Not Moved

Deeply rooted plants can make it through the storms. One can see, in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, tall weathered-gray pines that have spiraled trunks. The winds blow there day after day, year after year, tossing and turning the branches, but these are old trees, deeply rooted, and the wind's force has finally twisted their trunks rather than tearing them from the soil as it might have done with more shallow trees. Can we, like those tough old tress, weather the storms?

The Psalmist declared several times, "I shall not be moved." What does mean? I won't be hurt or disappointed or troubled? I won't face difficulty or loss? No, if you are familiar with David's story, you know that all of these circumstances were a regular part of his life. The apostle Paul, too, said, "None of these things move me." He was referring to murderous plots against him, to his own humble servitude, and to a future that was uncertain except for the knowledge that it held imprisonment and tribulation! None of these things matter to me? No, none of these things will change my course. None will divert my attention from the truth that is established in me.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? . . . No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

I recall our singing "I Shall Not Be Moved" as a family when we were in the car together, going to church or traveling the long road to Grandma's house (30 miles, a long way back then!) It's a traditional American folk song, perhaps going back to the slavery camps.

I shall not be, I shall not be moved.

I shall not be, I shall not be moved.

Just like a tree that's standing by the water,

I shall not be moved.

Then one of us would begin,
"Jesus is my Savior, I shall not be moved . . ." or "I'm on my way to heaven, I shall not be moved . . ."

and the others would all chime in. This continued until we mercifully reached our destination or we tired ourselves out and switched to something else.

That was many years ago, and now I do sometimes feel like one of those gnarly old trees that's been twisted by the winds that have blown on the mountain top! Perhaps you feel this way too, but better for us to be twisted (in this good sense of the word) and still firmly planted, than broken and toppled over!

We shall not be moved!
MaryMartha

Scripture quotation is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/

Re-Framing

I have been listening to a CD on which the gospel singer declares that she had questions with answers she couldn't understand. I think that is probably true for all of us, and sometimes the questions don't seem to have answers at all. As we struggle with the things that perplex us, a wonderfully helpful verse from the Bible is this: "Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." (Romasns12:2) Difficulty itself does not necessarily set us free, but reframing it—changing how we think about it—does liberate us. Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)

If you are in a hard place now, where can you find the truth that will change how you think and set you free? Many of us are convinced that the Word of God is ultimate truth, but often our traditional views and personal opinions cloud our understanding of it.

4 A Popular Notion: Jesus said whatever I ask for, the Heavenly Father will give to me. So I'm going to ask for a Lexus and a new tri-level house.

8 What the Word Teaches: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures." (James 4:3 NIV)

4 A Popular Notion: Didn't God say He would supply all my need? Well, I actually do need a _______ [new car, new house, new clothes, new spouse—you fill in the blank.]

8 What the Word Teaches: Yes, but the Apostle Paul—a remarkable Christian, after all—tells us, "Actually, I don't have the sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now how to be quite content. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little." (from Philippians 4:11, 12)

4 A Popular Notion: If I serve the Lord, I will have fewer troubles. Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

8 What the Word Teaches: Jesus also said, "Here on earth you will have many trails and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

4 A Popular Notion: God obviously is pleased with my life because I have good health and financial success.

8 What the Word Teaches: It's quite possible to enjoy some of God's gifts without really having His blessing! Examples are Samson, Baalam, and any who "speak with the tongues of mean and of angels and have not love." (See I Corinthians 13)

"The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives." (Psalm 37:23) This does not mean that every act and thought of ours is predetermined, and we have only to live mechanically what has already been established. What it does mean is that God has orchestrated our lives in such a way that we will come face to face with His reality. Quite often this comes to us through pain or loss, disappointment, difficulty or perplexity because it is when we are searching for answers that we look up—and there is God! Would we actually want to wish away the critical events that have caused us to search for Him? Although they may have seemed almost unbearable at the time, we can ask God to change the way we think and then we can see how fruitful those times really were!

MaryMartha

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture quotation marked NIV is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/

My Little Library

Just suppose that my life experiences were written as little books and kept safely somewhere within my being. I have a whole little library inside me! Some of the books are dusty; I don't look at them very often. Others are well-thumbed, used on a regular basis. Here is a sampling.

There are several big, thick reference books detailing some of my hard-won lessons. If I didn't keep them handy, I might repeat some of the mistakes that taught those lessons. There are finance books in that section of my little library, books on personal relationships and parenting, books on sane Christian living.

