Don’t eat my puppy.

Foxnews.com reported, today, that a python stalked a small dog over the course of a few days, and finally killed and ate it in front of two terrified children. 

See the full article here: Python stalked….

The animal handler who finally came to retrieve the python said, “The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog’s bed, which was a sign it was out to get it…They should have called me then.”

What?!  They had seen it before and done nothing about it?

Reminds me of the garden, and a couple of people who messed with a snake in a tree. 

It is like sin creeping into your life.  You see it, and you should deal with it right that moment.  But you hesitate, and you lose track of it, and think, “Aww, gee…it wasn’t so bad having that sin in my life.  It’s probably gone now.”  Right.  A few days later, *CHOMP*.  Now you’re in some deep trouble.  Trouble which could have been avoided if we would take care of our sin, repent, and RUN away from it right away.

But if we pretend it’s not there…we’re asking for it.  This time poor “fluffy” paid for his owners hesitation.  It could have been them, or their children.  Man..I don’t want my sin messing me up, but especially messing with other people.

Search me, God!  Help me deal with my sin quickly, laying it humbly at your feet to wipe away.  Keep me from falling for the tricks of a lying snake. 

Losing the Snoozing

Confession: I am a snooze button athlete.  I excell at snoozing.  I’ve even mastered the get up walk across the room hit the snooze turn around jump back in bed technique.  Years of snooze training have brought me to this point…and it’s been an “adventure” trying to get out of this less than fruitful habit.

Goodnight, fish.

I came home to find our beta fish, Eustice, motionless in her bowl. How sad.

Forgive me for pondering the existence of “fishy heaven.” Funny how one can become so attached to a fish.

And then Anthony came home, and Eustice was swimming around in her bowl again.  Belly up and motionless only minutes earlier.   Want to explain that one to me?

Thanks, God, for creating fish.

Jesus the Subversive

I read an article entitled “Subversive Jesus and His Trojan Horse” by Glenn Packiam today on boundless.com.  It pricked at my heart…

I’d encourage you to link back and read the whole article, but if you won’t, at least consider this exerpt:

For all the blessings, opportunities, healings, miracles, provisions, protections, and stability that He [Jesus] has given you, there’s one thing that He values more, one thing that He would trade all of the above for: you.

And that’s precisely what makes our faith in Christ so unexpectedly subversive to our own agenda. This faith that we’ve embraced, this Life that we have taken into our hearts, will be our undoing. And it means to be that. It’s designed to be the end of us. The Jesus I’ve come to see and know at work in my life is the One who comes to undermine my own small-minded and wrong-headed plans. He is the Trojan Horse of blessing that we readily welcome into our hearts without knowing His mission to destroy us. For He has not come to bring peace, but a sword. This is the subversive Christ.

But this subversion is the means to His ends. In our death, we find His life. In our surrender, we find His sovereignty.

Sovereignty is an attribute of God I am seeking to grasp more fully, and this article has provoked more thought and prayer for me.  What do you think?

Engineering Me.

Forty daze behind me, and a new life ahead.  There are too many things to share about what God has begun in me during the past month+ of prayer and fasting.  One stands out..intertwinded with all the others.  The creshendoing counter melody that finally overtakes the theme…I was designed on purpose.  (And so were you.)

For much of my life I struggled with social insecurities, more than most adolescent girls.  Insecurity became my security blanket amidst less than ideal relationships and friendships.  And though I’m older now, less sensitive than the 12 year old me, and frankly better at “acting OK”, insecurity was still a hindrance.  A hindrance to relationships and to ministry.  And I think it’s funny (maybe not) how my Father, the gentle surgeon, took the past forty days to talk me onto the operating table, and has demanded regular office visits post-op to promote healing and growth.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Ephesians 3:10

“So as a Christian, God’s got a list of things he wants me to do…”  That’s the overriding theme that I would understand from this verse only a few months ago.  And I would find myself overwhelmed and feeling inadequate to accomplish what God had laid in front of me.  Insecure.  But God redirected my focus, taking it from the things to do, and putting it back on him.  “I designed you for this,” He whispered on day 38.  “Timidity and insecurity wasn’t intended.  But I’ll put it right, if you’ll let me.  I’ll make you new again.”

Now humor my technical mind for a moment or two…

As a materials engineer, I design what things are made out of.  Micro and molecular scale.  (At least, that’s what my degree says…but I digress.)  Steel, for instance, is just iron with an itsy bitsy amount of carbon added to it, and heat treated properly.  If I need a certain strength of steel, I add more or less carbon, more or less “other stuff,” and change the way I heat and cool it.  The details matter.  But if I know what I need my steel to do – say be strong enough to protect someone in a car crash, but formable enough to be made into an auto part in the first place – I know how to design it to do what it needs to. 

Now lets apply the verse above.  God started with a purpose in mind for me – a need that had to be filled.  So he thought of me, designed who I would be and what skills I would need to do the job.  He engineered me for a purpose.  There were good things that needed to be done, so He created me in Christ Jesus to do them. 

A good engineer doesn’t create a part to fail.  The problem is, that parts are used in the real world.  And the world is a nasty place.  You’ve got pollution, salty roads, constant potholes and crazy drivers.  My imaginary car part won’t last long out there without constant maintance and a watchful eye.  

I too get covered in rust, become stiff and unuseful.  I break down.  I need my Maker to come and beadblast me clean (ouch!) and oil the sticking parts.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;  your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  Psalm 139:13-14

My Father created me.  I can have confidence that he knew what he was doing when I was designed and engineered.  I am not a product of this world, but of another.  That new perspective leads me to a new confidence – not in me, but in my Creator.  It took cutting open, bead-blasting, and a lot of grease to get through the grime in my mind and heart.  So worth it.  I feel all shiny and new. 

Laundry List of All Things Good

Today began as a rather uneventful day, as days go. Pretty typical Thursday routine, sans a trip home at lunch because I left my lunch on the counter. (Oops..) But even this was an opportunity to eat my lunch at home and study more in Acts. Unexpected delight!

So why then, when it came time to join my friends in prayer, was my mind filled with a ton of negative stuff about someone I really cared about? “Where did that come from, God? And why am I focused on this right now?” Note: don’t ask God something without expecting a response. His response: You’re thinking too highly of yourself. Lose the pride.

Eek.

My fleshly inclination would be to cut myself down instead…but not only is that unhealthy, that’s just pride showing up in another place in my head. “What do I do, God?” His response: Be thankful.

So what began as four lines of negative in a journal, turned into nearly two pages of thankfulness to God (for who he is and how he’s changing me), and any good thing I could think of about the person I was judging minutes earlier. My laundry list of all things good. And everything was good again.

Man, when you’re down or something is not right about your day or your attitude, or whatever…ask God. Like David cried, “Search my heart, O God!” I’m learning that knowing is better than not. God won’t change what I refuse to acknowledge in me. Today it was pride. But he replaced it with thankfulness. He’ll take your crap, and give you gold. You’ve just got to ask God where the smell is coming from.