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The Lord has been speaking strong words to me as of late about overcoming the tyranny of the urgent and of being a faithful steward of the work He has given me. With that said, it wasn’t at all lost on me I woke up at 5 a.m. this morning (and I do mean wide awake) with the overwhelming sense of ‘Okay, Lisa. You are asking Me for a re-ordering of things so let’s see if you are serious.’ If God has ever done that to you then perhaps you understand that those alarms are not to be snoozed. Rather than be ticked over any lack of sleep I received the wake up call as continued confirmation that He is up to something and that I’d better get my tail out of bed if I wanted to participate.
So I did just that. I grabbed my Bible and my devotion book where this verse was waiting. After praying through it, I feel compelled to share it with you:
“Oh how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have prepared for those who trust in You, in the presence of the sons of men! You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the plots of man; You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.” ~Psalm 31:19-20
Sisters, I wonder who among us feels they are under attack whether it be physically or spiritually or - as is the case most of the time – both? I wonder who among us is being consumed by urgency, strife, or whose every waking thought is captivated by this current calamity? Is it you, girlfriend?
I’m afraid the reality of planet Earth is that our relationships are wrought with drama, our churches torn by division, our schedules are filled to overflowing, our workplaces filled with iniquity, our families are struggling to hang on just one more day. To beat it all, the people in whom we are supposed to find comfort are sometimes contributors to our being moody, maligned, mistreated, misunderstood. Oftentimes, we are that contributor for someone else. (Low blow, I know. That thought punched me first if that makes you feel better.)
Hear me well on this, friends, because the Lord shouted it to me this morning: We can be wholly engaged without being wholly affected.
What does that mean precisely?
Pay attention to the concept of presence in the verses I just quoted you. There are two places of presence: one in the sight of men, the other in the secret place of God. In thinking about how I cope under great attack or strain, I am guilty of being fully available to irritability, triteness and pettiness while God sits by patiently waiting for me to ask His input on how I should be reacting. My other tendency is to shut down entirely, hide from the world, and talk to God but no one else.
The astounding reality is that we can be fully available to the needs of our relationships, fully engaged in dealing with the trials of day-to-day life, fully vulnerable to wide spread attack and yet fully shielded to the affects of the toll all of these things are capable of exacting. That doesn’t mean I check out and pretend these things don’t exhaust or hurt. It means I choose to travel to that Pavilion of Peace and there present my mind, my emotions, my will, my reactions to the One who can restore goodness to each part.
I need a safe place. I need to know I can find refuge in the shadow of the wings of the Almighty until calamity has overpast. (Psalm 57:1) But I also need to know that I can not hide and expect to glean from that season what the Lord intended to use to confirm, perfect, strengthen and establish me as a woman capable of withstanding all Satan would throw my way.
Yes girls, we can be wholly holy. Wholly engaged and yet not wholly affected. That, sisters, is our word for the day. Now I’m going to go practice it. I hope you will, too.
When I began blogging in 2007, I was both shocked and awed when Darlene of CWO fame asked me to be a part of the devotional team. Life got crazy busy and I eventually stepped back so others could fill that spot. Those old devo’s have been hanging out there since I’m not on the current roster and instead of just quietly saving them to my new computer, I thought I’d repost them every week or so in a little feature we’ll call, Imported. It will continue until I’m out of imports. How do you score that for originality?
In the meantime, if you are looking for a great devotional website, head on over to Internet Cafe Devotions and sign up for their email updates. There are so many talented writers there and Amy Bayliss et. al does a fabulous job with lot of fun features, etc.
The first one is one of my favorites just because the story behind it is so typical Luke and Me. It’s called A Hot Cup of Compromise and was originally published in December, 2007.
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Just last Wednesday, Luke and I were in the Awana office along with some friends when the subject of winning contests came up. I shared with the women how I’d won a contest at Sue’s Praise and Coffee in which I’d received a Christmas CD and Godiva flavored coffee. I was still thrilled because I never win anything. Apparently no one had told Luke that there are some conversations men should just not be a part of – times when they should leave well enough alone.
Things started going downhill when he felt it necessary to correct me on the kind of coffee I had won. He piped up and told everyone, “She won some coffee alright. But it was Gevalia, not Godiva.”
“Luke, it wasn’t Gevalia. It was Godiva. Honey. ” (You can say anything and put ‘honey’ on the end and still sound like you were trying to be nice.)
“Luke. Snookums. It was Godiva because I remember thinking ‘chocolate’ when I saw the package. Okay? Love ya.”
“Lisa. It was Vanilla Gevalia. And I’m willing to bet on it.”
“Luke. It was chocolate Godiva and you are stinkin’ on! BRING IT, Preacher Man!”
The girls in the office watched this spectacle with the zeal of being court side at Wimbledon. I’m certain nothing made them prouder of us as a ministry couple than when Luke wrote down both of our coffee guesses so we could have proof of who won the bet. Thankfully, he quit gambling long enough to go teach Bible Study while I got on the office computer to look up Sue’s blog to settle the wager. (No, I didn’t skip church. I work in the Awana office on Wednesday nights.)