I have some fine travel books with many pictures: the Washington countryside as it looks from a hot air balloon, the massive faces of Mt. Rushmore, the art in the shops and gardens along Canyon Road in Santa Fe, winter camping at the edge of the Grand Canyon, the blue of the Caribbean Sea, the special retreat place at Prairie Oasis.

There are adventure books about my experiences among Native Americans in South Dakota, of live-in ministry in Jamaica, and a foreign adoption completed in Honduras.

How-to books are in another section: How to churn butter or make a corncob doll, build a shed or paint a house, crochet an afghan, lead a group discussion, ride a train from here to over yonder, plan a funeral.

A couple of romances are in my library, but nothing exotic. Still, they are memorable and I will always have a place for them on my shelves.

A few fantasy books are included—or maybe they're not fantasy after all. Maybe they will yet turn out to be true! (No science fiction, though.)

Family stories abound of happy times at reunions, of what might be called "search-and-rescue" missions, of sharing our losses in Kansas and Washington and Texas and Georgia, of rejoicing in our blessings.

History and biography and genealogy are found in my little library too. My Amish/Mennonite grandfather's story is in a little book, and the birth of the Wonder Baby, and the accomplishments of my siblings. The details of my career choices are kept there, along with my moves from one part of the country to another.

There aren't any joke books as such, but lots of little books of humor. One is called "Launching the Goose," another is "I Don't Want to Be at This Rest Stop," and still another, "What It Was Was Football, as Told by Lloyd."

I have a few self-help books, and I keep them because they were put in my library by other people: an exceptional pastor; a couple of wise, professional counselors; the Dear Dr., special friends who challenge me to become more than I expect of myself.

My little library has devotional classics too, "classic" because they have stood the test of time, that is to say, my own lifetime. I turn to these books often.

The thing is, I keep adding to my library. Isn't that exciting?

Look inside yourself. You probably have a little library in there too!

MaryMartha

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/

Who Would Be God?

Years ago, when I made an ill-informed choice and landed in some distressing circumstances, I blamed God! In fact, I was pretty mad at Him. "How could this happen to me?" I stormed. "How could you let me make such a huge mistake?"

God is very calm when He answers such questions. "If you couldn't make a mistake," I heard Him say in my heart, "who would be God in your life?" Now I may have been foolish to ask God such a thing, but I am not stupid! I knew for sure that I did not want to manage life by myself. I did not want to be my own God.

Sometimes we are so determined to see our own agenda worked out, that we try to use God to enable that. I believe that God hears us when we pray, and I believe that sometimes He does things in answer to prayer that He would not otherwise do. But that He can be manipulated because we invoke His name is far from true. I believe in miracles too; sometimes there is no explanation for an outcome except such Divine intervention. But to expect God to unhinge the regular working of the Universe because there is something I want is likewise false.

s If we could re-route tornadoes and floods and earthquakes at will, who would be God?

s If we could always prevent broken bones and car breakdowns and layoffs in the lives of those we love, who would be God?

s If we could provide bountiful crops and a cure for cancer and blissful marriages, who would be God?

s If we had the power to end world hunger, threats of terrorism, and illiteracy, who would be God?

Sometimes it's quite easy to see that our circumstances, pleasant or otherwise, are the direct result of choices we have made. But it is not always that clear. Sometimes simple cause-and-effect doesn't apply, but we still want desperately to believe there is an existential reason for everything. So when good happens, people say, "I—or you or they—must be living right." When bad things happen, we wonder, "What did I/we/they do to deserve this?"

There is spiritual wisdom in asking God if He wants to teach us something through the situation in our lives or in the world, but He does not owe us explanations for everything. Father Cavanaugh explains to Rudy (in the "movified" story of an aspiring football player, 1993), "In thirty-five years of religious study, I have only come up with two hard, incontrovertible facts: there is a God and I'm not Him."

We're not God. And aren't you glad?

MaryMartha


Related posts:
What Job Learned about Reasons (here)
Is There a Reason for Everything? (here)
Reconciling (here)

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/

Things Mama Taught Me: When in Doubt, Don't

There is hardly a more succinct bit of advice from Ben Franklin than his "When in doubt, don't." I don't know if Mama got her wisdom from him or whether it was the natural gift of her motherhood.

"Is this shirt clean enough to wear?" a son or daughter might ask her.

"If you have to ask, it isn't."

"When in doubt, don't." This may be helpful when we are making up our minds whether or not a certain article of clothing or a particular activity is appropriate, but it is actually not the perfect watchword for more important decision-making. There are many times when we have insufficient information to enable a confident decision. "Will I need more than $100 to make this trip?" Well, there's not any way to tell. I have no information about the possibility of having to be towed and replacing a water pump or fixing a windshield. I just make the best decision I can with the information I have.

