I had an experience yesterday… not unlike the ones I had with her.I’ve spent the better part of my morning thinking about my experience, writing a few words to memorialize our encounter. I’m not sharing the fullness of that writing in a post, but I thought I’d give you a few thoughts to chew on over the weekend. You may want to re-visit the backdrop for my thoughts as found in Exodus 16. In this piece, I work with the idea of our not “taking more than we need”–about living within the daily boundaries of God’s daily provision. I realize this reading it is not in its full context, but I wanted to:
1. Say “hello.” 2. Tell you that God has been mighty good to me over the past few weeks in regards to my preparations for She Speaks. His daily manna has been just enough for a day’s worth of doing. I pray you know the witness of his manna in your life this weekend.
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Never take more than you need.
I have a feeling this has been a guiding principle for her throughout her life. Receiving help as she needed it, but declining it when she had enough. Oh for a heart like hers to know when to take and when to give back. When to say “yes” and when to say “I have enough for today. You keep it for your family.”
Our spiritual ancestors had a difficult time discerning that balance. Manna from God was a daily dispensation, their gathering of it as well. A daily obedience not to be taken advantage of, but rather to be celebrated. To say back to God, “Yes and this is enough for today.” When they didn’t—when stocking the pantry took priority over receiving the daily provision of God—the resulting consequences didn’t allow them to imbibe their hoarding.
“However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but is was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.” (Exodus 16:20)
Could it be the same for us in our hoarding of blessings? Could we, in the receiving of blessing upon blessing a few thousand times over, get to the place of keeping them for ourselves? Worse yet, of coming to expect them as our right rather than to humbly receive them as a grace from God? When is God’s “enough” enough for us? Why does abundance sometimes breed greediness? Why can’t God’s daily provision settle down within our hearts as faith rather than as distrust?
I think this is it. I think we are afraid that God’s goodness has a limit. We falsely reason that even though today it’s raining manna, tomorrow it might be raining famine. So we collect and hoard and relish our abundance; in doing so we break ranks with God’s mandate to live daily beneath his provision. We cultivate a deserving attitude because, after all, we are God’s children on the road to the Promised Land. Before long, the stench of maggots have replaced the once, sweet smell of God’s “enough,” and the odor emanates upward to the nostrils of heaven. And we wonder where it all went wrong. When did the manna turn to maggots, and why do we feel so empty on the inside?
Manna begins in its disintegration when we take it upon ourselves to manage the blessings of God. Certainly, we need them, especially the witness of God’s love to us through others in our times of great trial. When the need is great, the manna rains down proportionally—maybe with a generous dispensation to last us beyond the borders of a single day. But when our need is less, we must relinquish our expectations for more and live within the boundaries of day’s worth of manna. When the need is but a day’s worth, the manna will fall accordingly. Out of his abundance, the Father gives to us what we need. We must receive it with thankfulness and then we must release our expectations.
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For what it’s worth, there you go. Love to you each one!
Has it really been a week since I’ve been here? What a week it’s been for me! With the passage of time and as God prompts, I’ll let you in on a little more about what has been going on with me. In the meantime, here’s the scripture prompt for this Tuesday Take-Away, a poignant, telling scene from the life of Jesus:
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:25-27)
To do this passage justice, you might want to read it in its entirety (John 19:1-27). Here’s how I read it and a few corresponding thoughts to go alongside:
As we make our own walks to the cross of Jesus Christ—our chosen walks of surrender to behold his suffering so that we might better carry our own—our Savior revisits this scene from his own surrender. Never does his blood bleed brighter, his heart beat more tenderly, than when we choose to pick up our own crosses and to carry them forward in faith. It’s just that important to the work of the kingdom, both 2000 years ago and now. He is present.
Suffering their loss, they suffered collectively. As the body of Christ, it is both our charge and our keep to come alongside one another as we tenderly take hold of our own humanity, make our pilgrimages to the cross, and surrender our hearts to the painful, healing work of resurrection.
In our times of pain, Jesus Christ willingly assigns us a “beloved disciple”—a “John”—to make sure we’re taken care of, well-loved, and remembered. Even when it seems as if no one is surfacing to tend to our needs, God has dispatched the witness of his Holy Spirit to minister to our hurting hearts in ways that most perfectly meet the challenge of our pain (see John 14 and 16).
Finally, true, lasting heart-work—soul-work—always happens “near the cross.” Why? Because Pilate had it right when tagging the identity of the One hanging there: “Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS” (John 19:19). Jesus of Nazareth, King of us as well. King in charge of our souls and the transformational work of our hearts.
So, friends, how do you read it? If not this passage, then what scripture have you been chewing on this week? I pray your Tuesday filled with the rich witness of Christ’s presence, and that, if you haven’t already taken the time to sit with him in quietness to contemplate his worthiness, you would take some time now. As always…
I haven’t forgotten about you, friends. I’d like nothing more than to spend some concentrated time on-line, visiting you and weighing in on your valuable posts. I’d also like some more time to write some of my own. But beyond what I would like to do, there is another preference that has surfaced for me–my “must do” for the next few weeks.
