Want to know Jesus more? Talk to a three-year-old. The study of theology should include a mandatory class on how three-year-olds experience God. All of the books, commentaries, studies, and wise masters of thought can’t hold a candle to the simple observation of these tiny theologians.

I have been in the presence of one for a week, and it puts my seminary years to shame. And to the test. Yesterday we came upon a dead bird on the street on our walk. My alarm bells instantly went off. Danger, danger, warning, Will Robinson!! You’re going to have to explain death in a minute! Sure enough:

Connor: What’s that?

Me: Oh, that’s a dead bird, Sweetie.

Connor: How did it die?

Me: It looks like maybe it fell out of its nest. (Or was attacked and dropped by a larger predator bird….edit…yeah, it fell out.)

Connor: Will it wake up?

This is when my sweating turned to praying. The concept of death is a terrible struggle for an adult, much less a concrete, literal thinker who has only been on the planet for 36 months.

Me: No, Sweetie, it won’t.

Connor: Then where will it go?

AHA! Something I know about! Here is a chance to talk to this boy about heaven! Eternal Life! The power of God! The hope! Something I can explain!

Me: It will go to heaven and live with Jesus.

Connor: How will it get there?

Me: (hoping that by tomorrow the bird will have been removed) God will take it there.

Connor: But how can God lift it up?

Enough with the concrete thinking, young man. We live by faith, not by sight! Boy, was he putting my schooling to the test….and then I remembered a song he had just sung at his Pre School end-of-year program. Thanking God for all things Presbyterian, I said:

Me: Remember the song you just sang at Pre School?

Connor: Yes!

He started to sing “What a Mighty God We Serve.” I started to breathe again.

Me: So God is mighty enough to take the bird up to heaven.

Connor: Can God lift up a bird?

Me: Yes.

Connor: Can God lift up a bush?

Me: Yes.

Connor: Can God lift up a boat?

Me: Yes.

Connor: But God can’t lift up a cactus.

Me: Why not?

Connor: Because he will get a pokey poke.

Me: Its OK, God is stronger than a pokey poke.

We then worked through how God can lift up houses, helicopters and sharks, even though they bite.

Connor was silent for a moment and then said, “I think the Mommy bird will be very sad.” The sweetness of this response still stings me at the back of my eyes. Yes, all mommies are very sad if they lose their little birds.

I guess the point of all of this is to say to you today, GOD IS A MIGHTY GOD. He is strong and caring. He doesn’t sleep because he is so busy taking care of you. (That was this morning’s conversation.) And no matter where life is giving you a major pokey poke, God is even bigger than that.

“God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds don’t burst with the weight. He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds. He created the horizon when he separated the waters: he set the boundary between day and night. The foundations of heaven tremble; they shudder at his rebuke. By his power the sea grew calm. By his skill he crushed the great sea monster. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and his power pierced the gliding serpent. These are just the beginning of all that he does, merely a whisper of his power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?” Job 26:7-14

Photo by Michelle Robertson.

Galatians 5:13 “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?“

Today we will gather around picnic tables groaning with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, watermelon and apple pie (OK, that’s what I’m serving; how about you?) as we experience another day of freedom. Today’s cook-out is brought to you by the men and women who won’t be feasting with us today. But we remember them.

Remembering is a sacred act. Remembering gives voice and life to the dead, and adds dimension to the living. Remembering is what keeps people centered on the reality of the cost of things. The well worn cliche, “Freedom isn’t free” is at the center of our remembrance. Freedom costs the lives of millions in order for the lives of millions of others to continue.

We are a Navy family. From my father-in-law’s 30 years of service, to my husband, who was a Navy pilot, to my son-in-law and niece who are currently active duty, our family serves. Freedom is hard won for many families. It is our privilege.

I was blessed with the sacred opportunity to officiate at the funeral of a Navy Captain who was buried in Arlington National Cemetary. Dan Kohl was a friend, a leader, a mentor, a guy with a great sense of humor, and a man who loved his country. He was an influencer in my life who taught me how to stand in front of people and lead them. The subject at the time was learning how to be a Drum Major. The life lesson also applied to one day learning how to be a pastor.

