Coincidence? No.

I saw in the church newsletter that her birthday was coming up soon. I didn't know her very well, although she and her husband occasionally visited our church during the past year. When her husband died tragically from injuries sustained in a vehicle wreck, she asked my (at that time) husband and me to sing at his funeral.

I hadn't seen her in weeks since she lived on a ranch far from town. We knew she would probably move to another community since the ranch was so isolated, but I couldn't seem to get her off my mind that day. I kept thinking about how everyone is around immediately following the death of a loved one, but the weeks and months afterwards of being alone can be a very difficult time. I decided to write her a letter and wish her a happy birthday.

I hadn't even come close to feeling the kind of pain she had been going through, but I did tell her what I sometimes would do when life got a little overwhelming for me at times. There a few things like swinging on a swing and simply watching the sky or nature to empty one's mind for a bit. Watching tumblebugs do their jobs in one of the worst working environments also fascinated as well as disgusted me. They don't seem to mind their situation, though, and watching them and other insects do their work also helped to soothe my mind for a while.

Mainly, I just wanted her to know I was thinking about her that day. I looked at a framed verse on the wall beside my bed. Some dear friends had given it to me a while back, and it was one of my favorite verses. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy, think on these things. Philippians 4:8.

I thought that was wonderful advice, so I decided to wrap it up and send it to her, too. Not long afterwards, I received a letter from her that said:

You have no idea what your letter and gift did for me that day. I was driving down the ranch road having a good cry, feeling very alone and sorry for myself. I told the Lord that He and everyone else had forgotten me, and was just a little angry about the whole situation. Then I got to the mailbox and pulled out the package you had sent. When I opened it up, I sat there and cried all over again, but for an entirely different reason. God hadn't forgotten me at all!

God's timing is amazing. It wasn't a coincidence that I just happened to be thinking about someone I normally didn't think about on any given day. It was God prompting me, although I didn't realize it at the time. I saw this lady one more time some weeks later when she visited the church. She came by the piano and hugged me and thanked me again for the letter and gift.

Do you ever get a thought to do something for someone? Does someone keep coming to mind at times? Those are usually little promptings by the Lord that this person needs our help, encouragement, or prayer. We'll miss a blessing if we don't act on it.

All too often coincidence or luck gets the credit when it was actually God working in someone's life. We just have to open our spiritual eyes to see that it was Him all along.

*  *  *

Written in 2001

The Walk

"I'm very fond of walking."

"Yes... yes, I know."

Yesterday... the start of my walk in our back patio.

Along the small lake at the park where the cowbirds gather to build their nests.

 Five baby ducks or goslings (3 in the water and 2 on the rock edge) along with their parents, I assume.

"You must know, surely you must know that it was all for you."

Feelings, nothing more than feelings

Too often we base the moral rightness of something on whether it feels right or not. If our conscience is intact and working correctly, and if our knowledge of a situation is adequate and correct, than we can probably go with that gut feeling. But if a conscience is seared into silence by continuing to break moral laws, then gut feelings can be wrong.

Some years ago a friend of mine justified an affair with a married man with the statement, "How can something that feels so right be wrong?" Country western fans, do those lines sound familiar? Feelings can blind a person to the truth and consequences of a situation. This dear friend had to raise a child on her own ever since that lying buzzard abandoned her when she became pregnant.

Lust is not the same thing as love. Emotional dependence is not the same thing as love. Lust is based on feelings and self-centeredness. Love is based on commitment and self-sacrifice. Lust is conditional. Emotions are conditional. Love is unconditional. I believe too many of us have truly lost the meaning of that word, or possibly never knew it in the first place.

• I must be out of love because I don't feel like I love you anymore.
• I don't love you now because you don't fulfill my needs anymore.
• I don't feel like doing anything for you anymore because you don't do anything for me.
• I don't love you anymore because you don't look like you first looked when we were married.

Another feeling to watch out for is urge. Some people pattern their whole lives on urges. Just because one gets an urge to do something doesn't mean one has to act on it. 

The same goes for anger, another strong emotional feeling. I once heard a teenager say to a friend that she was going to beat up another girl. I asked her why she thought she had to get physical about a disagreement. She said she couldn't help it-- that all of her family had bad tempers and were fighters. I told her that was baloney. Maybe her family set bad examples for her to follow, but she was the one who could control her own temper. Just because one gets angry at another doesn't mean a person has to act out feelings of rage and violence towards another. But we see daily in the media where too many people have yet to learn that.

