Louis Giglio and Laminin

Learning the Unforced Rhythms of Grace this Easter

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

Pug-Love

Last week, I experienced the joy of becoming a Pug-mom to a little girl named, Lily. She is a sweet girl of 8 years old who likes to cuddle, snore, and is always happy to see me when I arrive home.

Having loved the experience of being staff to my feline brood, I wondered how I would adjust to the distinctly different canine breed. Yet, Lily has snugly cuddled herself right into my life as my special velcro-pug, and is even finding ways to wiggle her way into Miss Kitty's heart, albeit, slowly...

"What am I to do with you canines?" says Miss Kitty

There is something about rescue-pets that is very special. I rescued both Miss Kitty and Sequel from Feline Foundation (http://www.ffgw.org/) and from day one, they fit right into my life.

Sequel & Miss Kitty (Snail Curls)

Lily seems to be doing the same. She was a rescue from SEPRA (www.rescuepug.com) and has eased into my life as if I have had her for years. I love being a pug-mom!

Lily's first visit to Pet Smart

The Attempted first meeting... Pre-Miss-Kitty-Hiss

Lily's favorite spot on my shoes

End of a long day...

The Art of Surrender: Miss Kitty Style

In the morning when I rise my feline companion, Miss Kitty, demands a time of devotion. I’m not sure that she desires my devotion to her or hers to me, but regardless, when I have attempted to skate through the breaking-sunlight without our morning ritual, I hear the woeful meow’s of a cat-scorned.

Our ritual together consists of me padding downstairs to secure my cup of over-creamed coffee, fix her breakfast, and then follow as she herds me upstairs to “our” chair. Once I have wrapped myself in my down comforter and wiped the remaining sleep from my eyes, Miss Kitty arranges herself into my lap in a snail curl and purrs herself to sleep.

It is charming really and has captivated my attention more than once as I have attempted to concentrate on the more important aspects of devotional time such as reading the bible, four-point prayer, or focused meditation and swatted away Miss Kitty’s purr-filled-contentment as a mere distraction to my efforts. She is satisfied simply by remaining in the warmth of my presence.

Miss Kitty does not know how to read the bible, journal, or pray but she has mastered the art of connection and surrender to love. She just crawls up in my lap when she needs to be loved and protected and I am drawn away from whatever “more important” task I was doing because she is so endearing, vulnerable, transparent… I am enchanted.

Yesterday, she fell asleep on my hand. I was mesmerized as I watched her sink slowly into sleep, completely unaware of the possibility that I may need my hand to write or scratch my head. She had an unwavering faith that her needs would be met, that I would remain in a position of holding her head as she slept, because I was so enthralled by seeing her trusting surrender.

Because I was unable to move, journal, or pick up my bible, I began wondering what my attempts at surrender looked like to God. Am I able to crawl up into His lap when I have need and fall asleep in His arms? Do I allow Him to provide for me in His expressions of love, or do I reject Him through the constant striving of self-sufficiency?

I picture surrender more as a struggle, something where one person loses and the other person wins… not as a calm serenity or a place of secure rest. Is true devotion simply laying my head in His hand and allowing Him to love me?

For He giveth unto His beloved in sleep… Psalm 127:2

all writings copyrighted by author 2.6.08 (C)

Devotional Time or Devotional Life?

As followers of Christ, we often talk about “having a devotional time” or “doing my quiet time” or just “doing time” in the morning or evenings. I know I am guilty of this Christian-ease. This is time that is to be set apart for Christ. To get in tune with Him, listen for His voice, respond to how He is working in our lives... We often seek this time to get our day started right, soak ourselves with His presence, seek out His directives in His word. Then at the end of our twenty to thirty minutes, we pack up our journals, our prayers, and our bibles and catapult ourselves into the day, completely forgetting who God is, and who we are in relationship to Him.

I have often been guilty of looking forward to my morning coffee as much as my morning devotional time. I know this because if God says, “this morning, instead of coffee, drink tea” I throw a fit. But I do not necessarily have that same reaction if I gloss over my bible reading and give half the effort I could with connecting with God.

What is wrong with our picture of devotion?

Several years ago, I was on mission with a team in Guatemala. I was quite new to this whole Christian thing so I still asked a lot of dumb questions (as if that has changed!?) Our in-country liaison, Jason, became the target of many of my questions.

Jason was a person who had given up privilege in America to pursue missions in a third world country. He regularly came in contact with children who did not have enough food to eat, let alone shoes for their feet. Clothing becomes rather secondary when you are starving. I remember him telling us how his stomach would tighten for these children who were hungry and how many a night he lay awake unable to sleep because of what he had seen. Jason was getting his hands dirty for the gospel.

One day I approached Jason and asked, “So ah, Jason, Like, you seem so busy all the time. When do you have time to do your devotional time?” An innocent enough question, right? I really wanted to know how Jason was setting apart time to be with God and read the bible. I felt his devotional time was an important marker of his faith. As long as I live, I will never forget the look Jason gave me. Without one word, his look communicated the following…

Silly girl, my entire LIFE is being lived in devotion to Christ… what do you mean, when do I “do” my devotional time?

It was not a look that was rude, condescending, or belittling. It was a look that shared a powerful Truth about Jason’s relationship with God that I had completely overlooked. It was a look that stopped me in my tracks and reframed what our walk with Christ was supposed to be all about.

