Category: Faith

Wonder {5 minute friday}

~ Emily ~ 3 Comments

Inquiring.  Seeking. Questioning.

I wonder what would happen if…?  I wonder why…?  I wonder if I could…?

The possibilities are endless.  Wonder is limitless.

What captures our attention propels us to wonder.  We pursue what intrigues us, what we don’t quite understand.  There’s always an element of mystery in wonder.  We seek not knowing what’s to be found.

Wonder is the action that moves us forward into the unknown, but it is also an element to be found and studied.  Wonder unfolds as an undulating continuum of searching and asking, marveling and admiring.

This continuum can motivate movement or stimulate silence.

I can only think of One who perfectly fits into the continuum of wonder…

Our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.

 

Five Minute Friday

Free Hot Chocolate

~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

On Monday mornings, Tim and I mix up 5 gallons of hot chocolate and wheel it over to Coeur d’Alene High School.  We stand  off to the side just down from the, main entrance, ready to hand out a steamy cup of cocoa to any interested passerby.

Our badges signify we are volunteers from a church, but other than that small identifier we go incognito.  We pass out hot chocolate to make connections, to start building relationships with students in our community.

It has been fun to watch students open up a bit more each week – they recognize us and are willing to give more than one word answers to questions.

The first couple weeks were prime people watching.  Most people didn’t know how to respond to the strangers lurking in the entryway or the wares they were offering.

Some students avoided eye contact completely.  Others eyed us openly with interest but kept walking.  Some students kept glancing our way with a mixture of desire and suspicion.  Even when we offered hot chocolate to people, emphasizing it was free, they would shuffle away or pretend they didn’t hear us.

After observing these reactions to free hot chocolate, it dawned on me that these are the same responses Jesus gets to His free gift of salvation.  What seems like a no-brainer decision to Him is often met with reluctance, disbelief, and suspicion.

Though Christ resides in me, I often respond to God’s gifts like an unbeliever.  I avoid God when He offers forgiveness.  I am suspicious of His grace.  I shuffle away from His unconditional love, wondering why He would offer that to me.

My actions and attitudes don’t always reflect what I truly believe about my God – that He loves me, that He desires to be in a relationship with me, that He won’t leave me.

I pray that God replaces my suspicion with trust, my fears with hope.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

{Hebrews 4:14-16, emphasis mine}

How do you approach God and His abundant good gifts?

Food For Thought on Thanksgiving

~ Emily ~ Leave a comment

Our lives are a gift. Our faith is unearned. Our prayer is given to us with no strings attached.

Why does God give us, as ungrateful as we are, so many pleasures, so many graces, so many delights?

I don’t know.

What I do know is that there is joy in giving to someone you love.

What I do know is that when we gratefully receive God and God’s way of life, we give God pleasure.

What I do know is that in gratitude we become more alive, more free, and better able to love others.

{Mark Yaconelli in Wonder, Fear, and Longing.  Emphasis mine.}

Do Not Pass Me By: Stay {FMF}

~ Emily ~ 9 Comments

A furry face strains his tether purposely unhearing the command of his owner. Stay.

A little one tucked in bed cries out as the light turns off.  Stay.

A wife pleads through tears as she watches the back of her husband fade into the distance. Stay.

Stay is for brokenness, fear, and disappointment.  The soul grasps at what won’t remain in place.  It lurches and lunges for something that is steady, that will last.

“Be still and know,” says the small voice.

Remain in Me.  Stay awhile.  Abide in Me. Stay with Me for keeps.

Take refuge and find sanctuary in Me. Linger in My love.  Don’t be cast about by external inconsistency.  Hang on to My eternal presence.

Stay is healing and safety and comfort.

Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry; while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Let me at thy throne of mercy find a sweet relief, kneeling there in deep contrition; help my unbelief.

Trusting only in thy merit, would I seek thy face; heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by thy grace.

Thou the spring of all my comfort, more than life to me, whom have I on earth beside thee? Whom in heaven but thee?

{Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior – Frances J. Crosby, 1868}

Five Minute Friday

Dear Paul {31 Days of Letters}

~ Emily ~ 1 Comment

Dear Paul,

You have given voice to the battles raging in my heart, mind, and soul.

For what I am doing, I do not understand.  For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate; that I do…For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. {Romans 7: 15 & 19}

I cannot think of a better description of the internal dialogue I have with myself daily.  Righteous Emily (am I ever?), who seeks God, does good, and surrenders everything to her Savior is at constant war with Carnal Emily, who is sold to sin and fleshly desires.

They volley back and forth, trying to convince plain old Emily to take action, using two very different methods.  I try to stay balanced on this narrow path of life with both these voices making compelling arguments.  Righteous Emily urges me to keep walking this primitive road; Carnal Emily promises shortcuts at every bump and turn in the road.

I must look rather funny to passers-by.  If I’m not zig-zagging with indecision as I move forward, I’m probably standing still with confusion as I listen to each voice pulling me in opposite directions.

You seem to know exactly what I’m talking about.  You said it yourself:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. {Romans 7:18}

The internal combat makes me tired.  I’m frustrated when I fail, when I listen to the wrong voice.  I hate that I make poor decisions and give in to my carnal side.  But, you speak words of hope to my heart.  In the midst of your own struggle against the flesh, you sought freedom in Christ.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law for the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. {Romans 8:1-3}

Truth has never been so full of light and beauty, mercy and grace, redemption and promise.

Your honesty is encouragement wrapped in a present I am eager to receive.

Love,

Emily

You can find all my letters here.

For more information about the 31 Day Challenge, visit The Nester.