As we walked the mile from the chapel to the columbarium, following the band down the hill with the caisson rolling behind us, the solemnity of the still and perfectly aligned white stones was overwhelming. I was engulfed in the silence of the men and women entombed there, who gave their lives in the cause of freedom. I spotted Christian Crosses, Jewish Stars of David, Muslim Crescents, and symbols I couldn’t identify. Other stones were blank. In all, there are 60 different religions represented at Arlington. There is so much diversity in the unity of their singular cause: peace in our land, and freedom.

Our scripture today celebrates the freedom we have in Christ. Freedom from sin and death are the gifts offered to us at the cross. We weren’t offered this freedom for superficial indulgences, for wasteful living, or squandering away our time and our abilities, but rather for a purpose: to serve one another in love.

To serve one another in love….what a tremendous calling! What a sacred responsibility. Imagine if you could live a life worthy of having that engraved on your white stone: “She served everyone in love.”

What can you do this Memorial Day to rise to the challenge of the Galatians? What single act, or life altering change, can you make this day that will impact someone you know with transformative love? Where is God calling YOU to be an influencer to a young woman or man? To love your neighbor?

It is sometimes in the ordinariness of life that our legacies unfold. It is in that random place of stepping up, volunteering to work with squirrelly teenagers, offering a word of encouragement to a beaten down coworker, writing a check that keeps someone’s lights on….these moments define us, and they also define others. When you choose to humbly serve those around you with love, you choose the Christ-way.

So go and celebrate your freedom by making in difference in someone’s life. Your legacy might just be the defining moment in theirs. Do this in remembrance of someone you never knew, who died for your freedom to love.

I remember you, Captain.

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The current frenzy over Sunday night’s series finale of the HBO blockbuster, “Game of Thrones” has taken on a life of its own on social media, talk shows, newscasts….it is everywhere. Whether you are a fan, a proud “I’ve never seen it” type, or somewhere in between, the power it had over the imagination of today’s society cannot be denied.

The short version of the eight year series is a struggle to see who of the Seven Kingdoms would ultimately rule the Iron Throne. Many wars and three dragons later, the series ends with the naming of an unlikely successor. The character Tyrion Lannister, who has served as the de facto narrator of what has really been happening all along, says this:

“What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? No. Its stories.”

“There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it. And who has a better story than Bran the Broken? The boy who fell from a high tower and lived… He’s our memory. The keeper of all our stories. The wars, weddings, births, massacres, famines, our triumphs, our defeats, our past. Who better to lead us into the future?”

This “breaking of the fourth wall”-like moment, where a character seems to pull away from the scene to speak directly to the audience, sums Game of Thrones up beautifully. It was just a story, folks. And nothing is more powerful than a good story.

I love stories, and story telling. Stories have been part of my life since my mother read to me every night in my bed as a child. I raised my girls with stories, and this love of story has been passed from generation to generation in my family. Stories allow us to escape, imagine something better, find both courage and wings, and reveal truths we otherwise might not observe about ourselves and the world around us.

Tyrion was right. Almost. Game of Thrones was a great story with an unlikely king at the end, but the greatest story of all time was Jesus on the cross. Born of a unwed virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried….but on the third day: oh, on the third day! He rose again! He is the unlikeliest of kings, but he was born to reign from the beginning of all creation. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men of earth can’t compare to the story of the salvation of mankind:

Colossians 1:16 Common English Bible (CEB)

It’s a claustrophobic’s worst nightmare. Many people think a claustrophobic reaction comes from closed-in spaces, but the real anxiety comes from being trapped with no way out. I deal with this, and speak from experience. It has brought sadness to my life, like the time I couldn’t climb the clock tower at Old Main because the staircase was too narrow and steep. I stood a the bottom step and couldn’t see the top step, and my body shut down. I missed the chance to see my Alma Mater from a wonderful view.

It also results in sermon illustrations, like the time I got trapped in a very, very small bathroom in a Paris restaurant. The entire bathroom was dark green marble, and when the door handle spun in my hand as I tried to leave, the walls closed in around me. Remember the garbage compactor room scene in Star Wars when Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie almost got crushed by the walls moving toward them as they stood on all that nasty garbage? That is what I felt like that day, and I lost my cool as I yelled loudly for help. In Spanish. Yep, seven years of French flew out the window as I yelled, “Assister Moi, POR FAVOR!” Finally a busboy heard me and got a screwdriver and freed me. He must have been from Spain.

