Tag: confidence

Perspectives From a Baton Pass, Part 1

February 7, 2019 /

It’s 11:45 Christmas Eve. The sanctuary glows with candlelight bouncing off the arched windows and reflecting in the eyes of the faithful gathered. John and I are serving communion one last time in the last worship service at the end of our 30 years in this faith community.

We know the hopes and dreams and fears and failures of most of the people who walk up to receive the bread and wine. It both moves us to tears of gratitude and strengthens us immeasurably. We are broken, and Jesus puts us back together. He is good.

We are at the end of a leg of the race, ready to pass the baton. For us, a time of change, or any change for anyone – change in job, location, relationship, whatever…gives us a chance to notice the work of God in our lives over time and question how we have been formed.

We treasure so many marking moments of grace and reconciliation and healing that we’ve shared with people we love over the years at this church.

There have been hard times too. Tears and questions and conflict and misunderstandings, and very difficult leadership decisions.

I’ve worried a lot. I’ve doubted myself, not because of a Word from the Lord, but because I let the words of others pierce me.

Like our friend Steve who ran the Grand Canyon, we look back over the hilly terrain we’ve run and the perspective brings a visceral sense of being strengthened in the Lord. There have been some really rough stretches, but God’s plans have prevailed.

If I were to say anything to my 30 year old self who came to CPC with two tinies in tow, it would be “REALLY rest in God. It’s gonna be ok if you do your best to play to an audience of One. Learn from critics who are wise, but listen for His voice above all.”

The words that keep coming to me in this season are “secure” and “unshaken”.

I envision a huge oak tree with branches reaching out and up towards the sky. In the wind those top branches get whipped around, back and forth. It can be scary if that’s where you stay. And that is often where I’ve perched. But even in the wind, the trunk remains secure and unshaken. That’s where we belong.

Think of your life right now, and the things that threaten to shake you. Consider these verses.

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery.  

Colossians 2:2-3

We have made many, many mistakes, but we have done our best to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, knowing He is the Redeemer and can cause all things to work together for good. The more we have gotten to know Him, the more confident and at rest we’ve been.

He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth.

Micah 5:4

There are a lot of question marks about what comes next, but God has carried us this far. He will not abandon us. We are secure in Him.

But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.


Psalm 33:11

We are fickle, but He is not. We waver, but He does not. We are merely privileged partners in the good work He prepared in advance for us to do.

What’s Your Super-power?

May 15, 2017 /

“If you could have any ‘super-power’ what would it be?”

That was the ice-breaker question posed at a women’s gathering I attended. Peals of laughter could be heard from different small groups around the room as women shared a desire for everything from a “Bewitched” nose twitch to clean their kids’ mess, to a cloaking devise, to the ability to be “beamed up” out of uncomfortable situations.

It’s a fun question to think about, but unfortunately we often seriously compare ourselves to others and think “Oh…I wish I had THAT ‘super-power’!” The gifts and talents others have can seem so “SUPERior” in light of our own that can feel so ordinary.

There are two reasons comparison is so dangerous. When we compare, the result is either pride or despair. Neither are pleasing to God, right? 

As women, I think we’re more prone to the despair end of the spectrum. Satan’s kryptonite seems to be that diabolical little word “as”.

He whispers,

“Not as pretty as…”

Not as good a mom as…”

“Not as popular as…”

“Not as smart as…”

Recently, my small group did a book study, and there is one line from Genesis 3:11 that we have gotten in the habit of repeating to one another when we feel discouraged or “less than”,

This is from Genesis 3: 9-11  when God is talking to Adam:

But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked;so I hid.”

 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?

God knows HE  didn’t tell Adam he was naked.

Is the message you’re hearing really from God? Or is it from someone else? 

After all, God is the One who said you are fearfully and wonderfully made, the One who said He has created good plans in advance for you to do, the One who said He has called you by name, you are His – His chosen, His beloved, the one He sings over…

So today, instead of comparing, let’s remember this…

Dear Magpie and Other 20-something Friends

October 15, 2014 /

Today is our youngest daughter, Maggie’s 27th birthday.

Maggie is the shiny one who has friends all over the world; some she just hasn’t met yet.  She’s the one “car dances” and who keeps us laughing at ourselves and playing games and celebrating life with hoopla. She’s passionate about injustice, and traditions, and a good glass of wine.

For her on her birthday I want to shout “Huzzah!” and give her this sign I saw yesterday that said:

Always keep your beautiful imagination & exquisite humor.

I want to send a plane full of peanut butter M&M’s to scatter around her town so she’ll find them everywhere – nuggets of grace.

I want to go with her on fun new adventures to quirky spots like we’ve done in the past.

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And I want to remind her of what I wrote her two years ago because it still holds true – what I would say to her and to my own 27 year old self…

Dear Magpie,

Don’t let this discourage you, but the older you get the more you’ll know how much you don’t know…how little you’re sure of.  That’s ok though because it will help you to ask good questions, listen hard, and strain to hear God’s voice through His Word and others.

And as you do, you can remain certain of at least these three things.

1.  You really do matter.  The world is big and you’re so small, but even your little choices make a difference.   Don’t ever “despise the day of small things” done with great love.  Remember the theory that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can set in motion a chain of events that will lead to a hurricane somewhere else? Flap your wings.  You matter.

2.  Everything really will be ok.  You’ve made mistakes before and you’ll make them again, and some days you’ll be sure the sky is falling, but the longer you live the more you will remember that the One who hung the stars is still on duty, holding them in place.

You’ll experience His mercies, new every morning.  Again and again.  Ever faithful.  He really does cause all things to work together for good, even when that’s painful.  And He really can redeem anything.  Anything.

3.  You are not alone.  Even when you feel most alone.  When someone has hurt you or betrayed you or you’ve lost something.  No, no one has lived your story, but others have had chapters with similar themes of loss or fear or conflict or joy, and God has given them to you as companions, as well as Himself.  He’s the sure thing. You are beloved.

Sweetie, anyone can write these words, but you will have to live them into your bones.  I know that you will.  You will stretch and ask and risk and hope and pray.

And you will run your race “not somehow, but triumphantly“.  Surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses” cheering you on.  With Daddy and me in the front row.

Happy Birthday Magpie.

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