I believe everyone is capable of having dangerous or illicit thoughts at one time or another. One can choose to snuff them out immediately and do the right thing, or one can choose to allow those thoughts to continue visiting one's mind until that harmful urge, lust, or rage causes one to act on it. 

Doing the right thing involves doing the responsible thing, whether one feels like it or not. Our society used to have clear lines of right and wrong as well as defined roles of responsibility, but the lines have blurred, primarily because we've let feelings control more and more of our actions. And the desire to assuage our guilt makes us want to strike out at any person or group attempting to hold up a standard of morality.

Whether we choose to believe it or not, there are moral principles in place just as sure as there are scientific and mathematical principles governing our world. And until we latch onto a solid rock foundation of morals and live by them, we are doomed to be influenced by every whim and urge that come our way, justifying our actions by fickle feelings that change from one day to the next. 

tudorhistory.org

I think England's Henry VIII would be the ideal poster child for living life based on lust, anger, and his ever-changing moral relativism. And we see how well that worked for him.

Fallen from Grace

One of the things I love about our Comfy Socks group is that we can discuss anything among ourselves, and it's a safe environment to learn. The phrase 'fallen from grace' - Galatians 5:4 - was brought up in an electronic discussion, and it made me stop and think about what that meant.

I think since Paul was writing to Christians in Galatians, he was telling them that their Gospel +plus thinking of going back to things associated with the law to keep them in a right relationship with God or to "maintain" their salvation (and he referred to it as "fallen away from grace") didn't mean they had lost their salvation; I think he was telling them that they had corrupted the meaning of grace and had damaged that knowledge and relationship because it meant they had to do something on their part to gain and maintain their salvation when salvation by grace was actually all of God's doing. 

My mother was raised in a church where they taught she could fall from grace, meaning she could lose her salvation, so she had no assurance of her salvation until years later when a preacher from another denomination referred her to John 3:16 - 'For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' - and asked her how long everlasting was.

I  think I probably caught the opposite easy believe-ism of "once saved, always saved," which meant walking down the aisle to obtain one's fire insurance from hell, and then living life however one wanted to. I remember as a church clerk having to dig back through the years of  records to find when a deceased person was baptized (which supposedly documented their salvation experience) to find a man's name who had moved away from our town years before and had never transferred his membership to another church. I'm sure it was comforting to the family to know he had walked the aisle many years before, but his life should've been the evidence of his faith in Christ. So if a name on a church roll is the only way people knew if someone had a relationship with Christ, then sadly, that's actually more indicative that he probably didn't have a relationship with Christ.

Although I knew most all of the stories of the Bible, and I could tell you the right words and answers pertaining to Christian dogma, it wasn't until my thirties or early forties that I truly grasped the concept of grace (finally)-- that my salvation was completely and totally based on what God did through his Son, and not anything else on my part other than to believe and accept it. I remember how freeing that felt because before that, the logical, human side of me kept needling me at the back of my mind that surely there was something more I could do to get on God's good side, to make my salvation stick if I did more for him.

I went from spending more time working down at the church than the preacher did (& keeping God at arm's distance) to not doing nearly as much work down at the church and focusing more on my relationship with Him. I want any evidence that I'm a Christian to come naturally out of an overflowing heart of love for and gratefulness to and dependence on Him, rather than an obligation to insure that my relationship with Him is on good terms based on what I  do for Him. I was living the Gospel+ life for years and didn't even realize it. But I also believe during that time that I was still God's child based on what He'd done for me, not on my immature and misguided thinking.

According to the book of James, he makes it sound like good works are a requirement of salvation on the surface, but when you take that message and put it alongside the rest of the New Testament, good works are the evidence of our faith and relationship with Christ. And I've learned through the years that most of the 'good works' God intends for us to do are outside of the church. It was so easy for me to work hard (and comfortably) within the walls of the church on activities and events and musical efforts with and for other Christians, and always with the hope that a non-Christian would come through the door. But most non-Christians never cross that threshold. 

I'm not discounting the importance of the church to minister and teach and edify the Body [church members]; my Bible study class is such a source of inspiration and strength to me during this time of my life, and I've learned so much from my pastor's sermons. But when our 'good works' take place only at church, I think we're missing the point of the Great Commission where Jesus says to 'go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always,to the very end of the age.' Matthew 28:19-20.