anticipating 2015 and beyond

New Year's here!

Tis the season of anticipation. And many are the goals, hopes, and plans for 2015...at least if my facebook page is any predictor. 

But for me, anticipation is a guilty pleasure every day of the year. Whether it's going to an event, an upcoming vacation, hanging out with friends, cup of decaf after work...ANYTHING. I want to know about it before hand. The anticipation actually trumps the event for me most times. I savor it. 

This addiction can have an ugly underbelly though. Like when ringing in the new year gets me thinking about what singleness may look like 10, 25, 40 years from now. And I start anticipating...

• The possibility of never having my own family. 
• The death of a loved one without the support of a spouse.   
• The day when I will fall, become violently ill, break a bone, find an antediluvian- sized arachnid...while alone in my home.  
•  Supporting myself financially as I age. 
• Who will care for me when I grow old and can't live by myself.

I start to predict a life that, if it maintains its current path, will lead me near horrifying and gloomy possibilities. But is anticipation even Biblical? I recently asked myself this question and (though worthy of deeper study) here's a few of my conclusions:

1. I can anticipate grace. 

The whole of Scripture sings this song. Grace always in all things. in every possibility, at every age. Sufficient in every way that I am deficient. Grace to obey and to act as God's child. More grace. Heaps of  'grace upon grace' as John 1 puts it. 

2. I can anticipate God's loving kindness. 

God's Word says it. Says His loving kindnesses are new every morning. Says His steadfast love endures forever. No famine, or disease, or any person, or even death can separate me from it. How high are the Heavens from the earth? The reserves of God's loving kindness rise that high. Plenty and more for all my years.  

3. I can anticipate the provision of every need.

God will supply my needs in measure to His inexhaustible Heavenly resources. His children need not fear the possibility of begging bread. I shall not want. Consider how God sustains creation. How much more will He sustain one made in His own image? He knows what I need before I even ask Him.  And He will never give me something useless or hurtful.

4. I can anticipate that God will always hear my voice. 

His ear is open to my cry and inclined toward me to catch every word. All the time. If my path runs along mountains of loss, sheer cliffs of physical disability, unstable ground of feeble age...wherever these next years find me, it will always be within ear shot of my Heavenly Father. And He tells me to keep on keeping on bringing my requests before Him. 

But if, in this life, there are heartaches, weaknesses, disappointments that run so deep no words can voice them, the Holy Spirit will take up my cry for me. The triune God praying, listening, and answering all for me. Expect that.

5. I can anticipate an eternity of joy and rest with my Savior in Heaven.

Nothing can pluck me out of the hands that are gently and steadily carrying me there. Towards an eternity of no tears. Out of a clouded, dim understanding into a forever of face to face.  Let that sink in, friend. 

In this life there will be death. There will be a defiling of things and people. A fading of loves, wealth, quality of life... But take no thought for these things. There is a fullness of joy waiting for us in the presence of God in Heaven. Our inheritance there is imperishable and undefiled. It will not fade away. It's reserved for us. 

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So whether this new year appears chock full of bonhomie or bah humbug from your current point of view, place your anticipation on sure footing before you begin. Place it on the Word of God.

And you will not be disappointed. 

Beth 

Who is He?

Curious crowds will press in upon the manger this week.

They'll pack candle-lit services, Christmas pageants, midnight mass...
All clamoring for a closer look. All wondering--

Who is He? 

Then in a blink, they will drift away. Scatter. Finding more meaning in twinkling lights and stocking-thick mantels than this infant scene. 

Come--before they descend upon us. 

Come and bend close with me. Bow low and peer into this mean cradle.
And listen to me whisper: 

Who is He? I know.

He is my 'Let not your heart be troubled, believe in Me.'

My 'I will not leave you comfortless.'

My 'Look unto me and be saved.'

My 'Peace, be still.'

My 'Daughter, your faith has made you whole.'

He is my 'Do you love me more than these?'

My 'Your Heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things.'

My 'Will you also go away?'

My 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.'

He is my 'Thrust your hand in my side and be not faithless, but believing.'

My 'I go to prepare a place for you.'

My 'Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'

And the list stretches long. My voice grows hoarse.
My heart swells and presses hard against its cage. Overwhelmed by this. 
This fullness of grace and truth. This God made flesh and dwelling among us. 
This beholding the glory of the Only Begotten.

Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

He's mine.

Beth

Why Christmas stinks for singles (and church is the solution)

I really wanted to write an entire post about how difficult the Christmas season can be for singles, but my blog rules wouldn't allow it. And the more I thought on what gets me through this season, I realized my musings all had one theme. But first, for your entertainment...

Christmas stinks for singles because:

1. Roasting chestnuts over an open fire alone is called a hazard not holiday fun.

2. If I see another bunch of mistletoe, I will chew it up and swallow it whole.

3. A mantel hung with one stocking is just obnoxious.

4. Mounded plates of received holiday baked goods create more misery than merry as I try to stuff them into my mouth before they go bad on my kitchen counter.

5. Mistletoe is kryptonite.

6. Snuggling up to your sweetheart while caroling and looking at Christmas lights makes a whole lot of sense. Wrapping your arms around your middle and rocking side to side while caroling and looking at Christmas lights as one? Not so much.

7. Unless I am willing to invite two Christmas Tree Farm creeper dudes to travel IN MY CAR WITH ME to my HOME in order to unload a live Christmas tree... I'm stuck with artificial.

