TAKING IT DAY-BY-DAY

The plume visible from my street on 10/6

As I write this in early-October, my valley is “on alert” with smoke-filled skies from major, spreading mountain fires. Even this evening, as the sun sets in the west, the clouds are washed gray, pink and orange from the smoke pollution. As I study the sky, I recall the years we survived arson-set fires at my end of town. As flames came closer, we stayed alert via the local radio station for evacuation orders. One night was especially scary—we were ready to load the car with “survival essentials” and leave--but the fire was stopped just blocks from our home.

During active fire season, the saying “day by day” becomes especially poignant. Though my hometown was first established in dry, “high desert” terrain, it's now a river-bisected valley known for its apples and other crops nurtured by irrigation systems. Sometimes that connection reminds me of the Living Water, the Lord Jesus, who refreshes us and nurtures the spiritual fruit within us.

Often, the best way to describe this growing faith-walk is “day by day,” also the title of a hymn that has been close to my heart for years. The lyrics came from the heart of a Swedish woman, Lina Sandell Berge, a pastor's daughter who endured poor health as a child. She was especially close to her father. Sadly, when she was 26, she watched in horror as he fell overboard from a passenger boat and drowned. She later married, but her only child died at birth.

Yet God's grace shone through her life tragedies. She would eventually write more than 650 hymns that enriched the Pietist revivals in Sweden in the late 19^th century. Her hymn, “Day by Day,” is one of my favorites. When sadness from my losses begins to cloud my hope, I find myself recalling its tune and lyrics, like these which open the hymn:

Day by day, and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my trials here.

Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,

I've no cause for worry or for fear.

The hymn goes on to declare that God, whose “heart is kind beyond all measure,” permits what happens each day, both “pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.”

Hope despite the heat of destruction. Something beautiful and eternal beyond the ravages of earthly life. Faith beyond life's fiery times. Beauty from ashes. Lived...day by day.

Just an aside: the hymnist's surname “Berge” is in my family tree. My maternal grandfather, Martinus Berge, who died just before I was born, had immigrated from Norway. 

TOUGH TOOLS

Most household toolboxes or workbenches have tools like these, and they're helpful in building and repairing. But when their behavioral counterparts are used, watch out. If you've ever been unfairly criticized or demeaned, you've probably experienced the resulting emotional wounding. Maybe you've asked if God noticed or even cared. From the opposite perspective, maybe you endured the “blows” of shaping and correction when your behavior slipped from God-honoring choices.

When those questions have come to my mind, I've had an “attitude correction” from a quote I heard years ago by A.W. Tozer (1897-1963). An American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor and spiritual mentor, he was best known for writing The Knowledge of the Holy and The Pursuit of God. These are not “lite-fare” reading. They're chewy, soul-searching. What's more amazing is that Tozer, born into poverty, was self-educated through university level studies.

One quote that has stuck with me through the years is this:
It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.

One of the misconceptions about the Christian life is that after asking Christ into one's life, everything should be sweet and easy. Not so. We're “messes” that need a lot of shaping and hammering—often through unwelcome adversity—to pound out the spoiled attitudes that whine “it's all about me.” To continue Tozer's quote:
God actually rises up storms of conflict in relationships at times in order to accomplish that deeper work in our character. We cannot love our enemies in our own strength. This is graduate-level grace. Are you willing to enter this school? Are you willing to take the test? If you pass, you can expect to be elevated to a new level in the Kingdom. For He brings us through these tests as preparation for greater use in the kingdom. You must pass the test first.

In a few days, we'll flip our calendars over to not only a new month, but a new year. We cannot know what will happen in 2025—but God does. We might be tempted to pray, “Bless me bunches,” thinking of material things or happy relationships. But God may have another agenda, a better one, maybe a painful one, to shape us into the image of His beloved Son.

ROLL WITH IT

A family fav around our house—especially for a soup meal—are “cheesy biscuits.” I prepare biscuit dough, knead it well, and roll it out. Then, instead of cutting circles of dough for the baking pan, I go into “cinnamon roll” protocol. I roll the dough flatter, spread with margarine or butter, sprinkle on shredded cheese, roll up into a tube, then slice off inch-and-a-half sections for the baking sheet.

While doing this the other day, I thought along the lines of “if dough could talk.” Would the dough complain about being pushed and rolled flatter and flatter? Or would it better submit to the hard strokes of the rolling pin if it had a vision of the final project? In other words, “roll with it” in the process of becoming usable? Could there be a spiritual analogy.....

The English idiom "roll with it” means to adapt to a situation that comes with unexpected circumstances or challenges.” Our human tendency, however, is to want our own way, not to adapt, and say “no” to God's ways that might be harder, inconvenient, or just not “fun.”

