Monthly Archives: June 2014

What’s In a Name?

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Tim and I are still trying to decide what to name our new cats who have taken up residence in Tim’s workshop.  The mama cat has stayed hidden but the two kittens are very friendly.  I’ll be home today and plan to go play with them awhile.  Maybe names will come to mind when I see their personalities in action.

What’s in a name? Was Shakespeare’s Juliet correct when she said to Romeo, “That which we call a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” ?  Do names actually matter and does the name given to you by your parents reflect who you really are?

I have found that choosing names can be quite difficult for our pets but especially for our children.  They have to live with these names the rest of their lives. Because of this, we never fully decided on names for each of our children until after we saw them for the first time. We had possibilities but nothing set in stone.

Anna arrived with wild ash blond hair and bright eyes.  She was named after two of her great, great, great grandmothers.  Both of them were strong-willed and resilient women. Anna means grace. Our Anna has always been compassionate and tender especially with babies and animals.  Many of our animals have been acquired through her.  She seems to be a magnet for stray dogs and has a heart to save them all.

Next came Rozie with long dark hair that would stand up no matter what I did to hold it down.  Her lips were like a little rose bud.  Rosalind means beautiful rose. She is always poised and confident in everything she does.  Her namesake was my Grandmother, Rose Alta.  She would have never forgiven us if we had given her “Alta” as a middle name so we dropped that part. My beautiful rose was a lovely bride this spring.  Appropriately, she carried red roses in her bouquet.

Now Garrett was the one most difficult to name.  Dan and I just couldn’t agree before he was born on a name we both liked.  We knew he was a boy so at least we didn’t need to discuss girl’s names.  Dan wanted to name him after his favorite uncle Oscar!  That was not going to happen!  Garrett decided to come a little early and happened to be born near Dan’s brother Gary’s birthday.  Gary and Dan had been very close.  He had died in an automobile accident while he was still in high school.  When we saw Garrett with his broad shoulders and husky little body, we knew we had to name him after Gary.  But we didn’t want exactly the same name so we chose Garrett.  It means a strong fortress.  It really fits him now as a soldier and protector.  Did the name fit who he was already or did he grow into the name?

The Bible says in Revelation 2:17, that someday Jesus will give us new names only known by us.  Perhaps they will be pet-names or nicknames.  Will they describe just who we are and who we are meant to be? I think the latter.  When Jesus saw Peter, he called him “the Rock.”  He certainly wasn’t a rock then but he became one.  He was the rock that became the foundation of the early church.  Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him but He also knew that Peter would overcome and become a great leader.

Jesus knows the best we can be and the name he gives us will reflect that.  He encourages us to be that best person in our own way, using our God-given gifts and personality for His glory.  Just as each of my children uniquely reflect their earthly names, in Heaven they will be given new names that perfectly fit the beautiful people that they have become.  Lord, let them grow and mature through Your loving kindness into the names you will give them in eternity.

 