God is preparing my heart to attend P31’s She Speaks conference in July. Thanks to many of you and your investment into my story, I’ll be able to share with others some of the wonderful ways that God has ministered and is continuing to minister to my heart during this season–another step in my “living up to my learning” (if you didn’t watch mycancer-survivor picnic video, skip this reference or make up your own interpretation).
As a way of managing my time, I’m planning on posting a little nugget of truth at this blog on Tuesdays… something along the lines of Tuesday Take-Away. With God’s help and out of the well-spring that comes to me through him, I will endeavor to plant a little seed of truth and comfort into your heart. A small take-away for your day. My goal is not to overly flesh out my thoughts (some of you are shouting “Hallelujah” right about now… not funny). Rather, my goal is to point you toward a few take-aways that leap out at me. More than likely I’ll be chewing on them for the rest of the day. Accordingly here is the text and take-away for today:
“Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” (Genesis 28:10-12)
My take-away:
Sometimes a “setting out” from the land of our comfort–our familiar–is required of us in order that we may walk in the fullness of all that God has for us.
There’s always a “certain place” of rest.
As odd as it might seem, a hardened “stone” rather than pillow is often the foundation for that “certain place” of rest and for the birthing of God’s dreams for our lives.
The “stone” we’re resting upon can serve as the portal that God uses to reveal himself to us.
So, my friends, how do you read it? What “setting out”, what “certain place”, or what “stone” is your portion this day? I love you each one and will get around to visit you as I can. As always…
“A woman in the crowd called out, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave birth and nursed you.’ He replied, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.’” (Luke 11:27-28)
What “word” are your hearing from God this week? Is there a prompting from his Spirit within you, nudging you in a certain direction? A verse, perhaps, that keeps resurfacing through different venues? What sacred declaration? Gentle revelation? What word?
God’s Word tells us that we are blessed to hear such a “word” and then further blessed when we obey its prompting. It may come to us in unexpected ways and through all manner of godly allowance; but for me those “words” normally first arrive at the doorstep of my heart via the pages of Scripture; God, then, backs up his Word with many moments of earthly punctuation as I continue to meditate and ponder the depths of his revealed Scripture.
It’s not enough to just hold Jesus as a baby at Bethlehem; it’s not enough to walk the road with him to Calvary and watch him die. It’s not even enough to see the resurrected Lord ascend into the clouds. What is enough is holding all of God’s truth within our hearts, believing it, and then obeying it. Have you read it this week? If so, then I imagine he’s been prodding your heart along in a certain direction and making sure that you “hear” him as you go about your daily business. And so I ask you again… what word from God has become your word of meditation in recent days?
Mine has been “the nearness of God.” In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reminded to consider just how near and close to me is the presence of God:
“Come near to God and he will come near to you.” (James 4:8) “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” {Psalm 145:18)
As I’ve paused to consider the richness of such a promise, I’ve been moved to action. To come near to God, to call upon his name in prayer, to invest some time in the study of his Word, and to trust that with every intentional act of my heart will come his response–the fruition of his promise to draw closer to me.
God is near. Just near. For whatever that may or may not mean to you today, it’s certainly meant a great deal to me this week. Just thinking on that one word—near—has brought a rich measure of peace to my heart. I’m blessed to know the God who is near.
Now, to live what I know? To live the nearness of God? Well, that will be the measuring standard of truth revealed to my heart. I’ll keep you posted on that one.
What word has been your portion in recent days? I’d love to hear about it. As always…
Peace for the journey,
~elaine PS: The winners of Joanne Kraft’s book Just Too Busyare Phil,Cindy C., and Pamela. Send me your snail mail, friends, at my new e-mail address: [email protected] and I’ll mail these out early next week!
The first time I saw Joanne Kraft, she was sitting on a chair near the big windows outside the conference session we’d both just attended—a session geared toward having an “effective fifteen-minute publisher meeting” at the P31’s She Speak, She Writes annual conference. I noticed Joanne for two reasons: 1) her yellow blouse, and 2) her obvious tears.
I thought, perhaps, she’d just received some bad news from home; what I later would find out is that her bad news wasn’t attached to her home life; rather, to her dream for writing the book, Just Too Busy: Taking Your Family on a Radical Sabbatical. Her hopes had been momentarily crushed by a professional who told her that the idea was best suited for a magazine article, not a full manuscript. This may seem like a small thing to most people, but for writers it’s a very tender, big thing. Dreams (whether you’re a writer or not) are just that important.
Normally, I would have immediately gone over to tend to Joanne’s tears; it’s in my nature to do so… to give hugs, ask what’s wrong, especially if it looks someone could use a tissue, even if that someone is a stranger. But I didn’t this time around because of my up-and-coming scheduled “effective fifteen-minute publisher meeting” with a publisher. Thus, our introduction would have to wait, and although I would see her throughout the remainder of the weekend, I never took the time to officially connect with Joanne. A few weeks later, we somehow managed to slip into each others’ lives through our blogs. Three years have passed since that time; we’ve had numerous chats and e-mail exchanges that have allowed us to grow a friendship—one of the best benefits that comes with having an on-line presence.
