MY BLOG POSTS

Our family visited the Grand Canyon last week. It was magnificent. Words can’t describe the beauty and sheer size of it. People spoke in hushed tones as they looked out. I didn’t see anyone with headphones in, no one was glued YouTube or Netflix on their phones. No one dared to litter or vandalize any part of it. Nothing man-created can compare to the beauty of God’s creation. Every one of us there recognized the magnificent beauty that surrounded us.

I kept thinking about it after we left. The beauty sticks with you, like the taste of a good meal. I’d replay what I saw, review the pictures we took, talk about it with Dave and the kids. As soon as we left, we wanted to go back again, see it from other vantage points, in other seasons.

Then, as I was reading through Ephesians, I ran across this verse: “We are His workmanship…” (Eph. 2:10). I had never really thought about that before. But with the beauty of the Grand Canyon still lingering in my mind, that word, workmanship, stood out. The Grand Canyon is an example of God’s workmanship. It shouts of a powerful God whose creativity is inspiring. But this amazing planet was designed for his greatest creation — us! We are his workmanship.

We are his workmanship. And we are even more amazing than the Grand Canyon — we have voices to praise Him and souls that can live with Him for eternity. This beautiful earth will eventually pass away. But we will not. We are His workmanship.

This, I realized, should affect not only how I see myself, but especially how I see others. Every human being is made in God’s image, by God Himself. They are greater than the Grand Canyon, more beautiful, more precious, more awe-inspiring. Every one of them. Even those who reject their creator. They are all God’s amazing workmanship. And I need to treat them as such- with honor and respect. I need to view them the way I viewed the Grand Canyon: as a divine masterpiece. And I need to point them to the one who created them for a purpose, so they can experience the unparalleled joy of being known by him.

We humans love a fresh start. We see it especially this time of year – “New Year, New You” logos fill gyms and health food stores. Trash bins overflow with sugary foods and pantries are restocked with healthy alternatives. I see it at the beginning of school years – new backpacks, new books, students resolved to do better this year, to not procrastinate, to study harder. In the spring, we turn over a “new leaf”, cleaning out our closets and garages and vowing to never let them get so full again.

This longing is quite biblical. Deep within all of us, we recognize we fall short. But this falling short is not a result of weight gain or homework postponed or clutter accumulated. It’s sin. This word makes our generation bristle. We want to blame the food or the teacher or the family. We want our problems to be rooted in someone or something else. And so we think changing our circumstances or our habits will make everything better. But it doesn’t, does it?

Without an acknowledgement of sin, weight loss can turn into pride; good grades can turn into stress; a clean house can turn into obsession. Or we fail at our resolutions and that turns into frustration and a feeling of being constantly defeated.

God has put within us an understanding of our sin because He loves us. Really. If we want a life that is abundant and full of joy, we must first recognize that we are sinners. God already knows it. And, deep within us, we do too. When we can stop blaming people and situations for our sins and simply confess them, we are in a place where real change can take place.

Lamentations 3:23 tells us that God’s mercies are new every morning. Not just January 1. Every morning. And the prophet telling us this did not have a life full of luxury and ease. In fact, Jeremiah experienced heartache upon heartache (the book is called Lamentations!). And yet, he is able to experience new mercies every morning. Why? Because he was looking to God, whose faithfulness is “great”.

So stop today and confess your sins – your gluttony or laziness, unforgiveness or pride. Stop trying to blame others. Stop looking to programs or people to “fix” you. We are all broken, friends, in many ways. But God delights in making whole what is broken. When we confess our sins, He forgives us (I John 1:9). And forgiveness is a mercy that will bring about more healing than anything we can imagine. Forgiveness is available every day. Every hour. God sent His Son so He could offer forgiveness to us. If you don’t know Him, remedy that TODAY. Talk to Him. Read his word. The Christmas season reminded us that God is with us. Surround yourself with those who are seeking Him with their whole hearts.