Sometimes the information at hand is not accurate, as in "Will I need to clear the sidewalks in the morning?" Snow flurries were predicted, but I didn't get up early enough to shovel four inches of flurry off the walks.

And sometimes the information-gathering process is skewed by the emotion involved—mine or someone else's. "Call now . . . Write your Congressman today . . . This is the only opportunity . . ." Decisions based on emotion are at best shaky, and sometimes plainly mistaken.

But "when in doubt, don't," does serve to slow us down long enough to examine carefully the decisions that have significant effect on our lives.

sDoes the decision have short-term benefits which will cost me dearly in the long run? (Credit purchases immediately come to mind.) Choosing the right thing often has a costly immediate effect on me, but the benefits are greater long-term.

sDoes this decision affect others? Is that a positive thing for them, or will I be the one who only possibly reaps the benefits at a cost to those around me, especially those for whom I am responsible? (Making a major move comes to mind; gambling away the paycheck would be another.)

sDoes this decision require my overriding the reservations I may have? Does it require haste? (Car sales come immediately to mind.) "The chance of a lifetime" actually comes around every once in awhile.

God is good, and He has our best interests at heart. He is ready to give guidance and help when we sincerely seek to honor Him in our decision-making.

MaryMartha

Art from http://sxc.hu/

Purging

Conventional de-cluttering wisdom says to get rid of anything that you haven't used in a year. Oh my! Once I started on the furniture re-arrangement project, I realized that I had boxes and boxes of stuff that had not been opened in several years; they were waiting quietly for recognition in the room that had become a catch-all, but is now going to have a more useful life. I had a hard time believing that just because I had not opened the boxes meant there was nothing of value in them. Hence the re-organization project with an actual designated place for what I must keep.

I did run across something helpful, notes from some wise person who said, "Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful, or precious." That seems like good advice. Lots of things were no longer useful to me, or even had never been; at one time I thought I needed them but they were still in their original packaging. Not too many things demanding to be kept were visibly beautiful, but some were beautiful expressions of love and understanding. And then there were the precious things: a four-year-old's crayoned drawing for grandma, crosses which I have been intending to display, brought back by friends who visited Belgium and Ireland and Israel, and those scrapbook pages and photos I mentioned in an earlier post. Even so, I still had the entire rear of my hatchback vehicle filled with goods to be donated. (And I have, in fact, already been there and done that.)

So I've talked about things to keep and things to give away, how about the things to throw away? Oh yes, big bagsful! And I learned something important when it came to that: Some things are not meant to be revisited. There were a bunch of old letters from an erstwhile friend, and I was tempted to put them aside to re-read, but I clearly felt that was not the thing to do. It is hard enough work lifting boxes and sorting through them without adding the burden of remembering a particularly difficult time in my life. "But what if I need . . . ?"

There is a good illustration for this: After a person gets better, he/she doesn't frame the bloody bandages from the accident or gold-plate the crutches used after surgery just in case they might be needed again. "Forgetting the past," the Apostle Paul called it, "and looking forward to what lies ahead." (Philippians 3:13)

MaryMartha

Art from http://www.sxc.hu/

Things Mama Taught Me: Follow the Directions

Maybe I was nine or ten, I'm not sure, when my mother thought it was time for me to learn some baking skills. She wrote down the ingredients and the directions to follow for my first creation: cornbread. Even a grade-schooler with minimal skills could mix flour and yellow cornmeal with salt and sugar and baking soda. The buttermilk I added was real—the tart liquid left after churning butter—and the "shortening" was probably lard or bacon grease. The batter was poured into a couple of Pyrex pie plates, brown-ringed from years of use, and baked until golden brown on top. Every week for a long time—until I graduated to sour cream chocolate cake—I made cornbread for our Saturday evening supper, the leftovers from which we ate on Sunday morning, crumbled into a bowl and topped with sugar and milk like cereal. Just like modern mothers, Mama knew about "planned-overs."

"When in doubt, read the directions!" We have to say that because there exist those individuals who rush into a venture without considering what resources they will need or what procedure to follow. Sometimes that turns out all right; how hard can those "cornbread" experiences be? On the other hand, if we have not learned to follow the recipe for making simple "cornbread," it's not likely we're going to succeed when it comes time to make the more complicated "chocolate cake."