The Power of Music

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It has always intrigued me how the human brain stores memories. When I least expect it, something that I haven’t thought about in years, will pop into my mind as I encounter a certain smell or sound.  It’s as if I’m transported back in time again re-living the long forgotten memory.  Often these snapshots into the past will make me smile but at times they bring tears if the memory is bittersweet.
This morning as I drove in to work, I had such a memory moment.  On the radio, a song played that I hadn’t heard in some time. It began…”Seeking Him as a precious jewel, Lord to give up I’d be a fool, You are my all in all…”  Suddenly, I was transported back to Haiti in the year 2000.  I’m working in a make shift clinic set up in one of the many villages we visited on that medical mission trip.  Over our lunch break, 2 of our interpreters began to sing.  Diony, the young man who translated Creole for me that week, was one of the singers.  They sang several songs familiar to us: old hymns mixed with newer Christian music.  A few of us from the US joined in. At the time, I had never heard the song, “You Are My All in All.”  The boys taught us this tune and it has stuck with me since as one of my favorites.
Another time on this same trip to Haiti, music became a channel for prayer.  As we were traveling to our work site, our bus was caught in a traffic jam in Port-au-Prince.  This was no great surprise, since navigating our way out of the city was a daily challenge.  On this occasion though, we were surprised by what had stopped us.  Along the street came a large parade of people being lead by a sort of marching band.  There were school children dressed in their uniforms walking in a group behind them plus many other assorted people.  Then we saw why they were there blocking the streets.  Being carried high on the shoulders of several men, were two small caskets side by side.  They were just large enough to hold a child the age of the school children we saw in the procession.  Our hearts went out to them.  We didn’t know their story but we could see before us a funeral for 2 young children being carried on through the streets.  Everyone on the bus was speechless.  Then moved by the Spirit, one of the pastors who accompanied us to our work sites, started to sing.  He sang familiar hymns of promise and hope in the midst of great loss.  We all joined in, Haitians and Americans together, to honor the lost children that we didn’t even know.  It was a beautiful, sacred moment. Our songs were prayers lifted to heaven.
Much later, in 2011 when I returned to Haiti, we visited the burial site of thousands of Haitians killed in the earthquake of 2010.  The place was an old stone quarry.  Something had to be done quickly with the huge number of dead in the aftermath of the earthquake.  They were placed in the quarry and covered in a mass grave.  Today there are hundreds of black crosses to mark the spot.  The wife of one of our drivers is buried there.  She was a nurse and was still at work when the force of the earthquake hit. She never made it home.  Her husband is left with 4 children to raise on his own.  He works for the Double Harvest mission and is able to support them better than most families who lost loved ones. The sight of black crosses scattered across that bleak and deserted place, haunts me still.
I learned two things from these experiences.  The power of music and the devastation of death, know no cultural bounds.  Even in a country that has known as much loss as Haiti, the people mourn as we do and celebrate life as we do.  It is the human condition. We are often so separated from people who are different than ourselves, that we don’t ever grasp these truths.  We must step across cultural boundaries, whether in the US or abroad, to fully experience this.  In this way, when tragedy strikes in another part of our world, we are not numb to it.
When I first heard about the earthquake in Haiti, my thoughts and prayers went out to those dear people I met during our mission there.  These were my friends, not unknown faces far away.  I may never know what happened to many of them that fateful day but I was able to find Diony on Facebook.  I’m not sure where he was when the earthquake occurred but I know that he is alive and well.  He ended up going to the US to study and now owns his own computer business. This was truly an answer to prayer.
Often I wonder how much good I do when I travel to a foreign country on a medical mission or to a homeless shelter in downtown Indianapolis.  Wouldn’t it be better to just send money to groups that are already there helping? My small effort seems to be a drop in the massive bucket that is poverty.  But I’ve found that if nothing else happens, there occurs a touching of souls between myself and the people I meet. A sense of understanding of each other transpires that cannot be acquired in any other way than to simply “be” with people different from myself yet in so many ways just the same. I don’t want to see tragedies in other parts of the world as just another news story.  I want my heart to ache as Jesus’ heart aches for each of us when losses occur. My faith assures me that someday each of us will join hands with humanity as the brothers and sisters that we truly are and sing together a new song for eternity.

Grace Is Not Stagnant

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The Jordan river in Israel flows into the Sea of Galilee then moves southward and it ends in the Dead Sea. It enters and leaves the Sea of Galilee, vibrant and full of life.  Fisherman are still seen on the shores of the lake, as in Jesus’ time on earth, harvesting the tilapia that thrive there.   In contrast, when the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea, it never exits. The water becomes stagnant and briny. As the name implies, there is no life in these waters. What enters and does not exit is dead. So it is with grace.  Grace is not stagnant.  If it stays in a person and does not flow out from them, it is not grace at all.  It is dead.

I was reminded of this during my stay at Henderson Settlement in Appalachia this last week with the Sheridan United Methodist Church youth group.  There were a total of 165 other “work campers” there with us completing various projects from painting to construction to sorting donations for the thrift store. We had devotions every morning presented by different groups.  On the last day we were there, the designated group performed a skit depicting the results of grace in action.  One person offered a beggar a prayer while another took it a step further by buying him a meal. Which person truly offered grace?