This week, one of my friends Kim, challenged me to remember and apply this truth simply as I watched her in her daily life. (Thank you friend!)

All around me I see people who are doing the work of God. People who are taking the time to heal others with words, with actions, with love. People who are serving the felt needs of their community with tangible touches of grace. Couples who do not have the time to regularly read God’s word, but who are praying throughout the day for a touch of God’s presence so they can live it out in their relationships. I see mothers who are challenging themselves to remain open so they can be transformed through God’s ever inviting Grace, and fathers who are picking up the pieces of a broken past and surrendering them to God, believing that He has a future that is better and brighter than anything they could ever hope or imagine.

Is connecting with God regularly important? Absolutely. For me, it is a lifeline. But my interaction with Jason taught me something that is even more important than connecting with God. It is allowing ourselves to be so transformed through that connection that we can be change-agents in the world around us.

Information without application is stagnation. Devotional time without a corresponding devotional life is powerless.

I long to see devotion as Brother Lawrence did as he practiced the presence of God…

The most holy practice, the nearest to daily life, and the most essential for the spiritual life, is the practice of the presence of God, that is to find joy in his divine company and to make it a habit of life, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with Him at all times, every moment, without rule or restriction, above all at times of temptation, distress, dryness, and revulsion, and even of faithlessness and sin. (p 68)

All writings copyrighted by author 1.30.08 (C)

Fear Theology: Hiking on Blood Mountain

Six months ago I attempted to hike the Coosa trail on Blood Mountain, alone. I was neither skilled in rugged trail hiking nor did I have any way to defend myself. Fear prevented me from conquering the trail and left me scratching my head asking “why?” but I made it home alive.

Last week Meredith Emerson, 24, went hiking with her dog on the Freedom Trail, a subsection of the Appalachian Trail on Blood Mountain. This trail is not far from the Coosa Trail that I attempted. She was experienced in martial arts and an avid hiker, plus she had the protection of a dog. Meredith conquered the trail, but failed to make it home alive.

I left Coosa baffled at my failure, angry that the mountain defeated me, and bewildered that fear could have driven me from the task I had set for myself that day. The presence of an overwhelming fear on the mountain overtook me until my feet became like lead and the only steps I could take were back to the trail head. Weeks later I found myself still ruminating on my failure and pondering the meaning of the dread that overtook me. Was my fear real? Was the fear good? Did it have meaning?

The Continued Journey (Part 3): Coosa Trail

Six months later, Meredith was found dead on the same mountain that defeated me. Killed by a man who had no regard for her life, Meredith was unable to protect herself though she had every means available within her power to do so. A senseless act of brutality stole the beauty of her essence from this world. It is a tragic loss to the world, and a death that never should have occurred.

Is fear ever be a protective force in our lives?

I am wrestling with this concept. I am wrestling with why Meredith was not protected. I continue to ponder the fact that fear literally became an active presence on the trail with me that day preventing me from going any farther. Did it protect me somehow? That tension messes with my theology. Fear is supposed to be dangerous, not protective. Fear is supposed to be the enemy, something you run from, not run to. Fear, according to the theology I have been taught, is never your friend because fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.

Yet for me, fear was not false. It was real. It was so real the day I attempted to hike Blood Mountain that it became a living, breathing presence that walked every step with me until I could take no more steps forward.

Did Fear choose me that day so that Evil could not?

I am left in my attempts to reconcile the disconnected reality that something very destructive (fear) could have potentially protected me from something even more destructive (evil). I do not understand this new reality.

I also wrestle with why friendly-fear did not ultimately protect Meredith too. Her life is no less valuable than any other life in this world. She, like the rest of us, was made in the Image of God. She, like the rest of us, had a worth and purpose in this world. And now the world is robbed of her life that could have been.

I find myself angry at God for allowing this wrongful death to occur. If God is truly a good God, then why, in His compassionate mercy, did He not try and warn Meredith too? I don't understand... do we not all deserve His same arms of protective Grace?

And Jacob wrestled there with the man, alone… When the man saw that he could not get the best of Jacob, he threw his hip out of socket… Then he said to Jacob, “You are no longer Jacob, you are Israel [God-wrestler] because you have wrestled with God and man and have come through”

Jacob demanded the man’s name, but never received an answer. Jacob named the place Peniel (God's Face) because, he said, "I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!" Genesis 32 (paraphrased)

All writings copyrighted by author (c) 1.12.2008

Granny's blessing

About fifteen years ago, when she could still see to write, my granny sent me an envelope with a simple poem in it. I tucked it into my bible and though its edges have become torn and tattered, it continues to impact me today just as it did fifteen years ago. That poem represents the legacy my gramma left to me and our family.

Though we will miss my granny dearly, each time the crinkled edges of the poem peek out at me from behind the bible pages, I know that I will be reminded of the path that my gramma chose to travel... a path of leaving behind a legacy of blessing. Thank you gramma!

1918 - 2007

Is your life a channel of blessing?

Is the love of God flowing through you?

Are you telling the lost of the Savior?

Are you ready His service to do?

Refrain: Make me a channel of blessing today,

Make me a channel of blessing, I pray;

My life possessing, my service blessing,

Make me a channel of blessing today.