Experienced cooks can depart from the printed page. When making a pie crust, Mama told me to add water to the dough until it "felt right." She knew just when that was and made the best pies in the county. Me? I follow the directions on the package that tell me to unroll it into the pie pan.

Just about every cookbook that is a collection of favorite recipes has one for a happy home or a good marriage or a friendly day or well-preserved children: 2 cups understanding, 1 cup kind words, etc. How about following these directions?

Recipe for Reality

Mix well:
1 cup Stress
2 heaping cups Limited Time
¾ cup Hope
2 tablespoons Frustration
1 tablespoon Guilt

Add as necessary:
Tears
Sweat

Knead thoroughly with:
3 cups Faith

Cover with Prayer and let rise.

Place in oven heated with Trials and Tribulations.

Remove after due season.

Spread with the Sweetness of Grace and
Serve while warm with God's Love
     to family, friends, and strangers alike.

Want to make some?

MaryMartha

A New Point of View

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (KJV) I spoke with a fellow Christian who told me, "I thought being a new creature meant my old habits and hang-ups were gone, and I wouldn't have to deal with them any more." If only that were true, how much easier life would be!

There is no denying that many people experiencing Christ's salvation have a radical change in their attitudes, appetites, and ambitions. But there is no guarantee that well-established behaviors are going to suddenly vanish. The Apostle Paul wrote, "I discipline my body [which is, after all, the point at which a great deal of failure begins] and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." (I Corinthians 9:27 NKJV) Forgiveness is freely offered; a right relationship with God is the point His plan. But Paul found living righteously was not automatic.

"New creation" means, most of all, that the once-dead spiritual being has been brought to life. One of the evidences of this is in the mind. "We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (II Corinthians 5:16, 17 NLT) At salvation, the new life has only begun; that is why we call it "the second birth." We begin then to live with more than just the human point of view, and to become mature in Christ, this new point of view must continue to expand throughout our whole faith journey.

God transforms us into new persons by changing the way we think. "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (Romans 12:1, 2 MSG)

MaryMartha

Scripture marked NKJV taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotation marked NLT is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture marked MSG is taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Getting Polished

I bought some natural stones today for my rock garden. Some were rough pieces of limestone, probably from right here in Kansas, the dealer told me. Others I chose were river rocks, he said, worn smooth by years and years of tumbling against one another as the water flowed over and around them. Even though these rocks are composed of extremely hard material, much harder than the limestone, their sharp edges have been knocked off by the constant wearing process. If one were to further tumble these smoothed rocks in a rock tumbler with abrasive grit, they would be quite beautiful, some with distinctive grain as well as a high polish.

As I placed the rocks, I thought about the "rough edges" we ourselves have, and how God brings into our lives the circumstances and people that can smooth out those places if we comply with His plan. Maybe the things that simply wear us out are actually working for our benefit! When we are feeling most tumbled, perhaps that is when we are getting our best polishing!

MaryMartha

Another Birthday

I'm not old—yet—but the new calendar every year tells me that I'm getting there. Here is my thought for today and the year that follows:

Some people have a subtle prejudice against those who are aging, even their very own selves! God, however, is no respecter of persons, not giving consideration to those characteristics that are only temporary and changing. In fact, His Word speaks strong words of encouragement to those who have added some years of experience to their faith.

"O God, you have taught me from my earliest childhood, and I constantly tell others about the wonderful things you do. Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me. (Psalm 71:17, 18)

“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all you who remain in Israel. [God is speaking to us, as we are adoptees in this family.] I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. (Isaiah 46:3, 4)

"The godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in him!” (Psalm 92:12-15)

In the Old Testament history, we are told of several people who lived to "a good old age." The accounts say that they were "full of days," or "full of years"; life was complete for them. None of us can say exactly what "full of years" will mean for us—a great many years for some and fewer for others—but however many it is, God will make it complete for us. I especially like the description of Abraham who died happy at a ripe old age, having lived a long and satisfying life. Can another birthday be such a bad thing to happen to me?

MaryMartha

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

One Thing After Another

Lord, I don't understand
     the unrelenting pressures on my life:
A long period of not being well,
     and then a legal tangle,
And then the child whose life unravels
     before my very eyes.
I'm made of sturdy stuff
     but I confess I sometimes think
This is too much,
     this one thing right after another.

"Of course, it's one thing after another!
That is the way I mold My children's lives.
You could not bear the shaping tools
     all at a time.
They come one after another.
     Be glad!"

A note: I wrote this some years ago. The illness is long past, the legal situation is forgotten, the child weathered that crisis and several new ones. It is still true, though, that I face "one thing right after another," just as you do, no doubt. Our God is just as faithful today as He has been in the past.