Neither one of us left that conference with a book contract that year. However, because of Joanne’s dogged determination and willingness not to cede her dream to one person’s opinion, she can add the title of “published author” to her list of accomplishments. I couldn’t be more thrilled for Joanne. Her pen via her heart is a special gift to her readers. Whether it’s a blog post, an e-mail, or the 187 pages I’ve just finished reading, Joanne’s words have a way of lightening my load and cheering my heart.
Joanne writes like she talks. What you’ll read on the pages ofJust Too Busy, is exactly how she “reads” in her every day life. She’s kind, bold, generous with her encouragement, and her comedic timing goes a long way toward making a bad day into one that can be celebrated. We are like-minded in many ways, and I appreciate her willing candor on a variety of topics. You will see a lot these qualities throughout Joanne’s book.
Just Too Busy, Taking Your Family on a Radical Sabbatical is a road map to aid readers in their examining of family life—in particular, calculating the stresses, strains, and conflicts that can often result from the self-imposed busyness that is crammed into a day’s existence. Sensing the strain from busyness in her own family, Joanne and her husband decided to take a radical sabbatical from the chaos of their lives. Radical, because that meant cutting out many of the extra-curricular activities for their four children (i.e. sports, music lessons) and to, instead, trade them in for more family time. Sabbatical, because they made this commitment for an entire year.
Their choice wasn’t based on worldly preferences; their choice was based on godly ones. Joanne and her husband weren’t giving up on developing the lives of their children. Instead, they were reclaiming them… the lives of their children. “No” to the outside world; “Yes” to the family being built within the four walls of their home. Sounds pretty radical to me! Sounds pretty darn smart as well.
Here’s what I love most about Just Too Busy.It’s not another checklist for making readers feel guilty about all the things they’re doing right and wrong as parents. Instead, this book gives readers a window-peek into the lives of six people who are surviving and thriving as a family unit. Why? Because of their willingness to draw some boundary lines regarding the outside influences that daily present themselves as necessities rather than possibilities. Joanne is the first to tell readers that her parenting isn’t perfect. I would also add to that disclosure by telling you that Joanne is an example of a parent who is perfectly willing to make a radical change so that her family might live more peacefully.
Some things you can look forward to finding out about in Just Too Busyinclude (but are not limited to):
The true definition of A.D.D.
The ten telltale signs of busyness
Keeping your hand at your side when all it really wants to do is fly high and say “yes!”
Joanne’s penchant for school field trips
The importance of Sabbath rest
Why singing “Jesus Take the Wheel” doesn’t count as morning devotional time
The traditional Thanksgiving table cloth
Where Amelia Earhart is currently residing
How to know if you’re “munning” correctly
Ditch days
Scrapbooking for the creatively challenged
Television rehab
Choosing the right “hills” to die upon
Just a few of the “gifts” from Joanne’s pen; some serious, some light-hearted, but all of them connected to one central theme—
Celebrating and capturing the beauty of a family.
In closing, I have a final confession to make. My family isn’t necessarily a good candidate for a radical sabbatical from our busyness, because quite honestly, we’re not that busy. We used to be when our older boys were small. The memories of the season have shaped the way I approach my parenting with this second generation of kids. Accordingly, I do far less (in terms of activity) with our younger children. Reading Joanne’s book has brought this reality to the forefront of my heart and has challenged me to make some radical changes in another direction. Not a change for busyness, but rather a change for family togetherness. Joanne’s words remind me, again, to take hold of these moments, to invest some personal energy into them, so that when my children have grown into adults, sweet remembrance regarding their childhood days will be their portion.
Just Too Busy is so much more than an examination of busyness. Just Too Busy raises the flag on behalf of families everywhere and gives them the permission to say “no” to outside distraction and “yes” to the inward cultivation of strong, healthy, family relationships. I’m so blessed and privileged to share this book with you, friends. It’s an easy read that will make you laugh, cry, think, and arrive at some conclusions about your own family’s busyness.
It seems like a lifetime ago when I first witnessed Joanne’s tears and her deflation regarding her idea for a book. Today I imagine her tears spring forth for different reasons. For a dream realized and for the tenacity and courage it took to make it happen. Today, I raise a flag in her honor and celebrate this milestone in her earthly tenure. I join her in making some radical decisions that will forever change the futures of the generation that sleeps beneath my roof this night.
Thank you, Joanne, for your radical heart of faith that was willing to stay the course despite the odds. I love you friend!
~elaine
To sign-up for an opportunity to win one of three copies that I am giving away, leave a comment with this post. For an extra entry, link to this post in your facebook or twitter accounts and make sure to let me know in the comment section. I will announce the winners with my next post.
