A Little Challenge

What is faster than a speeding bullet? No not Superman. No not Mario Andretti. No not the little arm on my scales after a trip to Olive Garden. The correct answer to this deep and probing question is (drum roll please)… a hummingbird. Yes, that is the correct answer to the probing question so let your mind stop racing to find the right answer and settle in with me for just a moment on the fascinating subject of hummingbirds. Yes fascinating. You guys are really second guessing me today. Hummingbirds are only about 3 inches long. They can flap their little wings 12 – 90 times PER SECOND! Take that NASA. These little marvels travel at 25 – 30 mph and can dive bomb you at 60 mph when you get a little too close to their feeder or if you are wearing red. They are the only group of birds that can actually fly backwards. There is no distance that they won’t conquer. The ruby-throated hummingbird will migrate over 2,000 miles. Now say with me – Yes Judy these little hummingbirds are truly miraculous.

I am sure all of you have either read or heard of the book “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.” It is meant to help us stop worrying about every little thing that happens in life and not get all stressed out. Now I agree that is a very good thing. But the possibility of dismissing everything small as inconsequential is my soapbox blog for today. As an American, my mentality is that bigger is always better. McDonalds’ whole super size campaign plays into my mentality for more. No matter what I am doing for God today it could be bigger and better. I want my blog site to be more polished. I want my writing to be more creative and grammatically correct. I want bigger and better but the truth is that God is happy with my little blogspot today. Little things can be amazingly wonderful when given to God.

Hannah prayed for a son. I am sure a lot of people laughed at her meager attempt to have a child by saying a little prayer. But God heard her prayer and Samuel was born and the Bible tells us how the life of Samuel impacted the nation of Israel. Simeon and Anna were in the temple praying and watching for the Messiah and prophesied over Jesus. A small thing that probably went unnoticed by most of the people in the temple that day but to Jesus’ Father it was huge. What others might have considered the ramblings of two old people, God heard as the official proclamation of His son as Messiah.

What little thing has God asked you to do today? Not when you finish school. Not when you get your degree. Not when you have more time or more money. Not when your kids are grown. Today. I challenge you to go ahead and say that little prayer for your marriage, for your healing, for your finances and give it to into the hands of Almighty God. I challenge you to do a small act of kindness with great love today. I challenge you to call a friend, write a note, take a meal to someone, give $5 to someone who is struggling and not wait until it can be $50 or $500.

So my little challenge for you today is to do something little for the glory of God. I challenge you to give your little to Jesus and allow Him to bless it, break it, and give it to those in need and then get ready to be amazed that something so little can do so much when placed in the hands of our Lord.

Mark 6:39 -44 (The Message)Jesus got them all to sit down in groups of fifty or a hundred—they looked like a patchwork quilt of wildflowers spread out on the green grass! He took the five loaves and two fish, lifted his face to heaven in prayer, blessed, broke, and gave the bread to the disciples, and the disciples in turn gave it to the people. He did the same with the fish. They all ate their fill. The disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers. More than five thousand were at the supper.

Little is much when God is in it!

A Boy Named Parker

I was given the daunting assignment of teaching the lesson of Joseph’s encounter with Potiphar’s wife to kids who were in grades 1 – 6. Needless to say, I went back and forth on how to present the truth of God’s word in a way that was appropriate. I never cease to be amazed how God teaches me far more than I ever even hope to teach others.

Sunday morning rolled around and I just plunged into the story with fear and trepidation not knowing how this was all going to come out. I started by talking to them about Joseph being sold as a slave. He was not a servant who could come and go but someone else actually owned him. That someone else was a rich and powerful man named Potiphar. Because Joseph was a hard worker and honest and did every job given to him the very best he could, Potiphar promoted him and made Joseph the boss over everything. So Joseph went from being at the bottom as a slave to the top where he was boss. Everything was good until Mrs. Potiphar noticed Joseph and started flirting with him. Joseph would have no part of it and would just leave but Mrs. Potiphar was not used to anyone saying no to her and she got mad. One day Joseph was working in her house and she grabbed him and told him she wanted him to be her boyfriend. Now this is where an absolutely amazing thing happened. A little boy in the back row stood up, eyes wide, and his hands on his hips and let out a loud WHAT?!???!!!!!