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

The Making of Beautiful Wood

I admire objects made of beautifully-grained wood. I like to look at them, I like to touch them. There is something warm and alive about wood that doesn't exist in other materials: plastics, ceramics, and even precious metals. Sometime in my elementary school education, my science text explained that one can determine a tree's age by the number of growth rings. A wider, light-colored area encircles each thin dark area. The lighter section shows growth that occurred during the summer months when the sap flowed freely in the tree and growth was rapid. The darker layer shows the slower growth that occurred during the cold of winter when the sap had descended to the lower part of the tree. Together, the two represent a year's growth. Now many seasons later, I understand that the lovely grain I prize on wooden pieces is nothing more than the inner and outer portions of those growth rings, revealed when lumber is cut from the tree's trunk. Depending on the location and angle of the "slice," different grain is obtained.

I am realizing that if I want the end result of my life to be an object of grace and beauty, I must grow during good seasons and difficult. I am laying down a new "ring" every year. I don't know yet all that God will make of me, but I want it to be something He can admire!

"He hath made every thing beautiful in his time." (Ecclesiastes 3:11 KJV)

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

The Gift of Memory

I recently read a strange, and even haunting, little book. It is not new, published fifteen years ago, but it sometimes takes me a while to catch up! In The Giver, author Lois Lowry depicts the young boy Jonas in a community tightly run by Elders who make the decisions governing all. There are no controversies permitted, virtually no choices to be made, and only the shallowest of feelings are expressed. (Even his adolescent Stirrings are extinguished with specially prescribed drugs.) As each youngster becomes a Twelve, he/she is given an appropriate career assignment chosen by the Elders; Jonas is selected for the prestigious position of Receiver of Memory. As he enters the dramatic and rigorous training, Jonas leaves behind his accustomed world of Sameness and learns for the first time about ordinary things like colors, sunshine, snow, and hills. He also learns about hunger, love, war, and death—things that are hidden from the others who have chosen to live without responsibility. These things would be painful or troubling or prone to lead, as love would, to disorder. Only he, and the Giver who currently holds the collective memories of all the community, have access to the books that describe life in the past, “back and back and back,” and in the place called Elsewhere. To my relief, however, the book ends on a courageous, hopeful note.

So I have been pondering for several days the gift of memory. I certainly would not want to give up the remembered delight of my daughter’s first-formed question as I read to her, “Mama, what is barn?” I want to keep the day I graduated from college (at age 49), and the day I bought my first brand-new car. I want to experience again and again staying at the Grand Canyon in a freezing tent camper, and riding a hot air balloon in Washington, and swimming in the Caribbean. I want to hold on to my family members and friends who are no longer living by keeping them in my memory.

Yes, things have happened that brought pain too; would I really wish to forget them? How would I know how to reach out to others who are in distress? I look back at some moments of self-consciousness and embarrassment; should I forget those? How would I know that I could now laugh and say, “Well, you won’t catch me doing that again?” I remember some inappropriate decisions, a few ill-timed endeavors, some honest but flawed attempts. Those were not fun at all, but now that they are held in my memory-bank, I am better and wiser. I would not want those memories to be stored some place where I did not have access to them. I have no doubt that memory is a gift.

God has memory. Again and again in His Word, God tells His people that He will remember them and His promises to them. Made in His likeness, with the ability to remember, memory is one of the things that guides and strengthens us. “He causes us to remember his wonderful works. How gracious and merciful is our Lord!” (Psalm 111:4)

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture quotation is taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

I Didn't Know

I was in training, once, for a new position which was extremely detailed. It would have been impossible for my supervisor to outline for me every possible variation of the tasks I was to perform. We covered the basics, and then I was entrusted with the responsibility of carrying through on the job. Much of the work, though dissimilar from one hour to the next, soon became an enjoyable routine and only occasionally did I encounter anything that was very different from what I had previously handled.

One day I was given one of those “variations on the theme.” It’s pretty much like what I’ve done before, I said to myself. A little different, but not too much. It’s almost, not quite, like yesterday’s assignment, or last week’s. I think I can do this. And so I didn’t ask. Using my best judgment seemed to have worked—for awhile. It was about two weeks before the job came back to my desk. Without being unkind at all, the supervisor simply explained, “This is how we want it. Please do it over.”

Well, I thought, I just didn’t know. But then, why didn’t I see that this particular job was different? I didn’t know . . . Well, you should have known. Or at least you should have asked . . . I didn’t ask because I didn’t even know that I didn’t know! Now realize, no one had scolded me, reproved me, or even criticized the job. Here I was, arguing with myself!