And there in a beautiful golden package was a picture of GODIVA coffee but, unfortunately, the flavor wasn’t clear on the packaging. So at worst I was at least half right.
The minute Bible Study was over Luke barged into the office and said, “Well!? What kind was it?” After gloating because I was winning, we grabbed the kids and raced each other home to settle the score once and for all.
Because we are so mature like that. Definitely an inspiration to all in our church and community.
We got home, found the package and read the label together:
“Godiva Chocolatier: French Vanilla”
Shoot. Both of us only half right. We called a truce, hugged, and secretly enjoyed the fact we both had won.
Which leads me to the point of this tale: In relationships, it really is okay to only be a little correct. To accept black instead of white. To refrain from imposing night on another’s day. There is nothing that would have been more fun than to gloat had I been completely right about the coffee but I can honestly say it was much more rewarding – not to mention age-appropriate – to be able to say, “We were both right.”
The Apostle Paul agreed when he wrote in Philippians 2:3-4:
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
And here is the divine paradox – the lower we go the higher we get. However, the exaltation we seek is not one that lords us over one another but instead seats us at the right hand of our Lord. This is also the spirit that will prevent our saying, “I told you so” even when we are in the right.
Which, I’m thinking, pretty much settles the argument over the relevancy of scripture in the 21st century.
Wouldn’t you agree?
We recently bought the Need to Breathe CD, The Outsiders. There are several songs I really love (Through Smoke!) but the title track has a postlude that resonates with me and I wonder if it will you, too. It says,
On the outside,
You’re free to roam
On the outside
We found a home
On the outside
There’s more to see
On the outside
We choose to be
What I’m about to say may make no sense to anyone whatsoever but me, so I trust your forbearance until I have something more fun to share another day.
The past couple of years I’ve learned what it feels like to be on the D-List. By that I mean there have been situations where I’ve been close enough to some Really Cool People to understand the perks and privileges Really Cool People are afforded and yet far enough away to not have any chance of being offered the same. (And no, I don’t intend on elaborating any further than that.) I’m being transparent here by saying that if I indulge my flesh, I can easily crave being a ‘somebody’ while equally believing the lie that I am a nobody. Imagine the field day Satan has with that one. Either a girl accepts the sentence of worthlessness or worse – decides to feverishly manipulate herself into a seat in which she was never invited to sit.
This whole subject is hitting me afresh this week after a rejection of sorts. I was forced to put myself out there in a way I was very uncomfortable with and was essentially sent away with a patronizing pat on the head. I was reminded of who I am not and for a day or so, it really stung. As in, I swore I would never take this kind of risk again, EVER, because who really wants to create a setup for insecurity when it’s so easy to go there without any help whatsoever?
I’m reminded of Luke 14:8-11 and particularly love how it is worded in The Message:
7-9He went on to tell a story to the guests around the table. Noticing how each had tried to elbow into the place of honor, he said, “When someone invites you to dinner, don’t take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he’ll come and call out in front of everybody, ‘You’re in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.’ Red-faced, you’ll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left.
10-11“When you’re invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, ‘Friend, come up to the front.’ That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I’m saying is, If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face. But if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
But if you are content to be yourself, you will become more than yourself. Oh, how I love that.
While I’ve processed the reality of not being worthy of being honored by this one particular ‘host’, the Lord has tenderly reminded me that I’m really more free without the restrictions that seat would force upon me. At first I was tempted to bemoan not being considered ‘important’ enough. I’ve instead come to realize that it is my choice to be not only content but happily make my home in this circle of influence Christ has marked out for me. If there is to be a lane change, it has to be because He created a place of more effective ministry elsewhere and not because I elbowed my way into it. What occurs to me about lanes is that the moves are always out – not up. Even the Lord in his imagery never condoned our tendencies for ‘climbing the ladder’. I believe He is more about accomplishing immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine horizontally rather than vertically. As for the here and now, I am blessed – we are all blessed – with people all around us who love, need, appreciate, and adore the women we are – not the ones we imagine we want to be.
And not only that. I’m pretty confident that many of the Perk and Privilege Crowd would be devastated to think that anyone would be embittered because they are simply trying to steward the seat to which they’ve been assigned. What’s more, many of them have endured great heartache before garnering that status – a qualification not one of us would dare envy. Perhaps they have just been so faithful in their God-given tasks that they deserve the better view. {Yet another issue women face: we want the reward without the work.} And who knows the motivations behind the ones who deny us for other reasons, but I do know that if God has a plan for us (and He always does!) then no lack of popularity or excess of politics can keep us from it. Imagine what happy women we would be be if we determined to enjoy our assignments rather than letting those green-eyed monsters of jealously and pride rob us of enjoying the company of delightful dinner companions sharing the same section of the table.
So I’ve resolved the matter (for myself if no one else) by coming to this conclusion: None of us has nor ever will be held back from any place the Father has ordained for us. Rather, I am persuaded we will always be lovingly and strategically placed. We can either choose to dwell in rejection when we try to attain more than what we’ve been sovereignly given or receive our lots with the honor Our Host intended to bestow.
Knowing this, may we all be become ‘more than ourselves’ by cheerfully choosing and comfortably roaming on The Outside.
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