I am not sure what it was that caused that little boy to be so appalled at the situation but that was several months ago and God is still talking to me about the incident. When I am confronted with the suggestion of sin how do I react? Do my eyes get wide and do I thrust my hands on my hips and let out a loud and indignant WHAT?!??!!!!!? Am I appalled at the very thought of sin or have my senses been dulled? I live in a world that is polluted by sin and staying pure before God is like trying to stay clean while living in a cesspool. It is hard to avoid seeing magazines in the store, hearing swear words, or a crude commercial on TV. Nevertheless, God intends for me to have robes of pure white. How is that possible?

A few years ago I had the privilege of going on a trip with Compassion International to the Philippines. We visited churches that were reaching out to those around them with the word of God and with help for their everyday needs. After we had visited one church, we were invited to go with a child back to their home. I had sat and watched this beautiful little girl with a smile that lit up the room sing about Jesus and show me her Bible story papers. I could have been anywhere in the US but then we loaded on a bus to go to her home. She lived in a cemetery. Yes, actually in a cemetery. We walked past gravesites with crumbling markers. We walked past unmown plots that were littered with debris. We walked past people who were living on top of gravesites. We walked past the eyes of men and women watching us watching them. Then we arrived at this little girl’s home. Her mother met us at the door and proudly told us that her husband had been able to construct two rooms for them from materials he had found at the local dump. She was so proud that she had two rooms when everyone else only had one. As I stood in an unkept and decaying cemetery with a woman whose two rooms were made from cast off material from a dump, I noticed she had on a white t-shirt that was whiter than the ones I had folded neatly in my dresser drawer at home. How was that possible? How could you live in this environment and still have the whitest t-shirt I had ever seen? I am still awed and convicted when I think of that woman and all the excuses I have for not being able to keep my spiritual robes white in a sin filled world. What seems impossible – is possible. It is not only possible but it is what God expects from His children. If I am going to be clothed in robes of pure white linen, I am going to have to be appalled at the very mention of sin. When I am tempted to tell just a little lie instead of the truth. When I am tempted to gossip about a friend. When I am tempted to watch something I know is not good for my soul. Any and every temptation Satan throws my way should and must be met immediately with an indignant WHAT!

What lie is Satan telling you today, what sin is crouching at your door, what sinful situation is Satan tempting you with today? I pray that your eyes will get wide and you will thrust your hands on your hips and a loud and indignant WHAT will explode out of your inner being.

Today I ask for the heart of a little boy who was absolutely appalled at the suggestion of sin. I ask for a heart just like Parkers.

And then….

I remember as a little girl loving to hear stories that ended with “and they lived happily ever after.” The fact that the phrase “and they lived happily ever after” was at the end of a book known as a fairy tale should have alerted me not to expect my real everyday life to have the “happily ever after” banner flying high above my kingdom, but I was oblivious. I spent a lot of time trying to arrange life so I could live the fairy tale. My attempt to have the fairy tale marriage and mother fairy tale children and live in a fairy tale world was exhausting. Every time I thought I was at the perfect spot for a “happily ever after,” the Lord whispered in my ear, “and then.”

When our kids were little and we headed out on a road trip there were no DVD players, hand held video games, or ipods to entertain them. Back in the day, we actually played the alphabet game watching for signs with each letter. We tried to find all 50 states on license plates, and we would almost always enjoy a good game of “and then.” One person would start a story. It could be anything from a fairy princess to monsters in a lagoon – it didn’t matter. The point was to tell a couple of sentences and say “and then” and pass it on to the next person. The fairy princess story initiated by our daughter suddenly found itself tossed into the lap of a brother who turned the beautiful princess into a fire breathing dragon and then passed the story to dad who plunged the dragon into a deep dark sea where his fire power no longer worked and on to me who would arrange a meeting with a kindly mermaid who would take the dragon into her care and then back to the brother and on it went. Well that is pretty much the way my life with the Lord has been - a series of “and then” moments. Beautiful moments have turned into scary and treacherous times followed by unexpected twists and turns and then moments of pure joy. Our lives are always moving and we are always being changed – hopefully for the better. Our “and then” moments in life are meant to be “glory to glory” moments in the Lord. They are the circumstances that God uses to force us to grow in faith, force us to put down roots of love that go deep, to spread our branches and bear fruit and release the sweet fragrance of the Lord into our world.