I have called myself lots of unflattering things for some of the serious mistakes I’ve made in my lifetime. “Stupid.” “Ignorant.” “Dumb.” “Blind.”
And only slightly less maligning: “Gullible.” 'Deceivable.” “Unsophisticated.” “Naïve.” The day I corrected my mistake on the job, I realized that I had often had the same argument with myself about these major issues. “I didn’t know. Maybe I could have known, should have known, but the fact remains, I didn’t. And I didn’t even know that I didn’t know!

Unfortunately, there are no “do-overs” in life as there are on the job. Still, it is empowering to realize that now we see light where before there was darkness. Over two thousand years ago, a Roman statesman-philosopher and great orator said, “I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.” (Marcus Tullius Cicero, “Tusculan Disputations”) It’s as simple as that. We don’t know everything. Some things that we learn, we learn too late. Sometimes we even make the same mistake more than once because we cruise along life’s highway unaware of the danger in our “blind spot.”

We are often quick to condemn error, our own or others’, on the basis of “Ignorance is no excuse,” which is, in fact, a misquote. "Ignorance of the law does not excuse," is a principle in jurisprudence that one is bound by the public law of the jurisdiction in which he conducts himself, even if he has not made himself aware of it. (So that’s why I got a speeding ticket the other day!) Should we take this old Roman legal concept and apply it to our daily lives, particularly if we are making sincere efforts to live righteously? I think not. I am suggesting that we be a little more forgiving of ourselves and of others for the things we simply didn’t know at the crucial time.

Related article:
What If I Make a Mistake? here

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

In the World of Dick and Jane

I grew up in the world of Dick and Jane—also Baby Sally, Mother, Father, Spot the dog, and Puff the cat. For those of you who are “Boomers” or somewhat older, you probably know who I mean. For those who are younger, let me explain: the above-named are characters in a popular series of basic reading texts for young school children from the 1930s to the 1970s in the United States. The books relied on sight reading (or "whole word reading") and repetition, using phrases like, "Oh, see. Oh, see Jane. Funny, funny Jane." The books enjoyed a revival when they were reprinted in 2003; they are not now considered suitable for teaching children to read, but over 2.5 million copies were sold to nostalgic people like me. Related merchandise, such as shirts and magnets, were also produced and gained wide popularity, particularly among people who had never been exposed to the original series but were familiar with catch phrases such as “See Spot run!"

In the world of Dick and Jane, there was no unemployment, no arguments between one’s parents, no racial tension (characters from other races and cultures were not introduced until 1965), no sick babies or dying pets, no one who stole wagons or tricycles. I loved Dick and Jane and their world! And when I say that I grew up in that world, I am quite serious. My father farmed and so it was obvious to me that he had steady work. (I didn’t know it was making hardly any money.) My mother was, of course, a stay-at-home mom because that’s what mothers did. My parents did not argue—that I could ever tell—mostly because that’s not what mothers did. Until I entered high school, I did not know a single person of another race. (I was in an all-white community.) We had measles and scarlet fever, but nobody was deathly sick. When the pets died, well, they weren’t really part of the family anyway; they just happened to live where we lived. And there was no one around to steal our stuff, as if they would even want it. So I was not really very well-prepared for the reality of life in any other kind of world than the world of Dick and Jane where the worst hurts were usually nothing more than scraped knees and bloody noses.

We no longer live in the world of our earliest childhood experiences—whether it was like Dick and Jane’s and mine, or a milieu totally different. Whatever the setting of our growing up, all of us have undoubtedly faced hardships, disappointments, and certainly surprises! It's just not the way we pictured it!" We may need to be reminded that the world of our early spiritual formation, the world when we went to our first real job, and the world of our honeymoon marriage no longer exists. That world has changed, and so have we. “When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” (I Corinthians 13:11) We are better and wiser and stronger now.

The world we live in today is complicated, and sometimes frightening. Cutthroat competition, natural disasters, crime, dreadful diseases, war and terrorism exist here. But we will survive and thrive in this world as well. “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38, 40)

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

What Joseph Learned about the Past

The Bible is not evasive at all when it comes to telling us about its heroes. The life of Joseph is one of the more complete accounts we have of a person’s life. Most of the details we have about Joseph are from his teen years onward, but we can assume a lot about his childhood when we read the whole story in Genesis. His early years were marked by what we would now call “childhood trauma.”

