Be An Overcomer...With Good

"Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good."  Romans 12:21

On Sunday, Shana got into a spat about something completely unimportant with another little girl at church.  While both of them were in the right, I was struck by Shana's immediate adversarial response toward the other girl.

As we sat down with them to break them apart and debrief the spat, we found out that this major disagreement was over nothing better than Goldfish, you know, of the cracker variety.

As this verse popped up on my phone Monday as my verse of the day, I was dumbfounded with how much I see this in my own life.  Assuming the worst, I respond to situations as if the other person doesn't have my best interest at heart.  I approach situations as if scarcity rules, not as a follower of the Most High God who has every need already sewn up.  I see adversity as an inevitable block to the path that I think lays out my life.

In Luke 22:31, Jesus warns Peter that satan himself wants to "sift [him] like wheat."  In other places, we see that satan is described as a thief and a lion looking for someone to devour.  In some ways, I think this description is completely tied to Paul's admonition to the Roman church to watch out how they respond to adversity.

Rather than see what happens to us as another sign that someone is out to get us, or as someone to combat, or as evidence that things just never are going to go our way, Paul is reminding us, today, that God is still in charge and nothing happens without His knowledge and power.  Jesus told Peter to be mindful of the one who wants to challenge him and bring him down, but to maintain his faith in Jesus.

"Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good."  Prayer, the first ultimate weapon, is combined with lovingkindness toward others, and even toward situations we face.  It is easy to let evil overcome us as we try to battle the daily distractions and the lurking situations we face.  It is easy to combat those things with what we have and know, and let evil overtake us.  I think that evil is an outlook on life that causes us to forget Whom we trust.

Overcome evil with good.  My friend Scott Savell, an Air Force chaplain, writes, "it's a passive verb when speaking of the evil, but active when speaking of the good."  This is important to note.  Overcoming evil with good means intentionally approaching life remembering God is in charge, assigning His mindset over our situations, and choosing to be loving and kind, as He is, toward those situations and people we face.

Colossians 3:14 says, "and over all these things put on love, which binds [a list of virtues found in Colossians 3:12-13] together in perfect unity."

Approach the situations you face with goodness in your heart.  Overcome that evil which desires to entangle you with the love of Christ.  Combat the outlook which regards everything as adversity with goodness which is victorious in the midst of strife.

Up And At 'Em!

Today is our last day of vacation and I woke about 5:30 am!  Thinking of lots of things at home in Alaska, I had to search my heart to see if I was truly anxious about anything, or if I was just prepping for the day ahead, getting packed for our trip.

Not entirely sure if I was anxious or not, I rose early and got my day started with a workout.  How many days do we wake up, seemingly ready for the day, but underneath our "up-and-at-'em" spirit, we are secretly anxious about what lies ahead?

I think it's ok to be up-and-at-'em, but once our jovial spirit migrates to worry, we've lost it!

Jesus' words in Matthew 6 haunt me as I type this journal post!  He says, "don't worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, for your Heavenly Father knows what you need!"

What is causing you worry today?  Are you truly not concerned about your life, and what is driving you today?

Living an Abandoned Life

I have been utterly stupefied the last few days because I think God is changing my direction and I feel very directionless!!! I have been so unsure about my past and decisions I have made, thinking that mistakes I have made in the past have been all my fault and that I have the power to mess up anything I do in the future. Then I come across this verse today and words from a friend that have me back at the drawing board.

It's from Oswald Chambers's My Utmost for His Highest, August 27. Walk while you have the light lest the darkness come upon you. - John 12:35.

My friend's comment was that I "want my heart belong[ing] to Jesus to be on my terms, and then [I] thank Him or blame Him for the outcome." That hurt, in a way, because I remember hearing from Beth Moore about 7 years ago that if you follow Jesus it is His responsibility what happens to you. Since then, I've been on a 7-year-battle that has been ultimately frustrating and elusive. I feel like I gave up the life that God wanted me to have and traded it for loneliness and banishment. I feel sidelined, and forgotten.

I don't know how to live this life on Jesus' terms! I don't know how to abandon myself to Him fully to do in me and with me whatever He wishes.

And yet He wants me to walk in the light. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means for ministry, or business, or motherhood. I thought I knew, but I don't know. It was comfortable to think it was God's fault that life has been hard.

Now I don't know what to think, and I would love some insight.