There is nothing wrong with praying for someone.  Prayer opens possibilities for the Holy Spirit to work though God’s people.  But often the person that should be empowered to act is you!  Grace is a free gift from God which cleanses us and grants us life forever.  We could never do enough to pay for it by what we do and God does not ask us to do that.  Jesus already did that for us.  However, if after accepting this gift, we fail to pass it on, then maybe we never really took ownership of grace in the first place.

James, the brother of Jesus, said that “faith without works is dead.”  If grace flows in but never flows out, it isn’t real grace at all.  It’s stagnant and dead like the Dead Sea.  True grace is vibrant and living like the Sea of Galilee, flowing out to everyone it meets and  touching them with kind acts and gentle words. What this looks like is different and unique for each person.  We all have varied talents and preferences. Spending a week in a dorm with about 80 other women, sharing 4 showers and working on constructing a storage shed, is not for everyone.  I enjoy short-term mission trips but this would be intimidating to many others.  The number of ways to extend grace is as varied as the number of people in the world.  We all have gifts to give. We just have to step out of our comfort zone and give them away.

But what if I’m not sure what I am doing is God’s idea or mine? Is this the work that He wants me to do?  I have often struggled with these questions.  How do I let God guide my actions?  Andy Andrews, the author of “The Travelers Gift”, suggests that God works best on moving objects.  He uses a boat in a river as an analogy of God’s guidance.  The rudder of the boat doesn’t work if the boat is sitting at the dock.  But if the boat is floating down the river, the rudder is able to move it where the boat needs to go.  Let God be the rudder of your life.  He can’t move you where you need to be if you are sitting at the dock.  Move out in faith where you see a need.  God will guide you when you are moving outside of yourself.

Grace is not stagnant.  It is flowing like a river.  Don’t be afraid to launch your boat into its waters.  The wonder of it all is that it never fails to flow back to you in greater measure than what you allowed to flow out.  As you give, you will receive in abundance, gifts that are eternal and never wear out.  The shed that we built while at Henderson Settlement was for a disabled, elderly man and his sister who had moved back to Tennessee from Indiana so she could care for him. Their 2 other sisters lived in the same “holler.”They insisted on feeding us our lunch this last Thursday in gratitude for what we were doing for them. When we had completed our part of the project, the walls were up and the metal roof placed on the 12 x 12 foot building. It was just a simple shed but the expression we saw on their faces told us that it meant much more to them.  The tears and hugs shared before we parted, are the gifts of grace returned that will stay with us forever.

Whenever I have been involved in missions, I always receive much more than I have given.  ALWAYS.  I may come home tired from the hard work and the long hours but I will continually return for more.  That’s the way it is with God’s grace.  Once you’ve seen its power, you long to stay within its flow no matter how near or how far the river of grace may take you.

 

 

Measuring in Moments

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TGIF!  It’s Friday morning as I write this and I am happy for the week-end to come. On Sunday, I leave with the Sheridan United Methodist Youth Group for Henderson Settlement in Kentucky on a mission trip. This is my first trip with this particular group but I have participated in numerous mission trips with varying goals over the years.  Often people will ask me how my vacation went when I return from a mission trip.  Many times I’m more fatigued when I come back to work than when I left.  This was especially true after two trips to Haiti.  Those medical missions were both physically and emotionally taxing. Yet they were amazing. So much can occur in one short week!

That’s the crazy thing about time.  It’s always the same 24 hr. day but depending on your perspective, it can seem faster or slower.  Every day on a mission trip is eventful. It seems to be somehow fuller than an ordinary day. Maybe we are living temporarily on God’s time, not human time.  When our clock is set on eternity, we don’t mark off time by night and day but by events.  Each day is endless and full to the max in a good kind of way.  We’re in a constant present tense.  There is no longing for the past or the future; no regret for what has been or fear of what is to come.  We are content to be in the forever “now.”  We rarely live this way on earth but we should.