Enter one of the Bible's poster children for “rolling with it,” the apostle Paul. When he left the reasonably cushy life of a respectable member of the Jewish hierarchy--laying it all aside to follow Jesus—his lifestyle changed drastically. No guaranteed income. No permanent home. His passion for Christ led to discomfort and danger. He was beaten and flogged, stoned, mobbed, reviled, jeered, endangered by robbers and enemies, nearly drowned at sea, fled for his life via a basket dropped over the city walls, had a besetting physical problem (some think poor eyesight), endured cold, hunger, inadequate clothes, and was constantly concerned for the fledgling churches.

Of all that, he essentially said, “Not to brag, but I had a rough time after deciding Jesus would be number one in my life.” But he also said that Jesus reminded him: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Paul responded that as hardship shaped him into the character of Christ, he came to be able to even delight in these difficult experiences. “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10).

Okay, the process of making “cheesy biscuits” seems a strange illustration for life's trials. But maybe such everyday symbols can also remind us of how the pound-push-pull-press of daily life experiences, including the heat of refinement, are inevitable parts of a growing walk with God.

(By the way, the biscuits are truly delectable with a dollop of jam on top.)

SQUEEZED

How many weeks had this tube of toothpaste provided what we needed? I couldn’t remember as I tried to squeeze out the last dab to brush my teeth. I knew we had a fresh tube ready to replace it. But as I pushed the dollop onto my toothbrush, I thought, this is how we’re living today—under great pressure, hoping we’ll have what it takes to get through this day, this week, this month, and more.

I was reminded of how Paul admitted to similar depletion in his exhausting missionary journeys.  He wrote the Corinthian church regarding ministry in “Asia” (today’s northern Turkey): “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8). This is the same man who mentioned times he had great need as well as “enough,” sometimes well-fed, but sometimes hungry, sometimes having enough to live, and sometimes living in want (Philippians 4:12).  But he’d learned “The Secret”—that he could be content in any and every situation because “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (v. 13).

Feeling the “squeeze” as a Christian in a non-Christian world was normal for early believers. Another church leader, Peter, had to remind people that enduring a “painful trial” didn’t mean they were following the wrong Leader.  If they were insulted for being Christians, he said, “you are blessed, for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Peter 4:14). But make sure, he added, that you don’t have “murderer, thief or any other kind of criminal, or even a meddler” in your resume.  Such behavior, as unconfessed sin, did not belong in the Christian’s lifestyle.

Yes, life can be hard. Paul used strong words to describe feeling “squeezed out”:  hard-pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down (2 Corinthians 4:8). Yet it’s these very times and experiences that are building our faith:

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

Those are worthy words to write out on a 3x5 card and post somewhere you can see and memorize it. Maybe even the bathroom mirror, right above that steadily depleting tube of toothpaste.

SIZZLE

My husband had decided to bring home the bacon, for real. Our local store had a bargain if you bought two packages, and he couldn’t resist. BLTs (bacon-lettuce-tomato-sandwiches) are high in his love language. Yes, we know bacon isn’t on the same health level as kale and bean sprouts, but sometimes we sin against nutritional guidelines. I cook it up, drain it, and stack the pieces between paper towels in a container headed for the freezer.  Besides adding crunch to BLTs, bacon turns scrambled eggs into gourmet delights.

OUT OF THE FRY PAN....
As I stood watch guard over the sizzling fry pan, I had a nudge that there might be a spiritual lesson here. (You’re probably thinking, this lady fried her brain, too!). The heat that releases the fat from the meat is like adversity releasing the spiritual fat from our lives.  This takes me back to James 1:2-4, which became front and center in my life when I jumped out of the frying pan into the fire—I mean, graduated college and went into the “real world” for my first job.  On this bigger stage, I faced many more testings of my faith:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

In college, I hopped through curriculum hoops for ten weeks each, wrote papers and took tests. Then, on to the next class.  In the School of Life, those lessons and tests just keep coming and I never really know how well I am doing. My only hints of a “passing grade” are experiencing the closeness of the Lord and discerning tiny changes in my character. Said another way, the “fat” of fleshly entitlement slowly melts away in the heat of life’s hard places.

Am I “fully cooked”? Well, no. How would you answer that for yourself? Actually, James wrote the answer in the verse above.  This spiritual “cooking” goes on until we’re mature and complete. To me, that is spelled H-E-A-V-E-N. James alludes to that a few verses later:

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. (v. 12)

If I stirred up your taste buds for a BLT, well, glad to know there’s a kindred spirit out there.