Have you ever felt trapped?

There are many things in life that trap us. Bad choices, circumstance, family responsibilities, and illness are just a few things that result in a feeling of being stuck with no way out. Sin is probably the greatest trapper of all, and the effects of sin can trap not only the sinners, but the people around them.

I know a married couple who are trapped because one cannot face his alcoholism. I know another who are trapped because of an addiction to pornography. Both of these families are trapped in a cycle of loneliness, fear, confrontation, anger, arguing, and apology. And then the cycle repeats itself. Dirt, wash, rinse, repeat.

Other things trap us as well; despair, depression, anger, fear….even just holding a grudge can be a bear trap that carries the weight of steel teeth around our ankles.

Jonah once was trapped. He was trapped by reluctance and disobedience to do what God commanded. He didn’t realize that you can ‘t outrun God, so he fled to a place where he thought he could escape, only to find himself being thrown off a ship and swallowed up by a big fish. For three days, he was trapped inside. Can you even imagine the smell? Finally, he submitted:

Then God spoke to the fish, and it vomited up Jonah on the seashore.

I don’t know what is trapping you right now, but I know who has the key to let you out. Jesus was born and died on the cross so that you might have life, and have it ABUNDANTLY. Living in constant fear and anxiety is not the life he wants to give you. Being trapped by bad choices and decisions is not abundance. Letting someone hold you down and hold you back is the antithesis of the freedom we are to experience in Christ. Open the door. Get out, and let Keyholder in. It’s time for that fish to vomit.

Gracious God,

Help us get out. We are weary and worn down, stuck here inside with out feet glued to the floor. Pull us out of our complacency, and free us from ourselves. Open the door to a life of gratitude and joy in you. Keyholder, come. AMEN

Photo by Michelle Robertson.

A few weeks ago I attended the Orange Conference in Atlanta with 8,000 of my closest friends. The focus was on ministry with families, children and youth, but the take-aways were profoundly larger than that. I had the blessed luck to fall into a seminar with a comedic genius named Jon Acuff, and I am still feasting on the manna he poured out that day. In fact, part of the reason I decided to go ahead with starting these daily devotionals is because of this one hour session of encouragement to risk-take.

One of the many great things I heard that day is, “Don’t give real time to fake worries.” Let that just settle into your brain a minute. Take another sip of coffee, and let’s dwell there for a moment.

How many times have you spun out with anxiety over something, only to see it through in real time as the no-big-deal that it truly was? How many hours of sleep have you lost fretting over something, only to wake up to the reality of:

1. It wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be.

2. It was already being taken care of.

3. You had no control over it anyway.

4. It looked much smaller in the daylight.

Yet you spent real time obsessively worrying over it. Time that could have been spent more productively.

I spent a lot of time, and I mean a LOT, worrying about my parents’ deaths. Perhaps this is a preoccupation of pastors, since we sit with a lot of families alongside a deathbed as part of our pastoral care. I can remember in my early years of ministry making the fiftieth visit to a home where someone was slowly dying of cancer, and driving away thinking I could never have the strength to watch my parent linger like that. This worry fueled many a sleepless night.

As it turned out, my father came home from the grocery store one day with a headache and died of a sudden brain aneurysm, and my mother died in her sleep. I was with her that evening, and neither of us had a clue she would die in a few hours as we kissed and said, “See you tomorrow”. And so all those years of fake worry in real time only robbed me of peace in a situation I could not control anyway.

Psalm 46 breathes a word of sanity into our spinning:

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.

God is looking at your anxiety this morning and whispering, “I got this.”

Jesus reminds us:

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

Today, let’s take that worry and cast it out. Let’s bundle it up in newspapers and carry it out to the curb. Let’s approach the throne of grace and lay it down. AND THEN LEAVE IT THERE. The only beneficiary of our worry is the Enemy, who loves the distraction worry brings into the abundant life Jesus is trying to give us. Don’t let him win.

Gracious and Loving God,

Help me let go of the fake worry that consumes me. Fill me with calm reassurance that you’ve got this, if I let go of it. Teach me your ways so that I know your power to set things right in my life if I let you. Ease my anxiety, and fill me with your peace. AMEN

When you speak healing words, you offer others fruit from the tree of life. But unhealthy, negative words do nothing but crush their hopes. (Proverbs 15:4)

#EyesonthePrize

The unofficial Todd Blackledge Uncommon Lectionary takes us to a great place once again. The Proverbs are a great source of pithy wisdom in biscuit sized bites, and this morning’s scripture does not fail. So grab your coffee and let’s digest this one.