8. M.I.S.T.L.E.T.O.E.

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This list is intentionally lighthearted. But the truth is, Christmas is marked by togetherness. So it shines a direct, piercing spotlight on something that is already very attention-sensitive. We are not...well...together. We are single. 

What does the local church have to do with singleness bah-humbug? EVERYTHING. Here's why:

1. We will find a "together" that is unparalleled in its scope and beauty.

The church is a body. Each member (single or not) is necessary. It's fitly joined together--interconnected. A moving, living thing. When I'm with the body I realize I am useful and needed. Doesn't that hit at the core of us singles? Exactly. And in God's plan, its members are uniquely fitted to minister to me. Don't forsake the body of Christ. It's perfect togetherness. 

2. We will discover life (even holiday-crazy life) makes sense in its context.

The world dangles an empty package of togetherness at Christmas, and people grow frantic trying to capture it. To buy the emotional high and romanticized satisfaction of glowing trees, warm fires, presents...but they find it is not enough. It will never be enough.

David saw the glitz and glamour of the world's package too. But when he entered the house of God, he saw things as they truly are. He saw that the world's way ends in destruction. He saw the inestimable riches of knowing God. Don't let the local church take a back seat to sentimentality this season.The "Christ-life" was made to make sense in the context of the body of Christ. So be there! Don't settle for a hollow together.

3. We will remember that Christmas time is difficult for others too.

Glance around you this Sunday. Many in your body of believers enter this holiday season with health issues, financial difficulties, family pressures. There are widows and divorcees who are alone again. Young moms (though never alone) who feel completely alone. Other singles. Young children who will get lost in the holiday shuffle.

And then there's you. Divinely positioned as one. With the freedom to minister across all these dividing lines. So do it with abandon this season. Build up the body of Christ. From your own local church, gather believers in need around you and form your own together.

4. We will be confronted with truth that we need.

We forget it sometimes. What Immanuel means. Why the entire Old Testament built up to His birth, and the entire New Testament rests upon it. So sit under the teaching of your local church this season with ears that are ready to hear. You need what the Holy Spirit will say. You need to be reminded who Immanuel is. What it means not just for Christmas Day, but the 364 everydays after it. He is with you. You are together with Him.

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I realize there are larger and more important reasons to be in church. So add your own points to these four little ones. Then print it off and tape it to your bedroom door, the dashboard of your car, your kitchen sink back splash, the inside flap of your Bible...

And roasted chestnuts or no, be in church.

Beth 

When God's will doesn't look good

We've all had it happen.

Received something in the mail that didn't match it's picture in the catalog.

Like a sweater a gorgeous sunshine color online arrives at your door the shade of your Grandma's crusty, harvest gold oven.

Or that incredible bargain of a stainless steel kitchen gadget arrives as... a key chain.

How about that modern, streamline coffee table that showed up packaged in 52 unassembled, hopelessly contorted, shrink wrapped pieces? (thank you, Ikea) 

Unexpected. 

Sometimes my Christian life can be like that.

I hear the Bible stories, read the missionary biographies, follow current Christian heroes... But then I look at my own life and I can think: this is not what the flannelgraph looked like. So what do we do when God hands us something unexpected. Something that looks...well...ugly? 

Not long ago, I was sitting in church thinking about this when my Pastor began to read Matthew 26:39. The scene is evening in the Garden of Gesthemane. The night Christ was betrayed and condemned to die.

"He went away again...and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." 

As the service continued, I kept thinking: How many times I have prayed my own whining version of this prayer! Here's what it sounds like:

                                                  This can't be the best cup.

It's too small. 

It has rough edges that hurt me. 

My cup appears less beautiful than what I see in others' hands.

I've had this cup for sooooo long. 

There is no way I can find joy in this cup.

It is defective, God.

It's contents? Bitter. 

Make it pass, Lord. 

take it away. 

In drinking something, we accept it into our bodies. We allow it to have it's intended effect. We submit to its control. That's what makes a cup such a beautiful picture of God's will. 

Now take a look at the next page in the story of redemption. Christ submitted. He drank. Even though the contents were bitter indeed. But this drinking? It brought life to countless millions. And for Him? High exultation and a name above all names.

And this scene; this drinking of a difficult cup, and unexpected good rippling out to encompass not only the life of the submitted but vast numbers of others, can be viewed repeatedly on the grand stage of God's work among His people.

• Think of Joseph. He submits and drinks the cup of slavery and imprisonment...and comes out as Pharaoh's right hand man observing this: "God meant it for good to save many people alive. " 

• Abraham. Submits and leaves the security and prosperity of his current life. A bitter cup for sure. But the result? This promise: "in thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed." As a college professor of mine used to say, "You and I are in that verse." So we see the astounding effects of this submission--this drinking-- are still rippling out today. 

• Esther. Submits to her role as a spokesperson for the nation of Israel. An undesirable, dangerous cup for sure. And God uses her to single-handedly save His people from destruction. 

And we could keep listing examples all day. 

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So I pattern the close of my prayer after the Divine one: "If Your will is for me to drink this cup, I will do it. I will esteem doing Your will worthy of delayed pleasure, hardship, a bitter taste in my mouth..." And in this submission, I forget how the cup looked so small, sharp-edged, unseemly...It's contents no longer make me cringe.

Because if it's His will, I see something co-mingled with the difficult. I see sparkling good for me. And (If the Scripture examples ring true) as I drink it, this cup will overflow in waves of blessing that cannot be measured. 

I will drink it. 

Thy will be done. 

Beth
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Hey! I've changed my format a bit for this week. Bigger pictures/wider margins. Any feedback?