We don’t just get one chance a year to start over. Every day is a new beginning. No sin is so great that it cannot be forgiven. And no person is so great that he/she does not need forgiveness.

My elementary drama/choir group is preparing for their Christmas production, “Angels Aware”. It’s a unique perspective on the Christmas story – set in heaven, when the angels first hear about God’s plan to save humanity. I hadn’t ever thought about the heavenly response to God sending His son to earth. This production proposes that perhaps the angels were shocked at the news. Why would anyone leave heaven? It’s crazy! Especially to go to a place where folks are, in the words of one of my angels, “So, so…sinful”?

Some of my littlest angels

But as the story progresses, the angels – and the audience – learn that God is doing this because He loves His creation so much. He is leaving the comfort and glory and peace of heaven to go down to a place where He’ll be rejected and ultimately killed, all out of his selfless, amazing, unfathomable love. It really is amazing.

God’s mercy is so undeserved, so incredible. But, if you’re like me, you can sometimes forget how incredible this gift of salvation is. I can take for granted that I get to spend eternity in heaven. I can forget that I have a Savior who loved me enough to come to earth as a baby, just so I could know Him.

This Christmas season, I am reminded “out of the mouths of babes” of the wonder of the Christmas season. I am reminded that the gifts we give others should remind us of the greatest Gift that God gave us. The songs we sing about Jesus’s birth aren’t just seasonal favorites, but arrows pointing to this baby in a manger who would become the Savior of all mankind.

It’s so easy to get lost in the fun and busyness of this season that we forget to slow down and really ponder what it’s all about…WHO it’s all about. In the words of one of the songs from this production,

“What love the Father has for us

Though He knows what we are

He would come from afar

To show us we can be forgiven”

Merry CHRISTmas, friends! And may we never forget the Reason for the Season.

As the end of the year approaches, I have found myself pondering 2018. When it started, I remember begging God to allow 2018 to be better than 2017. That year left me hurting physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

And in His grace, God answered that petition. 2018 was a much better year. A year of recovery in every area, of growth and refreshment, of deliverance and peace. But it wasn’t really because of circumstances. It was because this year, God has helped me to trust Him more. Many of the struggles I had in 2017 were because I wasn’t trusting Him. I was looking at difficult situations and difficult people and getting overwhelmed. My eyes were on things below, not things above. That perspective, friends, is so destructive. When I trust God, I am strong. When I know He is for me, when I live in that truth, I can endure anything and anyone.

As I think about the differences between 2017 and 2018, I realize it isn’t because this year was problem-free. I’ve had quite a few challenges thrown my way. But, rather than feeling buried under the weight of those challenges, I have, through Christ, been able to rise above them. I have taken steps of faith that, in 2017, I was too scared and “downward-focused” to make. And God has blessed me for that. He is so good, to reward us for doing what’s right! He could just shake His finger and demand we obey. But ours is a good, good Father who gives us so much more than we deserve and lavishes us with such undeserved grace.

There’s so much that God knew this time last year that I didn’t. That sounds so ridiculous. Of course, the Creator of the universe knows what’s coming! But I had gotten so wrapped up in fear and frustration that I failed to lean into that Truth. As I look back, I see that, even as I was worrying and stressing, God was already preparing a way out of the difficult situations I was in. He was working behind the scenes to bring deliverance. I should have been trusting him for that instead of fretting over it. I should have been praising Him in the storm. But I wasn’t.

As I look forward to 2019, I want to face it with my eyes on Christ. I want to be used this year to bring Him glory, to point others to Him. I want to resist the temptation to doubt, to become self-focused, to complain and stress. I want to lay aside all those sins so I can continue to run the race He has set before me. I want to lean into the reality that God already knows what’s going to happen next year, and every year after that. I don’t need to worry about the future. I need to live in the present, serving God in each moment He gives me, obeying Him with joy and abandon.

As the beautiful old hymn says, “Trust and obey/for there’s no other way/to be happy in Jesus/than to trust and obey.”