I have always disliked the kid’s rhyme, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Really? In what universe? Words have the power to break a mood, break a spirit, break a childhood, and even break a life. Having broken a few bones, and also having received the tongue lashing of harsh words, I can attest to the fact that words hurt more. I bet you can, too. This may be folklore, but I have heard that a healed bone break produces a stronger bone. I can’t say the same for a soul that has suffered from breakage by negative, self-esteem destroying words and attitudes. Words can linger through a lifetime, and they can leave a significant mark.

I have a friend who was raised in an environment of negative words. Overly distracted and uncaring parenting lead her to seek affirmation outside of the home. The extreme harshness of constant criticism from her mother took her down a dark and lonely path, leading her to attempt suicide and participate in dangerous behavior. When she wasn’t wilding, she was trying to disappear. Her world was void of any color that usually goes along with a normal childhood. Later in life, she was fortunate to meet a stable and caring man, but the words she received from her violently angry mother are still a part of her daily existence.

In counseling, I experience the aftermath of the words of war that people inflict on each other. Every sentence that comes from your mouth can either inflict hurt, or bring fruit from the tree of life to someone. I think the difference lies in our ability to practice self control. Everyone gets angry. Everyone is frustrated. Everyone looses their temper now and again. But the pivotal moment lies in our ability to practice the fruits of the spirit….or to abandon them and give into our need to rage.

Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

Self control. Just walk away. Take a break. Count to 20. Leave the room. Go outside. Anything but give into your anger that might result in a soul-crushing vomit of damaging words.

How would it be if we decided today that this week we will only offer words that uplift, build up and offer the fruit of the tree of life to those around us? How would it be if we decided that this week, we will avoid any words, tone, or attitudes that might crush the hopes of those around us?

So there is your Monday challenge. You can do it. With God’s help.

#obxsunrise brings a new day. Use this do-over well. Photo credit: Michelle Robertson

Is it just me, or do people seem to really struggle with saying, “I’m sorry” these days? There appears to be some kind of cultural shift taking place, where “I’m sorry” is seen as an act of unacceptable weakness or submission, so in our SELFIE OR DIE culture, words of apology remain unsaid because the higher value of BEING RIGHT is prized more.

I blame The Real Housewives of (insert city name of choice here). This Bravo television franchise has been a ratings powerhouse for over thirteen years and features the personal and professional lives of some of the most unrepentant women to walk the face of the earth. Ridiculous spat after ridiculous spat shows the viewers the bitterness, hurt and division that can happen when people refuse to say, “I’m sorry”. One argument can provide four or five episodes of high ratings drama, as each party spins and grinds out one justification after another rationalization about why they were right, and the other woman should apologize.

Have you ever had that kind of drama in your relationships? Where the pressing need to be right only oppresses both of you by the weight of its own blind stubbornness?

A few weeks ago I had a startling encounter with an elderly woman on the street in State College, PA. I was walking down a sidewalk, making my way around a construction site that was butting right up to the sidewalk’s edge. There was a tall chain link fence separating the construction from the sidewalk, and the concrete had cracked and buckled as a result of the demolition. I was carefully making my way through this mess, looking down to avoid tripping. If you know me, you understand why this is a priority! I glanced up as I approached an intersection, and saw this lady unsteadily crossing the street toward me.

We met just at the place where the sidewalk was the most narrow and there was a light pole in the middle, and I didn’t look up fast enough. Thinking she was going left, I hastened my pace and went right, almost running her down. She was instantly offended.

“That’s right, go ahead, please, you go first!” she yelled as she flattened herself against the fence. “You saw that I’m an old person and you are young, but please, do come through first!” I was appalled at what I had done. She teetered on a broken piece of sidewalk and I gently took her arm. Instantly she yelled, “DON’T TOUCH ME.”

Could this get any worse?

I looked her in the eyes and said, “I do apologize. I am so sorry. I misjudged your direction and thought you were going around the other side of the pole.”

