon Him”), she emptied her suitcase, putting the items on a table. Some, she said, represented her weary co-workers. Another was her next trip to a town where she knew nobody. Then came friends at home, recovering from an auto accident; a little boy who refused to trust Christ; then her personal problems, like unconfessed sin, pride, and worry.  All these she wanted to “cast on the Lord.”  Then, she said, “amen,” closed the empty suitcase, and began to walk away, swinging the now-light suitcase.

The people got her point—about casting all such cares on the Lord.

Many years later, in Berlin, she ran into a Japanese evangelist who remembered her “trouble suitcase” speech in his homeland. She was flattered that he would mention it. But he said he had one problem with her illustration.  Speech over, she’d reloaded her suitcase with her personal items and left the church, just as burdened as before. * That wasn’t the message she intended! But it was a reminder how she (and the rest of us who know that promise in 1 Peter 5:7) kept putting worries and cares back in the “trouble suitcase” instead of freely releasing them to God.

I have the same problem as I pray. My real purse may get its periodic “purging” and tidying up (I sure don’t want to be guilty of carrying a head-bonker purse!). But from time to time the Lord needs to remind me (as He did when I came across Corrie ten Boom’s story) that when I cast my cares on Him, I’m not to keep stuffing them back in my worry suitcase/purse.

Worry bags aren’t part of God’s plan for the growing, trusting believer.

*This anecdote was told in Jesus Is Victor, © 1985, compiled in Corrie ten Boom: Her Story (New York: Inspiration Press, 1995), pp. 472-73.

 

AND A POST SCRIPT:

When a student at Wheaton Graduate School in my early thirties, I met a remarkable young woman whose background by that time already included living with author Elisabeth Elliot (as a seminary student helper), and ministry with a well-known international evangelism group. She'd eventually marry a widower with three children (and add a fourth) and juggle family, writing, and a busy inspirational speaking career. Her name is Lucinda Secrest McDowell, and I recently received a copy of her latest (and 15th) book, Life-Giving Choices (New Hope Publishers, $15.99). This book reflects her practice of choosing a value-oriented word as a spiritual stake for the year, and highlights 60 qualities or decisions. It's intended to be a 60-day devotional guide, but I couldn't put it down and read it in a few days. (I will go back and read with more thoughtful diligence!) I was reminded of Mark Twain's remark that the difference between the right word and the not-quite-right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. This book is full of "right words" to ignite spiritual examination and spiritual intention. On my computer I have posted the word "inspire" as a reminder of a daily choice I need to make. This book certainly illustrates that quality. I commend it as a thoughtful, Biblical, personal, and applicable addition to your spiritual disciplines.

CLOSED

Our local Senior Center was one of our community's first closures in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The lockout affected a popular thrift store and services for the aging community, including a daily meal, recreation, legal help and other support. One ill person mingling with others could exponentially infect hundreds of vulnerable seniors. And so the parking lot has sat empty for months. When that will change is anybody’s guess as our county continues to report Covid-19 cases.

As I go out into the invisible world of contagion with my mask and gloves, I sense the stifling of spirits. I also observe the attempts to be gentler, kinder and appreciative. But sanitizing and masking won’t solve the whole problem of weary spirits. Or more recently, the angry spirits that have turned cities into war zones of death, looting and destruction.

We’re repeating the behavior that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah described as “ever hearing but never understanding....ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused” (Matthew 13:14-15a).What? Isaiah quoted in the New Testament? Yes, this good prophet who saw the “disease” of godlessness among his people was used of God to speak timeless words that Jesus would quote for His times--and that He can rightly speak of ours.

I’ve been trying to listen more carefully to Jesus’ words and those of His disciples in a New Testament read-through during this stay-at-home time.  Each time I do a read-through, a big idea seems to surface. This time, I noticed mobs a lot more. The Lord and His followers faced them regularly.  Mobs put Jesus on the cross.  Stephen was stoned to death.  A Jewish zealot named Saul watched that death-scene with satisfaction. Then Saul’s life changed in a supernatural moment in an encounter with the risen Christ. Transformed, Saul-renamed-Paul would face his own near-death encounters at the hands of mobs. But he and the other early Christian leaders never gave up telling people about God’s better plan for the people who inhabit this planet.

Paul put it in a nutshell in his last words to his protégé Timothy.  He reminded this young pastor to not be surprised when hard times came: “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). But he went back to the hope: scriptures.  “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 3:15-16).

The Bible will never hang out a sign that says, “Closed for virus concerns.” Just the opposite: it’s there for hope in the midst of virus concerns.  It’s the equipper for life as God intended life to happen.  For those who truthfully and authentically call themselves followers of Jesus Christ, it’s the hope of something bigger and greater after we exhale our last breath—which, with Covid-19, could happen within days of the virus invading a body: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day” (2 Timothy 7-8).