The Simplest Answer is Usually the Correct One???

This statement, minus the question marks, comes out of an idea posted by 14th Century William of Ockham. He made the statement generically but it has had far-reaching implications in fields such as medicine, philosophy, and religion.

I read about Occam's razor again this morning in an article about the possibility of other worlds. The author was testing out one of the theories using Occam's razor. Sounds good, right? The simplest answer probably is that there is only Earth and nothing else. It's much more complicated than that.

Fortunately, my blog today is not about the possibility of there being other universes. It's about the world we live in today, which is multi-dimensional and otherworldly. Things happen that we don't understand and we search for ways to understand or reason through what we see and experience.

I think Occam's razor is too basic for explaining life. The simplest answer is not always the correct one, because many influences affect what happens to us and how we respond. At minimum, other people's beliefs and outlooks as well as experiences make them who they are and change how they respond to a certain stimulus. Then we have to consider our own bag o' tricks, what we come to the table with, our own experiences etc. as well as our tendencies.

Throw in the fact that we have a loving God who also influences our situation and it would seem that we would not go through heartache or disappointment. Sometimes, though, God allows for us to go through what we do to learn something, grow, develop, have a story that ministers to someone else, or slough off parts of us that are not godly.

Life is not so easy to explain as Occam's razor. The simplest answer is not always the most plausible, and many, many times in our walk it is not beneficial to even try to understand some of the things that happen to us. We won't understand them, many times, and we'll spend a lot of time trying to "figure stuff out." However, if God breathes a revelation into our situation, that is different, run with it!

Have faith...

To despair is to turn your back on God.
--Marilla Cuthbert, Anne of Green Gables

This quote was on a friend's email salutation and it spoke to me today as I opened the email! It goes along with a verse that has been treasured for years, actually two verses, that came to me again this morning, with new meaning and new hope.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future." The part of this verse that stuck out to me was "NOT TO HARM YOU." So many times I know I launch out on a venture and am afraid that it will fail! Ouch! How about I go out believing that if God has opened the door and said go through, that it will go well!

The other verse is Isaiah 64:4. "Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him."

God acts on our behalf. It is high time I put all my faith in Him and believe that He will take care of us.

Baby Showers!

Ever notice that when it rains, it pours? I'm heading into a season which includes lots of baby showers and birth announcements! Out here, lots of my friends are pregnant and having showers! Having just had Shana, it's fun to share in the excitement with them.

With the excitement comes remembering the miracle of created life. I was thinking today of ultrasounds showing the start of Shana's features as early as 15 weeks gestation. And here she is today.

Creation is incredible, but how much more so the Creator of heaven and earth. God is vast, limitless. It is hard to describe just how ultimate God really is. And yet He involves Himself in our lives, and lavishes His love onto us.

Just amazing to consider the miracle of life, but I think it's critical to remember the creator of the miracles.

Exceedingly Abundantly More...

This is a phrase from our scripture passage in our PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel, a ministry to Protestant military wives) Bible study this spring. I first encountered it when I first encountered Christ and had a very real experience with Him when I was 24. I will never forget that day when the skies seemed to part and God's presence dawned on me in a very real way.

Isn't that amazing, that God would introduce Himself to me and use this passage from Ephesians 3:14-21 to let me know who He was? He is that God to whom all glory and honor is due, and who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we could ever ask or imagine! Just look at the two words "exceedingly" and "abundantly" - full of extravagance and lavishness! God is that kind of God who does not withhold His power on those who would receive it.

Too bad that those who know Him not cannot understand or experience that wonder. Don't get me wrong, I believe that if you want to experience Him, you can. In His time, and that is the wonder of His grace that lavishes us before we recognize Him. That's what happened to me. I experienced the wonder and amazement of being aware of His abundant presence and then I realized it was Him. The one I had longed for had reached out to touch my life.

It has been a journey ever since to reach out and take hold of Him and all He is, as well as the abundance that comes with knowing Him. I am currently trying to take hold of His vastness as I deal with a struggle in my life that has plagued me for literally decades. Now He in His lavishness is encouraging me to reach out to Him and all that He is, and believe that He is amazingly able to transform what has been a futile situation up to this point.

Look up the passage and see what God is telling you through it. Paul prayed it for the Ephesians because they had to understand the vastness of our God. In a world that is literally decaying, we need to grasp the vastness and the holy love of God as we go forward in our lives.