Joseph was born into a family where there were already ten sons, the first son of his mother Rachel while the older boys were born of three other mothers. He was most likely still a young child when, hurriedly and secretly, they moved away from Grandpa Laban’s, the only home Joseph had ever known. They had traveled for a week when Grandpa caught up with them. There were loud, angry words; was the little boy afraid?

Father Jacob and Grandpa Laban worked something out, however, and soon they were on their way again—only to receive news that Uncle Esau was coming to meet them with four hundred men, ready to fight! Joseph’s father divided the servants, flocks and herds into several groups, sending some ahead to meet Esau. During the night he got up and moved his family across the brook, while he stayed behind. In the morning, when he returned for them, he was crippled! More scary stuff for a child!

Then there was the nasty encounter at Shechem, when the young men of the family slaughtered the residents for the rape of their sister. Also, Deborah, a faithful family servant died and was buried near the city. Where was young Joseph when all of this was happening? They were only a little way from Ephrath (Bethlehem), when Rachel went into labor, and baby brother Benjamin arrived. But Rachel died giving birth, and was buried along the way. A little while later, Grandpa Isaac, the patriarch that Joseph had heard so much about and the one whom they had traveled through such difficulty to join, also died. Such loss for a little boy.

Although not the youngest of the sons, Joseph was favored by his father, and this favoritism sparked ill will among those who were slighted. This in turn led to wrongdoing and undeserved suffering. He did not add to his likeability by unwisely, it would seem, telling everyone the dreams which forecast his authority over them and by serving as a “reporter” to his father. Finally, still only a teenager, Joseph was sold by his own brothers as a slave to foreigners.

So Joseph, an honored Bible example, even a foreshadowing of Christ Himself, grew up in a wildly dysfunctional family—think of that! Had he lived in modern times, he might exhibit one ailment or another and then say, “Well, you can’t blame me for my problems. I had a lot of trauma as a youngster.” Or he could behave badly, and ask, “What do you expect from someone with a dysfunctional family like mine?” Instead, he consistently acted with integrity—when propositioned, when unjustly imprisoned, when given responsibility, when forgotten, and finally when given power and almost unlimited authority. The ultimate demonstration of his uprightness was his forgiveness of the brothers who had so wronged him. Revealing himself as their long-lost brother, he declared, “God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt.” (Genesis 45:7-8, emphasis mine) And later, when the brothers feared that Joseph would get even after their father’s death, he assured them, “ ‘Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people . . .’ So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.” (Genesis 50:19-21, emphasis mine)

Joseph was able to look at his past through enlightened eyes. He was able to recognize that, all along, his life had been marked—not just with trauma—but with the presence of God. Even his employer and the prison keeper were aware of it. It was Joseph’s greatest asset.

We do not always comprehend the greater plan. We are myopic, seeing only what is right in front of us. But God does have a plan! Before the foundation of the world, He chose us to know Him. He looked ahead, saw the genes each of us would inherit, saw the people who would influence us as we grew up, saw the problems and questions and mistakes that would impact us negatively, and said, “I choose you . . . and you . . . and you. All of us. We look at our backgrounds and say, “But this is just the way I am. It’s too hard. I can’t do this, or I can’t be this, because of such-and-such.” But before any of us ever had a background, God was saying “I want you.” It took all of the experiences we have had—all of our past—to bring us to this very place of God’s calling.

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. United States of America. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

Not How I Pictured It

I was sharing with a friend my surprise and dismay at a certain unhappy turn of events in my life. “I didn’t know it would be like this,” I told her.

“Have you ever seen ‘Lost in Yonkers’?” she asked. “There is a priceless line in the movie that describes what you are going through.” Since I was unfamiliar with Neil Simon’s play or the movie made from it, she gave me a briefing. The story begins with two young brothers sent to live with their domineering grandmother after their mother’s death, but it soon revolves more around their Aunt Bella. She is a sweet, unsophisticated woman of thirty-five, who will always think like a child but, as she explains, “feel like a woman inside of me.” An avid movie-goer, she yearns to find someone who will return her love. And so she found Johnny, also limited mentally and emotionally, who is an usher at the theater

One scene depicts a family meeting, nervously convened by Bella, to announce her plan to marry Johnny, open a restaurant with him, and have her own babies. As she herds mother, sister, and nephews into the places she has “assigned” them, her brother Louie is a holdout. He wants to stand—actually, what he really wants to do is to leave. Bella tells him, “But it would be much better if you were sitting, Louie. I pictured everybody sitting.” And later, when Louie raises objections during “the family talk” that Bella is conducting, she cries out in exasperation, “That’s not how I pictured it.”