She seemed very confused at my response, but that didn’t stop her attack. “You could see that I’m an old woman and not steady on my feet, but yes, let me get out of YOUR way” she yelled.

At that point all I wanted to do was run away. I felt the instant shame and embarrassment of having hurt this lady’s feelings. I had made her feel unseen and unimportant. Jesus would have noticed her like a Zacchaeus in a tree, wee little man that he was.

I lowered my voice and said, “I truly apologize. It won’t happen again.” Finally she seemed to realize that I was trying saying I’m sorry. She pushed past me and said, “Well thank you for saying that, but you young people have no regard for us older people.” And as she walked away, she continued her rant. Loudly. Causing everyone to stare.

She lives in a college town and probably feels this way for a reason. I don’t know if she was coming from church or a bar. Maybe her unsteadiness is a challenge for getting around a town full of distracted, phone-obsessed students every day. We never know the struggles people are facing. But all I wanted was forgiveness, and she wasn’t offering any. It still bothers me.

I found relief in the arms of my Savior. When I reached my hotel room a few minutes later, I sat on the bed and cried. My need for absolution was overwhelming. I didn’t receive it from her, so I had to take it to the cross. I asked God to forgive me. It took a day or two (OK, truth be told, its taken a few weeks) to shake the experience, but God gave me the peace that she would not give.

Whom do you need to say “I’m sorry” to today? What place of your life remains unsettled because of a lack of forgiveness? In the book of Matthew we receive instructions about this:

Matthew 5:23: So if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and while there you remember that your brother has something [such as a grievance or legitimate complaint] against you, 24 leave your offering there at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come and present your offering.

Jesus tells us this for our own sake as much as for our offended brother. Make that call, send that text, visit that person today. It’s the only way to find peace.

“Peace like a river….” Spring Creek in Happy Valley, PA. Photo credit @JayPaterno

In the course of ministry, I have had both the blessing and curse of doing marriage and relationship counseling. It’s a blessing when the time spent together bears fruit and you get to watch that relationship be healed. It’s a curse when you sit, listen, gently offer alternatives, and then realize they will just ignore everything that has been discussed so that they can remain angry, self-righteous, and stuck on the polarized sides of “I’m right and you’re wrong”. Worst yet is when children become pawns on this bloody game of chess and are used to do battle against each other. It happens. All the time.

Anytime trust is broken in any relationship, there is only one way back, and it is a hard and painful path. It requires forgiveness. But so many of us act like forgiveness is a precious commodity, something we have to horde and keep locked away for fear of the vulnerability it takes to give it freely. Yet forgiveness is the only thing that can move a relationship forward when it is stuck at an impasse.

Jesus speaks a clear word of direction on this matter. When the disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he spoke the beautiful words of The Lord’s Prayer in response. In this prayer, he makes the startling connection between being forgiven and offering forgiveness:

“And forgive us our trespasses/debts/sins, AS WE FORGIVE those who trespasses/are our debtors/sin against us.”

Forgiveness is conditional. You don’t get it if you don’t give it. If this was the gold standard for behavior, people would be conditioned to say, “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you” easier and faster, so that everyone could get to forgiveness without delay.

What if Jesus withheld forgiving you until you forgave others?

Lack of forgiveness is a place of imprisonment. But what most people don’t realize is that it imprisons YOU, not the person who has trespassed against you. They are likely going about their business, enjoying life, while you are paralyzed as you spin and agitate. You become trapped in a cycle of replaying the offense, justifying your response, amplifying your response, and setting your feet in the concrete of unforgiveness. It is very likely that the person doesn’t even deserve your forgiveness….but forgive them anyway.

We don’t deserve Christ’s forgiveness….no way, no how. But he gives it anyway. By his grace we are offered the key that unlocks us from our sins, shame and self-condemnation, and sets us free to walk away lighter and more at peace. And he expects us to do this for each other.

Whom do you need to forgive? Take the first step today.

“For the fountain of life pours into you every time that you find me, and this is the secret of growing in the delight and favor of God.” PS 8:35

This little breakfast biscuit of Old Testament wisdom and a good cup of coffee will surely start the day right! We owe thanks to Todd Blackledge, former PSU and Pro football player and current ESPN sports analyst, for this beautiful reminder today. This was what he tweeted recently. I follow Todd because every morning he tweets a brief scripture that always speaks into my day. Maybe I should use his daily tweets as a lectionary and call it the Blackledge Uncommon Lectionary. (The Common Lectionary is a prescribed set of weekly scriptures in a three year cycle. Each week contains an Old Testament, New Testament, Epistle and a Psalm selection. It was created so that pastors wouldn’t preach John 3:16 every Sunday.) But I digress.