Eternal perspective sees life as a continuum.  It doesn’t stop with day or night, with birth or death.  It stretches on but yet it’s not linear.  God sees all of time all at once.  This is why He knows what we will do in the future and what events will transpire.  In his book, “Mere Christianity,” CS Lewis discusses our confusion over God’s time. “The difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference is that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call ‘tomorrow’ is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call ‘today’.  All the days are NOW for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them…He does not ‘foresee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him.”

I doubt humans will ever be able to see time this way, but just as we won’t be bound by sin and death in heaven, we won’t be bound by time.  We will have more than enough time to do everything we want to do and to become the person we were always meant to be.  We won’t have to worry about having to stop because the day is coming to an end because it won’t.  There will be no night. The brilliance of God will illuminate everything.  Even better, our relationships will go on forever.  We won’t be separated any longer from those we love by death or distance.  The time we were apart on earth will seem like just an overnight away compared to the time we will have to love and be loved by our family and friends in eternity.

We get a glimpse of eternity when we live in the now.  Our earthy lives by design are momentary and predictable. Night always follows day and death always follows birth.  But to live for those we serve today without thought for our own agenda, is really how we should live.  This is heaven on earth.  Time set aside from a busy, scheduled life to go on a mission trip is a holy activity.  It may be only a week, but in the scheme of things, it’s much bigger.  The time spent caring for others is measured in moments, not minutes.  If only for a week, we step out of earthy time into God’s time.  Someday we will live this way forever.

As much as possible, live each day wisely, fully and gratefully.  Grateful not just for what we’ve been given but grateful for what we are able to give. In this way, we establish the Kingdom of Heaven in the here and now, not just in the future.

Lessons From the Garden

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I spent quite a bit of time earlier this week in the cool of the morning, pruning off all the dead canes in my raspberries bushes. Earlier this spring, I thought maybe the raspberries didn’t make it through the winter.  During “snowmegeddon”  this last January, the bushes were completely covered by a drift that was well over the top of the garden fence.  It didn’t melt completely for almost 2 months.  It was a harsh winter and a few other usually hardy plants didn’t survive through it. But recently, I started noticing new growth coming in under the dead raspberry canes.  I just needed to cut away the dead to get to the new.  It was painful since the bushes have thorns.  I wore gloves but even yet I was pricked by many of them.

By the time I had accomplished my task, I had a huge load of canes in my wheelbarrow to go to the brush pile. I was surprised by how green and lush the new growth appeared after the dead parts were removed.  I couldn’t help but ponder as I was doing this, how many dead areas within myself need to be cut away so new growth can be revealed: envy, greed, pride, anger, and unforgiveness- to name a few.  Each one of these keep new growth in my life choked out.  They take energy away that’s needed to sustain me.  It’s not easy cutting away the dead areas but I must push into it as I did with my raspberry bushes and be willing to experience some pain in the process.  In reality, I cannot do all the needed pruning on my own.  Only with the Master Gardener’s help will the job be done properly.  Being willing to hand Jesus the pruning shears is the most difficult part of the task. With His expertise, the ugly habits and dead weight of old baggage are cut away revealing the beautiful person God created me to be.  It’s a work in progress.

The garden is a good analogy for life and the raspberry bush is a fascinating plant within it. They propagate themselves by sending out new canes that root where they touch the ground. Thus they can literally move out from themselves by planting new bushes.  Most plants reproduce themselves by seeds alone but not so with the raspberry. They do have seeds in the berries that when eaten by birds can be carried far away. However, by sending out canes that root to produce new bushes, these new starts remain attached to the main plant.  So we should be with Christ:  going out but still remaining attached.  Our church family is our attachment site.  No matter how imperfect it is, the church is the bride of Christ.  The community of believers sustains and nourishes us.  It is a place of vulnerability but also a refuge of forgiveness.  Without this community we would never fully learn how to love our neighbor as ourselves.

It is no wonder that Jesus told many parables using imagery from the plant world.  He knew that common folk toiled in the fields, observing the coming and going of the seasons and would understand.  We are separated somewhat from the natural world with our automobiles, our office buildings and technology right at our fingertips.  But if we intentionally take the time to observe the sights and sounds of nature, they will reveal to us the Creator.  If we have ears to hear and eyes to see, all of nature is our teacher.