Isn’t that like life? So often we imagine just exactly how circumstances are going to play out, and almost inevitably we are mistaken! Sometimes we are surprised and pleased, because things work out even better than we anticipated. But sometimes we are surprised and dismayed—or even deeply hurt or angry or embarrassed. The result we expected failed to materialize.

It’s easy to welcome the happy ending, not so easy to accept the disappointing one. However, neither outcome can cause us to lose our balance if we are secure in our knowledge that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) We’ll be happier if we can give up our attempts to engineer every single aspect of life, and can recognize that the outcome is not entirely dependent upon our cleverness, our sincerity, or our own hard work. We simply cannot control everything. What a relief to know that God is in control! And although not every experience is by itself a good one, yet in all of them together, God is working for our good.

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

Drawing from the Well

I have been remembering some of the songs I used to sing as a child in Daily Vacation Bible School. A lot of them were about joy.

"I have the joy, joy, joy, joy
Down in my heart . . ."

"Jesus, then Others, then You.
What a wonderful way to spell JOY. . ."

"The windows of heaven are open, the blessings are falling tonight.
There’s joy, joy, joy in my heart, for Jesus makes ev’rything right . . ."

"If you’re happy and you know it,
Clap your hands . . ."

Well, not surprisingly, life got more complicated as I grew older. Joy changed from mere youthful exuberance to something more settled—less noisy perhaps, but longer lasting. If I may put it this way, I have a history now with God, experience that makes me confident of His faithfulness. “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy [I] will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
(Isaiah 12:2-3 NIV) The well is deep now, dug through sands of weakness until He became my strength, sunk further through the clinging clay of fears until He became my song, bored through the stubborn rock of dubious hope until He became my salvation! The well is deep now, and it’s
reliable. Whenever I go there, I can draw joy. (Even though I may not clap my hands!)

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

Things Mama Taught Me: "Act Your Age"

On Becoming a Grown-up Christian

I am a middle child, born after two boys had arrived in quick succession and followed by two more brothers and a sister. When my behavior failed to measure up to the expectations of my mother, she would sometimes tell me, “Act your age.”

Acting my age was, I admit, sometimes a confusing point. I was old enough to wash the dishes and help feed the chickens, but too young to go to the grain elevator and watch the trucks dump their loads of wheat. I was too big to cry when my older brothers teased but too little to go along with them when they rode their bikes down the lane to play with the neighbor kids.

A lot of Christians are equally confused by the issue of spiritual maturity. Does it mean one is fully developed as a believer, that there is no more growth to be attained? Does it mean that we have been trained in every essential way and have reached some level of perfection? Does it mean that we have served all that we need to and can now “retire” from Christian duty?

It means none of these.

Maturity, in its finest sense, is acting out of what we know rather than what we feel. James, one of the Church’s early pastors, wrote, ”Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” (James 1:2-4)

If we have obtained any knowledge at all beyond the recognition that we need Jesus as our Savior, then we are “old enough” to face with success the tests that come to everyone. Holding steady in the face of difficulty is not really about being tough; it is a choice we make, a challenge to act as nearly like our Older Brother as we can. Giving it all up as too hard, or giving in to whining while we endure, is not acting our age.

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 2003 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com

Doing vs. Wishing to Have Done

Early this summer I rode in a hot-air balloon, more than 1600 feet above a lush, green river valley in the state of Washington. It was a thrilling experience, not only for the unequalled view, but also as a statement of sorts about the hopes of “a brave new woman.” I told my surprised friends that I had wanted to do this for a long time, but usually I qualified that statement with something nearer the truth: “I wasn’t really sure I wanted to do it, but I really did want to have done it.”

Actually, we see this attitude demonstrated fairly often. I am reminded of a friend who made conspicuous mention of loving classical music. This individual did not play classical music, did not listen to classical music, and most of the time did not even particularly appreciate classical music. But intellectual, cultured people “ought” to love classical music, so my friend loved the idea of loving classical music! It’s just very easy for us to make a lot of noise about what we plan to do, how knowledgeable we are, or what our success will look like. We love the idea of what might be, and sometimes we are satisfied with the mere idea of it. Only in our imagination do we relish the satisfaction of having done it—and we never get around to actually doing it.

I wonder if this ever carries over into our walk of faith. Do we really want to love and follow Jesus as our Lord? Or are we only looking ahead to the time when we’ll stand before God the Judge and we want to have done it?

MaryMartha
(All rights reserved)

Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com