This week I said goodbye to my brother, Jim, who was ushered into the presence of Almighty God and heard … "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!" I know that he is living the happily ever after life right now.

As his sister I heard, “and then.” God is not finished telling His story through me yet. I am still being changed from glory to glory. So even though this was a very difficult week, this is not where my story ends. One day I will live in God’s kingdom under His banner of love that will read “and Judy lived happily ever after,” but for today I am following close to the Lord to see where we go from here. This is not the end only another “and then” moment in my life.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Meet Mrs. Lappidoth

Mrs. Lappidoth is a mother extraordinaire, and since Sunday is Mother’s Day, I thought this would be the perfect time for you to get to know her. I love to read stories about strong women who somehow manage to get out of the box that society wants to put them in and be the woman God designed them to be. Mrs. Lappidoth not only got out of the box she pretty much demolished the box.

Mrs. Lappidoth found herself living in a time when everyone was closed in by fear. Business as usual was a thing of the past because it was too dangerous to be out in the fields or on the highways. Lawlessness, cruelty, and violence ruled. The very places where people should have felt safe and secure, - their homes, their towns, their streets, - were filled with anxiety. Their faith In God that once was their strength had been tossed aside and their will to fight was gone. Life had been diminished to just existing with no hope for the future.

I can identify with Mrs. Lappidoth. I find myself living in a world that is filled with fear. Uncertainty about the future has paralyzed many people. I used to love to travel but after 911 everything changed and today traveling reminds me that danger is possible anytime and anywhere and there is just that hint of uneasiness as you pass through airports, train stations, or anywhere large groups of people are gathered. There is a sense that we are not safe. I hear the reports of high gas prices, high food prices and people desperately looking for jobs and finding none. The faith that once made our nation great has been tossed aside and a lot of Christ followers have become complacent and are no longer willing to be involved or put forth the effort it will take to change themselves or those around them. I know that Satan would love to use all this to tie me up, put me in a box, and close the lid – and actually a smaller and smaller box all the time. But thankfully I have met Mrs. Lappidoth and I want to introduce you to her. Most of you already know her but just by her first name - Deborah.

Judges 5:6 “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,

In the days of Jael,

The highways were deserted,

And the travelers walked along the byways.

7 Village life ceased, it ceased in Israel,

Until I, Deborah, arose,

Arose a mother in Israel.

Deborah was a prophetess and a judge in a time when women just didn’t do that. She was a leader in a man’s world. She found herself involved in the political scene and holding court under a palm tree. We know that Deborah was also a wife and called herself a mother in the house of Israel. I don’t know whether she had actual sons and daughters, and as far as I know the Bible does not say, but it is very clear that she was a spiritual mom for the nation of Israel.

What I love about Deborah is not that she held all these positions or that I aspire to the positions she held. Frankly one Judge Judy is all that this world needs. It is not what she did but how she lived that excites me. She lived the uniquely designed life God had for her from her heart as a spiritual mom. Let’s talk about that.

As a prophetess, she heard the word of the Lord and became His mouthpiece to those she served. She was passionate to have her people restored to their rightful place before God and was quick to point out that they were suffering because they had left God. She was willing to do what God wanted her to do regardless of what society said she could or should do. Her objective was not to be powerful and establish herself as a force to be reckoned with but to lead God’s sons and daughters back to faith. Her words of encouragement changed the course of a nation. She was a mother in the truest since of the word whether or not she ever gave birth to a child.

I believe our world needs women to rise up and take their place before God as spiritual mothers to bring God’s sons and daughters to faith. Spiritual mothers who hear the voice of God and guide others. Passionate mothers with a willingness to do whatever God asks not what society expects. Our world needs spiritual moms who will use powerful words of encouragement to change the course of history. Age does not really factor into the spiritual realm so this is for every female reading this. We all need a spiritual mom and I believe we are all called to spiritually mentor someone. My ten-year-old granddaughter recently asked me to pray for her friend whose parents are getting a divorce. That is the heart of a spiritual mom in the making. This Mother’s Day I pray that every woman, regardless of age, will arise like Deborah.

The hand that rocks the cradle will change the world,

The heart that trains the soul will reach the nations,

But the spirit that awakens the destiny of another,

transforms the universe.

From Spiritual Moms by Lynn Wilford

Let’s transform the universe. Happy Spiritual Mother’s Day!