This Psalm is striking in that it would easily be a modern day meme or Pinterest graphic. Can’t you see it on a black and white kitchen chalkboard, or stenciled onto a tea towel? Except if it were, it would probably, and very wrongly, substitute the word “Universe” for “God”. Somehow society has decided that the “Universe” has some kind of mystical power over us, as though the Universe is a force unto itself. Social media is full of this stuff, and it is alarming to me to see how many people quote, worship, and rely on the “Universe” for guidance and answers.

As if.

Only the Creator of the Universe has any power over us. Only the one who called the Universe into its very existence can give direction, healing, and answers. Looking to the “universe” for help and meaning is a dry and fruitless search. Nothing to see there, except dust and hollowness. The “universe” is a product of creation, not the author of it.

The Psalmist knew this, and knew that God is the only source of the fountain of life. Indeed, life pours into us when we seek and find God, and the fountain contains living water. Jesus is that effervescence, who brings a sparkling promise into the stillness of our parched throats. As the French would say, he is water ‘avec gas’…..bubbly, alive, moving and thirst-quenching for life.

Jesus called himself Living Water, and taught us that if we drink of his Living Water, we will never thirst again. This caught a young woman very off guard at a well once, when she had come at noon to fill her pitcher. Jesus startled her first by asking to drink from her non-kosher pitcher, a big no-no for their two cultures. Immediately he was letting her know that she was accepted. The mid-day meeting indicated that her own culture had ostracized her and she was not permitted to gather water early in the morning with the rest of the gals. But Jesus accepted her. He then revealed his Messiahship and offered her Living Water:

John 4:13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

If you desire to grow in the “delight of God and enter into his pleasure”, you only need to enter into his presence. Coming before him daily, as we do when we sit with that marvelous thing he created on the eighth day….coffee in a favorite mug….delights him. Searching your heart when you search the scriptures delights him. Taking everything to him in prayer delights him. Drinking a full glass of living water every day delights him. Did you hear that? YOU delight the creator of the universe. Go, you! And go this day to delight him.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4&version=NLT

Thanks to Michelle Robertson.

Growing up on the East Coast allowed me to experience the Atlantic Ocean from many vantage points. We were campers, and every summer weekend and the long awaited, blessed two week vacation (cue the Doxology!) saw us hauling a trailer anywhere from Canada to Florida. But our favorite place was a small campground on the Indian River Bay in Delaware called Sandy Cove. My memories of those days are filled with laughter, sunlight, fresh seafood that we caught ourselves, and my mother.

Most days we piled into the car and drove a few short miles to the ocean. After settling in with umbrellas, chairs, blankets and towels, my mother and I would walk the beach, sometimes for miles. We camped with a group of families, and these private walks were a moment of respite for both of us. We explored, gathered seagull feathers and shells, tickled our toes in the cold water, but mostly we talked.

We planned my college days and my wedding on that beach. We dissected what was wrong with other members of the family….never US, just the rest of the gang. She taught me about life, love and politics. Every walk was a history lesson as my brilliant mother put the world into context for me. Those moments with her are forever woven into my memory, my personality, and maybe even my DNA.

My mother is gone now. There is no more wisdom to glean, but the part of her that loved the beach and those precious mother-daughter times lives on in me.

Now, I walk with Jesus. I am daily reminded of his promise, “Do not let your heart be troubled, and neither let it be afraid. I will not leave you orphaned.” Loosing my parents made me feel like an orphan, but Jesus reminds me that he is always present and has prepared a room for all of us. My parents are there, and Mom is waiting for me to come and pound the sands of heaven with her someday.

John 14 has beautiful words of assurance for all who wait. Jesus was speaking to his disciples, getting them ready for his death and departure. Of all that is precious in that chapter, this might just be my favorite part:

“Peace I leave with you. MY peace I give to you, I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and neither let them be afraid.”

Where is Jesus speaking peace into your life today? Don’t be troubled. He is here.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John14&version=NIV